Milwaukee, Wisconsin – The Chicago National Archives holds hundreds of thousands of Bureau of Indian Affairs records spanning nearly two centuries, but the site is set to close by the end of September. There is no clear answer about where the documents are going or when they’ll next be accessible. Once the site closes, it could take roughly two years for the documents to be made…
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Every three days someone is killed for defending nature. In 2025, watchdog group Global Witness documented 124 such deaths worldwide, a toll researchers say is likely only a fraction of the total number because repression and armed conflict make many deaths impossible to verify. The victims included Indigenous people, small-scale farmers and community organizers peacefully protecting…
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In a win for opponents of Enbridge Energy’s Line 5 pipeline, the Michigan Supreme Court vacated a key permit last week for a proposed project that would replace a segment of the pipeline running underneath an environmentally-sensitive area of the Great Lakes, finding that a state commission did not examine the full scope of possible harm to the environment. Following the 6-1 decision…
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When Gov. Kathy Hochul signed a one-year pause on data center construction on July 14, making New York the first state to pump the brakes on the AI infrastructure boom, tribal nations had already enacted their own moratoriums for months without waiting for a governor’s signature. The Seminole Nation passed its own moratorium in Oklahoma in March. The Tonawanda Seneca Nation sued over a facility in…
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The United States turned 250 this year, and the document officiating its birth, the Declaration of Independence, is famous for its opening lines proclaiming the nation’s freedom from England and the rights of men. But Rebecca Nagle, a journalist and citizen of the Cherokee Nation, frames the document differently, describing it as a list of grievances growing in ascending order, where Native people…
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Every Fourth of July, the Declaration of Independence is the cornerstone of the U.S.’s celebrations. It’s read aloud in radio, television, and public celebrations. But it carries a contradiction expressed through a slur that Native people have never been able to ignore — a scathing reference to “merciless Indian Savages.” Even as the framers promised a nation of equality and liberty for all…
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