KIPI News | January 13, 2023 | Collette Keith
The Feds Want to Nix the Latest Claim in a Navajo Relocation Suit…Federal officials are renewing their push to escape allegations that the U.S. government shirked a decades-old pledge to help Navajo citizens relocate from land belonging to the Hopi Tribe, arguing that 1974 legislation does not require them to build entire communities for such people. The litigation — an attempt by the Navajo Nation to enforce its 49-year-old land settlement with the Hopi — has already been trimmed considerably, as an Arizona federal judge last year dismissed the bulk of the tribe’s claims as overly expansive. Navajo leaders still maintain, however, that the federal government must provide certain critical infrastructure for relocated citizens, such as water and sewer systems as well as roads and schools, prompting the latest round of arguments.
A North Dakota official Wants Tribe’s Voting Rights Allegations Tossed…North Dakota Secretary of State Michael Howe denies that legislative redistricting prevented Native American voters from having an equal opportunity to elect their candidates of choice in November’s elections, urging a federal judge to toss a supplemental complaint filed by two Native American tribes in the state. Howe rebuffed the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians and Spirit Lake Tribe‘s argument that the redistricting plan unlawfully kept Native American candidates from being elected to the state legislature in November. Howe, who this month replaced longtime North Dakota Secretary of State Alvin Jaeger, said he denies the alleged “packing and cracking of Native American voters” into legislative districts. The two tribes sued Jaeger in February 2022, alleging that the state’s legislative map, signed into law in November 2021, weakens the voting strength of reservation residents by “packing” Native voters into one state House district and “cracking” others out of a majority in another district.
Those are your headlines at this hour. I’m Colette Keith in the KIPI News center.
