Underscore News, Portland, OR (2026)

05/22/2026

The Yakama Nation is continuing to protest the advancement of a proposed hydropower storage facility that will decimate their sacred mountain, Pushpum.

In solidarity with the Yakama Nation, William Ray, Jr., chairman of the Klamath Tribes, asked “How can there be a price put on religion?”

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

Read more here: https://www.underscore.news/land/yakama-nation-continues-to-fight-proposed-hydroelectric-project-that-would-destroy-pushpum-cultural-site/

05/21/2026

At this year’s annual Q***r Prom hosted by Native American Youth and Family Center’s Two-Spirit Program, over 300 high school students from across the Portland Metro area and beyond danced to beats by DJ Aspen at AVENUE Portland. They showed up dressed in comic book inspired outfits for the theme “Superheros vs. Villains Edition.”

“Being able to have a space like this is really important because it provides an opportunity for us to come together in community and celebrate q***r joy,” said Kiara Wehrenberg, Tlingit and the Two-Spirit program coordinator at the center. Wehrenberg coordinates Q***r Prom.

Read full story here:
https://www.underscore.news/justice/lgbtqia2s/nayas-two-spirit-program-hosts-another-successful-q***r-prom-creating-space-for-q***r-youth-to-be-unabashedly-themselves/

By Nika Bartoo-Smith, Underscore News + Indian Country Today

05/15/2026

Amanda Page, a citizen of the Klamath Tribes, is running for Deschutes County Commissioner, Seat 3. If elected, she plans to prioritize affordable housing, environmental protections and supporting tribal sovereignty. She hopes to have a seat in a county that encompasses some of the ancestral homelands of her tribe, and also be the highest elected position of any citizen of an Oregon tribe.

“I'm an Indigenous candidate, but I'm also an Indigenous candidate looking to get a seat in our territory. In my ancestral lands,” Page said. “So there's an importance to that that I think most people don't understand. This is a real chance to expand tribal sovereignty and have Indigenous voice[s] in the spaces historically, we’ve been completely ignored.”

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

Read more here: https://www.underscore.news/justice/legislature/amanda-page-discusses-run-for-oregon-deschutes-county-commissioner/

05/14/2026

The legislation comes amid growing reports of Native Americans being questioned, delayed, or detained after federal officers failed to recognize valid tribal IDs and documentation as proof of citizenship.

The Respect Tribal IDs Act would require DHS, in coordination with the Bureau of Indian Affairs and tribal nations, to develop standardized training for officers and employees involved in immigration enforcement. The training would include how to identify tribal documents, when tribal IDs qualify as proof of U.S. citizenship, proper protocols for interacting with enrolled tribal members, and the federal government’s trust responsibility to tribal nations.

“The Respect Tribal IDs Act is a commonsense bill to ensure DHS personnel are properly trained to recognize Tribal IDs and work respectfully with Tribal communities,” said Rep. Don Bacon, in a statement. “Federal agencies have a responsibility to protect and support Tribal citizens, and this legislation helps ensure they do that.”

https://www.underscore.news/justice/lawmakers-demand-ice-respect-tribal-ids-in-new-legislation/

05/14/2026

Summer Wildbill, a citizen of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, is working to build an app focused on financial literacy with Nixyaawii Community Financial Services - NCFS, her tribe’s CDFI. She was inspired to create the app after seeing her own gap in financial knowledge after moving to New York City to attend New York University, where she is headed into her senior year this fall. She hopes the app helps youth in her community learn how to manage their own money and approach it with a “security and growth” mindset.

Still in development, she hopes that the app, NativeCents, will be released by the end of this summer.

“I really hope that youth in my community genuinely use it,” Wildbill said. “The whole point of it is we want it to be interactive, and we want it to be something that's easy to access and something that's made for [Umatilla youth] so it feels like they're within the financial education conversation, they're a part of it.”

Read more here:
https://www.underscore.news/people-profiles/umatilla-nyu-student-building-financial-literacy-app/

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

05/08/2026

Patrick DePoe, a citizen of Makah Tribe, is running for Washington State House of Representatives for the 24th legislative district. His top three priorities are natural resources, healthcare and education.

