Green & indigenous News

In the Seward Peninsula community of White Mountain, officials are losing faith in federal reassurances that the money is still coming.

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New research reveals a potential link between the gut microbes of a fish and global ocean processes, offering new insight into how marine ecosystems help regulate ocean chemistry and the marine carbon cycle. The study, titled "Symbiotic bacteria may support calcium carbonate precipitation in the Gulf toadfish," is published in the journal PLOS Biology.

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The ICT Newscast for Friday, May 29, 2026, covers major a investment in Canada’s far North, artifact repatriation, hip hop, art, Billy Mills and an Indigenous herbalist down in New Orleans! Check out the ICT Newscast on YouTube for this episode and more.

Indigenous communities stand tall as Canadian government invests millions in Churchill Port expansion

Historically, investments in the remote sub-Arctic Canadian town of Churchill have been controlled by outside interests, leaving local Indigenous communities to live with decisions they didn’t make. Today the town’s rail and port infrastructure are owned by the Arctic Gateway Group, a consortium of Indigenous and local communities. Local leaders hope that new multi-million dollar investments from the Canadian government will benefit them – and reflect their priorities.

Stolen totem post to leave Philadelphia and return to tribe

A post long held by Philadelphia’s Association for Public Art is finally coming home. The U’Mista Cultural Centre in Alert Bay, British Columbia will receive the Kwakwaka’wakw artifact in a repatriation that Executive Director Juanita Johnson calls unusual as this time, it was the institution that initiated the process, not the tribe. A traditional welcome ceremony will mark the post’s return.

Navajo Hip Hop Artist Nataanii Nez Means Turns Music Into Indigenous Advocacy

Rapper Nataanii Nez Means has made Indigenous storytelling the heartbeat of his music, using his platform to raise awareness around Native issues while bringing people together through hip hop. Off stage, he runs youth workshops teaching songwriting and recording with hope to inspire young Indigenous people to find pride and beauty in their own communities and identities.

Haskell Students Debut Exhibit Celebrating Indigenous Friendship and Rez Life

Students Aiyanna Tanyan and Aziza Smith have opened a new exhibit at the Haskell Cultural Center & Museum that blends Rorschach imagery, themes of love, and the unapologetic joy of rez life. The two friends say the show reflects their culture, their bond, and their deep pride in the Indigenous community.

Olympic Gold Medalist Billy Mills, 80, Writes to Inspire the Next Generation

Oglala Lakota Olympic legend Billy Mills, who stunned the world at the 1964 Tokyo Games, hopes his book Wings of an Eagle will inspire Indigenous youth to push through adversity and believe in themselves. At 87, Mills says he is proud to still be making a difference.

Indigenous Herbalist Anne White Hat Brings Traditional Plant Medicine to New Orleans

Anne White Hat, founder of Maypop Herb Shop in New Orleans, blends Indigenous plant knowledge with southern botanical tradition to create tinctures, teas, and herbal remedies. Recently awarded a grant to expand her studies, White Hat is focused on making traditional herbal medicine more accessible to Indigenous communities nationwide.

View previous ICT broadcasts here every week for the latest news from around Indian Country.

Keywords: Native American news 2026, Indigenous news, Native American news today, Tribal news, First Nations news, Native American athletes, Native American representation, Native American Entertainment, Native Entertainers, Native American artist, Native artists, Indigenous artists, Indigenous, Community, Culture, Repatriation, Identity, Native, Traditional, Heritage, Churchill, Port, Expansion, Language, Land, Music, Art, Youth, Medicine, Ceremony, Reclaiming.

The post ICT NEWSCAST: Native leadership in port development, Native hip hop, an Indigenous herbalist and more appeared first on ICT.

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Understanding the dynamics of how water moves is deceptively simple in concept and endlessly complex in practice. Real-world marine environments are anything but controlled: weather, seasons, and geography change constantly. Yet understanding water movement is a critical aspect in areas of study like marine biology, coastal and environmental science, and even policy around how we recover from natural disasters.

