Native American

Barnie Botone reflects on his 34-year career on the railroad in a StoryCorps interview in Bismarck, N.D., last month.

National

'The Dark Side Of The Railroad': A Locomotive Engineer's Fraught Legacy With The Rails

5:08am December 14, 2018

Barnie Botone's grandmother cried when he told her he was a locomotive engineer because an ancestor had been forcibly relocated by train. "The irony, it was too much to bear," he says at StoryCorps.

Residential roads with no street name or number signs, such as this one in Belcourt, N.D., are common on the Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation. Under recently tightened state rules, voters in North Dakota are required to present identification with a str

Politics & Government

Judge Rules Native Americans in North Dakota Must Comply With Voter ID Law

2:49pm November 02, 2018

by Ruben Kimmelman

The judge said allegations made by Native Americans seeking a waiver from the law gave the court "great cause of concern." But he was not willing to change election laws at the 11th hour.

Telescopes on the summit of Mauna Kea on Hawaii's Big Island. Some native Hawaiians consider Mauna Kea sacred and object to construction of a new giant telescope there.

Hawaii's Supreme Court OKs Construction Of Giant Telescope Despite Native Objections

3:53am November 01, 2018

by Ruben Kimmelman

The massive telescope with a nearly 100-foot mirror is set to be built atop 13,800-foot Mauna Kea, considered sacred land by some of the project's opponents.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., released a DNA analysis to clarify questions about her Native American heritage, something President Trump commonly mocks. Warren is considering a 2020 presidential bid.

Politics & Government

Warren Releases DNA Results, Challenges Trump Over Native American Ancestry

6:21pm October 15, 2018

by Asma Khalid

With a possible 2020 presidential run looming, Sen. Elizabeth Warren released results of a DNA test that found she is primarily of European descent, but likely had a Native American ancestor.

Queue Listen Now

This June, instructions were posted at an early voting precinct in Bismarck, N.D. In that primary election, tribal IDs that did not show residential addresses were accepted as voter ID. But those same IDs will not be accepted in the general election.

Many Native IDs Won't Be Accepted At North Dakota Polling Places

4:02pm October 13, 2018

by Camila Domonoske

The Supreme Court has upheld a state law requiring voters' IDs to have street addresses, which many reservations do not use. Native American groups are now scrambling to prepare for Election Day.

An empty pedestal remains where a statue known as Early Days, which depicted a Native American at the feet of a Catholic missionary and Spanish cowboy, used to stand on Fulton Street in San Francisco. The statue was removed early Friday morning.

San Francisco Removes Statue Of Native Man At Feet Of Colonizers

3:51pm September 14, 2018

by Camila Domonoske

The statue, called Early Days, showed a Native American gazing up at a vaquero, or Spanish cowboy, and a proselytizing priest. Native groups have long called for the sculpture's removal.

A Canadian mining firm says it will begin exploration work soon on land that was previously part of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in Utah.

National

Firm Prepares To Mine Land Previously Protected As A National Monument

4:21pm June 21, 2018

by Shannon Van Sant

The land used to be within the boundary of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in Utah. President Trump slashed the protected acreage by nearly half last year.

Deb Haaland poses for a portrait in a Nob Hill Neighborhood in Albuquerque, N.M., on June 5.

New Mexico Could Elect First Native-American Woman To Congress

11:29am June 06, 2018

by Brian Naylor

Deb Haaland, a member of the Laguna Pueblo tribe, won her party's nomination in the solidly Democratic 1st district Tuesday night.

Forget Wealth And Neighborhood. The Racial Income Gap Persists

11:07pm March 19, 2018

by Jenny Gathright

A new study finds that the gap is actually largest in America's wealthiest neighborhoods, challenging widely-held beliefs about the relative impacts of class and race on life outcomes.

Senators Push For Leadership At Indian Health Service

5:21pm March 01, 2018

by Eric Whitney

President Trump first nominee to lead the Indian Health Service is out of the picture. Montana's senators are urging the administration to name a new nominee quickly.