Please take a look at our array of product for Native American Heritage Month and the holidays! We have hundreds of Indigenous products! Support a Native American/small business company and skip Amazon!
***We are shipping daily for the holidays and to get items to schools quickly for this month’s events!
A pair of beaded earrings worn proudly on national television. A mother bringing her daughters home for a community corn harvest. Two-Spirit people reclaiming their places in ceremony. Across Indigenous communities, identity is lived and carried forward in countless ways.
To begin November, we’re revisiting ICT’s Indigenous Identity series, which explores how Native people understand who they are, how colonial policies have shaped their experiences and what belonging means across generations.
The series began with a goal from ICT Digital News Director Jourdan Bennett-Begaye: to hold up a mirror to Native people and reflect the nuances of our communities.
Native American Heritage Month reminds us that we’re part of an ongoing story. Each generation draws from those who came before while shaping how our cultures will be carried into the future.
This month is also an invitation to consider whose stories are told and who gets to tell them. Too often, representations of Indigenous communities leave little room for complexity and context. Indigenous journalism makes space for Native people to tell their own stories and see themselves reflected in the coverage.
At ICT, that responsibility guides our work throughout the year. We’re grateful to the people who trust us with their stories and to readers like you who support this work and expand our reach.
We invite you to explore the series as November begins. We hope you find something that resonates with you or offers a new perspective on the many ways of being Indigenous.
As conversations about America 250 continue across the country, Indigenous voices remain essential to imagining what comes next. What would it mean to build a national narrative that is more honest, inclusive, and reflective of the first peoples of this land?
To explore these questions, join ICT tomorrow, July 2 at 1 p.m. ET, for the virtual event, “Merciless Indian Savages”: America 250 Through an Indigenous Lens, streaming live on Facebook and YouTube. Moderated by Jourdan Bennett-Begaye (Diné), ICT News Director, Digital, the discussion will bring together scholars and leaders whose work spans history, climate justice, and community-led change. Through perspectives rooted in the past, present, and future, panelists will reflect on how Indigenous leadership, storytelling, and community-building are helping shape the next 250 years. We hope you’ll join us for this important discussion. See you tomorrow!
Welcome to The Weekly.This week, we’re dedicating the newsletter to ICT’s coverage marking the 10th anniversary of the Standing Rock movement, a defining moment in modern Indigenous activism that united Native communities and allies from around the world. Through firsthand reflections, historical analysis, legal updates and reporting on the movement’s lasting impact, we look back at the legacy of #NoDAPL and the ways its influence continues to shape Indigenous advocacy today.
‘The cavalry’s coming!’: Indigenous activism from 1492 to Standing Rock
Famed Indigenous activists like Leonard Peltier and Madonna Thunder Hawk and younger activists shared their thoughts with ICT about the evolution of Indigenous activism from the rise of the American Indian Movement in the 1960s to Standing Rock and beyond. READ MORE →
How social media amplified the Standing Rock movement
Social media pushed Standing Rock’s message from on-the-ground efforts and communication to international awareness, redefining Indigenous narratives.READ MORE →
Standing Rock 10 years later: ‘We still have a lot of unknowns’The fight continues on in court a decade after protests began over the controversial construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline. READ MORE →
A decade after Standing Rock, contentious segment of Dakota Access oil pipeline gets OKThe announcement brings an end to a drawn-out legal and regulatory saga stemming from the protests in 2016 and 2017, though further litigation over the pipeline is likely. READ MORE →
Standing Rock: ‘It felt like every Indigenous person was there’Water protectors who answered the call to Standing Rock reflect on the community, courage and Indigenous solidarity that defined a historic movement.READ MORE →
Standing Rock: ‘A sense of community’Those who gathered at Standing Rock recall a movement rooted in prayer, community and collective action that continues to shape Indigenous advocacy today.READ MORE →
NEWSCAST: #NoDAPL Movement 10 Years LaterThe ICT Newscast for Friday, May 1, 2026, covers the 10th anniversary of Standing Rock, an MMIP advocacy group on wheels and two Pawnee artists/comedians.WATCH NOW→ Your support keeps Indigenous stories alive.We rely on readers like you to continue this work. When you give to ICT, you are supporting independent Indigenous journalism and helping ensure these stories are told with accuracy, care, and accountability.Donate now!
