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Native American News Roundup July 10-16, 2022

Here is a summary of Native American-related news around the U.S. this week:

Interior secretary Haaland hears emotional testimony on boarding schools

U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland heard from former students of federally backed Indian boarding schools as part of a year-long “Road to Healing” initiative. At the Riverside Indian School in Anadarko, Oklahoma, July 9, elders from different states and tribes shared stories of physical and emotional punishment, sexual abuse and other indignities suffered as part of an educational program designed to sever children from families and tribes and assimilate them into mainstream U.S. society.

Tribal elders recall painful boarding school memories

Conservative magazine takes aim at Haaland boarding school initiative

An article in the July/August 2022 issue of American Conservative magazine slams the Interior Department’s Federal Indian Boarding Schools Initiative as “a thoroughly political scheme contrived by activists to stoke outrage regardless of the facts.”

“The most commonly cited complaint is that students were forbidden from speaking their native languages,” senior editor Helen Edwards writes. “Today it would be called immersion learning. The goal was not to eradicate Indian languages but to equip students to operate in the modern world, including as citizens.”

As for physical punishment of Native children in the schools, Edwards states that conditions “were, by the standards of the age, about average.”

Stirring Up Hatred Against Indian Boarding Schools

Episcopalians to examine role in Indian boarding schools

The Episcopal Church is acknowledging its role in “the intergenerational trauma caused by the Doctrine of Discovery, colonialism, genocide, ethnocide through the operation of Indigenous boarding schools, and other systems of white supremacy that have oppressed Indigenous peoples.” At a July 11 meeting in Baltimore, the church set aside $2.5 million to research its role in operating Indian boarding schools, gather testimony from survivors, and establish spiritual healing centers in Indigenous communities.

Episcopalians Approve Fact-Finding Commission on Indigenous Boarding Schools

Justice department makes violence against Indigenous women a priority

U.S. Deputy Attorney General Lisa O. Monaco is directing all U.S. Attorneys with Indian Country jurisdiction and all federal law enforcement partners to develop new plans to promote public safety in Indian Country.

“The new directive stresses that the department has a duty to investigate and prosecute serious crimes in Indian country, including domestic violence, sexual assault and human trafficking,” Monaco said at the close of a two-day meeting of the Trilateral Working Group on violence against Indigenous women and girls. “The directive also sets forth specific steps that U.S. Attorneys and law enforcement officers should take to ensure that their work is victim-centered and culturally and linguistically appropriate.”

Deputy Attorney General Lisa O. Monaco Delivers Remarks at the Closing Session of the Fourth Convening of the Trilateral Working Group on Violence Against Indigenous Women and Girls

Athletic legend Jim Thorpe reinstated as sole 1912 Olympic gold winner

Indianz.com reports that descendants of Native American sports legend Jim Thorpe are ecstatic over the International Olympic Committee (IOC) decision Friday to reinstate gold medals Thorpe won after spectacular performances in 15 pentathlon and decathlon events at the 1912 Stockholm Games.

At the time, King Gustave of Sweden declared Thorpe, a citizen of the Sac and Fox Nation in present-day Oklahoma, the “most wonderful athlete in the world.”

But the glory was short-lived. In 1913, the Amateur Athletic Union, the predecessor of the United States Olympic Committee deemed that he had infringed on the rules regarding amateurism because he had previously played minor league baseball and stripped him of his medals.

“We welcome the fact that … a solution could be found,” said Thomas Bach, the president of the IOC. “This is a most exceptional and unique situation, which has been addressed by an extraordinary gesture of fair play from the National Olympic Committees concerned.”

A moment 110 years in the making: Jim Thorpe wins restoration of Olympic awards

Tulalip Tribes take on vaping giant

The Tulalip Tribes of Washington State have sued e-cigarette giant Juul Labs Inc. (JLI), alleging the company and its affiliates illegally targeted teenaged tribe members with deceptive ads about the addictiveness of its fruit- and candy-flavored e-cigarettes.

The tribes’ 316-page complaint, filed in U.S. District Court in Seattle July 7, alleges that JLI and its affiliates deliberately targeted young tribal members through “a diabolical pairing” of notorious cigarette company advertising techniques and cutting-edge viral marketing campaigns designed to make nicotine “cool again.”

