The Pleiades star cluster, also known as the Seven Sisters

In a press release originating from "an island north of Seattle," The Giraffe Heroes Project, announced Wednesday that Oglala Lakota activist Charmaine White Face, of Rapid City, South Dakota has received their most recent commendation "as a Giraffe Hero, an award given to people around the world who stick their necks out for the common good."

"White Face was honored for her actions on behalf of her fellow Oglala-Sioux," the release said, adding that "she has fought against corruption that has left too many Oglala-Sioux in extreme poverty."

Cuyamaca College plans to launch an associate's degree program in Kumeyaay studies this fall and become one of the first community colleges in the state to offer a degree program focusing on the language, culture and history of a specific Native American group. The program is a step up from the current certificate in Kumeyaay studies offered by Cuyamaca and will draw from the sciences, humanities, world languages and history departments, according to the college.

On Ohiarihkó:wa/July 8, 2016, the Saint Regis Mohawk Tribal Council presented the Tribe's annual contribution in the amount of $100,000 to the Akwesasne Freedom School. The amount is dispersed in two payments of $50,000 during the year to support the school's Mohawk language immersion instruction. "The preservation and strengthening of the Mohawk language, culture and traditions are important to our community because of the values it provides and instills in our youth who are the foundation of our future," said Tribal Chief Eric Thompson. "The Freedom School continues to be an integral part of what makes Akwesasne distinct and unique, as a community and as a people."

The Onondaga Nation will honor former Syracuse University Chancellor Nancy Cantor this evening for her role in creating the Haudenosaunee Promise Scholarship.

The promise scholarship was announced in 2006 by Cantor as a way to strengthen the relationship between the Haudenosaunee, which includes the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca and Tuscarora nations, and the university.

It is already hot at 9 a.m. when members of the Former Bennett Freeze Area Field Intake project head out to assess another home in the To'Nanees'Dizi Chapter, part of its five-year land use plan update.

One Northern Arizona college student, Charmayne Flatrock, and three Adult Workforce Department workers, Ronda Anderson, Eva Wilson and Larsena Slender, head out to the areas around Tuba City.

By August 1, the Potawatomi Leadership Program students will be packing their bags and heading back to their hometowns after a six-week internship that taught them the ins and outs of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. The award-winning program brings a group of 10 young tribal members from around the country to Shawnee, Oklahoma to learn about the government, culture, and economic development of CPN.

This year the participants came from North Carolina, Virginia, Oregon, Kansas, Arizona, Vermont, California and Oklahoma. The PLP arrived on June 17 and dove right into tours, introductions and the Family Reunion Festival.

Research has long suggested the ideal time to teach a new language is to 4-year-old students because young learners absorb so much information at this age.

"I lost my tent – I was camping when it happened." Greg Dashner said on Monday, July 18 after a series of severe thunderstorms moved through northern Wisconsin resulting in more than $30 million in damages, according to the Wisconsin Emergency Operations Center.

Dashner, a resident of the Bad River Indian Reservation, located in Ashland and Iron counties, has received a great amount of help from the surrounding area communities and various neighboring tribal communities.

The first five of 20 eco-friendly modular homes arrived on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation and are being set on their foundations this week.

Founded by actor Brad Pitt, the Make It Right foundation and the Fort Peck Tribes are hoping to have the first five families moved into their new homes by Aug. 1. Plans are to have the entire housing project filled by Dec. 1.

Kids and horses gather on a dusty riding ground on a ridge overlooking the snow-capped Wind River Range. Northern Arapaho Social Services Director Allison Sage starts the day's ride as he always does: with a prayer and introductions.

Four of Tuba City High School's top male and female student athletes were selected "Athlete of the Year" and two of the students also took a second, more competitive honor of "Academic" Athlete of the Year" award, doubling the prestige and recognition with awards selected by high school sports peers and coaches for the high school. Sydney Brown, Roland Becenti, Albert Fuller and Koralyn Curley from Tuba City High School were honored at a banquet at the Tuba City High School Warrior Pavilion before a packed house filled with parents, extended family and sports supporters.

Saxman Tribal House To Get New Roof With USDA-RD Grant

The rural City of Saxman, Alaska has received a $60,000 grant from U.S. Department of Agriculture-Rural Development (USDA-RD) it was announced on Thursday by USDA State Director Jim Nordlund.

The funding for the roof replacement of Saxman's Tribal House was provided by USDA_RD Alaska's Community Facility Direct Grant, it was reported.

Fishing at the spot where this long, squiggly stream mixes with a floury channel of the Tanana River, Alison Beamer feels a thump.

Line squeals from her spinning reel as a creature as long as her arm flashes beneath the surface. After a few runs east and west, the fish tires, becoming still beneath the clear surface. Beamer's canoe-mate Jason Clark nets and dispatches the fish. He then threads it on a stringer.

Two leaded bronze artifacts found in northwestern Alaska are the first evidence that metal from Asia reached prehistoric North America prior to contact with Europeans, according to new Purdue University research.

The Cherokee Heritage Center is giving visitors a look into the clothing and textiles of the Cherokee people with its “Threads of Time” exhibit. The show features garments, jewelry, historic photographs and an antique loom used by the Sequoyah Indian Weavers Association.

CHC Executive Director Candessa Tehee said the exhibit, which runs until Aug. 20, is important because it “shows innovation through time.”

There's a bitter truth to the work tribal member Rebecca Peone conducts to restore huckleberries on the Colville Reservation.

The 50-year-old won't enjoy the fruits of her efforts in her lifetime, she says.

"I won't see these huckleberries produce," she says, in the thick of an undisclosed traditional gathering area in Inchelium. "Huckleberries are particular. They take a really long time to grow. You don't see them like blueberry crops."

The Fond du Lac Natural Resources Program has begun a large manoomin (wild rice) restoration effort in Nagaajiwanaang (the lower St. Louis River Estuary). This area where the name of our Band is derived from, is where our ancestors riced for generations. Manoomin habitat was altered and neglected over the past 150 years as the Duluth Harbor was developed, industries polluted, the old growth forest was harvested, and hydropower dams were installed. As part of a cooperative effort between Minnesota DNR, Wisconsin DNR, MN Land Trust, 1854 Treaty Authority, and the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission, work is underway to bring back approximately 275 acres of manoomin over the next 10 years.

Mike Larsen's eyes poured over two huge acrylic paintings he created 21 years ago.

"This painting of an Arapaho holy man and his people brings back many emotions," Mr. Larsen said. "It was painted right after the Oklahoma City bombing. Two of our children are included and the others are close friends. Many of them now gone."

After 10 years in Kansas City, the Chickasaw artist's two-panel painting "Cloud People" is back in Oklahoma. It was relocated to Kansas City in 2006 when the Oklahoma City Federal Reserve branch moved into a new office without the capacity to properly display it.

Several hundred people showed up on July 16 to celebrate the Ironworkers Festival, an annual tradition which completed a 14th year.

Four members of the Shinnecock Indian Nation have made their way to Seattle, Washington, to join forces with other Native American tribes in the annual Tribal Canoe Journey, known this year as Paddle to Nisqually.They are catching the tail end of a canoe journey that began earlier this month, with paddlers en route to the home of the Nisqually tribe, about 15 miles east of Olympia, Washington. The theme focuses on the waters and the tribes' connection to it — which resonates with the Shinnecock who will participate.

It took about two dozen people Thursday afternoon to haul one of the massive dugout canoes out of the water and onto the gravel shore of Owen Beach.

Patrica Elofson of the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe in Port Angeles looked on fondly.

"Everybody joins in," said Elofson, 66. "Those people probably aren't even from that tribe."