Orcas knock into sailboats, force Spain to limit yachting

© Provided by The Canadian Press

BARCELONA, Spain — Spain has temporarily prohibited yachting across 100 kilometres (62 miles) of its northwestern coast after orca whales apparently got carried away while playing and damaged several sailboats.

Spain’s transport ministry issued the week-long prohibition for sailboats under 15 metres (49 feet) long starting Tuesday. It said the area covered by the ban meant to protect both boats and maritime mammals and could be extended to “follow the migration routes” of the whales.

Boats can leave port to go into the open sea between the capes of the Prioriño Grande and la Punta de Estaca de Bares, but they must not remain near the coast off the country’s northwestern tip.

The ministry said the first reported incident occurred Aug. 19. Since then, it said an unspecified number of sailboats have been damaged by orcas, with some needing assistance from Spain’s maritime rescue service after their rudders were wrecked.

Biologist Bruno Díaz of the local Bottlenose Dolphin Research Institute said the orcas were most likely just playing a bit too rough.

He said orcas, like other cetaceans such as dolphins, like to swim alongside boats. Running into hulls is rare, but he believed it was likely done by “immature teenage” orcas getting rowdy.

“We will never be in the mind of that individual animal, but based on experience, we think that there is absolutely nothing (threatening about their behaviour). We are not their natural prey,” Díaz told The Associated Press by phone Wednesday. “They are having fun. And maybe these orcas have fun causing damage.”

Orcas are particularly attracted by sail boats due to their size, the waves they make, and the lack of pollution they produce compared to fishing boats, Díaz said. This stretch of water where the Iberian Peninsula juts out into the Atlantic Ocean is both rife with tuna for them to hunt and on their migration route.

Spanish television has shown footage taken by sailors of groups of orcas swimming extremely close to their boats. No injuries have been reported so far.

Even so, the close encounters have put a scare in some sailors and hurt their pocketbooks with repairs that were needed.

British sailor Mark Smith told Spanish state broadcaster TVE that he was “a little” frightened “because they were very big and we couldn’t stop them” from banging into his boat.

Joseph Wilson, The Associated Press

Gender reveal for 'robust' new calf of endangered west coast orca species

© Provided by The Canadian Press

FRIDAY HARBOR, Wash. — Whale watchers in Washington state say they've determined the sex of the new addition to a critically endangered pod of killer whales.

A social media post by the Center for Whale Research says pictures of the roughly three-week-old southern resident killer whale calf confirm it's a male.

The post says the calf, officially named J57, was spotted Tuesday in waters just south of the Canadian border, rolling, lifting his head and upper body clear of the water and swimming beside his mother, J35.

As he rolled on his back, researchers snapped a photo confirming the sex.

The post also says J57 is robust and appears healthy.

The calf's mother gained international attention after giving birth in 2018 because that calf died soon after and she pushed it along the surface of the water for more than two weeks in an effort to revive it.

The centre says just over 70 southern resident orcas remain in the wild and female calves are preferred for population sustainability, but they also say J57 is still a welcome addition to the struggling species.

Researchers are watching J57 carefully because the mortality rate for calves is about 40 per cent, mainly due to recent declines in the pod's preferred food of chinook salmon.

The latest post says J57's mother was actively foraging when the pictures of her calf were snapped but concern remains because the centre says salmon migrations to spawning grounds up the Fraser River have been so poor this year that the whales have rarely ventured into what is usually their core habitat in the Salish Sea.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 24, 2020.

The Canadian Press

Auschwitz memorial director offers to share Nigerian boy's blasphemy jail term

#ENDBLASPHEMYLAWS

© Reuters/KACPER PEMPEL FILE PHOTO:

 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi German concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz and International Holocaust Victims Remembrance Day

LAGOS (Reuters) - The head of Poland's Auschwitz Memorial has written to Nigeria's president offering to serve part of a 10-year jail term handed to a 13-year-old boy for blasphemy.

Piotr Cywinski requested a pardon for Omar Farouq, who was accused of making blasphemous statements during an argument and sentenced by a sharia court in Nigeria's northern Kano state last month.

If a pardon was not possible, Cywinski said he and 119 other volunteers would take on the boy's punishment and each spend a month in a Nigerian jail.

As the director of a memorial to a place "where children were imprisoned and murdered, I cannot remain indifferent to this disgraceful sentence for humanity," he said in the letter to President Muhammadu Buhari, posted on the Memorial's Twitter account.

Two spokesmen for Nigeria's president declined to comment on the unusual intervention on Saturday.

The presidency has not commented on the sentence that was condemned by rights groups. The U.N. children's agency UNICEF last month said the sentence was "wrong" and went against international accords that Nigeria had signed.

A special adviser to the governor of Kano said he had seen the letter on social media.

"The position of Kano state government remains the decision of the sharia court," Salihu Tanko Yakasai told Reuters.

Baba Jibo Ibrahim, a spokesman for the Kano State Judiciary, said he had not seen the letter but added that the president had the power to pardon the boy.

Nigeria is roughly split evenly between the mostly Christian south and predominantly Muslim north. Twelve of Nigeria's 36 states apply sharia.

(Reporting by Nneka Chile, Alexis Akwagyiram and Libby George in Lagos, Hamza Ibrahim in Kano and Felix Onuah in Abuja; Writing by Alexis Akwagyiram; Editing by Andrew Heavens)

Snow cover good for brook trout, study finds


Kevin Yarr

Snow is good for brook trout, and that could be bad news, according to a recent study sponsored by the Ellen's Creek's Watershed Group in Charlottetown.

The group hired Harriet Laver, an environmental biology major at UPEI, to look at how weather impacts the brook trout population. Laver used weather data from Environment Canada — including precipitation, temperatures and snow accumulations — and correlated it with the number of young-of-the-year trout (trout younger than one year) found by the watershed group every spring going back to 2014.

She found a clear connection.

"It turned out that the years that were colder during the winter, and had more snow accumulation as well, they seemed to result in young-of-the-year brook trout," said Laver.

In years of medium to high accumulation more than 100 trout had been captured. In years of low accumulation it was fewer than 75.

Laver thinks there could be a number of factors playing in the trout's favour with snow.

Snow on the ice would insulate the stream. Water temperatures below 4 C can kill eggs. Snow also provides shade, which brook trout prefer, and melting snow releases oxygen into the water, which would keep the fish healthier.
'It would lead to less insects'

There could be an indirect benefit as well.

"It helps with the insects too, which the brook trout rely on for food," said Laver.

"If the insects hatch too soon, if they hatch in the winter during a warm spell, it would lead to less insects in the spring and therefore less food for the brook trout."