This administration has put two things on a fast track to destruction. The hot button war over Iran’s uranium destroys peace and prosperity. The rush to mine Black Hills uranium destroys people and the sacred. Both are based on manufactured crisis. Both bypass democratic oversight. Both are moving at the speed of executive commands because if either one slowed down long enough for the people to really weigh in, the answer would be no.
Congress never authorized the war in Iran. They voted four times so far and failed to stop it. The Lakota people never consented to uranium extraction from treaty land. We’ve fought it for over 20 years and we’re still fighting. Today’s fresh Hell we are forced to face down: the Dewey-Burdock uranium project, 50 miles from Pine Ridge, in the aquifer above our reservation. It was just put on Trump’s emergency federal fast-track permitting dashboard with a mere thirty-day review period starting last week.
The BLM’s draft Environmental Assessment that is supposed to protect the public was prepared under executive pressure to compress review timelines from years to weeks. It defers most of its analysis to a 12-year-old study. The 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty is mentioned zero times. The Programmatic Agreement resolving cultural harm to Lakota sacred sites won’t even be executed until six weeks after the comment period closes. That is not environmental review, that is a forced march.
The fast track to war bypassed Congress. The fast track to extraction bypassed the treaty. In the end, the only force that can sideline this runaway train is the consent of the governed. Here is what you can do right now:
First: Tell Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum directly. We need him to reverse the Pe’ Sla drilling permit, pull Dewey-Burdock off the fast-track program, and suspend all extractive permits on treaty lands until real consultation and a full environmental review are done. Use our existing action page. It’s fast and easy to make all three demands in one customizable letter to Burgum online here.
Remember, the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty is the law of this land. Emergency orders don’t override it. Executive dashboards don’t override it. Your voice will have the final say. Use it.
Wopila tanka – In solidarity and struggle, Chase Iron Eyes Executive Director Lakota People’s Law Project Sacred Defense Fund
I oppose approval of the Dewey-Burdock Uranium ISR Plan of Operations (DOI-BLM-MT-C040-2026-0009-EA) and urge the BLM to withhold approval until a full, lawful review is completed. This draft Environmental Assessment is legally compromised on multiple grounds: it asks the public to comment before the Programmatic Agreement resolving cultural harm to Lakota sacred sites is executed, inverting the Section 106 process required by the National Historic Preservation Act; it analyzes only 4.2 acres while ignoring the 10,580-acre uranium operation those acres exist to enable, in violation of NEPA’s prohibition on project segmentation; it uses pre-existing groundwater contamination as a reason to minimize further harm to the same aquifer that flows toward Pine Ridge Reservation; and it contains no environmental justice analysis for the Native communities most at risk. The 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty, which governs the United States’ relationship to these lands, is mentioned zero times. I urge the BLM to extend the comment period, prepare a full Environmental Impact Statement, conduct meaningful government-to-government consultation with the Oglala Sioux Tribe, and withhold approval until all legal requirements are met.
Lakota People’s Law Project P.O. Box 27 Santa Fe, NM 87504 United States
I have a short, one-question quiz for you today. What does Wounded Knee have in common with Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Chicago, and Portland? At a glance, perhaps not much. But the rights and sovereignty of people across Turtle Island are now at risk as the federal government, as it did at Wounded Knee in 1890 and again in 1973, is sending armed troops into American cities to violently subjugate the people of this land.
We need to talk about this moment, what it means for our constitutional sovereignty, and what we can do about it. That’s why we’ll be hosting our next Lakota Law Membership Circle Event — Indigenous and Constitutional Sovereignty at Risk — at 5 p.m. PST on Wednesday, Oct. 29. Tokata will host, and I’ll be joined by our legal team to share our perspectives. Please become a Lakota Law member (for just $10 — the price of one fancy coffee!) to take part in this important discussion.