The suit says that as a result, use of Juul’s products “became rampant” among Tulalip tribal youth, with the percentage of 12th graders who reported consuming nicotine nearly doubling from 2017 to 2018.

Tulalip Tribes sue e-cigarette giant Juul for ads targeting youth

Tribes to Montana museum: ‘Give back Big Medicine’

The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes (CSK) of the Flathead Reservation in Montana want the Montana Historical Society to return “Big Medicine” — a white bison that was born on the reservation in 1933. After his death in 1959, the bison underwent taxidermy and was put on display in the state museum in Helena. White bison are extremely rare and considered sacred by a number of Native American tribes.

“He inspired our people, and he represents hope for the future and positive things,” CSK Chairman Tom McDonald said. “If you think about when he came and the tough times that they lived through, it was seen as a sign of renewal.”

Decisions about the future of Big Medicine rest with the historical society’s board of trustees.

CSKT make pitch to bring Big Medicine back home to bison range

Navajo photographer looks at modern Native Americans through old lens

Native Americans have long decried their depiction in art and media as romantic relics of a vanishing past, particularly in the work of early 20th-century photographer Edward S. Curtis. Now, Navajo photographer Will Wilson is using a 19th-century process to produce tintype portraits of contemporary Native Americans.

“People don’t want to deal with the traumatic reality of history, of genocide, of attempted ethnic cleansing,” Wilson told Native News Online. “They’d rather see these noble, beautiful images of a ‘better time.’ I want to make the case that we’re still here doing interesting and important things.”

An exhibit of his work, In Conversation: Will Wilson, is currently on display through September 11, 2022, at the Delaware Art Museum in Wilmington, Delaware.

Will Wilson Topples the Myth of the American Indian

 
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Biden to Meet with Arab Leaders as US Seeks to Reassert Influence in Middle East

U.S. President Joe Biden meets Saturday with Arab leaders in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, where he will lay out his vision for U.S. engagement in the Middle East.

Biden will attend the GCC+3 Summit, meeting with members of the Gulf Cooperation Council – Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates – plus Egypt, Iraq and Jordan.

He is also expected to discuss energy security with the leaders of the Gulf countries, but aides say there are not likely to be any announcements on oil output until next month’s meetings of OPEC+, a group of 13 OPEC members and 10 other oil producers, including Russia.

“I don’t think you should expect a particular announcement here bilaterally because we believe any further action taken to ensure that there is sufficient energy to protect the health of the global economy will be done in the context of OPEC+,” Jake Sullivan, Biden’s national security adviser, told reporters Friday on the flight to Jeddah.

Biden and GCC+3 summit leaders are expected to announce an agreement to connect Iraq’s electric grid to the GCC’s grids through Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, thus reducing Baghdad’s dependence on Iran.

On Friday, Biden met with Saudi King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Jeddah, and afterward Biden said they had a “good discussion” on ensuring adequate oil supplies to support global economic growth.

“I’m doing all I can to increase the supply for the United States of America, which I expect to happen,” Biden said.

Biden flew directly to Jeddah from Tel Aviv, just hours after the kingdom announced the opening of its airspace, effectively ending the country’s ban on flights to and from Israel. The gesture from Riyadh is part of a broader warming of relations between Israel and the Arab world as they align against Tehran.

Biden is claiming the move to be the result of his administration’s push toward a more integrated and stable Middle East region.

“That is a big deal. A big deal,” Biden said. “Not only symbolically but substantively, it’s a big deal,” Biden said, adding that he hopes the move will eventually lead to a broader normalization of Saudi-Israeli relations. The two countries currently do not recognize each other.

Biden said his talks with Saudi leaders help to reassert U.S. influence in the Middle East, part of a strategy of engaging the kingdom, whose poor human rights record he has condemned in the past.

“We’re not going to leave a vacuum in the Middle East for Russia or China to fill,” Biden told reporters following his meeting with the Saudis. “And we’re getting results.”

At the top of Biden’s meeting with Crown Prince Mohammed and other Saudi royals, both sides ignored shouted questions from the U.S. press, including, “Is Saudi still a pariah?” and “Jamal Khashoggi — will you apologize to his family?”

