Here are some Native American-related news stories that made headlines this week:
Archaeologists fail to find children’s remains at Indian boarding school site
Nebraska state archaeologists say they’ve ended a two-week search for the graves of former students at the Indian Industrial School in Genoa, Nebraska, after failing to find any human remains.
Researchers believe more than 80 students died at the school, most from infectious diseases. So far, they’ve identified 49 students who died at the school. Some were returned home for burial, but others are believed to have been buried at the school.
State archaeologist Dave Williams said his team will now reevaluate the data and consult with the dozens of tribes that lost ancestors to the school.
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Kansas university scholars accused of race shifting
Native American groups and individuals have accused three University of Kansas professors of “Pretendianism,” that is, falsely claiming Native American ancestry.
The most prominent of the three is Kent Blansett, associate professor of Indigenous studies and history and founder of the American Indian Digital History Project, which digitizes rare Indigenous newspapers, photographs and other archival materials.
As VOA has reported previously, Indigenous scholars complain that academics frequently manufacture an Indigenous identity for personal, professional and financial gain.
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US Appeals Court to review Wyoming convictions against Crow hunters
A federal judge in Wyoming has agreed to review a 34-year-old dispute over whether the Crow Tribe in Montana has the right to hunt beyond reservation borders.
In late 1989, Wyoming fined Crow citizen Thomas L. Ten Bear for shooting an elk in Wyoming’s Big Horn Forest.
The Crow sued Wyoming, arguing that the 1868 treaty signed with the U.S. gave them the right to hunt on unoccupied U.S. lands “so long as game may be found” and relations with whites were peaceful. Wyoming ruled against the Crow, saying those treaty rights expired when Wyoming became a U.S. state.
But 25 years later, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in another case that Crow hunting rights did not expire.
The Crow have since fought to have the original ruling overturned. This week, a federal appeals judge said he will “more thoroughly” review the facts.
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Oklahoma Senate overrides veto on compacts with tribes
Oklahoma’s majority-Republican Senate on Monday overrode Governor Kevin Stitt’s vetoes of two bills that would extend for another year tobacco and vehicle registration compacts the state has made with Oklahoma tribes.
The state currently holds agreements with tribes to split the tax revenue from tribal sales of tobacco to non-Natives and from motor vehicle registrations and tags.
The Cherokee Phoenix reports that, according to the current motor vehicle compact, the Cherokee Nation allocates 38% of car registration revenue to public school districts in or near the reservation — in 2023, that amount was $7.8 million; since 2002, the tribe has given more than $84 million to schools.
Stitt has said the compacts shortchange the state, and he is looking to limit the compacts to trust land only.
“I am trying to protect eastern Oklahoma from turning into a reservation, and I’ve been working to ensure these compacts are the best deal for all 4 million Oklahomans,” Stitt posted on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.
It is a reference to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in McGirt v. Oklahoma, which held that the Muscogee (Creek) Nation reservation was never formally disestablished and, therefore, at least for criminal jurisdiction purposes, covered half of the state.
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Native Americans: There’s nothing funny about smallpox joke
The new “Barbie” film, which opened last weekend to record profits, has provoked the ire of many Native Americans. At issue is a joke that referenced the devastating impact introduced diseases had on Indigenous populations.
Here’s the plot: Barbie (Margot Robbie) and Ken (Ryan Gosling) travel from the pink and perfect Barbieland to the real world, which isn’t so pretty.
Ken, inspired by the patriarchy of the real world, returns home and turns Barbieland into the patriarchal Kenland. Toward the end of the film, Ken jokes about how easy it was to make the change: “I just explained the immaculate logic of patriarchy, and they crumbled.”
The character Gloria (America Ferrera), exclaims, “Oh my god! This is like in the 1500s with the Indigenous people and smallpox. They had no defenses against it!”
Keeli Siyaka, Sisseton Wahpeton Dakota, has posted an online petition calling on Warner Brothers and film director Greta Gerwig to remove that line from the film.
“Seeing as no one in the audience laughed, I don’t think anyone would miss it, and if they do, we have a problem,” she stated.
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