Green & indigenous News

SANTA CRUZ, GALÁPAGOS ISLANDS, Ecuador — “Good morning,” Walter Borbor, a social media-famous fisher, says to his followers in a 2022 Instagram video. “What we have here is a plantado.” He points to a large black floating device with a trailing rope that’s wrapped around the tail of a decomposing whale — right in the middle of the Galápagos Marine Reserve. Plantado is the local name for a fish aggregating device (FAD), a tool industrial tuna fleets commonly deploy to attract numerous tuna they can scoop up all at once. Modern drifting FADs have been used since the 1980s to improve fishing efficiency. Over the past 25 years, they’ve become the primary tuna fishing method, according to a May study in the journal Science. Meanwhile, Ecuador’s tuna fleet grew by roughly half over the same period. Both factors have contributed to more and more abandoned FADs drifting into the Galapagos Marine Reserve from international fleets, sources told Mongabay. Abandoned FADs pose numerous problems. They shed plastic as they break down, damage coral reefs and collide with artisanal fishing boats. Inti Keith, a researcher with the Charles Darwin Foundation, a Galápagos-based science and conservation group, said scientists routinely find sharks, turtles, sea lions, seabirds and other wildlife entangled in the netting — or worse, dead. Now, Galápagos agencies and organizations are banding together to better track and collect these devices. But the root of the issue — their deployment outside the marine reserve — remains a challenge. Yellowtail surgeonfish (Prionurus punctatus)…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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The charismatic, robust, and impressive North American mountain sheep is losing its habitat to industrial mining, the changing climate, and human activity. And unless action is taken to protect this popular and inherently American species, it could face extinction.

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Aniak students brace for the collapse of their high school gym, and Bering Air faces a lawsuit over a deadly crash in Unalakleet.

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As soon as you drive over the top of the Peak District and down into Sheffield you can see the light pollution—and it's horrible, said a participant in a research project into darkness and light pollution.

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When we think about birds, we often picture their colorful plumage: the iridescence of a peacock's tail or the electric blue flash of a kingfisher. Or we might consider how they use voices, from the song of the nightingale to the coo of a dove or the shriek of a jay.

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Large blooms of seaweed are increasingly being reported along coastlines globally, from Europe and Asia to the tropics and beyond.

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After major disasters, public debate often treats them as unexpected or unprecedented. This reaction is not necessarily about the absence of warnings. It reflects how societies process shock—and how authorities often explain disruption as unavoidable, rather than the result of earlier choices.

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As glaciers around the world continue to shrink and disappear, they are drawing more visitors than ever, not only for their beauty but for what they have come to represent in an era of climate change. A new study co-authored by Rice University anthropologist Cymene Howe examines this phenomenon, showing how melting glaciers have become powerful destinations for tourism, sites of collective grief and symbols of political meaning even as their loss threatens the communities that depend on them.

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A study by researchers at King's College London and the University of Oslo found that resistance to green levies in the countryside is driven not just by the financial cost, but by a sense of unequal treatment at the hands of government.

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Sydney communities may be missing out on crucial tree planting projects intended to combat urban heat, leaving western and eastern parts of Greater Sydney with less protection from extreme heat, a University of Sydney-led study has revealed. In a surprising finding, the researchers found that while Greater Sydney's total tree canopy increased by 4.2% from 1.514 billion square meters to 1.578 billion square meters between 2016 and 2022, this growth was not evenly distributed.

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Emotions were running high when Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva announced the formal recognition of several Indigenous territories at COP30, the U.N. climate conference held in the Amazonian city of Belém. For Indigenous peoples in one of those territories — the 22,000-square-kilometer (8,500-square-mile) Kaxuyana-Tunayana Territory — it was a landmark moment in a decades-long struggle for recognition and self-determination. One of the organizations supporting this work behind the scenes, the Podáali Fund, is at the forefront of a shift in philanthropy: the rise of Indigenous-led funds. The mainstream philanthropic sector can be financially conservative by nature. Philanthropic foundations are generally established to exist “in perpetuity” and investment strategies tend to be risk-averse; only a small proportion of the available wealth is distributed each year through grants. Foundation grants are often short-term, administration-heavy and restricted to the funder’s priorities, with decisions made far away from the people and places they are supporting. However, there is growing momentum around trust-based philanthropy and dedicated funds led by the rights-holders and movements they are serving, including women, youth and Indigenous peoples. Indigenous-led funds are created, governed and managed by Indigenous peoples and rooted in their worldviews and values such as respect, reciprocity and trust. The Podáali Fund, the Indigenous fund for the Brazilian Amazon, is one such example. Indigenous leaders invested more than 10 years in discussions and preparations before the Coordination of Indigenous Organizations of the Brazilian Amazon (COIAB) formally established it in 2020. One of their goals is to enable…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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Pet owners want quick answers when their beloved cat or dog is sick. And if these furry friends are experiencing digestive distress, lethargy and fever, it's important to rapidly rule out serious illnesses like feline panleukopenia (also called feline parvovirus) and canine parvovirus. Now, researchers report improved lateral flow assays for at-home screening. In tests on veterinary clinic samples, the assays demonstrated 100% sensitivity and reproducibility for both parvoviruses.

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Most shark fossils are just teeth—their cartilage skeletons usually decay long before they can fossilize. But in northwestern Arkansas, a series of geological sites known as the Fayetteville Shale has preserved dozens of rare, three-dimensional shark skeletons dating back more than 300 million years. In a new study published in Geobios, researchers reveal why: These fossils formed on a low-oxygen, highly acidic seafloor that preserved cartilage instead of destroying it.

