Indigenous

cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/19711

Amelia Schafer
ICT

The four Oglala Lakota men detained by ICE in South Minneapolis have been partially identified, according to a Tuesday night statement from Oglala Sioux Tribe President Frank Star Comes Out.

Star Comes Out said as of Jan. 13, the individuals last names have not been released, only first names. Tribal leaders are demanding full, comprehensive information from the Department of Homeland Security.

Additionally, the tribe is demanding the immediate release of all enrolled tribal citizens held by immigration, written assurances that ICE will stop detaining Native Americans, and immediate government-to-government consultation.

At least one of the men has been released, but tribal leaders said the remaining three are being held at Fort Snelling, a site historically used as a concentration camp for Native people during the Dakota removal period.

“The irony is not lost on us,” Star Comes Out said in a statement. “Lakota citizens who are reported to be held at Fort Snelling — a site forever tied to the Dakota 38+2 — underscores why treaty obligations and federal accountability matter today, not just in history.”

Star Comes Out said when the tribe requested more information, leaders were told the tribe would need to enter into an immigration agreement with ICE and the Department of Homeland Security.

“The tribe does not intend to enter into an immigration agreement with ICE or Homeland Security,” Star Comes Out said in a letter to the U.S. Government shared with ICT. “We will not enter an agreement that would authorize, or make it easier for, ICE or Homeland Security to come onto our tribal homeland to arrest or detain our tribal members.”

Oglala Sioux Tribe President Frank Star Comes Out poses for a photo. (ICT File photo, Kalle Benallie) Credit: Frank Star Comes Out, shown here in February 2023, is president of the Oglala Sioux Tribe. (Photo by Kalle Benallie/ICT)

Star Comes Out said the detention of the four tribal citizens is a direct violation of federal law, various treaties and the constitutional protections owed to citizens by the United States.

Citizens of tribal nations became United States citizens in 1924 through the Indian Citizenship Act.

The Oglala Sioux Tribe’s enrollment office is organizing a pop-up at the Minneapolis American Indian Center on Jan. 16 and 17 to assist tribal members in obtaining documentation and IDs.

Star Comes Out will also attend a press conference on Jan. 16 at the Prairie Island Indian Community Tribal Administration Office to address treaty violations and next legal steps.

The post Four Oglala detainees located, three still in ICE custody appeared first on ICT.

From ICT via This RSS Feed.

cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/19857

As soon as Donald Trump had finished kidnapping the president of Venezuela, he once again set his sights on Greenland. Trump advisor and fascist ghoul Stephen Miller said on TV that the island should “obviously … be part of the United States.” Channeling Hitler, Miller continued: “We live in a world, in the real world … that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power. These are the iron laws of the world since the beginning of time.”

Bourgeois Europe was shocked by Trump’s “unbridled imperialism,” in the words of Spiegel magazine. The leaders of France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain, the UK, and Denmark put out a joint statement: “Greenland belongs to its people,” they recited. “It is for Denmark and Greenland, and them only, to decide.”

But why is it for Denmark to decide, even before Greenland? Miller has a point when he asks: “By what right does Denmark assert control over Greenland?”

Imperialism

Imperialist powers want Greenland as climate change opens up the Arctic to shipping and mining. They don’t even feign interest in the well-being of the indigenous people of Kalaallit Nunaat. Danish colonialism has been particularly brutal, ripping hundreds of babies away from their mothers, while sterilizing thousands of women without their consent. U.S colonialism would be no less devastating, turning the island into a staging ground for World War III.

A supposed leftist like Chris Cutrone, the founder of the odious Platypus Society, claims that the imperialist conquest of Greenland would be a continuation of the American revolution. But the peoples of Puerto Rico or Guam can say whether the U.S. today represents a democratic alternative to European colonialism.

If the U.S. army were to invade Greenland to seize its resources, that would be pure barbarism—but the Danish “claim” is based on violent conquest several centuries earlier. No one has any democratic mandate. Miller stated very openly that Greenland has just 30,000 inhabitants (in reality, 57,000) and he doesn’t care what they think. But EU policy has just as little interest in self-determination.

While EU leaders say Greenland belongs to its people—and to Denmark, apparently—France still denies self-determination to the Kanak people of New Caledonia. Spanish imperialism clings on to Ceuta and Melilla. The UK keeps a navy base on the Malvinas Islands. etc.

The European statement talks about “sovereignty, territorial integrity and the inviolability of borders”—but these principles didn’t stop NATO from attacking Afghanistan, Iraq, or Libya. Denmark’s imperialist military participated in all these crimes.

“Territorial integrity” didn’t apply when the EU backed independence for Kosovo or South Sudan. Many European governments recognize Palestine—but have done nothing at all to defend that state’s sovereignty.

Fellow Imperialists

Trying to appease Trump, Danish politicians are emphasizing they are fellow imperialists. “We’re Already on Your Side,” one social democrat screamed in the direction of the White House. They also want to use Greenland for military buildup, to control the Arctic, and to extract rare earths.

The European Union likes to present itself as a bastion of liberal values and international law. Yet as they continue to support the genocide in Gaza, they are showing the whole world that the “rules-based international order” is, at most, window dressing to cover up their own imperialist interests. Despite all the propaganda about the dangers of Russia and China, NATO remains one of the deadliest organization in the history of humanity.

The only people who should decide on Greenland’s fate are its indigenous population. In the age of growing inner-imperialist tensions, only socialists are defending such an elementary democratic right. Anyone serious about democracy and self-determination needs to call for the break up of NATO and the end of imperialism.

The post Greenland Doesn’t Belong to Denmark Either appeared first on Left Voice.

From Left Voice via This RSS Feed.

cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/19831

Abunimah was arbitrarily arrested and deported from Zurich last year while traveling to a conference on Israel’s genocide in Gaza

Ali Abunimah, co-founder of the Electronic Intifada (EI), filed a criminal complaint with the public prosecutor of the Canton of Zurich against Nicoletta della Valle, the former head of Switzerland’s federal police, over his illegal arrest, detention, and deportation in Zurich last year.

In an article titled “Why I filed criminal charges against Switzerland’s former top cop,” published on 12 January, Abunimah accuses della Valle of abuse of office in relation to events that unfolded after he entered Switzerland legally on 24 January 2025.

The following day, he wrote, he was seized off the street by plainclothes officers while traveling to speak at a public event about Israel’s genocide in Gaza, forced into an unmarked vehicle, and taken to prison.

He stated that he was held for three days without contact with his family or the outside world. After that, he was transferred to the airport, placed in handcuffs and a cage, and deported, a sequence of actions he said had no legal basis.

In a ruling dated 19 December 2025, the Administrative Court of the Canton of Zurich determined that Abunimah’s arrest and detention violated both the Swiss constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights, with the decision directly contradicting the actions taken by federal police under della Valle’s authority.

Abunimah also cited a Swiss parliamentary committee report issued in November 2025, which found “a series of irregularities” surrounding his arrest and pointed to improper political interference by della Valle.

According to the report, the Federal Office of Police (Fedpol) had initially rejected a request to bar Abunimah from entering the country, concluding that his views were protected speech and that he posed no security threat.

From thecradle.co via This RSS Feed.

cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/19989

Along with continuing its killing of Palestinians in Gaza and its destruction of civilian infrastructure more than three months after a "ceasefire" deal was reached, the Israeli government is violating the agreement by continuing to block humanitarian aid from entering the exclave—making it impossible for aid groups to ensure people there have adequate water as extreme weather makes the problem even worse.

As 100 days since the ceasefire agreement were marked Wednesday, international aid group Oxfam described the work it's been doing to try to restore water wells and other crucial infrastructure, but warned that Israel's decision to block 37 humanitarian organizations—including two Oxfam chapters—has made it difficult to provide Palestinians with a sustainable water supply.

As aid flows have continued to be restricted by Israel, Oxfam workers have been working "around the clock with experts from local partner organizations, to restore vital water wells—even sifting through rubble to salvage and repurpose damaged materials, including sheet metal," the group said.

They've managed to restore wells in Gaza City and Khan Younis and are now providing at least 156,000 residents with water, but parts of Gaza "remain inaccessible and construction costs have also doubled, due to the lack of materials being allowed in," said Oxfam.

“We did not just re-open these wells," said Wassem Mushtaha, Gaza response lead for Oxfam. "We have been solving a moving puzzle under the siege and restrictions to make the wells operational—salvaging parts, repurposing equipment, and paying inflated prices to get critical components, all while trying to keep our teams safe."

Mushtaha emphasized that Oxfam has over $2 million worth of "aid and water and sanitation equipment ready to enter Gaza," but Israeli authorities have repeatedly refused to allow the materials to enter since March 2025.

Oxfam has managed to reach more than 1.3 million people in Gaza with assistance since October 2023, when Israel began bombarding the exclave and blocking humanitarian relief in retaliation for a Hamas-led attack, but 1.1 million people are still in "urgent need of assistance in the harsh winter conditions," which have included freezing temperatures and intense polar winds in recent days.

That storm killed at least seven children, and United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) spokesperson James Elder emphasized Wednesday that they died because the "man-made shortage" of food and medicine had left them defenseless against the conditions.

“We are talking about layers upon layers of rejection [of aid],” Elder told Al Jazeera.

A recent survey by Oxfam found that despite the ceasefire agreement, 87% of people in Khan Younis and Gaza City still had no access to basic essentials and 89% were depending on unsustainable water trucking "to get just the bare minimum level of water needed to survive."

A Palestinian refugee named Nahla told the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East that "water decides everything. How much we drink, how we cook, how we clean our children."

— (@)

More than 80% of water networks, pumping stations, main lines, tanks, and wells have been destroyed, and of Gaza's three water desalination plants, just one is operational.

Damage to sewer systems has caused overflow which is compounded by flooding, raising the risk of the spread of diseases. Eighty-four percent of households reported members of their families had suffered from outbreaks of disease in recent weeks.

"Yet basic equipment like water pumps, sandbags, and construction materials such as timber and plywood needed to reinforce shelters and drainage are delayed or rejected under 'dual-use' restrictions and bureaucratic clearance processes," Oxfam said, with Israeli authorities claiming the materials can't enter Gaza because they could feasibly be used as weapons.

Monther Shoblaq, director general of the Coastal Municipalities Water Utility, one of Oxfam's partners, commended the group's staff for "going to such lengths to bring water access to those who need it so desperately," and noted that "the equipment needed is just across the border, blocked from entry."

"Agencies are having to resort to salvaging materials from the rubble of bombed water infrastructure and the remains of people’s homes, repurposing parts, and paying inflated prices," said Shoblaq. "This is the direct result of Israeli restrictions, last-resort measures forced by siege conditions."

"Needs in Gaza exceed far beyond the aid and reconstruction materials Israel is allowing in and the situation will worsen if Israel’s collective punishment and illegal blockade continues," Shoblaq added. "Water deprivation is just one of the many human rights violations Israel has undertaken with impunity. Oxfam and other organizations who have operated in Gaza for decades must be allowed to respond at the scale."

More than 440 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli strikes since the so-called "ceasefire" began, and more than 2,500 residential buildings have been destroyed.

From Common Dreams via This RSS Feed.

cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/19004

The lands and waters known as Canada are rich with Indigenous grown and manufactured foods, but they often aren’t on grocery store shelves due to high fees, challenging supply demands and efforts to balance production with cultural values. Illustration: Shawn Parkinson / The Narwhal. Photos: Supplied

This story was originally printed in The Narwhal and appears here with permission and minor style edits.

Walking down the aisles of one of “Canada’s” major groceries, it’s rare to see Indigenous food products. Even in smaller, independently-owned retailers, they are still few and far between. Fish might be from Alaska and seaweed from Japan, despite being plentiful on the coast of “British Columbia” and harvested by local First Nations. There are many “Canadian” products big and small, but Indigenous producers, as well as their local traditional foods, are rare. Where are the Indigenous goods?

Food is a unique gateway for bridging cultures and building understanding, and picking up a package of bannock mix or candied salmon is a tangible way of supporting Indigenous economies. For those seeking them, they’re not too hard to find at gift shops and independent markets, and directly purchasing from Indigenous businesses online and in person is an option too. But it left me wondering — what does it take to get Indigenous foods into grocery stores? And is the effort worth it for the companies?

The production costs can be high, while the margins can be low, business owners told me. Grocery stores can charge producers high fees to be on their shelves, and distributors can want a cut of the profit too, while expecting low costs on wholesale goods. Meanwhile, meeting large orders and checking all the boxes can challenge the capacity of small businesses.

Kelsey Coutts is co-owner of Bangin’ Bannock, which sells premade bannock mix and is based in Coast Salish territories. She said covering those fees requires raising the price. “Then who are we catering to, who is it for, if it’s very expensive?” she asked. At the same time, Indigenous food producers are like other businesses: they want to reach more customers and be sustainable.

