WASHINGTON - The U.S. government says it has settled a long-running lawsuit against the Department of the Interior for mismanagement of trust fund accounts held by hundreds of thousands of Native Americans.  The settlement ends a 13-year legal battle to resolve a dispute that dates back to the late-1800s.
The legal settlement will cost the U.S. […]

NEW YORK - The elite Marine unit of Navajo soldiers whose cryptic code remained unbroken during World War II was honored at the annual Veterans’ Day parade in New York City. The Code Talkers are using their trip as a bid to raise funds for a museum to honor their contribution to defeating the Japanese. […]

WASHINGTON - U.S. President Barack Obama has followed through on a campaign promise to hold an annual meeting with American Indian leaders. The president says he wants to reverse the government’s history of marginalizing the native peoples.
President Obama says Thursday’s meeting is the largest gathering of tribal leaders in U.S. history. And he says he […]

CHEROKEE, NC - Six young children - four girls and two boys - sit on the floor looking up at their teacher seated in a chair. An older woman with streaks of gray in the long, straight hair pulled back from her face, she holds up flashcards with colors and words spelled out in distinctive lettering. […]

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama has invited leaders of the more than 500 Native American tribes in the United States to a White House Tribal Nations Conference on November 5. Mr. Obama says he wants to hear directly from the leaders about how his administration can help them meet their needs.  
The Navajo tribe has the […]

WASHINGTON - Descendants of the Apache chief, Geronimo, have announced a lawsuit to reclaim the remains of the famous Indian leader from a U.S. military burial site as well from the reportedly hidden tomb of a secret Yale University society.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. federal court this week, marks the 100th anniversary of the Apache […]

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama has yet to fill a number of key posts in his administration.  For Native Americans, one of the most anticipated positions will be a senior policy advisor to the president on Native American issues.  American Indians say having someone close to the president will ensure that their issues will not […]

Canada Says ‘We‘Re Sorry‘ To Former Indian Residential School Students 
Prime Minister Stephen Harper offers a full apology on behalf of all Canadians
By Jim Uttley
Special to ASSIST News Service  
OTTAWA, ONTARIO (ANS) – On behalf of the Government of Canada and all Canadians, Prime Minister Stephen Harper offered an historic formal apology on June 11, 2008, […]

SOUTH DAKOTA - The Lakota Indians of the northern plains have been called a “horse nation” because they have strong ties, culturally and historically, with the animals. A group of Lakota teens recently saddled up for a four-day ride across South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Reservation. This Youth Ride was aimed at reconnecting the group with […]

BRIGHAM CITY, UTAH — On January 29, 1863, almost 500 Northwestern Shoshone men, women and children perished in the Bear River Massacre. Federal troops trapped and decimated the Tribe at the site of its annual “Warm Dance,” in present Franklin County, Idaho. The Tribe will be conducting a memorial service at 11am, Tuesday, January 29, […]

NESPELEM, WASHINGTON — According to the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, a panel of U.S. Supreme Court justices today denied a petition for certiorari filed by Canadian mining giant Teck Cominco Metals following a series of decisions from lower courts that consistently ruled against the company.
In rejecting Teck’s request for review, the Court let […]

AKWESASNE, NEW YORK — The St. Regis Mohawk Tribe today filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Washington, DC, against Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne. The suit contains two counts, charging the Secretary with undue delay and acting in bad faith with respect to the Tribe’s fully completed, yet inexplicably languishing land into […]

ARLINGTON, VA — Rosetta Stone Inc., creator of the world’s No. 1 language-learning program, has formed a partnership with the Chitimacha Tribe of Louisiana to develop a unique edition of the award-winning software in the tribe’s language, Sitimaxa.
The tribe will own distribution and sales rights to the tribal language version created through the Rosetta Stone […]

SEATTLE - Each year, salmon head upriver to their spawning grounds in the Columbia River basin in the northwestern U.S. state of Washington. The event has inspired a festival in which Native Americans and wildlife experts help visitors celebrate the salmon. 
Beginning in March, the fish start the arduous journey 800 kilometers upriver from the Pacific […]

Ten Tribal Sites Selected to Help Expand AMBER Alert into Indian CountryWASHINGTON — The Department of Justice today announced that ten Tribal sites have been selected to serve as pilot communities as part of the Department’s AMBER Alert in Indian Country Initiative. The ten Tribal sites will serve as demonstration sites for other Native American […]

Tribe calls on House to maintain Senate level in Conference negotiationsROSEBUD, S.D. — The Rosebud Sioux Tribe announced today that $4 million was included for the Advanced Electronics Rosebud Integration Center (AERIC) in the U.S. Senate’s Fiscal Year 2008 Defense Appropriations bill. The bill was passed by the full Senate September 12, 2007.
ROSEBUD, S.D. — […]

COTTONWOOD FALLS, KANSAS — The Kickapoo tribal language and culture play a key role in the production of “The Only Good Indian,” a movie that is being shot here and in Topeka, Lawrence and other locations in Kansas.
“The Only Good Indian,” which stars popular Native American actor Wes Studi (Dances With Wolves, Geronimo, Heat), is […]

WASHINGTON - Thousands of American Indians converged on Washington, D.C. recently to celebrate the song and dance of their native culture.  The National Museum of the American Indian organized the annual event called a powwow — a tradition dating back hundreds of years.  This year’s powwow was a symbol of the native people’s survival into […]

PORCUPINE, SOUTH DAKOTA - There are many ethnic radio stations and broadcast programs in the United States, but there are only a few fully independent community radio stations serving the residents of a Native American Indian reservation. One of them is KILI radio on the Pine Ridge reservation in southwestern South Dakota. It operates from […]

WASHINGTON - Hawaiian Nainoa sums up his life in one word, “Lucky!” Even as a young boy he saw his future as a quest for knowledge about his native Hawaiian culture and the way it connected him to the ocean and other indigenous Pacific island peoples. He laments that he learned little about his heritage […]

SANTA FE - The western U.S. state of New Mexico has 19 Pueblo tribal communities, some of them among the oldest American Indian settlements in the United States.  Many of them are well known for their pottery, and among the best known is Acoma Pueblo pottery with its distinctive black and white, geometric designs. 
Sandra Victorino […]

Conoco Phillips’ Subsidiary to Pay United States $97.5 Million for Fraudulent Underpayment of Natural Gas Royalties
WASHINGTON — Burlington Resources Inc. has agreed to pay the United States $97.5 million to resolve claims that it underpaid royalties owed on natural gas produced from federal and Indian leases, the Justice Department announced today. Last year, Burlington became […]

ALBUQUERQUE - Navajo rugs are highly regarded for their fine hand weaving and designs.  They are often expensive and are considered by many to be quite beautiful.
Pearl Sunrise is a Navajo weaver.  Her mother and her grandmother were also weavers. Sunrise’s multiple oak tools were made by her father and grandfathers.  Today, she is one […]

‘Small Business Fairness in Contracting Act’ will Hurt Tribes
MANDAREE, N.D. — Today, the Inter-Tribal Economic Alliance, led by Board Chairman Tex G. Hall, reacted with concern to news that the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 1873, the Small Business Fairness in Contracting Act.
The Act would place a limit on the size of contracts awarded […]