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Under cover of night, a black-footed cat moves almost invisibly through the grasses of southern Namibia, hunting small rodents, birds and insects. Barely a third the size of a domestic cat, its tawny coat speckled with dark spots helps it disappear into the darkened landscape. By day, the cat disappears underground, folding its small body into abandoned burrows and tunnels — a rare behavior among felines. Female Felis nigripes patrol territories covering anywhere from 10 to more than 80 square kilometers (4-31 square miles), depending on prey availability, while males roam areas between 15 and 90 km² (6 and 35 mi2). Their energy and activity, despite their small size, continue to surprise researchers. Alexander Sliwa, project leader for the Black-footed Cat Working Group, an international network monitoring wild populations, notes, “It’s really small, but very active and unique in its nocturnal behavior.” Newly published research, focused on the cats’ daytime activity, has uncovered their heavy reliance on burrows dug by springhares (Pedetes capensis), a large rodent, to raise their young. Female black-footed cats rotate among multiple dens, and once the kittens start moving, the mothers change shelters almost daily, likely to reduce predation risk and avoid leaving traces that predators could follow. Survival in this harsh, semiarid landscape depends not just on stealth and hunting skill, but also on these hidden interdependencies. Black-footed cats range extends across semi-arid landscapes in Namibia, Botswana and South Africa. Image courtesy of Hal Brindley. Surviving in borrowed burrows Famously more efficient hunters than lions…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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Charles Fox
Special to ICT

PHILADELPHIA — Jeremy Johnson delivered a short but gracious speech to the hundreds of people gathered at the Penn Museum’s Harrison Auditorium, but he felt a void, a need to collectively honor and bless the reason they were there.

The honor song that followed —  in an Indigenous language rarely heard in Philadelphia — called out in the Lenape language to the spirit that had once enveloped the mid-Atlantic homelands and the past generations that preceded him.

It was an impromptu decision, a song that flowed from his heart and matched the emotions of the day, a reclamation of the land, filled with pride and defiance. But it also signaled there was something different about the museum exhibit they were about to unveil.

For not only were Native Americans part of the opening celebration at the Penn Museum, but Johnson and seven other Native consulting curators contributed beyond the auditorium walls to shape an exhibit depicting Native people in the present day.

“I had a sense of humility because the reason I was standing there was because of the resilience and strength of my grandmas and grandpas, and to be even able to sing that song was because of what they had done,” Johnson, the cultural education director for the Delaware Tribe of Indians, also known as Lenape,  told ICT later.

“It was meant to honor what was going on there [at the museum] and the people there,” he said, “but it was really a recognition of those who came before me, who have set this path up and allowed us to keep continuing these ways.”

He was joined by other Native speakers, including three other consulting curators and contributing artists, as well as Tewa Dancers from the North, in November to initiate a weekend of activities for the opening of the Penn Museum’s new exhibit, “Native North America Gallery: Rooted in Resilience, Resisting Erasure.”

Given that Native Americans and museums have always had an uneasy relationship, it was unusual not only for the celebratory atmosphere but also for the Native participation.

The Tewa Dancers from the North from the Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo (formerly San Juan Pueblo) in northern New Mexico performed at an opening day of a new exhibit, “Native North America Gallery: Rooted in Resilience, Resisting Erasure,” on Nov. 22, 2025, at the Penn Museum in Philadelphia. Credit: Charles Fox/Special to ICT

But this exhibit is different. The new gallery is planned to be up for the next 10 years and follows the success of the museum’s previous exhibition, “Native American Voices: The People Here and Now.”

The museum and its curators hope the gallery will broaden the historical narrative that is presented in Philadelphia during the semiquincentennial celebration of the United States, and serve as a model for other museums struggling to incorporate Native voices in their corridors.

“We hope that some folks will come up here to the Penn Museum to check out the exhibit, maybe it will help put some context into what they’re celebrating as far as the 250th goes,” said Dr. Joseph Aguilar, a tribal historic preservation office board member for the San Ildefonso Pueblo and one of the consulting curators.

“Maybe it will give them some perspective like, ‘Hey, there’s this other history that also needs to be celebrated and acknowledged.’”

Ushering in the future

Native Americans rarely have gotten a say in what manner they were depicted in museums, especially in a state they were forced to leave in the 18th century. Museums often portray Indigenous people as primitive, defeated curiosities of the past rather than as a present-day populace with a rich cultural tradition.

The past actions of museums have been clouded by the unauthorized expropriation and display of sacred objects and human remains.

Barry King, Powhatan Renape Nation, visits the new exhibit, “Native North America Gallery: Rooted in Resilience Resisting Erasure,” at the Penn Museum on opening day on Nov. 22, 2025 in Philadelphia. King, who once worked as an educator at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, was particularly interested in seeing the Delaware (Lenape) portions of the exhibit. The background images are of tribal homelands. Credit: Charles Fox/Special to ICT

The Penn Museum at the University of Pennsylvania has tried to distance itself from the past practices of museums with the new exhibit, which opened Nov. 22, 2025. It coincides with the upcoming 250th birthday of the United States in July as all Philadelphia museums and cultural institutions are gearing up for the expected influx of visitors for this year’s celebration.

The museum, a Philadelphia archaeology and anthropology institution founded in 1887, has been ahead of other museums with its recent practices. While other museums have pulled exhibits and closed galleries to comply with a change in regulations under the federal Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, known as NAGPRA, the Penn Museum has taken a different approach.

For the current exhibit, the museum tapped the eight Native consulting curators from different tribes to create a gallery that emphasizes the Native people and cultures that have thrived across the United States despite a historic agenda to erase their culture and language.

In addition to Johnson and Aguilar, the other consulting curators are RaeLyn Butler, secretary of culture and humanities, Muscogee (Creek) Nation; Beau Carroll, lead archaeologist, Tribal Historic Preservation Office, Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians; Christopher Lewis, cultural specialist, Zuni Pueblo; Mary Weahkee, archaeologist, Santa Clara Pueblo; Dr. Nadia Sethi Alutiiq, art historian and museum consultant, Homer, Alaska; Darlene See, cultural heritage director, Huna Indian Association, Tribal House Management Kaach.adi Clan Tlingit.

