National Native News

Photo: The Gila River Indian Community’s Sacaton Market was unveiled during its grand opening on October 23, 2025. (Gabriel Pietrorazio / KJZZ)

The Gila River Indian Community in Arizona has long relied on convenience stores to feed its 13,000 residents, who otherwise may have to drive as far as half an hour away to neighboring cities with grocery stores.

But as KJZZ’s Gabriel Pietrorazio reports, a new market – a decade in the making – has opened much closer to home.

Duncan Winston is with Gila River Development and says the tribe’s new 11,000 sq. ft. supermarket in the hear...

Photo: Wrangell City Hall on June 26, 2024. (Colette Czarnecki/KSTK)

The City and Borough of Wrangell in Southeast Alaska is pausing work at a housing project after archaeologists confirmed artifacts at the site.

KSTK’s Colette Czarnecki has more.

While excavating a subdivision development site on Wrangell Island, construction crews uncovered a shell midden.

Middens are ancient sites made up of shells and other remains. They help tell the story of who lived there and how they lived.

The borough government owns the property and is pausing work near the mi...

Photo: Spirit Lake Nation. (Courtesy Spirit Lake Nation-Mni Wakan Oyate / Facebook)

The Spirit Lake Tribal Council in North Dakota has declared a state of emergency as the federal government shutdown continues.

The council declared the emergency this week in response to potential impacts on essential federal programs, including food and heating assistance.

If the shutdown continues past October 31, benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) may be paused starting November 1.

According to a press release, the Spirit Lake Tribe’s food distribution program has already seen an increase in families se...

Photo: Debris sits in water in Kipnuk, Alaska following high winds and flooding brought by the remnants of Typhoon Halong. (Jacqui Lang / Alaska Public Media)

Hundreds of people remain displaced a week after the remnants of a typhoon wreaked havoc on some of Alaska’s most remote and vulnerable communities.

Reporter Emily Schwing has this update.

One of the hardest hit communities is Kipnuk, a village that sits in the heart of Alaska’s Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta.

Last week, Tribal Administrator Tristan Carl made the tough decision to mass evacuate his friends and...

With fire season winding down across many parts of the US, it is not unusual to find people doing deliberate burns to eliminate slash or improve habitat.

Outside Eugene, Oreg. recently, a group of Native youth and state and tribal agencies conducted a cultural burn.

Brian Bull of Buffalo’s Fire reports.

Five interns with the Long Tom Watershed Council’s Traditional Ecological Inquiry Program (TEIP) and a few dozen staff members, fire bosses, and agency employees gathered at the Chaa-lamali Reserve.

(Photo: Brian Bull)

The oak savannah here prov...

Photos: Willard Bill Jr. and the Black River Canoe Family provide the opening protocol at Seattle’s No Kings protest. (Courtesy SEIU6 / Protectors of the Salish / Instagram)

Millions of protesters – including many Native and Indigenous people – joined this weekend’s 2,600 “No Kings” events held across the U.S.

Muckleshoot tribal member Willard Bill Jr. and the Black River Canoe Family provided a drum song as part of Saturday’s opening protocol for a “No Kings” event held at the Seattle Center.

Bill expressed solidarity with the Palestinian People, saying Natives know “what U.S.-sponsored genocid...

Photo: Debris sits in piles in Kwigillingok after the remnants of Typhoon Halong brought widespread devastation to the region. (Brea Paul)

Searches are ongoing for two people missing from a western Alaska village after remnants of Typhoon Halong left one dead and much of the region devastated by high winds and flooding, but large-scale search and rescue efforts are largely on hold pending new information.

The U.S. Coast Guard, Alaska State Troopers, and Alaska National Guard say they were unable to locate a floating house and its occupants before they suspended their active search...

Photo: Personal hygiene products are laid out for storm evacuees at the Bethel Search and Rescue building in Bethel, Alaska on October 14, 2025. (Corinne Smith / KYUK)

Donations are pouring into Bethel Search and Rescue in the wake of the catastrophic storm that hit the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta over the weekend.

As KYUK’s Evan Erickson reports, the building has been buzzing with volunteers and recent evacuees, some of whom have lost everything.

At the Bethel Search and Rescue building, families from villages hit hardest by Sunday’s storm grab items from long tables overflowing with clothes and esse...

Photo: Waves from ex-Typhoon Halong cover the Kuskokwim River waterfront in Bethel, Alaska on October 12, 2025. (MaryCait Dolan / KYUK)

The remnants of Typhoon Halong over the weekend have left at least one woman dead and more than 1,000 people displaced in Western Alaska.

The disaster happened right before the start of the Alaska Federation of Natives (AFN) Convention and the Elders & Youth Conference (EYC).

The Alaska Desk’s Alena Naiden with assistance of Rhonda McBride from our flagship station KNBA reports, the storm is already shaping the tone of this year’s events.

AFN always focu...

Photo: An overturned home in Kotlik. The National Weather Service reported a maximum wind gust of 78 mph in Kotlik Sunday morning. (Adaline Pete)

One person has died, two are still missing, and 51 have been rescued following a record-breaking storm that slammed into the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta in southwest Alaska over the weekend.

Alaska Public Media’s Eric Stone and Liz Ruskin report.

Officials say search and rescue efforts are ongoing.

Christopher Culpepper, Coast Guard commander for Western Alaska, compares the devastation to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

“Several of these vill...

Photo: Mike Duncan, founder and CEO of the Native Dads Network, is one of the featured speakers at November’s opioid summit in New Mexico. (Courtesy Mike Duncan)

Indigenous health workers are stepping up their battle against opioid addictions.

As the Mountain West News Bureau’s Jenny Kinsey reports, tribal communities are looking for solutions to the ongoing crisis.

Indigenous people have been especially hard-hit by the national opioid epidemic. Their use is highest among all U.S. populations. And use has been increasing dramatically in recent years.

Chris Lovato is a Co...