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By Chris Swartz

On August 19 and 20, 2019, the United States saw its first ever Native American Presidential Forum in Sioux City, Iowa. There, Tribal leaders and Native organizers, including Native youth, were able to ask the nine candidates questions concerning topics such as the climate crisis, missing and murdered Indigenous women, and continuous government neglect of Native American peoples. Each candidate was individually questioned by a panel of six to eight panelists, in front of an audience of members from different Tribal Nations across the country.
 

By Chris Swartz

On the island of Hawaii stands the grand Mauna Kea, a dormant volcano that is about one million years old. It stands at 13,803 feet (4,207.3 meters) above sea level, and when measured from its oceanic base, it is 33,000 ft (10,000 m) tall, making it the tallest mountain in the world.
 

Protests near the sacred summit of Mauna Kea in Hawai’i are increasing in urgency as Native Hawaiians fight to prevent the construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT). Mauna Kea is the tallest mountain in the Pacific and has traditionally been the site of religious ceremonies for Native Hawaiians, or Kanaka Maoli. The telescope has been scheduled for construction for over a decade, and has been the subject of legal contestation as Free, Prior and Informed Consent has not been given by Native Hawaiians.

The Southeast Alaska Indigenous Transboundary Commission (SEITC) is a consortium of 15 sovereign Tribal Nations located in Southeast Alaska. SEITC has authority derived from Tribal governments, and each member Tribe has a formally designated representative. Established in 2014, SEITC was founded in order to protect and represent the cultural connection to the sacred rivers and waterways that are essential to sustaining local communities.

By Katherine Hamilton

On May 20, 2019, 16-year-old Carlos Gregorio Hernandez died in a Texas Border Patrol station, after being diagnosed with influenza and waiting a week in holding facilities. He was the fifth Indigenous child to die on the border since December.

In September 2018, the first migrant child to die in federal custody since 2010 passed away due to heart complications. Since then, five more minors have died at Border Patrol, all of them from Guatemala, a country whose population is majority Indigenous.

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