Here are some Native American-related news stories that made headlines this week:

Archaeologists fail to find children’s remains at Indian boarding school site

Nebraska state archaeologists say they’ve ended a two-week search for the graves of former students at the Indian Industrial School in Genoa, Nebraska, after failing to find any human remains.

Researchers believe more than 80 students died at the school, most from infectious diseases. So far, they’ve identified 49 students who died at the school. Some were returned home for burial, but others are believed to have been buried at the school.

State archaeologist Dave Williams said his team will now reevaluate the data and consult with the dozens of tribes that lost ancestors to the school.

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Kansas university scholars accused of race shifting

Native American groups and individuals have accused three University of Kansas professors of “Pretendianism,” that is, falsely claiming Native American ancestry.

The most prominent of the three is Kent Blansett, associate professor of Indigenous studies and history and founder of the American Indian Digital History Project, which digitizes rare Indigenous newspapers, photographs and other archival materials.

As VOA has reported previously, Indigenous scholars complain that academics frequently manufacture an Indigenous identity for personal, professional and financial gain.

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US Appeals Court to review Wyoming convictions against Crow hunters

A federal judge in Wyoming has agreed to review a 34-year-old dispute over whether the Crow Tribe in Montana has the right to hunt beyond reservation borders.

In late 1989, Wyoming fined Crow citizen Thomas L. Ten Bear for shooting an elk in Wyoming’s Big Horn Forest.

The Crow sued Wyoming, arguing that the 1868 treaty signed with the U.S. gave them the right to hunt on unoccupied U.S. lands “so long as game may be found” and relations with whites were peaceful. Wyoming ruled against the Crow, saying those treaty rights expired when Wyoming became a U.S. state.

But 25 years later, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in another case that Crow hunting rights did not expire.

The Crow have since fought to have the original ruling overturned. This week, a federal appeals judge said he will “more thoroughly” review the facts.

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Oklahoma Senate overrides veto on compacts with tribes

Oklahoma’s majority-Republican Senate on Monday overrode Governor Kevin Stitt’s vetoes of two bills that would extend for another year tobacco and vehicle registration compacts the state has made with Oklahoma tribes.

The state currently holds agreements with tribes to split the tax revenue from tribal sales of tobacco to non-Natives and from motor vehicle registrations and tags.

The Cherokee Phoenix reports that, according to the current motor vehicle compact, the Cherokee Nation allocates 38% of car registration revenue to public school districts in or near the reservation — in 2023, that amount was $7.8 million; since 2002, the tribe has given more than $84 million to schools.

Stitt has said the compacts shortchange the state, and he is looking to limit the compacts to trust land only.

“I am trying to protect eastern Oklahoma from turning into a reservation, and I’ve been working to ensure these compacts are the best deal for all 4 million Oklahomans,” Stitt posted on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

It is a reference to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in McGirt v. Oklahoma, which held that the Muscogee (Creek) Nation reservation was never formally disestablished and, therefore, at least for criminal jurisdiction purposes, covered half of the state.

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Native Americans: There’s nothing funny about smallpox joke

The new “Barbie” film, which opened last weekend to record profits, has provoked the ire of many Native Americans. At issue is a joke that referenced the devastating impact introduced diseases had on Indigenous populations.

Here’s the plot: Barbie (Margot Robbie) and Ken (Ryan Gosling) travel from the pink and perfect Barbieland to the real world, which isn’t so pretty.

Ken, inspired by the patriarchy of the real world, returns home and turns Barbieland into the patriarchal Kenland. Toward the end of the film, Ken jokes about how easy it was to make the change: “I just explained the immaculate logic of patriarchy, and they crumbled.”

The character Gloria (America Ferrera), exclaims, “Oh my god! This is like in the 1500s with the Indigenous people and smallpox. They had no defenses against it!”

Keeli Siyaka, Sisseton Wahpeton Dakota, has posted an online petition calling on Warner Brothers and film director Greta Gerwig to remove that line from the film.

“Seeing as no one in the audience laughed, I don’t think anyone would miss it, and if they do, we have a problem,” she stated.