U.S. intelligence has concluded that the crown prince approved the brutal murder of Khashoggi, a Saudi journalist and U.S. resident.

Biden, who during his presidential campaign said the kingdom should be treated as a pariah, told reporters he made his views on human rights and Khashoggi’s murder “crystal clear” to the crown prince, who in turn claimed, according to Biden, that he “was not personally responsible for it.”

“I indicated I thought he was,” Biden said he replied.

Biden’s Saudi visit “came across as a slap” in the face of all those who stand for human rights, said Agnès Callamard, secretary-general of Amnesty International in an interview with VOA.

“What President Biden is doing is suggesting that human rights are cheap and can be bargained out for a range of other impact,” she said.

Biden’s Middle East trip has also taken him to the West Bank, where he met with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, and Jerusalem, where he held talks with Israeli caretaker Prime Minister Yair Lapid.
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Biden Vows to Work for Independent Palestinian State

U.S. President Joe Biden met with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas in Bethlehem on Friday before traveling to Saudi Arabia. Biden said he remains committed to an independent Palestinian state even if the time isn’t right to restart negotiations. Abbas condemned the Israeli occupation of the West Bank but said Palestinians are prepared to restart peace talks. Linda Gradstein reports from Jerusalem.
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US House Votes to Restore Abortion Rights; Senate Odds Dim

The U.S. House has voted to restore abortion rights nationwide in Democrats’ first legislative response to the Supreme Court’s landmark decision overturning Roe v. Wade. 

The bill has little chance of becoming law, with the necessary support lacking in the 50-50 Senate. Yet voting marks the beginning of a new era in the debate as lawmakers, governors and legislatures grapple with the impact of the court’s decision. 

The legislation passed 219-210. The House also passed a second bill to prohibit punishment for a woman or child who decides to travel to another state to get an abortion, 223-205. 

“Just three weeks ago the Supreme Court took a wrecking ball to the fundamental rights by overturning Roe v. Wade,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi ahead of the votes, gathering with other Democratic women on the steps of the Capitol. “It is outrageous that 50 years later, women must again fight for our most basic rights against an extremist court.” 

Republicans spoke forcefully against the two bills, praising the Supreme Court’s decision and warning that the legislation would go further than Roe ever did when it comes to legalizing abortion. 

Urging her colleagues to vote no, Washington Republican Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers called abortion “the greatest human rights issue of our generation.” 

She said the Democratic legislation “has nothing to do with protecting the health of women. It has everything to do with forcing an extreme agenda on the American people.” 

By overturning Roe, the court has allowed states to enact strict abortion limits, including many that had previously been deemed unconstitutional. The ruling is expected to lead to abortion bans in roughly half the states. 

Already, a number of Republican-controlled states have moved quickly to curtail or outlaw abortion, while states controlled by Democrats have sought to champion access. Voters now rank abortion as among the most pressing issues facing the country, a shift in priorities that Democrats hope will reshape the political landscape in their favor for the midterm elections. 

This is the second time the House has passed the bill, which would expand on the protections Roe had previously provided by banning what supporters say are medically unnecessary restrictions that block access to safe and accessible abortions. It would prevent abortion bans earlier than 24 weeks, which is when fetal viability, the ability of a human fetus to survive outside the uterus, is generally thought to begin. It allows exceptions for abortions after fetal viability when a provider determines the life or health of the mother is at risk. 

The Democrats’ proposal would also prevent states from requiring providers to share “medically inaccurate” information, or from requiring additional tests or waiting periods, often aimed at dissuading a patient from having an abortion. 

The bill that would prohibit punishment for traveling out of state would specify that doctors can’t be punished for providing reproductive care outside their home state. Democratic Representative Lizzie Fletcher of Texas, one of the bill’s authors, said the threats to travel “fail to reflect the fundamental rights that are granted in our Constitution.” 

Democrats have highlighted the case of a 10-year-old girl who had to cross state lines into Indiana to get an abortion after being raped, calling it an example of how the court’s decision is already having severe consequences. 

“We don’t have to imagine why this might matter. We don’t need to conjure up hypotheticals. We already know what’s happened,” Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar said Thursday on the Senate floor. 

