Good morning, NUNAverse,
These are the top five biggest stories from across Indian Country brought together in once place. In this weekly media clips roundup, take a look back at what our readers were engaging with the most from the past week of news:
Small museums and private institutions that accept federal CARES Act money or other stimulus funds could be forced to relinquish thousands of Indigenous items and ancestral remains currently in their collections. Under the Native American Grave Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990, museums or other institutions that accept federal funding must compile an inventory of Indigenous cultural items and initiate repatriation of the collections and remains to tribes or family members.
A new Nielsen survey found that 51 percent of sports fans still feel using Native people as mascots is an honor and 53 percent of fans want more education on why teams like Washington’s Football Team and Cleveland’s Baseball Team are changing their names and mascots. When broken down by sport, roughly two-thirds of MLB and NFL fans and 58 percent of NBA fans thought that the appropriation was harmful.
Eleven men whose murder convictions in Oklahoma were overturned because of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on state jurisdiction in tribal territories have been charged with federal murder counts, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Friday. A federal grand jury in Muskogee issued indictments in the cases that had been either reversed by a state appeals court or dismissed by state prosecutors, the department said in a news release. The reversals and dismissals were based on the McGirt v. Oklahoma decision, that found Oklahoma lacks jurisdiction for crimes committed on tribal lands in which the defendants or victims were tribal citizens.
Kansas Congresswoman Sharice Davids issued a statement yesterday calling on President Biden to be clear in calling for the end of violence in Israel and Gaza. “I am glad President Biden expressed support for a ceasefire and I urge him to be clear in calling for an end to the violence immediately. I believe a solution that preserves the dignity of every life and respects the rights of both peoples is possible. This horrific cycle of conflict only takes us further from that goal,” the Congresswoman said.
During a graduation ceremony for Emory University, Dr. Anthony Fauci said that “the undeniable effects of racism” have led to unacceptable health disparities that especially hurt Native people, African Americans, and Hispanics during the pandemic. Fauci said that once society returns to “some form of normality,” people should not forget that infectious disease has disproportionally hospitalized and killed people of color.