The Daily Spark

Utah lawmakers are advancing a bill that would create specialized law enforcement training for investigations involving missing and murdered Indigenous people, according to Utah News Dispatch.

House Bill 588, sponsored by Rep. Angela Romero, D-Salt Lake City, would direct the state’s American Indian-Alaska Native Health and Family Services office to develop a training curriculum for law enforcement officers. The bill passed unanimously through the House Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Committee on Monday, according to Utah News Dispatch. Romero said the measure is intended to address disparities identified in a 2023 Murdered and Missing Indigenous Relatives Task Force report.

The report found Indigenous people account for about 5% of murder victims in Utah while representing about 1.5% of the state’s population, according to Utah News Dispatch. “There are steps to addressing this epidemic, because it is an epidemic,” Romero told Utah News Dispatch. “This is just the first step of many steps while I serve in the legislature.”

The Gerald L. Ignace Indian Health Center in Milwaukee offers a monthly jingle dress dance class as part of its Movement is Tradition program, which encourages physical activity through culturally rooted practices, according to ICT.

The class, held the first Wednesday of each month, is open to community members of all ages and led by Emma Carufel, a citizen of the Lac du Flambeau (Waaswaaganing) Ojibwe band. The program also includes activities such as catch-and-release fishing, snowshoeing and canoeing aimed at reconnecting participants with cultural traditions while promoting movement, according to ICT.

Lisa Albright, a citizen of the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin and outreach coordinator at the health center, was quoted as saying the program shows people “how to get back to their cultural roots and still be able to get some activity into their lives.” Classes begin with smudging and include instruction on dance styles, regalia and pacing.

Allison Renville, a Sisseton-Wahpeton Dakota candidate for South Dakota governor, announced Feb. 27 that she is ending her campaign, citing financial uncertainty, according to ICT. Renville said in a press release that her campaign will be “dissolving.” 

“Running for public office should not require personal wealth or access to elite networks. What I’m going through is just like every other American,” Renville said in the statement, quoted by ICT. “When candidates with lived experience of housing instability and working-class struggles can’t sustain campaigns, it proves the system is not designed for the common person.” 

Twenty-two tribes returned more than 1,500 buffalo to their ancestral homelands last year, according to a news release from the InterTribal Buffalo Council. Today, more than 25,000 buffalo are managed by tribal nations, which InterTribal Buffalo Council board president Ervin Carslon called “a profound act of cultural healing and Tribal sovereignty.” The InterTribal Buffalo Council and its 89 member tribes across 22 states help coordinate the restoration of buffalo populations to tribal land.

“Buffalo remain central to the spiritual, cultural, ecological, and economic life of Native Communities,” he said in the news release. 

Buffalo are a keystone species in the Northern Great Plains and are essential to the health of grassland ecosystems. An estimated 30 to 60 million buffalo used to roam North America, but fur traders, hunters and the U.S. military wiped out buffalo as a means of erasing Native communities. By the early 1900s, there were less than a thousand buffalo. Now, tribal buffalo populations are larger than they have been in more than a century.

North Dakota Ethics Commission Chair Cynthia Lindquist will step down effective June 1 to move to Denver and become chief strategy officer for the American Indian College Fund, according to the North Dakota Monitor.

Lindquist, a citizen of the Spirit Lake Nation, was first appointed to the five-member commission in 2019 and reappointed in 2023, according to the Monitor. She was elected chair in July, following the death of former chair Dave Anderson in May. Lindquist is director of the University of North Dakota’s Tribal Initiatives and Collaborations and previously served more than two decades as president of Cankdeska Cikana Community College. “In the last six years, the Commission has made significant progress and will continue to do so in the future,” Lindquist was quoted as saying in a Monday announcement from the Ethics Commission. Her replacement is expected to serve the remainder of her term through August 2027.

The Mandan Police Department said Keith Belgarde Jr., a 21-year-old Indigenous man reported missing after last being seen Feb. 26, has been located safe, according to an update shared by Mandan Police on March 2.