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Some of KNBA's Top Stories: Searching for answers at the MMIP Justice Summit that embrace the heart, as well as the mind. Former Governor Bill Walker is pondering a plunge into the already crowded governor's race. Thin ice is causing problems for whaling crews on the North Slope.

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Bright colors in animals are beautiful but often considered risky because they are more obvious to predators. However, conspicuous colors can also serve defensively, signaling toxicity or even luring predators away from more vulnerable body parts.

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For decades, ecologists have theorized that the extinction of one important species could set off a chain reaction of losses throughout an ecosystem. Now, new research offers some of the clearest real-world evidence that this idea of coextinction is not just theoretical.

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Gas streetlights might look quaint, but researchers at the University of Cincinnati say they are costly, wasteful and release toxic pollutants into the air. In two studies examining their use in Boston, Massachusetts, and Cincinnati, UC researchers found that each lamp releases many times the amount of methane and carbon monoxide of other appliances such as gas stoves and water heaters.

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When viruses invade a plant, you might expect an all-out immune war. But new research published in Science shows that, much like in humans, too strong an immune response can actually do more harm than good.

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May 29, 2026 – A document President Donald Trump filed with the Office of Government Ethics last week shows his portfolio managers purchased stock in a long list of food and agriculture companies during the first three months of 2026, some of which have had direct dealings with the administration. Among other agriculture companies, Trump […]

The post Trump Stock Purchases Include John Deere and Major Food Companies appeared first on Civil Eats.

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This story was originally published by WyoFile.

Maggie Mullen
WyoFile

As the earliest stages of Wyoming’s 2032 redistricting process get underway, state lawmakers showed little interest in calls from Secretary of State Chuck Gray to immediately reexamine electoral boundaries.

The Wyoming Legislature’s Joint Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions Committee declined to take action at its Friday meeting in Lander.

“I think we’re better off to not poke the dog, the sleeping dog. And just let it go,” Rep. Steve Johnson, R-Cheyenne, said at the meeting.

In recent letters to the Fremont County Commission and Gov. Mark Gordon, Gray pointed to a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision, which narrowed states’ ability to use race as a determining factor in creating election districts. Gray argues that certain maps that overlap with the Wind River Indian Reservation ought to be reexamined now in light of that ruling. More specifically, Gray is taking aim at the Fremont County Commission’s district maps and House District 33, which is represented by the sole Indigenous member serving in the Legislature, Rep. Ivan Posey, D-Fort Washakie.

Business councils for the Eastern Shoshone and the Northern Arapaho tribes have since denounced Gray for what they call a “direct attack on Native voting.” Some attendees at the meeting held up signs, pushing back on the secretary.

Gray has stopped short of demanding the governor either suspend the primary election or call a special legislative session — two things southern GOP-controlled states have done in response to the ruling. Instead, Gray has criticized the governor for not taking action. He can now criticize lawmakers for that, too.

“My recommendation would be: take a deep breath. For all of us to think about this. Weigh it. Have lots of public input,” Senate Corporations Committee Chairman Cale Case, R-Lander, said at the meeting. “It took us a year or more to redistrict the state of Wyoming.”

Case, who represents Senate District 25 and the Wind River Indian Reservation, said the committee had several options, including waiting to sort things out during the next redistricting process.

Like Case, Rep. Mike Yin, D-Jackson, pointed out that changing the boundaries of one House district would upend the rest of the Legislature’s map. Besides, Yin said, he’d already completed the task Gray had requested.

“To answer the secretary’s letter directly, I examined [the U.S. Supreme Court ruling] and I examined our maps. And I find them to be in compliance,” Yin said.

“I would suggest that we just put this topic to bed and leave it as is because we have plenty of other bills to work on,” Yin said, referring to the topics the committee has been tasked with during the legislative off-season.

Pointing to another discussion surrounding the constitutionality of the Legislature’s maps, Rep. Johnson said, “I would tend to agree with my colleague from the other side of the aisle that we need to just let this go.”

With one exception, the public testimony was either explicitly against Gray’s proposal or encouraged the committee to proceed with caution.

Rep. Nina Webber, R-Cody, asked that the topic be carried over to the committee’s next meeting, “just as a ‘let’s revisit it.’” Otherwise, the committee put the discussion aside.