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BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA – The United States is warning mutineers who have seized control of Niger that U.S. support for the Western African nation will dry up unless President Mohamed Bazoum is released and returned to power.

The threat Saturday by Secretary of State Antony Blinken to pull hundreds of millions of dollars in aid followed Friday’s announcement by General Abdourahamane Tchiani, the head of the presidential guard, that he is Niger’s new leader.

“Let me be very, very clear,” Blinken said at a news conference in Brisbane, Australia, following consultations with his Australian counterpart.

“Our economic and security partnership with Niger, which is significant, hundreds of millions of dollars, depends on the continuation of the democratic governance and constitutional order that has been disrupted,” he said.

Just this past March, during a visit to Niger, Blinken announced the country would get part of a $150 million humanitarian aid package.

Niger has also benefited from hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of U.S. military aid and counterterrorism training and has been hosting about 1,100 U.S. troops.

White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said Friday the military takeover in Niger “may cause the United States to cease security and other cooperation with the government of Niger.”

Kirby said, though, that while the U.S. is “deeply concerned,” it was still holding out hope for a peaceful resolution.

“We believe that there is still a space for diplomacy here, and that that diplomacy is actively being pursued not just by the United States, but by our allies and partners and our African partners as well,” he said.

Already, however, the Nigerien mutineers have declared the government dissolved and suspended the country’s constitution. They previously closed the country’s borders and airspace and imposed a nationwide curfew.

Leaders of Niger’s army declared their support for Wednesday’s overthrow of Bazoum, who was democratically elected two years ago, defying international calls for his immediate release and appeals for the general to respect the rule of law and Niger’s democratic order.

Tchiani warned foreign governments not to intervene in Niger or try to extract Bazoum and his family, saying it would result in “the massacre of the Niger population and chaos.”

He added that soldiers ousted the president because of deteriorating security in the West African country, which is fighting an Islamist militant insurgency.

French President Emmanuel Macron spoke to Bazoum on Friday, French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna told Agence France-Presse. According to Colonna, Macron said Bazoum is “reachable” and “in good health.”

Reports say Bazoum is being held in the presidential palace.

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield also spoke with Bazoum and expressed Washington’s strong condemnation of any effort to seize power by force. Her spokesperson said in a statement Thursday that the “United States is steadfast in its support for Niger’s democracy and supports taking action at the U.N. Security Council to de-escalate the situation, prevent harm to civilians, and ensure constitutional order.”

In a message posted Thursday to the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, Bazoum said democracy would prevail in his country. “The hard-won gains will be safeguarded,” he said. “All Nigeriens who love democracy and freedom would want this.”

Diplomatic response

The West African regional bloc ECOWAS will hold a summit Sunday in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, on the situation.

The regional bloc has condemned the events in Niger and called on what it described as coup plotters to free the president “immediately and without any condition.”

Abdel Fatau Musah, commissioner for political affairs and security of ECOWAS, told VOA that “Bazoum remains the legitimate and legal president and must be reinstated as soon as possible.”

Kenyan President William Ruto said in a video message that the army takeover is “a serious setback” for Africa.

“The aspirations of the people of Niger for constitutional democracy were subverted by an unconstitutional change of government,” he said.

In Paris, the French presidency said Macron will chair a defense meeting Saturday on the situation. France, the former colonial power in Niger, has about 1,500 troops in the country.

Meanwhile, the U.N. Security Council met Friday behind closed doors to discuss the evolving situation. The U.N. representative for West Africa and the Sahel, Leonardo Santos Simão, briefed the council from Dakkar.

“All council members expressed their concern about the situation,” said British Deputy U.N. Ambassador James Kariuki after the meeting. His government holds the council’s rotating presidency this month. “All council members expressed the need to restore the constitutional democracy. All council members condemned the action. So we have a very strong sense that the council is united in seeking to condemn and act.”

The council is discussing a draft statement put forward by its three African members — Gabon, Ghana and Mozambique — that strongly condemns the unconstitutional change of government and expresses support for the efforts of ECOWAS, the African Union and the United Nations.

