Our thoughts and prayers are with Sulphur, Holdenville, and our other Oklahoma and Indian Country communities following this weekend’s deadly tornado outbreak.
Hi there, Verified News Community. I’m VNN’s Brittany Harlow.
Thanks for joining me for our quick April News Byte.
We’ve expanded VNN’s news coverage goals this month, including our efforts to promote Oklahoma’s untold Native American history.
Our latest work in this space is an in-depth report on Eastern Oklahoma’s probate scandal, which details the legalized theft system used to dispossess tens of thousands of Native Americans of their land, oil and mineral rights.
As Oklahoma closes the book on another year of ‘89er Day” celebrations, the real history of the land continues to be overlooked by most, including the state’s governor.
Our expanded coverage also includes enhanced election efforts leading up to the Osage News Congressional Election, the Tulsa Mayoral Election, and the US Presidential Election, thanks to support from an Advancing Democracy fellowship.
As part of this effort, VNN kept time at the Osage Congressional debates and covered a town hall featuring the Tulsa Mayoral candidates.
As a Native-owned social news media company, we’re focusing on covering this election season with a focus on Indigenous perspective, so if you are Native American, please take our brief survey to share your thoughts on what is important to you!
In other political news, Oklahoma domestic violence survivors were offered hope this month, but saw it quickly dampened by a veto from the governor.
The Oklahoma Survivors’ Act passed the Senate and House with mostly all in favor. If made into law, it would allow survivors who commit crimes related to abuse to have their sentences reduced. After the Senate overrode the Governor’s veto, advocates for the bill are now encouraging the House to do the same.
In another blow to justice, the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals ruled the Osage Reservation is still disestablished. The Osage Nation has countered the court’s ruling, saying Congress never officially disestablished the Reservation.
Of course, it wasn’t all conflict between powerful parties this month.
In this month’s Native Commerce News segment, economic leaders from the Choctaw Nation and the Durant Chamber of Commerce spoke with VNN about the benefits of collaboration and the upcoming Gathering Business Summit, held every year by the American Indian Chamber of Commerce of Oklahoma.
And in other collaborative news, two more Choctaw students graduated from the University College Cork in Ireland this spring, in a continued partnership between the Choctaw Nation and the Republic of Ireland.
Speaking of graduates, VNN published an update to our Citizen Journalism Project this April.
We described the classroom full of community influencers that traveled from across the State of Oklahoma to learn about news and media. Exciting times as we strive to further develop this program this year.
That’s all for this month’s newscast. We have so much more available in the VNN newsfeed. Download our free app to your home screen, register your free account, and make our diverse content part of your news routine.
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Thanks for another great month, Verified News Community. We’ll see you back here in May for some of our biggest news yet!