Indian Country Today National

LAWTON, Okla. – Western tribes, unified by a similar language, traveled hundreds of miles to visit their sister tribe, the Comanche Nation, during the 10th Annual Shoshone Language Reunion in September.

WASHINGTON – The National Indian Gaming Commission has announced a one-year extension for tribal gaming authorities on implementing new Class II gaming regulations.

New Mexico, the Land of Enchantment and Santa Fe, a city of art and wonder, offered more than just business at the NIGA Mid-Year Membership meeting held at the Buffalo Thunder Resort and Casino.

TULSA, Okla. – A federal bankruptcy judge in Delaware ruled Oct. 14 that the auction of a Texas horse racing track should be rescheduled, delaying the hopes of a subsidiary of an Oklahoma-based American Indian tribe that wants to buy the facility.

PORTLAND, Maine – Leaders of a new group that’s launching a new effort to win approval for a casino in western Maine is ready to begin collecting signatures to force a referendum next year.

RALEIGH, N.C. – Appeals court judges hearing arguments Oct. 14 on the legality of North Carolina’s video poker ban sounded wary of negating the will of the General Assembly when it granted an exception to machines on the Cherokee Indian reservation.

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) – North Carolina’s senators have introduced a bill to provide federal recognition to the state’s Lumbee Indian tribe.

WASHINGTON – Rep. Herseth Sandlin recently announced that the Rosebud Sioux Tribe is the recipient of a $25 million grant to construct an adult correctional facility with enhanced capacity that supports the cultural traditions of rehabilitating the incarcerated. The funding was authorized as part of the Recovery Act Correctional Facilities on Tribal Lands Program.

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) – Military officials have dedicated a statue of an Oklahoma soldier who won the Medal of Honor for his actions during World War II.

Allyson Two Bears, an environmental science student at Sitting Bull College based in the Dakotas, hails from a long line of medicine women. Her great-grandmother, grandmother and mother were cultural leaders, and their traditional wisdom eventually passed down to Two Bears, who promised to share the knowledge with her children.

The Native Research Network was started with one goal in mind – to foster a support system for Native researchers who are often isolated at universities across the nation.

PALM SPRINGS, Calif. – Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Larry EchoHawk received a standing ovation at the National Congress of American Indians’ annual conference after a speech marked by moments of intense emotion and repeated promises to stand up for Indian country.

TACOMA, Wash. (AP) – Concerns about the spread of flu has the Puyallup Tribe reconsidering an unpopular worker attendance rule at its casinos.

WASHINGTON – The federal government will soon start handing out the first $4 billion from a pot of stimulus funds intended to spread high-speed Internet connections to more rural communities, poor neighborhoods and other pockets of the country clamoring for better access. The challenge is that the government has received $28 billion in requests.

KYKOTSMOVI, Ariz. – Accusing environmentalists of having an anti-Hopi agenda is a divisive “manufactured lie” by a pro-Peabody Western Coal Company tribal council, said a longstanding advocate for tribal control of Black Mesa, the site of massive strip mining operations.

WASHINGTON – House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has vowed to protect the rights of Native Americans in her quest to reform health care.

TULSA, Okla. – The key to prosperity for Indian tribes is the development of conventional and renewable energy resources, according to a Native leader who also thinks “Indian energy will be bigger than gaming.”

DENVER – Summer ends and sunburned tourists return home with souvenirs, among them T-shirts depicting scenic Colorado.

DAYTON, Ohio (AP) – An Indian tribe says plans to build a commercial wind farm in western Ohio pose a threat to an ancient burial mound and the state should put a barrier around it to keep it from being disturbed.

WASHINGTON – White House officials chose Columbus Day to announce a first-of-its-kind conference to be held with leaders from all federally recognized tribes. President Barack Obama will host a White House Tribal Nations Conference Nov. 5 from 9 a.m. – 5:30 p.m.