So, how docompanies break into these stores — and do they even want to? Read on.

Kelsey Coutts (left) and Destiny Houshte are co-founders of Bangin’ Bannock. Coutts said community support was integral to them getting their company off the ground. Photo: Supplied by Bangin’ Bannock

Fees are a challenge for small producers, Indigenous businesses say

Some Indigenous producers have found a foothold in stores. Authentic Indigenous Seafood can be found in stores of all sizes, in particular their candied and canned salmon — and that’s because it is a supply chain co-operative that brings together about a half-dozen fisheries, making the costs more approachable. Authentic Indigenous Seafood takes in fish from Indigenous fisheries and takes on the often expensive roles of transporting, processing, packaging and marketing to get fish to market. The costs can be prohibitive when operating independently, especially cold storage for frozen fish.

Gordon Sterritt, chief executive officer of the co-operative and member of the Gitxsan Nation, said the idea came from a handful of Indigenous fisheries finding they didn’t have the capacity to do the processing and marketing individually.

Lena Russ, the co-operative’s special projects manager and a member of Haida Nation, said they would like to expand more into frozen fish in grocery stores, and into restaurants and wineries. For now, their shelf-stable preserved fish has been easier to transport and stock. Every bag or can of salmon gives details where the fish came from and which community caught it.

“It took us a while to get to a point where distribution is easy now, and we’re not fighting for sales,” she said.

The fees to be carried in a grocery store can be high. They vary by store, but food suppliers can face late delivery fees that can cost up to $1,200 per delivery, out of stock fees that can cost thousands, and unloading fees that can charge $500 per pallet of goods, according to a 2021 report from a working group on retail fees in the “Canadian” food industry. The working group said shelf fees — essentially, the cost to claim space in a grocery aisle — broadly made sense to food suppliers, but other fees were more contentious for lacking transparency and being unpredictable.

Grocery stores largely keep data on these fees confidential, but anecdotal research found between 15 per cent and 40 per cent of sales could go to the grocery store, according to the report.

There can also be fees to the small producer if goods get damaged, even if it happens in the grocery store, Greg Taylor said. He’s an advisor for Lake Babine Nation, which owns Talok Fisheries.

“If your products get damaged in their stores or their process, they charge you back for them at the price they would have sold them for — not at the cost they bought them for,” he said. “And this is the damage done in theirshop.”

Authentic Indigenous Seafood’s collective structure means independent fisheries can access equipment, refrigeration and transportation that can be too expensive for a small operation to take on alone. Photos: Supplied by Authentic Indigenous Seafood

Some grocery stores have local programs that waive shelving fees for local businesses, like the Loblaw small supplier program. But overall, the fees can be prohibitive for small companies, Shyra Barberstock, chief executive officer of Anishinaabe tea and coffee company Kebaonish, said — making it largely worth it for them to prioritize seeking direct sales or working with smaller stores, at least while they grow.

“Our main focus right now is working with smaller independent businesses … but we do expect that as we expand, we also will eventually be in mainstream supermarkets,” she said.

Sayisi Dene chef Sarah Meconse Mierau had a similar experience. Mierau runs Tradish, where she started out selling teas and jams, and expanded to a food truck, catering and running The Ancestor Café at “Fort Langley.” Initially, she wanted Indigenous people to be able to see her jams with plant medicines in the grocery store, but she quickly realized the cost of getting into the big chains “wasn’t very feasible.” She said it didn’t align with her cultural protocols to profit off selling plant medicines. Instead, she prices them just to cover the cost of producing them, and makes a profit from the other parts of her business.

Jordan Hocking, founder of Sriracha Revolver Hot Sauce, said bigger chains often require business owners to put their products on sale for a certain amount of time each year, but the business owner has to pay the difference in price to make up for the customer’s discount. “I can see why it’s not always a place people want to stay, or go, in the first place,” she said.

Hocking, a member of Sweetgrass First Nation, said getting commercial kitchen space to create enough supply is another high cost. She got coaching and access to a kitchen from Andrea Gray-Grant, founder of Good to Grow, which provides training support for emerging food and beverage companies.

Sriracha Revolver founder Jordan Hocking said small businesses are often making high quality products, which makes them less competitive price-wise. “Your product may have better ingredients, but the consumer doesn’t always know that, or isn’t able to hear your story from the shelf to know why they want to invest in you,” she said. Photo: Supplied by Sriracha Revolver

Pursuing growth while upholding values

Sterritt pointed out that post-contact, First Nations were restricted to reserves and prevented from living off traditional foods. After operating fisheries for millennia, communities were sidelined in the newly imposed system and found it hard to compete.

Sterritt first began working in fisheries in 1997 and said for a long time, due to these systemic issues, it could feel like their project was “never going to get anywhere.” But business really took off the past couple years, and Authentic Indigenous Seafood received an Indigenous Business Award in 2024.

Operating as a collective works better for the small, in-river fisheries run by Indigenous communities that are prioritizing sustainable harvest. These fisheries harvest salmon close to their spawning grounds, according to the number that have managed to return in a given year. Marine fisheries, on the other hand, will catch large numbers of fish mid-migration based on spawning predictions, before it’s known how many will actually get to their spawning grounds.

“Our fisheries have to be sustainable. They have to have that conservation focus,” Sterritt said.

Challenges such as climate change and natural disasters, including the 2019 Big Bar landslide and Chilcotin landslide in 2024, affect their planned fisheries. But Authentic Indigenous Seafood hopes to grow, which depends on partnering with more fisheries.

“We have huge opportunities, we just need to have the supply,” Sterritt said.

For others, maintaining high-quality ingredients or sustainable packaging that align with their values and protocols can also make it hard to meet supply demands of bigger chains. Hocking’s hot sauces don’t rely on traditional Indigenous ingredients, but for businesses that do work exclusively with those foods, maintaining a consistent supply year-round “can be a real challenge,” she said. “If you’re going to make a relationship with a large retailer, they’re going to expect that you are going to supply that product when they need it … So that is intimidating.”

Mireau uses all organic and local ingredients in her Tradish jams, and hemp labels for the jars, and acknowledges that gets expensive. She wants to keep the cost per jar as low as possible, and the easiest way to do that is to sell them at markets and online. She’d prefer bigger chains mark up products to create their own profits, rather than cut into the independent businesses’ profits by asking for a lower price.

“Our profit margin is already so small,” she said. “They want us to do it for literally nothing.”

Trained chef Sarah Meconse Mierau said culinary school helped her learn the ins and outs of running a food business. She focuses on selling her jams and teas directly to people to keep the cost as accessible as possible. Photo: Supplied by Tradish

Sarah Meconse Mierau said the glass jars, hemp labels and all-organic ingredients cost her $15 per jar of jam to make, and she sells them at $20 to cover overhead costs. She could cut costs by using cheaper materials and ingredients, but she’s not willing to sacrifice on the quality or the values she upholds, she said. Photo: Supplied by Tradish

Collaboration, mentorship and community are key to success

Coutts is working with distributors to sell her bannock mix, but said the capacity demands can be very high for such a small company. There can be last minute, very large orders that are hard for a small team to fulfill.

“We do it — but it can be a bit stressful,” she said.

Coutts said Bangin’ Bannock was only possible due to community support. In their first year, before they had the funds for a warehouse space, Squamish Nation’s Chief Joe Mathias Centre let Coutts and co-founder Destiny Houshte use the recreation centre’s kitchen to make their mixes. Coutts is Nak’azdli Dakelh and Houshte is Assiniboine.

“That’s the only reason we were able to begin,” Coutts said. “Just the community who decided to open their hearts and their doors and allow us to come in and succeed.”

She said she and Houshte combined their two family bannock recipes, and it was a winner on the first try. Then they created a gluten-free version.

“That was super fun too, because you’d have the uncles in and we’re getting up to try all the different tasters of bannocks and jams,” she said of the recipe development process.

Kelsey Coutts said federal requirements called for French on Bangin’ Bannock packages, but she and Destiny Houshte pushed back to include Cree and Nakota instead, the languages spoken by their families. Photo: Supplied by Bangin’ Bannock

She said peer support and mentorship has been key. “The small Indigenous business world is just so uplifting and so supporting and so loving,” she said.

Bangin’ Bannock is currently stocked in over 150 stores across “Canada,” and while Coutts and Houshte are more focused on smaller stores that are more community-oriented, Coutts said she sees the value in getting on big grocery store shelves for the representation of Indigenous foods. She wants young people to see Indigenous products where they shop. And that representation can also lead to connection, she said.

She’s found “bannock is a golden ticket to be able to have a non-threatening conversation with many curious people,” she said.

“We’re able to have conversations about food sovereignty, and about reservations and residential schools and all of the history that brought us to what bannock is,” she said.

“It’s so much more than fried bread — it’s a really full history.”

The post Why aren’t there more Indigenous foods in ‘Canadian’ grocery stores? appeared first on Indiginews.

From Indiginews via This RSS Feed.

cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/19153

^Moira Millán, mapuche activist. Photo: Roxanna Sposar^

By Laura Carlsen

Some 40 people form a circle on the dusty, late-summer grass. Following days of uncertainty and fear, cut off from most forms of communication, families from Mapuche communities in Argentina's Chubut province gather to talk about what happened to them on Feb. 11.

At 7 AM that Tuesday, hundreds of Argentina's armed provincial and federal police forces raided their homes, smashing windows and destroying belongings. The special forces, wielding assault rifles, held men, women and children at gunpoint for more than ten hours.

During their day of terrorizing Mapuche families, police took cell phones and computers, leaving the communities---spread over miles at the eastern base of the Andes---cut off from each other. They confiscated books and farm tools, forced indigenous men, women and children to give DNA samples, semi-stripped young women and photographed tattoos and other body markings, manhandled elders, and separated young children from their parents while forcing toddlers to witness the violence against their mothers. In the twelve simultaneous strikes, police also broke into a Mapuche community radio in El Maiten, Radio Petu Mogelein, and destroyed vital communications equipment.

These communities, often just a handful of indigenous families that survived the bloody campaigns of genocide and displacement throughout Argentina's colonial history, are the now the target of a new offensive under the "anarchocapitalist" policies of Javier Milei. The repression aims at stripping them of the little they have left of their ancestral territory and placing it in the hands of some of the world's largest corporations and wealthiest billionaires.

Trawun, testimony

Outside one of the homes that was raided, Mapuche community members described the violence. A few international journalists and representatives of regional human rights organizations observed the trawun---a community gathering to share information, repair the community and plan strategy. We strained to hear the words of their testimonies as the wind whipped through a stand of poplar trees.

An 84-year-old elder pushed up his sleeve to show bruises from being thrown to the ground and cuffed by police. Young women described being forced to lie face down on the floor for hours and as police intimidated them with their guns. Children witnessed scenes of brutality that will mark them for life.

For hours the security forces refused to present a judicial order or inform indigenous families of the reason behind the violent invasion of their homes. Authorities finally presented a judicial order, signed by judge Jorge Criado, who was formally accused of racial discrimination against the Mapuche in a 2020 case, to investigate a vandalism attack Jan. 18 in Estancia Amancay 80 kilometers away.

Police arrested Victoria Núñez Fernández, a 37-year-old member of the Lof Pillan Mawiza who has lived with and worked with the Mapuche community for years. Witnesses and evidence from GPS records prove that Núñez Fernández was miles from the scene at the time the equipment was set on fire, but the judge ordered 60 days of house arrest as government authorities continue to declare her guilt.

Forest fires as a smokescreen

Since they began in December, Argentine government propaganda has blamed the Mapuches for forest fires that have burned more than 50,000 hectares of mostly national forest land in Patagonia. It's a triple ploy-- to distract from the role of climate change and government negligence in the fires, to divert attention from real estate interests waiting to take over land for megaprojects, and to criminalize the indigenous people who are the last the remaining bulwark against the mass exploitation and destruction of one of the world's largest freshwater and forest reserves.

^Forest in Patagonia, Argentina. Photo: Laura Carlsen^

"It's so outrageous that we should be blamed when actually the Mapuche community has always done everything to protect life here. We're part of the territory that we defend, and we're going to protect the life of the river, the life of the mountain, the life of the forest", Evis Millán of the Lof (community) Pillan Mawiza told me in an interview at her ranch by the river.

"We would never set fire to it. This set-up that the government of Chubut is carrying out with the national government has a clear objective--to name an internal enemy to cover up the criminalization and eviction of the Mapuche communities."

Without a trial or investigation, the day after the police operation, Governor Ignacio Torres of Chubut province presented a PowerPoint accusing the Mapuche of the fires and the vandalism. Flanked by hooded agents bearing machine guns in what was supposed to be a press conference, he projected the faces of four indigenous women, calling them "the persons responsible for the attack [on Amancay]" and swore "they will rot in jail". Among them was Victoria Núñez Fernández, still in custody, and Moira Millán. Moira Millán is an internationally known indigenous land defender, novelist and women's rights leader.

