Native American Indian & Alaskan Heritage Month

Apache Stronghold — a coalition of Apaches, other Native peoples and non-Native supporters seeking to preserve Oak Flat — gathered Sunday at the Wishtoyo Chumash Village in Malibu in Los Angeles County as part of a spiritual convoy to San Francisco.

Contemporary Native Americans face many challenges today. If you watch the news you'll see headlines about mascots, celebrities wearing headdresses, and pipelines. While these are important issues, there are other problems facing Native communities that are more significant.

There are over 570 federally recognized Indian tribes. Federal agencies could better address some of the social and economic challenges faced by these tribes.

The Indian Law Resource Center seeks to overcome the grave problems that threaten Native peoples by advancing the rule of law, by establishing national and international legal standards that preserve their human rights and dignity, and by challenging the governments of the world to accord justice and equality before the law to all indigenous peoples of the Americas.

Contemporary Native American issues in the United States are issues arising in the late 20th century and early 21st century which affect Native Americans in the United States. Many issues stem from the subjugation of Native Americans in society, including societal discrimination, racism, cultural appropriation through sports mascots, and depictions in art. Native Americans have also been subject to substantial historical and intergenerational trauma that have resulted in significant public health issues like alcohol use disorder and risk of suicide.

"Our nation's lands and waters should be places to celebrate the outdoors and our shared cultural heritage — not to perpetuate the legacies of oppression," Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland said as she ordered the word "squaw" to be removed from federal place names.

Aaron Huey's effort to photograph poverty in America led him to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, where the struggle of the native Lakota people -- appalling, and largely ignored -- compelled him to refocus. Five years of work later, his haunting photos intertwine with a shocking history lesson.

In 1973, protesters occupied Wounded Knee, South Dakota, for 71 days, demanding equitable treatment from the federal government.

Learn how the federal government violated the Fort Laramie Treaty with the Lakota by forcing them onto remote reservations, such as the Pine Ridge Reservation. This reservation became the site of the Wounded Knee Massacre of 1890, and sacred ground for later generations of Lakota. This video is adapted from We Shall Remain: Wounded Knee | AMERICAN EXPERIENCE.

Learn about the federal government’s solution to what was deemed “The Indian Problem,” in this video excerpt from American Experience. Beginning in the 1950s, the Indian Relocation Program promised Native Americans education and jobs in the cities. Explore the devastating effects the Relocation Program had on Native American communities.

This U of A guide is intended to provide access to resources pertaining to the epidemic of and movement for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls & Two-Spirit Peoples (MMIWG2S) specific to Tribal and non-tribal communities in Arizona.

In the United States, violence against indigenous women has reached unprecedented levels on tribal lands and in Alaska Native villages. More than 4 in 5 American Indian and Alaska Native women have experienced violence, and more than 1 in 2 have experienced sexual violence. Alaska Native women continue to suffer the highest rate of forcible sexual assault and have reported rates of domestic violence up to 10 times higher than in the rest of the United States. Though available data is limited, the number of missing and murdered American Indian and Alaska Native women and the lack of a diligent and adequate federal response is extremely alarming to indigenous women, tribal governments, and communities. On some reservations, indigenous women are murdered at more than ten times the national average.

The ROVV Lab is currently working in partnership with American Indian leaders across the state of Arizona to examine, evaluate, analyze, and develop strategies to address and minimize missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls (MMIWG) as part of the Senate Bill HB2570.

Our women, girls, and two-spirts are being taken from us in an alarming way. As of 2016, the National Crime Information Center has reported 5,712 cases of missing American Indian and Alaska Native women and girls. Strikingly, the U.S Department of Justice missing persons database has only reported 116 cases. The majority of these murders are committed by non-Native people on Native-owned land. The lack of communication combined with jurisdictional issues between state, local, federal, and tribal law enforcement, make it nearly impossible to begin the investigative process.

His fight to stop the mine sits at the forefront of modern political debate over the proper role of religion in society. It pits the American promise of religious liberty against federal land rights, corporate profits, local jobs and the ravenous global demand for natural resources such as copper — an essential element in the proliferation of telecommunications networks, electric vehicles and other technologies.

It would be the largest repatriation by far at an institution that holds more than 9,000 ancestral remains and has lagged behind in returning its holdings under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act.