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Undated: Native Americans, also known as American Indians, Indigenous Americans and other terms, are the indigenous peoples of the United States, except Hawaii. There are over 500 federally recognized tribes within the US, about half of which are associated with Indian reservations. The term "American Indian" excludes Native Hawaiians and some Alaska Natives, while Native Americans (as defined by the US Census) are American Indians, plus Alaska Natives of all ethnicities. Native Hawaiians are not counted as Native Americans by the US Census, instead being included in the Census grouping of "Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander".

The ancestors of modern Native Americans arrived in what is now the United States at least 15,000 years ago, possibly much earlier, from Asia via Beringia. A vast variety of peoples, societies and cultures subsequently developed. Native Americans were greatly affected by the European colonization of the Americas, which began in 1492, and their population declined precipitously mainly due to introduced diseases as well as warfare, territorial confiscation and slavery. After the founding of the United States, many Native American peoples were subjected to warfare, removals and one-sided treaties, and they continued to suffer from discriminatory government policies into the 20th century. Since the 1960s, Native American self-determination movements have resulted in changes to the lives of Native Americans, though there are still many contemporary issues faced by Native Americans. Today, there are over five million Native Americans in the United States, 78% of whom live outside reservations.

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When the United States was created, established Native American tribes were generally considered semi-independent nations, as they generally lived in communities separate from British settlers. The federal government signed treaties at a government-to-government level until the Indian Appropriations Act of 1871 ended recognition of independent native nations, and started treating them as "domestic dependent nations" subject to federal law. This law did preserve the rights and privileges agreed to under the treaties, including a large degree of tribal sovereignty. For this reason, many (but not all) Native American reservations are still independent of state law and actions of tribal citizens on these reservations are subject only to tribal courts and federal law.

The Indian Citizenship Act of 1924 granted U.S. citizenship to all Native Americans born in the United States who had not yet obtained it. This emptied the "Indians not taxed" category established by the United States Constitution, allowed natives to vote in state and federal elections, and extended the Fourteenth Amendment protections granted to people "subject to the jurisdiction" of the United States. However, some states continued to deny Native Americans voting rights for several decades. Bill of Rights protections do not apply to tribal governments, except for those mandated by the Indian Civil Rights Act of 1968.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Native_Americans_in_the_United_States

-- 2016 --

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March 19: ‘Natives Against Trump’: Protesters Block Road to Donald Trump Rally in Arizona
https://indiancountrymedianetwork.com/news/native-news/natives-against-trump-protesters-block-road-to-donald-trump-rally-in-arizona/

June 27: For Indian Americans, hate finally has a name: Trump
https://splinternews.com/for-indian-americans-hate-finally-has-a-name-trump-1793857838

July 25: Donald Trump’s long history of clashes with Native Americans ... Donald Trump claimed that Indian reservations had fallen under mob control. He secretly paid for more than $1 million in ads that portrayed members of a tribe in Upstate New York as cocaine traffickers and career criminals. And he suggested in testimony and in media appearances that dark-skinned Native Americans in Connecticut were faking their ancestry.

“I think I might have more Indian blood than a lot of the so-called Indians that are trying to open up the reservations,” Trump said during a 1993 radio interview with shock jock Don Imus.

Trump’s harsh rhetoric on Native Americans was part of his aggressive war on the expanding Native American casino industry during the 1990s, which posed a threat to his gambling empire. The racially tinged remarks and broad-brush characterizations that Trump employed against Indian tribes for over a decade provided an early glimpse of the kind of incendiary language that he would use about racial and ethnic groups in the 2016 presidential campaign.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/donald-trumps-long-history-of-clashes-with-native-americans/2016/07/25/80ea91ca-3d77-11e6-80bc-d06711fd2125_story.html?utm_term=.4fd8b7b6064b

July 28: Donald Trump and Federal Indian Policy: ‘They Don’t Look Like Indians to Me’
https://newsmaven.io/indiancountrytoday/archive/donald-trump-and-federal-indian-policy-they-don-t-look-like-indians-to-me-5_J8sXQCPEmWqXcgAr93Ew/

August 17: Hillary Clinton ran campaign ads in Navajo and met with tribal leaders in Iowa, Washington, Arizona and California during the presidential primaries. Bernie Sanders met with 90 leaders in total, a political record.

