A difficult time for the family of Nicole Ducheneaux, a Lakota lawyer and member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe. …Ducheneaux represented the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe in its fight against the Dakota Access pipeline and spent her career fighting to protect Indigenous rights. She passed away on Friday, July 14th. Nicole “Nikki” Ducheneaux, 44, died from undisclosed causes in Omaha, Nebraska. Her father Franklin Ducheneaux announced his daughter’s death on the evening of Sunday, July 16. “This is the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life,” Franklin Ducheneaux said. “Our beautiful daughter, Nikki, died suddenly early Friday night. Our lives have been shattered.” Ducheneaux was a founding partner of the Big Fire Law and Policy Group based in Omaha.
A new grant program seeks to provide Lakota artists, and culture bearers, the funds needed to create visual, community engaging projects through the Sinew Fund. The Sinew Fund, created by Racing Magpie was brought to life by a recent partnership with the Andy Warhol Foundation’s Regional Regranting program, an invitation only national program. The name comes from the crafting material sinew, which is used for sewing or weaving.
Those are your headlines at this hour. I’m Colette Keith in the KIPI News center.
