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“Oceti Sakowin” is Lakota for “seven council fires,” referring to the seven bands of the Lakota people, also called the Great Sioux Nation. “Since time immemorial, the people of the Great Sioux Nation have lived, hunted, fished, and engaged in ceremonies adjacent to the Missouri River – Mni Sose in Lakota,” four of the seven tribal governments wrote to Joe Biden on the day before his inauguration. They asked for “quick, decisive action on the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL).” DAPL is the 1,200 mile long pipeline that transports crude, fracked oil from North Dakota’s Bakken shale fields to Illinois, en route to Texas. As one of his first acts in office in 2017, President Trump greenlit both the Keystone XL pipeline and DAPL. On his first day in office, Biden revoked the permit for Keystone XL, but left DAPL intact. On Wednesday, one week into his presidency, dubbed “Climate Day” by the White House,
How Covid-19 Threatens Native Languages
The average age of Lakota and Dakota speakers is 70. We are running out of time to save them.
By Jodi Archambault
Ms. Archambault is a Hunkpapa and Oglala Lakota woman and former special assistant to the president for Native American affairs under President Barack Obama.
Jan. 24, 2021
The husband and wife Jesse (Jay) and Cheryl Taken Alive were buried at a family plot south of Cannon Ball, N.D., overlooking the Missouri River.Credit.Richard Tsong-Taatarii/Star Tribune, via Getty Images
CANNONBALL, N.D.
Over four centuries, nine out of 10 Native Americans perished from war or disease. Now our people are dying from Covid-19 at extraordinarily high rates across the country. North and South Dakota, home to the Lakota reservations, lead the United States for coronavirus rates per capita. We are losing more than friends and family members; we are losing the language spoken by our elders, the lifeblood of our people and the very essence of wh
Print article WASHINGTON President-elect Joe Biden will nominate Deb Haaland, the freshman representative from New Mexico, to lead the Interior Department, making history by selecting the first Native American to oversee the agency that manages millions of acres of federal land and the Bureau of Indian Affairs, according to a person familiar with the decision. If confirmed by the Senate, Haaland will take over a department mired in controversy over the Trump administration’s campaign to open up sensitive land and offshore areas to oil and gas development. She will also be responsible for implementing Biden’s promise to end oil and gas leasing on land controlled by the federal government a move certain to face backlash from oil-dependent states, including her own, and lawsuits from the fossil fuel industry.
Rep Deb Haaland to be first Native American interior secretary washingtonpost.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from washingtonpost.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
With historic picks, Biden puts environmental justice front and center Juliet Eilperin, Dino Grandoni, Brady Dennis President-elect Joe Biden chose Rep. Deb Haaland (D-N.M.) Thursday to serve as the first Native American Cabinet secretary and head the Interior Department, a historic pick that marks a turning point for the U.S. government’s relationship with the nation’s Indigenous peoples. With that selection and others this week, Biden sent a clear message that top officials charged with confronting the nation’s environmental problems will have a shared experience with the Americans who have disproportionately been affected by toxic air and polluted land.