Recently in Native News

As spring approaches, we’re sharing our favorite Native American headlines from March to ensure our readers stay up to date on what’s happening in communities throughout the U.S. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn and stay up to date with the latest headlines all year long.

‘A deserved and overdue honor’: Navy names new ship class after Navajo tribe via AZ Central

• “A new class of U.S. Navy towing, salvage and rescue ships will be named Navajo in recognition of the tribe and the contributions the Navajo people have made to U.S. military forces. ‘The Navajo people have fought and served our armed forces with honor and valor in nearly every major conflict since the birth of our nation, so it is fitting and right to name a new class of ship in their honor,’ Secretary of the Navy Richard V. Spencer said in a Navy press release. The new class will be based on existing commercial towing offshore vessel designs and will replace the current T-ATF 166 and T-ARS 50 class ships, the release states.

Native American art collection opens at Metropolitan Museum of Art via New Jersey Herald

• “For the first time, a major Native American art exhibit is being shown in the American Wing of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, rather than in Arts of Africa, Oceania and the Americas. ‘Some visitors were confused about why Native American Art wasn’t in the American Wing with other American works,’ says Sylvia Yount, curator in charge of the American Wing, which has been focused more on Euro-American traditions. A major new exhibit, ‘Art of Native America: The Charles and Valerie Diker Collection,” seeks to change that.’ The Dikers recently promised 91 pieces to the museum with the understanding that they be placed in the American Wing…”

The Schools That Tried—But Failed—to Make Native Americans Obsolete via The Atlantic

• “Two centuries ago, Congress passed a law that kicked into high gear the U.S. government’s campaign to assimilate Native Americans to Western culture—to figuratively ‘kill the Indian,’ as one general later put it, and ‘save the man.’ The Civilization Fund Act of 1819, passed 200 years ago this week, had the purported goal of infusing the country’s indigenous people with ‘good moral character’ and vocational skills. The law tasked Christian missions and the federal government with teaching young indigenous Americans subjects ranging from reading to math, eventually leading to a network of boarding schools designed to carry out this charge.”

Native American tribe donates $184,000 to cover funeral costs of people who died in Alabama tornadoes via ABC News

• “A Native American tribe in Alabama has donated $184,000 to help cover the funeral costs of the 23 people killed by powerful tornadoes that hit a small town in Alabama last week. ‘This disaster occurred so quickly and affected so many families who had no way to prepare to cover the cost to put their loved ones to rest,’ Stephanie Bryan, CEO and chairman of the Poarch Band of Creek Indians, told ABC News. ‘We live in an area that is prone to tornadoes and other natural disasters, so this a tragedy that strikes close to home in many, many ways.’”