Torres' performance followed a playbook handed down from the far-right government of Javier Milei and his Minister of National Security Patricia Bullrich. Bullrich, whose ministry is also responsible for preventing and controlling forest fires, has long promoted usurping land from indigenous peoples for sale on the international market. Following the raids, she released a video with images of the police raid on Millan's home, stating, "These people will be declared under Article 41 TER-ROR-ISTS".

Milei's government established the legal framework for this extreme measure just days after the raids, when it listed "RESISTENCIA ANCESTRAL MAPUCHE (RAM)" (Mapuche Ancestral resistance) as a terrorist organization in the Public Registry of Persons and Entities linked to Acts of Terrorism and its Financing. The RAM is an invention to smear the Mapuche people; the communities have stated repeatedly they have no knowledge of or contact with it. There's only one person identified with the RAM, Facundo Jones Huala. Despite taking credit for the vandalism at Amancay, Jones Huala has not been arrested and makes no effort to hide from authorities. Meanwhile, the government continues hold Núñez Fernandez on trumped-up charges and to make the untenable claim that a handful of Mapuche women torched the forests they live in as an act of revenge for efforts to displace them.

Mapuches in the Patagonia point to powerful economic interests with ties to Milei's government as the real culprits behind the fires.

A fire sale of the Patagonia

The forest fires that destroyed thousands of acres in the summer months are finally being quelled by autumn rains. Experts have warned that the high temperatures and low rainfall caused by climate change is behind rising fire destruction in the region. But local governments and the government of Javier Milei---a climate change denier---prefer to blame the Mapuche, while taking advantage of the destruction to privatize a land coveted for its minerals and pure water, and for its natural beauty and remoteness.

Milei began preparations to sell off the Patagonia to foreigners as soon as he took office. Using presidential decrees, he repealed the law that limited foreign land ownership on Dec. 21 as part of a package of decrees to deregulate the economy and promote sale of resources to foreign investors.

In what seem to be moves to increase the vulnerability of protected natural reserves, he eliminated the Fund for the Protection of Forests and transferred responsibility to the security ministry, leaving a huge void in know-how, infrastructure and funding to confront forest fires, despite the fact that each year fire destroys more forest land. He also cut spending of the National Service for Fire Management by 81%.

Milei also announced the repeal of the law that bans the immediate sale of land affected by fire for agribusiness and real estate development. This kind of law exists in most countries as a necessary safeguard against business incentives to torch public lands. Although the repeal has not gone into effect yet, it recently passed committee in the Senate and continues to be a key element in the government's plan for a massive fire sale of Patagonian lands.

Mining companies, real estate interests, hydroelectric plants and other megaproject developers have long waited to get their hands on more land in Argentina's Patagonia. Milei is banking on the sell-off of indigenous territories and resources to help pay for the huge debt he hopes to receive in order to prop up the Argentina peso and avoid the total collapse that looms under his radical free-market policies.

Neocolonialism, rebooted

The Milei government has mapped the road forward for the Patagonia, and it runs right over the bodies and the territories of the Mapuche people. To mask its own complicity with business interests hoping to move onto affected lands, the Milei government launched a media and legal strategy to deflect attention from the link between the fires and land-use changes that stand to benefit billionaire foreigners, and to neutralize the Mapuche-Tehuelche people who stand in their way through criminalization, eviction and extermination.

The formula is not new. Crusades against the Mapuche began with the conquest of their ancestral lands centuries ago and has not let up since then. The current crisis has the same colonial roots as previous genocidal campaigns: racism and the takeover of land and resources by force.

In January, Bullrich ordered the eviction of the Lof Pailako in the Los Alerces National Park. To avoid bloodshed, community members abandoned their homes hours before the arrival of police forces. Families were left homeless, animals without sustenance and children without access to housing, health or education. Bullrich stated triumphantly: "This is the first eviction of a series that will mark the end of a period in which a lack of respect for private property reigned in Argentina."

The Minister of Security acts with the full backing of the federal and provincial governments. Milei, an admirer of Donald Trump and member of the international far right, launched the offensive against the Mapuche with his trademark free-market and white supremacist zealotry. While giving investors free rein, he ended indigenous land registry programs and rescinded Law 26.160, the Emergency Indigenous Territory Law of 2006 that at least nominally suspended evictions of indigenous communities in indigenous territory. Despite having signed on to international indigenous rights treaties, successive governments of both the right and the left failed to institutionalize recognition of land and rights, paving the way for Milei to revert gains and protections for the communities.

Human rights organizations have denounced the repeal of indigenous rights to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, the Office of the Rapporteur on Indigenous Peoples and the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

^The Patagonia, Argentina. Photo: Laura Carlsen^

The billionaire bonanza

As the Mapuche are violently evicted from the few hectares of land they live on, international billionaires already own, often illegally, millions of hectares in the Argentine Patagonia and are looking to take over more. The ultra-rich set their sights on this land with its sweeping views of the Andes and miles of clear lakes and open woods decades ago. The region holds much of the earth's remaining fresh water, clean air and pristine forests. Corporations have moved in to exploit natural resources, and individual billionaires see the region as their private playground and a refuge for when the rest of the planet becomes inhabitable.

A case point is Lago Escondido, property of the British multimillionaire Joe Lewis. Lewis owns 12-14 thousand hectares including the entire lake. Although he has entertained Argentine presidents and foreign dignitaries on his property, it's sealed it off to public access by physical barriers and armed guards. Other foreign interests with extensive holdings in the Argentine Patagonia include the Israeli firm Mekorot, the Italian firm Benetton, the actor Sylvester Stallone, and investment companies from United Arab Emirates, among others.

Like Trump, Milei's government of the rich and for the rich has acted fast to remove environmental and social restrictions. Milei instituted a new Incentive Regime for Large Investments (RIGI by its Spanish initials) last year that provides tax breaks, customs incentives and foreign exchange benefits for projects of more than 200 million dollars that are initiated within two years. The law will promote the kind of large-scale extractivist projects that citizen groups and Mapuche communities have opposed for uprooting communities and destroying the land.

An analysis of the likely impact of RIGI in Chubut finds that the Patagonian province could see a rapid boom in mining and oil and gas exploitation. Chubut has a ban on open-pit mining--the result of grassroots organizing. Experts fear a legal challenge that could result in overturning the popular will expressed in the ban.

RIGI and the other programs to sell the Patagonia to foreign investors set the scene for local conflicts over land and resource use. Billionaire land owners stand to profit enormously from Milei's measures and already have drawn up plans to expand holdings and operations.

The attacks, expulsions and criminalization of the Mapuche communities can be seen as a preemptive measure to weaken forces that defend native lands and environmental protection.

Reinforcing the Police State

The federal government has prepared to put down resistance by legalizing violent repression of local and national opposition. On March 10, Congress passed the so-called "Anti-Mafias Law" that mandates that all members of a group can be given the same sentence as a single member, a law the international associations of jurists and human rights organizations have called the "legalization of a virtual state of siege" especially designed to apply to those most hurt by Milei's measure--the poor, political opposition, unionists and indigenous peoples.

Milei's government also adopted an "anti-picket protocol" that criminalizes protest. These measures have led to more than a thousand protesters injured due to excessive use of force, according to a report by Amnesty International. Most recently, police fired a gas canister directly at a photographer during March 12 protests. The photographer Pablo Grillo, whose skull was broken, is still in intensive therapy.

The recreation of a brutal police state in Argentina conjures images of the military dictatorship, a period of state terrorism that lasted from 1976 to 1983. Millan warns that the Milei government is a dictatorship and that the country is seeing a return to the "state terrorism" that led to thousands of assassinations and disappearances during the military dictatorship.

When Caring for Land and Culture Means Risking your Life

It's not surprising that the regime has made indigenous women the center of its defamation campaign. Women are the core of Mapuche defense of their territory and the protection of the land and life against extractivist projects and privatization. They've worked for decades to consolidate and reestablish communities in ancestral lands, teach new generations the Mapuche language and customs, and build peaceful resistance. The latest government-corporate offensive has put their lives and liberty at grave risk.

^Lakes in Patagonia. Photo: Laura Carlsen^

"This group in power---patriarchal, racist ---feels threatened by the capacity and the defense of life that we women carry out," Moira explained in a recent interview. "The State and the corporations know that women can build alliances among sectors to defend rights so they need to weaken this strong organizational process in this historic moment, including at the global level." In this context she added, the openly misogynist attacks of the Milei government are strategic, they're being incorporated into public policy, and they are a focus of repressive policies.

Despite all the forces against them, today's Mapuche communities continue to live on and care for their land. They protect the rivers and lakes, and manage the forests to keep trees healthy, prevent fire damage and control invasive species. Some have lived on these lands continuously for generations, others have returned from forced migration to urban slums to rebuild their lives, their land and their identity.

Almost every day during the weeks of our visit, the women left the house early to hold traditional ceremonies. Language, spirituality, and ancestral knowledge and practices are nourished through daily life, family and community ties. Even after the genocidal campaigns and the speeches devoted to denying their existence (the government frequently speaks of "pseudo-Mapuches") or spreading hate, these communities still survive and it's because of them that the region still offers world-famous fresh water, abundant fish and unspoiled views.

The power of example can be more threatening to illegitimate power than might. Two radically different views of the land and humans' relationship to it are in play here. As plans advance to create an extractivist enclave out of nature's masterpiece, Moira Millán summed it up: "We have firmly opposed extractivist large-scale mining, dams, hydroelectric projects that would murder the river to provide electricity to transnationals and lately the aqueduct that oil companies are pushing for. The Mapuche people recover land to reaffirm the commitment to life. For us, life is the most important. And not just human life, the life of everything in our surroundings."

cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/19393

Miles Morrisseau
ICT

An Inuit activist born in Greenland is calling for “calm” as U.S. President Donald Trump escalates his threats to take over her home country, saying Inuit traditions of consensus could play a role in this period of instability in the Western Hemisphere.

Aaju Peter, a lawyer who now lives in Iqaluit, Nunavut in Canada, has been a longtime defender of Indigenous rights and Inuit sovereignty in Greenland.

“It’s very important to stay calm and centered and not act out of fear because that’s what Trump wants us to do,” Peter told ICT. “He wants us to be split and afraid and act in fear. Instead, we should take this, strengthen ourselves and become more calm and not behave the way he is behaving.

“We should be respectful of everyone and we should be diplomatic and we should all speak and support each other with one voice.”

Peter said she is alarmed, nonetheless, that the rhetoric from the Trump administration to annex Greenland is rising and becoming more threatening.

“It is unsettling because we know that Trump can swing from one end to another,” she said. “But I do believe in the rule of law. I do believe in NATO. I do believe in inherent Indigenous rights. I do believe in rights that were signed onto with agreements.”

She continued, “But if that was all to fall, then we would have to create new agreements and new ways of thinking about our reality that we live in right now.”

Threats of military action

Greenland has been a Danish territory since 1814, but the majority of the population is Inuit or Inuit descent. The U.S. has a military base on the island of Greenland. The Pittifuk Space Base was built in 1951, two years after the North American Treaty Organization was established between North American and European countries to counter Russian aggression following World War II.

“U.S., Canada, and Greenland and Denmark are part of NATO and that he’s willing to go against all the agreements in defending the Arctic, attacking people who are your allies, should not even be on the table,” Peter told ICT. “Greenland has had good relations with the United States for decades since the Second World War and what Greenland politicians are wishing and want is a working relationship that worked before and not threatening the people and the country of Greenland.”

Coast in Greenland. Credit: Courtesy of Aaju Peter

Threats of annexation by the U.S., including military invasion, have raised grave concerns among the members of NATO. On Jan. 6, the foreign ministers of the Nordic countries of Norway, Sweden, Finland, Iceland and Denmark released a statement in support of NATO and Greenland’s sovereignty.

“Security in the Arctic rests on respect for the fundamental principles of the [United Nations] Charter and international law, including the inviolability of borders. The Kingdom of Denmark, including Greenland, is a founding member of NATO, and has historically worked closely with the United States on Arctic Security,” the ministers stated, “including through The Defence Agreement between the U.S. and Denmark from 1951, which offers opportunities for increased security cooperation. We collectively reiterate that matters concerning Denmark and Greenland are for Denmark and Greenland to decide alone.”

Trump told reporters on Jan. 9 that he is not planning on paying off Greenlanders for the land.

“I might talk about that, but right now we are going to do something on Greenland, whether they like it or not,” Trump said. “Because if we don’t do it, Russia or China will take over Greenland, and we’re not going to have Russia or China as a neighbor.”

’Threatening people’

The Trump administration’s stated intention to take over Greenland based on “national security” is a rationale that Peter does not believe.

