Underscore News

10/16/2026

Following an earlier Point-In-Time count, new data shows Native people account for 15 percent of unsheltered individuals in King County, Washington.

✍: Nika Bartoo-Smith, Underscore News + Indian Country Today

Following an earlier Point-In-Time count, new data shows Native people account for 15 percent of unsheltered individuals in King County, Washington.

10/15/2026

Gearing up for the November elections, Native leaders across the country weigh in on how the two proposed initiatives would harm students.

✍: Lyric Aquino, Underscore News + Report for America
✍ + 📸: Nika Bartoo-Smith, Underscore News + Indian Country Today

Gearing up for the November elections, Native leaders across the country weigh in on how the two proposed initiatives would harm students.

10/14/2026

Last August, Underscore Native News shared the story of the Jason Smith Ranch, which was reeling from the Bench Fire’s effects on their grazing land and animals. We check up on Smith and his partner, Kremena Doust, to see how they’re faring now.

✍🏼 + 📸: Brian Bull, Underscore News
📸: Kyra Antone, Underscore News

Underscore Native News checks on the ranchers’ operations nearly three months after the Bench Fire burned most of their grazing district.

10/14/2026

A organization representing 57 tribal governments, passed a resolution opposing 'anti 2SLGBTQIA+' Washington Initiatives 638 and 001 which will appear on the state's ballots this year. Learn more at https://ictnews.org/politics/election-2026/an-attack-on-all-peoples-bodily-autonomy-is-on-the-washington-state-ballot/

✍️ Reported by Nika Bartoo-Smith and Lyric Aquino | Underscore News | Report for America

10/09/2026

Two initiatives on the ballot this November in Washington state have been called anti-2SLGBTQIA+ by opponents of the measures, including the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians.

✍ : Lyric Aquino, Underscore News + Report for America, and Nika Bartoo-Smith, Underscore News + Indian Country Today

Two initiatives on the ballot this November have been called anti-2SLGBTQIA+ by opponents of the measures, including the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians.

10/08/2026

Our second-ever audience survey is coming to a close tomorrow, October 9, and we’re offering anybody who fills out the survey before the deadline the chance to enter into a raffle to win an Underscore hat and sticker.

Survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/5VTMLZH

10/06/2026

People are regaining kinship with nature’s bounty, thanks to an ongoing activity at Seattle’s Daybreak Star Indian Cultural Center where they care for Native plants.

✍: Brian Bull, Underscore News

Program volunteers care for tule, camas and salmonberries, other traditional flora.

10/02/2026

Portland’s newest Native owned bookstore will be a community hub filled with tutoring, cultural classes, community events and books from Indigenous authors.

✍ + 📸: Lyric Aquino, Underscore News + Report for America

Casandra Hanson’s bookstore is a new community hub in Southeast Portland, stocked with all Indigenous and Pacific Islander authors.

10/01/2026

In 1855, the Siletz People yielded a parcel of land along the Oregon Coast as the United States ratified treaties and drew up territory. But now the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians are near a land transaction that’ll take almost seven acres of that ceded land out of private ownership and back under their stewardship. The effort is a coordinated Land Back partnership with regional nonprofits and land trusts, and will help safeguard the area against development.

✍: Brian Bull, Underscore News

Undisclosed parcel outside Yachats deemed “biodiversity hotspot.”

09/30/2026

Voting concerns central theme at Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians annual convention.

✍: Nika Bartoo-Smith, Underscore News + Indian Country Today

Voting concerns central theme at Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians annual convention.