Clemency for Peltier, Noem skirts banishment, Senate neglects Native issues, and MHA wins big
Peltier freed after nearly 50 years, Noem’s confirmation avoids tribal controversies, Senate glosses over Indigenous concerns, and MHA celebrates Supreme Court victory.
International pressure, stateside push leads to act of clemency for AIM icon Leonard Peltier
‘Good faith effort’ frees Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa elder after nearly 50 years
By Talli Nauman
U.S. President Joe Biden’s eleventh-hour action to free Leonard Peltier grants the internationally acclaimed political prisoner a chance to return to his North Dakota homelands after nearly 50 years behind bars. The Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa citizen was imprisoned following the 1975 shooting deaths of two FBI agents on South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.The outgoing President commuted his sentence of two life terms to home confinement.
Backers worldwide of his claim to innocence consider his captivity emblematic of an ingrained national policy of racism against American Indians. “Nothing will give five decades back to Leonard Peltier, his family, and Indian Country,” Nick Estes, assistant professor of American Indian Studies at the University of Minnesota, told Buffalo’s Fire. “President Biden’s last-minute release is a moral indictment on the system and people who have kept Leonard unjustly imprisoned.”
Kristi Noem’s Homeland Security confirmation skirts tribal controversies in her home state
Standing Rock Tribal Chair sends support letter for Kristi Noem while majority of South Dakota tribes continue the governor's banishment
By Todd Hall
South Dakota’s Republican Gov. Kristi Noem’s Secretary of Homeland Security confirmation hearing was held on Jan. 17 in Washington, D.C. The Senate Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Committee led the hearing, which Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul presided over.
I watched as I wanted to see if Tribal homelands were addressed at any point in the meeting. I had never heard Gov. Noem speak publicly. I didn’t know what to expect. The only thing I really knew about her was that she is a cowgirl and had carried “Old Glory” during the rodeo grand entries at Belle Fourche, South Dakota and the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas.
Senate confirmation hearings for Interior secretary gloss over Native issues
Despite the department's impact on Native communities, nominee and lawmakers overlook Indigenous issues in favor of political pageantry
By Todd Hall
On Jan. 16, former North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum had his confirmation hearing for the Secretary of the Department of Interior. The hearing was held at the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington, D.C., and was led by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah presided over the meeting.
As most of us know in Indian Country, the alleged infamous and dysfunctional Bureau of Indian Affairs is under the fabled Department of the Interior. As American Indians, our lands, our issues, our well-being, our blood, our sweat, our tears, and the federal government’s trust responsibility to us as a result of our treaties is lumped right alongside fish and wildlife issues. What a joke.
MHA Nation secures key victory as Supreme Court upholds majority-Native District 4A
‘Hard-fought progress toward fair representation is now protected’
By Adrianna Adame
The U.S. Supreme Court upheld a lower court’s ruling that sustains the creation of North Dakota’s House District 4A, benefiting voters from the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation. The Jan. 13 decision ensures voters in the new majority-Native district will have a fair opportunity to elect state representatives.
In the case Walen v. Burgum, the North Dakota U.S. District Court found that the state complied with the Voting Rights Act in drawing District 4A roughly along the same lines as the Fort Berthold Reservation boundary. The legislature’s approval in the 2021 redistricting plan encouraged American Indian voters’ influence in state elections.