The curators were able to shape the exhibit by helping determine its focus, what display items were appropriate, and ensure that Native people were depicted in the present day.

The exhibit hopes to “tell the past while ushering in the future,” Jill DiSanto, the museum’s public relations director, told ICT..

It marked a first for Johnson.

“Most of the work with museums in the past has been extractive of our cultural knowledge, or at worst, simply exploitative of our knowledge and our items,” Johnson said. “This is the first we collaborated on … to really get our story out there. Not just the historical presence, the pre-contact that is usually focused on in exhibits, but to really use the items here to tell the story of the people and to show that we are a living, thriving community still to this day.”

RaeLynn Butler, another of the Indigenous consulting curators and secretary of culture and humanities for Muscogee (Creek) Nation, agrees.

RaeLynn Butler, secretary of culture and humanities for the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, stands by the exhibit she helped curate for the Penn Museum, “Native North America Gallery: Rooted in Resilience, Resisting Erasure,” which opened Nov. 22, 2025. She was one of eight Indigenous consulting curators who helped shape the exhibit. Credit: Charles Fox/Special to ICT

“There’s been too much emphasis on objects and not enough on the culture and people,” Butler told ICT. “The difference here is to bring the ancient up to modern times. We want people to know there are 574 tribes in the United States…and that we are still here today. I think that’s always the message. and I think that this exhibit is a perfect example of including tribal nations in the telling of the history of these items and personal belongings.”

She noted in an earlier press conference, “We’re living, grieving, strong cultures, and that’s what is so exciting about these exhibits, to see people’s faces and to hear their voices and the language. That helps people when they walk away to understand these are living communities of people and that’s an important message.”

NAGPRA changes

The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act was passed by Congress in 1990 to establish protocols for the return of human remains and other objects to their specific tribes.

In January 2024, the federal regulations were strengthened with new rules requiring museums and government agencies to obtain permission from Native American tribes and Native Hawaiian organizations before displaying sacred and funerary objects.

ICT REPORTS: NAGPRA crackdown sends museums reeling

“Among the updates we are implementing are critical steps to strengthen the authority and role of Indigenous communities in the repatriation process,” then-Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, Laguna Pueblo, said at the time. “Finalizing these changes is an important part of laying the groundwork for the healing of our people.”

The changes left some museums scrambling to comply. The Field Museum in Chicago and Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard University were forced to remove objects or cover displays, while the American Museum of Natural History in New York City closed its Eastern Woodlands and Great Plains Halls.

The Penn Museum had anticipated the new NAGPRA regulations, however, and had been acting accordingly before planning the new exhibit, officials said.

“I think many of those displays were really old and outdated, so they may have included items such as funerary objects or sensitive items that today tribes would not agree or want to have on display,” said Dr. Lucy Fowler Williams, the Penn Museum’s co-curator of the Native North American Gallery and associate curator-in-charge. “We were already tuned into what is sensitive for tribes and what would be appropriate to show… It’s not to say we’ve got it all perfect or anything, but we’ve just been working in this mode for a long time.”

An empty case at the entrance to a new exhibit at the Penn Museum in Philadelphia represents artifacts and other items that have been repatriated back to tribes or deemed inappropriate to display. . The museum brought in eight Native consulting curators to help develop the latest exhibit, “Native North America Gallery: Rooted in Resilience, Resisting Erasure,” which opened Nov. 22, 2025. Credit: Charles Fox/Special to ICT

The Native co-curators worked with the Penn Museum to decide which items were appropriate for display and which were not for public viewing. An empty case at the start of the gallery symbolically represents those items in the museum’s collection that were deemed to have been obtained inappropriately or were considered inappropriate for display. Many of those items have been repatriated back to their tribes.

“The inclusion of an empty display case is a deliberate intervention — not an act of censorship,” Aguilar said in a museum press release.

“It serves as a thoughtful prompt for visitors to reflect on the fraught relationship between museums and Indigenous communities,” he said. “In its absence, the object becomes an act of Indigenous sovereignty.”

Lucy Fowler Williams, left, associate curator and senior keeper of American collections at the Penn Museum in Philadelphia, stands with Megan Kassabaum, Penn Anthropology professor and co-curator, at a new exhibit, “Native North America Gallery: Rooted in Resilience, Resisting Erasure,” which opened Nov. 22, 2025. Credit: Charles Fox/Special to ICT

Williams said the collaboration built positive relationships between the museum and tribes.

“I think that what is so important about the NAGPRA law is, they [ tribes] do have a great and a vested interest in the materials that we house,” Williams said. “And they have the right now to reclaim some of those items through repatriation. But this also sets up building positive relationships and moving forward together, to work together to find common ground and work together on projects that we both know are important to help regain those histories that the museum is interested in, and the communities are even more interested in.

“It’s taken us a long time to figure out that you can do it better together.”

‘More than fluff’

The gallery, which features approximately 260 historic and contemporary items, is arranged to represent the four corners of the country: the Delaware (Lenape) in the Northeast, the Eastern Band of Cherokee and Muscogee (Creek) in the Southeast, the Pueblo in the Southwest, and the Tlingit and Alutiiq people of Alaska in the Northwest.

Quay Hosey, Delaware (Lenape), stands beside a tàkhwèmpës (blouse), hémpsi tëpèthun (wrap-around skirt) and kaduna (leggings) she created specifically for a new exhibit at the Penn Museum in Philadelphia. She incorporates the traditional elements of her ancestors with the styles inspired by neighboring tribes after they were forcibly moved west.The exhibit, “Native North America Gallery: Rooted in Resilience, Resisting Erasure,” opened Nov. 22, 2025, with the help of eight Native consulting curators and contributing artists. Credit: Charles Fox/Special to ICT

The exhibit includes a floral beadwork collar from the Lenape; a Tlingit Naaxein (Chilkay blanket) ceremonial robe; a contemporary glass sculpture, “Emerging from Raven,” by Tlingit artist Preston Singletary; a San Juan Pueblo robe created by Ramoncita Sandoval in 2001; Cherokee stickball equipment and rag dolls, and a pot ring and ring basket woven from yucca grass by Native consulting curator Christopher Lewis, a cultural specialist with the Zuni Pueblo. Lewis studied ancient baskets, textiles, wood, and feather work in the Penn Museum and other museums to create modern items using ancient techniques.