“I think he’s just using that as an excuse to take control of all the minerals and all the riches that Greenland has so that he doesn’t have to buy Greenland,” Peter said. “He can just take all the minerals and oil and everything that he wants. I think he’s trying to sidetrack us or have us focus on something else other than what it is that he really wants.”

Peter said she does not believe Trump is being honest with the world.

“He hasn’t said out loud what it is that he really wants,” she said. “And that’s why the Greenlandic leaders and the Danes would like him to be truthful in what it is that he wants, and maybe there could be some cooperation, cooperation as opposed to threatening people.”

On Jan. 10, Canada’s Foreign Minister Anita Anand posted on social media to X, formerly Twitter, that Canada continues to support Greenland’s sovereignty and will visit Greenland and meet with leaders in coming weeks.

“I spoke today with my Danish and Greenlandic counterparts, Lars Løkke Rasmussen and Vivian Motzfeldt, to reiterate Canada’s steadfast support for the Kingdom of Denmark and Greenland’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Anand wrote. “As Arctic nations, we share a deep commitment to regional security and protection. I will be in Nuuk, Greenland in the coming weeks for the official opening of Canada’s consulate to convey this message and to strengthen our longstanding partnership in the Arctic.”

Peter has been a long-time advocate of Greenland independence from Denmark and does not believe that threats of U.S. annexation are making that any easier. She was featured in the award-winning documentary, “Twice Colonized.”

“It’s adding extra work for the politicians and for the people who are negotiating now. They have to deal with what’s going to happen with Trump and his administration,” Peter said. “But what the political leaders in Greenland are saying, they’re still working on their independence while they are in talks at this time. It may take 10 days, it may take 10 years, but they’re still working on it.”

Peter believes that tactics of intimidation by the Trump administration are intended to stoke fear in the region and that the best response is to build unity.

“We need to all calm down and not be stressed. We need to get together and support each other and talk the way, with respect, that we always do,” Peter said. “I think it would bring some kind of peace.

“We’ve lived here thousands and thousands of years and we ain’t going anywhere,” she said. “We like the cold and we like our culture. We like our language and … when we get together, we should support each other, and that would only bring relief for us.”

The post ‘Speak with one voice’: Inuit activist calls for unity in Greenland appeared first on ICT.

From ICT via This RSS Feed.

cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/19299

The Alaska Native Medical Center brought the holiday to their primary care center for patients who couldn’t gather with family or in church.

Singers in kuspuks and head scarfs chanted Christmas hymns in English, Yup'ik, Russian and Church Slavonic. Next to them, three young men spinned sparkling, pinwheel-shaped stars on wooden poles, each with an Orthodox icon of a Nativity scene in the center.

The tradition called starring, or Slaviq, is a part of Russian Orthodox Christmas, celebrated across Alaska on Jan. 7. The Alaska Native Medical Center brought the holiday to the Yagheli Shesh Qenq'a Anchorage Native Primary Care Center for the patients who couldn’t gather with their families or in church.

“They need to feel like the culture and the traditions are still including them,” attendee Anastasia Oleksa said. “They're perhaps stuck in the hospital after failing surgery or trouble, illness, you know. And it brings new life to this new year.”

From News Stories via This RSS Feed.

cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/18694

Israel is also holding 52 Palestinian women in prisons, where torture and sexual assault are common

The Palestinian Prisoners' Media Office reported on 9 January that it has documented more than 600 cases of Palestinian children being detained by the Israel during 2025, including a child who died in prison.

A statement issued by the media office said that Israel targets children with arrests, harsh interrogations, and long sentences to destroy “their future, distort their consciousness, and spread fear across society.”

The statement added that 350 children remain in Israeli prisons, including 155 who have been convicted and 90 who are being held without charge as administrative detainees.

Administrative detention lasts six months but can be renewed multiple times based on secret evidence. Some administrative detainees are held for many years.

Detained Palestinian children are held in the Ofer prison in the occupied West Bank and Megiddo prison in Israel at the northern edge of the occupied West Bank.

The media office said that Israel had detained 1,700 Palestinian children since the start of the genocide in Gaza on 7 October 2023, “with an unprecedented escalation in torture.”

Israel committed “grave violations during arrests, including the arrest of children under 10 years old, shooting and causing injuries without medical treatment, interrogations inside hospitals, and transferring the wounded to interrogation centers before they had recovered,” the statement added.

The office confirmed that the detained children are subjected to inhumane conditions, including torture, denial of education and family visits, medical neglect, overcrowding, lack of food and hygiene, and the spread of scabies, especially in winter, due to the lack of heating and adequate clothing.

From thecradle.co via This RSS Feed.

cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/18747

Amelia Schafer
ICT

At least five Native American men have been detained and an unknown number questioned by immigration officers across the Minneapolis area in the midst of what a top official called the “largest immigration raid ever.”

After 2,000 Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrived in Minneapolis early this week, Indigenous residents on the city’s southside have witnessed agents question and even detain community members. Blocks away from a local Native American housing community, a 37-year-old mother was shot by ICE agents Wednesday, sparking nationwide protests.

“I think some of them [ICE] don’t even know what they’re doing or where they’re at,” said Little Crow Belcourt, White Earth Ojibwe and the director of the Indigenous Peoples Movement. “They’re just pulling people over at random, if you’re Brown. Some of our Native (American) people get mistaken for our relatives south of the border.”

Minneapolis’ southside, particularly around Franklin Avenue East, has historically been an area for Indigenous people to gather and live. South Side Housing was first taken over by the Indigenous community in 1975, when it became Little Earth, and since then the area has become the center for the Indigenous community. Community members often call Little Earth an urban reservation, Belcourt said.

On Tuesday, ICE agents attempted to enter Little Earth Housing Project property. Little Earth is the first Native American community housing project in the United States. Property managers told ICT they informed ICE that they were not welcome and turned agents away.

Early Friday morning, ICE agents attempted to detain another Native American community member, Rachel Dionne-Thunder, co-founder of the Indigenous Peoples’ Movement, who was sitting in her car down the street from the Powwow Grounds coffee shop.

Coffee shop workers told ICT they ran outside to stop the agents and protect Dionne-Thunder, who recorded the incident on Facebook live.

Under a bridge near Little Earth, agents detained four Native American men, all citizens of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, according to tribal President Frank Star Comes Out. At least one of the men has been freed after a 12-hour hold, but the community is unaware of his whereabouts, a community advocate from Homeward Bound, a southside homeless advocacy center, told ICT on Friday.

On Thursday, a Red Lake Nation descendant, Jose Roberto “Beto” Ramirez, was detained by ICE in a northern Minneapolis suburb as he was driving to visit his aunt.

Star Comes Out said the tribe’s attorneys have reached out to Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, White Earth Ojibwe, to learn more about where the Oglala Lakota men are being held. The names of the four men are not yet available.

Right now, the tribe is working with Minnesota Sen. Tina Smith, Democratic-Farmer-Labor-Farmer-Labor, her office told ICT.

“Native people have been here since time immemorial – there’s no one that has been a citizen of this country longer than us,” Flanagan told ICT. “The obvious racial profiling happening to our community is disgraceful. My heart breaks to hear about what’s happening and it pisses me off. ICE is doing nothing but making our communities less safe. They need to get out of Minnesota and leave us alone. To Indian Country – take care of each other, protect each other, and continue to have each other’s backs. I’m with you. This won’t be the last you hear from me on this.”

Star Comes Out said once tribal attorneys can locate the four men they plan to provide documentation of their citizenship and tribal membership status. The tribal president said the men were homeless and therefore unable to supply sufficient documentation of their own during the interaction.

Ramirez, the Red Lake man, was detained by ICE sometime after calling his aunt at 11 a.m. Thursday to tell her he was being followed by a black Ford SUV with at least four men inside, according to his aunt, Shawntia Sosa-Clara. Ramirez was driving to visit Sosa-Clark at her home in Crystal, Minnesota, directly outside of Minneapolis.

Jose Roberto Ramirez after graduating high school. (Photo courtesy of Shawntia Sosa-Clara).

On Wednesday, nearly 24 hours before Ramirez reported being followed, Renee Nicole Good was shot and killed by an ICE agent outside her residence on the city’s southside. That same morning, residents at Little Earth, a Native American residential neighborhood on the southside, reported ICE agents entering the building and dragging out individuals.

On Thursday evening, Ramirez was released from the Whipple Building in Minneapolis, where relatives were turned away earlier in the day while attempting to locate him and provide his passport and birth certificate.

When Ramirez realized he was being followed, he called his aunt Shawntia Sosa-Clara for help.

Over the phone, Sosa-Clara told Ramirez to stay calm, listen to the agents and stop at the HyVee Grocery Store in Robbinsdale, near where he was currently driving. Sosa-Clara called 911, informed them of the situation and quickly arrived and parked next to her nephew, who entered her vehicle.

Moments later approximately five ICE agents holding firearms exited the vehicle that had been following Ramirez. Sosa-Clara immediately began recording on her cellphone, which she posted to her Facebook page.

“I said, ‘This is my nephew, he’s a citizen, we’re Native,’” Sosa-Clara told ICT. Robbinsdale Police Department had already arrived at the scene, but did not intervene as shown by live footage on Sosa-Clara’s Facebook page.

ICE has not responded to ICT on why they were pursuing Ramirez or where he was taken.

In the video, agents are heard requesting to scan Ramirez’s face when moments later he’s struck by ICE agents on his face and body. Sosa-Clara is shown attempting to shield and pull back her nephew from agents before another ICE agent steps forward and restrains her.

Ramirez is then removed from his aunt’s vehicle and held over a HyVee customer’s vehicle while five agents handcuff him.

“Why couldn’t you help us?” Sosa-Clara said to Robbinsdale police officers.

But the Robbinsdale Police Department couldn’t do anything but observe the situation, said Capt. John Elder.

Elder said Robbinsdale police don’t have jurisdiction over federal investigations, and cannot interfere.

“It was wholly their [ICE’s] incident,” Elder told ICT.

Federal agents stand outside the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building as protesters gather in Minneapolis, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026.(AP Photo/Adam Bettcher)

Sosa-Clara said the family was later connected to Ramirez through a lawyer who informed them ICE agents are alleging Ramirez struck them first. Red Lake’s legal department was able to provide assistance to Ramirez and his family, Red Lake Nation Chairman Darrell G. Seki Sr. told ICT on Friday.

The family descends from the Red Lake Nation, Sosa-Clara said. While not enrolled, Sosa-Clara and Ramirez’s mother are descendants of the Red Lake Nation through their maternal great-grandparents who were the last to be enrolled. Red Lake Nation requires enrollees to possess one-quarter blood quantum for enrollment.

Because of his status as a descendant, Ramirez does not possess a tribal ID, something that saved another tribal member questioned by ICE in Minneapolis earlier, according to Red Lake tribal employees.

According to Joe Plummer, attorney for the Red Lake Nation, another tribal member had been questioned by ICE prior to this incident and was released when the individual produced a tribal ID.

A search by ICT of US federal inmate records and ICE detainees at Minnesota’s three partner facilities did not produce responsive records regarding Ramirez.

On the south side of Minneapolis, community advocate Jearica Fountain, Karuk Tribe, said she’s heard numerous reports of ICE encounters with Native Americans.

“Native Americans are being detained, but then no one knows where to find them to bring in verification to show they’re Native American,” Fountain said.

The United States Government’s searchable database of ICE detainees does not allow for the selection of “United States” as an individual’s birth country, making it complicated and impossible to search for citizens detained.

On Wednesday, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said at least 100 people have been detained from Minneapolis this week.

Little Earth housing

Fountain, a longtime resident of Minneapolis, said community members at Little Earth reported, and documented video, of at least three individuals being removed by ICE from the facility.

One community member told ICT the agents appeared to be targeting maintenance workers and parents dropping children off at the Little Earth Daycare center, a predominantly Native childcare center.

Minneapolis’s southside is also home to a significant number of Somali refugees, who have recently become the target of a federal probe into childcare fraud, prompting ICE’s recent visit to the city.

Following the killing of Renee Good, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz have requested the removal of ICE from the state.

Fountain said she fears that the Native community of south Minneapolis is being targeted by ICE.

“I wasn’t sure if their intention is to go after Native Americans specifically, or maybe there are outsiders who don’t know about the large Native American community here and what tribal identification looks like,” she said.

South Minneapolis is a “cultural corridor,” Fountain said. The area includes Indian Health Service facilities, the American Indian Center and other cultural programs.

Fountain began posting on Facebook about ICE presence in south Minneapolis following the raid of Little Earth. After her initial posts, Fountain said community members began to reach out for help and resources.

“The day started with them going after the Native community and not long after that [the killing of Good] happened,” Fountain said. “A white woman was (killed) and Native Americans were attacked, and that was a shock to the community… anyone can be targeted.”

Fountain said another large concern is that ICE agents are racially profiling Native people, mistaking them for central and South American immigrants.