Eight indigenous candidates are running for Congress, up from two in 2014. Over 90 are running for state legislatures, again exceeding previous years.

But why is 2016 proving to be such a vibrant year for indigenous politics?

Many Native American commentators point to President Barack Obama's efforts to improve relations with the country's tribal nations.

In the course of his two terms in office, he has settled hundreds of legal disputes with indigenous communities, passed favourable legislation, like the Indian Health Care Improvement Act, and established an annual conference for tribal leaders to meet at the White House.

Ties between the federal government and many Native American communities, some of whom were denied the vote until the 1950s, have never been better.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-36979321

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October 2: Clinton or Trump? Who Should Natives Support ...

Hillary Clinton and the democrats are the party of choice for the moment, but they still have a lot of work to do to address economic and self-governance issues in Indian country.
https://indiancountrymedianetwork.com/news/politics/clinton-or-trump-who-should-natives-support/

October 31: Donald Trump wins support from Native American coalition ... One more organization ... has announced their support for Mr. Trump. A newly formed Native American Coalition is made up of members who hail from tribal organizations in 15 states and include both grass-roots leaders and elected officials.

“The daily flood of new federal regulations keep Indian Country from becoming self-sufficient. Local tribal decisions, not federal bureaucrats, are the best way to improve our communities. As both an enrolled member of Cherokee Nation and a member of Congress, I will stand with Donald Trump in supporting tribal sovereignty and reining in federal over-regulation,” said Rep. Markwayne Mullin, Oklahoma Republican and chairman of the group.
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/oct/31/donald-trump-wins-support-from-native-american-coa/

December 16: President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team is working behind the scenes to make inroads with Native American tribes.

Rep. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.), the chairman of Trump’s Native American Coalition, organized a meeting in Washington on Wednesday with American Indian and Alaska Native Tribal Leaders.
https://www.politico.com/story/2016/12/trump-team-native-americans-232719

-- 2017 --

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January 18: The U.S. Army on Wednesday began the process of launching an environmental study of the Dakota Access pipeline crossing in North Dakota, a move that has been challenged by the company constructing the controversial project.
https://www.voanews.com/a/army-environmental-impact-study-north-dakota-pipeline/3682447.html

January 21: A Sioux tribal council on Saturday formally asked hundreds of protesters to clear out of three camps near its North Dakota reservation used to stage months of sometimes violent protests against the proposed Dakota Access Pipeline.

The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe on Friday unanimously passed a resolution calling for the camps to be dismantled, it said on its Facebook page on Saturday. The tribe has been encouraging protesters to go home since the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers agreed to an environmental review of the $3.8 billion project in December.
https://www.voanews.com/a/north-dakota-tribe-calls-on-protesters-to-disperse/3686349.html

January 24: Donald Trump was sharply criticised by Native Americans and climate change activists on Tuesday after he signed executive orders to allow construction of the Dakota Access and Keystone XL oil pipelines.

Both pipe projects had been blocked by Barack Obama’s administration, partly because of environmental concerns. But Trump has questioned the science of climate change and campaigned on a promise to expand energy infrastructure and create jobs.

The Sioux won a significant victory late last year when the US army corps of engineers declined to allow construction of the pipeline under the lake, saying alternative routes needed to be considered.

Trump: “We are going to renegotiate some of the terms. And then if they like, we’ll see if we can get that pipeline built. A lot of jobs, 28,000 jobs. Great construction jobs.”