Brook trout's need for snow could be bad news for the species on P.E.I., Laver concluded in her study, because climate change is expected to mean less snow on the Island.
More from CBC P.E.I.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg was shaped by her minority faith

THE FIRST JEW APPOINTED TO SCOTUS

© Provided by The Canadian Press

(RNS) — A phrase from the Book of Deuteronomy hangs framed on the wall of Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s Supreme Court chamber: “Justice, justice you shall pursue.”

For Ginsburg, who died at home surrounded by her family on Friday evening (Sept. 18) at the age of 87, the phrase from the Hebrew Bible, “Tzedek, tzedek tirdof,” summed up perfectly her calling as jurist and a Jew.

“Our nation has lost a jurist of historic stature,” said Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. in a statement released by the Supreme Court. “We at the Supreme Court have lost a cherished colleague. Today we mourn, but with confidence that future generations will remember Ruth Bader Ginsburg as we knew her — a tireless and resolute champion of justice.”

Ginsburg, who had remained on the court despite suffering a long series of health challenges, rarely attended services, but she was passionate about Judaism’s concern for justice and was shaped in the crucible of its minority status.

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This content is written and produced by Religion News Service and distributed by The Associated Press. RNS and AP partner on some religion news content. RNS is solely responsible for this story.

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Nominated to the high court by President Bill Clinton in 1993, Ginsburg developed a cultlike following over her more than 27 years on the bench, especially among young women who appreciated her lifelong, fierce defence of women’s rights. Acquiring the moniker “Notorious RBG” as she got older, the 5-foot-1 justice who decorated her robes with lace collars was viewed as a model feminist who successfully knocked down legal obstacles to women’s equality and levelled the playing field between the sexes.

But as a justice, Ginsburg was dedicated to equality not only on behalf of women. She cared as deeply for minority groups, immigrants, the disabled and others.

In this, her identity as a Jew played a big role.

In a 2018 interview with Jane Eisner, then editor of the Jewish daily Forward, Ginsburg said that she grew up in the shadow of World War II and the Holocaust and it left a deep and lasting imprint on her.

“She saw being a Jew as having a place in society in which you’re always reminded you are an outsider, even when she, as a Supreme Court justice, was the ultimate insider,” said Eisner. “That memory of it — even if it’s more from the past — informed what she thought society should be doing to protect other minorities.”

Or as Ginsburg said during that interview: “It makes you more empathetic to other people who are not insiders, who are outsiders.”

Ruth Bader was born in Brooklyn in 1933, the daughter of a furrier who arrived in the United States from Russia at the age of 13. Her mother was born in the U.S., months after her own parents landed in the country from Austria.

Anti-Semitism was commonly accepted in those days, and families like the Baders confronted the social difficulties of being Jewish while at the same time holding out hope that they could climb into the ranks of the middle class.

THEY FACED THE PREJUDICE OF THE WASP WHITE ANGLO SAXON PROTESTANT

“Both parents were very eager that Ruth learn what it meant to be a good Jew and a good American,” said Jane Sherron De Hart, professor emerita of history at the University of California, Santa Barbara, who wrote a biography of Ginsburg. “That was a goal shared by a large number of Jews in Brooklyn who sought to assimilate in the sense of being good Americans but also retaining their Jewish heritage.”   

(LIKE FELLOW BROOKLYNITE BERNIE SANDERS)
 
Ruth’s mother, Celia, encouraged her independence and pushed her to excel. She had a list of “women of valour” — a biblical term referring to women who were wise and successful. Ginsburg imbibed those stories and memorized them, De Hart said.

Just as Ruth was entering high school, her mother was diagnosed with cancer. She died in 1950, two days before Ruth’s graduation from James Madison High School in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn.

In keeping with Jewish custom of the time, Ruth was not allowed to say the mourner’s prayer for her mother as part of a minyan or quorum required for public prayer. Only men could be counted for a minyan, a tradition that has since changed in Reform and Conservative Jewish traditions.

The exclusion forever marked her relationship with religious Judaism.

“She was extremely indignant about it,” De Hart said. “She felt it was an affront to her mother, and there was nothing she could do about it. That was the end of her affiliation with the religious dimension of Judaism.”

She married Martin Ginsburg, whom she had met when both were undergraduates at Cornell University. The couple went on to Harvard Law School, though Ruth transferred to Columbia Law School after Martin took a job in New York City. They had two children, Jane and James.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg, as she was now known, went on to teach at Rutgers and Columbia law schools and in 1972 co-founded the Women’s Rights Project at the American Civil Liberties Union. She argued six gender discrimination cases before the Supreme Court between 1973 and 1976, winning five.

No firebrand, she pursued a long-term strategy to chip away at discriminatory laws, one by one.

“She tried to work through the system,” said Eisner. “She very much believed in institutions and incremental change. That’s an outgrowth of her experience as a Jew. The law protected minorities — not all, and not equally — but there was a great reverence among the Jews of that generation in the power of government to protect them and pave the way for their achievement.”

In 1980, Ginsburg was nominated by President Jimmy Carter to a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, where she served 13 years until she was appointed to the Supreme Court.

Behind the scenes she tried in small ways to make the court more hospitable to Jews. Several Orthodox Jewish lawyers had complained that a certificate issued by the court read “In the Year of Our Lord.” For Jews, explicitly framing the calendar year as Christian was offensive. Ginsburg successfully urged the court to excise it.

She also pushed the court not to hear cases on Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement, a practice that continues to this day.

Although the Ginsburgs were secular Jews, after Martin’s death in 2010, Ruth began accepting more invitations to speak to Jewish groups. In 2018, she received the $1 million Genesis Prize, awarded annually to a Jewish person for talent and achievement. (She donated the proceeds to various Jewish charities.) In 2019, Philadelphia’s National Museum of American Jewish History mounted a travelling exhibit of her life.

Ginsburg attended Washington, D.C.’s Adas Israel Congregation once a year for the Kol Nidre service on the eve of Yom Kippur, but she was never a dues-paying member.

Rabbi Lauren Holtzblatt of Adas Israel said the Conservative synagogue extends free membership to all the Jewish justices on the court. (Justice Elena Kagan attends on the High Holidays as well.)

In 2015, Ginsburg was asked by the American Jewish World Service to write an insert to its Passover Haggadah. She agreed and asked Holtzblatt to help her research some of the sacred texts about women in the Exodus narrative.

True to form, Ginsburg wanted to write about the figures not mentioned in the Haggadah.

“For her that was all the people who were marginalized, like the women,” said Holtzblatt. “She wanted to highlight the roles they played. She wanted to learn more about the daughter of Pharaoh, Moses’ sister Miriam, and the midwives, Shifra and Puah. She and I talked a lot about people who are not given the spotlight when they do miraculous things.”

Holtzblatt said she never asked for a byline on the essay, because she only provided Ginsburg some source material. Ginsburg, however, insisted.

A private interment service will be held at Arlington National Cemetery, according to the SCOTUS statement.

