Native Bidaské: Alligator Alcatraz — The Fight to Protect the Everglades

Alaska Native leader Hensley subject of new documentary

Willie Hensley is a well-known Alaska Native leader, but a documentary that premiered this week in Anchorage gives you a chance to get to know what makes him tick.

Rhonda McBride from our flagship station KNBA has this preview.

Willie Hensley has worn a lot of hats, and you can see a lot of them in this film that filled with snapshots of his life, as well as something else, says the film’s producer Marla Williams.

“That was really fun in this film to look at how many different hairstyles Willie has had throughout life. He’s gone from a flattop and a nerdy little side part, to long sixties sideburns and now to a ponytail all the way down his back.”

The film showcases Hensley’s charisma and traditional Inupiaq humor. It’s called “Homeland“ and chronicles his rise as a champion for the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act and eventually a statewide leader.

“I think he’s a man of his times. He’s always current. He’s always looking forward, but he’s not stuck in his past. He uses his past to keep him moving forward.”

The documentary is filled with moments that explores Hensley’s talent for walking between two worlds – that of Native culture and the modern world of business and politics.

It traces his roots to a sod house near Kotzebue, Alaska.

In the film, Hensley takes his daughter Priscilla to show her where he was raised as a small boy.

Only a few pieces of wood and mounds of sod remain.

“Not a table, not a chair, not a bed. This was home. It kept us warm on the coldest of days.”

The film also takes you to a religious boarding school in Tennessee where Hensley arrived as a teenager with only a shopping bag full of belongings.

His classmates didn’t know what to make of him and the care packages of whale meat and other subsistence foods he received, but were happy to have him on their football team, because he was one of the fastest on the field.

“In those days, if you’re a young Iñupiaq that age, if you survive TB and chicken pox, and influenza and everything else that everybody caught, you’re pretty damned tough.”

The documentary’s next showing will be in Kotzebue on April 17 and will be available on online in the future.

It’s the tenth installment of the Magnetic North: The Alaska Character series, which has profiled political figures like Governor Bill Sheffield and Native leaders like Jacob Adams and carver Nathan Jackson.

The series was made possible by the Alaska Humanities Forum and the Rasmuson Foundation.

 

 

2024: Review in Photos (MPR)

 GO LOOK: https://www.mprnews.org/story/2024/12/31/land-return-voting-rights-and-fashion-2024-native-news-coverage-through-photos

Personal histories, items can be claimed by adult adoptees from Minnesota’s DHS files

A small group of community members met at the Minneapolis American Indian Center in July to share information about how adopted adults can claim items left for them by their birth parents.

The conversation about the ability to retrieve personal effects came to the forefront with the law that went into effect July 1 — where birth records held by the state can be obtained by adopted adults.

More visuals for Native News can be found throughout online coverage.

 

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HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL!   xox Trace 

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In the words of Quindrea Yazzie, a Navajo editor of the ICT Newscast, even though not everyone can live on the reservation, their children still get to experience their heritage in meaningful ways through ICT. This is the heart of what we do—ensuring Indigenous stories and voices are heard, preserved, and shared widely. 

How early churches used schools to separate Alaska Native peoples from their land

 

April 11, 2023 | Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed 

The Alaska Native Heritage Center says its study of church records that go back to the 1800s is not research for research’s sake, reports Rhonda McBride from our flagship station KNBA.

Researcher Benjamin Jacuk-Dolchok (Kenaitze) says he hopes to reconstruct the story of how early churches used schools to separate Alaska Native peoples from their land, their culture, and their spirituality.

He says the impacts are still felt today.

“You can’t understand what you need healing from, unless you pull back the band aid and understand the wound.”

Jacuk-Dolchok says most Alaskans don’t realize how closely churches coordinated their efforts.

“While these might be different denominations, the ideology was mostly the same. And that was forced assimilation.”

Jacuk-Dolchok says some of the research looks at the role of boarding schools — and how Americanization and Christianity intersected to break the close connections Alaska Natives had with their land.

He says the forced use of English took away the “heart language” of the people, which sped up the process.

“The major takeaway from what we’re doing is understanding the truth to bring healing, so that younger generations can thrive.”

Jacuk-Dolchok has studied Native boarding schools for more than a decade and credits his grandfather, who attended boarding school, for inspiring his work.

The Princeton Seminary graduate says his theology studies has helped him with his research and given him access to important documents.

Jacuk-Dolchok will share some of his research at the Alaska Native Heritage Center in Anchorage on Friday.

Report: Evidence of genocide found under CA residential school

 

National Native News January 25, 2023

January 25, 2023

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Indigenous investigators in Alberta say they’ve found evidence of genocide at the site of a former Indian residential school.

As Dan Karpenchuk reports, they’ve released a preliminary document into missing children and unmarked graves at the former Blue Quills Residential School.

The Aciniwyn Opaspiw Society says its investigators have uncovered physical and documented evidence – and their report includes allegations that a so-called disciplinarian who worked at the school from 1935 to 1942 was seen killing Indigenous children.

The society said information came from intergenerational survivors whose parents witnessed the homicides.

The accused died in 1968.

Leah Redcrow of the society also says many children died after they were forced to drink unpasteurized milk contaminated with bovine tuberculosis.

Redcrow says it was deliberate because school administrators were not dying and they didn’t eat the same food as the children.

Redcrow says ground penetrating radar was used on the site last autumn.

“When it was accidentally excavated, the excavator found a bunch of little skeletons piled on top of each other, and actually the GPR also confirmed that it’s only (eight inches) below the surface of the ground. We don’t know exactly how many children are in the mass grave yet, but we do plan to excavate the mass grave as our investigation progresses."

Redcrow says work is still underway to determine how many children disappeared. She says her group is actively investigating the deaths of at least 200 residential school children who never returned home.

Over the past year, hundreds of unmarked graves have been discovered at former residential school sites in British Columbia and Saskatchewan, the government-funded, church run schools.

The schools were operated across Canada from the late 1800’s to the late 1900’s.

About 150,000 Native children were taken from their families and forced to attend the schools.

Thousands were abused. Many died.

America's Indian Boarding School Discussions – Why Repatriation is Important

 

The upcoming Why Repatriation is Important livestream event will focus on repatriation of the children who died at Indian boarding schools as well as the healing that needs to take place in tribal communities to overcome the intergenerational trauma associated with Indian boarding school experiences. 

Across the United States, many former Indian boarding schools have cemeteries on their grounds, including the former Carlisle Industrial Boarding School in Pennsylvania. The graves of deceased Indian children buried at Carlisle fall under the control of the U.S. Army, which has taken the position that the graves of Indian children buried there are not subject to the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA). Many Indian law experts disagree with the U.S. Army’s stance.

 

Covid-19 in Indian Country

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April 3, 2020 A travel advisory near Zuni Pueblo in New Mexico. The tribe has confirmed a COVID-19 case and is asking community members to limit travel outside the reservation. (Photo-Pueblo of Zuni, Facebook)   Some Pueblos communities confirm first cases of COVID-19 Volunteers deliver traditional herbs to elders in Rapid City Doctor discusses anxiety and stress during the pandemic Click here to listen to these stories.