Michigan tribe finally acquires land base for casino (January 30, 2006)

After more than six years of delays, a Michigan tribe finally claimed victory on Friday when the Bureau of Indian Affairs placed its land into trust. Less than a month after winning a favorable court decision, the Pokagon Band of...

Opinion: Tribes may be penalized for Abramoff (January 30, 2006)

"Some Indian tribes are understandably concerned that the political taint in Washington surrounding the Jack Abramoff bribery and influence-peddling case could harm their own ability to participate in the political process. And the attempt by establishment media organizations to spin...

Judge dismisses lawsuit filed by mixed-blood Utes (January 30, 2006)

Mixed-blood Utes who were terminated by the federal government lost the right to challenge their status and cannot stake a claim in a $32 million trust fund, a federal judge ruled on Friday In a 17-page decision [PDF], U.S. District...

BIA to decide on Oneida Nation trust lands in 2007 (January 30, 2006)

The Bureau of Indian Affairs will decide whether to take more than 17,000 acres into trust for the Oneida Nation of New York in 2007, according to The Syracuse Post-Standard. The tribe asked for the land to be taken into...

Smithsonian fights Alaska Natives over remains (January 30, 2006)

The Smithsonian Institution and the Arctic Slope Regional Corp. are locked in a battle over 85 human remains that were taken from Alaska's North Slope in the early 20th century. ASRC, the Alaska Native regional corporation for Inupiat Eskimos, has...

Native Harvest Cafe draws visitors far and wide (January 30, 2006)

A coffee shop and cafe on the White Earth Ojibwe Reservation in Minnesota has attracted customers from as far away as Hawaii and Nigeria. The Native Harvest Cafe opened in 2004. It is an extension of Native Harvest, the...

Navajo soldier killed in Iraq laid to rest in New Mexico (January 30, 2006)

More than 1,000 people attended funeral services for Clifton "Tigger" Yazzie, a member of the Navajo Nation who was killed in Iraq. Yazzie, 23, was a sergeant in the Army's 101st Airborne. He was killed January 20 when a...

Wyoming tribes await trust fund settlement (January 30, 2006)

Two Wyoming tribes who successfully sued the federal government for breach of trust are expected to receive a $10.5 million payment within weeks, according to The Jackson Hole Star-Tribune. The Eastern Shoshone Tribe and the Northern Arapaho Tribe filed suit...

Pombo has accepted more than $500K from tribes (January 30, 2006)

Rep. Richard Pombo (R-California), the chairman of the House Resources Committee, has accepted more than $500,000 in campaign contributions from tribes over the past three years, Knight Ridder Newspapers reported. The figure is higher than the $316,000 reported by...

Rep. Doolittle pressed DOI for Abramoff's tribes (January 30, 2006)

Rep. John Doolittle (R-California) pressed the Interior Department to make decisions favoring Jack Abramoff's tribal clients while receiving campaign contributions from the disgraced lobbyist and the tribes, the Associated Press reports. In a June 2003 letter to Secretary Gale...

Hog-dog fights staged on Seminole Reservation (January 30, 2006)

Five men were arrested last week on charges of animal cruelty for staging fights between dogs and wild boars on the Seminole Reservation in Florida. The fights took place at a home owned by a tribal member, according to...

Griles arranged for Norton photo with Abramoff (January 30, 2006)

A photo that Interior Secretary Gale Norton took with disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff and Mississippi Choctaw Chief Phillip Martin was arranged by former deputy secretary J. Steven Griles, the Associated Press reported. Norton posed for the photo on February...

Thune calls on Bush to disclose Abramoff contacts (January 30, 2006)

Sen. John Thune (R-South Dakota) and other Republican lawmakers called on President Bush to disclose any contact the White House had with disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Appearing on "Fox News Sunday," Thune said it was in Bush's interests to release...

DOJ says ex-Bush official tipped off Abramoff (January 30, 2006)

A former Bush administration official gave inside information about government business to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, the Department of Justice alleged in a court filing on Friday. As the chief of staff at the General Service Administration in 2003,...

Sherman Alexie: Fake Indian stole my life story (January 30, 2006)

" In 1999 a Native American writer, born fragile and poor on a destitute Indian reservation, published an essay, "The Blood Runs like a River Through My Dreams," in Esquire. It earned a National Magazine Award nomination and was later...

Editorial: Jack Abramoff and the White House, again (January 30, 2006)

"If a typical picture is worth a thousand words, a picture of President Bush with Jack Abramoff, we suppose, might be worth about 10,000. And so we understand the desire of our more visually inclined colleagues to obtain photos of...

Yellow Bird: The suicides at Standing Rock -- Why? (January 30, 2006)

"Almost a year has passed since the word of teen suicides at Standing Rock Indian Reservation became national news. During that time, has anything changed for the Lakota nation and its children? The good news is, there have been no...

Mark Trahant: Bush will tell us everything is great (January 30, 2006)

"Are consumers tapped out? What a dumb question. Of course. Some of us even know it's time to pay that piper dude. Debt, like politics, has a cycle. There are times when credit is easy -- and we've just lived...