Here are some Native American-related news stories that made headlines this week:
Supreme Court weighs Navajo water rights
U.S. Supreme Court justices hearing arguments over Navajo Nation water rights appear divided over who should have water rights to the Colorado River, whose levels have hit historic lows.
At the heart of the cases Arizona v. Navajo Nation and Department of Interior v. Navajo Nation is whether the government has an obligation to provide water under the 1868 Treaty of Bosque Redondo, which established the reservation as a “permanent home” for the Navajo.
In oral arguments Monday, some justices questioned the impact the Navajo Nation request for relief would have on current agreements governing the distribution of Colorado River water during what has been a prolonged drought. Other justices appeared favorable to the Navajo Nation argument that there is an enforceable obligation to provide sufficient water in the federal government’s promise of a Navajo home.
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FILE - Seal affixed to the front of the Department of Veterans Affairs building in Washington, June 21, 2013.
VA lowers interest rates for Native American direct loans
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is lowering the interest rate for VA Native American Direct Loans to make housing more affordable for Native Americans who have served.
The VA says new participants in the direct loan program will see their rate decrease from the current 6% to 2.5% for properties on trust land overseen by federally recognized tribes. The new rate will be available for the next two years.
Native Americans buying homes outside of tribal land are not eligible for the program but can use traditional VA home loans.
Native vets already in the program who are paying an interest rate of 3.5% or higher can refinance their loans to the lower rate.
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U.S. President Biden stands with National Humanities Medal recipient Henrietta Mann, Cheyenne, at the White House, March 21, 2023. Reuters/Kevin Lamarque
Native American honors at White House
A celebrated Native American academic was among 12 recipients of one of the Nation’s highest honors this week. President Joe Biden presented a National Humanities Medal to Henrietta Mann, 88, a citizen of the Cheyenne-Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma.
“You know, Henrietta Mann as a teacher, a scholar, and a leader. She’s dedicated her career to Native American education and to establishing the field of Native American studies,” President Joe Biden said in White House ceremony Tuesday. “Thanks in large part to her, Native American studies is now taught in universities across the country, strengthening our nation-to-nation bonds for generations to come.”
The Koahnic Broadcast Corporation also received a medal for its daily public affairs call-in show, “Native America Calling.”
“We are grateful and humbled to receive this recognition for Native America Calling’s service to listeners across the nation, and for Native communities in particular,” said Koahnic’s President and CEO, Jaclyn Sallee, Iñupiaq, who accepted the medal.
The award program, inaugurated in 1997, honors work that has deepened the nation’s understanding of the human experience and expanded citizens' knowledge of history, literature, languages and other humanities.
Read more about Mann’s achievements here:
Listen to Native America Calling here:
Steven Guinness Jr., 14, carries his hunting rifle into the village after returning from the Stevens family hunting camp, Sept. 15, 2021, in Stevens Village, Alaska. A new bill would allow Native Americans to use tribal IDs to buy guns.
Native Americans could soon use tribal IDs to buy firearms
Republican U.S. Representative Dusty Johnson of South Dakota this week reintroduced bipartisan legislation to make it easier for Native Americans living on tribal land to purchase guns.
Under current law, tribal IDs are not considered valid forms of identification for buying guns. The Tribal Firearm Access Act would allow members of federally recognized tribes to use their tribal ID cards to purchase guns from federally recognized dealers.
Sample tribal identification card.
“Classifying tribal IDs as an invalid form of identification for the purchase of firearms limits tribal sovereignty and tribal members’ ability to obtain a firearm,” Johnson said in a written statement. “A foreign passport is accepted as a valid form of identification — a tribal ID should be no different. My bill corrects this oversight, ensuring Second Amendment rights for tribal members.”
Democratic Representative Mary Peltola, the first Alaskan Native elected to Congress, is co-sponsoring the bill. She says firearms are essential to subsistence and self-defense in her state.
Republican Senator Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma, a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, introduced a companion bill Wednesday in the U.S. Senate.
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In this July 22, 2015, file photo, Tribal councilman Wendsler Nosie, Sr. speaks with Apache activists in a rally to save Oak Flat, land near Superior, Ariz., sacred to Western Apache tribes, in front of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.
Forest Service to OK Arizona land swap, give go-ahead to copper mine
The U.S. Forest Service is set to approve a land swap between the U.S. government and Resolution Copper, a joint venture owned by multinational mining giants Rio Tinto and BHP.
That would allow the company to build a copper mine on land in Oak Flat, Arizona, that has historic and spiritual significance to the San Carlos Apache and other tribes in the state.
With an estimated 40 billion pounds of copper at the site, Resolution Copper says it is "committed to preserving Native American cultural heritage while developing partnerships and bringing lasting benefits to the entire region."
Congress approved the land transfer in 2014 in exchange for 6,000 acres elsewhere.
Wendsler Nosie Sr., former chairman and councilman of the San Carlos Apache Tribe, discusses Apache opposition to the mine in the video below:
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