Studies have suggested that most of the jobs would not be permanent, however. A US state department study estimated the number of long-term jobs at 50.
https://www.voanews.com/a/native-americans-legal-battle-donald-trump-pipeline-orders/3690184.html

February 8: Trump’s Pipeline and America’s Shame ... construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline will be restarted, a development that fits in perfectly with one of this country’s oldest cultural practices, going back to the days of Plymouth Rock: repressing Native Americans.
https://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/trumps-pipeline-and-americas-shame

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May 1: [Andrew Jackson was the founder of the Democratic Party. Before being elected to the presidency, Jackson served in Congress and gained fame as a general in the United States Army. As president, Jackson sought to advance the rights of the "common man" against a "corrupt aristocracy" and to preserve the Union.]
 
In 1830, Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act, which relocated most members of the Native American tribes in the South to Indian Territory (now Oklahoma). The relocation process resulted in widespread death and sickness amongst the Indians. This, along with his relative support for slavery, significantly damaged Jackson's reputation.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Jackson

May 1: Donald Trump gives a baffling, extremely incorrect history lesson on Andrew Jackson ...

The fact that Jackson died 16 years before the Civil War apparently didn’t stop him from being “really angry” about it.
https://thinkprogress.org/donald-trump-history-lesson-andrew-jackson-3738ac0c63a/

May 1: Trump: “It was during the Revolution that Jackson first confronted and defied an arrogant elite,” said Trump during remarks at the house. “Does that sound familiar to you? No wonder why they keep talking about Trump and Jackson, Jackson and Trump.”

It’s a less flattering comparison than Trump seems to believe. Jackson, in addition to being pro-slavery and a slave owner himself, was an unrepentant genocidaire. His forced relocation of American Indians, known as the “Trail of Tears,” killed thousands of people.
https://thinkprogress.org/donald-trump-history-lesson-andrew-jackson-3738ac0c63a

May 2: The Tohono O'odham Nation's land resides in the southern part of Arizona and in the Mexican state of Sonora. A portion of the Tohono O'odham's reservation — a 75-mile stretch of land near the border — happens to be right in the middle of where President Donald Trump wants to build the wall. Tribal officials and Tohono O'odham citizens are not in favor, saying: "Over my dead body," according to an Arizona Republic story.  
https://www.pri.org/stories/2017-05-02/president-trump-will-native-american-sovereignty-make-difference-when-you-decide

May 13: Trump Is ... Trying to Privatize Native American Land

The map [on the webpage linked below] shows the amount of Naive American land controlled by the federal government, which will be endangered by Trump's "America First" energy policy that seeks to give industry a free pass to drill on many of these lands.
https://www.alternet.org/right-wing/trump-audaciously-trying-privatize-native-american-land

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May 25: Native Americans’ health threatened by denial of Medicaid expansion ... America has broken several centuries worth of promises to its indigenous people. And we’re poised to do it again.

The consequences of this broken promise will affect Native Americans like Mr. W, who lives on the Navajo reservation in Arizona. At only 64 years of age, the complications he has already suffered from his poorly controlled diabetes read like a list from a medical textbook: loss of sensation in his feet and damage to his kidneys and vision. He recently needed to have a toe amputated because of a diabetes-related foot infection. Sadly, Mr. W’s story is all too common.

Native Americans are twice as likely to develop diabetes — and suffer from its complications — as whites. Their life expectancy is more than four years shorter and infant mortality is 60 percent higher. The list goes on. As doctors working on the Navajo reservation, we see these disparities every day.

Getting more eligible Native Americans covered by Medicaid provides some desperately needed relief for the overextended and underfunded Indian Health Service and tribal health systems.
https://www.statnews.com/2017/05/25/medicaid-native-americans-health/

May 25: Tribes bash proposed Trump budget cuts to Native Americans

Dozens of Native American tribes in six Western states expressed outrage Thursday at President Trump's proposed budget cuts to American Indian programs, saying they would erase significant progress on child welfare and climate change and gut social services and education on reservations across the U.S.
http://billingsgazette.com/news/government-and-politics/tribes-bash-proposed-trump-budget-cuts-to-native-americans/article_9db66c44-ef78-543a-baee-5f609f2a2a55.html