The words of Delaware artist Holly Wilson that accompany her sculpture, “I’m More than Fluff,” summarize the objective of the exhibit.

Delaware (Lenape) artist Holly Wilson’s sculpture, “I’m More than Fluff,” is among the items on display at a new exhibit at the Penn Museum in Philadelphia. The exhibit, “Native North America Gallery: Rooted in Resilience, Resisting Erasure,” opened Nov. 22, 2025. Credit: Charles Fox/Special to ICT

“I am more than the view that my people are frozen in time, lost to a romanticized ideal of who Native Americans were, we are more, and we are still here,” according to an informational sign posted at the exhibit. “I am not this fluff: I am here: I am loud and larger than life.”

Focusing on the stories of the people first, Wilson told ICT, “tells a different story and looks at things in a different way.”

“So much of the time it’s the history of the objects and there’s nothing connecting them to the people,” she said. “So, it’s been very emotional and powerful.”

In addition to historic items and works commissioned by contemporary artists, the gallery also features interactive stations focusing on language, stories and artistic techniques, with displays about traditions, cultural items, and the hardships caused by European contact.

Oklahoma road trip

In July, four members of the Penn Museum staff, including Williams and Penn Anthropology professor Dr. Megan Kassabaum, co-curator of the exhibit, traveled to Oklahoma to spend three days with members of the Delaware Tribe.

They brought with them four items: a floral Lenape beaded collar, a woman’s traditional red blouse, a dance staff, and an ancestral stone atlatl weight, which is a decorative stone used as a counterweight on a spear.

This floral beadwork collar from the Lenape, circa 1850-1900, is among more than 250 cultural items on display in a new exhibit at the Penn Museum in Philadelphia from eight tribes across the country. The exhibit, “Native North America Gallery: Rooted in Resilience, Resisting Erasure,” opened Nov. 22, 2025. Credit: Charles Fox/Special to ICT

“We made two presentations to the tribal community members, during which time they were all invited to look closely, study, and handle the items made by their ancestors,” Williams said. “From my perspective, it was incredibly moving and important for them to see these items and to see us making the effort to go there to meet them. We hope to do more of this kind of work to try to create opportunities that strengthen the communities and the next generation, and to continue to build meaningful relationships with tribes when possible.”

Johnson, the Delaware Tribe’s cultural education director, said the items connected the past and present.

“People got to experience it and touch it and examine it, so it really went against a lot of the curatorial practices,” Johnson said. “In the two hours that we were able to spend with this beaded collar, we learned more in that time than anyone else has learned with it being behind glass for the last 100 years.”

Johnson continued, “These items have a life, and they aren’t meant to just be stuck in time. They’re really meant to be cared for and utilized within our culture and traditions and community. And we’re trying to change the way people view these things. Sometimes, it actually goes in direct opposition to museum conservation principles and in the ways that they should be cared for. Oftentimes, things need to be handled in order to take care of them, to preserve them.”

“They’re not artifacts. They’re living items that have a life and have eons of knowledge contained within them.”

Moving forward together

There is a hope that the manner in which the Penn Museum gallery was created will be a guiding model in the future for other institutions.

“Places like the Penn Museum, they’re moving forward together in a good way.. there’s a healing that has to go on in the relationships and we’re starting that process and hopefully continue that process,” said Johnson.

“It’s a good feeling to try and heal from the harms that have been done to our Native communities by the whole museum culture and the way they operate,” he said. “ It felt good to be able to contribute in a positive way in which we were able to express ourselves in the ways that we wanted, and also to be able to consult and collaborate on the items that were used and which shouldn’t be used…There’s a sense we’re getting our voice, but there’s still a lot of work to do.”

Williams said Native involvement has been key to the success.

“I have always worked in this mode [of collaboration] and I think it’s so much better,” Williams said. “It only makes sense to me. They [Native people] speak from the place, and from the history and the knowledge and from the heart with such an authenticity that they can bring to the items and to the histories.”

Streets of Philadelphia

Unlike the other Indigenous consulting curators, a trip to Philadelphia for Johnson involved returning to Lenapehokink, the Lenape homeland, which includes eastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey, the lower Hudson Valley of New York and New York Bay, and eastern Delaware, and the conflicting emotions that it provoked.

There was the gratification of shaping and influencing an exhibit, but it was tempered by the negative history of the past and feeling isolated in what was the traditional homeland and the subsequent diaspora of his people.

William Penn’s friendship, for example, with Chief Tamanend (also spelled Tammany) and the Lenape people is often romanticized in words and in the paintings of Benjamin West and Edward Hicks, both depicting the 1683 Treaty between them in the Lenape village of Shackamaxon.

Penn’s so-called Holy Experiment soon unraveled for Indigenous people, however. After Penn’s death, his sons and other officials devised a land-grab scheme known as the Walking Purchase in 1737 to dispossess the Lenape of their homelands in eastern Pennsylvania.

During the 18th and 19th centuries, the Lenape were removed to Ohio, Indiana, Missouri, Kansas, Arkansas, Texas, and eventually Oklahoma. Fifteen treaties were signed with the United States and fifteen were broken. Despite living in their homelands for 16,000 years, Pennsylvania remains the only state in Lenapehokink that never recognized its Indigenous peoples. Even the Lenape name was replaced by the commonly used European name of Delaware.

