The Mellon Foundation has awarded $1 million to the University of North Dakota (UND) and the North Dakota Tribal College System (NDTCS) Cankdeska Cikana Community College (CCCC), Nueta Hidatsa Sahnish College (NHSC), Sitting Bull College (SBC), Turtl.
In addition to articles already covered by Native News Online, here is a roundup of other news released from Washington, D.C. that impacts Indian Country recently. On January 31, the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) will host an all-day summit on the Food is Medicine initiative, which HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra champions. Indian Health Service (IHS) Director Roselyn Tso will participate in a panel discussion, and award-winning chef Sean Sherman will provide remarks on Indigenous foodways.
The American Museum of Natural History in New York City will close two of its exhibition halls that showcase “severely outdated” representations of Native Americans, the museum’s president, Sean Decatur, wrote today in an internal email to staff. The announcement of the exhibit closures on Saturday, Jan. 27 was in direct response to updates in a federal repatriation law that became effective earlier this month. The law, the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), now requires museums and institutions holding Native American human remains and sacred objects to consult with— and receive consent from— affected tribal nations, in order to exhibit their artifacts.
When Yurok citizen Taralyn Ipina's sister went missing in the San Francisco area last year, her hope rested on the state’s newly implemented Feather Alert system. Launched Jan. 1, 2023, the statewide alert system for missing Indigenous people held the promise of aiding in search and recovery efforts. After six days with no word nor sighting of her sister, Ipina's request for the Feather Alert was rejected.
The Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe’s Chief Executive, Melanie Benjamin, will step down following the conclusion of her fifth term, ending one of the longest Chief Executive tenures in the tribe’s history. "Serving as Chief Executive for my Band has been the greatest honor of my life," Benjamin said in a statement. Elected in 2000, Benjamin has overseen the tribe’s economic diversification efforts and led a fight to preserve tribal sovereignty against claims by Mille Lacs County that the tribe’s reservation was disestablished over 100 years ago.