Police had previously asked the public for help locating Belgarde, who was described as six feet tall, 200 pounds with brown eyes and black hair. In a Facebook update, the Mandan Police Department said Belgarde has been found safe. No additional details were provided.

The 50th annual Denver March Powwow will be held March 20-22 at the Denver Coliseum. The event began in the 1970s as a youth enrichment program and has grown into one of the early gatherings on the powwow trail. Last year, 31 drum groups and more than 1,200 dancers participated, according to powwow officials. An attendee survey found visitors came from 49 states and 25 countries, and total attendance topped 55,000. The organization’s Articles of Incorporation state its primary mission is to “preserve and protect the traditional performing arts of American Indian people.”

Special contests this year include Guardians of Tradition (15+), Northern vs. Southern Women Showcasing Traditional Outfits and Dance Styles, and a men’s grass (18+) contest, with prize amounts to be announced, according to event materials. A Special Honor Contest will recognize Grace “SwaHuux” Gillette as the 2025 Legends of Dance Award recipient, dedicated to former DMPW royalty. Additional contests include a Team Dance competition and Youth Enrichment (15-24). Arts and crafts vendor booth spaces are sold out with no waitlist, according to event materials.

Wozu’s Food Sovereignty Program is offering seed starting sessions to schools, organizations and districts within Standing Rock boundaries, according to program information. Wozu will provide soil, biodegradable planting pots, seeds and informational cards. Hosts are asked to provide a public space, chairs and tables.

The sessions will be offered faye@wozu.net to April 4. Those interested in hosting must contact Jaimie at jarchambault@wozu.net or 701-854-5577, or Faye at faye@wozu.net or 701-854-5577. All interested parties must contact Jaimie or Faye by Thursday, March 19, at 5 p.m. CST, according to Wozu.

New Mexico’s Mining and Minerals Division will hold a public hearing on a proposed uranium mine near Mount Taylor after receiving more than 200 letters opposing the project, according to Source NM. The division deemed Laramide Resources, Inc.’s 72-page mining plan for the La Jara Mesa mine about 10 miles north of Grants “administratively complete” and opened a public comment period that ended last week.

Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department Public Information Officer Sidney Hill said the department also received “dozens” of hearing requests and committed to holding a hearing after the company responds to division questions, according to Source NM. According to the mining plan, the operation could run up to 20 years and produce 12 to 15 truckloads of uranium ore per day for processing at an unspecified offsite mill. Laramide Vice President of Operations and Strategic Development Josh Leftwich told Source NM the company “respects” the decision to hold a hearing and will comply with regulatory standards.

More than 100 people gathered Feb. 25-27 at the fifth annual Dakota and Ojibwe Language Symposium in Morton, Minnesota, to discuss efforts to preserve and revive Indigenous languages, according to MPR News. The event was hosted by the Lower Sioux Indian Community at Jackpot Junction Casino and held in partnership with the Minnesota Indian Affairs Council’s Language Revitalization Working Group and the Minnesota Humanities Center, MPR News reported.

MPR reported that Skyler Kuczaboski, grants administrative specialist for the Minnesota Indian Affairs Council, said there are four first-language Dakota speakers left in Minnesota, all over age 68, and fewer than 1,000 first-language Ojibwe speakers statewide. “Language is a need. It is the central part of all of our community,” Vanessa Good Thunder of the Lower Sioux Indian Community was quoted as saying. Gimiwan Dustin Burnette of the Midwest Indigenous Immersion Network said preservation efforts require collective responsibility across communities.

According to a U.S. District Court clerk for the District of North Dakota, a federal judge rejected a plea deal Monday that could have scrubbed a second-degree murder charge in the August 2024 homicide of Alexia De La Cerda, a Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara citizen.

Derick Wilkinson was charged with murder and arson after a home security camera captured him allegedly killing De La Cerda. He then allegedly locked her children in a room and set the house on fire. In the plea agreement he signed on Oct. 29, he admitted to assault with intent to commit murder and tampering with evidence.