Meanwhile, the process for refreshing the state’s legislative maps in 2032 is beginning. The Legislative Service Office updated the committee Friday on its work with the federal government to create census blocks, which function as the smallest geographical unit collected by the federal government.

When it comes time for lawmakers to begin drawing maps in 2030, census blocks function as the building blocks. And as roads and developments are built and people move around the state, those census blocks must be updated to give lawmakers greater flexibility in drawing maps that accurately reflect their communities.

The county commission

Wyoming law gives county commissions the latitude to use a district, at-large or hybrid system. Under a district system, commissioners represent certain areas within a county. In comparison, at-large commissioners represent the entire county.

Since 2010, when a federal court judge ruled in favor of five enrolled Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho members, the Fremont County Commission has used a district system.

In Large v. Fremont County, the plaintiffs argued that the at-large system diluted Native American voting strength and violated the federal Voting Rights Act. Ultimately, the court ruled in their favor.

However, Gray is asking the commission to revert to an at-large district, arguing that the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent ruling in Louisiana v. Callais makes the district system unconstitutional.

After receiving Gray’s letter, the commission referred it to the Wyoming Attorney General’s Office for guidance. In the meantime, at least one lawmaker at the meeting made it clear they were uninterested in revising the statute.

“I have no interest in changing that statute, nor do I have any interest in telling the county commission what they have to or have to not do,” Yin said.

Doug Thompson, a former county commissioner and a defendant in Large v. Fremont County,spoke at Friday’s meeting. He urged caution.

“My counsel for all who will listen is: Take your time,” Thompson said. “Don’t jump one way or the other. Don’t say no districts. Don’t say at-large. Don’t do either one. Because this is a complex issue.”

Northern Arapaho Business Council Chairman Keenan Groesbeck and Eastern Shoshone Councilman Clinton Glick both told the committee not to take action to remake the commission or the legislative electoral map.

The Legislature

The other electoral map Gray takes exception to is House District 33, which stretches across Fremont County and encompasses the tribal towns of Fort Washakie, Ethete and Arapahoe, as well as the small non-tribal communities of Atlantic City, Crowheart and Hudson.

Several of the district’s constituents, including non-tribal members, attended the meeting and spoke in favor of the current maps, arguing that the boundaries weren’t simply drawn with consideration to race but also — and officially — to keep communities of interest, such as sovereign governments, intact.

“To suggest that this very narrow [U.S. Supreme Court] decision has this broad brush that requires you take some immediate action is not quite accurate,” Mark Harris, former Sweetwater County lawmaker, told the committee.

Harris served in the Legislature as it shifted from strict adherence to county boundaries and toward population, and as such, has direct knowledge of the 2001 legislative session “that essentially created House District 33 as it is today.”

“This district is based on community of interest and always has been,” he said.

The shift away from county alignment was spurred by a 1991 federal court ruling that Wyoming’s legislative maps violated the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution — also known as “one person, one vote.”

Friday, Gray told the committee he doesn’t “think we should wait for a lawsuit to engage” in the examination of the state’s electoral maps.

Whether the Wyoming Attorney General’s Office agrees remains to be seen. The governor’s office previously told WyoFile it sent Gray’s letter there to be reviewed. Gordon himself has not offered an opinion about Gray’s call to reexamine electoral maps.

The post Wyoming lawmakers unmoved by Gray’s calls to reexamine electoral maps appeared first on ICT.

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There's a conundrum that has perplexed biologists since Charles Darwin himself. Why do some exotic species take off as invasive pests while others don't?

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The red pipefish (Notiocampus ruber) is a rare relative of seahorses and seadragons found only in Australia.

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Tardigrades, also known as water bears or moss piglets, are tiny eight-legged animals that can survive in extreme environments, where humans and most other animals would die. This resistance to extreme conditions, including intense heat, very high or low temperatures, radiation and low oxygen levels is called "extremotolerance."

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It's tricky to make an exact copy of yourself. Or at least it is for cells undergoing mitosis, where cells replicate everything inside of them, including their neatly packaged DNA, then split in half. Rice University professor Peter Wolynes is interested in how the packaged DNA, called a chromosome, changes its structure during replication, going from a ball shape to a cylinder shape that can be transported easily to the daughter cell.

