Bureau of Indian Affairs

A Nevada tribe received international attention at the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues over water contamination concerns.

Read or listen to the morning news headlines for Friday, April 22, 2022.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs announced reforms to its criminal justice system Monday, including more training on how to perform death investigations. That follows a Mountain West News Bureau and NPR investigation into more than a dozen deaths in tribal jails. There are also ongoing questions about the firm hired to review the deaths for BIA. Some Congressmen have been critical of the BIA’s choice because the firm was led by a former agency official.

The Interior Department ordered a review of tribal jail deaths, but the man who got the contract is a former agency official who oversaw the jails when some of the deaths occurred.

After months of repeated written questions and public records requests from NPR and the Mountain West News Bureau, Interior Department officials said they now plan to contract with an outside agency to examine the troubles plaguing tribal detention centers.

The National Congress of American Indians has urged the federal government to place medical personnel in its tribal jails, arguing that the current situation "exacerbates the already challenging problem of health disparities for American Indians."

"The corrections officers are basically holding these lives in their hands with their decisions."

Willy Pepion had a cracked skull, and guards at the federal jail on the Blackfeet Reservation dismissed his pleas for help. He died in his cell. Three hours went by until anyone noticed.

Four women from the Uintah and Ouray Indian Reservation in northeastern Utah have turned to the federal court system after they were banished by Ute...

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