The Daily Spark

MiigWitches Brew, a Native-owned coffee business on the Fond du Lac Reservation in northeastern Minnesota, is expanding while focusing on community over profit, according to reporting from MPR News. Jackson Ripley, a citizen of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation, and his family opened the first location in 2024. The business recently added a second shop at the Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College.

Ripley said he wanted to bring quality coffee to the reservation, where residents previously traveled farther for coffee. The business also supports other Native and local businesses by purchasing coffee, baked goods and maple syrup from nearby suppliers. Andrea Reese, CEO of the Mni Sota Fund, told MPR News that Native entrepreneurs often prioritize supporting their communities over maximizing profits. Ripley said staying close to family and serving the community remain central to the business.

Pearl Jam bassist Jeff Ament is highlighting the role skateboarding plays in Indigenous communities through the short documentary "Paving the Way," according to reporting from The Associated Press. The film premiered June 8 at the Tribeca Festival and follows skater and artist Alishon Kelly while showcasing new skate parks being built across the Flathead Reservation through a partnership between Ament's Montana Pool Service and the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes.

Ament, who created original music for the film, said the parks give young people a place to connect and express themselves, according to The Associated Press reporting. The documentary also features skater Terrence Lozeau, who said the parks build community. "These parks are where we come together and where we look out for each other," Lozeau said. "You see little kids watching the older ones and learning."

Dakota Plains Legal Services is facing a $176,000 budget shortfall that is affecting staffing and services, Interim Director William Sulik told the Commission on Equal Access to Our Courts, according to reporting from South Dakota Searchlight. The nonprofit serves western South Dakota and Native Americans on and off tribal lands statewide. Sulik said the organization is delaying hiring, reviewing operations and leaving three recently vacated positions unfilled to help preserve services.

The financial challenges could continue if federal funding is reduced. According to reporting from South Dakota Searchlight, Dakota Plains received about $76,000 less this year from the Legal Services Corporation, which provides about 73% of the organization's operating budget. Sulik said funding and staffing shortages have also slowed expansion of the Justice Bus, a mobile legal aid clinic serving rural and tribal communities. "We're trying the best we can," Sulik told South Dakota Searchlight.

A new Indigenous-led whale watching experience launched June 16 in Seattle, offering visitors a tour rooted in Coast Salish history, culture and traditional knowledge, according to reporting from Underscore Native News and ICT. The inaugural voyage of the "First Stories of the Salish Sea" tour included Indigenous storytelling, cultural education, and sightings of orcas and a humpback whale in Elliott Bay.

Valerie Segrest, a citizen of the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe and chief executive officer of Taproot Travel Co., said the tours are designed to share Indigenous perspectives with visitors, according to Underscore Native News and ICT reporting. During the nearly four-hour tour, Owen Oliver, a citizen of the Quinault Indian Nation and Isleta Pueblo, shared stories about treaty rights, Coast Salish history and animal relatives while Elizabeth Campbell, a citizen of the Spokane Tribe, led a tasting featuring teas made from Native plants.

Jeannette Corbiere Lavell, an Anishinaabe woman from Wikwemikong First Nation, is among Indigenous advocates whose efforts helped challenge gender-based discrimination in Canada’s Indian Act. According to reporting in The Globe and Mail, Corbiere Lavell lost her Indian status in 1970 after marrying a non-Indigenous man and later joined a legal fight that contributed to reforms under Bill C-31 in 1985, which restored status to many Indigenous women.

The debate has shifted to the Indian Act’s second-generation cutoff, a provision that can prevent descendants of some Status Indians from obtaining status. Dawn Lavell Harvard, director of Trent University’s First Peoples House of Learning and Corbiere Lavell’s daughter, is among those supporting Bill S-2, which would eliminate the cutoff. According to Indigenous Services Minister Mandy Gull-Masty’s office, the bill would restore status to about 3,500 people and their descendants. The legislation is being studied by the Standing Committee on Indigenous and Northern Affairs, and could be considered for a vote this fall.