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There is a forever chemical lurking in the world's oceans that could be fundamentally altering the biology of marine life before it even hatches. PFOS, a notorious member of the PFAS family of chemicals, is known for its ability to bioaccumulate, binding specifically to proteins in the blood and liver. While it's long been recognized as a pollutant, scientists are only beginning to understand how it changes an organism from the inside out.

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MANNAR, Sri Lanka — Each year, the arrival of greater flamingos transforms the lagoons of northern Sri Lanka into a mesmerizing spectacle of pale pink and white. Their synchronized movements across the shallow waters of Mannar attract birdwatchers, photographers, tourists and nature lovers from around the country and abroad. But behind this beauty lies a growing crisis. Recently, three flamingos were killed in Mannar after a collision with overhead power lines that crossed their flight path. Initial reports suggested electrocution, but according to Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWC) veterinary surgeon Balachandran Giritharan, who conducted the necropsies, the birds were not electrocuted. Instead, their long necks were slashed mid-flight when they struck the cables. The incident has renewed concerns among conservationists who have previously warned against energy infrastructure cutting across sensitive wetland habitats such as Vankalai Sanctuary, another Ramsar wetland in Mannar. Environmentalists had identified large waterbirds such as flamingos as being vulnerable to collisions. The latest flamingo deaths also add to the mounting environmental concerns surrounding development projects, particularly in Mannar, including proposed wind power projects. The issue drew international attention after the withdrawal of developer Adani Green Energy Limited (AGEL) from a disputed wind power project in Sri Lanka earlier this year. The Mannar region, with its strategic wind resources, has increasingly become a battleground between renewable energy expansion and biodiversity conservation. Flamingos are more vulnerable to collisions with power cables during dusk and early morning hours. Image courtesy of Indika Jayathissa. A global threat to flamingos Across the world,…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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Orangutans have one of the slowest life histories among mammals, and a new study now shows just how long orangutan mothers continue to breastfeed their offspring. An international team has demonstrated that wild orangutan juveniles keep consuming their mother's milk continuously until at least six and a half years of age, confirming one of the longest breastfeeding periods known among mammals.

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Sitting at the northwestern edge of North America, Alaska stretches across a vast Arctic land of wilderness, culture, and wealth beneath the surface. Among its resources is the Donlin Gold deposit, located in southwestern Alaska's Kuskokwim River basin. As one of the world's largest undeveloped gold mines, it holds an estimated 39 million ounces worth more than $170 billion at today's prices.

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Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. Conservation journalists are facing a new issue: AI-generated wildlife imagery. The issue is not just that fake images exist. That has long been true. What has changed is how convincing synthetic wildlife photos and videos have become, how cheaply they can be made, and how quickly they can spread. A clip can move through Facebook, WhatsApp, TikTok, or even LinkedIn before anyone has checked whether it shows a real animal, a real place, or a real event. That matters because wildlife images carry an implicit claim. A photograph of a rare animal, a camera-trap still, or a video of unusual behavior usually tells the viewer: this happened. As generative AI improves, that assumption needs more scrutiny. The risks are not theoretical. False videos of animal attacks can deepen fear in places where human-wildlife conflict is already difficult to manage. Fabricated images of wild animals behaving like pets can feed demand for the exotic pet trade. Misleading footage of rare species can absorb the time of researchers, journalists, NGOs, and public agencies that have to determine whether an event actually occurred. It also changes the work of newsrooms. At Mongabay, we now spend more time looking at sourcing, provenance, metadata, reverse-image searches, forensic tools, and whether a photographer, researcher, or institution is known and trusted. AI detectors can occasionally help in some cases, but they cannot settle the question. False positives and false negatives…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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The summer of 2021 was one for the record books as the now-infamous "heat dome" settled over the Pacific Northwest from late June through early July, resulting in triple-digit temperatures and hundreds of deaths.