Demonstrators rally before marching to the White House in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, as they protest against the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent who fatally shot Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

In November, Leticia Jacobo, Salt River Pima, was mistakenly flagged as an undocumented immigrant by the Polk County Sheriff’s Department in central Iowa. Jacobo’s family feared the error occurred because of her surname, which is Spanish in origin.

Polk County Sheriff’s Department Officials said Jacobo’s flagging was a “clerical error” as officers were looking for another inmate by that name to slate for deportation.

There’s a lack of data on how many American Indian or Alaska Native people have been stopped, questioned or detained by ICE. This is partially due to a lack of reporting, but also the Homeland Security department’s consistent denial that any U.S. citizen has been detained.

Following the killing of Good and an ICE raid at a public high school, several tribal organizations in Minneapolis have closed for the remainder of the week.

As of Thursday evening, the Red Lake Nation, Fond Du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe and Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe have all issued statements condemning ICE’s actions and presence in Minneapolis.

This is a developing story. Check for updates at www.ictnews.org.

Editor’s note: ICT identifies Ramirez as a descendant because his maternal great-grandparents were enrolled members of the Red Lake Nation.

The post Five Native Americans detained by ICE during ongoing raids in Minneapolis appeared first on ICT.

From ICT via This RSS Feed.

cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/18421

On Thursday, Republicans in the House failed to override President Donald Trump’s first two vetoes in office: a pipeline project that would bring safe drinking water to rural Colorado, and another that would return land to the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians in Florida. Their inability to block the president’s move signals their commitment to the White House over their prior support for the measures.

The Miccosukee have always considered the Florida Everglades as their home. So when Republicans in Congress voted to expand the tribe’s land base under the Miccosukee Reserved Area Act – legislation that would transfer 30 acres of land in the Everglades to tribal control – the Miccosukee were thrilled. After years of work, the move would have allowed the tribe to begin environmental restoration activities in the area, and better protect it from climate change impacts as extreme flooding and tropical storms threaten the land.

A portion of the Miccosukee Indian Reservation in Florida’s Everglades known as a tree island, Thursday, July, 11, 2024. Rebecca Blackwell / AP Photo

“The measure reflected years of bipartisan work and was intended to clarify land status and support basic protections for tribal members who have lived in this area for generations,” wrote Chairman Cypress in a statement last week. “Before the roads and canals were built, and before Everglades National Park was created.”

The act was passed on December 11th, but on December 30th, President Donald Trump vetoed it; one of only two vetoes made by the administration since he took office. In a statement, Trump explained that the tribe “actively sought to obstruct reasonable immigration policies that the American people decisively voted for when I was elected,” after the tribe’s July lawsuit challenging the construction of “Alligator Alcatraz”, an immigration detention center in the Everglades.

“It is rare for an administration to veto a bill for reasons wholly unrelated to the merits of the bill,” said Kevin Washburn, a law professor at University of California Berkeley Law and former assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs for the Department of the Interior. Washburn added that while denying land return to a tribe is a political act, Trump’s move is “highly unusual.”

When a tribe regains land, the process can be long and costly. The process, known as “land into trust” transfers land title from a tribe to the United States, where the land is then held for the benefit of the tribe and establishes tribal jurisdiction over the land in question. When tribal nations signed treaties in the 19th century ceding land, any lands reserved for tribes, generally, reservations, were held by the federal government “in trust” for the benefit of tribes—meaning tribal nations don’t own these lands despite their sovereign status.

Almost all land into trust requests are facilitated at an administrative level by the Department of Interior. The Miccosukee, however, generally must follow a different process. Recognized as a tribal nation by the federal government in 1962, the Miccosukee navigate a unique structure for acquiring tribal land where these requests are made through Congress via legislation instead of by Interior.

“It’s ironic, right?” said Matthew Fletcher, a law professor at the University of Michigan. “You’re acquiring land that your colonizer probably took from you a long time ago and then gave it away to or sold it to someone else, and then years later, you’re buying that land back that was taken from you illegally, at a great expense.”

While land into trust applications related to tribal gaming operations often meet opposition, Fletcher says applications, like the Miccosukee’s, are usually frictionless. And in cases like the Miccosukee Reserved Area Act which received bipartisan support at the state and federal levels, in trust applications are all but guaranteed.

On the House floor on Thursday before the vote, Florida’s Democratic Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz said “this bill is so narrowly focused that [the veto] makes absolutely no sense other than the interest in vengeance that seems to have emanated in this result.” The bill’s sponsor, Republican Representative Carlos Gimenez of Florida, did not respond to requests for comment. In July last year, Gimenez referred to the Miccosukee Tribe as stewards of the Everglades, sponsoring the bill as a way to manage water flow and advance an elevation project, under protection from the Department of Interior, for the village to avert “catastrophic flooding.”

“What you’re asking is for people in the same political party of the guy who just vetoed this thing to affirmatively reject the political decision of the President,” Fletcher said.
The tribe is unlikely to see its village project materialize under Trump’s second term unless the outcome of this year’s midterms invites a Democratic-controlled House and Senate. Studies show that the return of land to tribes provides the best outcomes for the climate.

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline The Miccosukee Tribe blocked Alligator Alcatraz. Then Trump blocked a bill to return their land. on Jan 9, 2026.

From Grist via This RSS Feed.

cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/18847

Kalle Benalie
ICT

Elected Native officials, business owners and organizers are reacting to the ICE shooting in Minneapolis that left one woman dead on Jan. 7.

Renee Good, 37, was shot and killed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent during a raid in a Minneapolis neighborhood. Her death ignited a large crowd of protestors and a call to stop ICE’s operations and the Trump administration’s immigration policies.

Jonathan Juarez, Pueblos of Laguna and Isleta, spoke at a vigil for Good at the University of New Mexico bookstore on Jan. 8 as an organizer from the Southwest Solidarity Network, which partnered with the Party for Socialism and Liberation.

Juarez said it was important for him to be there to show support from those in Albuquerque to Minneapolis but also as an Indigenous person whose history is connected to colonial violence from the U.S. government like boarding schools.

Signs people used at the vigil for Renee Good at the University of New Mexico bookstore on the evening of Jan. 8. (Photo by Kalle Benallie, ICT)

“I would say as Indigenous people, we need to acknowledge that migration is a right, and it is something that has been practiced here on these lands long before the United States ever had any established borders,” Juarez said. “And more broadly looking at the patterns of fascism throughout history, we know that this is what the beginning stages of every fascist empire regime looked like. We need to be sounding the alarms and telling people today, it is immigrants and it is trans people, and it is these marginalized people, tomorrow it could be anybody.”

He added the turnout for the vigil was “a really beautiful message of solidarity.”

“It was great, especially considering it was snowing and sleeting and hailing, and it was that freezing wind chill,” Juarez said.

A vigil table for Renee Good, who was killed on Jan. 7 in Minneapolis. A crowd of people attended the event to demand justice and end ICE raids in front of the University of New Mexico bookstore on Jan. 8 . (Photo by Kalle Benallie, ICT)

Kansas Rep. Sharice Davids, Ho-Chunk, responded on X about Good.

“The tragic killing of an American citizen in Minnesota has left her children without a parent. Instead of spreading misinformation or stoking hate, we need a full, transparent, independent investigation to get the facts, ensure accountability, and prevent this kind of heartbreak from happening in communities anywhere in our country,” Davids said.

Senator Markwayne Mullin, Cherokee, from Oklahoma released a video on X explaining how the ICE agent responded to Good’s alleged lethal force with lethal force.

“It’s unfortunate but I support DHS and what they had to do to keep their men and women safe to bring federal fugitives to justice,” he said. “It should have never taken place because those people should have never been out there to begin with. We should be supporting our law enforcement.”

The president of Ho-Chunk Nation, which is east of Minnesota, Jon Greendeer, released a statement on Facebook. He asked for justice for Good and her family, as well as saying ICE is not welcome on Ho-Chunk land in Wisconsin.

“I hold a position which requires me to work with government and find solutions. I will not be found sitting anywhere with ICE at the table. When my family is threatened like so many have been by them, don’t expect me to preserve any type presidential decorum. I’ll be with our Bears and Warriors,” Greendeer said.

In North Dakota, Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Chairman Steve Sitting Bear issued a statement Friday, Jan. 9, addressing public safety concerns. He said his staff is working on establishing a “Know Your Rights” phone line and advised “all First Nations people to carry your tribal information as a practical measure.”

“Any ICE presence or activity within our lands is not authorized, not welcome, and will be addressed,” Sitting Bear said in the statement. “Unauthorized personnel will be escorted off our lands.”

The Owamni restaurant, owned by Oglala Lakota chef Sean Sherman, said they are donating 10 percent of all sales on Jan. 10 and Jan. 11 to Good’s family. Owamni is located in Minneapolis.

“Sending support for her family during this time of grief feels like the right thing to do. We hold Renee in our hearts and send love, strength, and calm to her family for their horrific unnecessary loss,” the statement said.

The post Indian Country reactions to Minnesota ICE shooting appeared first on ICT.

From ICT via This RSS Feed.

cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/18795

This article originally appeared in the January 8, 2026 edition of Desinformémonos.

Mexico City. Since 2019, the Nahua people of Alpuyeca have been requesting that their municipality in Morelos be declared Indigenous territory in order to exercise autonomy and their right to self-determination, including decisions regarding internal forms of social, political, and community organization. The lack of response from the local Congress has led the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation to review the omission and delay in this process.

With a divided vote of five to four, the Plenary of the highest court exercised its power of attraction on the amparo [injunction] in review 384/2024, at the request of the ministers Hugo Aguilar Ortiz, President of Mexico’s Supreme Court, and Irving Espinosa Betanzo, due to the lack of action of the Legislative Power of Morelos.

The Court will analyze whether the delay in the procedures for the creation of the Indigenous municipality violates human rights protected by the Constitution, considering that the inhabitants of Alpuyeca initiated the procedure more than five years ago for the corresponding consultation to be carried out, without the responsible authorities having carried it out until now.

The request for judicial review was supported after hearing from representatives of the Union of Indigenous and Afro-Morelos Municipalities and Communities, who denounced that the Morelos Congress had exceeded the legal deadlines established in the local Constitution and its own regulations for issuing the ruling on the creation of the indigenous municipality of Alpuyeca. The matter will be assigned to a justice for the drafting of the proposal to be submitted to a vote by the full court.

• 

  News Briefs

  Nahua People of Alpuyeca Seek Indigenous Recognition via Mexico’s Supreme Court

  January 9, 2026

  The Nahua demanded the consultation by carried out by the Alpuyeca, Morelos municipal government to secure Indigenous rights five years ago to no avail.

• 

  News Briefs

  Detentions of Americans by Mexican Army & National Guard are on the Rise

  January 9, 2026January 9, 2026

  Most arrests are related to firearms and explosives, and so carried out by the Army and National Guard.

• 

  Mañanera

  People’s Mañanera January 9

  January 9, 2026January 9, 2026

  President Sheinbaum’s daily press conference, with comments on reduction of violence in Guerrero, phone-call with Brazilian President Lula, Trump’s comments about attacking Mexico, minimum wage increases, maritime monitoring, and García Luna arrests.

The post Nahua People of Alpuyeca Seek Indigenous Recognition via Mexico’s Supreme Court appeared first on Mexico Solidarity Media.

From Mexico Solidarity Media via This RSS Feed.

cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/17665

Juan Karita
Associated Press

LA PAZ, Bolivia — Before setting out for the wide, white mountain, Ana Lia González Maguiña took stock of her gear: A chunky sweater to guard against the chill. A harness and climbing rope to scale the 6,000-meter summit of one of Bolivia’s tallest mountains. Aviator glasses to protect from the bright highland sun.

And most crucially, a voluminous, hot-pink skirt.

The bell skirt with layered petticoats — known as the “pollera” (pronounced po-YEH-rah) — is the traditional dress of Indigenous women in Bolivia’s highlands. Imposed centuries ago by Spanish colonizers, the old-fashioned pollera has long since been restyled with local, richly patterned fabrics and reclaimed as a source of pride and badge of identity here in the region’s only Indigenous-majority country.

Rather than seeing the unwieldy skirt as a hindrance to physically demanding work in male-dominated fields, Andean Indigenous women, called “cholitas,” insist that their unwillingness to conform with contemporary style comes at no cost to their comfort or capabilities.

“Our sport is demanding, it’s super tough. So doing it in pollera represents that strength, it’s about valuing our roots,” said González Maguiña, 40, a professional mountain climber standing before the snow-covered Huayna Potosi peak, just north of La Paz, Bolivia’s administrative capital. “It’s not for show.”

Skirt-clad miners, skaters, climbers, soccer players and wrestlers across Bolivia echoed that sentiment in interviews, portraying their adoption of polleras for all professional and physical purposes as an act of empowerment.

