Topics
Persistent beats the brief returns to.
- Treaty rights and sovereignty Hunting, fishing, gathering, and water rights under the 1837, 1842, and 1854 treaties; ongoing federal and state legal disputes. 25 stories
- Line 5 and pipeline fights The Bad River Band's lawsuit and easement expiration over Enbridge's Line 5, plus related pipeline politics across Indian Country. 7 stories
- Manoomin and water protection Wild rice stewardship, climate threats to rice beds, sulfide mining adjacent to wild rice waters, and the legal personhood of manoomin in tribal law. 8 stories
- Lac du Flambeau roads dispute The 2023 access closures over allotment-era road easements crossing tribal land. 1 story
- Boarding school truth and healing The federal Indian boarding school investigation, tribal-led healing initiatives, and remembrance of survivors. 4 stories
- Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women MMIW/MMIP advocacy, federal task forces, and tribal jurisdiction issues. 3 stories
- Indian Child Welfare Act ICWA defense after Brackeen v. Haaland, state-level implementation, and tribal child welfare. 2 stories
- Land back and repatriation Tribal land reacquisition, federal trust transfers, NAGPRA repatriation of ancestors and cultural items. 31 stories
- Language revitalization Ojibwemowin, Hoocąk, Menominee, Oneida, and other Indigenous language programs and immersion schools. 14 stories
- Climate change and Traditional Ecological Knowledge Climate impacts on Native communities and the role of TEK in adaptation. Tracks Ice Worlds-relevant beats: ice loss, sugarbush, longleaf pine, fisheries. 20 stories
- Mining and extractive industry Sulfide mining, copper mining, sand mining, and Native-led environmental opposition. Includes Crandon, Back 40, and lithium extraction. 7 stories
- Tribal gaming and economy Casino operations, compacts, economic diversification beyond gaming, tribal businesses. 12 stories
- Native veterans and the warrior tradition Honoring ogichidaa across generations. Tied to Patty's documentary Way of the Warrior and her grandfather Edward DeNomie. 3 stories
- Indigenous journalism and storytelling Native press, Indigenous Journalists Association, tribal youth media, the 5 R's framework. 11 stories
- Federal recognition struggles The Brothertown Indians' ongoing petition and other federal recognition fights. 7 stories
- Arts, powwows, and cultural revitalization Powwows, beadwork, birchbark canoe building, ribbon skirts, contemporary Native art. 16 stories
- Ice Worlds project Patty's NSF-funded climate documentary series with Giant Screen Films (Award #2116070, $1.3M, 2021-2024). PI Deborah Raksany; Patty co-PI. Centerpiece: THOR expedition to Thwaites glacier paired with Native middle-school filmmaking. Partner tribes include Poarch Creek (Alabama). 1 story
- Tribal Youth Media Patty's 20-year initiative (since 2006), co-founded with Dan Stanley at UW-Madison and continued at Northwestern. Mentors Native youth in digital storytelling and environmental journalism. Documented in 'The Feather and the Pen' (2024). Now feeds directly into Ice Worlds.
- Native education and Act 31 Tribal schools, immersion programs, Wisconsin Act 31 implementation, university Indigenous studies. 17 stories
- Urban Indian communities Wisconsin's off-reservation Native communities — Milwaukee, Brown County / Green Bay, Madison — and the institutions that serve them: Indian Community School (Franklin), Gerald L. Ignace Indian Health Center, Indian Council of the Elderly, Consolidated Tribes of American Indians, Indian Summer Festival. The legacy of the 1956 Indian Relocation Act and ongoing pan-tribal urban Native organizing. 11 stories