Next Board of Trustees Meeting: 9 a.m., April 28, 2025

April 21, 2025: CTUIR Board of Trustees meeting summary

Meeting called to order at 9:01 a.m. by Board of Trustees (BOT) Chairman Gary I. Burke. Invocation given by Member at Large Toby Patrick. Quorum of six was verified with Vice Chairman Aaron Ashley and Members at Large Lisa Ganuelas and Steven Hart on personal leave. Agenda approved 5-0-0. Old Business Public Law-280 Retrocession Testimony (25-002): This resolution authorizes Member…

Two young girls twirl in front of the Nixyáawii Education Center’s Week of the Young Child sign on April 8, 2024, in Mission. Students and faculty of the Átaw Miyánašma Learning Center, Cay-Uma-Wa Head Start and InterMountain Education Service District Early Childhood Special Education classrooms paraded from the Nixyáawii Education Center to the Nixyáawii Governance Center as part of the week’s celebrations. LISA SNELL | CUJ PHOTO

Mass layoffs rattle Head Start leaders already on edge over funding problems

By MORIAH BALINGIT, AP Education Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — The problems for Head Start began days after President Donald Trump took office. Trump’s administration announced it would freeze federal grants — the primary funding for the early education program that serves more than half a million low-income children. Then came glitches with the funding website that forced nearly two dozen…

Red dresses and shirts with messages or names of murdered or missing people, personalized messages planted outside on miniature dresses and a parade of community members wearing red helped demonstrate on May 6, 2024, that their loved ones haven’t been forgotten and that solutions are still needed.

Unsolved violent crimes in Native American communities to get more attention with FBI surge

By SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN, Associated Press ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — The FBI is sending extra agents, analysts and other personnel to field offices in 10 states over the next six months to help investigate unsolved violent crimes in Indian Country, marking a continuation of efforts by the federal government to address high rates of violence affecting Native American communities. The…

PUBLIC NOTICE: APRIL 1, 2025

PTRIBAL MEMBERS: This notification formally announces that applications are now being accepted from tribal members who wish to serve on the Commission(s)/Committee(s) listed below. Appointed members will receive a $125.00 stipend per meeting, effective January 1, 2022, once the minutes have been approved and processed on CTUIR paydays. CTUIR is advertising the following positions:2 Positions for CTUIR Culture Coalition, to…

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth

The Pentagon’s DEI purge: Officials describe a scramble to remove and then restore online content

By LOLITA C. BALDOR and TARA COPP, Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Every day over the past few weeks, the Pentagon has faced questions from angry lawmakers, local leaders and citizens over the removal of military heroes and historic mentions from Defense Department websites and social media pages after it purged online content that promoted women or minorities. In response,…

U.S. Marines of the 28th Regiment, 5th Division, raise a U.S. flag atop Mount Suribachi, Iwo Jima, Japan, Feb. 23, 1945. Gov. Stephen Roe Lewis of the Gila River Indian Community in Arizona expressed his disappointment with the Pentagon, claiming there was missing content relating to all Native American veterans – including Ira Hayes. Hayes was an enrolled citizen of the tribe and one of six Marines featured in an iconic 1945 Associated Press photograph of U.S. forces raising an American flag during the Battle of Iwo Jima.

Pentagon restores histories of Navajo Code Talkers, other Native veterans after public outcry

By TERRY TANG, Associated Press PHOENIX (AP) — The Pentagon restored some webpages highlighting the crucial wartime contributions of Navajo Code Talkers and other Native American veterans on March 19, days after tribes condemned the action. The initial removal was part of a sweep of any military content that promoted diversity, equity and inclusion, or commonly referred to as DEI.…

Stockton Hoffman, a student in the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation’s Tribal Employment Rights Office (TERO) 2024 class, practices driving a forklift on a simulator in Mission. TERO recently received two state grants to help people enhance their job skills. CTUIR

CTUIR TERO helping people obtain job skills with HECC grants

MISSION – The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR) Tribal Employment Rights Office (TERO) is helping people enhance their job skills after receiving two grants from the state’s Higher Education Coordinating Commission (HECC). TERO Apprenticeship Training Coordinator Michelle Bratlie said one grant is for service-learning education, while the other is for on-the-job training. Together the grants total $52,500…

In response to a February court ruling that blocked some Biden-era programs, the Education Department has taken down online and paper applications for income-driven repayment plans.

Some student loan repayment plans have been suspended. Here’s what borrowers should know

By CORA LEWIS, Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — The Trump administration’s recent changes to student loans are causing frustration and confusion for some borrowers. In response to a February court ruling that blocked some Biden-era programs, the Education Department has taken down online and paper applications for income-driven repayment plans. “This especially hurts anyone who’s lost their jobs, including…

Airman charged in killing of Native American woman who went missing 7 months ago in South Dakota

By SARAH RAZA, Associated Press SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — A 24-year-old airman has been charged with killing a Native American woman who went missing in South Dakota about seven months ago. Quinterius Chappelle, 24, made his first court appearance March 17 on one count of second-degree murder in the killing of Sahela Sangrait, 21. The court documents in the…

The Indian Health Service received $8.2 billion in funding this fiscal year, despite asking for nearly $60 billion. Tribal officials say that any loss of facilities or employees, through firings or buyouts, will make a bad situation even worse.

Clinic closures, firings, buyouts: Northwest tribes sound alarm about cuts to health care, education and other key services

Moves target programs that are already underfunded and understaffed, tribal leaders tell Congress By MELANIE HENSHAW, Investigate West A cascade of actions from the Trump administration represents a “grave threat” to health care, social, educational and other critical services in Indian Country, including for Native American communities in the Northwest, tribal leaders say. In the past two weeks, the Trump…