“We, women in polleras, want to keep moving forward,” said Macaria Alejandro, a 48-year-old miner in Bolivia’s western state of Oruro, her pollera smeared with the dirt and dust of a day toiling underground. “I work like this and wear this for my children.”

But many also described the current moment as one of uncertainty for pollera-wearing women in Bolivia under the country’s first conservative government in nearly two decades.

Center-right President Rodrigo Paz entered office last month as Bolivia’s economy burned, ending a long era of governance shaped by the charismatic Evo Morales (2006-2019), Bolivia’s first Indigenous president who prioritized Indigenous and rural populations in a country that had been run for centuries by a largely white elite.

Through a new constitution, Morales changed the nation’s name from the Republic of Bolivia to the Plurinational State of Bolivia and adopted the Indigenous symbol of the wiphala — a checkerboard of bright colors — as an emblem equivalent to the national flag. For the first time, pollera-wearing ministers and officials walked the halls of power.

But disillusionment with Morales’ Movement Toward Socialism party grew, especially under his erstwhile ally ex-President Luis Arce, who was arrested earlier this month on allegations that he siphoned off cash from a state fund meant to support Indigenous communities.

Some cholitas now wonder how far that change will go and fear it could extend to their hard-won rights despite Paz’s promises to the contrary.

They describe feeling neglected by a government with no Indigenous members. They worry about the implications of the army last month removing Indigenous symbols from its logo and the government deciding to stop flying the wiphala from the presidential palace, as was long the tradition.

“I feel like the government won’t take us into account,” said Alejandro, the miner. “We needed a change. The economy must get better. But it’s sad to see there are no powerful people wearing polleras. I see it as discrimination.”

But González Maguiña said she still had hope, given how far Indigenous women had come.

“We already have the strength and everything that comes with it,” she said. “We’re certainly going to knock on the doors of this new government.”

The post Bolivian Indigenous women carry history and pride in the traditional ‘pollera’ skirt appeared first on ICT.

From ICT via This RSS Feed.

cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/17694

Last Updated on January 6, 2026 The West Papua provincial government reaffirmed Monday that Indigenous communities with customary land rights have the legal authority to approve or reject any expansion of palm oil plantations in their forests, a policy change officials and local advocates say aims to safeguard both community rights and the region’s sensitive […]

Source

From Intercontinental Cry via This RSS Feed.

cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/17839

Federally funded Indigenous-led conservation programs are delivering highly effective climate and biodiversity outcomes, aligning with national greenhouse gas mitigation and biodiversity goals, according to a new paper led by Concordia researchers.

From Earth News - Earth Science News, Earth Science, Climate Change via This RSS Feed.

cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/17741

This story was originally published by South Dakota Searchlight.

Makenzie Huber
South Dakota Searchlight

For the fourth year in a row, Native American children made up more than 70 percent of children in the South Dakota foster care system at the end of the state’s fiscal year.

That’s six times higher than Indigenous children’s representation in the state’s population. White children, by comparison, make up 70 percent of the state’s population and 23 percent of the state’s foster care population.

South Dakota officials have known Native American children are overrepresented in the foster care system for nearly half a century. Children who are removed from their homes and placed in foster care are more likely to be diagnosed with mental health disorders, to be involved in the criminal justice systemor homeless, and to have their own children removed from their care, studies indicate.

The state Department of Social Services recently released its annual Child Protection Services report, detailing the number of children in foster care, how they’re cared for and where they’re discharged.

Of the state’s 1,709 foster care children at the end of fiscal year 2025, according to the department, 1,201 were Native American.

State works to increase kinship care numbers

About 32 percent of children, regardless of their race, were placed in kinship care with relatives or close family friends, while 86 percent were placed in a “family setting” with a foster family. Kinship care falls within family settings.

Kinship care is up from 30 percent the year before, when the state first began releasing the data point.

The number of registered foster homes in the state for the 2025 fiscal year was 793 — the fewest since 2020. Of those homes, 93 — or nearly 12 percent — were Native American, up from 11 percent the prior year.

When children have to be removed from their homes, prioritizing kinship care (placing them with a relative or close family friend) can improve academic, behavioral and mental health outcomes, and allow the child to stay within their culture and community, according to Child Trends, a research organization focused on child welfare.

Department of Social Services Secretary Matt Althoff told South Dakota Searchlight in an emailed statement that kinship care is “a priority.” The department implemented new licensed kinship foster home standards in June, meant to remove barriers that kept potential kinship families from registering with the state.

“This permits kinship families to become licensed and receive financial support more quickly to meet the children’s needs,” Althoff said.

At-home intervention decreases by 13 percent

At-home intervention, without a child’s removal or the court’s involvement, decreased by 95 children this year.

Just under 500 children received at-home intervention services through the state Child Protection Services, including parental training and home management, according to a Searchlight data request answered by the department.

Interventions can include a “safety plan,” which is a strategy created by a social worker to address safety concerns of at-risk families while a case is being investigated, and a “present danger plan,” which involves families voluntarily letting a child live with another caregiver or having a person accused of maltreatment leave the home.

Another 122 children received other types of at-home interventions, such as a referral to counseling or other assistance, without further Child Protection Services involvement.

More children aging out of foster care system

Of the 984 children who left the child welfare system during the 2025 fiscal year:

• 423 were reunited with their families.
• 254 were adopted (54 percent by a foster parent and 36 percent by a relative).
• 72 were transferred to a tribal program.
• 108 were placed into a formal guardianship agreement.
• 34 were placed with a relative without guardianship or kinship licensure.
• Five were transferred to the Department of Corrections or another agency.

Eighty-five children aged out of the system during fiscal year 2025, up by 20 from fiscal year 2024.

The state reported that 58 percent of children in the child welfare system are reunited with their families within a year — a gradual decrease each year from a 75 percent reunification rate in fiscal year 2020, the oldest data available on the department website.

Althoff said the department tracks reunification data to “ensure that efforts remain focused on child well-being and family stability.” He added that many factors influence reunification timelines.

“These can include the willingness on the part of the birth parents to conform to behavioral changes described by the court, the complexity of family circumstances, availability of services, court scheduling, and the time needed to ensure a safe and stable environment for the child,” Althoff said.

Two children ran away, both cases reported as 15-year-old females who were found, and one child died in state care. The child was a 15-year-old male who died “unrelated to child abuse and neglect,” according to the department. The department did not disclose the cause of death.

The post 70 percent of children in South Dakota foster care are Native American, state says appeared first on ICT.

From ICT via This RSS Feed.

cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/17666

Nika Bartoo-Smith
Underscore Native News+ ICT

Spokane, Washington — Sitting at a small desk in the basement of a single-family home converted into a school, Graham Wiley-Camacho patiently helped his youngest daughter, Kłaʔmásq̓t (Irie), work through a fractions math problem in n̓səl̓xčin̓ (Colville-Okanagan Salish).

As he helped Kłaʔmásq̓t, whose English name is Irie Wiley-Camacho, and six other elementary school kids work on division problems, the students asked and answered questions on a worksheet all in Salish.

paˤłxʷ, whose English name is Graham, is Sinixt Lake Band from the Colville Confederated Tribes. He is the lead elementary school teacher at Salish School of Spokane, which was founded by his mother, N̓ʔiy̓sítaʔtkʷ, whose English name is LaRae Wiley, in 2009.

Courtesy of the Salish School of Spokane. Credit: Shown here is the Washington Corrections Center for Women, where the Women Sisterhood Powwow was held Sept. 9, 2023. (Photo by Jarrette Werk Underscore News / Report for America)

N̓ʔiy̓sítaʔtkʷ (LaRae), Sinixt citizen of the Colville Confederated Tribes, is a founder and former executive director of the school. She is now serving as an elder linguist. paˤłxʷ (Graham)’s dad, ʔaˤn̓n̓, whose English name is Chris Parkin, is the school’s principal.

“That’s just how language revitalization works,” paˤłxʷ (Graham) said. “Because if the goal is to restart intergenerational transmission and create Salish speaking households again, then that kind of implies families and extended families.”

Next door to paˤłxʷ (Graham) and Kłaʔmásq̓t (Irie), paˤłxʷ’s (Graham)’s wife Sx̌mn̓atkʷ whose English name is Dominique Wiley-Camacho, taught middle school math in Salish. Their oldest daughter, X̌sčn̓itkʷ, whose English name is Seneca Wiley-Camacho, quietly worked on her math assignment as her mom answered questions.

“Our grandparents made the school, our parents are both teachers, we speak Salish a lot, like at home too,” X̌sčn̓itkʷ (Seneca) said. “And it’s a really small school so everyone here is like family.”

For 94 years, no children in N̓ʔiy̓sítaʔtkʷ’s (LaRae)’s family were raised speaking Salish. She changed that with her language journey, now having three grandchildren who attended Salish School of Spokane and grew up immersed in their language.

Courtesy of the Salish School of Spokane. Credit: Though much different than powwows held outside prison walls, Unkitawa worked to bring a sense of familiarity and excitement to the Sept. 9, 2023, powwow at Washington Corrections Center for Women. Jeremy Garretson planned a competition powwow, bringing in dancers from outside the prison to compete. (Photo by Jarrette Werk Underscore News / Report for America)

For students like N̓ʔiy̓sítaʔtkʷ’s (LaRae)’s grandaughters X̌sčn̓itkʷ (Seneca) and Kłaʔmásq̓t (Irie), growing up at an immersion school, hearing, speaking, reading and writing in Salish is normal. Even at home, they speak Salish with their parents and grandparents, often using it to communicate out in public to have more private conversations.

“I get emotional because I think about what my great grandmother would think if she saw these little kids speaking our language,” N̓ʔiy̓sítaʔtkʷ (LaRae) said. “My grandmother went through so much suffering and pain, and so to just have this joy and this revival of the language, it really touches my heart.”

Inspired by her uncle and grandmothers, N̓ʔiy̓sítaʔtkʷ (LaRae) has brought back Salish not only for her family, but for many others in Spokane. While Salish School of Spokane educates a whole new generation of Salish speakers, families and teachers alike, N̓ʔiy̓sítaʔtkʷ (LaRae), ʔaˤn̓n̓ (Chris) and their family are also sharing language revitalization efforts with other communities.

The making of an immersion school

On a crisp fall day in early November, students and staff gathered outside of Salish School of Spokane to start their school day the same as any other — with songs in Salish. When the snows come in and the weather is too cold, staff and students squeeze together in the multi-purpose room within the school.

Students ranging from 1 to 13 years old gather with teachers and administrators to take turns calling out which Salish song they will sing.

“We have a morning circle every morning and everybody drums together, from our smallest baby,” said k̓ʷaʔk̓ʷíslaʔxʷ (Kim Richards), Apache and Santa Anna Pueblo, co-executive director of Salish School of Spokane. “We come together as a community every single morning.”

Throughout the classrooms, hallways and playground, hardly a word of English is spoken, as students and teachers alike talk to each other in Salish, even when not in active instruction time.

paˤłxʷ, whose English name is Graham Wiley-Camacho, helps his youngest daughter Kłaʔmásq̓t, whose English name is Irie Wiley-Camacho, work through a math problem on November 6, 2025. (Photo by Nika Bartoo-Smith, Underscore Native News / ICT)

Salish School of Spokane sits in the middle of traditional Southern Interior Salish languages. There are 29 Salish languages throughout the region of what is now known as Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana and British Columbia, Canada. Of those, there are 22 Coast Salish languages and 7 Interior Salish languages, according to the Salish School of Spokane website.

At Salish School of Spokane the goal is the revitalization of the four Southern Interior Salish languages, with a focus on n̓səl̓xčin̓. The curriculum enables staff to teach both n̓səl̓xčin̓ (Colville-Okanagan Salish) and n̓sélišcn̓ (Spokane-Kalispel-Bitterroot Salish), bringing learners to an advanced level of fluency.

The “fluency transfer system” created and used at Salish School of Spokane is made up of audio recordings of a first-language fluent elder, Sʕamtíc̓aʔ (Sara Peterson); transcriptions; Salish curriculum; and immersion teaching strategies.

Through this system, Salish School of Spokane staff are helping to create a whole community of Salish speakers. From students and staff to their parents, who are also required to take language classes.

“That’s the goal, is to create a community of new speakers,” N̓ʔiy̓sítaʔtkʷ (LaRae) said.

Growing up, N̓ʔiy̓sítaʔtkʷ (LaRae) never heard her language, Salish, spoken.

“I knew that my grandma and my great grandma spoke the language, but they didn’t pass it on to my dad, because they didn’t want him to have to deal with all the racism and everything,” she said.

N̓ʔiy̓sítaʔtkʷ, whose English name is LaRae Wiley, Sinixt citizen of the Colville Confederated Tribes, is a founder and former executive director of the Salish School of Spokane. She is now serving as an elder linguist. She smiles for a photo on November 6, 2025. (Photo by Nika Bartoo-Smith, Underscore Native News / ICT)

The need to learn her language struck N̓ʔiy̓sítaʔtkʷ (LaRae) in her late 30s, at her great uncle’s funeral in February 1997, when she found out he spoke Salish. Though she had grown up with her uncle, she never heard him speak Salish. He was the last Salish speaker in her family.

