Oregon
Tribe has hunting and fishing rights restored under a long-sought ruling
LINCOLN CITY, Ore. (AP) — Drumming made the floor vibrate and singing filled the conference room of the Chinook Winds Casino Resort in Lincoln City, on the Oregon coast, as hundreds in tribal regalia danced in a circle.
For the last 47 years, the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians have held an annual powwow to celebrate regaining federal recognition. This month’s event, however, was especially significant: It came just two weeks after a federal court lifted restrictions on the tribe’s rights to hunt, fish and gather — restrictions tribal leaders had opposed for decades.
“We’re back to the way we were before,” Siletz Chairman Delores Pigsley said. “It feels really good.”
The Siletz is a confederation of over two dozen bands and tribes whose traditional homelands spanned western Oregon, as well as parts of northern California and southwestern Washington state. The federal government in the 1850s forced them onto a reservation on the Oregon coast, where they were confederated together as a single, federally recognized tribe despite their different backgrounds and languages.
In the 1950s and ‘60s, Congress revoked recognition of over 100 tribes, including the Siletz, under a policy known as “termination.” Affected tribes lost millions of acres of land as well as federal funding and services.
“The goal was to try and assimilate Native people, get them moved into cities,” said Matthew Campbell, deputy director of the Native American Rights Fund. “But also I think there was certainly a financial aspect to it. I think the United States was trying to see how it could limit its costs in terms of providing for tribal nations.”
Losing their lands and self-governance was painful, and the tribes fought for decades to regain federal recognition. In 1977, the Siletz became the second tribe to succeed, following the restoration of the Menominee Tribe in Wisconsin in 1973.
But to get a fraction of its land back — roughly 3,600 acres (1,457 hectares) of the 1.1-million-acre (445,000-hectare) reservation established for the tribe in 1855 — the Siletz tribe had to agree to a federal court order that restricted their hunting, fishing and gathering rights. It was only one of two tribes in the country, along with Oregon’s Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, compelled to do so to regain tribal land.
The settlement limited where tribal members could fish, hunt and gather for ceremonial and subsistence purposes, and it imposed caps on how many salmon, elk and deer could be harvested in a year. It was devastating, tribal chair Pigsley recalled: The tribe was forced to buy salmon for ceremonies because it couldn’t provide for itself, and people were arrested for hunting and fishing violations.
“Giving up those rights was a terrible thing,” Pigsley, who has led the tribe for 36 years, told The Associated Press earlier this year. “It was unfair at the time, and we’ve lived with it all these years.”
Decades later, Oregon and the U.S. came to recognize that the agreement subjecting the tribe to state hunting and fishing rules was biased, and they agreed to join the tribe in recommending to the court that the restrictions be lifted.
“The Governor of Oregon and Oregon’s congressional representatives have since acknowledged that the 1980 Agreement and Consent Decree were a product of their times and represented a biased and distorted position on tribal sovereignty, tribal traditions, and the Siletz Tribe’s ability and authority to manage and sustain wildlife populations it traditionally used for tribal ceremonial and subsistence purposes,” attorneys for the U.S., state and tribe wrote in a joint court filing.
Late last month, the tribe finally succeeded in having the court order vacated by a federal judge. A separate agreement with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife has given the tribe a greater role in regulating tribal hunting and fishing.
As Pigsley reflected on those who passed away before seeing the tribe regain its rights, she expressed hope about the next generation carrying on essential traditions.
“There’s a lot of youth out there that are learning tribal ways and culture,” she said. “It’s important today because we are trying to raise healthy families, meaning we need to get back to our natural foods.”
Among those celebrating and praying at the powwow was Tiffany Stuart, donning a basket cap her ancestors were known for weaving, and her 3-year-old daughter Kwestaani Chuski, whose name means “six butterflies” in the regional Athabaskan language from southwestern Oregon and northwestern California.
Given the restoration of rights, Stuart said, it was “very powerful for my kids to dance.”
“You dance for the people that can’t dance anymore,” she said.
Nebraska
Judge’s ruling moves state closer to legalizing medical marijuana
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Three weeks after Nebraska voters overwhelmingly approved medical marijuana the state moved a step closer to allowing it Tuesday when a judge ruled that the petitions that put the question on the ballot were valid.
The decision by Lancaster County District Judge Susan Strong was a victory for advocates of medical marijuana, but opponents are likely to appeal it to the state Supreme Court.
