Daily, five-minute newscast featuring the latest headlines and breaking news from Native and Indigenous communities anchored by Antonia Gonzales (Navajo) with reporters and storytellers from around the globe.
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Top federal prosecutors from the Four Corner states are descending upon the Phoenix metro this week as part of an annual conference meant to tackle crime and justice in Indian Country. KJZZ’s Gabriel Pietrorazio has details. A hotel room full of victim advocates, attorneys, and tribal law enforcement personnel congregate in Glendale. Arizona’s top prosecutor, U.S. Attorney Timothy Courchaine, reminds them why they are all meeting. “It may sound like priorities are elsewhere in this administration, but all of the U.S. attorneys up here and every member of leadership in the Department of Justice
Photo: Notah Begay III, who is Diné and from the pueblos of San Felipe and Isleta, is the 2026 recipient of the Payne Stewart Award. (Courtesy PGA) The PGA Tour has bestowed one of its highest honors, the Payne Stewart Award, to a four-time PGA Tour winner who is also a citizen of the Navajo Nation. KJZZ’s Gabriel Pietrorazio has details. Born and raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Notah Begay III excelled at swinging a club. His success on the fairway afforded him the chance to play college golf beside Tiger Woods at Stanford University – winning a national team championship in 1994. Begay is
The Iñupiaq village of Shungnak in Northwest Alaska likely has the questionable distinction of having the most expensive gasoline in the United States. The Alaska Beacon reports that the price climbed to $26.82 a gallon last week — more than six times the national average of $4.10 a gallon for regular unleaded gasoline. Glenda Douglas, who manages the village store, posted a photo of the price she paid for gas on Facebook. People questioned whether it was real. “It’s very much real.” As a Native corporation shareholder, Douglas received a hefty discount, but still paid more than $107 for five
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested three people during a traffic stop within the Gila River Indian Community in Arizona earlier this month. As KJZZ’s Gabriel Pietrorazio reports, the Valley tribe’s leader says the encounter stoked fear. Gov. Stephen Roe Lewis claims the tribe made a deal allowing federal agents to conduct activities on their sovereign lands – so long as they first notify the Gila River Police Department. But tribal officers will not assist. “Now with this recent incursion, that agreement clearly broke down and needed to be urgently and directly and clearl
FBI Director Kash Patel met with tribal law enforcement partners in Albuquerque, New Mexico last week. The visit comes on the heels of the agency launching a new tool to raise public awareness over missing and murdered Indigenous cases. KJZZ’s Gabriel Pietrorazio has details. It is called Voices Not Forgotten, a webpage featuring select, unsolved crimes across Indian Country where the FBI is seeking the public’s help by offering $25,000 minimum rewards. That includes the high-profile homicides in Arizona of Maleeka “Mollie” Boone and Emily Pike. But as Deiandra Reid with the Albuquerque nonpro
Photo: Voters at the Black Coal Senior Center say they are voting for tribal candidates and those that support tribal programs like public transportation. (Melodie Edwards / Wyoming Public Radio) Voters in Alaska were not the only ones heading to the polls this week. Primaries were also held Tuesday in Florida and Wyoming. In Wyoming, some voters on the Wind River Reservation told Wyoming Public Radio that transportation to polling places remains an issue. Voters also expressed a desire for more tribal candidates and greater representation of Native culture in schools. Statewide, U.S. Rep. Har
Photo: St. Joe’s Church, one of the main polling places in Nome. (Margaret Sutherland / KNOM) Several Alaska Native groups, including the Alaska Federation of Natives (AFN), say the constitutional rights of rural voters are in jeopardy. The organizations are sounding the alarm over staffing shortages at Alaska Division of Election offices and polling stations that serve rural Alaskans. As Rhonda McBride from our flagship station KNBA reports, these affect mostly Native communities In a statement Monday, AFN said it was deeply concerned by reports about election worker vacancies in rural precin
Photo: Cars destroyed in the Mukluk Fire on August 18, 2026. (Courtesy Pyotr Dobrotvorsky) Residents of the eastern Interior community of Tok, Alaska are being ordered to evacuate their homes after a wildfire broke out Monday morning. What officials are calling the Mukluk Fire was reported shortly before noon in the backyard of a residence on the Alaska Highway, near milepost 1316, as the Alaska Desk’s Shelby Herbert from KUAC reports. As of Monday evening, it had grown to over 1,500 acres and was spreading to the east and northeast. Sam Harrel, a spokesperson for the Alaska Division of Forest
