The Daily Spark

Led by Montana Republicans Sen. Steve Daines and Rep. Troy Downing, legislation impacting the Crow Reservation passed both chambers of Congress last week, according to a press release from Downing’s office.

The Crow Tribe Water Rights Settlement Amendment would build on the 2010 water compact between the Crow and the state of Montana. Its updates would include changes to the reservation’s public water system, billed by Downing as a way to integrate a “more flexible, localized approach.” 

The amendment also extends the exclusive right of the tribe to develop a hydropower project at the Yellowtail Afterbay Dam through 2030. The dam on the Bighorn River impacts flood control and irrigation for the Missouri Basin. 

Neither of the amendment’s Montana champions are Crow, but Downing is up for reelection in the state’s eastern congressional district, which includes the Crow Reservation. In a mid-September poll conducted by the Montana Free Press, Downing far outpaced his Democratic challenger when it came to registered voter preferences, name recognition among potential voters and financial reserves.

Since the state gained a second congressional representative following the 2020 Census, Downing’s eastern district has consistently supported Republicans. The Crow Tribe is located on the largest Indian reservation by land area in the state, but the district also includes the Rocky Boy’s Reservation, Fort Belknap, Fort Peck and the Northern Cheyenne Reservation. 

A collection of poetry and short essays from Native American writers was honored this weekend with the 2026 American Book Award.

“Beyond the Glittering World: An Anthology of Indigenous Feminisms and Futurisms” is curated and edited by Darcie Little Badger from the Lipan Apache Tribe of Texas and Diné writers Kinsale Drake and Stacie Shannon Denetsosie.

The book features work from all three writers and others exploring topics on gender, community and contemporary Indigenous life. It is published by Torrey House Press.

According to Red Pop News, the trio were honored Sept. 26 at the University of California Berkley Alumni House.

A new documentary made by Blackfeet high school students shows  how a heavy metal music program can be a viable resource for Native American mental health and suicide prevention.

‘HEAVY’ is a collaborative production with the Browning Public Schools' Heavy Music Symposium, Firekeeper Alliance and MAPS Media Institute. It premiered in Browning, MT at Buffalo Hide Academy on Sept. 24.

The Heavy Metal Symposium is an 18-week workshop that connects Blackfeet students with musicians and other artists. It culminates with the Fire in the Mountains music festival.

Emily Edwards, a junior at Browning High School, told the Pioneer Press that the Heavy Music Symposium gives her space to be expressive without judgment.

"Music means a lot to me, and it has truly saved me at low points in my life. Music is like a floatie in a pool when I feel like I'm drowning,” she was quoted as saying.

The American Indian Tourism Association and U.S. Forest Service officials are looking for photos from the Nez Perce Trail to include in programs that will honor the 150th anniversary of 1877 Flight of the Nimíipuu.

The 1,170 mile route traces the path that some Nez Perce people took to escape U.S. military forces during forced relocation and war. It begins at Wallowa Lake, Oregon, and follows the Clearwater and Lochsa rivers into Idaho before moving into Montana, where several battle sites are preserved by the National Park Service. It also goes through parts of Canada and Yellowstone National Park.

Contestants can submit up to three original photographs taken anywhere on the trail. Each photo must include a 50-100 word statement, and all submissions must meet tribal cultural standards respecting ceremony protocols, sacred places, cultural resources and privacy.

The entry deadline is 11:59 p.m. on Oct. 1.

The Native American Rights Fund has launched a hotline for people experiencing challenges with voter registration or casting their ballot. 

Native voters facing issues in national or tribal elections can call the NARF hotline at 866-OUR-VOTE or email vote@narf.org.

 The resource was highlighted last week after the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling Friday that gives states approval to use a new federal database championed by the Trump administration to stop non-U.S. citizens from voting. The database has been criticized for removing eligible people from voting rolls.

Native American Rights Fund senior attorney Jacqueline De León said the federal tool fails to stop voter fraud and could lead to voter disenfranchisement or participation.

“At the very least, it will sow confusion among voters nationwide, which may be part of its intended purpose,” De León said in a statement.

A late-night shooting Friday in the New Town area of the Fort Berthold Reservation in North Dakota left two people dead and another hospitalized, according to tribal law enforcement. Four people were taken into custody, and the FBI is now in charge of the investigation.

Around 10:30 p.m., residents in the area received a shelter-in-place order from the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation Emergency Services. The alert described two black-clad armed men on foot in New Town, and the order was lifted at 6:10 a.m. Saturday morning.