“It is complicated because the Lenape people were the first Indigenous nation to sign a treaty with the United States in 1778, (the Treaty of Fort Pitt which promised them the potential of becoming a 14th state), and it’s the first treaty broken six months later,” said Johnson. “And so, we fought on the side of the early United States, and we later fought against the United States because of these broken promises.”

Jeremy Johnson, the cultural education director of the Delaware Tribe of Indians (also known as Lenape), stands amid the displays at a new exhibit at the Penn Museum in Philadelphia.The exhibit, “Native North America Gallery: Rooted in Resilience, Resisting Erasure” opened on Nov. 22, 2025. Credit: Charles Fox/Special to ICT

Walking the streets of Philadelphia, a city with a limited Native population, is awkward for Johnson. The congested infrastructure and the degraded natural environment of the urban landscape obstruct any connection with the Lenape homeland from centuries ago.

Despite their development, only waterways, such as the Delaware and Schuylkill Rivers, offer some feeling of tranquility.  After centuries of dispossession and a relocation to an area without large rivers in Oklahoma, there is the opportunity for these “water people” to reconnect to the tributaries of their homeland.

Otherwise, there is little Lenape representation. Only a small statue of Penn commemorates the 1683 treaty site in Penn Treaty Park along the Delaware River.  A few blocks south, sandwiched between a bus stop turnaround and an entrance ramp to Interstate 95, a 20-foot statue of Chief Tamanend hovers as the highway traffic speeds by below. A proposal to relocate it for the semiquincentennial to a new area that was deemed a more positive location was opposed by tribal leaders, including Johnson, who saw it as another form of forced removal. The move was shelved.

The statue plaque states Tamanend was considered “the patron saint of America by colonists prior to American independence,” but the celebration of Tammany Day on May 1 disappeared with colonial times.

Despite the efforts of the Penn Museum gallery to usher the Native culture into the present, their absence in the city once again relegates them into a civilization of the past.

“I love going and visiting Philadelphia… but it’s really hard to find a true connection,” said Johnson, who feels the attachments are the strongest in the natural state and solitude along northern sections of the Delaware River far from Philadelphia.

“There’s not a whole lot of representation of Lenape that’s in our homelands that highlights our voices, our ideas, how we think, and what we do, and what we feel is present to share with people,” he said.

The absence, however, has made the Penn Museum exhibit and the method with which it was created even more meaningful for him.

“To be able to exhibit in this way in Pennsylvania and our homelands that had not been historically kind to us in many ways is empowering,” Johnson said. “To have that opportunity to reclaim some of the spaces in our homeland and to have our tribal citizens involved in that process, to give them voice in a place where we were forcibly removed from, I’m incredibly proud of that. We were not only able to empower our tribal citizens to tell their own stories, but also to reconnect with the lands of their grandmas and grandpas.”

“I think [the museum gallery] really built more pride in being able to say, ‘I’m Lenape,’ and to be able to acknowledge, yes, my ancestors went through massive hardships and challenges, but to be able to say, “I’m Lenape and still have these ways’ …

“It makes me eager to say, ‘Hey, we survived this, we’re still around, we’re actually thriving now,’ and that should be something that we’re proud of.”

The post ‘Exhibiting Resilience’: Tribal consultation brings modern vision to new museum gallery appeared first on ICT.

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Michigan researchers have gone back in time to get a picture of how ice cover on the Great Lakes has evolved since the late 19th century.

Using historical temperature records from weather stations around the region, researchers improved their understanding of where ice might have formed and for how long it lasted — spanning the last 120 years.

Their findings were published in the journal Scientific Data last month. Researchers said this new data record would deepen understanding of how climate change has impacted the region over time and clarify what life under ice looks like for declining iconic species such as lake whitefish. The new data could also help improve ice cover forecasting in winter, making it safer for recreation and for people who go out on the ice.

“Lake ice is really part of the system, part of our life. It matters [for] our culture, regional weather, safety, everything,” said Ayumi Fujisaki-Manome, one of the study’s co-authors and associate director for the Cooperative Institute for Great Lakes Research at the University of Michigan.

There’s a “pretty good satellite record” of Great Lakes ice cover from the last 45 years, she said. But research into the region’s historical climate requires a longer timescale, and there isn’t good data specific to ice.

According to researchers, there’s a general gap in scientific knowledge about winter on the Great Lakes — data buoys get pulled out because of harsh conditions. There are good historic weather observations, though. And air temperature is a good proxy for ice cover on the lakes because ice typically forms when there’s been several cold days in a row.

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To peer into the past, researchers looked at temperature records from weather stations all around the Great Lakes, limiting their study to stations with the most consistent data since 1897.

They calculated ice cover using this information, and the end result was a dataset that can be compared to present-day conditions. Researchers said it can inform future research on how animals behave during the winter, for example.

“A lot of the biological conditions under ice are really poorly understood,” said Katelyn King, a fisheries research biologist for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and the study’s lead author. King is using the dataset to study the historic decline of whitefish in the Great Lakes, a regional species that’s important culturally and economically.

King said this dataset is a helpful baseline as the region continues to shift under climate change. Research shows that average temperatures in the region have increased in the last two decades, frost seasons are shortening, and heavy snow and rainstorms are becoming more frequent.

Still, year-to-year variability is the new normal. Ice cover on the Great Lakes was relatively close to average last winter, but followed historic lows the season prior.

So far this winter, cold temperatures in recent weeks have contributed to some of the highest ice cover on the Great Lakes in years, according to data tracked by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

“These really extreme years where we have really cold weather or really warm weather is just a sign that long-term climate is changing,” King said. “It really affects all of us in our day-to-day.”

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline What over a century of ice data can tell us about the Great Lakes’ future on Feb 9, 2026.

