The Daily Spark

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.

Two Spirit activist David Herrera has served as an influential leader supporting Montana Indigenous communities since 1986. Drawing on his education at Stanford University, his Mestizo heritage and his adoption into the Blackfeet Tribe in Browning, Herrera has been at the forefront of health, education and community support for Two Spirit individuals statewide since the height of the AIDS epidemic. 

Herrera was recently recognized by the city of Missoula for his long list of contributions to the community — including health work focused on HIV, educational opportunities centering Two Spirit perspectives and the long-running Montana Two Spirit Gathering that takes place every summer. The city of Missoula dedicated Aug. 15, 2026, as “David Herrera Day,” highlighting in its proclamation his “exceptional courage, selfless compassion and visionary leadership.”

The Montana Two Spirit Society, which Herrera co-founded in 1996, also celebrated the impressive legacy of its executive director. Community members offered thanks, memories and words of support for Herrera and his impact, and the Montana Two Spirit Society noted that “a life of service is ultimately measured in the people and communities we touch along the way.”

The Saddle Lake Cree Nation used its treaty rights with Canada to establish gender affirming care and protections for medical professionals in the field. 

The announcement last week came in response to Alberta’s ban on gender affirming care. The First Nation asserted Canada’s provision under Treaty 6, which guarantees “that a medicine chest shall be kept at the house of each Indian Agent for the use and benefit of the Indians.”

CTV News reports that the Assembly of Treaty Chiefs from Nos. 6, 7, and 8, and the Blackfoot Confederacy, passed an emergency resolution this week to support Saddle Lake Cree’s decision. 

Saddle Lake Cree Nation issued a news release, cited by CTV, saying, “This support from Treaty relatives sends an important message: Saddle Lake is not standing alone. When one Treaty Nation exercises its jurisdiction, we strengthen Treaty for all of our Nations and future generations.”

Saddle Lake Cree Nation Chief Dale Steinhauer outlined next steps that include creating a licensure program for clinicians that provide gender affirming care. She also celebrated that Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has taken a “hands off approach” to the Saddle Lake Cree’s decision on gender affirming care.

On June 23 Lumbee Tribe voters overwhelmingly rejected a tribal casino development plan in the first major local election since Lumbee received federal recognition in 2025.

Although 63% of Lumbee voters said no to a casino, the Lumbee tribal council insisted it was in the best interest of the tribe to pursue gaming as an option in its hospitality and entertainment master plans. On June 25, two days after the casino proposal failed, the Lumbee held an emergency meeting to approve a motion to keep the gaming discussion open.

The motion was approved by a 17-1 vote.

That set into place a motion on Aug. 20 by the tribal council to begin the process to adopt a Lumbee Gaming Ordinance. The lure of potential economic development with gaming is too much to outright reject, Lumbee leaders said. The tribal council motion argues it is essential to fund government infrastructure like public safety, education, healthcare and housing.

Lumbee citizens can submit any comments online or in person about the new Gaming Ordinance proposal until Sept. 29. Three in-person public comment events will take place across the Lumbee Nation on Sept. 22, 24 and 28.

Nebraska was home to one of the largest Indian boarding schools in United States history. 

The Genoa U.S. Indian School operated from 1884 until 1934 where more than 4,300 Native students were taken from their homes to the school site. 

On Sept. 26 the site will host the 36th annual recognition and remembrance ceremony to honor the children that attended the school.

A panel on the site’s history will include speakers from across Indian Country. Aaron LaPointe (Winnebago), Dr. Kateri Hinman Petto (Omaha, Winnebago and Seneca Tribes) and Alexis Zendejas (Omaha Tribe) will speak.

On Sept. 19, 2006, a landmark local ordinance in a former Pennsylvania mining town enshrined the idea that natural ecosystems can exercise civil rights under the western legal system. The Tamaqua Borough Council ordinance drew upon traditional Indigenous understanding of the relation between humans and their environment, and it influenced an international movement that continues making strides today. 

The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund that worked alongside Tamaqua residents to defend their land against corporate pollution recently released its inaugural report on what is now known as the Rights of Nature movement. The law firm detailed how more than 60 local governments in the U.S. and North American tribal nations now recognize the rights of nature. Around the world, 35 countries have also adopted rights of nature protections, and support for the rights of nature in Ecuador helped block a controversial mining project in 2021. 

Native youth leaders play a growing role in the Rights of Nature movement. In eastern Massachusetts, young members of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe connected with the Bioneers organization in 2021 in an effort to save local herring populations on the decline. Bioneers supported a Mashpee group to attend an intertribal Indigenous youth gathering led by the Tlingit tribe in Alaska, where representatives of different Native traditions connected over shared values around the environment and youth leadership. 

Out of this foundation, Bioneers reports the network of young tribal leaders has achieved victories protecting the rights of the Colorado River and the Longperson stream and empowering Native youth worldwide.

On Cherokee writer Rebecca Nagle’s new podcast “First America,” Indigenous experts unpack the historical realities of U.S. development that have shaped modern democracy and the place that Native Americans play in current affairs. 

The project, which debuted this summer to coincide with the 250th anniversary of signing the Declaration of Independence, challenges popular notions about the founding fathers, the American Revolution and the role of Indigenous people over the course of colonial expansion. 

Nagle’s project centers numerous Native scholars to bring forward powerful information and better understanding around the disenfranchisement of tribal nations. First America also offers learning tools to complement the episodes. 

Native Hawaiian assistant professor Kekoa Taparra at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health recently introduced new insights into cancer rates among different demographic groups in the U.S. 

Taparra and the UCLA team disaggregated cancer data for Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander patients from Asian American statistics to shed light on health disparities that weren’t previously understood. This innovative approach showed Native Hawaiian women have the highest incidence of breast cancer out of all U.S. populations, and the breast cancer incidence rate for Native Hawaiian women is 27% higher than it is for white women.

