Recently in Native News

As we approach the halfway mark for 2019, Native American news continues to make headlines, and we’re sharing some of our favorites from the month of May. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn and stay up to date with the latest headlines all year long.

Actress hopes to open more doors for more Native Americans via Associated Press

• “While Rose describes ‘Chambers’ as a supernatural horror show, she says it touches on real-life issues as well. ‘Real life has its stress. Real life has its scares and real life … plays into the fantasy world at the same time,’ she said. The show also explores real-life cultural issues affecting Native Americans, including the use of its mascots and other imagery in mainstream culture. In one scene, Sasha sees a mural of a Native American on horseback, wearing a feathered headdress and lifting a tomahawk into the air.”

A Native American Tribe Gets Rent as Reparations in Seattle via City Lab

• “Since 2017, the Duwamish Tribe in Seattle has received thousands of letters. Some have been a simple ‘thanks’ or ‘we’re with you.’ Others have been a bit more profound, mentioning restorative justice and payback for stolen land. ‘I’m a visiting student, living temporarily in Seattle. This is one small way of giving back to the Duwamish, whose land I live on,’ said one note. But every one of the messages have given this Native American community two very important gifts—’rent’ and proof that they are not alone. The correspondence is part of Real Rent Duwamish, a program started two years ago to help people who live or work in Seattle give back to the area’s early inhabitants by sending them money every month.”

Under new Washington law, state will invest more in improving Native American tribal members’ health via Seattle Times

• “Gov. Jay Inslee signed a bill this week to direct money to tribal health-care systems and create a council focused on improving health outcomes for members of the 29 tribes here. ‘I think it is one of the most promising pieces of legislation I’ve seen on the state level,’ said Aren Sparck, Government Affairs Officer for the Seattle Indian Health Board (SIHB). Sparck worked on the bill, which has been a couple of legislative sessions in the making and got the governor’s signature Tuesday. The program is expected to distribute $3 million to $5 million in the first year, and that number could grow in future years. Through Medicaid, the federal government matches money that states invest in Native American health care.”

Inside one woman’s 7 year journey to photograph every Native American tribe via Elle

• “One night, after a day spent photographing Indigenous corn farmers high up in the Andes mountains, Matika Wilbur was visited by her grandmother in a dream. ‘Oh, sweetheart,’ her grandmother, who died when Wilbur was 11 said, ‘What are you doing here working with these people, when you haven’t even worked with your own? Go home. Help your people. Be who you were born to be.’ Wilbur was interning for a nonprofit in South America—thousands of miles away from her family’s land on the Swinomish Reservation, a Native American community of 2,500 just north of Seattle. She awoke with a start and began to cry.”