Native American News Roundup Oct. 9-15, 2022

Here is a summary of Native American-related news around the U.S. this week:

Americans Remain Divided Over Columbus-Indigenous Peoples Holiday

For nearly 90 years, the U.S. has observed the second Monday in October as Columbus Day in honor of explorer Christopher Columbus who in 1492 stumbled across the Caribbean Islands.

Growing numbers of U.S. states, localities and institutions have renamed the holiday Indigenous Peoples or Native American Day.

For the second year in a row, President Joe Biden proclaimed the Monday holiday as Indigenous Peoples Day to “honor the sovereignty, resilience, and immense contributions that Native Americans have made to the world” and recommitting the federal government to upholding "its solemn trust and treaty responsibilities to Tribal Nations.”

To read more, click here: A Proclamation on Indigenous Peoples’ Day, 2022

VOA reporter Genia Dulot was in Los Angeles, California, Monday, and had this report on how tribes in Southern California marked the day.

Holiday Honors Indigenous People Instead of Christopher Columbus

Governors of two U.S. states were criticized by conservative commentators for actions related to the holiday.

New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham, the first Democratic Hispanic woman to become a U.S. governor, rescinded four proclamations issued in the 1800s as federal troops fought against resistance by Southwestern tribes. [[ / ]] Conservative media accused her of erasing history.

“No context whatsoever was given about the full content of the proclamations other than her characterization of them,” a writer complained in an editorial in the Piñon Post, a conservative New Mexican newspaper.

South Dakota, where there are nine federally-recognized Tribes, has been celebrating Native American Day since 1989. But when Republican Governor Kristi Noem acknowledged the holiday on Twitter, she was scolded by a Washington Examiner commentator who suggested she had sold out to “Dangerously radical, left-wing cultural Marxists.”

“South Dakota's Native American history is a noble history of a proud people,” the editorial read. “No rational human being should have any objection to celebrating their heritage. But there are 364 other days in the year for that. Encroaching on Columbus Day under the guise of appreciating Indigenous culture is done only because of the Left's hatred for our culture and history.”

To read more, click here: Kristi Noem chose to acknowledge Native American Day instead of Columbus Day

Biden Announces Protections for Iconic Sites in Colorado

U.S. President Joe Biden attends ceremony to designate Camp Hale as a new National Monument in Leadville, Colorado, Monday, October 12, 2022. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

President Biden on Wednesday designated a new national monument in Colorado as part of his administration's pledge to “protect, conserve and restore” iconic and historical sites across the U.S.

“This action will honor our nation’s veterans, Indigenous people, and their legacy by protecting this Colorado landscape, while supporting jobs and America’s outdoor recreation economy," the White House said in announcing the proclamation.

The Camp Hale-Continental Divide National Monument sits at 2,800 meters in the Rocky Mountains in what was once part of the Ute and other tribes’ ancestral homelands. The camp was built in 1942 to train Army ski troopers during World War II and housed German prisoners of war and their suspected sympathizers.

The White House also announced a proposed 20-year withdrawal of federal oil, gas and mineral leases on approximately 91,000 hectares in the Thompson Divide in Colorado’s White River National Forest. Preexisting leases in the area would not be included in the withdrawal.

To read more, click here: President Biden designates Camp Hale – Continental Divide National Monument

Massachusetts Museum to Return Wounded Knee Artifacts to Lakota Descendants

View of the Woods Memorial Library, Barre, Mass., which will return Lakota artifacts, including some from the Wounded Knee Massacre site.

A small museum in one of Massachusetts’ oldest villages announced this week that it will return more than 150 Lakota artifacts to the Oglala Lakota tribe of the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, including items that were looted from the site of the 1890 Wounded Knee Massacre.

Barre Museum Association President Ann Meilus announced the items’ return during a virtual press event at the town’s library.

Lakota from Pine Ridge and the Cheyenne River Reservation in South Dakota have lobbied for 30 years to have the items returned, most recently with the assistance of Vermont artist/journalist Mia Feroleto, who is a friend of Chief Henry Red Cloud, a fifth generation descendant of Lakota warrior and diplomat Red Cloud.

Why did it take so long?

“I’ll be honest,” Meilus said. “We had interference from third parties that created an atmosphere of distrust. We are a volunteer organization. … It was hard for a lot of the older members to see that they needed to do the right thing.”

Oglala Sioux President Kevin Killer called the announcement a good step.

“But I'm sure there's more steps that need to be followed,” he added.

To read more, click here: After 130 years, Massachusetts Museum will return sacred Lakota artifacts

Proposed Changes to NAGPRA up For Public Comment

Pueblo artifacts in the "curation room" at the Crow Canyon Archaeological Center in Cortez, Colorado.

After consulting with dozens of Native American, Alaskan and Hawaiian tribes and organizations, the U.S. Interior Department has proposed changes to the 1990 law requiring museums and federal agencies to identify and inventory Native American human remains, burial items, and artifacts of spiritual and cultural significance and work to return them to tribes and lineal descendants.

In a press release Thursday, the federal agency said proposed changes to the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act would streamline and make more transparent the inventory process and give Tribes and Native Hawaiian groups a greater role in the process of repatriating items to lineal descendants and tribal communities.

To read more, click here: Interior Department takes next steps to update Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act