Photo: Bill Hill (Athabascan), Independent candidate for Alaska’s at-large congressional district. (Courtesy Bill Hill campaign) Tuesday is primary day in Wyoming, Florida, and Alaska, which uses ranked-choice voting (RCV). The top four vote getters in each race, regardless of party, move on to the general election in November. That makes voters turnout a key issue, especially in remote parts of the state, where Alaska Natives have seen numbers fade over the past 20 years. As Rhonda McBride from our flagship station KNBA reports, there are hopes Tuesday’s election will show signs of a turnarou
A Native girls softball team made history this summer, winning a Babe Ruth Softball World Series championship during its first year competing in the tournament. Na7ive Na7ions brought together Native athletes from different tribal communities to compete in Florence, Ala., but founder and former Major League Baseball pitcher D.J. Carrasco says their success was not only about what happened on the field. They were also battling the summer heat. Temperatures hovered in the 90s, with high humidity making conditions even tougher, but inside the Na7ive Na7ions dugout, there was something you might n
Photo: Firefighters, first responders, and law enforcement officials escorted the body of Leslie Washington from Ely, Minn to Duluth, Minn. and then the Twin Cities on Tuesday. (Courtesy Scorched Earth Services) A wildland firefighter from the Northwest Arctic community of Noorvik, Alaska died Tuesday. Federal officials say 41-year-old Leslie R. Washington worked for a Huslia-based company called Scorched Earth Services. It was contracted to help fight a 30,000 acre fire on the Minnesota-Canada border in the Superior National Forest. Washington and his team were in northern Minnesota when he d
Photo: A house floated by floodwaters during ex-Typhoon Halong rests on top of a snowmachine in Tuntutuliak on October 22, 2025. (Gabby Salgado / KYUK) The State of Alaska is working with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and other agencies to collect what are known as Right of Entry forms from households impacted by ex-Typhoon Halong, as KYUK’s Evan Erickson reports. The form is required for getting certain types of assistance with winterization and debris removal. It allows authorized recovery agencies to enter properties to inspect, document, and complete recovery work. Complet
A federal watchdog says some guidelines meant to improve the response to Missing and Murdered Indigenous People (MMIP) are falling short of federal requirements. That is according to an audit from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ)’s Office of Inspector General. The watchdog reviewed guidelines from 49 U.S. Attorneys’ districts developed under Savanna’s Act. The law was passed in 2020 to improve coordination between tribal, federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies responding to MMIP cases. The Inspector General found guidelines from 10 of the 49 districts did not fully meet require
Photo: Carlson Center in Fairbanks, Alaska will host the 2028 Arctic Winter Games. (Quintin Soloviev / Wikimedia) The Arctic Winter Games International Committee has chosen Fairbanks, Alaska to host the games in 2028. Organizers chose to buck an April decision that would have moved to a three-year cycle temporarily. The announcement means the next Arctic Winter Games, which had been set for 2029, will happen a year earlier than was planned. A statement from the committee’s president says an “extraordinary” proposal from Fairbanks this spring made it possible to return to the traditional two-ye
Photo: Invasive Green Crab. (Linda Shaw / NOAA Fisheries) Invasive European green crabs have swelled in population across southern Southeast Alaska since they were first detected in the region four years ago. In response, Ketchikan, Alaska’s local tribe recently petitioned the state to open a green crab sport fishery to help manage the invasive’s spread. The request was denied, citing a lack of evidence that the invasive species has contributed to environmental changes. KRBD’s Hunter Morrison reports. The Ketchikan Indian Community submitted the emergency petition to the state’s Board of Fishe
Photo: Desks with art supplies sit ready for preschoolers at Kodiak’s North Star building on July 31. A wing of the building reopened to children on Aug. 3. (Katherine Irving / KMXT) The doors of what was once Kodiak’s North Star Elementary School reopened August 3 for the first time since last June. The school closed because of budget cuts, but one wing of the building is now home to the Sun’aq Tribe’s Alutiingcut Child Care Center, a preschool for two-to-five year-olds. KMXT’s Katherine Irving toured the center before its opening and has the story. “This is our foxes classroom. This is our o
Photo: Lifer inmates at Salem’s Oregon State Correctional Institution connect with culture, family, and healing during the annual Many Nations Pow Wow. (Brian Bull) The power of a Pow Wow has been described as a collective heartbeat that draws people together. Celebrants often say they feel unity and freedom as they dance in a circle. Those elements are especially vital for those serving time at the Oregon State Correctional Institution in Salem, Oreg., but as Brian Bull of Underscore Native News and KLCC reports, for one day each year, inmates get to move to the rhythm of a rawhide drum with