Yonat Shimron, The Associated Press

“May Her Memory Be A Revolution”: Why We Mourn RBG With Jewish Blessings


Britni de la Cretaz 
 

© Provided by Refinery29

In the wake of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s unexpected death, and while political turmoil abounds, many people are searching for ways to mourn the woman who blazed trails and had an outsized impact on American politics. For many in the United States, this is a moment of collective grief as we remember and honor someone whose legacy was evident even before her death last week at age 87. But the way we mourn Justice Ginsburg still matters.


Ginsburg was —proudly — a Jewish woman, and she held tight to her faith, saying in a 1996 essay for the American Jewish Committee, “I am a judge born, raised and proud of being a Jew. The demand for justice runs through the entirety of the Jewish tradition.” She had a Torah verse hanging in her office, often cited the fact that she was the only justice with a mezuzah on her office’s door frame, and wore a collar with a Torah verse on the opening day of the Supreme Court last year (it read “Tzedek,” meaning “justice”). She even wrote feminist Torah commentary.

So, as we all grieve this incalculable loss, it is also important to honor Ginsburg’s Jewishness in the way we mourn her in public. “This is a moment when non-Jews can learn about Jewish grief and mourning practices, use Jewish language to offer condolence and honor the dead,” said Rabbi Ariana Katz, the founding rabbi of Hinenu: The Baltimore Justice Shtiebl and host of Kaddish, a podcast about Jewish mourning rituals. “If you are looking to honor the life and legacy of an incredible person and are wholeheartedly using the prayers of your tradition, that is beautiful and authentic. But it might not be a public act, and requires rigor to make sure the theology you’re putting forward in your prayer does not impose a belief system on the person for whom you are praying.”

There are phrases you might hear people say of Ginsburg, or any other Jewish person who has died. “May her memory be for a blessing” is one of the most common, and it is “a traditional way of noting the ways in which those who have passed can live on and inform our actions and values in the world today,” Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg, Scholar in Residence, the National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW), tells Refinery29. “It’s ancient, dates back to the Talmud (so, more than 1500 years).” 

Another adaptation of this has also been used to honor Ginsburg: “may her memory be for a revolution.” This phrase actually originated in Israel to honor people who were victims of domestic violence or hate crimes “to make clear that their deaths should spur us to action and changemaking,” says Ruttenberg. The sentiment has now been expanded to commemorate victims of police brutality and white supremacy, which Ruttenberg says “has become a way of honoring the lives of everyone whose memory inspires us to push for a more just world.” Relatedly, NCJW’s campaign to honor Justice Ginsburg’s memory is called Ruth’s Revolution.

The timing of Ginsburg’s passing also matters in Jewish tradition. Ginsburg died on Friday night (Shabbat) which also happened to be Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. In Jewish tradition, someone who dies on Shabbat is a “tzadik,” or someone who is considered “righteous.” A person who dies on Rosh Hashanah is also a tzadik, according to tradition. Despite it being the beginning of High Holidays season, that night saw a collective outpouring of grief and thousands of people gathered outside the Supreme Court to say the Mourner’s Kaddish, the Jewish prayer for the dead.

“Saying the Mourner’s Kaddish on the steps of the Supreme Court brought honor to the memory of Justice Bader Ginsburg, and was a public display of Judaism,” says Rabbi Katz. “Public displays of Judaism in a time of frightening antisemetic attacks is an act of bravery. It was an act of love through vulnerability, to speak words that are for some the singular prayer they know. Saying the Kaddish on the steps of the Supreme Court encapsulates Jewish experiences of mourning, and is a flag that this death is known and visible.”

As if to emphasize the need to remain educated and appreciate these Jewish values when mourning the late Justice, other public mourning rituals have disregarded or ignored Ginsburg’s faith altogether. Alongside the Mourner’s Kaddish, people outside the Supreme Court sang “Amazing Grace,” a song written by a Christian priest about his Christianity. “Why the insistence on singing that song? There are so many songs that are secular or neutral of this loaded connotation,” Rabbi Ruttenberg notes.

There have also been memes calling Ginsburg “Saint Ruth,” something Ruttenberg calls “profoundly disrespectful” and “a particularly loaded erasure of her Jewishness.” Others have pictured Ginsburg in heaven alongside recently passed celebrities like Chadwick Boseman, though this too goes against Jewish tradition since Jews do not believe in heaven.

And although it should be acknowledged that Jews who were raised in multifaith homes sang both the Mourner’s Kaddish and Amazing Grace, or used both tzadik and saint to describe a person who passed, remembering Ginsburg’s impact on the Jewish community at-large should outweigh the need to honor her in any way but her own religion.

“It’s important to honor and center the religious and cultural perspective of any person who dies, and it’s all the more crucial to remember the larger historical context in which this conversation is happening,” says Ruttenberg. “We live in a Christian-dominated culture in which Jews have always been part of the religious minority, and in which Christians hold power in a particularly unique way. We live in the context of centuries of supersessionism — the notion that Christianity has come to replace Judaism, and centuries of Christian oppression of Jews and myriad attempts to convert us (and, many, many times, our expulsion and/or massacre when we have not done so).”

As Ginburg’s funeral started this morning, Wednesday, and the battle to fill her vacant seat consumes Congress, people will continue to memorialize the justice. But it’s important to do this in a way that also commemorates who she was: a strong, resilient, dissenting Jewish woman. So, you should call her memory a “blessing” or a “revolution; you should learn about the practice of sitting shiva for a week to mourn; and you should honor her legacy as a tzadik — for years to come.

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G7 ministers back extension of debt freeze for poorest nations, urge reforms

© Reuters/KIM KYUNG-HOON FILE PHOTO: Japan's newly-appointed Finance Minister Taro Aso speaks at a news conference in Tokyo

By Andrea Shalal, Tetsushi Kajimoto and Leigh Thomas

WASHINGTON/TOKYO/PARIS (Reuters) - G7 finance ministers on Friday backed an extension of a G20 temporary freeze in debt payments and recognized the need for broad debt relief in the future, while taking aim at G20 member China over a lack of transparency in its lending.

The G20 Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI), approved in April, is aimed at helping developing countries get through the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic. So far, it has helped 43 countries defer $5 billion in official debt service payments.

However, in a joint statement, the G7 ministers said they "strongly regret" moves by some countries to skip full participation in the DSSI by classifying their state-owned institutions as commercial lenders.

While the statement did not mention China specifically, G7 officials said the message was clearly aimed at Beijing, which has failed to include loans by state-owned China Development Bank and other government-controlled entities in its official debt totals when dealing with countries seeking debt relief.

"China's participation in DSSI is totally insufficient," Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso told reporters after a G7 teleconference. "I told (the) G7 that we must apply further pressure on China, that DSSI needs to be extended beyond this year-end deadline, and that we must ensure burdens will be shared fairly by all creditors."