“I believe that I'm uniquely situated, and that I understand all of this stuff, not just from an outside perspective, but from actually doing the work,” DePoe said. “I've been on the front lines. I've been literally boots on the ground. We're talking natural resources. I've helped put out fires, I've helped clean up oil spills. Talking about our medical issues, I've worked in a medical center for over a decade, on the administrative side and on the patient care side of things. And we're talking about education, I've worked and seen some of the issues and how those impacts affect our children.

Read full story here: https://www.underscore.news/justice/legislature/patrick-depoe-shares-priorities-in-run-for-washington-state-house-of-representatives/

✍️: Nika Bartoo-Smith, Underscore News + Indian Country Today
📸: Courtesy of Patrick DePoe

05/06/2026

Since its creation in 2021, the Washington State Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and People Task Force has helped create a state wide MMIWP alert system, a cold case unit and a toolkit for families and friends with loved ones that go missing.

“[The Task Force is] helping Washington State recognize their responsibility to this crisis. Native American women and people are seen and heard and not forgotten in the responsibility of Washington state to protect them,” Washington state Rep.Debra Lekanoff, Tlingit and Aleut, who is executive committee co-chair of the task force.

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

Image credit: Washington State Attorney General’s Office

https://www.underscore.news/justice/washington-state-mmiwp-task-force-still-raising-awareness-five-years-in/

05/05/2026

Amanda Freeman’s exhibition "AMPKWA: munk łush nsayka shawash tilixam." This photography exhibition honors Missing and Murdered Indigenous People and the families who continue to wait, search, and remember their loved ones.

This is a reshare from a story we covered earlier this year. Video is by Jarrette Werk for Underscore News.

04/30/2026

At a public forum for the Democratic party for Oregon's 4th Congressional District held at WOW Hall in Eugene, Oregon on April 17, two candidates discussed their platforms while the incumbent did not attend.

Topics of discussion included the impeachment of President Donald Trump, the abolishment of ICE, affordable housing solutions and the need for Congressional checks on presidential power.

Dan Bahlen, Apache, also proposed a global government in Israel, while also warning of the coming Armageddon.

“I will champion the creation of a global governance framework headquartered at Megiddo, Israel, drawing from its historical significance as the site of ancient battles and its importance,” Bahlen said. “This initiative will foster international cooperation on climate change, economic stability and security challenges, while respecting national sovereignty.”

Melissa Bird, descendant of the Shivwits Band of Paiutes, talked about the need to shift funding priorities away from things like war in the Middle East and ICE to building up infrastructure such as housing and investing in the health of the environment.

“The way we get to great is not by begging the system that got us here for salvation. The way we get to great is not by asking the most successful winners of the system to change it,” Bird said. “I am running for Congress, not to beg for a seat at the table, but to flip it. The way we make sure our kids have good schools, our families have enough food on the table that we have good jobs and a healthy planet is by electing bold and transformational leaders like me who understand what it's like to live in this current reality.”

Voters will have a chance to pick between three candidates to represent them in the Fourth Congressional District during the Democratic Primaries on May 19.

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

Link to full story: https://www.underscore.news/justice/democratic-challengers-to-incumbent-in-oregons-4th-congressional-district-meet-incumbent-absent/

04/24/2026

In February, two condors from the Northern California Condor Restoration Program were believed to have laid an egg, after establishing the first wild condor nest in the region for over a century.

The egg appears to have been unsuccessful, based on the birds’ behavior and flight patterns, according to a news release from the Yurok Tribe.

“Even if the egg failed, this is still a major milestone in the condor restoration effort,” Tiana Williams-Claussen, a citizen of the Yurok Tribe and the Yurok Wildlife Department director, told UNN + ICT.

Read full story: https://www.underscore.news/land/nesting-condors-first-egg-likely-failed/

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

04/24/2026

Lyric Aquino, Underscore Native News + Report for America corps member, takes readers to Chicago, where she attended this year’s Society of Environmental Journalists conference and spoke on a panel about solutions journalism and climate health equity.

In this reporter’s notebook, Aquino shares reflections from the conference and offers insight into her reporting on solutions journalism.

Read the full story here: https://www.underscore.news/land/environment/reporters-notebook-attending-the-2026-gathering-of-the-society-of-environmental-journalists/

By: Lyric Aquino, Underscore News + Report for America

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