Native American

By a Biometrica staffer Nov. 1 marks the start of Native American Heritage Month, an annual celebration to honor the traditions, culture, history, and contributions of American Indians and Alaskan Natives (AI/AN) to the country. It's a celebration, dating back to 1916,...

By a Biometrica staffer One-and-a half centuries. Over 400 Indigenous boarding schools run by the federal government, with support from religious institutions. The use of systematic militarized and identity-alteration methodologies in an attempt to 'assimilate Indigenous persons.' Corporal punishment to enforce rules...

By a Biometrica staffer The Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) published what it called the first complete enumeration of tribal court systems operating in the United States. Termed the National Survey of Tribal Court Systems (NSTCS), it consists of three surveys specific...

By Aara Ramesh Among the many challenges faced by Indigenous Peoples in North America today, one that has gained particular attention is that of unmarked graves (usually associated with former Indian boarding schools) and of artifacts taken from various Tribes in the...

By Deepti Govind & Aara Ramesh At Biometrica, we've repeatedly written about an epidemic that many in the country have been quietly dealing with: of missing and murdered Indigenous persons. There is no doubt that it is a public safety epidemic demanding...

By Aara Ramesh In the face of the real and present danger posed by Covid-19, the opioid crisis, America’s long-standing other epidemic has fallen under the public radar, though it continues to ravage large swathes of society. Experts say that, as with...

By Deepti Govind In the late 1960s, a New York-based attorney named Bertram Hirsch was sent to North Dakota to assist with a custody dispute case on behalf of the Spirit Lake Tribe. At that point, Hirsch was employed by the Association...

By Aara Ramesh For a few months now, it seems like there has been fresh news about the western United States burning almost every day, with record heat-waves and fires sweeping through the region. Per the National Fire Information Center (NFIC), the...

By a Biometrica staffer Last Wednesday, Aug. 4, the Departments of Justice (DOJ) and Interior (DOI) together announced that they are seeking nominations for the non-federal seats on a Joint Commission on reducing violent crimes like murder, rape, and kidnapping against American...

By Aara Ramesh Last week, the National Indian Gaming Association (NIGA) held its Indian Gaming Tradeshow & Convention in Las Vegas, drawing a record crowd of 7,000 according to its own estimates. The four-day conference’s success was attributed to tribes and even...

By Aara Ramesh Among the many verdicts handed down by the U.S. Supreme Court last month was the unanimous affirmation of the right of tribal law enforcement officers to detain non-Native people who they reasonably suspect to have been involved in a...

By Aara Ramesh Last week on June 22, Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland announced the “Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative,” at a conference of the National Congress of American Indians, the country’s largest coalition of Indigenous Peoples. The Initiative will undertake...

By Aara Ramesh The Covid-19 pandemic may yet add another casualty to its list. The days of smoke-filled casino floors might just be a relic of the past. As cities like Las Vegas begin the long road to recovery, stakeholders in the...

By a Biometrica staffer This Memorial Day weekend, Indigenous Americans from all over the U.S. headed to Pawhuska, Oklahoma, to be part of an important tradition: The Indian Relay, a horse racing competition. To say horses are a critical part of the...

By Mark Pooley June 1, 2018 was a day I’ll never forget. That was the day I received my cancer diagnosis for something called multiple myeloma, an uncommon kind of blood cancer in which a group of cancerous plasma cells eat away...

By Kadambari Wade On Feb. 1, 2021, the Department of Justice (DOJ) published the first of two issues of their Department of Justice Journal of Federal Law and Practice focused on missing or murdered American Indians and Alaska Natives. This was part of...

An Indian soldier on the India-Pakistan Line of Control in Kashmir. Picture © Oleg Doroshenko | Dreamstime.com For far too long, too many soldiers, paramilitary forces, and other security personnel have died because of a lack of planning or foresight. While there are any...

When dealing with a gunman, try and find cover. © Nyul | Dreamstime.com By Colonel Sushil Kumar Singh (Ret.) Forewarned, forearmed; to be prepared is half the victory. - Miguel de Cervantes If someone tells you they felt no fear or unease when...

[Pictured above: The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, where TDG is supplying Smart Cities Designs and Solutions as part of the Saudi Arabian National Transformation Programme, also known as Vision 2030, as viewed from space by moonlight; Picture © Anartis | Dreamstime.com, with...

By Colonel Sushil Kumar Singh In the 2003 historical epic, The Last Samurai, a striking conversation plays out between Ken Watanabe’s Katsumoto (the Samurai lord) and Capt. Nathan Algren, the war hero turned wastrel turned Japanese Imperial Army trainer. Algren, played by...