At the funeral, N̓ʔiy̓sítaʔtkʷ (LaRae) remembers someone speaking about the need for new language learners. “We need our young people to learn language and teach language. Every year we’re losing our fluent speakers,” N̓ʔiy̓sítaʔtkʷ (LaRae) recalls them saying.

That struck N̓ʔiy̓sítaʔtkʷ (LaRae), who taught in the Chewelah School District in Washington at the time. In her last position, she taught middle and high school choir along with high school social studies and language arts.

“I thought ‘well, maybe I can learn our language and I can teach it and pass it on to other people, N̓ʔiy̓sítaʔtkʷ (LaRae) said. “I can bring it back to my family.”

From then on, she committed to learning Salish.

Initially N̓ʔiy̓sítaʔtkʷ (LaRae) enrolled in a Salish class in Wellpinit, Washington. There, she took classes learning n̓sélišcn̓ (Spokane-Kalispel-Bitterroot Salish) before she volunteered to teach for a few years.

“It wasn’t the language of my family, but it’s my sister language,” said N̓ʔiy̓sítaʔtkʷ (LaRae ), whose family spoke n̓səl̓xčin̓ (Colville-Okanagan Salish). “It really was powerful to learn any Salish language, and feel that connectedness to place and to ancestors.”

After volunteering, N̓ʔiy̓sítaʔtkʷ (LaRae) was hired on to teach for another year, working with kids from head start through fourth grade. As she worked to learn the language herself, she simultaneously created new materials to turn around and teach the language to her students.

At the time, N̓ʔiy̓sítaʔtkʷ’s (LaRae)’s husband, Chris, who is non-Native, was a Spanish teacher at Gonzaga Prep. She realized how different their language jobs were. By the end of four years, learning Spanish one hour a day, students were able to hold full conversations in Spanish, with a plethora of materials to pull from. That was not the case with Salish.

ʔaˤn̓n̓, whose English name is Chris Parkin, is principal/business and grants manager for the Salish School of Spokane. He sits at his desk for a photo on November 6, 2025. (Photo by Nika Bartoo-Smith, Underscore Native News / ICT) Credit: Braylee Dempsy, left (Blackfeet and Navajo), and Jaliauna Templeton (Blackfeet) take a break from dancing to pose for their photo in front of the tipi Unkitawa staff brought and set up prior to grand entry. (Photo by Jarrette Werk Underscore News / Report for America)

Together, N̓ʔiy̓sítaʔtkʷ’ (LaRae ) and Chris, who’s Salish name is ʔaˤn̓n̓, decided to begin by making audio recordings with a fluent elder. They worked with Spokane elder Anne McCray, who also helped create the first book, that N̓ʔiy̓sítaʔtkʷ’ (LaRae) taught during a n̓sélišcn̓ (Spokane-Kalispel-Bitterroot Salish) college class she led in Wellpinit.

While teaching, N̓ʔiy̓sítaʔtkʷ’ (LaRae) applied to be an apprentice learner of n̓səl̓xčin̓ (Colville-Okanagan Salish) with her tribe. Once approved, she drove 138 miles and more than two-and-a-half hours back and forth between Wellpinit and Omak for the next year, immersed in both n̓sélišcn̓ (Spokane-Kalispel-Bitterroot Salish) and n̓səl̓xčin̓ (Colville-Okanagan Salish).

There, she met Sʕamtíc̓aʔ (Sarah Peterson), Lower Similkameen Indian Band, one of 10 fluent n̓səl̓xčin̓ (Colville-Okanagan Salish) speakers at the time.

“I found out that our language was super endangered,” N̓ʔiy̓sítaʔtkʷ’ (LaRae) said. “I just felt this urgency. We need to figure out how to do this so that we can start creating new speakers.”

That urgency propelled N̓ʔiy̓sítaʔtkʷ’ (LaRae) to not only dive into learning her language, but expanding curriculum so she could teach future n̓səl̓xčin̓ (Colville-Okanagan Salish) speakers as well.

In the summer of 2004, N̓ʔiy̓sítaʔtkʷ’ (LaRae) and ʔaˤn̓n̓ (Chris) rented a house in Omak and embarked on a language intensive with Sʕamtíc̓aʔ (Sara).

paˤłxʷ, whose English name is Graham Wiley-Camacho, is Sinixt Lake Band from the Colville Confederated Tribes. He is the lead elementary school teacher at the Salish School of Spokane. (Photo by Nika Bartoo-Smith, Underscore Native News / ICT)

N̓ʔiy̓sítaʔtkʷ’ (LaRae) and ʔaˤn̓n̓ (Chris) created 30 lessons with Sʕamtíc̓aʔ (Sarah) that first summer. Each day, ʔaˤn̓n̓ (Chris) would record Sʕamtíc̓aʔ (Sarah) then give the recordings to N̓ʔiy̓sítaʔtkʷ’ (LaRae) who would study them until late in the evening. The next day, N̓ʔiy̓sítaʔtkʷ’ (LaRae) would teach that lesson to ʔaˤn̓n̓ (Chris) along with their son, paˤłxʷ (Graham) and his friend Jake La Mere, the four of them huddled together in the rented single-wide trailer.

“It was so successful that in six weeks, we caught up to apprentices who had been there for two years in terms of what we could say and what we could understand,” ʔaˤn̓n̓ (Chris) said.

By the end of the summer, N̓ʔiy̓sítaʔtkʷ’ (LaRae) and ʔaˤn̓n̓ (Chris) sold their house in Chewelah and moved to K̓ɬy̓aˤn̓q̓úʔ (Paul Creek) near Keremeos in British Columbia of Canada to live with Sʕam̓tíc̓aʔ (Sarah) and her family. They continued working with the language and creating curriculum.

They were able to lead eight weeks of intensive language training a year later.

The following year N̓ʔiy̓sítaʔtkʷ’ (LaRae) and ʔaˤn̓n̓ (Chris) moved to Deer Park, a small town north of Spokane, to help take care of their first grandchild. They spoke to their granddaughter, Mireya Parkin-Pineda, in Salish. Mireya Parkin-Pineda is now in her first year in the honors college at Western Washington University in Bellingham, 40 minutes south of the U.S.-Canada border.

This inspired N̓ʔiy̓sítaʔtkʷ’ (LaRae) to reach out to three other Sinixt mothers, including her daughter and sister, and create a pilot Salish immersion nest in Spokane. The first class was made up of four kids, including N̓ʔiy̓sítaʔtkʷ’ (LaRae) and ʔaˤn̓n̓ (Chris)’s granddaughter. The pilot ran from January to June 2009 out of one of the mother’s basements.

Students from the kindergarten to second grade classroom sit at their desk together at the Salish School of Spokane on November 6, 2025. (Photo by Nika Bartoo-Smith, Underscore Native News / ICT)

In September 2010, that basement pilot program became Salish School of Spokane, starting with an immersion preschool program for six kids and evening language classes for their parents. The curriculum was all from what N̓ʔiy̓sítaʔtkʷ’ (LaRae), ʔaˤn̓n̓ (Chris) and Sʕamtíc̓aʔ (Sarah) created together.

Salish School of Spokane has continued to grow ever since. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, it briefly expanded to a pre-K to 12th grade program with 74 students aged 1 to 17 years in 2017 with a bilingual, Salish-English, secondary program.

Unfortunately, the pandemic took a toll on Salish School of Spokane. With a lack of teachers, the school went back to a preschool to grade 6 with 32 students enrolled for the 2021 academic year.

In 2024, the Salish immersion Language Nest classroom re-opened and Salish School of Spokane expanded back up to 8th grade.

Salish School of Spokane runs because of intentional collaboration and community-building between teachers, students and families, according to N̓ʔiy̓sítaʔtkʷ’ (LaRae).

“They give their heart and soul to the school and the language, and this wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for folks who really want the language back for their families,” N̓ʔiy̓sítaʔtkʷ’ (LaRae) said.

In particular, Sʕamtíc̓aʔ (Sarah)’s legacy lives on through her contributions to the school. When first starting Sƛ̓x̌atkʷ N̓səlxcin Sn̓mam̓áy̓aʔtn Salish School of Spokane, there were a few dozen books in Salish to pull from, according to paˤłxʷ (Graham). Sʕamtíc̓aʔ (Sarah) translated around 600 books for the students at Salish School of Spokane.

Salish immersion curriculum

This September, 50 students enrolled in Salish School of Spokane, ages 1 year to 14. They also have 26 teachers in daily intensive language training classes and 48 adults, primarily students’ parents, in evening classes.

At Salish School of Spokane, classes are broken up by age  ranges. Starting with the Salish Language Nest for 1 and 2-year-olds. The early childhood education and assistance program is for preschool students, 3 and 4-year-olds. Then a combined kindergarten through second grade class, followed by a combined third through fifth grade class, and then finally a combined class for sixth through eighth grade.

Students from the pre-K classroom at the Salish School of Spokane gather with their teachers on November 5, 2025. (Photo by Nika Bartoo-Smith, Underscore Native News / ICT) Credit: Oklahoma filmmaker Sterlin Harjo speaks to a reporter a the premiere of groundbreaking series, "Reservation Dogs," on Aug. 2, 2021, in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The series will begin its third and final season with FX on Hulu starting Aug. 2, 2023.  The series was created by Harjo, Seminole and Muscogee of Oklahoma, and Taika Waititi, who is Maori. (AP Photo/Sean Murphy/FILE PHOTO)

All subjects are taught in Salish. Subjects include math, reading, writing, science, art, piano lessons, powwow drumming and dancing. Middle schoolers also take Spanish classes.

“Our kids are growing up as quasi first language speakers of this critically endangered language,” ʔaˤn̓n̓’ (Chris) said.

While students get instruction in Salish, they still take standardized tests in English. Most of the students score at or above grade level in all subjects, according to ʔaˤn̓n̓’ (Chris).

By the time students are in middle school, they spend about 30% of their time outside the classroom learning. This includes harvesting traditional foods and medicines; learning to ride and care for horses; and testing water quality with Spokane River Keeper, a nonprofit working to protect and restore the Spokane River; according to N̓ʔiy̓sítaʔtkʷ (LaRae).

“I think it’s really cool that we can get out of the classroom, not just learn about it, but also do it,” said X̌sčn̓itkʷ (Seneca), who is 13 and in eighth grade. “You learn about horses, and then you get to go take care of horses. You learn about berries, and then you can go pick the berries.”

When digging for roots and picking huckleberries, students get to use baskets that they learned to weave in their textiles classes.

Inside the classrooms, students in the elementary and middle school work closely with their teachers, often breaking up into smaller groups with only a few kids for each teacher or teacher’s assistant.

Students from the middle school classroom at the Salish School of Spokane gather together on the morning of November 5, 2025. (Photo by Nika Bartoo-Smith, Underscore Native News / ICT)

Even classes like science and math are a place for learning Salish.

In a morning middle school class, Sx̌mn̓atkʷ (Dominique), Taíno from Puerto Rico, was teaching a geology unit. Sx̌mn̓atkʷ (Dominique) is the lead middle school teacher. During class, she realized that she did not know a good translation for the word “lava.”

Sx̌mn̓atkʷ (Dominique) and her students decided to break the word down to come up with a translation together. They needed to find a word that captured that lava is a “melted rock” and that it “flows.” They landed on tyísxn̓, meaning “a rock that flows,” with help from paˤłxʷ (Graham), the lead elementary school teacher for third through fifth graders.

“That was a piece of our class time to then help us continue talking about these geology concepts, where then the kids are actually being very thoughtful about the terms that they’re using, and the cultural connection and representation of that word,” Sx̌mn̓atkʷ (Dominique) said, describing how word analysis is a huge part of language learning. “I think it’s fun.”

A community school

Salish School of Spokane as an intergenerational community school, aims to nurture a community of new Salish speakers.

N̓ʔiy̓sítaʔtkʷ (LaRae ) and ʔaˤn̓n̓’ (Chris) both work at the school along with their son paˤłxʷ, (Graham) and his wife, Sx̌mn̓atkʷ (Dominique). paˤłxʷ (Graham) and Sx̌mn̓atkʷ (Dominique)’s two daughters also attend the school.

This is common at Salish School of Spokane, for parents to teach their children and the other students.

“That’s been the highlight for me, is watching them become highly advanced speakers and then take it into their homes and use it with their kids,” N̓ʔiy̓sítaʔtkʷ (LaRae) said. “Another highlight has been being able to speak to my own grandkids in the language.”

