Dear Reader,
The relationship between Native Americans and the federal government in the U.S. is full of treaties made and broken.
The earliest treaties, made as more white settlers started moving into the recently explored Louisiana Purchase, treated tribal groups as equal governments and made no claim to ownership of the land, but rather established non-overlapping territories for the tribes living across the northern plains.
Just a few years later however, the federal government started inventing new ways to assert claims over tribal land and, eventually, over the people themselves. By the late 1880s Native Americans across the country were confined to reservations that represented tiny fractions of their previous homelands and in some cases didn’t even overlap with their ancestral home.
With a history like that, stories from reservations tend to be heavy, but this year’s issue of Native News highlights people working toward a better future. With seven vastly different reservations across the state of Montana, each tribe has the tedious task of navigating a relationship with bureaucracy from several levels: federal, state, county, while keeping their culture intact. The 2018 Montana Native News Honors Project takes an in-depth look at those relationships and the meaning of tribal sovereignty.
On the Flathead reservation, the tribal defenders office is taking a new approach to rehabilitate tribal members entangled in the criminal justice system. On the Blackfeet reservation the tribe is developing its own plan to combat the changing climate. A group of high school students on Rocky Boy’s reservation have launched a program to lend a hand to their peers by picking up where federal government supplemental nutrition programs leave off. On the Fort Belknap reservation, new fresh food initiatives will serve a community embattled by diabetes and lack of fresh produce. An immersive language education program is giving new life to the Dakota language on the Fort Peck reservation.
The Indian Reorganization Act, which became law in 1934, lead to the creation of tribal governments on reservations across the country. Imposing a government structure on reservations has had long term repercussions.
The Northern Cheyenne people are striving to govern themselves, but get stuck with the BIA always lurking one step behind. On Crow, the tribal government and the BIA are clashing over a 2017 audit of the judicial branch, all while attempting to maintain tribal sovereignty. Women on the Blackfeet reservation are using Facebook to reclaim a leadership role in their communities and bust through the “buckskin ceiling.” The Little Shell tribe is discovering, and holding onto, their culture while fighting to gain federal recognition.
Tribes across the nation have been forced to evolve under the federal government. These stories show that tribes have adapted and, even mired in various levels of bureaucracy, are striving to take control of their legacies.
-Native News Staff & Advisers
Northern Cheyenne
Story Margaret Grayson
Photos Grace Hancock
Rocky Boy’s
Story Ryan OConnell
Photos Graham Gardner
Blackfeet
Story Matt Neuman
Photos Carl Kulper
Fort Peck
Story Isaiah Dunk
Photos Mikensi Romersa
Fort Belknap
Story Mari Hall
Photos Skylar Rispens
Little Shell
Story Nick Puckett
Photos Emily Martinek
Crow
Story Nick Rudow
Photos Dominik Stallings
Audio
Story Maxine Speier
Photos Suzanne Downing
Flathead
Story LJ Dawson
Photos Rikki Devlin
Social Media
Tim Pierce
Jackson Wagner
Marissa Fischer
Graphic Design
Cathryn Haberman-Fake
Web Design
Rene Sanchez
Cartography
Amelia Hagen-Dillon
Photo Editor
Reed Klass
Story Editor
Nick Callahan
Art Director
Zoie Koostra
Advisers
Jason Begay
Keith Graham