Here is a summary of some of the top Native American-related news making headlines this week:
Remembering the Wounded Knee takeover
It was 50 years ago this week that Oglala Lakota activists and members of the American Indian Movement (AIM) besieged the town of Wounded Knee on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, the site of an Army massacre of Lakota 80 years earlier.
AIM was a grassroots civil rights movement organized in Minneapolis in the late 1960s which evolved into a movement to empower Native pride, economic empowerment, and the assertion of tribal treaty rights.
High-profile protests by AIM included the occupation of Alcatraz Island from 1969 to 1971 and a partial take-over of the Bureau of Indian Affairs building in late 1972.
Oglala Lakota at the time were divided between “progressive” supporters of tribal chairman Dick Wilson and “traditionalists,” who accused him of corruption, favoritism and being too friendly with Washington.
Oglala Lakota chairman Dick Wilson (R) and members of his private militia at a roadblock set up to prevent supplies from reaching Wounded Knee occupiers.
Tensions worsened after Wilson created a private militia accused of using violence against his opponents. There was also the kidnap and murder of an Oglala man by a group of four men and one woman, all white, in nearby Gordon, Nebraska, which attracted the interest and involvement of AIM.
After failing to have Wilson impeached, more than 200 AIM members and Oglala supporters descended on Wounded Knee February 27, 1973, triggering a 71-day standoff that involved the FBI, the U.S. Marshal Service and the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs. The conflict left two dead and a U.S. Marshal paralyzed from a gunshot wound.
On May 6, the government and AIM reached an accord: the occupiers would surrender and turn over their weapons; the Justice Department would investigate Wilson and militia abuses; and a White House delegation would hold talks with Lakota leaders to re-examine treaty obligations.
The case drew global media attention, despite FBI efforts to block reporters, and helped raise awareness about Native American rights. Today, Pine Ridge remains among the poorest communities in the United States.
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A homemade basketball hoop stands tilted outside a home in the Alaska Native village of Shishmaref, Saturday, Oct. 1, 2022.
HUD announces affordable housing grants
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced Tuesday more than $794 million in Indian Housing Block Grants to help nearly 600 Native American tribes, Alaska Native villages and other Native entities create affordable housing in tribal communities.
"HUD is committed to supporting our Tribal communities by providing resources that will help persons living in those neighborhoods thrive," HUD Secretary Marcia L. Fudge said in a press release. "We know that these grants will not only be used to create affordable housing, but they will also provide much needed wrap-around services and solutions to complex issues."
In 2017, HUD released the results of a congressionally mandated study of the housing needs in tribal areas. It found overcrowding combined with deficiencies in plumbing, heating, electrical and other maintenance issues in 34% of tribal households compared with 7% of all U.S. households.
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View of the sun rising through the trees at the University of Minnesota's Cloquet Forestry Center.
U. Minn to return land to Chippewa Band
The University of Minnesota says it will return some 1,400 hectares (3,391 acres) of land to the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, in recognition that the lands were promised to the band by treaty.
The land, which currently houses the university’s Cloquet Forestry Center, has been under the university’s control since 1909, and in today’s market is worth about $35 million.
In her proposal to UM’s board of regents, university President Joan Gabel characterized the land transfer as a “repatriation of land to its original caretakers” and a “positive step in repairing and strengthening the University’s relationship with the Fond du Lac Band and Indigenous communities throughout the state.”
Gabel cautioned the board that “there are considerable steps ahead to address a variety of complicated issues such as ownership of the land, public engagement and consultation, the continuation of research, and a variety of questions that come up for something this complicated.”
See her statement to the board below:
South Dakota lawmakers greenlight study on Indian child welfare
A South Dakota House panel this week approved a 17-member, two-year task force to study Native American overrepresentation in South Dakota’s foster care system.
Historically, the federal government removed Native children from their families and tribes and placed them in boarding schools. Welfare agencies later placed them in white foster and adoptive families. Congress passed the Indian Child Welfare Act in 1978 to end these removals.
But studies show that more than half of South Dakota’s foster children are Native American, even though Native children make up only 12% of the population. Members of the nine tribes in the state see this as a continuation of historic policies of forced assimilation.
Senate Bill 191 cleared the full state Senate last week. Its sponsor, Sen. Red Dawn Foster (D-Pine Ridge), said the task force will consult with all stakeholders, including lawmakers, the state foster care system, and representatives from the state’s nine tribes.