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• Three Haitian workers are suing the meatpacking giant JBS for discrimination, on behalf of hundreds of Haitians who worked alongside them, adding to a number of food worker cases now in the courts.
• In January, a federal court in Michigan ruled to move forward a human trafficking lawsuit brought by Mexican farmworkers who came to the U.S. through the H-2A program. That case followed another in Michigan in 2025, where a jury awarded six Guatemalan farmworkers more than half a million dollars for abuses they suffered within the H-2A program.
• Worker rights advocates say some immigrants are now looking toward the courts, rather than federal channels, like the Occupational Safety and Health Administration or agency offices dedicated to civil rights and liberties.

In 2023 Carlos Saint Aubin, an immigrant from Haiti who was living in Maryland, came across a TikTok video urging him to travel to Greeley, Colorado, to work in a meatpacking plant.

The man in the video spoke Saint Aubin’s native language, Haitian Creole, and said you didn’t need to speak English to work in JBS’s Swift Beef Co. packing plant, where wages were high. He suggested that upon arrival, your housing and other needs would be taken care of. Convinced, Saint Aubin traveled across the country and landed at the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, to start a new job.

However, according to a lawsuit filed in December, for Saint Aubin and two other Haitian men, the job was not as advertised.

Saint Aubin, Nesly Pierre, and Louise Jean-Louis say they were crammed into freezing motel rooms that offered one bed and one bathroom for up to 11 strangers. They allege they were charged for lodging and for transportation to their jobs at the beef plant. And, they claim, they were poorly trained, in two languages they did not understand, which they say left them inadequately prepared for what they describe as grueling, dangerous tasks that eventually led to injuries.

“This lawsuit is about a vulnerable group of Haitian immigrants who were recruited in order for JBS to have a class of people who would be working without fully knowing their rights.”

Because their treatment was distinct from what workers at the plant from other racial and ethnic groups experienced, they allege, they’re suing JBS for discrimination, on behalf of hundreds of Haitians who worked alongside them.

“This lawsuit is about a vulnerable group of Haitian immigrants who were recruited in order for JBS to have a class of people who would be working without fully knowing their rights,” said Amal Bouhabib, a senior staff attorney at FarmSTAND, a legal advocacy organization taking on industrial animal agriculture, where she is representing the three workers. “JBS was doing that to increase its bottom line, to churn out more meat at more dangerous speeds at the expense of these workers’ health and safety.”

In response to a request for an interview, JBS spokesperson Hailey Fishel sent Civil Eats an emailed statement that said the company strongly disagrees with the claims in the suit.

“At JBS, treating our employees with dignity and respect is a core value of our company, regardless of nationality or background,” she said. “We follow all employment and labor laws and take our responsibilities to our workforce seriously. Our employees choose to work with us, understand the terms of their employment, and are free to leave at any time.”

The December suit, filed by immigrant food workers against the world’s biggest meatpacker, comes as the Trump administration’s aggressive campaign to rid the country of both undocumented and legally authorized immigrants has pushed many workers further into the shadows.

And despite the fear pervading communities, this is not the only case.

“It’s incredible that we have people who wanted to come forward, because there are no guarantees right now.”

In early January, a federal court in Michigan ruled a human trafficking lawsuit brought by Mexican farmworkers who came to the U.S. through the H-2A program could move forward. That case followed another in the same state last year, in which a jury awarded six Guatemalan farmworkers more than half a million dollars as compensation for abuses they suffered within the H-2A program.

Bouhabib said that while her immigrant clients have long feared speaking up, the stakes at this moment have never been higher, as even workers with legal authorization to work in the U.S. are unsure whether their status will be recognized or honored.

“It’s incredible that we have people who wanted to come forward, because there are no guarantees right now,” she said. “I think the named plaintiffs are being incredibly brave to have their names out there, but that’s how strongly they feel about their experiences.

Allegations of Abuse

According to the lawsuit, JBS began recruiting Haitians in late 2023, and some 1,200 eventually made their way to Greeley to claim the jobs. At the peak of the recruitment, more than 100 Haitian workers were staying at the 17-room motel. After it became too crowded, Saint Aubin and about 40 other workers were moved into a 5-bedroom house, which lacked furniture. They bought blankets to sleep on the floor.

The workers say they paid their own way to Colorado and were charged recruitment fees. Then, they allege, they were charged for housing at the hotel and at the house and for rides to work. When he first arrived, Saint Aubin didn’t eat for two days because he had no money for food.

The workers brought their concerns about the housing situation to the union that represents workers at the Swift Beef plant, UFCW Local 7. Subsequently, the suit says, JBS launched an investigation that led to two supervisors getting fired. But the situation didn’t change.

According to the suit, Saint Aubin, Pierre, and Jean-Louis were asked at the plant to sign employment paperwork written in English, which they did not understand. They were trained in English or Spanish, which they also didn’t understand, before being put to work on the beef processing lines.

Most Haitian workers were assigned to one of the plant’s two line shifts, and the lawsuit alleges that soon after they arrived, JBS increased the line speed only on the shift that was majority Haitian. During the shift staffed primarily by non-Haitian workers, the line speed averaged 300 cattle per hour; during the shift staffed by Haitians, it averaged 370 and reached as high as 440.

Most Haitian workers were assigned to one of the plant’s two line shifts, and the lawsuit alleges that soon after they arrived, JBS increased the line speed only on the shift that was majority Haitian.

Faster work speeds on meatpacking lines are associated with higher risk of injury. The suit alleges that the repetitive work at those speeds—pulling intestines from carcasses and trimming fat—sometimes left Pierre and Jean-Louis unable to close their fingers long after a shift.

After Saint Aubin was injured during one of his shifts, according to the suit, he returned from a hospital visit and was told, in Spanish, that he had to take eight weeks of unpaid leave. If the human resources representative did inform him of his ability to access workers’ compensation, he wasn’t aware, because he doesn’t understand the language.

Based on these and other patterns, the workers are suing JBS for discrimination and for wage violations, alleging that the fees they were forced to pay for recruitment, transportation, and housing resulted in pay that was below what is required by law.