“To prevail in this action, the plaintiff and Secretary had to show that more than 3,463 signatures on the Legalization Petition and 3,357 signatures on the Regulatory Petition are invalid. The Plaintiff and Secretary are well short,” Strong wrote. Fewer than 1,000 signatures on each petition were shown to be invalid.
A spokesperson for the Nebraska attorney general said the office’s lawyers were reviewing the ruling and considering whether to file an appeal.
Medical marijuana supporters didn’t immediately respond to calls or emails seeking comment Tuesday after the ruling was released.
More than two-thirds of Nebraska voters supported legalization at the polls Nov. 5. The results are scheduled to be certified Dec. 2.
Secretary of State Bob Evnen and Attorney General Mike Hilgers argued that problems with the way thousands of signatures were gathered meant the ballot initiatives shouldn’t have been put to voters. One person who circulated petitions in Grand Island was criminally charged with falsifying at least 164 signatures. Evnen, Hilgers and former state Sen. John Kuehn also raised questions about whether other signatures were properly notarized.
Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana argued in court that even if some of the signatures gathered were flawed, the group still had well over the 86,499 needed. The Secretary of State’s office certified nearly 90,000 signatures on both the petition to allow marijuana for medical use and the one to set up a commission to regulate it.
The judge agreed that the state wasn’t able to show any widespread fraud. Instead the ruling pointed primarily to the one petition circulator who was charged and raised questions about whether some other signatures were properly notarized.
Strong said she reviewed thousands of messages that top two organizers of the petition campaign exchanged that filled more than 800 pages and only found one mention of notarizing petitions outside of the petition circulator’s presence.
This year marked the third time Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana tried to get the issue on the ballot and the first time it made it there.
In 2020, the group came close after meeting signature requirements. But opponents sued, arguing that advocates violated state rules requiring ballot measures to focus on a single question. Instead, the measure posed two separate questions: whether residents should have the right to use marijuana for medical purposes, and whether private companies should be allowed to grow and sell it.
The state Supreme Court prevented the questions from going to voters.
In 2022, organizers failed to collect enough signatures in time to get the question on the November ballot.
Voters in North Dakota, South Dakota and Florida all rejected measures to legalize recreational marijuana use this year. But dozens of states have previously legalized it for either medical or recreational use, most recently in Ohio last year. In May, the federal government also began a process to reclassify marijuana as a less dangerous drug.
Alabama
Man charged in mass shooting faces more murder charges
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — An Alabama man charged with killing four people in September has now been charged with capital murder in a separate quadruple homicide that took place in July, according to law enforcement officials.
Damien McDaniel, 22, has been arrested and charged with capital murder in connection with the July 13 mass shooting outside of a nightclub in Birmingham that left four people dead and 10 others wounded, Officer Truman Fitzgerald announced at a press conference Tuesday evening. McDaniel is also accused of three separate fatal shootings that took place on three separate days in August and September.
Another man, Hatarius Woods, 27, was also charged with capital murder in connection with the July mass shooting.
“These individuals started back in July, and they did not stop from September,” said Fitzgerald. “We often say on these crime scenes that we have a few select criminals that add to this crime and give Birmingham a bad name.”
Woods and McDaniel are allegedly responsible for approximately 30% of all homicides that took place in the city between July and September, Fitzgerald said. Attorneys for Woods and McDaniel did not respond to emailed requests for comment.
Including the charges announced Tuesday, McDaniel is accused of killing 11 people and wounding 29 others in five separate incidents over two months — one of those charges is in connection with the Sept. 21 mass shooting outside of a different nightclub, where four people were fatally shot and 17 others injured.
Fitzgerald said on Tuesday that there were “multiple shooters” in the September mass shooting, and the investigation is ongoing. The September shooting was Birmingham’s third mass shooting of the year.
Birmingham surpassed the decades-long homicide record set in 2022 after a fatal shooting Sunday marked the 145th homicide in 2024.
In a 30-minute long video released Tuesday night, Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin sat in front of a table with 145 guns on it to represent the number of homicides in the city since the beginning of the year. He implored state legislators to help him address the rampant gun violence across the city.
“Even if I give you more officers on our streets, people are still legally allowed to drive around with these types of guns,” Woodfin said, gesturing to the guns in front of him. Woodfin said he supported the Second Amendment but also wanted to let voters across the city decide whether to place more restrictions on gun permitting.
“If I was a betting man, I would believe the residents of Birmingham have had enough of this and want to see more gun safety laws in place that protect people in Birmingham, but that has to come from a level higher than me,” Woodfin said.