Photo: The Colorado River near Lees Ferry, Colo. in May 2026. (Chris Clements / KNAU) The states that share the Colorado River have a new federal framework in place for managing the embattled waterway, but as KNAU’s Chris Clements reports, the impact of the U.S. government’s strategy on tribal nations is less clear. The new framework from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation could result in steep cuts to the Central Arizona Project, a delivery system for Colorado River water. That worries some tribal leaders like Orlando Carroll, chairman of the White Mountain Apache Tribe in eastern Arizona. “We de
Photo: Rose High Bear, left, David Mora-Flores, Roman Wood, Joaquin Ocana, Claudia Vega, Damian Salazar, Paige Wentzel, amd Jaimie Myrick Duckett in Salem, Oreg., July 9, 2026. (Brian Bull) A small, two-acre farm near Salem, Oreg. aims to save the planet. Elderberry Wisdom Farms launched in 2018 and is the creation of Rose High Bear. The 81-year-old Alaskan Native trains interns on urban forestry and Traditional Ecological Knowledge, but as Brian Bull of Underscore Native News and KLCC reports, funding challenges make its future uncertain. Inside the Elderberry Wisdom Farm classroom, several p
Efforts to encourage more Native Americans to vote are underway in more than a dozen states this year. Chuck Quirmbach reports on how things are going in Wisconsin, ahead of the state primary contests on August 11. The nonpartisan group Wisconsin Native Vote is about a decade old, and is now up to four organizers around the state. They have already been doing outreach at Pow Wows and a variety of other community events. Spokesperson and organizer Anne Egan-Waukau (Menominee) says a key message is that voting is a way to make sure Native voices are heard. “We tell people to vote for the Seventh
Families and communities across western Alaska are getting long-awaited answers after federal investigators released their final report on last year’s deadly crash of Bering Air Flight 445. The report identifies multiple factors that contributed to the accident, including severe icing and safety shortcomings by the airline. Alaska Desk reporter Alena Naiden from our flagship station KNBA has more. All nine passengers and the pilot died when a Bering Air Cessna Grand Caravan crashed during its flight between Unalakleet and Nome in February of last year. The National Transportation Safety Board
Photo: Santa Fe Indian School campus. (Courtesy Administration for Native Americans for Children & Families) U.S. Rep Melanie Stansbury (D-NM) introduced two bills this week to modernize the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) and potentially bring higher teacher salaries and more federal funding for tribal schools. KUNM’s Jeanette DeDios (Jicarilla Apache and Diné) has more. The Indigenous Students Excel through Parity Act and its supporting Act II bill would create a study under the Department of Interior (DOI) to recommend reforms in order to provide funds that could increase teacher pay, and
Photo: Kaiser Canyon fire in Washington, July 2026. (Courtesy Inciweb / USFS via National Interagency Fire Center / Facebook) Wildfires continue to burn across the U.S, including many areas of Indian Country. In Washington state, the largest fire is the Kaiser Canyon Fire which is burning through the Colville Indian Reservation. As of late Tuesday, the fire surpassed 126,000 acres and was 16% contained. In an update Tuesday morning, Keith Kelley, operations section chief for Northern Rockies Unit 2, shared the day’s plan of attack against the Kaiser Canyon Fire. More than 1,000 personnel are c
Photo: First Nation leaders held a press conference on July 21, 2026 to address claims by the Ontario government. (Courtesy Nishnawbe Aski Nation / YouTube) Indigenous leaders in Ontario are calling for a public inquiry into how the provincial government responded to the wildfires that ripped through parts of Northern Ontario. As Dan Karpenchuk reports, at least two First Nations communities burned to the ground. Several First Nations leaders held a news conference in Thunder Bay recently to counter claims by the Ontario government that it did communicate and respond with Native communities ab
Photo: The territory being purchased encompasses the headwaters of various tributaries to the Scott River in Siskiyou County in the Klamath River Basin. (Courtesy Trust for Public Land) California is moving forward with what could become the second largest tribal land return in state history. The California State Water Resources Control Board has approved $25 million in financing to help the Quartz Valley Indian Reservation acquire nearly 40,000 acres of the Scott River headwaters in Northern California’s Klamath River Basin. The acquisition would return ancestral lands that include salmon-bea
