Nalgene Outdoor, maker of reusable water bottles and of the Nalgene Water Fund has pledged its support to the Navajo Nation with the launch of its exclusive "To´ éí iiná" (Water is Life) bottle, by Diné designer Jaden Redhair.

"My biggest message is that we do recover, so I hope to give others the courage to change and to let them know there is hope," said Christie Farmer, one of this year's winners of the Montana Student Volunteer Award. Having just learned of her winning the statewide honor, she said, "I'm having tears of happiness because the hard work is paying off and I'm really grateful for everything that's been happening to me."

CHEYENNE RIVER RESERVATION, SD—By the time I visited, the checkpoints were already a point of contention between the tribe and the state.

In October, as the coronavirus outbreak swept across the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe's reservation, straddling the North and South Dakota border, tribal elder Jesse "Jay" Taken Alive was sidelined with a nagging cough.

He tested positive for Covid-19. Within a week, his wife, Cheryl, who was feeling congested and weak, did, too.

The couple's health began to deteriorate, their children recalled: Taken Alive was rushed to the Indian Health Service hospital in Fort Yates, North Dakota, and hospitalized for a few days. Later, he and his wife were both admitted to a larger hospital in Fargo, only one floor apart but unable to see each other.

The Lummi Nation began vaccinations Thursday, becoming one of the nation’s first to provide protection to its tribal members against a disease that has had an outsized and devastating impact on some American Indian and Alaska Native communities.

The tribal nation received 300 doses of Pfizer’s vaccine Tuesday, said Dr. Dakotah Lane, medical director of the Public Health Department and a Lummi Nation member.

I never would have thought to compare buffalo—that mighty member of the bovid family that roams and stampedes across the prairie—to a Walmart, until I heard an interview with Bamm Brewer of South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.

In scientific terms, the winter solstice occurs at the precise moment when the axial tilt of earth’s polar hemisphere is the farthest away from the sun.

That moment arrived, Dec. 22 when the North Pole tilted 23.5 degrees away from the sun, bringing about the shortest day and the longest night of the year.

In cultural terms, the winter solstice has been a special moment that was recognized as far back as Neolithic times.

Born in the frigid Southwestern Alaska autumn, Albertina Dull began life swaddled in feathers.

Lisa Meeches, 52, is the only Manitoban among 61 recipients, announced by Rideau Hall on Wednesday. Meeches, who was born and raised on Long Plain First Nation near Portage la Prairie, calls herself a "storyteller and a story keeper."

This year has been as trying for the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe as for other Minnesotans. But even with a pandemic and economic troubles that have hit its members hard, the tribe can celebrate the righting of a historic wrong.

Congress has moved to restore nearly 12,000 acres wrongly taken by the federal government from the tribe in a series of moves dating back to the late 1940s. The act, carried by Minnesota Democrats Sen. Tina Smith and Rep. Betty McCollum, has been sent to President Donald Trump, who has indicated he will sign it.

A northern California Indian tribe's sacred land is now back under their ownership, thanks to the help of a conservancy group.

A board game developed over the course of years from cut-up cereal boxes in Thomassie Mangiok's Ivujivik home is now ready for worldwide distribution.

The artist and educator bills Nunami as the first Inuit board game. Nunami means "on the land" in Inuktitut.

Players — from two to four — can take on the role of either human or nature. It's a game of strategy, but the goal is not to control the land or beat your opponent, but learn how to live together.

Nó:yah Nó:yah! It is that time of year again! When we celebrate the season, give thanks for another year and give one another some special homemade treats. For the Haudenosaunee, Indian donuts are the ever-sought-after treat of the season. It’s a spiced fried pillow of flavors of days gone by.

Everyone has memories of their family members making these fried treats. Family recipes are handed down from generation to generation and with it our expectations of the perfect donut.

The Standing Rock Sioux Reservation stretches across the central Dakotas, a harsh and largely desolate landscape along a wide section of the Missouri River. It is not an easy place to live and not an easy place to get to.

But it is a sacred place for the Sioux, they've defended it for hundreds of years. It is the land of Sitting Bull. They defend it to this day, the most recent opponent being intruding and, the Sioux fervently believe, dangerous oil pipelines. And they defend their way of life, their Lakota traditions and language. This is not a place for empty gestures or for public-relations stunts. It is authentic as it gets, in charming and foreboding ways.

Kyrie Irving came to Standing Rock this week for the first time. He did not come for charity -- he gave the tribe $100,000 a year ago -- and he did not come for photo ops. The main event was sternly off limits to video or photography. He came to honor his mother and he came to understand his heritage.

Leydy Pech , an indigenous Mayan beekeeper, led a coalition that halted the planting of genetically modified soybeans by Monsanto in seven states across the country. For his defense of the environment and the autonomy of indigenous peoples and honey he won the "Nobel" for the environment: 2020 Goldman Prize Recipient North America.

• The Sicangu Lakota Oyate, the Native nation living on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in the U.S. state of South Dakota, released 100 American bison onto part of an 11,300-hectare (28,000-acre) pasture.
• The project is a collaboration between the Sicangu Oyate's economic arm, REDCO, the U.S. Department of the Interior, and WWF.
• Over the next five years, the leaders of the Wolakota Buffalo Range project hope to expand the herd to 1,500 buffalo, which would make it the largest owned by a Native nation.