Recently in Native News

In keeping with our commitment to providing trending news and events concerning Native Americans, Partnership With Native Americans has compiled our favorite stories on Native life from the month of June. Stay up to date with more articles by following us on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn.

Beating the Toughest Odds, New Graduate on the Pine Ridge Reservation Accepted to Seven Ivy League Colleges via Red Cloud Indian School

• “More than 60 percent of children on the reservation (South Dakota’s Pine Ridge) live below the poverty line. Statewide, the high school graduation rate for Native American students is less than 50 percent. And life expectancy in Oglala Lakota County, where Pine Ridge Reservation sits, is the lowest in the United States. But this year, one Lakota student at Red Cloud Indian School defied the negative statistics that continue to plague young people on Pine Ridge. Not only is nineteen-year-old Jacob Rosales going to college this fall, but he was accepted into seven of the nation’s eight Ivy League universities.”

Oil Is Flowing Through the Dakota Access Pipeline via The Atlantic

• “After months of protests, more than 750 arrests, and high-profile interventions by both the Obama and Trump administrations, the first part of the battle over the Dakota Access pipeline has ended. Oil is now flowing through the pipeline—and, crucially, beneath Lake Oahe in North Dakota, which is sacred to local Lakota and Dakota people and their only source of water.”

Senators Team Up to Combat Native American Veteran Homelessness via BBSNews

• “Only 26 of the 567 federally recognized Native American tribes received HUD-VASH (S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing) vouchers under the current Tribal HUD-VASH demonstration, yet Native Americans serve in the military at a higher percentage than any ethnic demographic in the United States. ‘No veteran, including tribal veterans, should face homelessness,’ Hoeven said. ‘This legislation will help ensure that Native Americans who courageously served our country have access to safe and quality housing’…”

Public art reminds us of Native Americans’ rich and troubled history via Greenville Journal

• “Last month, in a ceremony punctuated by Native American dance and song, Greenville Water dedicated Prospect Green, a new park at the corner of West Washington and West Broad streets, and unveiled the centerpiece of the park, a ten-foot tall bronze sculpture of a Cherokee male, titled “Water Blessing,” by artist Doug Young.”

Blackfeet Researcher Leads Her Tribe Back to Traditional Foods via Resilience

• “Well before white settlers colonized their land, Blackfeet Nation members used more than 200 types of plants for food and remedies. But forced assimilation and reliance on the U.S. government for food adversely shifted most nations’ diets from whole foods to industrialized processed foods and eroded tribal health. More than 80 percent of American Indian and Alaska Native adults are overweight or obese, and half of American Indian children are predicted to develop Type 2 diabetes in their lifetimes, according to the Indian Health Clinical Reporting system.”