Native News
Monday Morning (July 27, 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:
Q&A with White Mountain Apache Chef and Author Nephi Craig
As White Mountain Apache chef Nephi Craig rose through the culinary world, he was pressed against the razor-sharp edges of generational trauma and substance abuse that would ricochet him from the kitchens of America’s most prestigious fine dining restaurants to cooking for more than 7,000 of his fellow inmates in Maricopa County Jail.
Today, Craig leads the nutritional recovery program coordinator at the White Mountain Apache tribe-owned Rainbow Treatment Center. There he teaches cooking skills and healing at the center’s vocational kitchen, Café Gozhóó.
Craig’s long-awaited memoir, Our Knives Will Save Us: Dispatches from a White Mountain Apache Chef, hit the shelves this month. The book weaves together the chef’s journey from the reservation to the fast-paced, white-hot world of fine dining, to more than a dozen stints in rehab, and ultimately, back to the community he loves most, all while examining the history of Indigenous foods.
The Impact of Gun Lake Casino Resort: 15 Years of Investing in West Michigan
Tribes are not the only beneficiaries of Indian gaming. In Michigan, tribal nations enter into gaming compacts with the state that establish guidelines for sharing a portion of gaming revenues with state and local governments, including public school systems.
The impact of those agreements was highlighted July 15, 2026, at Gun Lake Casino Resort, where local officials gathered to receive checks and reflect on the 15 years since the casino opened in February 2011.
Since opening, Gun Lake Casino Resort and the Gun Lake Tribe have distributed more than $226.9 million in revenue-sharing payments to the State of Michigan, local governments, schools, emergency services, and charitable organizations.
Inside the Navajo Nation School Teaching Kids to Grow, Cook, and Reclaim Their Food Heritage
On the edge of the Navajo Nation in northeastern Arizona, the STAR (Service to All Relations) School has spent more than two decades redefining what education can look like. The solar-powered public school is nationally recognized for its innovative approach to sustainability, but one of its most impactful initiatives reaches far beyond the classroom: The Food Sovereignty Program. Through gardening, traditional foods, language revitalization, and community partnerships, the program is helping students reconnect with their culture while building healthier futures for their families.
According to STAR School co-founder and board president Mark Sorensen, the program began with a simple observation. When the school first started serving healthy meals, many students would remove the vegetables from their trays and throw them away. The children simply had little experience with foods like broccoli, lettuce, or tomatoes because they had not been regularly available in their communities. Rather than forcing students to eat unfamiliar foods, the school decided to help them develop a relationship with them.