Today is National Voter Registration Day, and in Montana, Indigenous advocates are working to register people and get out the vote. As part of its civic engagement initiative, Western Native Voice is encouraging Indigenous Americans to register to vote and cast a ballot in the next election . and they are doing it via a drive-through voter registration effort in Billings. .
As food-sovereignty efforts continue among Native American tribes, a South Dakota organization is bringing together stakeholders for a key brainstorming session. Around the U.S., many tribes are trying to reclaim access to their food systems. It s part of broader movements to revitalize various Indigenous practices and cultures, eroded under the weight of colonization. .
By Natalie Pate for The Hechinger Report.Broadcast version by Eric Tegethoff for Oregon News Service reporting for The Hechinger Report-Public News Service Collaboration Jaeci Hall completed her dissertation in tears. She was writing about the importance of revitalizing and teaching Indigenous languages, specifically the Nuu-wee-ya’ language and her tribe’s dialects. “I spent months writing,” she said, “just crying while I wrote because of how it felt to not be recognized.” Hall — who graduated in 2021 with a doctorate in linguistics from the University of Oregon — is the language coordinator for the Coquille Indian Tribe. .
A community college in Winnebago, Little Priest Tribal College, celebrates its 25th anniversary this September. After more than 20 years of roughly 120 students, enrollment passed 200 last fall. Little Priest President Manoj Patil said a common misconception is that only Native Americans can enroll, but the student body has been roughly 78% Native American and 22% non-native students in recent years. .