“Should the next little 10-year-old’s right or 12-year-old’s right or 14-year-old’s right to get the care that she desperately needs be put in jeopardy?” 

The Constitution doesn’t explicitly say travel between states is a right, though the Supreme Court has said it is a right that “has been firmly established and repeatedly recognized.” Yet the court has never said exactly where the right to travel comes from and that could leave it open to challenge or elimination, as the right to an abortion was. 

Lawmakers in Missouri earlier this year, for example, considered making it illegal to “aid or abet” abortions that violate Missouri law, even if they occur out of state. The proposal was ultimately shelved. 

Democrats have teed up more bills for passage in the coming weeks. Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland said Friday that the House will vote next week on legislation guaranteeing a right to contraception. 

Republican Senator James Lankford of Oklahoma, who supports instituting a nationwide ban on abortion, accused his colleagues across the aisle Thursday of seeking to “inflame” the issue of abortion. He said proponents of the travel bill should ask themselves, “Does the child in the womb have the right to travel in their future?” 

Only two Senate Republicans, Senators Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins, have been supportive of abortion rights, but they do not support the Democrats’ proposal, calling it too far-reaching. They have introduced alternative legislation that would bar states from placing an “undue burden” on a woman’s ability to obtain an abortion before fetal viability, among other provisions. 

When pressed Thursday on whether Democrats should work with the two senators, Pelosi pushed back, “We’re not going to negotiate a woman’s right to choose.” 

Since the court’s ruling last month, some activists have accused President Joe Biden and other top Democrats of failing to respond forcefully enough to the decision. Biden, who denounced the court’s ruling as “extreme,” last week issued an executive order intended to head off some potential penalties that women seeking abortion may face. His administration has also warned medical providers that they must offer abortion if the life of the mother is at risk. 

Meanwhile, the Democratic National Committee has already launched a digital ad campaign to energize voters on the issue, warning that Republicans’ ultimate goal is to outlaw abortion nationwide. 

“We have to elect a couple more Democratic senators so that we can get around the filibuster so that we can pass legislation that truly impacts a woman’s right to choose,” she said. “There’s no halfway measure.” 

 
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Texas Sues to Block Federal Guidance on Abortions to Save Mother’s Life 

Texas sued the federal government on Thursday over new guidance from the Biden administration directing hospitals to provide emergency abortions regardless of state bans on the procedure that came into effect in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s reversal of its landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision.

Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in the lawsuit argued the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services was trying to “use federal law to transform every emergency room in the country into a walk-in abortion clinic.”

The lawsuit focused on guidance issued Monday advising that a federal law protecting patients’ access to emergency treatment requires performing abortions when doctors believe a pregnant woman’s life or health is threatened.

The guidance came after President Joe Biden, a Democrat, signed an executive order on Friday seeking to ease access to services to terminate pregnancies after the June 24 overturning of Roe v. Wade, which recognized a nationwide right of women to obtain abortions.

Abortion services ceased July 2 in Texas after the state’s highest court, at Paxton’s urging, cleared the way for a nearly century-old abortion ban to take effect.

HHS said the guidance from its U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services agency did not constitute new policy but merely reminded doctors of their obligations under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act.

But in the lawsuit filed in Lubbock, the Republican-led state of Texas argued that federal law has never authorized the federal government to compel doctors and hospitals to perform abortions and that the guidance was unlawful.

In a statement, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre called it “unthinkable that this public official would sue to block women from receiving lifesaving care in emergency rooms, a right protected under U.S. law.”

About half the states are expected to move to restrict or ban abortions. Thirteen states, including Texas, had “trigger” laws on the books designed to snap into effect if Roe v. Wade was overturned.
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Poll: Fewer Than Half of Republican Primary Voters Would Support Trump in 2024

Just over half of Republicans likely to vote in their party’s 2024 presidential primary say that they would prefer someone other than former President Donald Trump as the party’s presidential candidate, a poll released on Tuesday by The New York Times and Siena College found. 

After identifying Republicans likely to vote in the primary, the survey gave respondents a choice between Trump and five other potential GOP nominees. Only 49% of respondents chose Trump, despite the fact that the former president carried 94% of all Republican votes in the 2020 election, which he lost to current President Joe Biden. 

