A piece of legislation titled the “Big Beautiful Bill" passed the House last month, and has a provision that would appropriate $40 million to celebrate America’s 250th birthday in 2026 with the construction of a National Garden of Heroes that would feature 250 statues of “America's Heroes”. Some statues would be dedicated to Indigenous leaders, according to a previous Trump executive order, including Sitting Bull, Ira Hayes, Jim Thorpe and others. The Senate’s version was introduced today and includes language that would permanently sell 250 million acres of public lands.
The inaugural Native Fashion Week Santa Fe debuted to sold out crowds, raving media reviews, and the hype that its curator Amber Dawn Bear Robe has brought to Santa Fe for the last decade. More than thirty Indigenous fashion designers representing traditions from the U.S., Canada, and beyond convened for several days of fashion, culture, and celebrations while blazing a new trial for Indigenous fashion.
An Indigenous woman and community organizer remains in federal custody after being indicted on charges of assaulting federal officers during what witnesses described as a chaotic and traumatic federal raid that included ICE in South Minneapolis last week. Her arrest stems from an encounter between community members and law enforcement last week where people immediately began protesting a large law enforcement presence in a predominantly Latino neighborhood. She was arrested yesterday by FBI agents after giving an interview about a video she posted onInstagramthat shows her getting slammed to the ground by law enforcement officers on June 3.
On Saturday, May 31, The Children’s Memorial hosted hundreds of community members in a dedication ceremony for a sculpture that honors the nearly 50 Indigenous children who died while attending the Rapid City Indian School a hundred years ago. Community and local leaders spoke of the memorial’s significance to the local community and that it pays respects to children lost in the boarding school era.
An Afro-Indigenous man was recently awarded nearly $7 million from the Milwaukee Common Council on May 13, 2025 stemming from a federal lawsuit alleging that the city violated his constitutional rights. Danny Wilber, an enrolled Oneida Nation of Wisconsin citizen, spent nearly 18 years in the Wisconsin prison system, before he was released from prison as a result of a habeas corpus petition that had multiple claims that he was prejudiced against, a practice his attorney at the People’s Law Office in Chicago, said is longstanding and must be changed.
A shooting late Tuesday night on Minneapolis’s Southside left three dead, and injured two others in an incident that Minneapolis police say is targeted and gang-related. Multiple reports to LRI Media indicate that all of the victims are Native and a suspect has not been identified in the shooting.
Minneapolis leaders announce the return of stewardship of five acres to Dakota stewardship at a site of significance to the Dakota people in downtown Minneapolis on the Mississippi River. What was once the largest natural waterfall on the Mississippi River, the falls are central to Dakota creation story and has been visited for ceremony for eons. But for decades, the falls have been prohibited for visitors in one what was once one of the largest tourist attractions in the city.
The recent death of an inmate at a Bureau of Indian Affairs regulated jail in northern Minnesota is one of several in the last several years. The troubled detention center on the Red Lake Indian Reservation has had several deaths in the last several years and is currently in court for negligence and violating an inmate’s civil rights.
Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs reinstalled 22 Arizona Tribal flags on March 25, days after they were removed from a Phoenix Veterans Affairs Medical Center because a new policy issued on Feb. 12, 2025. Tribal leaders and veterans responded with disappointment, and urge Veterans Affairs to reinstate the 22 tribal flags to the VA Medical Center.
The Pentagon recently removed references and articles to Native American service members, including Ira Hayes, the Navajo Code Talkers and others from its website. The erasure didn’t stop with Native veterans and their contributions though, as other minority groups have mentions of their contributions wiped from mentions within the Department of Defense.
Last week, the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians hosted a welcome home celebration for Leonard Peltier, 80, who spent 49 years in maximum security federal prison for the convictions of a two FBI agents were fatally shot in the summer of 1975. His release is a result of a commutation signed by former President Joseph Biden in his last hour of his presidency on January 20, 2025, where Peltier will serve the rest of his sentence in home confinement. Peltier, a Turtle Mountain Chippewa citizen and an American Indian Movement activist, was arrested in Canada, in February 1976, and extradited to the U.S. from a shooting incident on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation that left FBI agents Jack Coler and Ronald Williams dead on June 26, 1975. On June 1, 1977, Peltier was convicted for two counts of first-degree murder of the FBI agents and was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences.
The Trump administration’s effort to eliminate government spending resulted in layoffs across several federal agencies that serve Indian Country. However, the Indian Health Service was exempt from the executive order aimed at eliminating federal employees within their probationary period by order of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy, Jr.
Leaders of the Native American Church of North America convened for the third consecutive year to advocate for peyote habitat conservation with leaders in Washington. Leaders and supporters met with Congressional leaders and staff to share progress of advocating for the conservation of peyote, a plant where only enrolled members of federally recognized tribes are permitted to possess and ingest for traditional ceremonial purposes.
In light of the severe health conditions and medical needs of longtime Indigenous political prisoner Leonard Peltier, NDN Collective and Native Organizers Alliance are asking Attorney General Merrick Garland to free Peltier through compassionate release.
A U.S. District Judge in Wisconsin denied a motion to dismiss a federal discrimination lawsuit involving a Native American Church chapter and a local bank on the Lac du Flambeau Indian Reservation. U.S. District Judge William M. Conley issued a 9-page opinion on the court’s denial of the defendant’s motion, upholding the protected use of peyote in traditional American Indian ceremonies.
A Kansas County issued a public statement on Friday, April 5, that a death investigation in Johnson County identified Cole Brings Plenty, 27, as deceased in a wooded area. Brings Plenty had been reported missing on April 1 and many have responded as a result including his family and friends. After his death was announced, thousands of people, including his family, news sources, and leaders in Indian Country, have shared words of condolences on social media.
