The Daily Spark

Tribal leaders and educators criticized a federal restructuring of Native education programs during a consultation in Washington, D.C., according to Indianz.com. With the Department of Education being dismantled, the Department of the Interior will assume oversight of key programs, while the Department of Labor will take over others, including about $1.6 billion in Impact Aid funding. The changes affect nearly half a million American Indian and Alaska Native public school students. Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. of the Cherokee Nation was quoted as saying that agreements were already “at the execution stage” before consultation occurred. Vice President Richelle Montoya of the Navajo Nation cited Executive Order 13175, saying the November 2025 announcement was made without consultation.

At the session at the National Museum of the American Indian, Chairman Peter Lengkeek of the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe said the format did not constitute “robust and meaningful consultation,” according to Indianz.com. Tribal leaders raised concerns about the Bureau of Indian Education’s capacity to absorb additional programs and called for regional meetings.

A North Dakota man accused of killing a woman inside a hotel room at Sky Dancer Casino & Resort has pleaded not guilty, according to Casino.org. Rigoberto Mendez Morales, 58, is charged with second-degree murder in Indian country in the death of a Native woman enrolled with the Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation.

According to Casino.org, deputies with the Rolette County Sheriff’s Office responded to the casino in Belcourt on Jan. 10 following a 911 call. Investigators said surveillance video showed Mendez Morales and the woman entering the room shortly after midnight, with no one else entering or exiting before officers arrived. Authorities allege the woman was stabbed to death. Mendez Morales told investigators he had no memory of the incident and awoke to find the woman unresponsive. A federal magistrate ordered him held in custody pending a jury trial scheduled for April 14.

Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College hosted its seventh annual Ojibwe Language Symposium in Cloquet, Minnesota, bringing together community members for workshops, immersive games and speaker panels, according to MPR News. The free, family-oriented gathering invited learners of all ages and experience levels to participate.

“I think it's one of the few opportunities that we have just to kind of gather and to celebrate the language, and then also to connect with one another,” Michelle Goose, an Ojibwe language instructor at the college and a member of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe, was quoted as saying.

According to MPR News, the symposium is held in collaboration with local immersion programs, including the Midwest Indigenous Immersion Network, known as MIIN. Goose said about 300 people registered this year, ranging from grade school students to elders. The two-day event took place Feb. 6-7.

David Bean, the new chairman of the Indian Gaming Association, said he is continuing the work of longtime chairman Ernie Stevens Jr., who died in September 2024, according to ICT. Bean, a citizen of the Puyallup Tribe of Indians, said he learned from Stevens the importance of sharing personal stories and remaining vigilant against threats to Indian gaming.

“My takeaway from watching chairman is to make sure and tell these personalized stories,” Bean was quoted as saying. He added, “We also have to remain vigilant.”

According to ICT, Bean has been involved with the Indian Gaming Association since 2009 and previously served as the first Northwest regional representative. He was elected to the Puyallup Tribal Council at age 37 and later served as vice chair and chairman until 2021. Bean said his priorities include protecting Indian gaming, safeguarding tribal sovereignty and promoting economic diversification. He plans to honor Stevens during the association’s annual tradeshow and convention March 30 to April 3 in San Diego.

UPDATE: FOUND SAFE

The Bismarck Police Department is searching for Charlie Eagle Shield, a 17-year-old boy and citizen of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation. He was last seen on Jan. 30. He is reportedly 5’11" tall and 170 pounds, with brown eyes and black hair.

Bismarck Police Officer Collin Schlecht told Buffalo’s Fire that Eagle Shield went to visit his aunt in Minot, North Dakota. He was supposed to return to his foster home after three days, but he reportedly ran away.

Anyone with information can contact the Bismarck Police Department at 701-223-1212.

The Bismarck Police Department said Charlie Eagle Shield, a 17-year-old citizen of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation, has been found safe.

Police had been searching for Eagle Shield after he was reported missing on Jan. 30. He was last seen after traveling to Minot, North Dakota, and was expected to return to his foster home after three days, according to Bismarck Police Officer Collin Schlecht.

No additional details were released. Police thanked the public for sharing information.

State-Tribal Relations Day will take place Feb. 25 at the Capitol Rotunda in Pierre from 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., according to South Dakota State News. The 2026 theme is “Bringing Awareness to the MMIP Crisis Through Collaboration,” with a focus on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons.

The event will bring together MMIP organizations, tribal leaders and state legislators to foster collaboration and dialogue, according to South Dakota State News. As of Jan. 1, 2026, 61% of the 118 people listed as missing in South Dakota were Native American, according to the South Dakota Missing Persons website. “We must never forget the lives lost and the families still searching for answers,” said Algin Young, secretary of the South Dakota Department of Tribal Relations, according to South Dakota State News. The event is open to the public, and formal invitations have been extended to all nine tribal leaders and councils.

