Tuesday, June 3, 2025

The Coquille Indian Tribe and the Oregon Department of Veterans’ Affairs recently signed an agreement. The agreement creates a framework for collaboration and increased resources to support Native veterans in accessing federal and state veterans’ benefits. According to a press release, the Memorandum of Understanding paves the way for the establishment of the tribe’s first Tribal Veterans Service Officer, which will jointly be funded by the tribe and state agency. The service officers help veterans and their families in accessing benefits. They’re trained by the state veterans’ affairs department and accredited by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. This is the fifth such agreement. The other agreements are with the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, and the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians. There are nine federally recognized tribes in the state. Last week, California Assembly lawmakers approved a bill to grant military retirees and their dependents up to $20,000 as a state tax exemption. The bill was introduced by Assemblymember James Ramos (Serrano/Cahuilla/D-CA). In a statement, he said the bill’s intended to acknowledge the many sacrifices of military retirees and their families, and serve as an incentive to keep them in California. California does not offer tax exemption on military pensions. Advocates of the bill say if a tax exemption was in place, gains for the state would include more jobs and an economic boost. The bill is supported by a number of veterans organizations across the state. The measure heads to the Senate. Jeffrey Lazos-Ferns (Pascua Yaqui) speaks to a group of reporters about the importance of specific plants to Indigenous peoples in Arizona. Native experts in foraging for traditional food are sharing some of their recommendations. Chuck Quirmbach of station WUWM reports. In Phoenix’s Papago Park, Twila Cassadore points to the base of a palo verde tree where small branches, dried leaves, and other plant matter have formed the ground nest of a desert wood rat. Cassadore says the rodent is both a source of nutrition – and knowledge. “Many of us may not think much about the desert wood rat. But as people who study environmental science and engineering, this friend of ours, also delicious friend, will tell us about climate change.” Cassadore is a traditional food forager and educator with the San Carlos Apache Tribe. She explains to a tour organized by the Society of Environmental Journalists that other researchers have found that as the planet warms, the wood rat uses larger plant material to shade or insulate its home. But where the rat is plentiful, as it is here in the Sonoran Desert, it can also be a source of what Cassadore calls pre-reservation food, from before the years when the U.S. government forced Native people away from their longtime homes. “They took everyone away from the landscape where they originally foraged from and hunted from.” Helping Cassadore with the effort to discover more traditional foods is naturalist Jeffrey Lazos-Ferns (Pascua Yaqui). He points to blossoms and seeds on the palo verde tree. “These flowers, you can make tea out of them. Also, the pods which you may be seeing some of the younger trees out here, they taste like edamame, so you can eat them fresh off the tree, or you can till them, boil them, put salt on them, or store them, for the season you actually do want to use them.” Lazos-Ferns says some larger cities like Tucson have started to plant more indigenous plants that need less water or no fertilizer and be a source of food or medicine.   Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today.