Tribe has hunting and fishing rights restored under a long-sought ruling
LINCOLN CITY, Ore. (AP) — Drumming made the floor vibrate and singing filled the conference room of the Chinook Winds Casino Resort in Lincoln City, on the Oregon coast, as hundreds in tribal regalia danced in a circle.
For the last 47 years, the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians have held an annual powwow to celebrate regaining federal recognition. This month’s event, however, was especially significant: It came just two weeks after a federal court lifted restrictions on the tribe’s rights to hunt, fish and gather — restrictions tribal leaders had opposed for decades.
“We’re back to the way we were before,” Siletz Chairman Delores Pigsley said. “It feels really good.”
The Siletz is a confederation of over two dozen bands and tribes whose traditional homelands spanned western Oregon, as well as parts of northern California and southwestern Washington state. The federal government in the 1850s forced them onto a reservation on the Oregon coast, where they were confederated together as a single, federally recognized tribe despite their different backgrounds and languages.
In the 1950s and ‘60s, Congress revoked recognition of over 100 tribes, including the Siletz, under a policy known as “termination.” Affected tribes lost millions of acres of land as well as federal funding and services.
“The goal was to try and assimilate Native people, get them moved into cities,” said Matthew Campbell, deputy director of the Native American Rights Fund. “But also I think there was certainly a financial aspect to it. I think the United States was trying to see how it could limit its costs in terms of providing for tribal nations.”
Losing their lands and self-governance was painful, and the tribes fought for decades to regain federal recognition. In 1977, the Siletz became the second tribe to succeed, following the restoration of the Menominee Tribe in Wisconsin in 1973.
But to get a fraction of its land back — roughly 3,600 acres (1,457 hectares) of the 1.1-million-acre (445,000-hectare) reservation established for the tribe in 1855 — the Siletz tribe had to agree to a federal court order that restricted their hunting, fishing and gathering rights. It was only one of two tribes in the country, along with Oregon’s Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, compelled to do so to regain tribal land.
The settlement limited where tribal members could fish, hunt and gather for ceremonial and subsistence purposes, and it imposed caps on how many salmon, elk and deer could be harvested in a year. It was devastating, tribal chair Pigsley recalled: The tribe was forced to buy salmon for ceremonies because it couldn’t provide for itself, and people were arrested for hunting and fishing violations.
“Giving up those rights was a terrible thing,” Pigsley, who has led the tribe for 36 years, told The Associated Press earlier this year. “It was unfair at the time, and we’ve lived with it all these years.”
Decades later, Oregon and the U.S. came to recognize that the agreement subjecting the tribe to state hunting and fishing rules was biased, and they agreed to join the tribe in recommending to the court that the restrictions be lifted.
“The Governor of Oregon and Oregon’s congressional representatives have since acknowledged that the 1980 Agreement and Consent Decree were a product of their times and represented a biased and distorted position on tribal sovereignty, tribal traditions, and the Siletz Tribe’s ability and authority to manage and sustain wildlife populations it traditionally used for tribal ceremonial and subsistence purposes,” attorneys for the U.S., state and tribe wrote in a joint court filing.
Late last month, the tribe finally succeeded in having the court order vacated by a federal judge. A separate agreement with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife has given the tribe a greater role in regulating tribal hunting and fishing.
As Pigsley reflected on those who passed away before seeing the tribe regain its rights, she expressed hope about the next generation carrying on essential traditions.
“There’s a lot of youth out there that are learning tribal ways and culture,” she said. “It’s important today because we are trying to raise healthy families, meaning we need to get back to our natural foods.”
Among those celebrating and praying at the powwow was Tiffany Stuart, donning a basket cap her ancestors were known for weaving, and her 3-year-old daughter Kwestaani Chuski, whose name means “six butterflies” in the regional Athabaskan language from southwestern Oregon and northwestern California.
Given the restoration of rights, Stuart said, it was “very powerful for my kids to dance.”
“You dance for the people that can’t dance anymore,” she said.
Nebraska
Judge’s ruling moves state closer to legalizing medical marijuana
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Three weeks after Nebraska voters overwhelmingly approved medical marijuana the state moved a step closer to allowing it Tuesday when a judge ruled that the petitions that put the question on the ballot were valid.
The decision by Lancaster County District Judge Susan Strong was a victory for advocates of medical marijuana, but opponents are likely to appeal it to the state Supreme Court.