June 1: Crude oil is now flowing through the Dakota Access Pipeline, despite months of protests against it by Native American tribes and environmental groups. ... During President Trump's first month in office, he reversed a decision by the Obama administration and called on the Army to expedite the approval process for the section of the pipeline that had not yet been built.
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/06/01/531097758/crude-oil-begins-to-flow-through-controversial-dakota-access-pipeline

October 31: President Donald J. Trump Proclaims November 2017 as National Native American Heritage Month
https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/president-donald-j-trump-proclaims-november-2017-national-native-american-heritage-month/

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November 5: Trump Urged Native Americans to ‘Just Do It’

“In late June, President Trump hosted a group of Native American tribal leaders at the White House and urged them to ‘just do it’ and extract whatever they want from the land they control,” Axios reports.

“The exchange turned out to be an unusually vivid window into the almost kingly power that Trump sees himself as holding, and which he has begun describing with increasing bluntness… The chiefs explained to Trump that there were regulatory barriers preventing them from getting at their energy.”

Replied Trump: “But now it’s me. The government’s different now. Obama’s gone; and we’re doing things differently here. So what I’m saying is, just do it.”
https://politicalwire.com/2017/11/05/trump-urged-native-americans-just/

November 28: Trump secretly paid $1 million in ads that portrayed Native Americans as cocaine traffickers ...

In the early 2000s, as the State of New York was considering expanding native casinos in the Catskills, a number of ads from the “Institute for Law and Safety” turned up on television and in print, which attacked the local tribe of having ties to the mob and histories of violence and drugs. The ads tried to link the Mohawk tribe with syringes and drug paraphernalia.

“Are these the neighbors we want?” the ad said, warning of violent criminals allegedly intent on moving into the area.

But the Institute for Law and Safety was a group funded by Trump’s casino company and the ads were done by conservative activist Roger Stone — both tried to hide their involvement and broke state law by not reporting the ad expenses as a lobbying effort. Trump spent more than $1 million on the smear campaign against the Mohawk tribe.
http://reverepress.com/news/trump-secretly-paid-1-million-ads-portrayed-native-americans-cocaine-traffickers/

November 28: Only weeks into his presidency, Trump wrote a memo of support for the Dakota Access pipeline, the progress of which the Obama administration had halted after mass protests from Native American groups. The groups argued that the pipeline violated a treaty signed between those living on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation and the federal government, and that it posed a threat to local water supplies. 
http://www.newsweek.com/trump-pocahontas-slur-president-has-long-history-insulting-native-americans-724204

December 4: Trump drastically cuts national monument sacred to Native Americans
http://religionnews.com/2017/12/04/trump-drastically-cuts-national-monument-sacred-to-native-americans/

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December 4: Today, Judge James Boasberg of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, citing the recent Keystone oil spill in South Dakota, imposed several interim measures over the ongoing operation of the Dakota Access pipeline.

The Court ordered three different measures, all of which were requested by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.
https://earthjustice.org/features/faq-standing-rock-litigation?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI2ZWt0sXE2AIVC5RpCh31GgkxEAAYBCAAEgJ6VvD_BwE

December 5: President Donald Trump's rare move to shrink two large national monuments in Utah triggered another round of outrage among Native American leaders who vowed to unite and take the fight to court to preserve protections for lands they consider sacred.

Environmental and conservation groups and a coalition of tribes joined the battle Monday and began filing lawsuits that ensure that Trump's announcement is far from the final chapter of the yearslong public lands battle. The court cases are likely to drag on for years, maybe even into a new presidency.

Trump decided to reduce Bears Ears — created last December by President Barack Obama — by about 85 percent and Grand Staircase-Escalante — designated in 1996 by President Bill Clinton — by nearly half. The moves earned him cheers from Republican leaders in Utah who lobbied him to undo protections they considered overly broad.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/politics/ct-trump-national-monuments-20171205-story.html

December 5: Native American reservations cover just 2 percent of the United States, but they may contain about a fifth of the nation’s oil and gas, along with vast coal reserves.

