Bureau of Indian Affairs Archives - Northwest Public Broadcasting

50 Years Ago, An Election For The Colville Ushered In A New Era For U.S. Tribes

By NWPB News May 10, 2021

Colville Tribes reservation welcome sign

Fifty years ago this week the federal government’s experiment with termination was crushed at the ballot box on the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation in Washington. Termination was a policy that was designed to end the United State government’s role in Indian affairs. It would have abrogated treaties, eliminated federal funding, and “freed the Indians” from Read More

Experts To Western States: Time To Finally Fight Wildfires With More Fire

By NPR News October 27, 2020

a sign for a prescribed burn in the Giant Sequoia National Monument, Calif., remains posted two years after the fire. The prescribed burn, a low-intensity, closely managed fire, was intended to clear out undergrowth and protect the heart of Kings Canyon National Park from a future threatening wildfire. The tactic is considered one of the best ways to prevent the kind of catastrophic destruction that has become common, but its use falls woefully short of goals in the West. CREDIT: BRIAN MELLEY/AP

Experts warn that Western states and the federal government need to radically increase the number and size of controlled burns to help reduce the ongoing risks of more catastrophic wildfire seasons. Continue Reading Experts To Western Read More

Louis Mann: A Yakama Nation Interpreter, Educator, Advocate Is Heard Again After 100 Years

By Enrique Pérez de la Rosa January 22, 2020

Louis Mann, photographed by Lucullus Virgil McWhorter, was an interpreter for the Yakama Nation in the early 1900s who also defended water and fishing rights of other tribal members through correspondence to U.S. government officials.

The Treaty of 1855 created the Yakama Nation reservation as we know it today. In the decades after, the Yakama, Washington state, and the United States were trying to figure out their new relationship. At the turn of the century, Louis Mann was in the middle of it all, working as an interpreter for the tribe. Now, audio recordings of Mann’s strong voice have resurfaced. Read More

Chinook Tribe Back In Court On Long Quest To Regain Federal Recognition

By Tom Banse January 5, 2020

The Chinook Indian Nation gather outside a federal courthouse in Tacoma to rally support for federal recognition. CREDIT: MOLLY SOLOMON

The decades-long quest of Chinook tribal members to regain federal recognition gets another airing in court on Monday. A U.S. District Court judge is scheduled to hear oral arguments on cross-claims for summary judgment in a lawsuit brought by the tribe against the Department of the Interior. Read More