The Daily Spark

Josh Stein spoke at the United Tribes of North Carolina’s Annual Unity Conference on March 6 in Raleigh, reaffirming the state’s commitment to Native American communities, according to NC Newsline. The event marked the first time the conference has been held since the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina received federal recognition in December 2025.

“American Indians in North Carolina have helped shape our state and nation since before its founding,” Stein was quoted as saying. “As we reflect on America’s 250th anniversary, we reaffirm our commitment to supporting the 130,000 American Indians who call North Carolina home.” Tribal leaders and community members representing North Carolina’s eight state-recognized tribes and four Urban American Indian Organizations attended the conference, including the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. N.C. Department of Administration Secretary Gabriel Esparza said American Indian people are a critical part of the state’s history, economy and communities.

Leander “Russ” McDonald, president of United Tribes Technical College, has been named honoree of the year by the American Indian College Fund, according to KFYR.

The award recognizes individuals who have made an impact on the tribal college movement. McDonald, a member of the Spirit Lake Dakota Nation, has served as president of the college for more than a decade. He will receive a $1,200 gift as part of the honor, according to KFYR.

Community leaders across the country are working to connect Indigenous sovereignty initiatives with reparations movements in an effort to strengthen both efforts, according to reporting by the Daily Yonder. One example is the Texas Tribal Buffalo Project, led by Lucille Contreras, Lipan Apache. The project is restoring bison herds and Indigenous stewardship on land in Gonzalez County, Texas. Contreras reportedly purchased 77 acres in 2020 with a USDA new farmer-rancher loan, and the project’s herd has grown to 34 bison since the first eight were acquired in 2021. “All of Texas is traditionally buffalo territory,” Contreras told the Daily Yonder. “We invite people to attend the buffalo harvest and have had 400 guests.”

Organizations including the South Dakota-based NDN Collective are also supporting land return initiatives. Through its NDN Fund, the Chugach Regional Resources Commission in Seward, Alaska, secured a loan to purchase and expand the 1.52-acre home of the Alutiiq Pride Marine Institute, which conducts ocean restoration and marine research, according to the Daily Yonder. Nick Tilsen, Oglala Lakota and founder of NDN Collective, said the Land Back movement focuses on restoring Indigenous stewardship of land. “Sometimes indigenous ‘Land Back’ invokes fear that we are coming for individual people’s property rights and land, but that’s not what we are doing,” Tilsen was quoted as saying.

At the end of February, Dakota AIM Grassroots hosted AIM Liberation Day in collaboration with Wambli Ska at North Middle School on Maple Avenue to commemorate the 53rd anniversary of the Feb. 27, 1973, occupation of Wounded Knee, South Dakota, according to Native Sun News. The American Indian Movement, founded in Minneapolis in 1968, was established to address issues including police brutality, poverty and discrimination against urban Native people, according to Native Sun News. The movement later expanded to focus on tribal sovereignty, treaty rights and the preservation of Native languages, culture and spirituality.

Wambli Ska Executive Director Christ White Eagle, Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, said the event included speakers discussing the significance of the 1973 standoff and its lasting impact. “It’s important to remember and honor those who fought for our rights,” White Eagle was quoted as saying. Jonathan Old Horse, Oglala Lakota pastor and resident, said the movement led to changes that continue to shape Native communities. “We can have long hair. We can practice our culture without being ashamed. It’s small things, but they were not available back then,” Old Horse was quoted as saying. The event also included traditional dancing, vendors and a buffalo feed honoring those involved in the movement.

Michigan lawmakers questioned state officials during a February subcommittee hearing about why a 300-page report examining the impact of Indian boarding schools in the state was not publicly released, according to reporting by The Imprint. The report, funded by more than $1 million in state appropriations in 2023 and produced by the Native American-led consulting firm Kauffman and Associates Inc., examined Michigan’s boarding school history and the role of the state in the system. The report was later obtained and published by Bridge Michigan, which first reported on the issue.

Testimony during the hearing included comments from boarding school survivors and representatives from Kauffman and Associates. “Limiting our role in this way was consequential,” Jo Ann Kauffman, president of the firm and a Nez Perce tribal member, told lawmakers, according to The Imprint. Boarding school survivor Marilyn Wakefield, a member of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, criticized the delay in releasing the report. “It’s beyond ridiculous,” Wakefield was quoted as saying. “It’s unfair to the survivors and descendants who were part of this report.”

Federal proceedings continue in the murder case involving Sahela Toka Win Sangrait, 21, a member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe whose remains were discovered in March 2025 near Hill City, South Dakota, according to Native Sun News. Sangrait was reported missing Aug. 10, 2024. 

Quinterius Charles Chappelle, 24, an aircraft inspection journeyman stationed at Ellsworth Air Force Base, has been federally charged in connection with Sangrait’s death and entered a not guilty plea during a March 28, 2025, arraignment before U.S. Magistrate Judge Daneta Wollmann, according to Native Sun News. 