Restrictions enacted to combat the coronavirus pandemic, which has infected nearly 32 million people worldwide, have hit poor countries especially hard and threaten to push over 100 million people into extreme poverty. The pandemic will force many countries that already faced crushing debt levels before the crisis to restructure their loans or face default.

G7 ministers acknowledged that some countries will need further relief beyond the current freeze in official bilateral debt payments, and urged the Group of 20 major economies and Paris Club creditors to agree on common terms for restructuring those debts by an Oct. 14 meeting of G20 finance ministers.

"This is not just a liquidity crisis, we need to tackle debt sustainability and go for debt cancellation," said Iolanda Fresnillo at Eurodad, a network of 50 non-governmental organizations from 20 European countries. "By just postponing the payments you are not solving the problems these countries are facing."

Friday's statement reflects growing recognition that the program has fallen short of its targets. The savings made are far short of the $12 billion initially projected, with some 30 eligible countries choosing not to ask for forbearance for fear of harming their ability to borrow in the future.

The ministers said the initiative should be extended "in the context of a request for IMF financing," a nod to the Fund's strict conditions for global lending, and called for development of a new term sheet and memorandum of understanding to improve implementation of the G20 initiative.

That effort should focus on key features for debt treatment beyond the temporary freeze and "fair burden sharing among all creditors," they said.

In addition, all claims classified as 'commercial' under DSSI would be treated as such in future debt treatments and for implementation of IMF policies, the ministers said, a policy that could leave China's lending more exposed in the event of a future restructuring.

"Pressure is mounting on China," said Eric LeCompte, a United Nations finance expert. "They're being very specific here. All Chinese government entities should stop taking debt payments from poor countries."

The ministers called again on private lenders to participate when requested, noting that their absence from the process has limited the potential benefits for several countries.

The G7 finance ministers' backing for an extension will smooth the way for a decision by the larger G20, with a formal decision likely at their leaders' summit in November.

Writing in a tweet, World Bank President David Malpass welcomed the G7's call for an extension, more debt transparency, and action on debt relief beyond just suspension and urged speedy action to help poor countries.

(Reporting by Andrea Shalal in Washington, Tetsushi Kajimoto and Leika Kihara in Tokyo, and Leigh Thomas in Paris; Additional reporting by Takaya Yamaguchi in Tokyo and Marc Jones in London; Editing by Gerry Doyle and Rosalba O'Brien)

THIRD WORLD USA

ER worker leaves void after Covid-19 death

1 OF 200,000 AMERICANS KILLED BY TRUMPVIRUS

© Provided by NBC News

The halls of the Hackensack Meridian Health Palisades Medical Center in North Bergen, New Jersey, do not sound the same without Nancy Martell’s voice echoing down the corridor — a morning staple there for 18 years.

There is now a huge void left at the hospital since Martell, a respected patient care technician, died on on July 12 after a three-month battle with Covid-19.  

© Provided by NBC News Nancy Martell (Courtesy Chris Martell)

She would have turned 59 on Thursday.

"Every day I go to work I'm expecting for her to come walking down the hall,” said Fran Ulloa, a registered nurse who worked alongside Martell in the ICU Unit for most of those 18 years. “You could hear her from the time she would get out of the elevator, so I when I knew she was there, it kind of put my smile on my face. 'Oh good, Nancy's working today.'

“She would come in saying, ‘I’m here now, we can get started.'"

Martell, then Nancy Corales, got started on her journey toward that calling during her childhood in Lima, Peru.

As a young girl, according to family lore, she came upon a badly injured chicken and tried desperately, but unsuccessfully, to save it.

“My grandpa told me that he told my mom that it couldn’t be saved, so I guess from that point on she said she wanted to help make people better,” said her son, Chris, 24, an only child.

“She never took no for an answer. She was always very persistent," he said.

In Peru, Corales made good on her childhood vow, studying to become a nurse, serving as one in the Peruvian Navy, her son said. Later, she continued her studies and became an obstetrician, then wedded her husband, Jorge Martell — a marriage that lasted 24 years.

After her parents and three brothers moved to the United States in search of a better life, Martell and her own family, which now included 11-month-old Chris, followed to New Jersey in 1997. Settling in North Bergen and getting certified as a nurse's assistant, Martell started working at the hospital, then called Palisades Hospital, five years later.

"She didn't want to do the whole process (of getting another medical degree) again from scratch," said her son. "You always have your education, but I guess the education didn't carry over to the U.S."

Martell worked long hours, sometimes arriving late to pick up her son after school, but Chris said he forgot his annoyance as soon as she arrived. "I was always proud of seeing my mother in her uniform," he said.

The work didn't stop at the hospital entrance: Martell also served as a vice president in her union, HPAE local 5030.

"Nancy was very kind. She was always looking out for everyone," said Jolee Matone, another nurse who worked alongside Martell in the ICU Unit. "She was the kind of person if you called her for a helping hand, she would be there if she knew you well or not."

"She was always smiling, always very talkative," added Matone. "She loved her son and was proud of him and always talked about him."

In December, Nancy and Jorge moved to a new home in Teaneck. And Chris, whom co-workers say she always gushed about, graduated from Montclair State University last year.

Martell also moved to the emergency room, where patient care technicians with her experience were in high demand.

Then in March, the first Covid-19 cases hit the hospital. She confided to her son that she was scared over potential exposure, but not enough to stop taking care of her patients. She caught the coronavirus herself sometime at the end of that month, her son said.

Jorge Martell also got sick helping take care of his wife, and for two weeks they were hospitalized together until he recovered. But Nancy, who had struggled with respiratory issues, just wasn't getting better. She was transferred to Hackensack University Medical Center, where she died weeks later.

Chris Martell still gets emotional over the last conversation he had with his mother, shortly before she was placed on a ventilator. He was hungry and called to ask the proper way to make pancakes. His mom, taking care of family until the end, explained when to flip them the right way.

"I told her thanks and I love you," recalls Chris, "and she said, 'I won't be able to talk for awhile because I'll be on a ventilator.'"

"In the last three weeks before her passing she wasn't getting better, she was just getting worse and worse," he added. "So, I guess I already had it my head as a logical person that she was not going to get better.

"But I guess I wasn't prepared for her to pass."

Martell's colleagues weren't either.

"Every day I'm expecting her to come through the door," said Ulloa, "then I have to remind myself she's not coming through the door."

Brown bear breaks into the Alaska Zoo, kills popular alpaca

© Provided by The Canadian Press

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — A wild brown bear tunneled under perimeter fencing and killed a popular alpaca at the Alaska Zoo in Anchorage, officials said Wednesday. It was killed a day later by wildlife officials.

The bear had been hanging around the zoo, knocking over trash bins and breaking bear-proof latches before it got under the fence early Sunday when the facility was closed to the public.

