Native Lives Matter

10/04/2026

🚨DEVELOPING | A Little-Known "Data Campus" Is Planned on Cheyenne River. Is AI Being Built Under the Guise of Data Sovereignty?
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Today, a Native research nonprofit and a local research and medical nonprofit are hosting a roundtable with the CRST community. The topic: bringing AI into the workplace, classroom, and research.

The local newspaper listed a water alliance as a partner. The alliance has since pulled out after learning what the event was really about.

These nonprofits collect research data and medical tests from tribal members. Now they openly talk about AI as a health and research tool. We don't know if our data is already being used this way. Tribal members should be wary and ask.

The hosts have partnered with two other Native nonprofits, one in Minnesota and one in Pine Ridge.
This isn't new. This spring, an IRA-recognized treaty council toured South Dakota tribes pushing the same message, until the public realized the carbon footprint of generative AI.

That treaty council had funders backing AI and large language models. Is this the same pitch? Are grants and funding driving quiet AI infrastructure builds on tribal lands?

The hosting nonprofit's website shows the real plan: a "Data Campus" to be built on Cheyenne River. It has a timeline. It has a blueprint. It is already fundraising. What it does not have is a disclosed location. No one has said where on our land this will go.

Who is funding it? Who approved it? Which land, and who controls it? Has the community been asked? Has the Tribal Council been briefed? These questions need answers before a single shovel hits the ground.

Companies nationwide are dropping the term "data center" because it alarms communities. The new names are "tech park," "gigasite," "hub," and "campus." The infrastructure is the same. It drains water and electricity, raises power bills for residents already paying too much, and remains largely unregulated. The harms of data centers extend to all life and have shown negative consequences for animal and plant relatives as well.

Cheyenne River can still ban AI data centers reservation-wide securing a healthy homeland for the next generations. But we must act now, before these projects are built and begin extracting from our land and water.

10/03/2026

🚨 9-YEAR-OLD INDIGENOUS BOY TARGETED IN ALLEGED RACIST ATTACK ON MONTREAL METRO DURING TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION DAY

A Kahnawà family says a woman allegedly mocked their traditional clothing and war cries before the confrontation turned physical. The boy had been wearing traditional clothing after performing a Haudenosaunee dance at an event honouring residential school children. 💔🧡

📱 His aunt, Tekahné Stacey, recorded the encounter and later shared the video online, saying the woman’s comments left her young nephew upset and crying. Stacey says the woman allegedly struck her with a bag while leaving the train, before continuing to make insults from the platform. 🚇

🙏 The family says they are choosing to move forward while supporting the boy as he heals from the experience and remains proud of his identity and culture. Follow Oh Canada Daily for more important Canadian updates. 🇨🇦❤️

09/30/2026

09/29/2026

The graves of at least 11 Indigenous girls who died while attending a federally funded Indian Boarding School in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, have been identified.

09/26/2026

In 2019, 30-year-old Kathleen Jo Henry was murdered in Anchorage, Alaska. The case broke open in an extraordinary way when a woman who had taken Brian Steven Smith’s phone from his truck discovered disturbing photos and videos showing the killing and brought the evidence to police.

Investigators identified Kathleen from the footage and recovered her body near railroad tracks. While Smith was being questioned, he also admitted killing another Alaska Native woman, Veronica Abouchuk, about a year earlier. Police said the evidence on the device, along with Smith’s confession, ultimately connected him to both murders.

In February 2024, Smith was convicted on 14 counts, including two counts of first-degree murder, assault, evidence tampering and misconduct involving a co**se. In July 2024, a judge sentenced him to 226 years in prison.

09/26/2026

❤️🖤💛🤍🧡

09/25/2026

Four Alaska Native students who died at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School are being returned home, including Tummassak, whose family connection was uncovered by a researcher studying her photograph.

Repatriations continue with the remains of four students from Alaska finally headed home after more than 100 years