“To prevail in this action, the plaintiff and Secretary had to show that more than 3,463 signatures on the Legalization Petition and 3,357 signatures on the Regulatory Petition are invalid. The Plaintiff and Secretary are well short,” Strong wrote. Fewer than 1,000 signatures on each petition were shown to be invalid.
A spokesperson for the Nebraska attorney general said the office’s lawyers were reviewing the ruling and considering whether to file an appeal.
Medical marijuana supporters didn’t immediately respond to calls or emails seeking comment Tuesday after the ruling was released.
More than two-thirds of Nebraska voters supported legalization at the polls Nov. 5. The results are scheduled to be certified Dec. 2.
Secretary of State Bob Evnen and Attorney General Mike Hilgers argued that problems with the way thousands of signatures were gathered meant the ballot initiatives shouldn’t have been put to voters. One person who circulated petitions in Grand Island was criminally charged with falsifying at least 164 signatures. Evnen, Hilgers and former state Sen. John Kuehn also raised questions about whether other signatures were properly notarized.
Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana argued in court that even if some of the signatures gathered were flawed, the group still had well over the 86,499 needed. The Secretary of State’s office certified nearly 90,000 signatures on both the petition to allow marijuana for medical use and the one to set up a commission to regulate it.
The judge agreed that the state wasn’t able to show any widespread fraud. Instead the ruling pointed primarily to the one petition circulator who was charged and raised questions about whether some other signatures were properly notarized.
Strong said she reviewed thousands of messages that top two organizers of the petition campaign exchanged that filled more than 800 pages and only found one mention of notarizing petitions outside of the petition circulator’s presence.
This year marked the third time Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana tried to get the issue on the ballot and the first time it made it there.
In 2020, the group came close after meeting signature requirements. But opponents sued, arguing that advocates violated state rules requiring ballot measures to focus on a single question. Instead, the measure posed two separate questions: whether residents should have the right to use marijuana for medical purposes, and whether private companies should be allowed to grow and sell it.
The state Supreme Court prevented the questions from going to voters.
In 2022, organizers failed to collect enough signatures in time to get the question on the November ballot.
Voters in North Dakota, South Dakota and Florida all rejected measures to legalize recreational marijuana use this year. But dozens of states have previously legalized it for either medical or recreational use, most recently in Ohio last year. In May, the federal government also began a process to reclassify marijuana as a less dangerous drug.
Alabama
Man charged in mass shooting faces more murder charges
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — An Alabama man charged with killing four people in September has now been charged with capital murder in a separate quadruple homicide that took place in July, according to law enforcement officials.
Damien McDaniel, 22, has been arrested and charged with capital murder in connection with the July 13 mass shooting outside of a nightclub in Birmingham that left four people dead and 10 others wounded, Officer Truman Fitzgerald announced at a press conference Tuesday evening. McDaniel is also accused of three separate fatal shootings that took place on three separate days in August and September.
Another man, Hatarius Woods, 27, was also charged with capital murder in connection with the July mass shooting.
“These individuals started back in July, and they did not stop from September,” said Fitzgerald. “We often say on these crime scenes that we have a few select criminals that add to this crime and give Birmingham a bad name.”
Woods and McDaniel are allegedly responsible for approximately 30% of all homicides that took place in the city between July and September, Fitzgerald said. Attorneys for Woods and McDaniel did not respond to emailed requests for comment.
Including the charges announced Tuesday, McDaniel is accused of killing 11 people and wounding 29 others in five separate incidents over two months — one of those charges is in connection with the Sept. 21 mass shooting outside of a different nightclub, where four people were fatally shot and 17 others injured.
Fitzgerald said on Tuesday that there were “multiple shooters” in the September mass shooting, and the investigation is ongoing. The September shooting was Birmingham’s third mass shooting of the year.
Birmingham surpassed the decades-long homicide record set in 2022 after a fatal shooting Sunday marked the 145th homicide in 2024.
In a 30-minute long video released Tuesday night, Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin sat in front of a table with 145 guns on it to represent the number of homicides in the city since the beginning of the year. He implored state legislators to help him address the rampant gun violence across the city.
“Even if I give you more officers on our streets, people are still legally allowed to drive around with these types of guns,” Woodfin said, gesturing to the guns in front of him. Woodfin said he supported the Second Amendment but also wanted to let voters across the city decide whether to place more restrictions on gun permitting.
“If I was a betting man, I would believe the residents of Birmingham have had enough of this and want to see more gun safety laws in place that protect people in Birmingham, but that has to come from a level higher than me,” Woodfin said.
