The Daily Spark

A newly signed agreement related to the proposed Ambler Road in Alaska calls for preferential contracting with Alaska Native corporations and describes the project as a “private, controlled-access road” with security guards stationed at its entrance year-round, according to Northern Journal. The document, signed in December and released last week in response to a public records request, involves Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s administration and two Indigenous-owned companies with land along the proposed 211-mile route.

According to Northern Journal, Northwest Alaska’s NANA Regional Corp. and Interior Alaska’s Doyon Ltd. signed the nonbinding agreement, which outlines provisions to maximize benefits for Native corporations and nearby communities. The document also proposes creating a special entity to manage the project and establishing a subsistence committee made up of local tribal members and Native corporation shareholders. The companies agreed to negotiate in good faith toward definitive development agreements, though a NANA executive wrote in January the agreement does not represent a formal change in the company’s position.

The Haskell Indian Nations University women’s basketball team won the Continental Athletic Conference championship for the second consecutive year March 1, defeating Georgia Gwinnett College 66-56, according to ICT. The title sends Haskell to the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics National Women’s Basketball Tournament set for March 19-24 in Sioux City, Iowa.

Senior point guard Myona Dauphinais led Haskell with 28 points and seven rebounds while playing the full game, according to ICT. Ivy Fox added 13 points. The game was tied 26-26 at halftime before Haskell pulled ahead late. Both Dauphinais and Fox were named first-team All Continental Athletic Conference.

Author and educator Marique B. Moss released a children’s book, “My Afro-Indigenous Superpower,” at the beginning of February, according to MPR News. The book follows a young girl named Meeka as she learns about her identity and family history. Moss is Afro-Indigenous and a citizen of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation in North Dakota. She is also co-owner of Mashkiki Studios, an apothecary, educational space and creative studio in south Minneapolis.

Moss told MPR News the book was released in conjunction with Black History Month, which began Feb. 1. In the story, Meeka’s father explains that Afro means African and Indigenous means first peoples, and that she is both. The book addresses stereotypes, family resilience and histories including slavery and boarding schools. It is illustrated by Adair Carroll.

According to reporting by Montana Free Press, about a dozen Northern Cheyenne elders and cultural leaders traveled to the University of Montana, after months of consultation with the school, to review and reclaim dozens of culturally significant items, recordings and documents held in the university’s collections.

On Feb. 25, Northern Cheyenne Tribal Historic Preservation Officer Teanna Limpy and the university’s NAGPRA repatriation coordinator Courtney Little Axe signed agreements transferring ownership and establishing tribal stewardship of the belongings. While the items will remain housed at the university, the tribe now has full authority over how they are handled, stored and used. The process follows requirements under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, commonly known as NAGPRA, which establishes procedures for returning ancestral remains and cultural items to tribes.

The Little Earth Native housing complex in Minneapolis became a focus of federal immigration enforcement efforts during a surge in January and early February, according to ICT.

Parents at the 212-unit housing community said they feared their children could be detained as nearly 3,000 armed federal agents, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol personnel, were sent to the city as part of Operation Metro Surge, ICT reported. Donavan Begay Postier, Diné and director of adult and family empowerment programs for the Little Earth Residents’ Association, said agents entered the community several times and questioned parents near the Little Earth Neighborhood Early Learning Center.

On Jan. 6, ICE agents attempted to enter Little Earth but were turned away by property managers, according to ICT. Begay Postier said residents organized to monitor enforcement activity and provide food deliveries and space for tribal ID services while some families kept children home from school.

The National Congress of American Indians announced the passing of JoAnn K. Chase, a citizen of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation and former executive director of the organization, according to a statement from NCAI.

Chase served as executive director of NCAI and the NCAI Fund from 1994 to 2001. During her tenure, she tripled the organization’s staff, operating budget and tribal membership and expanded its advocacy for tribal sovereignty in Washington, according to NCAI. She previously served as director of governmental affairs and policy analyst, helping to develop the organization’s governmental affairs program and legislative advocacy on behalf of tribal governments.

After leaving NCAI, Chase served as director of the American Indian Environmental Office at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, where she led national efforts on environmental protection and tribal consultation, according to the statement. NCAI Executive Director Larry Wright Jr. said her leadership strengthened the organization’s voice for tribal nations.

More than a dozen ancient dugout canoes have been identified in Lake Mendota in southern Wisconsin, inspiring collaboration between scientists and Native nations to preserve Indigenous history, according to PBS Wisconsin and ICT.

Tamara Thomsen, a maritime archaeologist with the Wisconsin Historical Society, discovered the first canoe in 2021 during a dive. Radiocarbon analysis dated it to about 1,200 years old. Two additional canoes found the following year were dated at 3,000 and 2,000 years old. A total of 16 canoes were identified in the lake between 2022 and 2025, with the oldest estimated at 5,200 years old, PBS Wisconsin and ICT reported.