There are 4.3 million people who need humanitarian assistance in Niger. The U.N. said aid flights have been temporarily suspended because of the closure of the country’s airspace, but humanitarian assistance continues to be delivered.

“The humanitarian response continues on the ground and has never stopped since the events occurred in Niger,” Jean-Noel Gentile, the World Food Program representative in Niger, told reporters on a video call Friday.

Events

The coup began Wednesday, when a group of soldiers from the presidential guard detained Bazoum at the presidential palace and later announced his ouster on state television.

In a statement on social media, the army said it had decided to back the coup to prevent “a deadly confrontation” that could lead to a “bloodbath” in Niger.

U.N. officials in the capital, Niamey, said the situation was calm Friday, after reports of looting and cars being set on fire the day before.

Bazoum’s government is a key Western ally in the fight against Islamist insurgents in Africa’s Sahel. Germany, Italy, France and the United States have troops in Niger on military training and counterinsurgency missions.

Russia has established a foothold in Niger’s neighbors through its Wagner mercenary group. Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin, who recently challenged Russian President Vladimir Putin, welcomed the military’s attempted takeover. In a voice message believed to be Prigozhin on the Telegram app, he hailed the coup attempt and offered the services of his mercenaries to help bring order.

Niger is one of the region’s most unstable countries. If successful, Wednesday’s coup would be the fifth military takeover since the country won independence from France in 1960.

VOA’s Carol Van Dam Falk, Margaret Besheer and French to Africa Service contributed to this report. Some information came from Agence France-Presse, The Associated Press and Reuters. 
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Former President Donald Trump was charged Thursday with illegally retaining a classified document detailing an operational U.S. military plan of attack on Iran, and with two counts of attempting to “alter, destroy, mutilate or conceal evidence” during the investigation into the classified documents he took to his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida. VOA’s Senior Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports.
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President Joe Biden on Friday for the first time publicly acknowledged his seventh grandchild, a 4-year-old girl fathered by his son Hunter with an Arkansas woman, Lunden Roberts, in 2018.

“Our son Hunter and Navy’s mother, Lunden, are working together to foster a relationship that is in the best interests of their daughter, preserving her privacy as much as possible going forward,” Biden said in a statement. It was his first acknowledgement of the child.

“This is not a political issue, it’s a family matter,” he said. “Jill and I only want what is best for all of our grandchildren, including Navy.”

Hunter Biden’s paternity was established by DNA testing after Roberts sued for child support, and the two parties recently resolved outstanding child support issues. The president’s son wrote about his encounter with Roberts in his 2021 memoir, saying it came while he was deep in addiction to alcohol and drugs, including crack cocaine.

“I had no recollection of our encounter,” he wrote. “That’s how little connection I had with anyone. I was a mess, but a mess I’ve taken responsibility for.”

The president, who has made a commitment to family central to his public persona, has faced increasing criticism from political rivals and pundits for failing to acknowledge the granddaughter. According to a person familiar with the matter, he was taking the cue from his son while the legal proceedings played out. The person spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private matters.

Biden’s statement was first reported by People magazine.
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Seven leading tech companies recently agreed to abide by a request from President Joe Biden to develop their artificial intelligence technologies in a safe and transparent way. But are their promises realistic? VOA’s Julie Taboh reports.
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This week President Joe Biden announced additional measures to protect communities from extreme heat that has hit parts of the United States. In Los Angeles, authorities are coping as best they can and trying some innovative ways to beat the heat. Angelina Bagdasaryan has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. Camera: Vazgen Varzhabetian
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NEW YORK — More than 100,000 people in the U.S. have become allergic to red meat since 2010 because of a weird syndrome triggered by tick bites, according to a government report released Thursday. But health officials believe many more have the problem and don’t know it.

A second report estimated that as many as 450,000 Americans have developed the allergy. That would make it the 10th most common food allergy in the U.S., said Dr. Scott Commins, a University of North Carolina researcher who co-authored both papers published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Health officials said they are not aware of any confirmed deaths, but people with the allergy have described it as bewildering and terrifying.

“I never connected it with any food because it was hours after eating,” said one patient, Bernadine Heller-Greenman.