Now, a group of advisors to President-elect Donald Trump on Native American issues wants to free those resources from what they call a suffocating federal bureaucracy that holds title to 56 million acres of tribal lands,

The plan dovetails with Trump’s larger aim of slashing regulation to boost energy production. It could deeply divide Native American leaders, who hold a range of opinions on the proper balance between development and conservation.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-tribes-insight/trump-advisors-aim-to-privatize-oil-rich-indian-reservations-idUSKBN13U1B1

December 7: What Native Americans Stand to Lose If Trump Opens Up Public Lands for Business ... Trump's decision to roll back Utah's national monument protections is as much a threat to tribal sovereignty as it is to the environment.
https://psmag.com/environment/what-native-americans-stand-to-lose-if-trump-opens-up-public-lands-for-business

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December 10: Trump has slashed southern Utah’s Bears Ears National Monument — essentially the first Native American-pushed monument — by more than a million acres to a fraction of its original self.
http://www.sltrib.com/news/politics/2017/12/10/hes-not-good-for-tribes-from-keystone-to-bears-ears-trump-is-alienating-native-americans/

December 11: Native American tribes call Trump’s revamp of tribal advisory commission a ‘slap in the face’

The president’s proclamation on Bears Ears National Monument also contained a little-known plan that changes the makeup of a tribal advisory commission for the remote monument filled with canyons, plateaus, rivers and rust-colored rock formations. It adds a county commissioner who is among the minority of Navajos to support Republicans in peeling back protections for the land.

The new commissioner will have the same authority as the group’s five other members, all representatives of tribes.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/native-american-tribes-call-trumps-revamp-of-tribal-advisory-commission-a-slap-in-the-face

December 22: Trump Declares Disaster for New Mexico Native American Community ... President Donald Trump has issued a disaster declaration for a New Mexico Native American community that is recovering from the effects of severe weather and flooding.

The declaration announced Thursday by the White House frees up federal money to help the Acoma Pueblo recover from damage to roads, bridges and sewer lines.
https://www.insurancejournal.com/news/west/2017/12/22/475281.htm

-- 2018 --

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Undated: Trump administration policies toward Native Americans

Trump's Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has called for an "off-ramp" for taking native lands out of trust.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/94280753-132.html

January 3: Lay one brick of the border wall and it will be the last of the Indian Wars, native Americans warn Trump
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/01/03/lay-one-brick-border-wall-will-bethe-last-indian-wars-native/

January 4: National Indian Law Library ... Passed Legislation

115th Congress legislation related to Native American law ...
https://narf.org/nill/bulletins/legislation/115_uslegislation.html

January 4: Meet the anti-Trump candidate running to become the United States’ first Native American governor ... In a year when the rights of indigenous people have been under assault, from Standing Rock to the president’s Twitter feed, a largely unknown politician is pushing back by launching a campaign to become the country’s first Native American governor.

Paulette Jordan, a 37-year-old Idaho state representative and member of the Coeur d’Alene Tribe, is running as a progressive Democrat to try and become state governor.

 ... “My grandfather said, ‘never forget your contract with Mother Earth."
https://www.aol.com/article/news/2018/01/04/anti-trump-candidate-running-united-states-first-native-american-governor/23323810/

March 11: Havasupai children write letters to Trump, asking for end to canyon mining

The Havasupai – the name means people of the blue-green waters – are one of the smallest tribes in North America, and they’ve battled canyon mining for decades.