Trump’s closest challenger was Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who was chosen by 25% of respondents. Other potential candidates included Texas Senator Ted Cruz (7%); Trump’s one-time running mate, former Vice President Mike Pence (6%); former South Carolina governor and Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley (6%); and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (2%). 

Is Trump vulnerable? 

The biggest question raised by the poll is whether it indicates that Trump might be vulnerable to a challenge in the Republican primary elections in 2024. Experts said that the results should be read with caution. 

While Trump’s lack of a clear majority in the poll may raise some eyebrows, “He’s still pretty far ahead,” Kyle Kondik, managing editor of Sabato’s Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics, told VOA. 

The importance of the poll, Kondik said, will depend heavily on how people — like DeSantis — choose to interpret it. 

“Part of actual vulnerability is the perception of vulnerability,” he said. “Does DeSantis, who is, at the moment, the most likely credible rival to Trump … see a path to victory? Does he think that that 50% or so is soft? Or is it stronger than that?” 

Comparison to Biden 

The data was released one day after findings from the same poll were published showing that the majority of likely Democratic primary voters would prefer that incumbent President Joe Biden not run for reelection in 2024. 

Both men enjoy relatively high personal approval ratings within their respective parties, with 85% of Democrats reporting a favorable impression of Biden and 80% of Republicans reporting the same feelings toward Trump. 

Biden’s 85% personal favorability ranking masks some degree of discontent within the party about his performance in office. Facing high inflation and having difficulty pushing his agenda through Congress, the poll showed that his job approval rating is at 70% among Democratic primary voters, a relatively low number for an incumbent president. 

In the data released Monday, the poll asked Democrats who said they would prefer a candidate other than Biden to say why they felt that way. The largest number, 33%, cited his age. Biden is 79, the oldest person ever to serve as president, and will be nearly 82 at the time of the 2024 election. 

The data released Tuesday did not contain any questions about why voters who didn’t select Trump chose a different candidate. Trump is currently 76, and will be 78 at the time of the 2024 election. 

In Monday’s release, all respondents were asked who they would vote for in 2024 if the two major party candidates were Biden and Trump. They preferred Biden by a margin of 44% to 41%. 

Different reactions 

On Monday, The White House reacted to the polling data with a shrug. 

“There’s going to be many polls; they’re going to go up, and they’re going to go down,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a briefing. “This is not the thing that we are solely focused on.” 

Trump was not so blasé. On Tuesday morning he released an angry statement criticizing The New York Times and accusing it of targeting him repeatedly over the years. 

“Fake polls, phony stories, and made up quotes — they are a disgrace to journalism and have set it back many many years. THE NEW YORK TIMES IS TRULY THE ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE!” he wrote. 

Trump’s base 

Among Republican primary voters, Trump’s strength varies greatly depending on the educational attainment of individual voters. Among those with a high school education or less, he commands 62% of the vote, with DeSantis a distant second with 19%. However, among voters with a bachelor’s degree or higher, Trump and DeSantis are deadlocked at 29% each. 

“It makes sense to me that the folks with four-year degrees might be a little more skeptical of Trump and maybe more toward DeSantis,” Kondik, of the Center for Politics, said. 

Kondik noted that there has recently been a large amount of positive coverage of DeSantis in “elite conservative media,” which is more broadly consumed by highly educated Republicans. 

“We know, also, that to the extent that Trump drove people out of the Republican Party, a lot of those folks are people that have four-year degrees.” 

Support for Trump’s election falsehoods 

The poll also found that a large majority of Republicans supported the actions that Trump took in the wake of the 2020 election, when he continued to spread false claims of election fraud after losing dozens of court challenges to election counts across the country. 

His efforts to challenge the election results resulted in the assault on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, when thousands of his supporters stormed Congress as lawmakers were preparing to formally recognize Biden’s victory. 

Republican voters were asked if they thought Trump was “just exercising his right to contest the election” or if they believed “he went so far that he threatened American democracy.” The overwhelming majority, 75%, said that they believed Trump was just exercising his rights. Just 19% said he went too far, with the remainder declining to answer. 

Again, white Republican voters without a college degree were most likely to support Trump, with 80% saying he had been within his rights in his post-election actions. Among white Republican college graduates, that figure was 68%.
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