The biggest show in Indian Country rodeo is this week in Sin City. More than 350 contestants representing more than 70 tribes from the United States and Canada are in Las Vegas this week for the Indian National Finals Rodeo. They will be competing for more than $1 million in cash and prizes. In years past, the INFR organization, based out of Browning, Montana, had contestants qualify through 12 different regions but changed the qualification format due to covid. Donna Hoyt, Blackfeet, is the general manager for the INFR and says they will stick with the current format before reevaluating the system before the 2024 season.
Ho-Chunk filmmaker Sky Hopinka and Potawatomi botanist Robin Wall Kimmer are among this year’s winners of the prestigious $800,000 MacArthur Fellowships. The so-called “Genius Grants” from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation support creative people in various fields whose work addresses pressing social challenges. Hopinka is a filmmaker, video artist and photographer who creates new forms of cinema that center Indigenous perspectives. His works have been featured at the Sundance Film Festival, the Toronto International Film Festival, the Museum of Modern Art in New York and other museums and festivals. Kimmer is a professor and author whose books include, “Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants.”
Tomorrow the Prairie Winds Casino in Pine Ridge will host a meeting of spiritual leaders to discuss the ceremonies necessary to bring home sacred artifacts that have been held at the Barre Museum in Barre Massachusetts that belong to descendants of the Wounded Knee Massacre.…the meeting begins at 9AM…again the meeting is being held at Prairie Winds Casino in Pine Ridge tomorrow at 9 am.