The reaction, called alpha-gal syndrome, occurs when an infected person eats beef, pork, venison or other meat from mammals — or ingests milk, gelatin or other mammal products.

It’s not caused by a germ but by a sugar, alpha-gal, that is in meat from mammals — and in tick saliva. When the sugar enters the body through the skin, it triggers an immune response and can lead to a severe allergic reaction.

Scientists had seen reactions in patients taking a cancer drug that was made in mouse cells containing the alpha-gal sugar. But in 2011 researchers first reported that it could spread through tick bites, too.

They tied it to the lone star tick, which despite its Texas-themed name is most common in the eastern and southern U.S. (About 4% of all U.S. cases have been in the eastern end of New York’s Long Island.)

One of the studies released Thursday examined 2017-22 test results from the main U.S. commercial lab looking for alpha-gal antibodies. They noted the number of people testing positive rose from about 13,000 in 2017 to 19,000 in 2022.

Experts say cases may be up for a variety of reasons, including lone star ticks’ expanding range, more people coming into contact with the ticks or more doctors learning about it and ordering tests for it.

But many doctors are not. The second study was a survey last year of 1,500 U.S. primary care doctors and health professionals. The survey found nearly half had never heard of alpha-gal syndrome, and only 5% said they felt very confident they could diagnose it. Researchers used that information to estimate the number of people with the allergy — 450,000.

People with the syndrome can experience symptoms including hives, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, severe stomach pain, difficulty breathing, dizziness and swelling of the lips, throat, tongue or eye lids. Unlike some other food allergies, which occur soon after eating, these reactions hit hours later.

Some patients have only stomach symptoms, and the American Gastroenterological Association says people with unexplained diarrhea, nausea and abdominal pain should be tested for the syndrome.

Doctors counsel people with the allergy to change their diet, carry epinephrine and avoid tick bites.

The allergy can fade away in some people — Commins has seen that happen in about 15% to 20% of his patients. But a key is avoiding being re-bitten.

“The tick bites are central to this. They perpetuate the allergy,” he said.

One of his patients is Heller-Greenman, a 78-year-old New York art historian who spends summers on Martha’s Vineyard. She has grown accustomed to getting bitten by ticks on the island and said she has had Lyme disease four times.

About five years ago, she started experiencing terrible, itchy hives on her back, torso and thighs in the middle of the night. Her doctors concluded it was an allergic reaction but couldn’t pinpoint the trigger.

She was never a big meat eater, but one day in January 2020 she had a hamburger and then a big, fatty steak the following evening. Six hours after dinner, she woke up nauseated, then suffered terrible spells of vomiting, diarrhea and dizziness. She passed out three times.

She was diagnosed with alpha-gal syndrome shortly after that and was told to avoid ticks and to stop eating red meat and dairy products. There have been no allergic reactions since.

“I have one grandchild that watches me like a hawk,” she said, making sure she reads packaged food labels and avoids foods that could trigger a reaction.

“I feel very lucky, really, that this has worked out for me,” she said. “Not all doctors are knowledgeable about this.”
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A 20-year-old, U.S.-funded AIDS relief program that is credited with saving tens of millions of lives around the world may not be reauthorized if conservative and anti-abortion activists are successful in a campaign against it.

The President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) was launched in 2003 by then-President George W. Bush, and since then it has channeled more than $110 billion in support for the fight against the AIDS epidemic in more than 50 countries around the world.

It has been particularly successful in Western and sub-Saharan Africa, where it helps provide antiretroviral medication to the more than 25 million people who are living with the disease.

The program received $6.9 billion in fiscal 2023. Through its history, the program has typically been reauthorized for five years at a time, in order to provide some certainty about the flow of relief dollars. It was last authorized in 2018. Advocates of the program are calling for a “clean” reauthorization that does not alter the program or introduce uncertainty about the flow of funds.

However, that reauthorization is now in doubt, as conservative lawmakers and activists have expressed concern that the program works with various organizations around the world that, in addition to combating AIDS, provide reproductive health services, including abortion.