The shooting victims had not been identified by Monday morning, but the Nueta Hidatsa Sahnish College in New Town described the “loss of a treasured elder of the MHA Nation” in an announcement that the campus would be closed on Sept. 28.

Law enforcement stated there is no known threat to the public at this time.

MHA Chairman Mark Fox described the aftermath as “deeply difficult and heartbreaking” in a statement the morning after the shooting took place.

The Colorado School of Public Health reported robust attendance at its recent event to honor the life and legacy of Ben Nighthorse Campbell, a Northern Cheyenne chief who represented Colorado at the federal level from 1987 to 2005. 

Campbell’s impact spanned decades of political leadership, first in the U.S. House and then again as a senator. Campbell was also a Northern Cheyenne chief with additional ties to Crow Agency in Montana, where he spent substantial parts of his youth in a boarding school. 

A decorated Air Force veteran who served in the Korean War, Campbell earned even more acclaim for competing in judo during the 1964 Olympics and designing award-winning jewelry in Santa Fe, New Mexico. 

As the only Native congressional leader during his time in office, Campbell achieved significant advancements for the rights and opportunities of Indigenous people in the U.S. He chaired the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs and helped establish the National Museum of the American Indian. He supported initiatives for education, housing and economic development in Indian Country. And he led the legislative push to honor Cheyenne and Arapahoe victims of the Sand Creek Massacre by preserving the grounds as a National Historic Site. 

In the Colorado School of Public Health article recapping the honorary event, Spero Manson, the director of the Centers for American Indian and Alaska Native Health, called Campbell “a warrior for our time.”

Campbell died in December 2025 at age 92. 

In a new effort to recognize diverse forms of excellence in North Dakota schools, state Superintendent Levi Bachmeier and the North Dakota High School Activities Association launched the “Dakota Cup” challenge on Sept. 17.

To compete for scholarship funding in the Dakota Cup, schools will earn points for a variety of important achievements, ranging from academic performance to traditional athletics to extracurricular activities like fine arts. A complex ranking system will determine each school’s outcome, with half of the weight of the scoring given to academic performance and the other half to activities. 

The exact amount of scholarship funding and the timeframe for rolling out the Dakota Cup competition haven’t been announced.

In a Sept. 17 press release, organizers behind the Dakota Cup highlighted the way they hope the new initiative will cut through digital distractions and encourage holistic student development. 

“This competition puts all sports and fine arts on equal footing, encouraging schools and communities to recognize and celebrate lesser acknowledged activities with the same vigor we do our most cherished,” Bachmeier said in the press release.

The small footprint of a Northern California site recently returned to local tribes belies its powerful cultural importance. The land stretches one half mile along a beach near the community of Westport, with a little over 100 additional acres sloping up the hillside and above Highway 1. To the Indigenous leaders of the Kai Poma nonprofit that recently received the land back from the state, the area is rich in historic and cultural significance. These Native community members have been part of a relentless effort to regain ownership of the beach and protect it from looting and damage since 2005, according to reporting by Mongabay. 

The coalition behind Kai Poma includes ancestral descendants from the Coastal Yuki and Yuki people, today represented by the Coyote Valley Band of Pomo Indians, the Round Valley Indian Tribes and the Sherwood Valley Band of Pomo Indians. 

The coastline represents a sacred place where the origin story of the local tribes is rooted, and remains of their ancestors are buried beneath the terraced part of the parcel towering above the Pacific Ocean. The California Department of Transportation gave the territory back to the tribes with the requirement that the area now known as Blues Beach remain open to the public.

On the Northern Cheyenne Reservation in Montana, where turmoil has been seething within the local government, the recent discovery of a mutilated black bear cub reported in Cowboy State Daily adds a disturbing element to more than a year of deep unrest for the tribe.

The person who told the Wyoming outlet she found the carcass Tuesday described a decapitated “baby bear” near a public-use picnic table and fire ring at Crazy Head Springs. According to Cowboy State’s Emma Jane Jackson, the bear’s paws appeared to have been cut off cleanly at the ankles, its torso had been sliced open to reveal its organs and bones and its fur had been scattered around the area. Parts of the carcass also looked burned. 

According to Cowboy State, Stacie Joiner reported the bear to the Bureau of Indian Affairs after she stumbled upon the carcass but was told no officer was available to meet her. Another source told Cowboy State the bear was reported to Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, but no one from the state agency had responded immediately, either. 

