LAUGHLIN, Nev. -- This week marks the 400th anniversary of the first Thanksgiving meal, and many Native American tribes are asking other Americans to face some hard truths. They noted Indigenous people lost most of their land and a great many lives to disease and war following the arrival of the settlers.

Taylor Patterson, executive director of the Native Voters Alliance Nevada and a member of the Bishop Paiute Tribe, is among those calling for change.

"I hate the idea that we're celebrating a history that is so false and misrepresented," Patterson remarked. "I think people are so willing to remember Thanksgiving and remember colonization, but not remember the effects that it had on the communities of people that were already living here."

Native American advocacy groups argued the story about Thanksgiving most Americans were taught in elementary school is a fable. They believe it should be replaced with an honest accounting of the suffering the tribes endured.

Patterson pointed out the country can turn over a new leaf by listening to native voices and uplifting native causes.

"People can kind of change the narrative of Thanksgiving and move past that history now, and give the land and the people the respect that it deserves," Patterson contended.

This year President Joe Biden named Deb Haaland, a Native American leader, as U.S. Interior Secretary.

Tribes in Nevada want the administration to create a new national monument at their most sacred site, known as Avi Kwa Ame or Spirit Mountain, in southwest Nevada. The area is revered by 12 Yuman tribes and is at the center of their creation stories.

On August 27, members of the public will have a rare opportunity to visit the historic Padlock Ranch first developed for livestock in 1867, now operating as the Arapaho Ranch.

Lorre Hoffman, project coordinator with the Arapaho Ranch Field Station, said the 450,000 acre site was seen as a job-creation venture when the Northern Arapaho and Shoshone agreed to buy it in 1940.

But after the Shoshone dropped out of the deal, the Arapaho were left holding a $290,000 loan.

"This kind of debt was a horrifying thing," said Hoffman. "Someone said it was like a weight around their necks. But they paid it off in half the time they were allowed. And now the ranch is always called the pride of the tribe."

A tour organized by the Field Station and the Alliance for Historic Wyoming will include talks on the history of the ranch, a performance by Crow poet Henry Real Bird, self-guided tours, and a trip to view nearby petroglyphs created before the Bronze age.

The ranch sits about 20 miles northwest of Thermopolis, on lands that are part of the Arapaho, Shoshone, and Crow Ancestral Migratory routes. For more information and to sign up for the tour, visit historicwyoming.org.

Buildings constructed during Padlock Ranch days, which went into receivership after the 1929 stock market crash, include a large horse barn and a mansion modeled after an Italian villa.

Hoffman said the elaborate homestead was built for entertaining, and is unlike other buildings constructed at the time.

"It has a very open entry," said Hoffman. "You stand in the middle of it, and it's open all the way to the living room, and all the way to the dining room, and the enormous wide staircase that goes up with a giant window at the end. So it's very welcoming."

Padlock is considered to have been the largest sheep operation in Wyoming around 1917, and the Arapaho are working to restore its schoolhouse, company store and other structures.

Hoffman said the ranch is now widely renowned for its high-grade beef, raised naturally with plenty of space to roam and without the use of chemicals found in factory-farmed animals.

"They don't use antibiotics or hormones," said Hoffman. "The Arapaho Ranch in the late '90s was the largest organic beef producer in North America."





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With new voting maps for Montana's Legislature to be revealed soon, Native American communities are being encouraged to watch the process closely.

Billings-based Western Native Voice wants the Montana Districting and Apportionment Commission to respect tribal sovereignty in the process. One of the commission's goals is to keep communities of interest, such as tribes, intact.

Ta'jin Perez, deputy director of Western Native Voice, said keeping communities whole is important, as is ensuring representation in the Legislature.

"Candidates of choice are from your community and that these communities should be able to have the opportunity to elect someone that shares their values and shares who they are and the unique history and the unique cultures of these tribal areas," Perez outlined.

The commission has scheduled nine public meetings in August and September, so Montanans can comment on the maps, including three meetings online: Aug. 30 for the western region, Sep. 9 for the central region, and Sep. 19 for the eastern region.

Perez pointed out Montana has an independent redistricting commission, and contended it has done a good job of ensuring the Legislature is proportionally representative of the population of Native Americans in the state. He noted the independent setup of the commission has many upsides, including it is not beholden to the governor or lawmakers.

"An entire Legislature, their voice is intended to be just as loud as that of the public because of this independent commission that we have," Perez explained. "Other states don't enjoy this kind of thing."

Perez added voters should be engaged in the process.

"Representation that reflects communities as they are is important, and the only way that a body like the redistricting commission can do that is through public comment," Perez concluded.

The deadline for the redistricting plan is the 10th day of the 2023 legislative session.

New research shows COVID-19 caused life expectancy to drop for all groups of Americans, but none as much as American Indians and Native Alaskans.

Research from the University of Colorado estimates during the 2020-2021 pandemic, life expectancy for U.S. Native Americans declined by nearly five years, about three times that of white residents.

Ryan Masters, assistant professor of sociology at the University of Colorado-Boulder and co-author of the study, said after noting longevity had slipped three-and-a-quarter years among Black Americans and nearly four years among Hispanics, he did not expect worse news.

"The horrific drops among Hispanic population were really sobering," Masters recounted. "We were expecting something of that magnitude, but to see declines that were even greater was really a tragic, terrifying result that we saw."

Native Americans make up just 1.7% of the U.S. population, but more than 10% of the New Mexico population. Masters reported by 2021, life expectancy for Native Americans had slipped to about age 70 for women, and just under 64 for men. Overall, U.S. life expectancy decreased from around 79 years in 2019 to about 76 years in 2021, or approximately 2.5 years.

As vaccines became available last year, Masters pointed out peer countries began to rebound from a historic 2020 dip in life expectancy while the U.S. experienced even higher losses. He added deaths among minority groups played a huge role, including for those younger than 60.

"There was also some substantial losses of life in these midlife years," Masters outlined. "Due to cardio-metabolic diseases, drug overdoses, and unfortunately due to injuries caused by firearms and transportation accidents."

Masters added a similar life-expectancy decline hasn't been seen since World War II. The study, which has not been peer-reviewed, noted nearly one-million Americans died from COVID-19 during the two-year pandemic, blamed partly on the quality of public health options and the high cost of insurance and prescription drugs.