The investigation involves the Pennington County Sheriff’s Office, Rapid City Police Department, FBI, South Dakota Division of Criminal Investigation, Air Force Office of Special Investigations and the Bureau of Indian Affairs Missing and Murdered Unit. A jury trial is scheduled for May 26, after the court granted a 120-day continuance, according to Native Sun News.

Online gambling platforms operating through federal regulatory loopholes are raising concerns among tribal gaming leaders who say the industry threatens tribal gaming rights and state authority, according to ICT. Victor Rocha, conference chair for the Indian Gaming Association and a citizen of the Pechanga Band of Indians, said prediction markets allow companies to offer gambling-like services nationwide while avoiding state gaming compacts that govern tribal casinos.

Some tribes and states are exploring regulatory models that could include tribes in online gaming systems, according to ICT. A 2021 compact between the Seminole Tribe of Florida and the state of Florida established a “hub-and-spoke” model allowing mobile sports betting through servers located on tribal land. Wisconsin lawmakers are considering similar legislation that would allow the state’s 11 federally recognized tribes to operate online gaming systems within the state under tribal authority.

An Indigenous-led prayer camp established near Mni Owe Sni, also known as Coldwater Spring, in Minneapolis will close Wednesday evening after youth leaders and Lakota spiritual leader Arvol Looking Horse reached an agreement Sunday night, according to MPR News. The camp, set up in early February across from the Whipple Federal Building, had drawn debate among Indigenous community members over the use of the site, which is considered sacred and is understood by some leaders to include Dakota burial grounds.

Looking Horse told camp residents he believed establishing the camp at the location broke “spiritual law” because the area is recognized as a burial site, according to MPR News. Youth leaders said the camp was intended as a place for prayer and healing and a response to community concerns including immigration enforcement actions, housing instability and drug use in Minneapolis. After nearly four hours of discussion, both sides agreed the camp could remain temporarily so residents could pray before dismantling it later this week.

An instructor at United Tribes Technical College is teaching students the Hidatsa language as part of an effort to help preserve it, according to reporting by KFYR-TV. The language is considered to be in a state of emergency, with an estimated 65 fluent speakers remaining.

Amber Gwin is teaching the course this semester, the first time the Hidatsa language has been offered at the college. Nine students are enrolled, including Rollie Knight, who said learning the language helps him reconnect with his family and culture. Gwin said she is also relearning the language alongside her students after growing up hearing it as a child. She told KFYR that the goal is to keep the language alive and that she plans to teach the course again in the fall if there is enough interest.

A report by the Navajo Nation Human Rights Commission describes harsh discipline discriminatory practices and a climate of fear and retaliation affecting Navajo students in the Gallup-McKinley County Schools district, according to New Mexico In Depth. The 25-page report draws on testimony from parents, students and community members at four public hearings held in Navajo Nation communities within the district. The commission urged the New Mexico Attorney General’s Office to release findings from its investigation into the district’s discipline of Indigenous students.

The Attorney General’s Office confirmed the investigation is complete and identified “troubling disciplinary practices,” according to New Mexico In Depth. Chief of Staff Lauren Rodriguez said the agency’s investigation recommends that the New Mexico Public Education Department strengthen student discipline, data reporting and oversight. The report also calls for a formal agreement between the Navajo Nation and the district to adopt restorative justice-focused discipline policies.

Leaders of the Bois Forte Band of Chippewa shared updates on governance finances and community projects during the tribe’s annual state of the band address Saturday at Fortune Bay Resort Casino in northern Minnesota, according to MPR News. Chairman Carlos Hernandez delivered his first address since taking office in June and discussed tribal priorities including transparency, government communication and conversations about removing the Secretary of the Interior from the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe’s constitution.

Hernandez also told band members that research into the federal boarding school era identified the remains of three children connected to the Genoa U.S. Industrial Indian School in Nebraska who were from the Bois Forte Band, according to MPR News. District 1 Representative Jeneal Goggleye said tribal audits for fiscal years 2023 and 2024 are currently delinquent but officials plan to complete them by the end of the year. Secretary Treasurer Tara Geshick said a loan tied to land for the tribe’s convenience store in Tower has been paid in full and the land is moving toward trust status.

The Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes of the Fort Peck Reservation recently received 219 bison from Yellowstone National Park as part of a conservation and transfer program that moves disease-free animals to tribal lands, according to Montana Free Press. The animals arrived in mid-February at Turtle Mound Buffalo Ranch near Wolf Point, Montana, marking the largest shipment the tribes have received from Yellowstone National Park.

The program operates through a partnership involving Yellowstone National Park, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Services and the state of Montana to relocate bison after quarantine and disease testing, according to Montana Free Press. Fort Peck manages both a cultural herd used for tribal hunts, ceremonies, food distribution and education and a business herd that supports the program through controlled hunts and lotteries. The InterTribal Buffalo Council also helps coordinate the transfer of Yellowstone bison from Fort Peck to other tribal nations.

Starting July 1, tribal police assisting state or local authorities will be recognized as law enforcement officers under South Dakota law, after Gov. Larry Rhoden signed House Bill 1007, according to South Dakota Searchlight.