At the end of January, JBS filed a motion to dismiss the case and a motion to strike, which asks the court to remove several parts of the complaint from the record, including sections on the overall dangers of meatpacking work and the company’s past recruitment efforts.

In the Michigan farmworker case, two Mexican immigrants are suing First Pick Farms for human trafficking and violations of the Agricultural Worker Protection Act. Despite their differences, the cases each underscore the systemic issues immigrant workers often face on farms and in food processing.

According to their legal complaint, Feliciano Velasco Rojas and Luis Guzman Rojas left Mexico in 2017 to work on a North Carolina farm. Because they were admitted to the U.S. under the H-2A guest worker program, they were promised specific wages and guaranteed housing.

However, after working on the farm for a few weeks, they allege a man named Antonio Sanchez showed up and told them and 28 other workers they would be taken to a different farm in Michigan to work there. They allege that they were forced to board buses, were photographed, and were given false identities, and told that if they complained, immigration authorities would be called.

When they arrived in Michigan, the 30 workers were placed in a three-bedroom, one-bathroom house with no beds, according to the complaint, and they were allegedly forced to work long hours every day, often without breaks.

First Pick Farms’ attorney did not respond to requests for comment on the case. In a January legal filing, the farm denies nearly all the allegations and says it denies it ever employed the workers.

“These kind of brutal conditions were ongoing throughout the entirety of the blueberry season,” said Gonzalo Peralta, an attorney with the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center who is representing the workers. Workers at First Pick Farms initially called the center’s hotline to ask for help, Peralta said, and in addition to the other allegations, they said they hadn’t been informed of their rights under the law.

“This is a more extreme case than some others, but in no way is it an exception,” said Abigail Kerfoot, another attorney on the case and the deputy legal director for Centro de los Derechos del Migrante (CDM). “Fraud in general is incredibly common in the temporary work visa programs, including H-2A. Workers are often promised a particular job and a particular set of working conditions and then when they arrive to work in the U.S. through this program, they find that the job that they were promised doesn’t exist.”

“This is a more extreme case than some others, but in no way is it an exception.”

While there are plenty of farmers who use the H-2A program, follow the rules, and treat workers well, CDM has found that abuses including labor trafficking, discrimination, and wage violations happen at high rates because the program is structured in a way that gives workers little to no agency.

First Pick also denies it had any relationship with a recruiter in the suit, as an “employee or agent.”

But companies often rely on such recruiters, including those like the man who made the TikTok video that led to Pierre, Jean-Louis, and Saint Aubin’s employment at JBS, Peralta said, and then distance themselves from abuses that occur.

“They don’t want to be seen as the employer, so they outsource the employment status to staffing agencies, recruitment firms, that kind of thing, so that they can say, ‘Well, that company or person did all the employment violations,’” Peralta said.

However, the law is clear in that especially when it comes to human trafficking, the companies are responsible, Kerfoot said.

In September 2024, UFCW Local 7, the union that represents workers at JBS’s Swift Beef plant in Greeley, put out a statement detailing “potential illegal tactics and labor human trafficking violations” its union representatives uncovered at the plant, specifically related to the plant’s treatment of the growing population of Haitian workers.

Many of the abuses alleged in the statement mirror the claims now included in the lawsuit, including the fact that the company sped up the line to dangerous speeds after the workers arrived.

“What has happened to these workers, who came to our country legally in search of a better life for themselves and their families, is completely unacceptable,” union president Kim Cordova said in the statement. “We call on all relevant law enforcement and regulatory agencies to conduct a thorough investigation into the treatment of our members, and we will continue to do everything we can to bring full accountability.”

Winning in Court—and Beyond

Advocates say some immigrants will now rely more on courts, as they turn away from reporting workplaces abuses or seeking recourse through federal channels, like the Occupational Safety and Health Administration or agency offices dedicated to civil rights and liberties.

“This government has turned every arm of its federal agencies into an enforcement machine,” said Efrén Olivares, VP of litigation and legal strategy at the National Immigrant Law Center (NILC). “The only thing that’s left is the independent judiciary.”

Those channels didn’t always provide timely relief for workers in the past, either. Jean-Louis filed a discrimination complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on behalf of all Haitian workers at the Swift Beef plant in October 2024. Ultimately, Bouhabib said, they decided to head to court.

It just so happened that the case is moving forward at this moment, amid the broader immigration crackdown. While Bouhabib declined to share the specific legal status of the three plaintiffs, many of the workers employed by JBS were working under a humanitarian visa called Temporary Protected Status (TPS).

Last year, the Trump administration moved to end TPS for immigrants from at least six countries. Haitians’ protected status was set to expire on Feb. 3, and some meatpacking companies had already started laying workers off in anticipation. On Feb. 2, a judge prevented that expiration while a lawsuit challenging the administration’s decision proceeds. But if the court battles and efforts in Congress ultimately fail, Haitians who lose their status will have to leave the country or decide to remain here undocumented.

The situation could complicate the case, said Bouhabib. And in her mind, the fact that JBS has not spoken out on behalf of its Haitian workers also speaks to the larger issues at play in the case—the expendability of workers.

“The animal agricultural industry relies on immigrant labor, and yet none of [the companies] are at least outwardly coming to the rescue of these people,” she said.

“The animal agricultural industry relies on immigrant labor, and yet none of [the companies] are at least outwardly coming to the rescue of these people.”

Whatever happens with TPS, though, won’t affect the immigrants’ ability to sue. Regardless of work authorization, all individuals have the right to bring a lawsuit for violation of their rights. It’s a point that Olivares at NILC emphasized.

“All of the employment standards based on laws that Congress has put into place, those are the employers’ responsibility under the law,” he said. “The immigration status of the worker is not relevant.”

Still, farmworkers in particular have long lacked the same legal rights as other workers, and workers in the H-2A program have even fewer. As farms face increasing labor shortages due to Trump’s deportation efforts, the administration and Republicans in Congress have repeatedly presented expanding the H-2A program as a solution.