“It went through the zoo and killed our older male alpaca, Caesar,” executive director Patrick Lampi said. “He was a crowd favourite.”

He said the 16-year-old alpaca had arrived at the zoo when he was a year old.

Caesar’s companion, a younger alpaca named Fuzzy Charlie, escaped and was found unharmed.

Alaska Fish and Game officials helped search the zoo for the bear after it killed Caesar. They used forward-looking infrared scopes, but the bear had left the zoo.

“We made sure that all of our animals were where they belong, all our bears were still in their enclosure and our tigers and all the other animals were unharmed,” Lampi said.

Fish and Game officials set up cameras to watch for the bear to return. It was killed the second time it came back.

Lampi said everyone was sorry the bear had to be put down.

“It was kind of a bizarre incident,” he said.

The zoo is located near the foothills of the Chugach Mountains.

“There are occasionally bears in the area but they are usually not a problem,” Lampi said. “This one just had developed some bad habits.”

This isn't the first time a bear has tunneled into the Alaska Zoo, but the outcome of the incident about 20 years ago ended a little differently. Lampi said that bear was captured and relocated to a zoo in Duluth, Minnesota.

Mark Thiessen, The Associated Press

'Not a conservation concern': N.S. Mi'kmaq won't deplete lobster stock, says expert

© Provided by The Canadian Press

HALIFAX — An Indigenous-run lobster fishery off the coast of southwestern Nova Scotia isn't the big environmental threat that it's being made out to be, according to a fisheries expert.

The contentious fishery started by the Sipekne'katik First Nation in St. Marys Bay isn't likely to make a dent in the stocks of the crustacean in the area, Megan Bailey, professor at Dalhousie University's Marine Affairs program, said in a recent interview.

"The scale of the livelihood fishery as it exists right now with 350 traps is not a conservation concern," Bailey said. "With 350 traps, if you multiply that by ten I still don't think it would be a problem."

Mi'kmaq fisherman say non-Indigenous fishers have threatened and intimidated them for their off-season fishery. The Sipekne'katik First Nation says non-Indigenous fishermen removed 350 Mi'kmaq lobster traps from the water last weekend and vandalized equipment and vessels.

Colin Sproul, president of the Bay of Fundy Inshore Fishermen's Association, helped remove the traps. He has said lobster-fishing season in St. Marys Bay doesn't start until the last Monday of November in order to let the animals reproduce and to make sure their stocks aren't depleted.

Mi'kmaq fishermen, however, point to a 1999 Supreme Court decision that affirms their treaty right to fish for a "moderate livelihood." They say that treaty recognizes their right to fish where they want and when they want, regardless of the off-season rules established by the federal government.

As of December 2018, there were 979 lobster licenses issued in the fishing area around St. Marys Bay, according to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, Bailey said. Those numbers show that sustainability of the lobster stocks are not threatened, she added.

"There are a thousand commercial fishing boats fishing 350 traps everyday, more or less, between November and May," she said. The lobster fishery of the Sipekne'katik First Nation, with seven licenses to fish from 350 traps, "is about the equivalent then, of one of those commercial boats."

Bailey has worked with both Mi'kmaq and commercial fishermen for her classes at the university and said the larger concern from both sides comes from a lack of action from the federal government. "Neither side is demonizing the fishing sector, Indigenous or non-Indigenous. It's really about transparency and leadership from the government that's required."

On Friday, Sipekne'katik Chief Mike Sack said his community is working to establish regulations for its fishery. In a news release, Sack called for a meeting with Nova Scotia Premier Stephen McNeil to discuss how to better define what constitutes a "moderate livelihood fishery."

Sack said he recognizes it is currently illegal for people to purchase lobster caught outside the commercial fishing licence system, which is operated by the Fisheries and Oceans Canada Department.

Those regulations, however, run counter to the 1999 Supreme Court decision "that found the Mi'kmaq have a legal right to fish and trade outside the DFO licensing regime."

"Today's call is for an amendment to this flawed system that is a direct infringement of the Mi'kmaq right to trade and sell," Sack said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 25, 2020.

- - -

This story was produced with the financial assistance of the Facebook and Canadian Press News Fellowship.

Danielle Edwards, The Canadian Press

Nova Scotia Lobster Dispute Shows Racism Rooted In Canadian Fishing Industry


Samantha Beattie 

As Hurricane Teddy approached Nova Scotia Tuesday morning, Mi’kmaq fishermen tied up their boats and hunkered down at their campsite, prepared to wait out the storm. 

The approaching Category 2 hurricane was a welcome distraction for Sipekne’katik First Nation after facing days of pushback from non-Indigenous, commercial fishermen against a new, self-regulated lobster fishery in Saulnierville, N.S, said Chief Michael Sack. 

“We’re getting ready for the storm to pass. I think we’re taking this time to regroup and go back at it,” Sack told HuffPost Canada. 

What’s now known as the lobster dispute has played out on the waters of Nova Scotia this past week, with fishermen on both sides, as well as politicians, demanding the federal government intervene. 

The disagreement, however, isn’t just about lobsters, but also the treaty rights of Indigenous people who are striving to earn a living from hunting, gathering and fishing. 

“It’s fishing, but it’s much more than that for us,” Sack said. “It’s stepping up and making sure that other levels of government respect our people.”

At 68, This Is Mark Harmon's Real-Life PartnerSEE MORESponsored by THE INVESTMENT GURU

© Provided by HuffPost Canada Sipekne'katik First Nation community members waved a flag that said,

What’s been going on?

Last week, Sipekne’katik Mi’kmaq launched its fishery at a federal wharf, distributing seven licences to Mi’kmaq fishing boats for a total of 350 traps — less than a single commercial fishing vessel puts out, Sack said. There are 979 inshore lobster licences issued for that region of Nova Scotia. 

The fishery is one way the Sipekne’katik community is hoping to combat poverty, by creating more jobs that pay a living wage in the lucrative lobster industry, said Sack. 

Under their treaty rights, the Mi’kmaq are allowed to fish without restrictions in order to earn a “moderate livelihood,” based on a landmark 1999 Supreme Court ruling, he said.

But the launch of the fishery sparked fierce opposition from non-Indigenous fishermen, who claim it’s illegal to harvest lobster during the current off-season, citing concerns about sustainability.

© Provided by HuffPost Canada Colin Sproul, President of the Bay of Fundy Inshore Fishermen's Association, left, and Bernie Berry, President of the Cold Water Lobster Coalition, posed in front of Mi'kmaw lobster traps they seized in Saulnierville, N.S. on Sept. 20, 2020.


After the ceremony, up to 50 non-Indigenous fishing boats encircled Mi’kmaq boats and reportedly shot emergency flares in their direction. 

