Levi Rickert

2 weeks ago | nativenewsonline.net | Levi Rickert

Opinion. This Sunday. June 8, 2025, marks the 119th anniversary of the Antiquities Act of 1906, a landmark conservation law that gives U.S. presidents power to protect public lands of historic, cultural, or scientific significance. President Theodore Roosevelt signed the Act into law, and it has preserved some of our nation’s most cherished landscapes, including national monuments that hold deep cultural and spiritual significance for tribal nations.

2 weeks ago | nativenewsonline.net | Levi Rickert

On Friday, the Society of American Indian Dentists (SAID) announced the passing of Dr. George Blue Spruce Jr., DDS, MPH—a groundbreaking figure in Native American health care. Of Laguna and Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo heritage, Dr. Blue Spruce made history in 1956 as the first American Indian dentist. He passed away on Monday evening at the age of 94.

3 weeks ago | nativenewsonline.net | Levi Rickert

The Trump administration is proposing a drastic reduction in funding for tribal colleges and universities—nearly a 90% cut—that could force most, if not all, of these institutions to shut down. These drastic proposed cuts were released by the U.S. Department of the Interior on Monday as part of President Donald Trump’s FY 2026 Budget. The budget asks Congress to drop funding from $182 million in the current year to just $22 million in 2026.

3 weeks ago | nativenewsonline.net | Levi Rickert

The U.S. Department of the Interior today announced the availability of more than $119 million in fiscal year 2025 grant funding to support the reclamation of abandoned coal mines across the country. These Abandoned Mine Land (AML) fee-based grants, authorized under the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 and administered by the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSMRE), will support 24 coal-producing states and two tribal programs in restoring former mine sites.

3 weeks ago | nativenewsonline.net | Katheryn Houghton |Jazmin Orozco Rodriguez |Arielle Zionts |Levi Rickert

WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. — Navajo Nation leaders took turns talking with the U.S. government’s top health official as they hiked along a sandstone ridge overlooking their rural, high-desert town before the morning sun grew too hot. Buu Nygren, president of the Navajo Nation, paused at the edge with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Below them, tribal government buildings, homes, and juniper trees dotted the tan and deep-red landscape.