X̌sčn̓itkʷ, whose English name is Seneca Wiley-Camacho, Sinixt Lakes Band from the Colville Confederated Tribes, works on a computer while her mom, Sx̌mn̓atkʷ, whose English name is Dominique Wiley-Camacho, Taíno from Puerto Rico, teaches other students at the Salish School of Spokane on November 6, 2025. (Photo by Nika Bartoo-Smith, Underscore Native News / ICT)

Not only educating little ones, everyone involved with the school — from staff to parents — are also taking language classes to actively learn Salish. Parents are required to attend evening classes and log at least 60 hours of Salish learning each year. Childcare is provided along with dinner for each evening class.

All staff members at Salish School of Spokane spend 90 minutes every school day in language classes, according to N̓ʔiy̓sítaʔtkʷ (LaRae).

“Half of our programming is creating new fluent adults, and that’s the piece that most organizations are missing,” paˤłxʷ (Graham) said.

For many language programs, hiring new teachers means hiring people that already speak the language. At Salish School of Spokane, they are first training people to speak Salish, as there are very few speakers left of the critically endangered language.

“A school is a great way to bring people together, because you really need an economic hub for people,”  N̓ʔiy̓sítaʔtkʷ (LaRae) said, describing how a school enables them to offer employment for language learning, breaking down a significant financial barrier.

Signs around the Salish School of Spokane label what school supplies are in n̓səl̓xčin̓, Colville-Okanagan Salish. (Photo by Nika Bartoo-Smith, Underscore Native News / ICT) Credit: Photo by Sage Sohier, courtesy of David Bunn Martine

“The idea is using the school as a hub, kind of like an economic engine, and being able to hire folks from the community to teach them language and teach them how to become teachers,” she continued.

Salish School of Spokane has a Salish language educator development program as well, training adults to be advanced fluent speakers of Salish. Those in the program participate in one year of intensive language immersion with six hours a day of instruction and two hours each day in the classroom with students of the immersion program.

After that year, trainees often continue with 90 minutes per day of Salish instruction and then begin teaching as associate Salish immersion teachers.

For many of the families and teachers involved at Sƛ̓x̌atkʷ N̓səlxcin Sn̓mam̓áy̓aʔtn (Salish School of Spokane), learning Salish is about reconnecting with their own Indigenous language.

Students from the third through fifth grade classroom at the Salish School of Spokane sit together and work on a math problem in n̓səl̓xčin̓, Colville-Okanagan Salish, on November 6, 2025. (Photo by Nika Bartoo-Smith, Underscore Native News / ICT)

“One of the root reasons that I was attracted to working here is because I wanted to learn that component about my culture,” said C̓əq̓cq̓al̓qs (Brea Desautel), Sinixt Lakes Band from the Colville Confederated Tribes, co-executive director of Salish School of Spokane. “[Language] and traditions and knowledge that wasn’t necessarily able to be passed down to me.”

Working with students, C̓əq̓cq̓al̓qs (Brea) is constantly impressed by the language skills and knowledge of the youth at Salish School of Spokane who are growing up immersed in Salish.

“These kids are going to have that opportunity to pass on what they know, pass on what they’ve learned,” C̓əq̓cq̓al̓qs (Brea) said. “I just think that that’s really cool, that we are giving them that power back, because a lot of our elders, they didn’t necessarily have that power.”

Dreaming for the future

As interest and investment grows in the Salish School of Spokane they’re quickly outgrowing their space. That’s soon to change though. In February 2026 construction will begin on a new campus. It will sit on over two acres of land that borders the Spokane River, gifted to the school, by Catholic Charities Eastern Washington.

The new campus will allow for growth at Salish School of Spokane. The construction of the new school building will allow a double in enrollment capacity — increasing student enrollment from 60 to 125. Eventually, this will allow the school to bring back a high school program.

The new Salish School of Spokane campus will eventually include housing, a school, a cultural and recreation center, and a sports field. Construction for the new campus, situated along the Spokane River, will begin February 2026. (Image courtesy of Salish School of Spokane) Credit: President Joe Biden speaks with members of the press before boarding Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House, Thursday, Feb. 17, 2022, in Washington. Biden is en route to Ohio to promote his infrastructure agenda. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

Along with a new school building, Salish School of Spokane plans to build a Cultural Recreation Community Center. For many current students, this is one of the most exciting pieces — having a gym for recreation.

The community center will also allow space for Salish School of Spokane to host larger cultural and community events such as powwows and stick games, according to N̓ʔiy̓sítaʔtkʷ (LaRae).

The new campus will also vastly expand the outdoor classroom of Salish School of Spokane. Nestled next to the Spokane River, much of the surrounding area is protected pine forest. They hope to start bringing back more traditional foods and medicines throughout the property.

Floor plans outline the design for the new Salish School of Spokane campus, of which the groundbreaking will occur in February 2026. (Image courtesy of Salish School of Spokane)

“We’re hoping to get a greenhouse so we can propagate traditional plants and stuff like that,” N̓ʔiy̓sítaʔtkʷ (LaRae) said. “And then also have hide tanning spots and meat drying racks all along here.”

Down the line, the dream is to have housing at the property as well, for teachers, families and the broader community.

The school and expansion to a new property is an attempt to recreate a winter village, according to paˤłxʷ (Graham).

A group of elementary school students from third through fifth grade sit in the library of the Salish School of Spokane on November 6, 2025, doing math lessons with their teacher in n̓səl̓xčin̓, Colville-Okanagan Salish. (Photo by Nika Bartoo-Smith, Underscore Native News / ICT) Credit: Natasha Bickar, Cherokee, has focused on cultural connection with Unkitawa while serving her sentence at the Washington Corrections Center for Women in Gig Harbor, Wash. She helped close out the celebration by thanking guests for attending and acknowledging the Medicine Creek treaty tribes, whose land the prison is built on. (Photo by Jarrette Werk Underscore News / Report for America)

“It’s been over 100 years since there has been an intact language culture community speaking Salish,” paˤłxʷ (Graham) said. “That’s one of the things we’re trying to do with the new campus is to eventually put housing there, so this way, for the first time in a century, we’ll have that stable base.”

As Salish School of Spokane continues its own dream of expansion, wrapping up a capital campaign to raise funds for the new campus, N̓ʔiy̓sítaʔtkʷ’ (LaRae) and ʔaˤn̓n̓ (Chris) and their family are actively working to bring the Indigenous Language Fluency Transfer System to other communities working on language revitalization.

This summer, ʔaˤn̓n̓ (Chris) and N̓ʔiy̓sítaʔtkʷ’ (LaRae) launched a new nonprofit, Indigenous Fluency Now. Currently a board of three, including N̓ʔiy̓sítaʔtkʷ’ (LaRae), and staff of two, including ʔaˤn̓n̓ (Chris), the goal of the organization is to promote language revitalization and create a network of communities doing this work.

Kłaʔmásq̓t, whose English name is Irie Wiley-Camacho, Sinixt Lake Band from the Colville Confederated Tribes, works through a math problem in n̓səl̓xčin̓, Colville-Okanagan Salish, on November 6, 2025. (Photo by Nika Bartoo-Smith, Underscore Native News / ICT)

Watching young language learners keeps N̓ʔiy̓sítaʔtkʷ’ (LaRae) committed to the work, thinking about her great grandmother and what it would mean if she got to see new language speakers. N̓ʔiy̓sítaʔtkʷ’ (LaRae) hopes to share that with other Indigenous communities committed to language revitalization.

“Sometimes we get all teary when we watch them because it’s such a miracle that they’re speaking their language and doing their drumming and everything in the language,”  N̓ʔiy̓sítaʔtkʷ (LaRae) said.

“There’s no stigma,” she added. “It’s just normal. They’re so confident, and I’m just so happy that they get to have that experience of knowing their language, knowing their culture, and it really does just ground them and who they are.”

This story is co-published by Underscore Native Newsand ICT, a news partnership that covers Indigenous communities in the Pacific Northwest.

The post Building a community of n̓səl̓xčin̓ speakers appeared first on ICT.

From ICT via This RSS Feed.

cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/17741

This story was originally published by South Dakota Searchlight.

Makenzie Huber
South Dakota Searchlight

For the fourth year in a row, Native American children made up more than 70 percent of children in the South Dakota foster care system at the end of the state’s fiscal year.

That’s six times higher than Indigenous children’s representation in the state’s population. White children, by comparison, make up 70 percent of the state’s population and 23 percent of the state’s foster care population.

South Dakota officials have known Native American children are overrepresented in the foster care system for nearly half a century. Children who are removed from their homes and placed in foster care are more likely to be diagnosed with mental health disorders, to be involved in the criminal justice systemor homeless, and to have their own children removed from their care, studies indicate.

The state Department of Social Services recently released its annual Child Protection Services report, detailing the number of children in foster care, how they’re cared for and where they’re discharged.

Of the state’s 1,709 foster care children at the end of fiscal year 2025, according to the department, 1,201 were Native American.

State works to increase kinship care numbers

About 32 percent of children, regardless of their race, were placed in kinship care with relatives or close family friends, while 86 percent were placed in a “family setting” with a foster family. Kinship care falls within family settings.

Kinship care is up from 30 percent the year before, when the state first began releasing the data point.

The number of registered foster homes in the state for the 2025 fiscal year was 793 — the fewest since 2020. Of those homes, 93 — or nearly 12 percent — were Native American, up from 11 percent the prior year.

When children have to be removed from their homes, prioritizing kinship care (placing them with a relative or close family friend) can improve academic, behavioral and mental health outcomes, and allow the child to stay within their culture and community, according to Child Trends, a research organization focused on child welfare.

Department of Social Services Secretary Matt Althoff told South Dakota Searchlight in an emailed statement that kinship care is “a priority.” The department implemented new licensed kinship foster home standards in June, meant to remove barriers that kept potential kinship families from registering with the state.

“This permits kinship families to become licensed and receive financial support more quickly to meet the children’s needs,” Althoff said.

At-home intervention decreases by 13 percent

At-home intervention, without a child’s removal or the court’s involvement, decreased by 95 children this year.

Just under 500 children received at-home intervention services through the state Child Protection Services, including parental training and home management, according to a Searchlight data request answered by the department.

Interventions can include a “safety plan,” which is a strategy created by a social worker to address safety concerns of at-risk families while a case is being investigated, and a “present danger plan,” which involves families voluntarily letting a child live with another caregiver or having a person accused of maltreatment leave the home.

Another 122 children received other types of at-home interventions, such as a referral to counseling or other assistance, without further Child Protection Services involvement.

More children aging out of foster care system

Of the 984 children who left the child welfare system during the 2025 fiscal year:

• 423 were reunited with their families.
• 254 were adopted (54 percent by a foster parent and 36 percent by a relative).
• 72 were transferred to a tribal program.
• 108 were placed into a formal guardianship agreement.
• 34 were placed with a relative without guardianship or kinship licensure.
• Five were transferred to the Department of Corrections or another agency.

Eighty-five children aged out of the system during fiscal year 2025, up by 20 from fiscal year 2024.

The state reported that 58 percent of children in the child welfare system are reunited with their families within a year — a gradual decrease each year from a 75 percent reunification rate in fiscal year 2020, the oldest data available on the department website.

Althoff said the department tracks reunification data to “ensure that efforts remain focused on child well-being and family stability.” He added that many factors influence reunification timelines.

“These can include the willingness on the part of the birth parents to conform to behavioral changes described by the court, the complexity of family circumstances, availability of services, court scheduling, and the time needed to ensure a safe and stable environment for the child,” Althoff said.

Two children ran away, both cases reported as 15-year-old females who were found, and one child died in state care. The child was a 15-year-old male who died “unrelated to child abuse and neglect,” according to the department. The department did not disclose the cause of death.

The post 70 percent of children in South Dakota foster care are Native American, state says appeared first on ICT.

From ICT via This RSS Feed.

cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/17430

Last Updated on January 5, 2026 The last remaining uranium mill in the United States is located in White Mesa, Utah. The White Mesa Uranium Mill, owned and operated by Energy Fuels, processes uranium-bearing materials into yellowcake, a key component of nuclear reactor fuel. Mill tailings are the liquid radioactive byproduct of this process, and […]

Source

From Intercontinental Cry via This RSS Feed.

It's a web-app whose primary function is mapping out treaties and homelands of Indigenous peoples around the world (but mostly on Turtle Island). The site also maps out historical residential schools as well as present-day Indigenous communities, Native-owned businesses, and what it calls "leadership stories", and provides various resources around land acknowledgements and such.

I think the site is a good jumping off point for learning about the history of a particular piece of territory on Turtle Island — I have used it for this purpose on several occasions — but the site still strikes me as a bit… I dunno, "Native Capitalism-y"? Which isn't a "bad" thing on its own, but I think means you should use Whose Land with an awareness of the position of Native capitalists relative to both (Native) proletarians and settler capitalists. It's the whole idea of the national bourgeoisie, you know.

It also strikes me how Palestinians are not listed as an Indigenous population on the map.