Underscore News

1 week ago | underscore.news | Nika Bartoo-Smith

A project 23 years in the making, the Yurok Tribe and Western Rivers Conservancy jointly achieved the largest land back deal in California’s history this May. With over 47,000 acres of ancestral lands, the area doubles Yurok’s land holdings. It includes critical habitat for salmon and other wildlife along the eastern side of the lower Klamath River watershed, just a few miles up from the mouth of the river.

2 weeks ago | underscore.news | Alex Zielinski |Nika Bartoo-Smith

When the City of Portland established its Tribal Relations Program in 2017, it turned heads. In a city with one of the nation’s largest populations of Native residents, creating a program to bridge the long-neglected relationships between Tribal and city governments seemed obvious – and overdue. The trailblazing program became a quick model for how other U.S. cities and counties could reimagine their relationships with Tribal leaders and Native residents.

3 weeks ago | underscore.news | Jarrette Werk

Growing up in Tulsa, Colleen Thurston never imagined filmmaking could be part of her future—at least not in Oklahoma. To her, filmmaking was only possible for people living in faraway coastal cities, places like California or New York. Fast forward to now, Thruston is rewriting that narrative for herself, showcasing her first feature-length documentary, ‘Drowned Land’ at this year’s Seattle International Film Festival.

3 weeks ago | underscore.news | Nika Bartoo-Smith

Around 150 community members gathered on May 22 for a free performance put on by the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation and the Oregon Symphony, at the Center for Native Arts and Cultures, in Portland. The event, “Celilo Falls: An Evening of Music, Storytelling, and Discussion,” was a preview night for “Scheherazade and Celilo Falls,” an Oregon Symphony Performance running June 7, 8 and 9.

1 month ago | underscore.news | Melanie Henshaw

Cody Whiterock was running for his life — the Bureau of Indian Affairs police had come for him again. He’d been drinking at a friend’s bunkhouse on a farm in Owyhee County, Idaho, south of Boise, but the farm’s owner wanted him out and called 911. When BIA police came, Whiterock did what he’d done before — he fled in his car, a BIA officer confronting him at gunpoint.  But this time, his car became stuck in the snow.