Indian Country

PORT ANGELES, Wash. – You can almost hear the splash of paddles hitting the water, an eagle call overhead and the crash of whales breaching as Jamie Valadez tells her high school students about paddling through the inland waters of the Puget Sound, reliving the tribal journeys of ages past.

TAHLEQUAH, Okla. – The Cherokee Nation has been building a seed bank of Cherokee heirloom crops for years, and it is sharing some of that stock with Cherokee Nation citizens in an effort to keep the tradition of growing the unique plants alive.

SEATTLE – The federal court in November issued a 168-page detailed decision regarding the Oenga v. United States and BP case. That decision stated the BP lease of the Oenga Native Allotment and overseen by the BIA only authorized use by BP on a limited area and did not include the Raven oil field.

TULALIP, Wash. (AP) – Coho Creek stinks.

LUMMI INDIAN RESERVATION, Wash. (AP) – When Jonah Ballew first attended the Music Mentor Academy camp this year as part of summer school, he discovered a new way to deal with his feelings and frustrations about aspects of life on the reservation.

SEATTLE (AP) – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has unveiled 11 possible options for cleaning Seattle’s most polluted waterway, the Duwamish River.

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) – Incoming Navajo lawmakers are considering how to restructure the tribal council that was downsized from 88 members to 24 members.

COEUR D’ALENE, Idaho (AP) – Two northern Idaho men who police say used spray paint to deface ancient tribal pictographs near Hells Gate State Park have pleaded not guilty to willful injury or depredation of property of the United States.

SAN DIEGO (AP) – A Native American cultural protection group has sued the federal government over the expedited approval of six solar projects in Southern California.

WASHINGTON – The BIA’s announced its decision to take land into trust for an initial reservation for the Cowlitz Indian Tribe on the same day that the 111th Congress adjourned without passing a Carcieri fix.

FORT DEFIANCE, Ariz. – As a result of the Navajo Housing Authority’s First Annual Housing Summit held in Scottsdale, Ariz. this past summer and numerous inquiries from the Navajo Nation public, NHA hosted its first Regional Housing Summit Dec 15 – 16 for Fort Defiance Agency community members and stakeholders at the Fort Defiance Chapter House.

WASHINGTON – Lawyers for the Indian plaintiffs in the Cobell settlement have taken to court to argue that the many millions they are scheduled to receive is too little, but they’ll take it if they can get it.

HIGHLAND, Calif. – The San Manuel Band of Serrano Mission Indians contributed $200,000 to the American Red Cross Inland Empire Chapter recently to assist area residents with immediate disaster relief services. Recent heavy rains that caused flooding and mudslides affected more than 100 residences and prompted San Bernardino County and the State of California to issue disaster declarations.

WASHINGTON – The legal team behind the successful settlement of the Keepseagle lawsuit has created a website to help Indian farmers determine what they may be eligible for under the deal.

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. – The Hopi reservation sticks out like a sore thumb on the state’s congressional map. Instead of being in the same district as the larger Navajo Nation, which surrounds it, the Hopi land is connected by the Colorado River to residents in the far western side of the state.

WASHINGTON – The federal government has approved the Cowlitz Indian Tribe’s land into trust application for 152 acres near La Center, Wash., where the tribe intends to build a long-sought resort casino.

WASHINGTON – After nearly a decade of struggling to get the Indian Health Care Improvement Act reauthorized, advocates not only got the job done in 2010, they also made it permanent.

DENVER – Tribal leaders who cheered the long-awaited U.S. support of the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples may end up with more questions than answers about its ultimate meaning, one critic suggests.

WASHINGTON – After suffering big losses in the fall elections and with dwindling support from tribes, a first-of-its-kind Indian political action committee is shutting down.

NEW YORK – Federal courts issued precedent-setting decisions in 2010 in which they ruled that Indian nations could not reclaim their illegally taken ancestral lands or receive compensation for their loss, because it would be too inconvenient to those who are currently occupying and benefiting from the lands.