ATCHISON, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas district has decided to ditch its “Redmen" and “Braves" mascots after public opinion shifted.

EVANSVILLE, Ind. (AP) — The remains of more than 700 Native Americans have been returned to burial grounds in southwestern Indiana.

Indiana University completed repatriation of the remains to Angel Mounds State Historic Site from the school’s Glenn A. Black Laboratory of Archaeology, the Evansville Courier & Press reported Saturday.

DURANGO, Colo. (AP) — Throughout the history of the West, it’s commonly accepted that the grizzled, one-armed Civil War major and geologist John Wesley Powell was the first to journey by river into the treacherous and unknown depths of the Grand Canyon.

But is it possible, or even likely, Native Americans had long preceded Powell in floating down the big ditch?

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A bill signed into law by Kansas Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly will make it a misdemeanor to trespass near oil and gas pipelines.

The bill Kelly signed last week gained bipartisan support in the state Senate, but drew criticism from some House Democrats, including two Native American legislators who said the bill targets Native American protestors like those who opposed the Dakota Access oil pipeline, the subject of months of sometimes-violent protests in 2016 and 2017.

GLEN ROCK, Pa. (AP) — A school board in southern Pennsylvania voted to keep the name of the Susquehannock High School mascot the “Warriors,” but will drop an image meant to portray a Native American fighter.

The school board for the Southern York County School District made the decision in a 7-2 vote on Thursday, The York Dispatch reported.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Lee Howard Marmon, a self-taught photographer from Laguna Pueblo whose photographs are in galleries and museums around the world, has died.

He was 95.

The Albuquerque Journal reported Thursday that Marmon died March 31 of natural causes at a veterans home in Albuquerque.

MILWAUKEE (AP) — A lawsuit filed Thursday by a Madison couple and others alleges that a college grant program for minorities violates the Wisconsin Constitution.

The complaint said grants offered by the state’s Higher Educational Aids Board are available to some minorities but not to others. Konkanok Rabiebna and Richard Freihoefer, of Madison, say their biracial teenage son is not eligible for the grant program.

MISSION, Kan. (AP) — Leaders of a nearly all-white northwest Missouri school district have narrowly voted to keep the high school's “Savages” nickname but will phase out the use of Native American imagery.

PHOENIX (AP) — The Arizona Legislature late Monday approved a key part of a plan that will provide new opportunities for gambling at casinos owned by Native American tribes and for the first time allow sports betting both on and off reservations.

The Senate approved a bill passed last month by the House, sending it to Gov. Doug Ducey who negotiated the package and urged lawmakers to approve it.

OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — The Washington Legislature has approved a measure to ban the use of Native American names, symbols and images as school mascots, logos and team names at most public schools in Washington.

GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. (AP) — A summit of a Massachusetts mountain with a literary connection is being renamed, along with one of its trails, after outcry from Native American groups that call the area home.

Indian Monument Trail is being renamed the Mohican Monument Trail, and Squaw Peak, a summit of Monument Mountain, is now Peeskawso Peak, according to a Friday announcement from the Trustees of Reservations, a conservation group that oversees the land.

RAPID CITY, S.D. (AP) — Grassroots organizers are planning to open the first Indigenous-led community school in Rapid City which will be focused on building educational equity for Native American students.

After two years of attempting to pass legislation that would establish and fund such schools in South Dakota, the NDN Collective organization is taking steps to open the school in the fall of 2022 with 40 kindergarten students.

OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — The Washington Senate has approved a measure to ban the use of Native American names, symbols and images as school mascots, logos and team names at most public schools in Washington.

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — Tribal leaders on Monday welcomed Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham's signature of a bill that will increase funding for schools serving Native American and military communities across New Mexico.

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham on Monday signed into law legislation that prohibits discrimination based on traditional hairstyles and head coverings.

The “Crown Act,” as it’s known nationally, was conceived as a measure to protect African Americans from discrimination based on natural or traditional hairstyles. In New Mexico, the bill was crafted to be more inclusive and won support from a broader coalition, including Native American and religious advocates.

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — The Choctaw Nation on Monday announced plans to provide COVID-19 vaccines to the general public, becoming the latest Oklahoma-based tribe to expand vaccine distribution beyond just tribal citizens.

The Durant-based tribe also announced it is partnering with a new national database, Dr. B, that allows people to be put on standby to receive unused doses of the vaccine.

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — Fewer bison migrated out of Yellowstone National Park this winter than in years past, leading officials to drop plans to capture and remove some of the animals as part of a population control program.