A court clerk told Buffalo’s Fire the rejected plea deal means Wilkinson is still facing the second-degree murder charge. A court date on that charge has not yet been set.

On Feb. 27, The Black Hills National Forest approved a graphite exploratory drilling project at Pe’ Sla, a sacred site in the heart of the Black Hills. Pete Lien and Sons Rochford Mineral Exploratory Drilling Project puts drinking water at risk and may disrupt cultural ceremonies, says the Black Hills Clean Water Alliance. 

The drilling company plans to drill 18 three-inch diameter holes up to 1,000-feet deep to search for graphite south of Rochford, South Dakota, and near the 2,022-acres of Pe’ Sla trust land. The approved project will take less than a year to complete and could affect 98 acres of the Black Hills, according to the project decision memo on the U.S. Forest Service website. The drilling site is also located within the Rapid Creek Watershed, which, according to the Black Hills Clean Water Alliance, provides drinking water to Rapid City, South Dakota, Ellsworth Air Force Base and tribal communities along the Cheyenne River.

A U.S. District Court judge has ordered federal agencies to increase salmon protections on the Columbia and Snake rivers, according to Underscore Native News and ICT. Judge Michael Simon directed the National Marine Fisheries Service, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to increase spill and water flow over eight dams on the lower Columbia and Snake rivers to help juvenile fish migrate.

The ruling requires spill increases but denies requests to lower reservoir levels and to make repairs at the McNary and Bonneville dams, according to the published report. The court ordered reservoir levels to remain at 2025 operating levels. “The Court finds that the threats to the listed species are dire and immediate,” Simon wrote in the opinion. Plaintiffs include conservation groups, Native nations and the states of Oregon and Washington. 

Tribal leaders raised concerns about California’s Bay Delta Plan during recent State Water Resources Control Board hearings, according to Community Alliance. The proposed plan would set unimpaired river flow levels into the San Francisco Bay Delta estuary between 35% and 55%, replacing a 2018 version that allowed up to 75% flow.

Vincent Pena, tech manager for the Wilton Rancheria, was quoted as saying the draft plan and its associated environmental analysis “fail to reasonably protect tribal beneficial uses.” Community Alliance also quoted Pena as saying that the plan lacks meaningful “government-to-government consultation.” Regina Chichizola, executive director of Save California’s Salmon, said tribal beneficial uses must be protected with enforceable measures. Brian Wallace, former chair of the Washoe Tribe, and Frankie Meyers, a consultant for the Yurok Nation, also called for recognition of tribal decision-making authority and Indigenous ecological knowledge, Community Alliance reported.

According to MPR News, the Public Health Accreditation Board has awarded White Earth Nation’s health care system national accreditation, making it the first tribe in Minnesota to earn the recognition. The board’s review process ensures the tribe’s public health services meet or exceed national standards practiced by governmental public health departments and is supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, MPR News reported.

“Achieving PHAB accreditation is a proud moment for the White Earth Nation,” White Earth Health Division Director Lindsi Darco told MPR News. Gina Boudreau, a White Earth Nation enrollee who has worked in the tribe’s public health department for 25 years, said the process took about eight years and eight other tribal nations have received the recognition nationwide. Public health coordinator Cyndy Rastedt said the status will help the tribe improve its health system and increase funding opportunities. A celebration is set for March 25 at Shooting Star Casino in Mahnomen, MPR News reported.

Update : Mandan police say missing 21-year-old Keith Belgarde Jr. found safe

The Mandan Police Department is searching for Keith Belgarde Jr., a 21-year-old missing Indigenous male. Belgarde was last seen on Feb. 26 and is described as six feet tall, 200 pounds with brown eyes and black hair. 

In a Facebook post, Mandan Police asked for anyone with information on Belgarde’s whereabouts to contact them at 701-667-3250 and reference case number 26000686.

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.