The Caddo Nation plans to open a new child-care center in Hinton, Okla., this fall to address limited child-care options for families in the region, according to reporting from ICT News. Caddo Nation Child Care Director Lauren French, who is Delaware and Caddo, said families have faced long waitlists and extended travel times to reach available providers. The 12,250-square-foot facility is located near Interstate 40 and will serve up to 75 children from six months to 12 years old.

The center was developed through a partnership between the Caddo Nation and the nonprofit design organization Model of Architecture Serving Society, known as MASS, according to reporting from ICT News. The facility will include indoor and outdoor learning spaces, a gym, pool, library, nursing center and playground inspired by the Caddo Nation’s mound-building tradition. The project is expected to create 20 to 23 jobs and was constructed by Arrowood Kakinah Enterprise, a Caddo-owned construction company. The building’s design incorporates elements inspired by traditional Caddo Koo Hoo Kiwat homes.

Tribal leaders and advocates are challenging a New Mexico directive that requires the state’s child welfare agency to seek custody of newborns exposed to drugs or alcohol in utero, arguing the policy conflicts with protections for Native families and tribal sovereignty, according to reporting from The Guardian. Nine tribes joined an emergency petition filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, which argues the directive does not address safeguards required for Indian families established in state and federal law.  

At least 25 Native children have been flagged by child welfare authorities since the directive took effect, with tribes taking jurisdiction in 10 cases, according to The Guardian’s reporting. Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren wrote in an April letter that the proposed rule raises concerns about tribal sovereignty, jurisdiction and unnecessary involvement in the child welfare system. Donalyn Lorenzo, a former New Mexico child welfare official, also questioned whether tribes were adequately consulted before the policy was implemented.

A new book tells the stories of Native American women in the Twin Cities, who for decades helped build organizations, advance the arts, and strengthen education and community programs, according to reporting by MPR News. The book was co-authored by White Earth Nation citizen Audrey Thayer and Colette Hyman. “Weaving Community: Indigenous Women and Leadership in the Twin Cities” chronicles the work of women activists who founded and led about 25 organizations in Minneapolis and St. Paul beginning in the 1950s.

According to Thayer, the nine-year project includes perspectives from more than two dozen Dakota, Ojibwe and Ho-Chunk women, and documents the histories of organizations including the Indigenous Peoples Task Force and MIGIZI Communications. Thayer said the book was inspired by a lack of educational resources focused on Indigenous women’s leadership. Published by Minnesota Historical Society Press, the book also explores the impacts of boarding schools and relocation to Minneapolis and St. Paul for work and education opportunities.

A conference at Yale University explored the American Revolution through the experiences of Native nations as the United States approaches its 250th anniversary, according to reporting by Connencticut Public. The event, “First America: The Legacies of the Declaration of Independence for Native Nations,” was organized by The Yale Group for the Study of Native America and The NYU-Yale American Indian Sovereignty Project. Participants discussed Indigenous history, land dispossession, democracy and Native visibility in narratives about the nation’s founding.

Chris Newell of the Passamaquoddy Tribe discussed his book “If You Lived During the American Revolution,” which includes Indigenous and Black perspectives. Conference organizer Ned Blackhawk, a Western Shoshone historian at Yale University, said Native communities have been left out of many accounts of American history. Participants said Native history remains an ongoing part of the American story, not one confined to the Revolutionary era.

A California county court has ordered the City of Corona to stop work on a wastewater expansion project after Native American remains were unearthed at the construction site, according to Native News Online. According to the Riverside County Coroner confirmed the report to be prehistoric Native American remains. The California Native American Heritage Commission identified the ancestors as most likely belonging to the Soboba Band of Luiseño Indians, along with the Kizh Nation, Gabrieleño Band of Mission Indians and the Pechanga Band of Indians.