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The price of financial stability should not be environmental destruction. Yet when countries turn to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for help, their forests may quietly suffer. The IMF is currently reviewing the design of its lending programs, and it is time for change. Its recipe for getting economies back on track often features required reforms such as cutting government expenditure, increasing revenue collection through taxes or utility tariff increases, winding down public ownership of state-owned enterprises and encouraging the private sector to step up: austerity in other words. These policies are meant to restore stability in times of crisis, but growing evidence shows that IMF programs often fall short in helping countries break out of the cycle of economic and financial distress. Instead, they can trigger collateral damage in the form of negative health outcomes, worsened poverty and inequality and eroded social protection. Image by Forster et al., 2026 (CC BY 4.0). Our new research provides evidence that these programs also have an important and often overlooked environmental dimension, revealing that countries experience 9.2% higher annual tree cover loss during years in which they are under an IMF program. In a typical three-year IMF program, this amounts to forest loss the size of Barbados. This finding comes as no surprise as IMF programs are known to generally cut government spending, and environmental protections are often the first to go. These conditions that come in exchange for financial assistance are a major shortcoming when it comes to effects on forests,…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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A newly released book documenting urban forestry efforts across Africa argues that trees and green spaces are no longer a luxury for African cities, but a critical response to climate change, biodiversity loss, and urban inequality. Published by Johannesburg City Parks and Zoo (JCPZ), Urban Forests and Green Spaces in Africa: Case Studies and Lessons from Across the Continent brings together 34 case studies from 14 African countries, covering everything from restoring biodiversity around wetlands in Rwanda’s capital Kigali, creating Miyawaki forests (forests with native trees planted closely together) in Kenya’s capital Nairobi, greening heat-stressed neighborhoods in Zimbabwe’s capital Harare, transplanting baobabs in Senegal to rehabilitating degraded urban land in South Africa. Hot days, hot nights, and heatwaves have become more frequent across Africa, concludes the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the world’s most authoritative scientific assessment on climate change. The report also finds that coastal cities are vulnerable to floods related to rainfall events and sea level rise. Palm-lined trees provide near-continuous canopy cover along a boulevard in Bahir Dar, the capital of Ethiopia’s Amhara region. The book notes that canopy closure along some of the city’s main streets approaches 100%, making Bahir Dar one of the most heavily treed urban centers in Africa. Image courtesy of Cathy Watson/CIFOR-ICRAF. As African cities experience rising temperatures, worsening floods, biodiversity loss, and rapid urbanization, the book argues that urban forests and green infrastructure are essential tools for climate resilience. Beyond storing carbon, trees and green spaces…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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As climate change intensifies drought conditions across the Southwest, researchers at The University of New Mexico are examining how agricultural water is used in one of New Mexico's most critical river systems.

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A newly released report alleges that well-placed elites in Cameroon’s government are enabling a cluster of timber and agribusiness companies to log primary forest in the country. These companies include Sextransbois, which was awarded a controversial 68,000-hectare (168,000-acre) logging concession in the Ebo Forest in 2023. The report by Swiss-based advocacy group Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC) also named SCIEB, which controls another concession in the Ebo Forest covering 65,000 hectares (161,000 acres). The report used corporate registry documents, trade records, and sources in Cameroon’s forestry sector to link both companies, along with Boiscam and Camvert, to prominent businessman Aboubakar Al Fatih. According to an “informal broker” who has worked to connect logging companies with forestry officials and was interviewed by GI-TOC, Al Fatih’s companies have benefitted from his ties to the minister of economy, Alamine Ousmane Mey. Mey is considered an ally of Cameroonian President Paul Biya’s eldest son Franck, who reportedly recommended him for a cabinet post in 2011. Sextransbois was incorporated by relatives of Franck Biya’s in 2014, before being transferred to then-20-year-old Mahmoud Mourtada, Al Fatih’s half-brother. The report implies that Al Fatih’s connections to figures in Franck Biya’s circle helped Sextransbois and SCIEB obtain their concessions in the Ebo Forest. Those concessions were awarded despite a global campaign to protect the forest, which is a biodiversity-rich habitat for threatened gorillas and chimpanzees. After initially walking back its decision to reclassify the forest as government land in 2020, the government quietly reissued the two…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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