A Michigan Indian tribe has been awarded a $100,000 federal grant to study the possibility of creating its own power utility.

The Little River Band of Ottawa Indians will use Tribal Energy Capacity Grant funding from the Bureau of Indian Affairs to perform a Tribal Utility Authority feasibility study.

Eugene Manguson, executive director of the tribe's economic development arm, Little River Holdings, said the tribe sees operating a power utility as a way to exercise its independence, diversify its holdings, control its energy future and reduce costs.

"Energy sovereignty, I think, is the next arena that tribes are starting to look at," Manguson noted. "One of the ways is going through solar, wind and all those technologies that are available for tribes to get into."

There are currently more than 30 Tribal Utility Authorities across the country, including the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe of Michigan. The Little River Band was among 18 tribal entities funded during the Bureau of Indian Affairs' January round of grant awards.

The tribe is located in Manisee County in the northwestern part of Michigan's lower peninsula. The tribe's main income enterprise is the Little River Casino Resort north of the reservation.

Magnuson pointed out electricity to operate a casino can be costly.

"The Tribal Utility Entity was created to actually peel power off the grid," Magnuson explained. "Because of the tribal sovereignty, we could procure the electricity off of the grid at wholesale."

Magnuson added tribal leaders have not set a deadline to complete the study.

The Jackson-based group Native American Jump Start has been providing grants to Native students, interns and young workers for decades and this year, has added an ambassador program.

Nine ambassadors across the country will help spread the word on Native American Jump Start opportunities, up to 100 microgrants per year to help, among others, students at any level of higher education.

Wicahpi Chaddlesone-Yankton, grant and operations coordinator for the group, said they want to highlight more student voices and half of ambassadors in the first cohort are current students.

"We wanted to have our ambassadors work with their Native student centers or organizations on their campus and just help bring NAJS's voice into a bigger light," Chaddlesone-Yankton explained.

The group is funded by private donations and therefore will be directly affected by cuts from the Trump administration. Meanwhile, the Native American Rights fund in March sued the U.S. Interior Department and the Office of Indian Affairs over the federal administration's cuts to the Bureau of Indian Education.

O'Shay Birdinground comes from the Great Apsaalooke Nation and will graduate this spring from the University of Montana. He first used Jump Start funding to attend a conference. Now as an ambassador, Birdinground encouraged "future Indigenous leaders" to take advantage of educational opportunities.

"There are a lot of opportunities out there for education and leadership development," Birdinground emphasized. "I wouldn't hesitate to jump on any one of those opportunities that is provided to you."

The application period for Native American Jump Start's education grant funding for this fall opens April 1.

Support for this reporting was provided by Lumina Foundation.

Indigenous people have made great contributions to the state of Wisconsin yet the alarming rates of violence against them remains a public health crisis.

A new study showed intimate partner violence disproportionately impacts Indigenous women more than any other ethnic or racial group in the U.S. The murder rate for Native American women and girls is up to 10 times higher than the national average, according to the U.S. Department of Justice, yet they account for less than 1% of the population.

Desiree Tody, outreach program coordinator at the Center Against Sexual and Domestic Abuse and a member of the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, said violence against Native women is underreported and unaddressed.

"There's jurisdictional issues that come into play as to how things are investigated, how things are tried, and there's always racism," Tody observed. "There's less attention paid to the individuals that some of these things happen to."

The Wisconsin Department of Justice created a task force to combat violence against Native women across the state after legislation which would have addressed the issues failed to pass. There are currently no upcoming task force meetings listed on the newly updated DOJ website.

Poor tracking and data collection are among the many issues contributing to the epidemic among Indigenous women. During a multistate march last month, Tody read a list of names of Indigenous people from Minnesota who had died from domestic violence. No such list currently exists for Wisconsin and Tody noted she is working to change it.

She emphasized the great need to address the systems in place, which continue to fail Native people.

"I have three daughters that I want them to grow up as strong Native women and I want them to grow up safely as strong Native women," Tody explained. "This is their futures on the line. This is their ability to walk down a street safely."

Research shows Indigenous women also face significant barriers when seeking help after experiencing domestic violence. A survivor of domestic violence herself, Tody works with the Center Against Sexual and Domestic Abuse to provide resources for those affected in Bayfield and Ashland counties. Gov. Tony Evers has proposed a $20 million funding increase for domestic abuse services in his current executive budget.


get more stories like this via email

Three Montana bills regarding Native rights and culture advanced from the Senate to the House this week, despite some previous setbacks. Bills to revise the Montana Indian Child Welfare Act and Indian Education for All laws, both tabled within the last month, were this week both passed the Senate and were transmitted to the House. The education bill would require more tribal consultation, more work with language and culture specialists, and more accountability from the state's Board of Public Education.

Keaton Sunchild, director of government and political relations for Western Native Voice, says understanding historical context is critical.

"I think it's hugely important that we continue to teach the history and the culture of Native Americans here in Montana," Sunchild said. "It's pretty hard to do any sort of Montana history without talking about Native American history."

Senate Bill 147 would expand the 2023 Indian Child Welfare Act to include more frequent and robust tribal participation, in recognition of the cultural losses an Indian child placed in a nonnative foster home may experience. In 2020, American Indian children made up 9% of all Montana children, but were 35% of kids in foster care, according to the state's judicial branch.

A bill to make voting more accessible for Native communities was heard last week, but still requires a vote. Sunchild said the major arguments he's heard against the bill are around the costs of implementing more resources for voters, but added that those one-time government costs would save many individuals' repeated costs.

"Between gas, food, child care, days off work, we have voters who are paying $200 sometimes, if not more, to go vote. Voting's inherently supposed to be free," Sunchild continued. "And we're saying that it's really not for Native American communities."

A bill to recognize Indigenous People's Day as a legal holiday in Montana passed the Senate on Wednesday almost unanimously. Sunchild said this version received more support than its predecessors because it calls for the holiday in conjunction with, instead of replacing, Columbus Day.