“There needs to be a full crackdown on illegal fishing and the sale of illegally harvested fish immediately,” said Martin Mallet, executive director of the Maritime Fishermen’s Union in a statement that called for the federal government’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) to intervene.

“More enforcement, bigger fines and more serious penalties need to be put on the table right now,” Mallet said, adding that fishermen were “peacefully” protesting the Indigenous lobster traps. 

The RCMP arrested two people at the wharf on assault charges following ugly confrontations on Friday, as non-Indigenous fishers continued to monitor the mouth of the harbour. 

On Sunday, the situation escalated as non-Indigenous fishermen on about 100 boats removed Mi’kmaq lobster traps off the western coast of the province.

“They’re trying to disconnect the Natives from any resources,” said Sack of the non-Indigenous fishermen. “They’re putting pressure on people who sell fuel, bait, gear. They’re threatening to boycott them if they do any business with us.”

The Assembly of Nova Scotia Mi’kmaw Chiefs described these actions as “harassment” and “racism” in a statement Monday. The assembly also enacted a state of emergency because of the “violence occurring over Mi’kmaq fisheries across the province.” 
What’s the Supreme Court ruling about? 

Twenty-one years ago, the Supreme Court ruled that the Mi’kmaq had the right to fish “in pursuit of a moderate livelihood” where and when they want without a licence. The Marshall Decision was rooted in the 1760s Peace and Friendship Treaties and is protected by the Canadian Constitution. 

If the DFO wanted to regulate Mi’kmaq fishing, it would have to conduct meaningful consultations about any proposed limitations with the community, lawyer Bruce Wildsmith, a retired Dalhousie University law professor, told CBC Radio’s Jeff Douglas. 

“Consultation would be central to any regulation,” said Wildsmith, who has represented Mi’kmaq in treaty cases, including in the Marshall Decision. “That consultation has never taken place.” 

Both sides agree the federal government has dropped the ball by not defining what a “moderate livelihood” means or setting restrictions. 

© Provided by HuffPost Canada Sipekne'katik First Nation boats in Saulnierville, N.S. on Sept. 20, 2020.


“Fishermen care about the future sustainability of the fishery and they expect DFO to step up and enforce the rules across the board,” says O’Neil Cloutier, director of Regroupement des pêcheurs professionnels du sud de la Gaspésie, representing inshore fishermen in Quebec, in a statement signed by fishermen associations across eastern Canada. 

The Sipekne’katik First Nation said that after two decades of waiting for the DFO to recognize its treaty right to harvest and sell fish, and seeing little movement, it’s taking control. 

“We trust the lobster industry and DFO to respect our processes, which are intended to be of mutual benefit and to resolve and bring certainty to a long-standing constitutional breach,” it said in a statement.

The Assembly of First Nations echoed these remarks. 

“The alarming escalation is a direct result of inaction by Minister Bernadette Jordan and (the DFO),” said National Chief Perry Bellegarde in a statement. 

“There must be no delay in ensuring and protecting the safety and security of First Nations fishers and their constitutional and treaty rights to fish.” 

© Provided by HuffPost Canada Minister of the Department of Oceans and Fisheries Bernadette Jordan at Rideau Hall in Ottawa on Jan.14, 2019.

What’s the federal government doing now?

Jordan and Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations Carolyn Bennett met with the Assembly of Nova Scotia Mi’kmaw Chiefs on Monday, and affirmed the Marshall Decision “that Mi’kmaw have a constitutionally protected treaty right to fish in pursuit of a moderate livelihood,” they said in a joint statement. 

“We share the concerns of the Assembly Chiefs for the safety of their people. There is no place for the threats, intimidation, or vandalism that we have witnessed in South West Nova Scotia. This is unacceptable.” 

The Canadian Coast Guard, RCMP and public safety officials are patrolling the sea, land and air to respond to any dangerous situations. 

“Reconciliation is a Canadian imperative and we all have a role to play in it,” the ministers’ statement said. “What is occurring does not advance this goal, nor does it support the implementation of First Nation treaty rights, or a productive and orderly fishery.” 

They said they are going to have future conversations with First Nations leaders about their treaty rights. 

Sack was skeptical the federal government would follow through on its promise, or help them stand up to non-Indigenous fishermen. 

“It was bagged,” the chief said. “Until they actually implement it, it’s kind of just lip service.”

To Native Americans, reparations can vary from having sovereignty to just being heard

© ABC News Corrina Gould, a member of the Ohlone People in San Francisco's Bay Area, is currently fighting to prevent developers from building on a shell mound, a former burial ground for her people.

© Provided by ABC NewsThis report is part of "Turning Point," a groundbreaking month-long series by ABC News examining the racial reckoning sweeping the United States and exploring whether it can lead to lasting reconciliation.

In Oklahoma, the people of the Muscogee Creek Nation Reservation have just won their long-standing fight for sovereignty. In San Francisco, the Ohlone are fighting for a land to call their own. And in upstate New York, the Iroquois people are demanding that the true history of the United States is told and that the treaties they signed hundreds of years ago are recognized.

Native Americans across what is now the United States have been fighting for their land and culture ever since Juan Ponce de León became the first European to invade the country in Florida in 1513. For those living today, reparations come in many forms, as that which was taken away from them over the years varies as well.

“I don’t think there is a one-size-fits-all policy of reparations for Indian tribes in the U.S.,” Matthew Fletcher, a foundation professor of law at Michigan State University, told “Nightline.” “There are 574 federally recognized tributes. They are all unique and individual.”
New York Natives ask for their stories to be told

New York City is one of the most populated urban areas for Native Americans with 110,000 living throughout its five boroughs. Interdisciplinary artist Ty Defoe, who lives in Brooklyn, is hoping his art and performances will give a voice to Native Americans and their history.

“We learn it through a specific lens, and that lens is a white, Westernized, [Euro-centralized] lens perpetuating myths of colonizers as heroes and Native people as evil villains and devil worshippers,” he told “Nightline.” “So I think what’s really important to underscore is, how are we learning this information.”

© ABC News Ty Defoe, an artist, performer and activist, is a member of the Ojibwe and Oneida Nation who now lives in New York City.

He said New York City is full of images that portray Native Americans and settlers together, such as the one seen on the city’s seal. But when looking at them, he says “there’s a lack of information” regarding the Native American narrative, whereas a person seeing it will most likely know the story of the settlers.

© Rob Kim/Getty Images A statue of Christopher Columbus is pictured at Columbus Circle in New York City, June 15, 2020.

Similarly, he says the statue of Christopher Columbus standing atop the pillar at the center of the city’s Columbus Circle represents “rape” and “murder,” and that it “needs to come down.” The city currently has no plan to remove the statue.

“A symbol like that is saying that we don’t believe you," Defoe said, referring to those who support keeping the statue. "[Native Americans] believe that this person discovered something that was already inhabited by people with large cultural systems, values and missions. That is like Big Brother taking a hand and saying, ‘You do not exist.’”

