Thursday, June 19, 2025

A public records request in a Missing Indigenous Persons case in North Dakota has revealed unusual footage. As reported this week in Buffalo’s Fire, 77 hours of surveillance footage from the Mandan Police Department shows 20-year-old Renzo Bullhead (Standing Rock Sioux) approaching a railroad bridge, headed east towards Bismarck, N.D. on March 16. But in footage not previously seen by the public, a large splash in the Missouri River appears on the opposite side of the bridge, roughly 20 minutes after Bullhead passes by the first camera. Since Buffalo’s Fire posted the story on its website and social media venues, the new footage has generated calls for further investigation into Bullhead’s disappearance. The Mandan Police Department has not responded to emails asking what they make of the disturbance in the water. From atop the Hoover Dam, a view overlooking the Colorado River cutting through Black Canyon in April 2025. (Photo: Gabriel Pietrorazio / KJZZ) While Arizona, neighboring states, the federal government, and Mexico are negotiating over a dwindling supply of water from the Colorado River, another key stakeholder is tribes. Thirty in all, trying to either ratify their rights or safeguard their allocations to the West’s most precious water resource. KJZZ’s Gabriel Pietrorazio reports how the tribes’ seats at the negotiating table are being shaped by the second Trump administration. More than two-thirds of the Colorado River Basin tribes are from Arizona. They all need to negotiate with the federal government to essentially get what they want. Unlike states, tribes were historically excluded from these dialogues, but lately their engagement in defining the future of the Colorado River has been celebrated. “All of those tribes are in very different places and there’s no one size fits all. And what’s going to work for one tribe is probably going to not work for most of the other 30.” Scott Cameron, currently the top-ranking Interior Department official on Colorado River matters, reiterated his agency’s commitment to tribal consultation this month at an annual water conference in Boulder, Colo. “So we really need to have these conversations on a one-on-one basis, that having been said, trying to negotiate with 37 people in the room is a lot more complicated than negotiating with seven.” Gila River Indian Community President Steven Roe Lewis during President Joe Biden’s 2024 visit. So far, tribes seem fairly content with the Trump administration’s recent and frequent communication – a sentiment shared by Gov. Stephen Roe Lewis of the Gila River Indian Community during an annual Tucson, Ariz. water conference last month. “We’ve already made significant progress with the new administration, and we’re more optimistic than ever that they’re listening and seriously considering new proposals.” At the same time, the federal agency responsible for refereeing talks has also made notable cuts – gutting roughly 4% of all Interior staff – and potentially shaping its water priorities for years to come. “I’ve heard on calls that about 25% of the workforce is now gone from Reclamation in general, and so just for water in the West, that’s significant.” Cora Tso (Navajo) researches tribal issues at Arizona State University’s Kyl Center for Water Policy. When pressed to confirm how many Bureau of Reclamation employees were lost, the Interior Department repeatedly said it does “not comment on personnel matters”. Tomorrow we’ll bring you part two of this special report on water access and tribes. And on this day in 1868, a Jesuit priest, Father Pierre Jean De Smet, met with Chief Sitting Bull of the Hunkpapa Lakota to negotiate a peace treaty. Meeting with the famed chief at his encampment along the Powder River in present-day Montana, de Smet was not able to sway Sitting Bull to sign a treaty. But the chief did send one of his delegates to Fort Laramie in Wyoming to sign a treaty which allowed whites to travel and settle in designated areas. De Smet died in 1873, three years before Sitting Bull and his forces defeated General Armstrong Custer at the Battle of the LIttle Bighorn.     Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today.