Almost 170 bison were shot by hunters just outside the park, down from more than 200 animals last year, The Billings Gazette reports.

About 260 of the burly animals were shipped to slaughter last year.

BELLINGHAM, Wash. (AP) — Rena Priest, a member of the Lummi Nation and a Bellingham writer, has become the first Native American poet to serve as Washington state’s poet laureate.

Gov. Jay Inslee appointed Priest to be the state’s sixth poet laureate, the Washington State Arts Commission and Humanities Washington announced Thursday.

ROCK HILL, S.C. (AP) — The Catawba Indian Nation will now offer COVID-19 vaccines to other Native American tribe members and their families.

South Carolina’s only federally recognized tribe has received vaccine supply directly from the federal government and administers the shots through its on-site clinic at its Rock Hill reservation.

HELENA, Mont. (AP) — The Montana House has killed legislation aimed at making it easier for Native Americans living on reservations to vote.

The bill would have required counties to maintain an alternate election office on reservations and negotiate days and operating hours with tribes. It would put into law the provisions of a 2014 settlement in a voting rights lawsuit that required three counties to open satellite voting offices on reservations twice a week in the month before Election Day.

MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) — Legislators in the Vermont House have unanimously supported a resolution apologizing to all Vermonters and their families and descendants who were harmed by state-sanctioned eugenics policies and practices that led to sterilizations.

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Pamela Cashwell, a veteran North Carolina state agency administrator and former federal prosecutor, was appointed on Wednesday by Gov. Roy Cooper as the Department of Administration secretary.

Cashwell, a chief deputy secretary and senior policy adviser at the Department of Public Safety, will become the first Native American woman to lead a Cabinet agency in North Carolina, Cooper's office said.

HELENA, Mont. (AP) — The Montana House narrowly advanced a bill Monday that seeks to make it easier for Native Americans to vote, even as Republican lawmakers are pushing election restrictions.

The bill aims to reduce travel time for tribal members to access voting services by requiring at least one satellite elections office to be available on each reservation in the state – with the same services as county elections offices – at least 30 days before election day.

PHOENIX (AP) — Arizona has a new state holiday.

Gov. Doug Ducey signed a bill Monday to honor Native Americans who used their language to transmit coded messages during World War II.

Arizona has recognized code talkers by proclamation and through legislation for years. The bill sponsored by state Sen. Jamescita Peshlakai makes Aug. 14 a state holiday. It will be observed on a Sunday when state offices already are closed.

HELENA, Mont. (AP) — Montana’s Senate is moving forward with a bill to end same-day voter registration.

The bill to close voter registration at noon on the Monday prior to a primary or general election day was endorsed 32-18 on second reading Tuesday.

It faces third reading in the Senate and must return to the House for approval of an amendment that would make the lkaw take effect immediately upon approval.

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — The head of North Dakota's Indian Affairs Commission is stepping down, Gov. Doug Burgum announced Monday.

Scott Davis has been executive director of the commission since 2009, when he was appointed by then-Gov. John Hoeven. Davis plans to join Sanford Health as head of Native American outreach.

Davis has served three governors, 23 tribal chairs and five tribal nations. He has also worked with numerous state and federal agencies in his cabinet-level position.

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — A Minnesota Senate committee on Wednesday approved a Republican plan to restore a statue of Christopher Columbus to the Capitol grounds, where it was torn down by demonstrators last summer.

The Senate’s State Government Committee voted to repair and return the statue, an idea that one Democratic lawmaker called a “giant slap in the face” to Native Americans. The full Senate is likely to debate and vote on the measure in the coming weeks.

SUPERIOR, Ariz. (AP) — U.S. Rep. Raul Grijalva has introduced a bill to keep the U.S. Forest Service from turning over land in Arizona for a massive copper mine.

The parcel of land in the Tonto National Forest east of Phoenix was set to be transferred to Resolution Copper this week. But the Biden administration recently pulled back an environmental review that cleared the way for the land exchange so it could further consult with Native American tribes.

PHOENIX (AP) — Some Democrats in the Arizona House on Thursday raised transparency and fairness questions about a major expansion of gambling Republican Gov. Doug Ducey needs as part of his thus-far secret deal with Native American tribes to update their gambling compact.

OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — The use of Native American names, symbols and images would be banned from being used as school mascots, logos and team names at most public schools in Washington under a bill passed Tuesday by the state House of Representatives.

The measure passed with a bipartisan 92-5 vote and now heads to the Senate for consideration.