The Office of Sovereign Partnerships & Indigenous Initiatives at the University of Kansas will host the Sovereign Futures Series: AI and Data Sovereignty Across the Southern Plains March 3-4, according to the university. The event will bring together tribal leaders, community practitioners, scholars, educators and technologists to examine how artificial intelligence, data governance and emerging technologies affect tribal sovereignty and Indigenous self-determination. Sessions will be held in person at the university and livestreamed.

The event will include panels on Indigenous data sovereignty, digital repatriation, AI governance and community-centered technology design, according to KU. “AI and data systems are already shaping everyday decisions,” Chamisa Edmo, a co-organizer and graduate student in computer science at KU, was quoted by KU News as saying. “The work ahead is building shared understanding of how these systems work and ensuring tribal nations have the authority to govern them.” The event is open to the public, with in-person and virtual registration available.

Indigenous activists held a demonstration Saturday outside the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building in Minneapolis to protest immigration enforcement and detentions at the site, according to MPR News. The “Not On Native Land” rally was organized and led by Indigenous clergy from Minnesota in response to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity tied to Operation Metro Surge.

Jim Bear Jacobs, program director of environmental justice with Minnesota Interfaith Power & Light, said the building’s namesake, Henry Whipple, advocated for Dakota people during the U.S.-Dakota War. Jacobs read a statement from Craig Loya, bishop of the Episcopal Church in Minnesota, calling it a “painful irony” that a building named for Whipple now houses immigration enforcement, according to MPR News.

Speakers and performers, including members of Kalpulli Yaocenoxtli, addressed the crowd. Kate Beane, executive director of the Minnesota Museum of American Art, said the land where the building stands was never ceded by Dakota people, according to MPR News.

Representatives of Nuiqsut, an Iñupiat village on Alaska’s North Slope, have sued the Trump administration over the cancellation of a conservation agreement protecting the Teshekpuk Lake area and the Teshekpuk Caribou Herd, according to Alaska Beacon. Nuiqsut Trilateral Inc., which includes the city government, the tribal government and Kuukpik Corp., filed the lawsuit Jan. 28 in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C.

The lawsuit challenges the Interior Department’s December cancellation of a 2024 right-of-way agreement covering about 1 million acres in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska. Interior Department Deputy Secretary Katharine MacGregor said in a cancellation notice that the agreement violated the Naval Petroleum Reserves Production Act and described subsistence harvesting as a “non-use” of resources. Alaska Beacon reports that the complaint disputes that characterization, arguing that subsistence is a recognized use under federal law and that the cancellation violates longstanding subsistence protections.

Native consulting curators helped shape a new permanent gallery at the Penn Museum in Philadelphia that centers Indigenous voices and presents Native people as living communities. The exhibit, “Native North America Gallery: Rooted in Resilience, Resisting Erasure,” opened Nov. 22 and is expected to remain on view for 10 years.

Eight Native consulting curators from tribes across the United States worked with museum staff to determine the exhibit’s focus and decide which items were appropriate for display, according to reporting by ICT. Jeremy Johnson, cultural education director for the Delaware Tribe of Indians, also known as Lenape, said the collaboration marked a shift from past museum practices. “This is the first we collaborated on … to really get our story out there,” Johnson was quoted as saying.

Museum officials said the gallery was developed in alignment with updated federal regulations under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act and reflects ongoing government-to-government consultation.

Ahead of the Feb. 8 Super Bowl, Native organizations hosted the second annual Indigenous Girls Celebrity Flag Football Game, according to ICT. The Feb. 2 event in Santa Clara, California, brought together 29 Indigenous girls from California, South Dakota and Arizona to compete alongside celebrities from Indian Country.

Mike Stopp, executive director of the Native American Athletic Foundation, told ICT the event builds on the foundation’s partnership with the NFL and its efforts to expand girls’ flag football. Former NFL players Ahman Green and Cam Lynch coached the teams, along with U.S. Women’s National American Football team gold medalist Adrienne Smith.

Federal agencies are falling short of their legal duties to tribal nations as they manage millions of acres of land important to climate adaptation, wildlife and water supplies, according to a Government Accountability Office report cited by Grist. The report says treaties ceded land to the U.S. government in exchange for commitments that evolved into government-to-government relationships on natural resources.

Since a 2021 joint order by the U.S. departments of Agriculture and the Interior, tribes have entered into at least 400 cooperative land agreements with federal agencies, the Native American Rights Fund estimates, Grist reported. The GAO recommends expanding authority for the Forest Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to enter into land and water agreements with tribes.

