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President Donald Trump signed the Wounded Knee Massacre Memorial and Sacred Site Act on December 18, placing 40 acres currently owned by the Oglala Sioux Tribe and the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe on the Pine Ridge Reservation into restricted fee status. The reservation was allotted in 1889, and the land was eventually sold to non-Indian owners, and they built and operated a trading post and museum at the site for many decades. South Dakota’s congressional leaders all sponsored the bill, and the Oglala Sioux Tribe and the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe celebrate the designation.
The Wounded Knee Massacre Memorial and Sacred Site Act unanimously passed the Senate on Thursday, sending the bill to President Donald Trump’s desk for signature. The act of legislation would memorialize the Wounded Knee Memorial and 40 acres on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. The land was purchased by the Oglala Sioux Tribe and the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe in 2022.
Tribal leaders attending the Coalition of Large Tribes’ (COLT) annual meeting in Las Vegas met with senior federal officials to advocate for tribal sovereignty, funding, and strengthening tribal-federal relations. Federal leaders updated tribal leaders on Indian Affairs, Indian Health Service, changes coming from the U.S. Treasury and the inclusion of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina in the $900 billion National Defense Authorization Act.
At the 82nd annual convening of the National Congress of American Indians, the Native American Church of North America continued its advocacy of the protections of the use of peyote, and the strengthening of the American Indian Religious Freedom Act of 1978.
Indian Country, the legal term for Indian lands, takes the brunt first, and harshest, amidst the federal shutdown as legislators often misunderstand their trust and treaty responsibilities to federally recognized tribes. Rural communities, who have very little economy already face hardships due to limited resources and infrastructure and cuts to funding leave tribal communities with nowhere to go.
President Trump announced on social media that he declared a major disaster in Western Alaska as thousands of Alaskan Native and American Indians have been displaced a result of Typhoon Halong last week. Leaders say that they will be displaced for a minimum of 18 months and rebuilding will take the effort of many.
The Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior announced in a press release that it will acquire a retreat center owned by the Franciscan Sister of Perpetual Adoration, a Catholic religious congregation for women. The tribe said in an announcement that it is the first land transfer from a Catholic entity to a Tribal Nation in history.
Mount Rushmore’s first dedication was 100 years ago, on October 1, 1925, in the Black Hills and as the U.S. approaches its 250th anniversary, the nation is fixed on dedicating a National Garden of American Heroes. Lakota leaders reflect on the mountain’s meaning and omission of their cultural and political connection to the Black Hills.
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