Native News
Monday Morning (July 13, 2026): Articles You May Have Missed This Past Weekend
Happy Monday!
Here are some of the articles or essays you may have missed this past weekend:
‘They’re raping the land.’ | Massive Wild Horse Round Up Proceeds on Ancestral Native Lands
The wild horses of Mono Lake are sacred to Kauk and other Native peoples in the eastern Sierra Nevada region. The federal government claims the area is overrun with a herd of nearly 700, the impetus for the roundup and removal of three-quarters of the horses that began Wednesday.
The area’s tribes have called for a two-year delay to allow for non-lethal fertility management alternatives, including immunocontraception, and meaningful co-management planning with tribal governments. According to a press release from the Utu Utu Gwaitu Paiute Tribe, the U.S. Forest Service has not responded to those calls.
Kauk is a member of the Mono Lake Kutzadika’a Tribe and works as a tribal historic preservation officer and cultural monitor for the nearby Utu Utu Gwaitu Paiute Tribe of the Benton Paiute Reservation. She is also the founder of the Indigenous Wild Horse Society. On June 30, Kauk, along with Utu Utu Gwaitu Paiute Tribe Chairman Shane Saulque and Vice Chairwoman Rana Saulque, filed a lawsuit against the federal agencies behind the removal and asked the court for an emergency order to halt this week’s roundup. The court denied the order Tuesday, contesting claims that tribal consultation never took place. The lawsuit remains active.
Health Investments Reverberate throughout Our Nation
At the heart of the Cherokee story is an innate commitment to community. It’s the background rhythm that connects every Cherokee Nation citizen. Gadugi, our word for working together for the common good, is a part of our nature.
Gadugi, itself, is unquantifiable. We can’t measure it directly. But when we look at our Cherokee communities — large and small — we can feel the lasting impact of this cherished Cherokee value. We experience Gadugi’s reverberation every day in community centers; eldercare and childcare facilities; language classes, at-large meetings across the nation and much more.
The spirit of Gadugi resonates in those cultural gatherings and efforts, ringing out loud far beyond our walls.
U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), one of the Senate’s most influential Republicans and a dominant figure in national politics for more than two decades, died Saturday following what his office described as a brief and sudden illness. He was 71.
Graham’s political career was defined largely by his work on national security, the federal judiciary, and military affairs. In Indian Country, however, his legacy is more narrowly focused on his advocacy for the Catawba Indian Nation, South Carolina’s only federally recognized Tribe.
Unlike senators who built careers shaping federal Indian policy through the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, Graham was not a leading voice on national tribal issues. Instead, his work involving Tribal Nations centered primarily on legislation affecting the Catawba Nation.