The invasions of left-leaning U.S. cities are not happening in a vacuum. The troops are there to accomplish three things. They’re enforcing the Trump administration’s racist and inhumane immigration policies, and they’re providing a means of distraction — a way to keep the American people from addressing, or even seeing, the corruption, grift, and scandal that should be synonymous with this version of the executive branch.
Perhaps most importantly, they’re sending a clear message that resistance, dissent, and demonstration — cornerstone First Amendment rights of our constitutional republic — will not be tolerated. Last week, Trump codified this ethos by issuing a national security memorandum that further erodes the rights of all U.S. citizens. It seeks to label those questioning the policies and methodologies of the administration as domestic terrorists — familiar territory from where I sit, as it’s exactly what happened to me and my family at Standing Rock in 2017.
The (same old) cavalry is coming, and I suggest that should be of comfort to absolutely nobody. In our homelands, it started with Custer, whom some descendants of the original immigrant settlers still love to exult and celebrate as a hero. In reality, he was a butcher of noncombatants, a gutter of women, children, and elders. His armed compatriots then earned Congressional Medals of Honor for doing the same to Native People who believed the Ghost Dance (incorporating elements of Christ consciousness) might bring about much needed shifts for our human family.
Fast forward 135 years, and our nation and our world are still badly in need of such a shift. Once again, large swathes of the population have bought into a mythology foisted upon them by the nefarious agents of the blood profiteer war machine — the main beneficiaries of government largess — at the continued expense of life, liberty, and happiness.
Many more of us are waking up to the reality that this is it; we must engage with everything we have in the existential battle to preserve our constitutional, civil, and human rights. It’s time to unite and fight! So, my relative, I hope I’ll see you on Oct. 29 to talk more about what we can and will do together to protect our sovereignty.
Wopila tanka — thank you for fighting for justice! Chase Iron Eyes Executive Director Lakota People’s Law Project Sacred Defense Fund
****Please take note of the complete shift in the political landscape. It is no longer left versus right. What is happening now is the total corruption and collapse of government. The U.S. experiment in democracy is over. The U.S. government is sponsoring and supporting genocide in Gaza. The prior and the current administration is complicit. Remember this in your discussions. RM
It’s time, once again, to protect a sensitive ecosystem in the He Sapa (Black Hills) from mining. A few days ago, the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) opened its 30-day public comment period for the Ponderosa gold mining project. If completed, this abomination will create 43 drill pads, each with the potential to wreak havoc 24 hours a day in Spearfish Canyon, a peaceful creekside and scenic byway right in our backyard.
We can’t let this happen. Please help us defend our homelands by sending your message to the USFS today. The proposed drilling project, just about a mile from a tribally-controlled area frequently used for ceremony, threatens to disrupt our way of life. Ponderosa should never endanger this beautiful area, which is also a haven for outdoor recreational activities and home to thousands of animal and plant species.
I can’t thank you enough for helping to protect our homelands and sacred sites. More than a thousand Lakota Law supporters like you responded to my last call to stop drilling near Pe’ Sla. I’m hoping for an even bigger response this time!
As always when sending to the Forest Service, please make sure to include your name, clearly register your objection, and state your reasons (environmental harm, preservation of peaceful recreational activities, and respect for Native ceremonial practice are good ones). In addition, on this one, please make sure you tell the USFS to conduct a thorough environmental review and create an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS).
We’ve only got a few weeks to weigh in and protect Spearfish Canyon! Please send your comment today. Thank you in advance on behalf of everyone who values our natural surroundings and all of us who call this beautiful region our home.
Wopila tanka — my gratitude to you for protecting our homelands! Tokata Iron Eyes Spokesperson & Organizer Lakota People’s Law Project Sacred Defense Fund
Happy Juneteenth to all! Speaking of American racism, the domestic news cycle this past week largely focused on protests by millions nationwide against the attacks on migrant communities by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (as well as President Donald Trump’s costly, sparsely attended military parade). Those are important issues, and we hope you stand with us in the ongoing fights for equity and justice — and against fascistic policies and displays.