The affected tribes concluded the area should be treated as a cemetery, the remains reinterred and further construction avoided, according to Native News Online reporting. After the city argued it could proceed under earlier recommendations from the Kizh Nation, tribes sought a preliminary injunction in 2023. Mark Macarro, chairman of the Pechanga Band of Indians, called the ruling a victory. "Today's ruling affirms what we have known for generations — these grounds are sacred, and the remains of our ancestors deserve the full protection of the law," he said in a press release.

U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, is pressing Harvard University to explain delays in returning Native ancestors and cultural items under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, according to reporting from The Harvard Crimson. In a June 8 letter to Harvard President Alan M. Garber, Schatz requested updates on the university's compliance efforts, including how many ancestors and cultural items have been returned and how many remain in its collections.

Schatz, vice chair of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, gave Harvard 30 days to respond and asked whether the university met its pledge to complete the disposition of ancestors and associated funerary belongings by 2025. According to the Harvard Crimson’s reporting, the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology had repatriated 5,464 ancestors and more than 20,000 funerary belongings as of Dec. 31, 2025. Still, 4,643 ancestors remained in the museum's possession, either in active consultation with tribes or awaiting consultation. "Indigenous people have waited long enough," Schatz said in a press release. "It's time for these museums and universities to stop the delays and finally do the right thing."

The Santa Fe Indian School, established in 1890 as a federal boarding school intended to assimilate Native children, now serves as a tribally controlled institution focused on preserving Indigenous culture and language. According to reporting from GPB, students and staff are reshaping the school's legacy through Native-centered curriculum, language instruction and efforts to reclassify library materials that students say portray Native people as history rather than living communities.

The school offers instruction in about 11 Indigenous languages and allows tribes to guide what students learn. Kyle Shutiva, a junior at the school, said the library recategorization project reflects that mission. "We're just trying to decolonize this area," he said. "[The] 970s [of the Dewey Decimal System, where Native American materials are categorized] show that Native Americans are history, but we're still here, truly." Language teacher Tasha Pino, an alumna of the school, said teaching is a way to give back. "Being able to give back to my community and to my students," she said, "this is the way I can do that."

American Indian and Alaska Native people have some of the highest overall cancer death rates among U.S. racial and ethnic groups, according to the American Association for Cancer Research's Cancer Disparities Progress Report 2026. The report also found that American Indian and Alaska Native populations are experiencing some of the largest increases in early-onset colorectal cancer rates, underscoring ongoing inequities in cancer outcomes.

The report noted progress in narrowing some racial disparities in cancer mortality but said significant gaps remain across the cancer continuum. American Indian and Alaska Native populations continue to experience higher incidence and mortality rates for stomach, gallbladder and liver cancers. The AACR called for sustained federal investment in cancer disparities research, screening and prevention programs, warning that recent funding disruptions threaten efforts to ensure that advances in cancer care benefit medically underserved communities.

The U.S. House of Representatives unanimously passed bipartisan legislation that would permanently establish the Small Business Administration's Office of Native American Affairs, according to reporting from Tribal Business News. The Native American Entrepreneurial Opportunity Act, introduced by Rep. Sharice Davids, D-Kan., passed the House on June 23 and now moves to the Senate for consideration.

The bill would codify the office into federal law, create an assistant administrator position reporting directly to SBA leadership, and expand its role in tribal consultation, contracting, entrepreneurial development and access-to-capital programs. Davids, an enrolled member of the Ho-Chunk Nation, said the measure would improve Native entrepreneurs' access to SBA resources.

The Trump administration has ordered the removal of more than 900 bison from federal land in Montana, affecting animals that migrate from areas adjacent to Yellowstone National Park, according to reporting from Outdoor Hub. Federal authorities cited concerns about brucellosis transmission to cattle and property damage as reasons for the directive. The removal process could include relocating bison to tribal lands or conservation herds, or culling the animals.

