Wednesday, November 6, 2024

National Native News

While many votes are still being tallied and election outcomes finalized, NPR reports that in 25 states, voters had the chance to elect or re-elect an Indigenous candidate.

Using data collected by Indian Country Today and the group Advance Native Political Leadership, at least 170 Native American, Alaskan Native, or Native Hawaiians were on the ballots.

And while there have been gains in Indigenous representation, recent data shows Native elected officials made up less than 0.1% of the roughly 519,000 elected offices across the U.S.

To achieve parity based on the Native population in the country, Indigenous people would have to hold 17,000 offices.

Watch our Native Vote 2024 Election Night special anchored by Antonia Gonzales and Shaun Griswold

(Photo: Archkris / CC BY-SA 4.0)

Across Canada, tributes and condolences are pouring in after the death of a key Indigenous leader.

Murray Sinclair was the former chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and considered a pioneer for Indigenous rights.

Dan Karpenchuk has this remembrance.

“When I was asked to chair the truth and reconciliation commission, I thought that I had a pretty good idea of what to expect. My experience as a lawyer, as a judge, as the co-chair of the aboriginal justice inquiry of Manitoba in the early 1990’s had given me a considerable amount of information about what Indigenous people had experienced here in Canada.”

That’s Murray Sinclair from an interview in 2021.

Sinclair went on to say the stories of survivors of the residential schools proved to be horrendous.

He took part in hundreds of hearings across Canada and heard testimony from thousands of residential school survivors.

Tributes came from Native leaders across the country, and from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who said Canada lost a giant.

“The deep convictions and immovable strength he brought to bear on such extraordinary challenges were an inspiration to all of us.”

PM Trudeau also said Sinclair challenged us all to confront the darkest parts of our history because we could learn from them and be better for it.

The Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs said he broke barriers and inspired people to pursue reform and justice with courage and determination.

In 2016, he was appointed to the Canadian senate.

He retired from that role in 2021. And in recent years he limited his public engagements due to poor health.

He had congestive heart failure and nerve damage forced him to rely on a wheel chair.

The father of five died peacefully yesterday in a Winnipeg hospital.

He was 73.

(Courtesy W.K. Kellogg Foundation)

Many states are turning to dental therapists to serve tribes.

But, some aren’t so sure adding another mid-level position is the way to tackle dental care deserts.

The Mountain West News Bureau’s Hanna Merzbach reports.

Dental therapists are a relatively new position. They can do things like cleanings, fluoride treatments, and even simple fillings, says dentist and researcher Donald Chi.

“Put out small fires in a community with lots of dental care needs, and so then the dentist can come in and put out the big fires.”

He says dental therapists are often focused on tribes, since about half of Indigenous people live in areas without enough dentists.

Initiatives have been particularly successful in Alaska, but there are few training programs for dental therapists in the lower 48.

And Tanna Nagy with the Wyoming Dental Association says she’d rather see resources go toward existing programs for dentists, hygienists and assistants.

“Instead of trying to find faculty for new programs, which is just hard to find already.”

She says states could also encourage reaching unserved populations by reducing dental workers’ student loan debt.

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