“I think that with land being stolen, language being wiped away, there was a silencing that was occurring,” he added. “And it almost is strategic genocide when you sort of think about history and what has happened. But what I think is important is that our voices are heard.”

© ABC News Ty Defoe, a member of the Ojibwe and Oneida Nations, says the statue of Christopher Columbus in New York City represents "murder" and "rape," and that it "needs to come down."

For urban Natives like Defoe, the American Indian Community House (AICH) has become a sanctuary.

AICH’s executive director Melissa Lakowi:he’ne' Oakes said her organization represents up to 72 different tribal nations across New York City. Oakes said the lack of space has been one of the biggest obstacles for her organization.

“Fifty-one years since we've been established, and we're having a hard time maintaining space. ... We're basically couch surfing with another organization in Chinatown because we can't afford real estate,” Oakes, a member of the Mohawk Nation, told “Nightline.”

To address their lack of funding, AICH has teamed up with settlers in creating the Manna-hatta Fund, a voluntary “land tax” provided by non-natives as a form of solidarity.   

   

© ABC News Melissa Oakes is a member of the Mohawk Nation and executive director of the American Indian Community House in New York City.

Oakes believes the lack of space has contributed to a lack of visibility for those she represents.

“Our culture is our strongest trait,” she added. “If you lack that as a Native and go out into these urban spaces … it’s almost unhealthy. We’re on Native land and we don’t see ourselves anywhere, and that becomes a constant reminder of genocide, just another constant reminder of [the] erasure of our people.”

Video: Native American woman in NYC says her culture, traditions ‘are still living’

Oakes asked that those who are concerned about the welfare of Natives in North America reach out to organizations like hers and engage in deeper conversations about allyship.

In upstate New York, on the shores of the Saint Lawrence River, Iroquois elder Kanasaraken, whose English name is Loran Thompson, gathered with his longtime friends Ateronhiata:kon and Tekarontake.

Video: Native American elder on his fight to retain ownership of his homeland

Kanasaraken was part of the first American Indian, Native and Indigenous delegation to the United Nations that advocated for the passing of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People in 1977. The declaration, adopted in 2007, provided a universal framework of minimum standards for the survival, dignity and wellbeing of indigenous people around the world.  

 

© ABC News Kanasaraken, whose English name is Loran Thompson, is a member of the St. Regis Mohawk Nation. He talked to "Nightline" about his reservation, which straddles the U.S.-Canada border.

“Our people have fought for generations just to hang onto the land, just to hang onto our status as free and independent people, regardless of how small we are,” Kanasaraken told “Nightline.”

The Iroquois Confederacy, which straddles the border between upstate New York and Canada, comprises six tribal nations. The St. Regis Mohawk territory, of which Kanasaraken is a member, is one of the five original nations. The Confederacy is also one of the world’s oldest democracies.

Video: Iroquois elders discuss the importance of their history

MORE: Native American tribe says sovereignty allows checkpoints

Kanasaraken was once a Mohawk Nation chief and is currently the spokesperson for the Bear Clan of Akwesasne. He was also involved in several other land disputes with government agencies over the years, including the Oka Crisis of the 1990s, when protests erupted against companies attempting to build golf courses on an ancestral burial site on the Canadian side of the reservation. Ateronhiata:kon and Tekarontake participated in the protests as well.

Oakes, who remembers the crisis, said that she looks up to Kanasaraken’s generation because it has always been there “fending for our land and people.”

Oakes told “Nightline” she respects Kanasaraken for advocating for the freedom and recognition of Indigenous People and helping the younger generation.

“These kinds of things, the knowledge and the wisdom from the generation before us … this is who we are,” she said. “All these teachings from our elders … they are irreplaceable.”  

  

© ABC News Kanasaraken, whose English name is Loran Thompson, is a member of the St. Regis Mohawk Nation. He was part of the first delegation to the United Nations advocating for Native sovereignty.

Kanasaraken said the United States owes it to its people to tell its full history, honestly.

“Somewhere in this world, there’s going to be people that are gonna open their eyes and ears and put pressure on the oppressors of North America, and make them respect the original peoples of this land,” he said. “America owes its people, more so than me, it owes its people the truth as it actually is. Right from the first day [that] we met on the shores of the ocean all the way through to correct history, because all of the history that you’re being told in the public schools, it’s all lopsided.”

Reclaiming land lost long ago in California

Most tribes from outside of the original 13 colonies have some form of a treaty recognized by the United States, which gives them peace, land jurisdiction, natural resource rights and protection by the United States. The United States signed nearly 400 treaties with Native tribes before the Indian Appropriations Act of 1871, which made all Native tribes that had signed treaties beforehand “wards of the state.” Those that have come forward afterward have had to qualify through the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Department of Interior -- a long and arduous process.

Fletcher says that there were over 100 tribes, mostly in California, that had drafted treaties with the federal government but were never ratified -- a “historical accident,” he said. Many of these tribes are still not federally recognized and have not been granted their land back or federal funding.

The Ohlone People, who once populated much of the Northern California coast, are one of these unrecognized tribes.

“Folks like us, the Lisjan, we don’t have a land base,” said Corrina Gould, a member of the Lisjan Ohlone. “So we’re homeless in our own lands, on our own territories.”  

  

© ABC News Corrina Gould, co-founder of Indian People Organizing for Change, talks to "Nightline" at the former site of a shell mound in Berkeley, California, where people with the Ohlone People used to be buried.

Gould and others in her tribe have been working to reclaim a piece of land in Berkeley, California, that was once a burial and ceremonial site for her ancestors -- called a shell mound. It’s one of many that existed in the Bay Area of San Francisco.

Although it’s now being used as a parking lot, the site was designated a Berkeley City landmark in 2002. On Thursday, the National Trust for Historic Preservation announced that it had placed the shell mound site on its 2020 list of America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places.

“We actually started fighting for this site over 20 years ago,” Gould, co-founder of the Sogorea Te’ Land Trust and Indian People Organizing for Change, told “Nightline.” “We’re fighting for this little postage stamp in the Bay Area.”

Like Oakes’ AICH, part of the funding for the land trust comes from a voluntary gift from local non-native residents, which the Ohlone call Shuumi.MORE: Reparations for slavery: Is Asheville a national model?

She said her people’s “dream” would be to preserve the space and to use it to keep their traditions alive.

“We’re at this point right now where people are in the streets asking for the truth of history to be told,” she said. “No matter where you are in the United States, you're on stolen indigenous land. And it's important to find out what your history is and what's your connection; who are those first people on whose land you're settled on? What was their language? What is their language? What is the name of them? And how then is it your responsibility to work and engage with those people?” she told Nightline.

