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PNS - Thursday, February 27, 2025 - Chief Justice John Roberts pauses order for Trump admin to pay $2 billion in foreign aid by midnight; NM Legislature advances appropriations bill with funding for wildlife corridors; Group warns livestock manure making MI Great Lakes not so great; Volunteer lobbyists to press Colorado lawmakers on homelessness.
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By Kathleen Shannon - Producer, Contact - News
Big Sky Connection - Senate bills on Native education, child welfare and Indigenous People's Day advanced to the Montana House this week. A voting-rights bill waits for a vote. Comments by Keaton Sunchild, director of government and political relations, Western Native Voice.
Click on the image above for the audio. The State of Montana first passed its Indian Child Welfare Act in 2023, decades after a federal version was enacted by Congress in 1978. A bill to expand Montana's law advanced from the state Senate to the House on Tuesday. (Wikimedia Commons)
Kathleen Shannon
February 27, 2025 - Three Montana bills regarding Native rights and culture advanced from the Senate to the House this week, despite some previous setbacks. Bills to revise the Montana Indian Child Welfare Act and Indian Education for All laws, both tabled within the last month, were this week both passed the Senate and were transmitted to the House. The education bill would require more tribal consultation, more work with language and culture specialists, and more accountability from the state's Board of Public Education.
Keaton Sunchild, director of government and political relations for Western Native Voice, says understanding historical context is critical.
"I think it's hugely important that we continue to teach the history and the culture of Native Americans here in Montana," Sunchild said. "It's pretty hard to do any sort of Montana history without talking about Native American history."
Senate Bill 147 would expand the 2023 Indian Child Welfare Act to include more frequent and robust tribal participation, in recognition of the cultural losses an Indian child placed in a nonnative foster home may experience. In 2020, American Indian children made up 9% of all Montana children, but were 35% of kids in foster care, according to the state's judicial branch.
A bill to make voting more accessible for Native communities was heard last week, but still requires a vote. Sunchild said the major arguments he's heard against the bill are around the costs of implementing more resources for voters, but added that those one-time government costs would save many individuals' repeated costs.
"Between gas, food, child care, days off work, we have voters who are paying $200 sometimes, if not more, to go vote. Voting's inherently supposed to be free," Sunchild continued. "And we're saying that it's really not for Native American communities."
A bill to recognize Indigenous People's Day as a legal holiday in Montana passed the Senate on Wednesday almost unanimously. Sunchild said this version received more support than its predecessors because it calls for the holiday in conjunction with, instead of replacing, Columbus Day.
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PNS - Thursday, February 27, 2025 - U.S. farmers in limbo due to federal funding freeze worry their projects will go unrealized, mass firings could wreak havoc on tourists visiting public lands this summer, while money to fight wildfires in rural areas is also jeopardized.
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PNS - Thursday, February 27, 2025 - The House has passed a budget outline. Elon Musk attends first Trump cabinet meeting. And federal workers leave jobs despite litigation allowing them to stay.
