Underscore News

06/19/2026

“For me, people will never understand how grateful I am to be able to win this gold cup. I grew up watching the race since I was 12 to 13 years old. Never in a million years I’d think I could achieve this Muckleshoot Gold Cup,” champion rider Joseph Jackson, Whitefish Lake First Nation, told Underscore News.

Take a look at one of the most competitive relay races in the country at the 2026 Muckleshoot Gold Cup Indian Relay.

✍️&📸: Mackenzie Olivo, Underscore Native News

At the 10th annual relay June 12-14, at the Emerald Downs, teams competed for $85,000 worth of prize money.

06/19/2026

Take a behind-the-scenes look at some of the sights, sounds, and smiles that filled the racecourse seats as Underscore News followed the teams competing in one of the most competitive relay races at the 2026 Muckleshoot Gold Cup Indian Relay.

Story reported by Underscore Native News' 2026 Indigenous Journalism Fellow, Mackenzie Olivo.

06/15/2026

As the Montana Two Spirit Society gears up for its 30th annual Montana Two-Spirit gathering this August, one of the longest running Two-Spirit gatherings across Turtle Island, the organization is also preparing for its second annual Two-Spirit powwow that will take place on June 19.

✍️: Nika Bartoo-Smith UNN + ICT

Two-Spirit powwows are forming out of community needs and more continue to pop up each year.

06/12/2026

The Yakama Nation, Columbia River Inter-Tribal Commission (CRITFC), and scientists held a naming ceremony for a newly discovered spider that is only found in the Columbia River Gorge. This week, Underscore Native News + Report for America reporter Lyric Aquino spoke with the arachnologist who discovered the new species and attended a joy-filled Yakama naming ceremony for their newly named brother.

✍️: Lyric Aquino, UNN + Report for America

The spider, the second in its genus, is only found in the Columbia River Gorge, that separates Washington and Oregon.

06/11/2026

Through a hastily-coordinated effort between government agencies and tribal members, the experience to relive a time-honored Native practice lay sprawled on the sand, coiled in crab pot line but free of red tape.

Months after the tribe regained hunting and gathering rights, a rare opportunity presented itself.

06/11/2026

Jarrette Werk, an amazing reporter and photojournalist for Underscore News, departs on his next journey after 4 years with our news organization.

“I just want to say thank you to everyone that has been a part of my journey here at Underscore, and [that] I'm forever grateful for all of the experiences that I was able to have while being here, and [I am] so, so proud of the work that we were able to produce, and the stories that we were able to share, and the connections we were able to make with the people out here in the Pacific Northwest. The PNW is always gonna have a special place in my heart,” shared Jarrette.

06/09/2026

A totem pole now stands outside the Cedar Creek Corrections Center, carved by Albert ‘Al’ Smith, Suquamish, Shoshonne-Bannock and Pima Nation, who helped start the carving program at Cedar Creek. Smith has been incarcerated at the facility since 2024.

The carving program is likely the first of its kind across the country.

“Never in the history, to my knowledge, has anything like this ever been done,” said Jeremy Garretson, Northern Arapaho, the reentry director at Unkitawa, an Indigenous nonprofit that helped establish the program. “This is monumental, is groundbreaking, and is trailblazing, to see that an actual carving program has taken place in a facility of this magnitude.”

Through the program, Smith is also mentoring other Native men incarcerated at the facility.

Written by Nika Bartoo Smith, UNN and ICT
Photos by Jarrette Werk

A totem pole carving program at Cedar Creek Corrections Center supports healing for incarcerated individuals looking to connect with inter-tribal and intergenerational traditional practices.

06/04/2026

Underscore receives five awards from the Society of Professional Journalists' 2025 Northwest Excellence in Journalism Awards.

06/03/2026

For 15 years, a coalition of Native people and conservationists have worked to restore a century-old dairy farm site and make it a welcoming habitat for salmon, lamprey and traditional plants.

Last week, that plan was realized when a levee was dismantled, allowing the brackish waters of the Siuslaw River to enter an estuary. Advocates say this will transform the area back into what it once was, roughly a century and a half ago. Underscore Native News looks at the Siuslaw Estuary's potential for bringing back a pre-colonial landscape.

Coalition celebrates breach of levee, adding a connection to traditional waterways.

06/01/2026

From foster care to serving his country in the military, to serving prison time, Albert Kevin Smith has lived many lives over the past six decades. Today the Suquamish, Shoshone-Bannock, Pima, elder has become the heart and soul of a groundbreaking carving program at Cedar Creek Corrections Center (Cedar Creek) in Little Rock, Washington.

The initiative is a partnership between Cedar Creek, the Washington State Department of Corrections (DOC), the Department of Children, Youth and Families and the Native American nonprofit Unkitawa. Unkitawa holds a contract with the DOC to provide cultural and ceremonial services to incarcerated Native Americans within the state's prison system.

Created in the fall of 2024, the carving program aims to help provide outlets for healing and help foster a connection to culture for those incarcerated at Cedar Creek.

Eliminating the barrier of access to traditional and cultural practices while incarcerated has been crucial for the success and healing for program participants.

This access now allows Smith to utilize his knowledge to mentor younger incarcerated individuals, such as Ordez Kompkoff, Aleut.

Underscore's team visited with Smith and Kompkoff leading up to the March 2 totem pole awakening ceremony, which was held in front of Cedar Creek.

Video by: Jarrette Werk, Underscore News
Reporting by: Jarrette Werk, Underscore Native News, and Nika Bartoo-Smith, Underscore Native News + Indian Country Today

From foster care, to serving his country in the military, to servin...