Recently in Native News

As part of our continued effort to inform readers of the news and culture in Native American communities across the country, we’ve compiled our favorite stories from the month of November, also American Indian Heritage Month. Stay up to date and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn for more headlines.

ASU holds panel and preview screening for Native American Heritage Month via Downtown Devil

• “In commemoration of Native American heritage month, ASU’s American Indian Social Work Student Association hosted a panel discussion and preview screening of the film “Blood Memory.” The film, an independent documentary and outreach project directed by Drew Nicholas, revisits the history of forced separation and the Indian Child Welfare Act during the American Indian Adoption Era. Jerry Dearly, a member of the Oglala Lakota… began the evening with a prayer. Afterwards, attendees were shown a preview of the never-before-seen movie, which followed the story of Sandy White Hawk, the founding director of the First Nations Repatriation Institute. Removed from her Sicangu Lakota relatives at 18 months old, she was adopted by a Christian mission couple.”

Native American Farmers are growing a sustainable market via Civil Eats

• “Thirty miles south of Phoenix, green fields of alfalfa and pima cotton stretch toward a triple-digit sun. Hundreds of yellow butterflies dance above the purple flowers that dapple the tops of the young alfalfa stalks—to expert eyes, the flowers signal that the plants are heat-stressed and should be harvested soon. Gila River Farms near Sacaton has been growing alfalfa and high-end cotton—which is named after the Pima people who inhabited the Gila and Salt river valleys—for 50 years. That’s a long time by current standards but merely a flash considering that the roots of Arizona’s agriculture reach back thousands of years.”

Butler County school board votes to phase out ‘stereotyping’ Native American mascot via Cincinnati Enquirer

• “A Butler County school district that has spent more than a decade debating a controversial Native American mascot will alter its name. The Talawanda Board of Education voted 3-2 Monday night to change the district’s mascot name from “Braves” to “Brave” and phase out its associated imagery. The decision came more than five years after Native American students in the district first requested such action be taken, according to a report by the “Talawanda Branding Committee,” whose members studied the issue and presented findings to the school board…”

Brass students embrace Native American culture with immersive project via Kenosha News

• “Fifth-graders at Brass Community School went right to the source for an immersive project last week on Native Americans. Instead of mimicking stereotypes often seen in old movies or television shows, the students learned how Native Americans [live] and [work] from experts in the field. Teacher Andrea Bell-Myers consulted with David O’Connor, the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction’s Native American coordinator, as well as the Indian Community School in Milwaukee and a pair of Brass teachers with Native American ancestry before undertaking the project.”