Tribal nations and conservation groups opposed the decision, arguing the animals are culturally and ecologically significant. Tribal leaders said bison are central to cultural identity and efforts to restore herds on ancestral lands. Critics also questioned whether the directive adequately considered environmental review requirements and public input, while legal challenges are expected to focus on wildlife protection laws and administrative procedures. The decision has renewed debate over how federal agencies balance livestock interests, Native concerns and wildlife conservation on public lands.

University of North Dakota law professor Dan Lewerenz was featured throughout an ICT special report examining the history and legacy of Indigenous erasure as the United States approaches its 250th anniversary. Lewerenz, an assistant professor of law and citizen of the Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska, shared perspectives on tribal sovereignty, federal Indian law and the lasting impacts of assimilation policies.

Lewerenz told ICT that federal boarding school policies accelerated the decline of Indigenous languages by separating children from their communities and prohibiting them from speaking their Native languages. He also described the Trade and Intercourse Acts and the Dawes Act as major forces shaping tribal economies and land ownership. While self-determination policies have given tribes tools to address historic harms, Lewerenz said restoring tribal authority and supporting language revitalization remain critical steps forward.

Chef Sean Sherman's newest restaurant, Indígena by Owamni, opens Tuesday at the Guthrie Theater in downtown Minneapolis, expanding his efforts to center Indigenous foods and supply chains, according to reporting from MPR News. Sherman told MPR News that the restaurant builds on the model established at Owamni, which already spent more than $500,000 annually with Native fishers, ricers and farmers. He said Indígena is expected to quadruple that investment while continuing to train cooks and support Indigenous producers. "We're using food as our language … our story and our platform," Sherman said.

The menu highlights Indigenous ingredients while excluding wheat flour, dairy and cane sugar, according to the MPR News reporting. Culinary director Lee Garman said the kitchen sources wild rice from Ojibwe communities including Fond du Lac, White Earth and Red Lake. Staff members also described the restaurant as an opportunity to connect culture with hospitality. "It's really heartwarming to be able to see your own traditions, foods and practices in play in real life," employee Braeden Laughlin told MPR News.

A federal grand jury in the Northern District of Iowa indicted 51-year-old Mark Milk of Sioux Falls on five felony counts related to the death of his 14-year-old niece, McKenna Wendel, a member of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe, according to reporting by South Dakota Searchlight. In the indictment, Milk is accused of providing the cocaine that killed Wendel on March 14, giving her THC, transporting her across state lines to engage in illegal sexual activity and concealing evidence. Jon Rogness, 38, of Brookings, also was indicted on two felony counts alleging he helped conceal evidence.

Both men were on parole at the time of the alleged crimes, according to the South Dakota Searchlight reporting. Milk had been released in 2024 after then-Gov. Kristi Noem commuted his life sentence for manslaughter, while Rogness was serving parole after a manslaughter conviction. U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Iowa Leif Olson declined to discuss details beyond the charges, saying investigators will "prove at trial" the allegations outlined in the indictment.

The Oglala Sioux Tribal Council voted unanimously on June 9 to oppose a planned July 3 fireworks celebration and presidential visit at Mount Rushmore, citing drought conditions, wildfire concerns and longstanding treaty disputes, according to reporting from Native Sun News. In Resolution 26-55, the council urged the National Park Service and the U.S. Forest Service to cancel the event, warning that fireworks pose "a high risk of wildfires" that could threaten tourists, tribal members, the Black Hills and sacred sites.

The resolution also objected to celebrating the nation's 250th anniversary on land taken from the Sioux under the 1877 Act, according to the Native Sun News reporting. Tribal leaders cited federal actions they said harmed Sioux treaty territory, including pipeline and uranium projects, and raised concerns about Missouri River hydropower benefits and the treatment of Native people by federal immigration authorities. Oglala Sioux Tribe President Frank Star Comes Out signed the resolution, reaffirming the tribe's position on Sioux land claims. The National Park Service has not announced whether the event would be altered or canceled.