Fentanyl is hitting tribes hard; lawmaker urges Senate investigation
U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell, a Democrat from Washington, this week called on the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs to investigate the disproportionate impact of the synthetic opioid fentanyl on Native American tribes.
“American Indians, Alaska Natives and Native Hawaiians are on the front lines of a deadly fentanyl epidemic and are suffering,” Cantwell said in an October 2 letter to Committee chairman Brian Schatz and vice chair Lisa Murkowski. “I believe we have a duty to Indian Country to examine this crisis and work with Tribes to save lives in their communities.”
Last month, Lummi Nation tribal chairman Anthony Hillaire declared a state of emergency after five tribe members died of fentanyl overdoses in one week. Among the steps the tribe is taking is evicting the residents of a house connected with the drug.
Elsewhere, tribal drug enforcement officers on the Tulalip reservation last week seized more than 50 so-called “rainbow” fentanyl pills.
“We have not seen them before,” Tulalip police chief Chris Sutter told VOA.
He counts close to 50 fentanyl-related deaths since joining the Tulalip police force in 2018.
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A sign reads "Onondaga Nation Residents Only," Thursday, Aug. 3, 2023, on the Onondaga Nation territory in central New York.
OAS reviewing Native American land case against US Government
The InterAmerican Commission on Human Rights, an arm of the Organization of American States, is for the first time reviewing a land rights case submitted by a Native American nation against the United States.
In 1788, the Onondaga Nation, one of the five original nations of the Iroquois (Haudenosaunee) Confederacy, signed a treaty with New York state, believing that the agreement provided for the shared use -- not surrender -- of nearly 2,800 hectares of land.
Since then, the Onondaga have fought for the state and federal government to acknowledge that their land was illegally taken, and they say they’re not looking for a return of the land or any reparations.
The InterAmerican Commission on Human Rights in May agreed to review their case. According to the commission website, reviews typically take less than a year.
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Detail, Captain John Smith's 1624 map of Virginia.
Virginia, Oregon tribes seek a congressional path to federal recognition
Lawmakers from Virginia and Oregon have introduced legislation seeking federal recognition for tribes in their states:
U.S. Representative Abigail Spanberger, a Democrat from Virginia, and bipartisan co-sponsors introduced a bill in support of federal recognition for the Patawomeck Indian Tribe.
Elsewhere, U.S. Representatives Hillary Scholten, a Democrat from Michigan, and John Moolenaar, a Republican from Michigan, introduced a bill calling for recognition of the Grand River Bands of Ottawa Indians.
The U.S. government recognizes 574 tribes, mostly through historic treaties, making them eligible for benefits and protections.
As VOA has previously reported, non-treaty tribes who want recognition must petition the U.S. Interior Department (DOI) and meet seven strict criteria. They also have the option to bypass DOI and directly petition Congress.
Virginia tribes like the Patawomeck have a hard time meeting some of these criteria owing to records destroyed in the Civil War and a 1924 state law that classified individuals as either Black or white.
The Grand River Bands of Ottawa Indians petitioned DOI for recognition in 2013 but were rejected on the grounds that they have not existed as a continuously existing community since historical times.
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Artist Lewis Anthony Rath, who made and sold fake Native art, was sentenced to 24 months probation and community service in violation of the Indian Arts and Crafts Act. https://t.co/yU126ow5P7
— hyperallergic (@hyperallergic) October 4, 2023
Pretendian art dealer sentenced
A federal judge in Washington state has sentenced a Seattle artist to 24 months’ probation and 200 hours of community service for violating the Indian Arts and Crafts Act.
The case stems from an anonymous complaint in 2018 that Lewis Anthony Rath was selling carvings and jewelry, falsely claiming to be a member of the San Carlos Apache Tribe in Arizona.
“Counterfeit Indian art, like Lewis Anthony Rath’s carvings and jewelry that he misrepresented and sold as San Carlos Apache-made, tears at the very fabric of Indian culture, livelihoods and communities,” said Meridith Stanton, director of the DOI Indian Arts and Crafts Board, “…Mr. Rath’s actions demean and rob authentic Indian artists who rely on the creation and sale of their artwork to put food on the table, make ends meet, and pass along these important cultural traditions and skills from one generation to the next.”
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A sign is held aloft during an Indigenous Peoples Day march, Oct. 9, 2017, in Seattle. Native American people will celebrate their centuries-long history of resilience on Monday, Oct. 9, 2023, through ceremonies, dances and speeches.
Scholar: Indigenous Peoples Day an occasion to reflect
In the United States, October 9 is still the federal holiday Columbus Day, honoring the Italian explorer Christopher Colombus. But growing numbers of states and localities have chosen to observe the day as Indigenous Peoples Day or Native American Day, acknowledging the peoples who inhabited the continent many millennia before Columbus’ “discovery.”
University of Massachusetts Lowell history chair Chrisoph Strobel, an expert in colonial-Indigenous relations, this week notes that the day should serve as a reminder not only of Indigenous resilience but of the violence Indigenous peoples endured historically.
He examines the practice of scalping, which popular culture suggests was only practiced by Indigenous Americans.
“White settlers’ wide use of scalping against Indigenous peoples is far less acknowledged and understood,” he writes, noting that they were often encouraged by scalp bounties offering money for Indian scalps.
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Federal Appeals Court Considering Native Americans Challenge to Copper Mine
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is considering an appeal from a Native American group seeking to block the development of a copper mine on Arizona land sacred to Western Apache. VOA reporter Levi Stallings filed this story from Oak Flat.
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Native Americans Challenging Proposed Rio Tinto Copper Mine