‘Radical’ ideology

In a joint letter to key members of Congress this spring, dozens of anti-abortion groups urged lawmakers to reconsider their support for the program unless new rules are put in place that restrict the way it can spend federal funds.

“The American people do not support using taxpayer dollars to fund abortion at home or abroad,” the groups wrote. “For that reason, there exists long-standing precedent not to fund abortion, directly or indirectly, through U.S. foreign assistance. We are concerned that grants from the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) are used by nongovernmental organizations that promote abortions and push a radical gender ideology abroad.”

Failure to reauthorize the program would not necessarily kill it, because Congress could still appropriate money for it each year. But it would chip away at the administrative foundation of PEPFAR, leaving it less able to adapt to changing conditions in countries participating in the program, including changes in local laws that affect the provision of specific kinds of aid, and changes in the prevalence of the virus.

Pressuring lawmakers

Several influential conservative organizations, including the Heritage Foundation, Family Research Council and Susan B. Anthony (SBA) Pro-Life America, have said that they oppose a clean reauthorization of the program. They said they would add any vote that renewed the program without changes to their legislative scorecards.

Those scorecards, which track lawmakers’ adherence to the wishes of conservative activist organizations, are influential because a low score can leave a member of Congress open to a reelection challenge from a more conservative rival.

Autumn Christensen, vice president of public policy for SBA Pro-Life America, said in a statement emailed to VOA that her organization believes the Biden administration has “bowed to the pressures of the international abortion lobby and integrated broader sexual and reproductive services (which includes abortion) into their strategic plans.”

Christensen praised legislation proposed by Representative Mario Diaz-Balart, a Florida Republican, that would reauthorize PEPFAR for a single year and explicitly deny any funding to organizations that “promote or perform” abortions.

Mexico City policy

Those advocating for a clean reauthorization of PEPFAR point out that it is already illegal under U.S. law for foreign aid funds to be spent on the delivery of abortion services.

A 1973 provision of the Foreign Assistance Act, known as the Helms Amendment, reads, “[N]o foreign assistance funds may be used to pay for the performance of abortion as a method of family planning or to motivate or coerce any person to practice abortions.”

That language has, for generations, blocked direct funding of abortion with U.S. aid. However, it has not blocked U.S. aid programs from providing funds to organizations that provide access to abortions using funds from other sources.

Opponents of a clean PEPFAR reauthorization are demanding that stronger anti-abortion protections, such as the “Mexico City policy,” be incorporated into the program.

First adopted in 1983 by President Ronald Reagan’s administration, the policy bars U.S. aid from being disbursed to any organization that provides access to abortion services, even with non-U.S. money.

Since its original introduction, the Mexico City policy has been rescinded by every Democratic presidential administration upon taking office and has been reinstated by every Republican.

Former President Donald Trump not only reinstated the policy early in his presidency, but he strengthened it. By 2019, it was U.S. policy to refuse to provide funds to groups that even spoke in favor of abortion rights or supported other organizations that did.

President Joe Biden reversed Trump’s reinstatement of the policy when he took office in 2021.

Known impacts

Matthew Kavanagh is the director of the Global Health Policy and Politics Initiative at Georgetown Law School’s O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law. He told VOA that the impact of the Mexico City policy is already well-known to public health researchers.

“PEPFAR is one of the most successful and impactful global health programs in the world’s history,” Kavanagh said. But when the Trump administration reinstated the Mexico City policy, “quite a few organizations actually dropped out from being PEPFAR recipients,” he said.

Kavanagh said that many of the organizations that are most experienced at providing the kind of interventions that made PEPFAR successful are local family planning organizations that offer a range of services and counseling, often including abortion.

“Local family planning organizations were no longer allowed to provide HIV prevention programming and to receive PEPFAR funding, and that was a huge loss for the program,” he said.

He also warned against plans to reauthorize the program for just one year, saying that doing so would create damaging uncertainty for organizations serving desperate people.

“Organizations around the world are depending on this for lifesaving programs,” Kavanagh said. “People are not put on HIV treatment for one year, and then taken off. People are on HIV treatment for their lives, and we need to ensure that these programs don’t have to worry that they’re going to be shut down at the end of the year.” 
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