Supai is nestled within Havasu Canyon, which is adjacent to Grand Canyon National Park. The tiny village was established in 1880 and is accessible only by foot, horse, mule or helicopter. Bracketed by red rock canyons, it sits on the southern bank of the Colorado River, 56 miles from Canyon Mine atop the rim. But Havasupai officials fear mine contaminants will seep into the groundwater, harming their children and destroying the tribe’s way of life.
https://kdminer.com/news/2018/mar/11/havasupai-children-write-letters-trump-asking-end-/

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April 22:
Trump challenges Native Americans’ historical standing

Tribes say they should be exempt from Medicaid work requirements.
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/04/22/trump-native-americans-historical-standing-492794

September 7: Native Americans Worry Trump Supreme Court Pick Threatens Sovereignty
https://www.voanews.com/a/native-american-tribes-worry-trump-supreme-court-pick-poses-threat-to-sovereignty/4561888.html

October 16: How Native American Leaders Are Trying to Tackle Voter Suppression in North Dakota

Rights activists are urging communities of color to get creative about circumventing attempts to suppress their vote ahead of next month's decisive mid-term elections.
https://psmag.com/social-justice/native-american-activists-are-trying-to-tackle-voter-suppression-in-north-dakota

October 22: Amid Trump’s ‘Pocahontas’ taunts, Native Americans run for office in record numbers
https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/10/22/native-american-candidates-deb-haaland-elizabeth-warren-dna-test/

October 30: Can Trump End Birthright Citizenship?

... at the time of the 14th Amendment, most Native Americans born on reservations within the borders of the U.S. were not granted citizenship as they owed allegiance to their tribe. Individual tribal members could apply for citizenship or be considered as citizens if they were taxed and lived off a reservation. It wasn’t until Congress passed the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924, signed into law by President Coolidge, that the entire Native population became citizens—some 92% were not at the time.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/chuckdevore/2018/10/30/can-trump-end-birthright-citizenship/#195d59641c44

October 31: Presidential Proclamation on National Native American Heritage Month, 2018
https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/presidential-proclamation-national-native-american-heritage-month-2018/

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November 2: North Dakota’s Voter ID Law Disproportionately Affects Native Americans. Here’s How They’re Mobilizing to Fight It
http://time.com/5442434/north-dakota-voting-law-native-american-activism/

November 4: Native American Tribes Condemn the Trump Administration’s Motives for Repealing Bears Ears National Monument
https://bearsearscoalition.org/native-american-tribes-condemn-the-trump-administrations-motives-for-repealing-bears-ears-national-monument/

November 14: Native American Mashpee tribe turns to Congress in land dispute

Trump administration reversed Obama-era decision to recognise the Mashpee Wampanoag reservation in Massachusetts.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/11/native-american-mashpee-tribe-turns-congress-land-dispute-181114184734541.html

December 17: Alec Baldwin tweets that Trump is 'punishment' for slavery, slaughtering Native Americans

The actor, who frequently spoofs Trump on "Saturday Night Live," claimed in an incendiary tweet this weekend that the POTUS is "punishment" for a variety of American sins.

"Trump is a curse, brought down on us as punishment 4 our sins. The slaughter of Native Americans, slavery, Japanese internment, Vietnam. Every hateful, misogynistic, racist notion, intertwined w our better nature, Trump embodies those. He is us. Now we can face it + exorcise it," he wrote.
https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/alec-baldwin-tweets-that-trump-is-punishment-for-slavery-slaughtering-native-americans

December 19: Congress weighs returning 12,000 acres to Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe

The federal government would return 11,760 acres of land to the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe as part of a measure moving through Congress.

The measure reverses a land seizure by the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) that began in the late 1940s, when the agency authorized the sale of tribal land allotments to the U.S. Forest Service without the owners' consent. Sen. Tina Smith, a sponsor, has said that the bill would restore land "that was wrongfully taken from" the Ojibwe.

"A robust land base is the foundation of tribal sovereignty and self-determination," Leech Lake chairman Faron Jackson Sr. told a panel of lawmakers over the summer.

The measure passed the U.S. Senate, but awaits action in the U.S. House, where Democratic U.S. Rep. Rick Nolan has led the effort. The lower chamber has until the end of the year to act.
http://www.startribune.com/congress-weighs-returning-12-000-acres-to-leech-lake-band-of-ojibwe/503141662/

-- 2019 --

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-- 2020 --

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