Policy and Law
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- By Jamie Miller, Special to Tribal Business News
- Policy and Law
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For more than a decade, Glendon Smith worked inside the tribal court he still calls home. He later served on the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon’s tribal council and as its secretary-treasurer and CEO.
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- By Chez Oxendine
- Policy and Law
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Disturbed human remains have prompted the Lummi Nation to sue a local telecommunications company, Whatcom County and two federal agencies, alleging excavation work damaged ancestral burial grounds at Point Roberts in northwestern Washington.
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- By Brian Edwards
- Policy and Law
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The U.S. House of Representatives unanimously passed bipartisan legislation that would permanently establish the Small Business Administration's Office of Native American Affairs, a move supporters say would strengthen federal support for Native entrepreneurs and tribal economic development.
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- By Brian Edwards
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Congress has spent decades creating new pathways for tribal self-governance, giving tribal nations greater authority over land leasing, energy development, public safety and other functions long overseen by the federal government. Yet many of those authorities remain underused.
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- By Chez Oxendine
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Proposed cuts to Native-serving programs, staffing losses across federal agencies and growing delays in tribal project approvals dominated a Senate Indian Affairs Committee budget hearing Wednesday, as lawmakers from both parties questioned whether the federal government can continue meeting its treaty and trust obligations to tribes.
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- By Brian Edwards
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Federal prosecutors have filed a civil fraud complaint against Arizona-based telecommunications contractors accused of inflating costs and billing for nonexistent equipment on a federally funded broadband project on the Rosebud Sioux Reservation.
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- By Brian Edwards and Chez Oxendine
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President Donald Trump’s fiscal 2027 budget proposal calls for ramping up U.S. defense spending to $1.5 trillion, a shift that would come alongside deep reductions to domestic programs — including those that support tribal governments, Native businesses and essential services in Indian Country.
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- By Chez Oxendine
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A sweeping water-rights settlement for northeastern Arizona won unified tribal support at a Senate oversight hearing Wednesday, even as the Department of the Interior warned Congress the $5 billion plan may exceed available federal funding.
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- By Brian Edwards
- Policy and Law
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U.S. Reps. Gwen Moore, D-Wis., and David Schweikert, R-Ariz., on Wednesday introduced bipartisan legislation to expand tribal governments’ access to tax-exempt bonds, housing credits and other federal tax incentives, aligning their financing authority more closely with state and local governments.
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- By Tribal Business News Staff
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A federal judge has sentenced a former senior employee of the Spokane Tribe of Indians to more than a year in prison for embezzling funds intended to support children in tribal foster care, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Washington.