Joiner said in the story she plans to arrange a proper burial for the bear with her brother and a close friend. She said she definitely believes the treatment of the dead bear goes “hand-in-hand” with the pain, struggle and dysfunction the tribe is experiencing from the leadership disputes.

Organizations that represent national Native American interests are joining the legal fight behind the Tohono O’odham Nation’s pushback against the federal government’s border wall construction on tribal land.

On Wednesday, lawyers from the Native American Rights Fund asked a federal district court to reverse its decision allowing federal government contractors to work on the Tohono O’odham reservation, describing it as a trespass that is “unprecedented in the modern era of federal Indian law.” The amicus brief was filed on behalf of the National Congress of American Indians and the Inter Tribal Association of Arizona.

On Aug. 25, the tribe said in a statement that federal police, as well as contractors from the Department of Homeland Security, violated the tribe’s trespassing law by working on border wall construction sites in Tohono O’odham.

The tribe is currently appealing a federal district court order that denied its right to issue the trespassing notices.

In New Mexico, the podcast Conversations Different is a main way for the state’s oldest newspaper to get information to voters about candidates running for governor.

This election’s candidates, Democrat Deb Haaland (Laguna Pueblo) and Republican Gregg Hull, haven’t scheduled a traditional debate moderated by a news outlet. Representatives from both campaigns told Buffalo’s Fire on Thursday that discussions for a debate are stalled.

With early voting starting Oct. 6, voters have been left to learn about candidates through multiple interview-style formats, including forums hosted by special interest groups, where the two candidates have appeared together but haven’t been allowed to address each other directly.

Most often Haaland and Hull appear separately to pitch their ideas or views to voters. The Santa Fe New Mexican editorial page editor Inez Russell Gomez interviewed Hull on Sept. 23 and Haaland the next day in front of live audiences for her Conversations Different podcast.

She asked questions from newsroom staff and readers. One concerned the candidates’ views on eliminating New Mexico’s state income tax. Hull wants to phase it out; Haaland doesn’t.

“There are a lot of wealthy people in this state that can pay their fair share of taxes,” Haaland told the crowd of predominantly white, retired voters at the live taping.

The podcast episodes, which air just over 30-minutes, will be out later this week.

The Black Hills Clean Water Alliance seeks volunteers to join its South Dakota Adopt-A-Highway event on Saturday, Sept. 26, at 8 a.m. 

The alliance has worked to protect local resources, particularly water, from destructive mining and pollution since 2009. 

Interested volunteers can sign up or ask questions by emailing Denise at Denise.bhcwa@gmail.com

The alliance needs volunteers who are able to walk on uneven terrain and be comfortable in variable weather. Volunteers should also dress for the weather with closed-toe shoes and long pants. 

The organization will provide leather gloves, safety vests, water, trash bags and grabbers. 

“It’s a great way to get outside, enjoy the beautiful Black Hills, and protect our precious waterways from pollution,” the alliance newsletter states.

A 2024 wildfire incident report from the Idaho Department of Lands obtained by High Country News and Public Domain reveals how an unauthorized prescribed burn eventually broke containment from private property co-owned by a Trump administration appointee.

Michael Boren was confirmed in 2025 as the U.S. Department of Agriculture undersecretary of agriculture for natural resources and environment, which oversees the U.S. Forest Service. His brother, Steve Boren, manages the Josephine Creek Ranch in Idaho. Public financial disclosure documents show Michael Boren has an ownership stake in the ranch.

On Sept. 30, 2024, Steve Boren called local authorities to report that he would be doing a prescribed burn on the ranch.

However, according to the Idaho incident report he reportedly ignited 20 separate fires on public land around Josephine Creek Ranch. The report shows Boren did this during an Idaho fire ban due to dry conditions and without any permits. That resulted in the Rosie Fire, which burned more than 5,600 acres of public land and required federal, state and local fire agencies to respond. The fire cost $950,000 to contain. 

Steven Boren told investigators he started the fires to help with the ranch’s cattle management operations. In a statement to High Country News and Public Domain, Michael Boren denied having any advance knowledge of the unauthorized burn and denied any personal wrongdoing.

No citations or criminal charges related to the Rosie Fire have been filed. Idaho fire officials told High Country News and Public Domain that the state’s incident report remains part of an active investigation.