In June, the administration rolled back new protections intended to curb abuses within the H-2A program. Then, in October, agencies changed the application process to make it easier for farms to bring in those guestworkers, while also lowering wages for workers.

“These moves to expand the number of visas available to employers without strengthening protections for workers and without guaranteeing oversight of the protections that already exist are really irresponsible and unconscionable,” said Kerfoot. “They would endanger workers and any hopes we might have for durable, real change to the United States immigration laws.”

What CDM and other groups propose, instead, is an entirely new model for labor migration. Their approach would cut out the recruiters altogether, giving workers the ability to apply directly for seasonal jobs through a government database. Guestworkers would also be able to change employers and petition for citizenship.

At the moment, however, it’s a model that reads as a pipe dream. Instead, Kerfoot and Peralta are focused on seeking justice for Feliciano and Luiz while fear continues to rise.

The immigration crackdown is “not altering our tactics to try to ensure that our clients are vindicated,” Peralta said, “but we also are very cognizant and recognize that it will become much more difficult for individuals to muster the courage to bring these suits. The small numbers that we were seeing initially may decrease because of the federal government’s efforts with regards to immigration enforcement.”

In Bouhabib’s mind, that growing fear works to the benefit of food and agriculture corporations like JBS, as many workers choose to stay quiet. Still, she said, “some of these workers still believe in the justice system of America.”

The post Despite Federal Immigrant Crackdown, Food Workers Sue Over Workplace Abuses appeared first on Civil Eats.

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This story was originally published by Grist.

Miacel Spotted Elk
Grist

As federal agencies manage millions of acres of land critical to climate adaptation, wildlife, and water supplies, a new government report finds that they are falling short of their legal responsibilities to tribal nations.

“In treaties, tribes ceded millions of acres of their territories to the federal government in exchange for certain commitments,” the report read. Published in late January by the Government Accountability Office, or GAO, these commitments, through treaties, included services, protection, reservations, and for some tribes, hunting and fishing rights. These commitments have evolved into federal agencies engaging in government-to-government relationships with tribes on managing natural resources.

The report highlights the role tribes play in land and water stewardship, noting their effectiveness in managing natural and cultural resources and restoring habitat. Through treaties, tribes have also been able to apply traditional approaches to land and water management.

In 2021, the Biden administration issued a joint order through the departments of Agriculture and the Interior aimed at increasing tribal control over public lands to better protect natural and cultural resources. Since then, the Native American Rights Fund estimates tribes have entered into at least 400 cooperative land agreements with federal agencies.

Such arrangements typically take the form of agreements between tribes and federal agencies, including the Interior Department. These relationships range from consultation to co-stewardship agreements and co-management, in which tribes share decision-making authority over certain lands and waters. The GAO report recommends expanding authority for the Forest Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to enter into land and water agreements with tribes.

One successful example cited in the report involves the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe and the Chippewa National Forest, where the use of Traditional Ecological Knowledge alongside Western science helped improve habitat for snowshoe hare, a species considered culturally significant to the tribe, and increase the population.

“Because the joint secretary order is still in effect, because agencies are still pursuing these agreements, and we know that tribes are very much interested in pursuing and expanding these types of agreements, it’s important for federal agencies to understand how many staff may have the appropriate expertise,” said Anna Maria Ortiz, the report’s author and team lead for natural resources at GAO. That includes understanding trust and treaty responsibilities and government-to-government relationships between tribes and the United States, she said.

Tribes told the GAO that agency staff often lacked familiarity with federal Indian law, treaty obligations, and government-to-government relations. Ortiz said employees across agencies have expressed interest in gaining the skills needed to navigate tribal affairs related to federal land and water management.

The report also examines staffing overhauls and mass layoffs driven by the Department of Government Efficiency, which sought to reduce government spending across federal agencies, including the interior and agriculture departments, in early 2025.

“If agencies lack the staff or resources to pursue these agreements, to build the relationships that facilitate these agreements, that’s going to get in the way of developing long-term partnerships with an eye to shared decision-making,” said Ortiz.

The current fiscal year budget is expected to cut funding to several federal agencies and reduce staffing levels. That includes cuts of about 75 percent to the Bureau of Land Management’s wildlife habitat management program, as well as national monument and conservation management teams.

Staff interviewed at several federal agencies cited the influence of Traditional Ecological Knowledge — Indigenous knowledge systems that examine relationships within ecosystems — in wildfire and water management.

“Sometimes agencies may not understand the benefits of traditional Indigenous ecological knowledge, and how that can play into managing a resource like a forest, a marine sanctuary, or a fishery. And when we have these situations, it really slows down the development,” said Ortiz.

The use of Traditional Ecological Knowledge in land restoration and management has been shown to improve ecosystems and biodiversity, helping mitigate the effects of climate change.

“In one way, recognition and the work of federal agencies to better respect, incorporate, and listen to that knowledge in their own decisions is how this is currently working,” said Monte Mills, director of the Native American Law Center at the University of Washington School of Law. “The other is where tribes themselves are involved in or can influence those decision-making processes.”

However, Mills cites the GAO’s report on current challenges, such as the stream of executive orders and agency policy changes, that influence and limit how these agreements happen now.

“Whether that’s energy development, orders from the president and his officials declaring an energy or other emergency, or cutting staff, you name it, they’re not talking to tribes about it, they’re just doing it,” he said. “To respect and engage in a meaningful trust relationship, the basis of that relationship is incorporating, understanding, and respecting tribal interests and tribal sovereignty in the decisions that are made.”

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In a paper in the Journal of Coastal and Riverine Flood Risk, a team from the University of Rhode Island discusses the novel application of Homeland Security exercises to evaluate emergency managers' use of their simulation support tools to improve response to major coastal storms such as Hurricane Katrina.

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