Evening briefs in Indian Country

Happy International Transgender Day of Visibility! Here’s a look at what’s happening today:

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White House issues Transgender Day of Visibility proclamation

President Joe Biden issued a Transgender Day of Visibility proclamation on Wednesday to honor and celebrate the achievements and resiliency of transgender individuals and communities.

"Transgender Day of Visibility recognizes the generations of struggle, activism, and courage that have brought our country closer to full equality for transgender and gender non-binary people in the United States and around the world," the proclamation read.

Also on Wednesday, the Pentagon swept away Donald Trump-era policies that largely banned transgender people from serving in the military, issuing new rules that offer them wider access to medical care and assistance with gender transition, according to the Associated Press.

The changes come after a Pentagon review aimed at developing guidelines for the new policy, which Biden announced just days after he took office in January.

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Native woman named to North Carolina's administration secretary

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Pamela Cashwell, a veteran North Carolina state agency administrator and former federal prosecutor, was appointed on Wednesday by Gov. Roy Cooper as the Department of Administration secretary.

Cashwell, a chief deputy secretary and senior policy adviser at the Department of Public Safety, will become the first Native American woman to lead a Cabinet agency in North Carolina, Cooper’s office said.

To read more, click here.

Cleveland bans headdresses, painted faces at games

CLEVELAND (AP) — While moving forward with a plan to change their name, the Cleveland Indians said they will not permit fans inside Progressive Field wearing Native American headdresses or face paint.

The team’s new policy states fans can be ejected or denied entrance for disorderly, unruly or disruptive conduct that includes “headdresses and face paint styled in a way that references or appropriates American Indian cultures and traditions.

To read more, click here.

Indigenous-language radio show promotes vaccine effort

Radio B'alam is reaching thousands of Mayan Guatemalans in California who speak a language called Mam. The name of the show translates to Radio Jaguar.

NPR reports an estimated 18,000 Mayan Mam-speakers have found a home in the great San Francisco Bay Area, and the audio program is educating listeners about the importance of the COVID-19 vaccine.

To listen, click here.

Virtual food sovereignty panel set for Thursday

The Aspen Institute is hosting a virtual food seventy panel at 3 p.m. ET. The panel includes Indigenous chef Brian Yazzie and other food experts.

The panel will discuss the food sovereignty movement and how Native communities are challenging dominant food structures to build systems that are resilient.

For details and to register, click here.

From social media:

The latest:

• UK variant of COVID detected on Navajo Nation: A case of the United Kingdom variant of COVID-19 was confirmed in a sample obtained on the Navajo Nation.
• Indigenous youth rally against pipelines in DC: Beginning with a run at 10:00 a.m. local time from the National Museum of the American Indian, youth will travel to the Army Corps of Engineers headquarters for a rally at 11:00 a.m.
• Tribe ends coronavirus checkpoints: The Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe established the checkpoints in 2020 to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
• What Indigenous food sovereignty means during COVID-19: Food sovereignty has been important to tribal communities, but the pandemic amplified the need for it.
• Watch: Thomas Shortbull is on Indian Country Today's newscast to talk about Oglala Lakota College's 50th anniversary.

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