Currently, the state’s legal definition of law enforcement does not include tribal officers, who often assist at crime and crash scenes but lack jurisdiction outside tribal borders. Under the new law, tribal officers will receive the same legal protections granted to state-recognized law enforcement, including assault laws that classify simple assault against an officer as a felony, according to South Dakota Searchlight. The law extends those protections to tribal officers when they support public safety operations anywhere in the state.

Rhoden signed the bill Monday along with other public safety and public welfare legislation.

Organizers are calling for vendors to participate in the Indigenous Peoples Weekend & Native American Food Truck Festival, scheduled for Oct. 10–12 in St. Paul and Maplewood, Minnesota, according to event registration information. The three-day event will run from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily and will include vendor markets, Native food trucks and community programming.

According to the vendor call, Saturday’s kickoff location will be limited to the first 20 vendors. Spaces will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis once payment is received. Organizers state vendors must pay in full to be added to the vendor list. The event is currently accepting arts and craft vendors selling products and educational nonprofit vendors sharing information. Vendor markets for the event are hosted by Blue Hummingbird Woman, and food vendors must be Native-owned and are asked to contact Trickster Tacos for additional information, according to the registration details.

The city of Denver transferred 34 yearling bison to tribal nations on March 6 as part of a program that donates animals from the city’s municipal herd to Indigenous communities, according to Denverite. The animals came from Denver Parks and Recreation’s herd at Genesee Park near Golden, Colorado, one of the few bison herds in the country owned and managed by a city. Since the program began five years ago, Denver has transferred more than 170 bison to 12 tribal nations and Native organizations, according to Denverite.

This year, the Northern Cheyenne Tribe and the Navajo Nation were selected to receive the animals. The yearlings were sorted into pens and loaded into trailers before being transported to tribal lands. City officials began donating the young bison instead of auctioning them as part of the herd management program, which is currently scheduled to continue through 2030, according to Denverite.

Contamination from oil, sewage and debris is threatening subsistence resources and drinking water in Kipnuk, Alaska, after Typhoon Halong devastated the community in October, according to ICT. About 90% of the village was damaged and more than 1,600 people were evacuated across the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta region, making it the largest mass evacuation in Alaska’s history. Cleanup crews working with the U.S. Coast Guard and the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation found roughly 120 damaged heating oil tanks and widespread pollution across the tundra and waterways, according to the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation.

The contamination has raised concerns for residents who rely on hunting, gathering and natural water sources. Floodwaters spread oil, sewage and debris across the tundra and into lakes used for drinking water, according to ICT. Cleanup crews began siphoning oil from damaged tanks, but efforts paused for winter as frozen waterways prevented transporting contaminated materials. Officials said the full scope of damage and cleanup timeline will be reassessed after the spring thaw.

Former U.S. Secretary of the Interior and New Mexico gubernatorial candidate Deb Haaland unveiled a public safety plan on March 5 that calls for overhauling the state’s Children, Youth and Families Department and expanding behavioral health services, according to Source NM. Haaland’s proposal includes appointing an experienced cabinet secretary, increasing staff pay, boosting recruitment and requiring data sharing between the Office of the Child Advocate, New Mexico State Police, the Health Care Authority and the Early Childhood Education and Care Department.

Haaland also proposed creating a statewide Office of Community Safety to respond to nonviolent 911 calls involving mental health crises and homelessness, according to Source NM. Her plan would prohibit U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from operating within 500 yards of schools, child care facilities, government buildings, religious institutions, health clinics, public parks and significant cultural sites. Haaland announced the proposal during a news conference in Albuquerque alongside former State Police Chief Pete Kassetas, former state Sen. Jerry Ortiz y Pino and New Mexico Behavioral Health Providers Association President David Ley.

A Native-owned medical research company based on the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation is working to address health disparities and expand public health knowledge in tribal communities, according to South Dakota News Watch. Missouri Breaks Industries Research, founded about 30 years ago in Eagle Butte, manages medical research projects, provides health education and supplies medical equipment to Native populations. The organization serves the Oglala Lakota, Cheyenne River Sioux, Standing Rock Sioux and Spirit Lake Nation and operates research offices in Rapid City as well as Pine Ridge and Kyle on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.

Founder Marcia O’Leary, a registered nurse, said Native-led research helps ensure communities maintain control over their data and health information. “For things to change, people have to have knowledge, and they have to own their data in order to really have autonomy over it,” O’Leary told South Dakota News Watch. The organization employs about 45 staff members, more than 80% of whom are tribal citizens, to help build trust and guide research focused on health issues affecting Native communities.

A trial date has been set for Derick Wilkinson, who is charged with murdering his girlfriend, Alexia De La Cerda, in White Shield, North Dakota, on Aug. 9, 2024. 

A home security camera allegedly captured Wilkinson strangling De La Cerda, a Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation citizen. An affidavit from an FBI agent claims he then locked her children in a room and set the house on fire. 

Wilkinson’s trial will take place April 7 in Bismarck. It was scheduled days after a federal judge rejected a plea deal that would have scrubbed Wilkinson’s murder charge.