The Association on American Indian Affairs submitted these comprehensive comments to the Department of Interior regarding the draft regulations. You can download them here or read them below. https://www.indian-affairs.org/nagpra.html

Did you know that part of Massachusetts’ renewable energy contracts include electricity generated from Canadian hydropower? This energy, sourced from megadams that violate indigenous rights, destroy ecosystems, and release greenhouse gases, would be brought from Quebec through a transmission corridor running through Maine, that would cut through hundreds of miles of carbon-capturing forests and the ancestral territories of indigenous communities. This corridor, commonly known as the CMP corridor or New…

Members of a new commission tasked with revisiting the state’s seal and motto and creating a new Massachusetts flag appeared to be in early agreement on at least one point at their first meeting July 1 — they’ll need more time beyond their October deadline. A resolve passed in January created the panel to investigate the state’s seal and motto, “including those features that may be unwittingly harmful to or misunderstood…

Melissa Ferretti, president and chair of the Herring Pond Wampanoag tribe, said the exercise could also help educate the public about the history and contemporary existence of tribal nations in Massachusetts. “This is an opportunity for the commonwealth and all of you here and anyone that’s paying attention to get to know some of these other communities that have been sort of removed from this narrative all these many years,”…