Montana Senate candidate accused of making racially charged remarks about Indians
Tim Sheehy, the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Montana, is facing widespread criticism after the Flathead Reservation's Char-Koosta News this week published four audio clips in which the candidate appears to have made "racially tinged comments" about Native Americans on the Crow Reservation in Montana.
During a November 2023 fundraising event, Sheehy spoke about branding and roping cattle on the Crow Reservation alongside his Crow ranching partner, remarking that it was "a great way to bond with all the Indians being out there while they're drunk at 8 a.m."
During a separate event four days later, he described riding a horse in the Crow Reservation's annual parade, calling parade attendees a "tough crowd."
"They let you know if they like you or not. There's Coors Light [beer] cans flying by your head as you're riding by," the candidate said.
The Char-Koosta News reports it is working to verify the audio, and Sheehy's campaign has not issued any statement.
Levi Black Eagle, the Crow Nation's secretary for the executive branch, told Montana television station KTVQ that while Crows tolerate "good-natured ribbing," Sheehy's comments perpetuate old racist stereotypes.
"It's really disheartening, especially from an individual, a candidate running for such a high office, you would expect more from those individuals," Black Eagle said. "I think it's a majority of the community that fights hard to negate those stereotypes, and to have them perpetuate in such a way is just, it's really disgusting. And we don't stand for it."
The report has sparked outrage among other Native American communities in Montana, a state where Indigenous people make up about 6% of the population; they are calling for an apology.
Read more:
FILE - Rolls of “I Voted” stickers are stored at the Maricopa County Tabulation and Election Center ahead of the 2024 Arizona primary and general elections in Phoenix on June 3, 2024.
Arizona tribal enrollment numbers are valid proof of US citizenship
Voting advocacy groups in Arizona are working to clear up confusion over a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that may discourage Native Americans from voting in November's general election.
Through an unsigned order, the Supreme Court on August 22 sided with the Republican National Committee and Republican lawmakers in Arizona, reinstating a law that requires voter registrants to prove their U.S. citizenship when filling out state voter registration forms.
The decision suggests that anyone registering to vote using state-issued voter registration forms must provide documentation of U.S. citizenship such as a birth certificate or valid passport.
Patty Ferguson-Bohnee, a law professor at Arizona State University, called the ruling "discouraging" but pointed out that Native Americans were automatically made citizens a century ago.
That means that Native voters in Arizona need only to provide their tribal enrollment numbers as proof.
Read more:
FILE - Delaine Spilsbury, an Ely Shoshone elder, poses for a photo on Nov. 11, 2023, in Bahsahwahbee, a site in eastern Nevada that is sacred to members of the Ely Shoshone, Duckwater Shoshone and the Confederated Tribes of the Goshute Reservation.
Nevada tribes seek to protect 19th-century massacre site
Native American tribes in Nevada are concerned about a new federal solar development plan that could affect the proposed Bahsahwahbee National Monument.
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management's Western Solar Plan, released August 29, designates 4.8 million hectares in Nevada for solar projects, including areas near the site of the Bahsahwahbee monument. The site is historically significant, as it was the location of massacres of the Newe people in the 19th century and remains a sacred space for tribes that hold ceremonies there.
While the solar plan excludes certain Native American cultural sites, tribes worry that the lack of formal national monument status leaves Bahsahwahbee vulnerable to development.
"I am stunned and confused that while our tribes are in discussions with the Biden-Harris administration about establishing this monument, the BLM just issued a plan allowing the graves of our massacred ancestors to be bulldozed," said Amos Murphy, chair of the Confederated Tribes of the Goshute Reservation.
The Ely Shoshone, Duckwater Shoshone and Goshute tribes call the area Bahsahwahbee (Sacred Water Valley). Located near Nevada's Great Basin National Park, it is the site of three massacres in which the U.S. Army and armed vigilantes killed hundreds of their ancestors.
Efforts to secure national monument designation for the site are ongoing, with support from Nevada Senator Catherine Cortez Masto, a Democrat. Tribes are urging the Biden administration to take swift action to protect the area.
Read more:
This high-angle photograph shows the Yup'ik city of Toksook Bay on Nelson Island in southeastern Alaska.
Native Americans share stories about beings 'other than human'
South of the town of Toksook Bay on Nelson Island, Alaska, stands a hill known as Qasginguaq, which Yup'ik tradition says is the home of the Ircencerraat, beings described as "other than human."
"The young people that have seen them when they're playing state that they're about half their size," Toksook elder and cultural adviser Mark John told Native America Calling this week. "They have the ability to appear and disappear at will, and they live in a different dimension … if they appear to you in a human way out in the wilderness and they invite you to their home, spending a day at their home is like spending a year when you go back out."
John was among several guests and callers from across Indian Country this week who shared stories and traditions about "little people," beings that have parallels in cultures across the globe.
Listen here:
Tribes celebrate Klamath River dam removal
Construction crews on August 28 removed the fourth and final dam on the Klamath River in Oregon. As VOA’s Matt Dibble reports (below), Klamath, Yurok and Karuk Tribe were there to celebrate.