Meanwhile, it’s also important not to overlook the myriad implications of the administration’s proposed legislative agenda, including for Native communities. Those include massive budget cuts to eliminate funding for key programs and services, and now — as I report to you on our sister site, the Last Real Indians (LRI) Native News Desk — South Dakota elected officials want to put Trump’s proposed “Garden of Heroes” on Lakota homelands in the Black Hills, without consent from Native People.
Read on LRI: Do Native People want Trump’s Garden of Heroes in our homelands? Did anyone think to ask us?
In the story, you’ll get the gist of the proposal, and you’ll notice a vast difference in approaches toward it from South Dakota’s (white) elected officials and from Indigenous leaders. Because the Lakota have never ceded the sacred He Sapa (Black Hills) to the U.S., and because the area was stolen in violation of treaty law, one might think the elected officials would make it a priority to get thoughts — permission, even — from the land’s original inhabitants. Unfortunately, they continue to operate from a place of entitlement.
As you’re likely aware, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 45 years ago in favor of the tribes, but the Lakota have never accepted the (now more than $1 billion in) settlement money. The Black Hills are not, and never have been, for sale. As Lakota Law and Sacred Defense Fund executive director Chase Iron Eyes mentions in our story, if the federal government wants to place its garden on Lakota lands, it should return them first.
On a positive note, the garden is slated to include Indigenous representation. That, at least, is something. But, on this monumental day commemorating the end of U.S. slavery, let’s be clear that respecting the perspectives and agency of marginalized groups must also be part of the process. Now more than ever, we must keep fighting — not just for recognition, but for an inclusive and healthy path forward for all who call this place their home.
Miigwech — thank you for fighting for equity and justice! Darren Thompson Director of Media Relations, Lakota People’s Law Project Editor-In-Chief, LRI Native News Desk
Warm greetings. Today, I share an urgent action. For many years, my family has helped lead the fight to protect Pe’ Sla, one of the most sacred places — located high in the Black Hills — to the Lakota People. In 2012, we helped make sure it returned to Indigenous care, but now it is threatened again by mining interests.
Fortunately, once again, we land defenders have the opportunity to stop the desecration of this ceremonial ground — but time is very short. May 16 — just days from now — is the deadline to tell the U.S. Forest Service it must not allow mining on this sacred ground! Please see below for the exact points to make, and I also invite you to watch my video and learn a little more about why I care so deeply about this special place.
Thankfully, the original May 9 deadline for comments was extended by one week — so let’s make our voices heard! We must not let the Rochford Mineral Exploratory Drilling Project tear up our sacred ground in its quest for graphite.
As our dear friends at the Black Hills Clean Water Alliance (BHCWA) have pointed out, this project is immediately adjacent to — and some proposed drill pads might encroach on — Pe’ Sla. Maps are vague, but, in their words, “by any definition, the project is too close!”
BHCWA’s research tells us that “the project would involve 18 drill pads. Exploration could contaminate water in the upper Rapid Creek watershed, with some proposed drill pads very close to streams. And there is also the potential for contamination or cross-contamination of underground water sources.”
BHCWA suggests that you include the following information when you submit your comment:
Your name and address
Why you care about this project and the Black Hills
The name of the project (Rochford Mineral Exploratory Drilling Project #67838)
Request for a 60-day extension of the “scoping” public comment period, so everyone has an opportunity to comment
A reason why you oppose the Rochford Mineral Exploratory Drilling Project. Use your own words, but two good ones are the potential negative environmental impacts and the disruption of traditional ceremonial practices for Lakotas
Tell the Forest Service to require an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for this project
This is an urgent request to protect sacred territory frequently used by many Lakota People for ceremonial practice. It is a pristine ecosystem and beautiful place. Please help us protect Pe’ Sla.
Wopila tanka — thank you, always, for your advocacy! Tokata Iron Eyes Spokesperson & Organizer Lakota People’s Law Project Sacred Defense Fund
Forward 