Thomsen said consultation with Wisconsin’s Native nations began before any canoes were recovered. Lawrence Plucinski, tribal historic preservation officer for the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, said the canoes reflect long-standing Indigenous use of inland waterways for harvesting, hunting and fishing. Two recovered canoes are being stabilized at the State Archive Preservation Facility in Madison.

Four months after the remnants of Typhoon Halong devastated Western Alaska communities, tribal members in Kipnuk are considering whether to permanently relocate, according to reporting by the Alaska Beacon. The tribal government collected votes from enrolled adult members on whether to rebuild or move to one of two potential sites at least 40 feet above sea level. Rayna Paul, environmental director for the Native Village of Kipnuk, told the Alaska Beacon the vote is intended to serve as a final decision. Bryan Fisher, director of the Alaska Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, estimated damages from the October storm at $125 million as of early February.

Experts from the University of Alaska Fairbanks said at the Alaska Forum environmental conference that repeated powerful fall storms, including ex-typhoons, have increasingly caused severe damage in populated areas of Western Alaska, the Alaska Beacon reported.

The Associated Press reports that a North Dakota judge said he will order Greenpeace to pay damages expected to total $345 million in connection with protests against the Dakota Access oil pipeline in 2016 and 2017.

In court papers filed Tuesday, cited by the Associated Press, Judge James Gion said he would sign an order requiring several Greenpeace entities to pay the judgment to pipeline company Energy Transfer. He set the amount at $345 million last year after reducing a jury’s original $666.9 million award by about half, but the latest filing did not specify a final total. The order is expected to begin an appeal process in the North Dakota Supreme Court from both sides.

Last year, a nine-person jury found Netherlands-based Greenpeace International, Greenpeace USA and Greenpeace Fund Inc. liable for defamation and other claims brought by Dallas-based Energy Transfer and subsidiary Dakota Access. The jury found Greenpeace USA liable on all counts, including conspiracy, trespass, nuisance and tortious interference, and assigned it $404 million of the original judgment before it was reduced.

The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments Tuesday in Enbridge v. Nessel, a case that could determine whether Michigan or federal courts decide the fate of the 73-year-old Line 5 oil pipeline, according to reporting by Grist. The 645-mile pipeline runs from Superior, Wisconsin, through Michigan to the province of Ontario in Canada, and carries more than 500,000 barrels of oil and natural gas daily. All 12 federally recognized tribes in Michigan have called for it to be shut down, citing threats to treaty-protected fishing and hunting rights in the Straits of Mackinac.

The justices are considering whether a lower court properly allowed Enbridge to move the case from state to federal court more than two years after the standard 30-day deadline. Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel sued in 2019 to shut down the pipeline. Tribal nations are not parties in the case, but advocates say the outcome could affect how courts handle disputes involving treaty rights and state authority over natural resources.

Oglala Lakota Telecommunications announced a $54.5 million investment to expand broadband access across the Pine Ridge Reservation, with construction scheduled to begin this spring and service launching in 2026, according to a company news release issued Feb. 23. The tribally owned provider said the expansion includes a $19.6 million NTIA Fixed Wireless Project supported by fiber optic backhaul and a $34.9 million Fiber-to-the-Home project funded through the USDA ReConnect Program.

The fiber project will serve Swett, Batesland, Denby, Wounded Knee, Manderson, Porcupine, Sharps Corner and the outskirts of Kyle, reaching about 4,137 people, 846 households, 13 businesses and nine community anchor institutions, according to the release. Petra Wilson, chairperson of the OLT Board of Directors, was quoted as saying the investment will “close the digital divide for nearly every unserved location on Pine Ridge.” Construction is scheduled to begin in the spring, with service offerings launching in 2026, according to Jeff Little, vice president of the western region of Palmetto Engineering and Consulting LLC.

Federal energy regulators last week approved a roughly $2 billion renewable energy project on a Yakama Nation sacred site overlooking the Columbia River in Klickitat County, according to reporting by The Columbian. The 40-year federal license allows the Goldendale Energy Storage Project to move toward construction, though opponents have 30 days to challenge the decision in court, according to Simone Anter, senior staff attorney at Columbia Riverkeeper. Erik Steimle, who is leading the project for Rye Development, said construction could begin in 2027.

Yakama leaders and environmental groups oppose the project, which would transform the hillside known as Pushpum into a pumped storage hydropower facility. Yakama Tribal Council Chairman Gerald Lewis called the approval “rewarding bad actors,” while Elaine Harvey, a member of the Yakama’s Kamíłpa Band, told The Columbian the project would cause “a total desecration of our sacred site.”

A traveling photo exhibit highlighting Two Spirit people and Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Relatives opens Friday at the Carnegie Art Center in Mankato, Minnesota, before heading to Minneapolis in June, according to MPR News. “Two Spirit and MMIW/R Voices” marks its first showing outside the Bemidji area and features 25 photographs blending PRIDE flag colors with traditional Indigenous regalia and imagery associated with the MMIWR movement.

Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe member Arnold Dahl-Wooley, a lead organizer and model in the exhibit, told MPR the project aims to raise awareness about violence and misunderstanding faced by LGBTQ+ and Indigenous communities. The exhibit runs in Mankato through March 7 and will be displayed in Loring Park in Minneapolis June 27-28.

A bill that would have allowed tribal citizens in New Mexico to request an optional Native American designation on state-issued identification cards failed to advance before the legislative session ended Feb. 19, according to reporting by New Mexico In Depth. Senators debated the House bill for about 30 minutes before Majority Floor Leader Peter Wirth said they would move on to other legislation.

Supporters said the designation would have helped tribal citizens prove U.S. citizenship if questioned by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. “We’ve had instances in other states where Native people have been arrested by ICE and scrambling to figure out how they can get out of it to prove that they’re Native American,” Sen. Benny Shendo, D-Jemez Pueblo, was quoted as saying on the Senate floor. Co-sponsor Sen. Angel Charley, D-Acoma, said the proposal was brought at constituents’ request.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs Missing and Murdered Unit and the Chickasaw Lighthorse Police Department conducted a large-scale search this week in southern Oklahoma as part of the ongoing investigation into the 2013 disappearance of Molly Miller, a citizen of the Chickasaw Nation, and Colt Haynes, according to an official announcement.

The search began Feb. 17 and covered more than 1,000 acres in Love County. On Feb. 18, teams working in an area between Oswalt Road, Pike Road and Long Hollow Road discovered two sets of human remains. The remains were collected by the FBI Evidence Response Team and the Oklahoma Office of the Chief Medical Examiner for forensic examination and identification. Officials said the identities are unknown and it has not been determined whether the remains are connected to Miller and Haynes. The investigation remains active.

Tootsie’s Tea, an Indigenous-owned tea company founded by Lizz Tsosie-Stachura, is preparing to open a brick-and-mortar storefront just west of downtown Milwaukee in spring 2026, according to ICT.

Tsosie-Stachura, who is Diné and Lenca, created the business in December 2020 and has operated it online while selling at local Indigenous markets. She said the company’s name comes from a common mispronunciation of her maiden name, Tsosie. With a grant from Feeding America, she purchased equipment to craft her own blends.

Tsosie-Stachura said she sources ingredients from Indigenous foragers when possible, including suppliers on the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa and Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa reservations. She said 15% of profits will go back into the Milwaukee community and that the storefront will include space for community gatherings.

The Idaho Council on Indian Affairs voted Wednesday to draft a letter urging state budget writers to protect Medicaid funding, including Medicaid expansion, and exempt Native American tribal members from cuts, according to the Idaho Capital Sun.

Michael Steele, a policy analyst for the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes, told the council the federal government reimburses 100% of Medicaid service costs for tribal members. “The past year that I’ve worked for the Shoshone-Bannock Tribe, I’ve seen firsthand the importance of Medicaid,” Steele was quoted as saying. He said 54% of tribal members living on the Fort Hall Indian Reservation are enrolled in Medicaid and Medicaid funding represents 82% of the Tribal Health and Human Services budget.

The council voted unanimously to draft the letter. Rep. Brandon Mitchell, R-Moscow, said he would want to see the letter before adding his name.

A recent U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning tariffs imposed by the Trump administration could aid a lawsuit filed by Blackfeet Nation tribal members challenging similar tariffs, according to the Daily Montanan.

Attorney Monica Tranel, representing state Sen. Susan Webber, Jonathan St. Goddard, Rhonda Mountain Chief and David Mountain Chief, was quoted as saying the high court’s 6-3 ruling in Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump “helps our argument because it was a very clear delineation of the separation of powers.” The Supreme Court found that Congress alone holds the power to tax and that the administration was not justified in invoking the International Economic Emergency Powers Act to impose tariffs.

The plaintiffs sued the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the United States of America and Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, arguing the tariffs against Canada violate treaty rights and exceed presidential authority, according to the Daily Montanan. The federal government has asked the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to dismiss the appeal and uphold the transfer of the case to the Court of International Trade.

Members of the Wyoming Department of Education’s Native Education Cabinet raised concerns about the implementation of the Indian Education for All Act during a recent meeting of the Wyoming Legislature’s Select Committee on Tribal Relations, according to County 10. The 2017 law requires the department to ensure American Indian history, culture and contributions are included in state social studies standards and to provide resources to school districts.

According to a WDE report presented last month, the agency created an online repository with 22 resources, including nine tied to Wyoming’s tribes. Only 18 of 48 school districts responded to a survey about the materials. Cabinet members Scotty Ratliff and Veronica Miller cited concerns about outreach, communication and the impact of a 2025 state law restricting diversity, equity and inclusion programs. The WDE updated a Dec. 15 memo to clarify an exemption for federally recognized tribes, according to Chief Communications Officer Linda Finnerty.