Here are some of the Native American-related stories in the news this past week:
South Dakota governor: Some tribal leaders "benefiting" from drug cartels
Addressing a town hall meeting in Winner, South Dakota, this week, Governor Kristi Noem described the U.S.-Mexico border as a “war zone” and suggested that drug cartels may be using Indian reservations as a base of operations.
“Mexican cartels are set up here in South Dakota … on our tribal reservations, trafficking drugs and kids and sex trafficking out of South Dakota throughout the Midwest,” she said. “And we've got some tribal leaders that I believe are personally benefiting from the cartels being there, and that's why they attack me every day.”
Her remarks echoed those she made in a January 31 speech before a joint session of state lawmakers, expressing her willingness to send razor wire and National Guard troops to Texas to help defend its border with Mexico.
The Oglala Sioux Tribe, or OST, later banned Noem from the Pine Ridge Reservation.
“Only entry plus enmity constitutes an invasion,” OST President Frank Star Comes Out said in a statement posted on Facebook, accusing Noem of attempting to curry favor with former President Donald Trump.
Noem has been named as a potential running mate for Trump. At Wednesday’s town hall, she acknowledged being on a short list of candidates.
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A citizen activist captured this photo of a recruiter transporting at-risk Native Americans to a phony sober living home in a residential neighborhood.
Lawsuit aims to hold Arizona health agencies accountable for deaths in fake sober homes
A Phoenix, Arizona, law firm has filed a pair of wrongful death lawsuits against Arizona health care agencies on behalf of two Navajo men who died while in the care of fraudulent sober living homes.
The lawsuits claim the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System and the Arizona Department of Health Services are legally at fault for the deaths of two Navajo citizens who fell victim to "bad actors" seeking to defraud Arizona's health care system by billing for addiction treatment services that were never provided. The lawsuits allege that state agencies knew about the massive fraud but continued to pay home operators “exorbitant rates and amounts of money.”
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Indigenous father to school board: Allow my son to wear his eagle feather
A Native American high school senior has won the right to wear an eagle feather to graduation ceremonies in June after his father, Stephen White Eagle, successfully argued his case before a Tennessee school board.
“My son and I have been told that his religious beliefs do not fit into the school’s policy. And that is unfair and unconstitutional,” said White Eagle. He and his son are Southern Cheyenne and enrolled citizens of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes in Oklahoma.
According to the American Civil Liberties Union, many schools across the country ban the wearing of eagle feathers or other regalia at graduation, saying it violates their dress codes.
Eagle feathers, a symbol of strength and achievement, are often given to youth when they reach important milestones in life.
"You cannot pick and choose which religions you want to honor and respect in schools,” White Eagle told VOA via Facebook this week. “If you allow one religion, especially Christianity or Catholicism — both foreign religions to these lands — then you must allow the original religion, that being, of the Indigenous Native American peoples.”
White Eagle said he believes all Americans should work together to respect and honor all races, all colors and all creeds — and “set an example for future generations.”
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Osage songwriter, drum and dancers perform at 96th annual Academy Awards ceremony
Osage songwriter Scott George, singers, dancers and drum keepers performed "Wahzhazhe” (“Song for My Osage People”) Sunday at the Academy Awards ceremony.
George, a citizen of the Osage Nation in Oklahoma, co-wrote the song with Osage Language expert Vann Bighorse for Best Picture nominee “Killers of the Flower Moon.”
The lyrics are: “Wahzhazhe no-zhin te-tha-bey, Wa-kon-da they-tho gah-ka-bey (Osage people, stand and be recognized. God made it for us)."
The composer wanted to evoke the style of traditional I’n-Lon-Schka (“Playground of the First Son”) dances, held on weekends each June, said George E. "Tink" Tinker, an Osage citizen and professor emeritus of American Indian Cultures at Iliff School of Theology.
“He could not merely take a song from the ceremony and sing it, so he wrote this song to mimic the style of the songs sung in the ceremony without violating the ceremony itself,” he said.
The dance was brought to the Osage by the Kansa (Kaw) Nation after the Osage were forced from Kansas to Oklahoma in the late 19th century.
“These dances mark the coming together of community today and continue as one of the only full-community ceremonies to have survived colonial invasion,” Tinker explained.
Separately, “Killers” lead actress Lily Gladstone, who won a Golden Globe Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award earlier this year, was nominated for this year’s Oscar for Best Actress but did not win.
She reacted gracefully on X: “Feeling the love big time today, especially from Indian Country. Kitto”kuniikaakomimmo”po’waw — seriously, I love you all.”