The researchers followed federal guidelines advising against combining Asian American cancer rate data with the information on cancer prevalence among Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander populations. Taparra said in a UCLA article by Brad Smith that these guidelines haven’t been in wide use since they were established almost 30 years ago.

The results of this work provided additional demographic breakdowns that can inform health outcomes beyond the Native Hawaiian population. The co-authors found Korean people have the highest stomach cancer incidence of any U.S. racial-ethnic group, Vietnamese people experience the highest liver cancer rates and Samoan women rank the highest in the incidence of uterine corpus cancer.

As the state of Minnesota has garnered considerable political attention throughout the past year, local leaders are ensuring Indigenous rights and perspectives play a central role in important conversations. Rise & Repair is a convener of Minnesota organizations championing sovereignty and climate justice — and new grant funding for Rise & Repair’s local work recognizes the crucial role of this diverse Minnesota team.

Mosaic Environmental Fund, a philanthropic group supporting the movement to combat climate change, recently announced 30 projects across the country that will receive new grant support, including Rise & Repair. According to the fund’s website, its 2026 priorities are focused on state-level progress. 

As part of its work rooted in Minnesota Native communities, Rise & Repair has supported grassroots opposition to a pipeline project through sacred red stone deposits in Southwestern Minnesota and pushback to a nickel mine proposed near abundant water resources where wild rice grows.

Deb Haaland said that if she’s elected as New Mexico’s next governor,  she would issue an executive order on her first day to pause data center construction and development until regulations are approved by state lawmakers.

The Laguna Pueblo candidate is the frontrunner in the race and has also released framework proposals on such issues as health care and affordability.

Her response to data centers came days after public scrutiny over her latest public financing report showed she received a $12,400 donation on Aug. 26 from Oracle, the software company building New Mexico’s largest data center, Project Jupiter.

Haaland said she has not begun discussions with campaign staff to return any of those donations and defended her decision-making. “I cannot be bowled over with donations to my campaign,” she said. “New Mexicans will still be a priority for me, and I will ensure that I am doing what's right for our state.”

Her data center platform must be codified by state lawmakers, she said.

“These protections will be a floor, not a ceiling. Data centers must go above and beyond these guardrails to be eligible for aid from state business programs,” Haaland declared. “All of this must come with careful monitoring, real enforcement and accountability for any failure to uphold their end of the deal.”

On Thursday she presented an eight-point list to journalists in Albuquerque that she said would be the start of her data center regulation plan, which she would want negotiated in public during the 2027 New Mexico legislative session.

“No back room deals,” Haaland said. “There must be strong community engagement and benefits.”

Haaland mentioned geothermal energy as a potential source to power new data centers in New Mexico and said environmental protections from data center pollution must also be put in place by the legislature.

The Rio Grande Sierra Club responded enthusiastically to Haaland’s data center platform.

Deb Haaland Campaign Finance report

https://login.cfis.sos.state.nm.us//ReportsOutput//103/319c2c12-a086-42a5-ba68-b61c410bca68.pdf

Ten years after people protested at Standing Rock Nation against the Dakota Access Pipeline, renewable energy advocates have called the community back to take part in the People of the Sun Festival.

Sponsored by Indigenized Energy, the three-day long gathering at the Prairie Knights Casino in Standing Rock will convene music, culture, and local climate change activists with tribal leaders and Native-led energy initiatives.

In an interview with Prairie Public NewsRoom, event co-founder Cody Two Bears said there will be appearances by celebrities like Shailene Woodley, Gary Dourdan and Taboo from the Black Eyed Peas.

Tickets are still on sale for the event which began Sept. 16 and runs through Sept. 18.

A Gun Lake Tribe Potawatomi citizen currently incarcerated by the Michigan Department of Corrections has sued jail officials over harassment that allegedly happened when a racist AI-image was created and posted in common areas for inmates to see.

Dylan Leenheer said corrections officers at the Newberry Correctional Facility altered his inmate identification card to superimpose over his face a feathered headdress, beaded earrings and buckskin clothing.

According to the Northern Michigan Journalism Collaborative, the flyer caused further issues after it was removed from other inmates' view.

Leenheer, a Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Band of Pottawatomi citizen, said other inmates made racial jokes and comments about Native stereotypes, asking “where his headdress and tomahawk were, and how many buffalo his family owned,” according to the report.

“It’s just a whole bunch of crazy s*** every single day,” he was quoted as saying.

Dr. Susan La Flesche Picotte served as the country’s first Native American medical doctor, and in 1907 her brand-new home on the Omaha Tribe Reservation doubled as her hospital.

There, she treated Omaha tribal members with modern medical services she learned after graduating as valedictorian in 1889 from the Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania.  

Picotte also offered her home for assistance on other tribal matters, such as government regulations and programs thrust into reform by the Dawes Act, a federal program passed in 1887 that broke up Native lands and reallocated them for private ownership. She died in 1915. Her home was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2010.

Now that home is owned by the Picotte Center, a nonprofit organization that does historic preservation for the doctor’s work.

According to the Nebraska Examiner, the Picotte Center will take community input and work with historic preservation societies to forge the house into part of its larger cultural heritage plans, which also include the first proper hospital she had built shortly before she died.

Amid ascendant costs for many everyday necessities in the U.S. and scarce housing stock on reservation land, two Oregon-based tribes have been awarded competitive federal funding to build more affordable housing for tribal members.

The Warm Springs Housing Authority and the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians will each receive $5 million from the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Indian Housing Block Grant Competitive Program, according to reporting by the Oregon Capital Chronicle’s Mia Maldonado. 

Each of the Oregon tribes receiving grants will construct seven single-family homes for citizens.