From left to right: Muriel Slickpoo, General Council Secretary Shawna Gavin and Red Lodge Executive Director Trish Jordan participate in smudging during a memorial event for Phyll Mendacino at Two Rivers Correctional Facility.

Two Rivers inmate was advocate for Native rights

-Phyll Mendacino passed away at age 65 due to COVID-19 complications By Jill-Marie Gavin for the CUJ The last time Red Lodge Transition Services (Red Lodge) organized a large event at Two Rivers Correctional Facility (Two Rivers) was in August of 2019. On August 31, 2019, inmates and visitors gathered for the annual “prison pow wow.” Throughout the whole event,…

COVID IS HORRID: Tribal members share COVID-19 struggles

By Wil Phinney of the CUJ Frank and Nan Taylor suffer physically, emotionally For Frank Taylor, COVID-19 “got real” when nurses in the intensive care unit at St. Anthony Hospital suggested he might want to get his affairs in order. Frank is better, but for Nan Taylor, COVID-19 is still a nightmare. First it was a matter of life or…

The freaks were out on Dogwood Lane

About five years ago Frank Lopez decided he’d create a little Halloween fun in the neighborhood and he’s been making his yard look sicker and grosser and scarier every year since. “Nobody was doing anything so I decided I’d decorate the yard and little by little … something to get the trick-or-treaters out here,” said Lopez, a Coral Aztec Indian…

Reckoning at Standing Rock

Paddlers from the Pacific Northwest and elsewhere arrive by canoe at the main activist camp on North Dakota’s Cannon Ball River during a canoe demonstration in September against the Dakota Access Pipeline. photo: Terray Sylvester With tribal leaders in the front row, President Richard Nixon signs into law a bill deeding lands to the Taos and Pueblo American Indians, one…

A man sitting with three women standing behind him.
Glavis Wagner, peer recovery mentor at Yellowhawk, participated in the Ready 2 Work program through Tribal Vocational Rehabilitation. He is joined by Susie Calhoun, program manager, Janine Winn, and Mary Ann Rhoads, HR training specialist. Wagner worked closely with them and Viola Tendler, former case manager, while working through the program.

Glavis Wagner prime example of CTUIR voc rehab client

By Casey Brown of the CUJ The open road became the long road that brought Glavis Wagner, 59, back home to Oregon in 1995. Wagner is a peer recovery mentor at Yellowhawk Tribal Health Center with the BH2I program and former bus driver on the Mission route for Kayak Public Transit. He is enrolled with the Confederated Tribes of the…

Basketball coach speaks during team huddle.
Nixyaawii Community School Coach Shane Rivera talks to players during a time out in a game at the Class 1A State Tournament in Baker City in March. Rivera is resigning after an eight-year stint after he accumulated a 171-51 record that included a state title in the 2019 tournament. Standing behind Rivera are his three assistant coaches – Alan Crawford, Ken Mayfield, and Aaron Ashley.

Rivera resigns as NCS hoop coach

By Wil Phinney of the CUJ MISSION – Shane Rivera is resigning as head boys’ basketball coach after compiling a record of 171 wins against 51 losses in eight seasons at Nixyaawii Community School (NCS). Rivera took NCS to the Oregon Class 1A State Tournament five times, winning the title in the 2018-19 season. That year Rivera was Oregon Class 1A…

Teenager stands with her horse.
Cloe McMichael has stayed busy during the COVID-19 stay-at-home directives tending to her horses, like Rosie here. Cloe will be attending Oregon State University in the fall where she intends to pursue a degree in Education with hopes of returning to teach at Nixyaawii Community School.

McMichael wins Ford Family scholarship

2020 salutatorian wants to return to teach history at Nixyaawii Community School Cloe McMichael is comfortable being a bit of a contradiction. Or should we say she’s not bothered if people thinks she’s a little different. When this light-skinned Indian heads off to Corvallis and Oregon State University in the fall, she will be one of the few students who won’t…