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/28624075-id-sws-001347-rosie-fire-report-final-corr-pdf-signed-redacted-3/

The PBS NOVA documentary “Knowledge Keepers” features traditional land-based practices by Indigenous people from First Nations in Canada and tribal nations from the Pacific Northwest, Great Plains and Southwest.

Filmmakers conducted interviews in deeply rural Indigenous communities including the Yellowknives Dene First Nation, the Pauquachin First Nation, Gulf Islands National Park Reserve, The Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma and the Navajo Nation.

“My ancestors learned how to live in one of the most extreme places on Earth; the cold north. And if you want to live in this kind of condition here, you have to learn about the environment,” Yellowknives Dene Chief Fred Sangris told NOVA. “You have to learn it, otherwise you won’t survive.”

The documentary is available to watch now online. It premiered on PBS Sept. 23.

The second court ruling in two days regarding tribal leadership on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation emphatically supported the authority of eight tribal council members who were removed from their posts a year ago. 

Northern Cheyenne Tribal Court Judge Frans A. Andersson issued a Sept. 23 court order doubling down on the previous day’s appellate court decision that clarified who is in charge in Lame Deer, Montana.

Andersson wrote Wednesday that Melissa Lonebear, Melissa Fisher, Kristi Killsnight and their colleagues “hold office as members of Tribal Council, uninterrupted, since September 10, 2025. During that period of time, no other person has held office of Tribal Council.”

Andersson also referred to the special October 2025 election that ushered in replacements for the ousted council members as “the void election.” Any “purported actions” taken by the replacement group, Andersson wrote, “have no effect and are void.”

Andersson’s ruling arrives with little time to spare before the next round of council elections on Nov. 3. The sole power to carry out and certify the elections, Andersson added, belongs to Lonebear, Fisher, Killsnight and the members of the original council. Andersson gave the opposing faction of Northern Cheyenne leaders three days to turn over all of the property and materials needed to run the council and administer the elections, including “access to the Little Wolf Capitol Building and other tribal properties, records of Tribal Council, computers, telephones, servers, and other electronic communications or data storage devices.”

Andersson warned that anyone who fails to comply with the court order could be found in contempt of court or criminal contempt.

“Any attempt to undermine or inhibit the administration of the November 3 Election is an attack on the democratic process,” Andersson continued. “Attempts by unelected individuals to exercise Tribal authority in contradiction of the Constitution is lawlessness.”

The American Academy of Pediatrics and its partners will host the 12th International Meeting on Indigenous Child Health in Portland, Oregon, May 28-30, 2027. With a particular focus on maternal-child health, the event will convene health leaders, community members, researchers, academics and clinicians. 

The annual gathering centers the unique health challenges, approaches and learnings that emerge in treating Indigenous youth, not only in North America but around the world. The 2027 meeting, AAP stated in its recent newsletter, will feature sessions that examine growing health issues, community programs, public policy and other topics related to Native youth, children, pregnant people and families. 

On Monday, the Indigenous Conservation Council of the Chesapeake Bay stepped away from a land management agreement between the state of Virginia, local governments and seven tribal nations in the area.

The fallout ends nearly a year of negotiations after the tribal group did not receive signatory status to go along with its role in the planned Chesapeake Bay Program.

Tribal leaders said this is a clear disregard to tribal sovereignty.

Melissa Ann Ehrenreich, executive director of the Indigenous Conservation Council, told Maryland Matters the group would be open to a new conversation if tribes were granted more autonomy in any new conservation rules on or near tribal land.

“If people are not willing to create a seat at the table, why should you sit under the table?” Ehrenreich was quoted as saying. “That was what they were suggesting: For tribes to sit under the table and catch crumbs.”

Wildfires in the Pacific Northwest have destroyed homes, polluted water with ash and devastated traditional food systems for salmon and berries.

This year the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation in Washington is experiencing the worst wildfire season in more than a decade. According to Stateline, roughly 900,000 acres have burned across Washington, including 200,000 from the Kaiser Canyon Fire burning across Colville.

“What typically used to be like a two-month fire season for us when I first started fighting fire about 25 years ago — now that’s at least three months and sometimes longer, depending on the year,” said Cody Desautel, executive director of the Colville Tribes, who is also a forester and wildland fire expert told Stateline.

In Oregon, the Klamath Tribe has concerns about wildfire pollution impacting streams and rivers that are central to its salmon restoration, which includes new salmon hatches in the Williamson River and Upper Klamath Lake. The fire has also scorched fields that grew traditional foods like huckleberries, chokecherries and camas.