Until now, the Ohlone People have relied on donated sites like the Sogorea Te’ Land Trust, a Native women-led organization, to hold community events and ceremonies. “The trust gives us a way to take care of land and to re-engage it in a sovereign kind of way,” said Gould.  

© ABC News Corrina Gould, a member of the Lisjan Ohlone People, is the co-founder of the Sogorea Te’ Land Trust, a Native woman-led organization that facilitates the return of indigenous land to indigenous people.

Part of their journey includes reviving their Native language. Gould said her great grandfather was the last Chochenyo language speaker. Others in her family and community lost the language over the course of decades as a result of assimilation policies that began in the late 19th century, when Natives were forced to attend government- and church-operated boarding schools. These policies were implemented as part of the Natives’ treaty obligations.

Gould’s daughter, who has been able to learn Chochenyo, is now the language holder of the tribe and has been teaching her family and tribal members at the land trust.

Gould says there will be justice for her people when her descendants don’t have to tell stories of their history being erased. As part of their land battle, she emphasized that the Native connection to the land is one that’s familial. Most Native people consider land to be part of their family, which is why they often call it “mother earth.”

“We need to bring balance back to the earth so that when we leave this place, the next seven generations have clean air and clean water and good soil to grow food,” she said.

Still, even indigenous nations that have signed treaties have had trouble remaining sovereign.
The Supreme Court affirms indigenous sovereignty in Oklahoma

Just this summer, the Supreme Court ruled in a 5-4 decision that the Muscogee Creek Nation in Oklahoma should have jurisdiction over all native people within its borders -- the state had previously been prosecuting natives for crimes committed on the reservation.

“Today we are asked whether the land these treaties promised remains an Indian reservation for purposes of federal criminal law,” Justice Neil M. Gorsuch wrote in the majority opinion. “Because Congress has not said otherwise, we hold the government to its word.”

“I still get goosebumps thinking about that day, because it was a day we got to celebrate,” JoEtta Toppah, assistant attorney general of the Muscogee Creek Nation, told “Nightline.”  

  

© ABC News JoEtta Toppah is the assistant attorney general of the Muscogee Creek Nation in Oklahoma.MORE: Supreme Court holds much of Oklahoma is Native American land

She says that since the Supreme Court’s ruling on McGirt v. Oklahoma, her caseload has tripled, causing her to seek additional staff to manage it and lobbying for additional funding from the federal government. She’s appreciative of the additional work, though, as it acknowledges the independence of her people.

“It gives us our right to the land,” she said. “Some of the biggest factors for a tribe are its people, its language, the culture and the land. So the land is a huge piece. And so, these cases are in essence giving the tribes a part of what makes their political government, their sovereign government, exist.”

The U.S. holds approximately 56 million acres of land in trust for various Native American tribes and individuals, according to the Department of Interior’s Bureau of Land Management.

Melody McCoy, a member of the Cherokee Nation and attorney with the Native American Rights Fund, said the way in which their land has been taken away over the years is like a folding napkin.

“The napkin gets folded and the U.S. comes to the tribes and says, ‘You know what, you don't really need all that land. ... and it goes on and on until there is such little left.” But what happened with the Supreme Court in the McGirt case is that the original napkin that was promised to the tribe is now guaranteed again.

McCoy says the case also “sets a precedent for all tribes that have treaties or acts of Congress that have promised them homelands.”

“Those homelands are extremely important,” she said. “Second, probably, only to the sovereignty itself of tribes.”

McCoy represented 13 of the 17 tribes that, in 2016, settled with former President Barack Obama's administration for $492 million for the mismanagement of natural resources and tribal assets  

  

© ABC News Melody McCoy is a member of the Cherokee Nation and an attorney with the Native American Rights Fund.

Much of the land in Oklahoma became occupied by Native Americans after President Andrew Jackson authorized U.S. troops to evict tens of thousands of Native Americans from their homelands in the southeast U.S. and escort them west of the Mississippi River.

The Cherokee, Muscogee Creek, Seminole and Choctaw were among many other tribes that were forced to walk west on a path they called the “Trail of Tears.” However, even after their relocation, their land continued to be taken.

Today, while many people might say that “half of Oklahoma is Indian country,” Toppah says that’s incorrect -- at least not yet. “It will be,” she said, “and we all believe that. But for today, from the Supreme Court ruling, it’s the Muscogee Creek Nation Reservation.”

But even if the other tribal nations of Oklahoma have their treaties affirmed, they would not have jurisdiction over everyone -- just natives.

“On the civil side for the homes and landowners, you own your home still,” Toppah said. It's just like when you pay taxes to the county or the tax assessor. They don't own your home, you own it. You're just paying the taxes to them… It’s the same case here.”  

  

© ABC News JoEtta Toppah, assistant attorney general of the Muscogee Creek Nation, shows "Nightline" a map of the tribe's sovereign land.

Still, the jurisdiction could apply to local taxes, which would help provide additional funding to the reservation. Toppah noted that the reservation employs and houses non-Natives in its casinos and hospitals.

Fletcher says the McGirt case “shows how the Supreme Court should behave, which [is] as lawyers [and] as judges, not as policymakers.”

Principal Chief of the Muscogee Nation David Hill is still processing the impact of the Supreme Court ruling. The leader of the fourth largest tribe in the U.S., who was sworn in just this year, said he hopes the Supreme Court made its decision based on the constitution deeming all treaties made by the federal government as the “supreme law of the land.”  

  

© ABC News Principal Chief David Hill of the Muscogee Creek Nation talks to "Nightline" about his family history. His ancestors survived the Trail of Tears, which was named by the Cherokee to describe a forced relocation of Native Americans.

“There are some people that still don’t realize that we are here,” he said. “We are a nation. We still have a government.”

Hill grew up not seeing any difference between his Muscogee Creek heritage and being an Oklahoman, he said. He’s proud to be both, he said, and his family history is rich, with relatives that served in different branches of the military over the years and a great-great-grandmother who walked on the Trail of Tears, named Hotoje Avanaki  

.

© ABC News Principal Chief David Hill of the Muscogee Creek Nation points to a picture of his great grandmother, who he said lived during the U.S. government's forced relocation of Native Americans in the 1800s, known as the "Trail of Tears."

Hill’s great grandfather, Charley Coker, was also part of the group that went to the U.S. Capitol in 1906 as Congress debated Oklahoma’s statehood. Coker, along with Chitti Harjo, a Muscogee Creek leader known for his anti-allotment views testified in front of a Select Committee of the Senate against individual land allotment policies.

By the time his tenure as principal chief is over, Hill said he hopes the economic development among his citizens will have improved and that the Muscogee Creek Nation has a better working relationship with the state of Oklahoma and America overall. He said that he hopes his future grandkids don’t have to struggle with the same issues he’s dealing with now. “Everything would be set in stone,” he said. “That’s my goal.”