The report says many agency staff lack familiarity with federal Indian law, treaty obligations and government-to-government relations, and that staffing cuts and budget reductions at agencies, including the Bureau of Land Management, hinder long-term partnerships, Grist reported.

Mille Lacs County commissioners passed a resolution last week asking the U.S. Department of the Interior to withdraw a legal opinion affirming the boundaries of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe Reservation, according to MPR News. The opinion, known as M-37032, states that the 61,000-acre reservation established by an 1855 treaty remains intact and legally binding.

The county’s resolution argues the opinion is unsupported and creates confusion, and reiterates the county’s position that the reservation consists of about 4,000 acres, according to the resolution. The Interior Department issued the opinion in 2016 while approving the band’s application to exercise law enforcement jurisdiction.

In a statement to MPR News, the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe said it was “deeply disappointed” by the county’s action. Tribal Chief Executive Virgil Wind said the move undermines months of government-to-government engagement and threatens recent progress between the two governments.

The nonprofit conservation group American Prairie and a coalition of more than 50 tribes have filed protests against a proposed Bureau of Land Management decision to cancel bison grazing permits on federal land, according to Daily Montanan. The nonprofit conservation group called the proposed move “unlawful, factually incorrect, and procedurally deficient.”

The proposed decision, released in January by the Department of the Interior, would cancel grazing permits across seven allotments in Phillips County, Montana, that American Prairie has used for its bison herd, Daily Montanan reported. Alison Fox, CEO of American Prairie, said the permits had been approved with environmental review and defended for years.

The Coalition of Large Tribes protested separately, warning the decision could make it “unlikely that any tribal government or tribal citizen buffalo herd would ever be eligible for BLM grazing leases,” according to the coalition’s letter cited by Daily Montanan.

Tribally led solar projects on Northern Plains reservations stalled after the Trump administration ended the federal Solar for All program in August 2025, according to Daily Yonder.

Only one home on the Rocky Boy’s Reservation in Montana received residential solar before the program was halted. “It was a gut punch,” Joseph Eagleman, CEO of the Chippewa Cree Energy Corporation, told Daily Yonder. About 200 homes had been expected to get panels through roughly $7.6 million in Solar for All funding earmarked for the tribe, he said.

Eagleman said a $135 million grant to a coalition of 14 tribes in the region would have funded those installations, according to Daily Yonder. The cuts also led to layoffs at Indigenized Energy, a nonprofit that had been preparing tribal solar projects, founder Cody Two Bears told the outlet.

The Northern Cheyenne Tribe said it will oppose efforts by the Trump administration to change or remove displays recognizing Native Americans at Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument, according to MTN News. The Northern Cheyenne Tribal Council voted 11-0 on Feb. 2 to adopt a resolution opposing changes to signs, markers and exhibits honoring Native Americans at the site.

According to a tribal press release cited by MTN News, the tribe referenced federal Public Law 102-201, which authorized the Indian Memorial at the monument, and Article X of the Montana Constitution, which calls for preserving American Indian cultural integrity. Tribal officials said the administration flagged two exhibits near Crow Agency as non-compliant, including signage describing broken promises to tribes and the loss of Indigenous culture and language through boarding school systems. Northern Cheyenne President Gene Small said altering the displays would conflict with the Indian Memorial’s theme of “Peace through Unity.”

The Department of the Interior announced Feb. 3 a new partnership between the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Bureau of Indian Education to prepare Native students for careers in wildland firefighting. The initiative, called the Native Youth Firefighter Training Program, provides high school and post-secondary students with hands-on instruction, mentorship and technical training for seasonal and permanent positions with tribal, federal and state fire programs.

According to the Interior Department announcement, participating students attend schools in South Dakota, Montana, New Mexico and Oklahoma, with future participation being explored through a dual enrollment program at Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute in New Mexico. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said the program supports workforce development and public safety by connecting education to career pathways. Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Billy Kirkland said the program links tribal schools with public service careers and supports self-determination.

The city of Portland, Oregon, has named Gerald D. Skelton Jr., a citizen of the Klamath Tribes, as its new tribal government relations manager, according to Underscore Native News + ICT. Portland Mayor Keith Wilson announced the appointment Feb. 3 during the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians winter convention in downtown Portland. The position had been vacant for nearly 16 months.

Skelton previously served for more than 15 years as director of the Klamath Tribes Culture and Heritage Department, where his work included archeological museum efforts and repatriation of ancestral remains, according to Skelton. He said he also has a background in energy development and worked with the Klamath Tribes during the Klamath River dam removal process. In his new role, Skelton will focus on government-to-government relationships with the nine federally recognized Native nations in Oregon and other Native nations across the region. He will report to Sam Chase, director of the Office of Government Relations.