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People on the move in Indian Country

12 October 2026 Tribal Business News Staff

This latest People on the Move highlights leadership changes across Native banking, federal contracting, education, philanthropy, law, the arts and community development.

Bipartisan bill would let tribes redistribute unused veterans housing vouchers

09 Oct

A bipartisan bill to allow tribes greater flexibility in housing their veterans has been introduced in the House of Representatives.

Seminole Tribe sues DraftKings over alleged illegal sports betting in Florida

October 09

The Seminole Tribe of Florida sued DraftKings and CEO Jason Robins on Oct. 8, seeking to shut down products it alleges constitute illegal sports betting and divert revenue from its gaming operations...

Alaska tribes establish conservation district to advance stewardship, access federal resources

October 09

An intertribal commission and its member tribes have completed an agreement with the Department of Agriculture intended to strengthen land stewardship, habitat protection and coordinated resource...

Siletz coastal land return builds on broader reclamation effort

October 09

A small stretch of Oregon’s central coast is returning to tribal stewardship after more than a century and a half as part of a long effort to restore lands once taken from the Siletz Indians.

Four tribes partner with Kalshi, widening split over prediction markets

Four tribal nations are partnering with prediction-market operator KalshiEX LLC to develop new revenue sources, breaking with tribal gaming operations fighting the company’s sports-event contracts...

Sponsored Storytelling

Tribes Built the Gaming Industry. Who Will Lead it Next?

Tribal nations built a $46.2 billion gaming industry. Preparing more Native professionals to lead it will require education, mentorship and real opportunities to advance.

Fifth annual Great Lakes Tribal Economic Summit to examine how tribal projects get done

Economic Development

MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. — Tribal leaders, economic development professionals, finance executives and development partners will gather Oct. 6–7 in Mount Pleasant for the fifth annual Great Lakes Tribal Economic Summit, focused on how tribal priorities become financed, constructed and operating projects.

From powwow concessions to a growing Native-owned hospitality brand

Indigenous Entrepreneurs

For many restaurant startups, a food truck is the first step toward opening a brick-and-mortar location. For Indigenous Eats, it happened in reverse.

Oweesta closes first NMTC deal with $16M for Spirit Lake health clinic

Finance

Oweesta Corp. closed its first New Markets Tax Credit transaction, providing $16 million in allocation toward a $73.4 million health clinic for the Spirit Lake Nation in North Dakota.

Michigan Tribal Communities are Driving Tourism On Their Own Terms

Sponsored Storytelling

For generations, the Anishinaabe of the Bay Mills Indian Community (Gnoozhekaaning) have passed their histories on through oral storytelling. Today, that tradition of narrative ownership is taking a...

CFTC seeks prediction-market rule changes as tribes challenge sports wagers

Gaming

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has sent two proposed regulatory changes to the White House that could strengthen its effort to regulate prediction markets, as tribes and states challenge sports event contracts.

Murray, Cortez Masto reintroduce bill to expand food assistance for tribal households

Food | Agriculture

Sens. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., reintroduced legislation that would expand nutrition assistance for tribal households by allowing eligible families to receive benefits through two federal food programs in the same month.

Supreme Court declines Chinook bid for federal recognition through courts

Sovereignty

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear the Chinook Indian Nation’s petition on whether federal courts can recognize Indian tribes.

Coquille Indian Tribe to receive ownership of Bandon memorial site

Real Estate

The Coquille Indian Tribe will take ownership of the Na-So-Mah Memorial Garden, a quarter-acre site marking an ancestral tribal village in Bandon, Ore., under a land transfer approved by Port of Bandon commissioners Sept. 15.

Tribes looking beyond gaming and geography for revenue

Sponsored Storytelling

For decades, gaming has been a primary revenue source for tribal nations, funding housing, healthcare, education, infrastructure and other essential services while creating jobs and economic...

Native Hawaiian-owned Shearwater, TekSynap launch federal IT joint venture

Native Contracting

Shearwater, a Native Hawaiian Organization-owned federal contractor, and TekSynap have launched ShearTek Government Services, a joint venture that will pursue federal technology contracts.

California woman fined $10K after admitting to selling counterfeit Native jewelry

Arts and Culture

A San Francisco woman was ordered to pay a $10,000 fine after pleading guilty to selling counterfeit Native American jewelry falsely marketed as authentic work by Native artists, federal prosecutors said.

ASU renames tribal policy institute, expands digital and leadership programs

Higher Education

Arizona State University has renamed its American Indian Policy Institute the Tribal Nations Policy Institute, a change its leaders say better reflects its work with tribal governments and their citizens.

AI, Genomics, and Tribal Sovereignty: Native Nations Need to Prepare for the Next Frontier

Sponsored Storytelling

As artificial intelligence (AI) and precision medicine transform healthcare and scientific research, Indigenous leaders say tribal nations must prepare to govern one of their most valuable...

Disney Cruise Line signs 15-year agreement with Huna Totem for Icy Strait Point

Tourism

Disney Cruise Line and Huna Totem Corporation have signed a 15-year agreement securing Disney ship calls at the Alaska Native corporation's Icy Strait Point through at least 2041, extending a partnership that provides long-term passenger traffic for the Indigenous-owned cruise destination.

Jicarilla Apache Nation launches geothermal study with $2.5 million state grant

Energy | Environment

The Jicarilla Apache Nation has begun a nine‑month geothermal feasibility study funded by a $2.5 million New Mexico grant to assess potential electricity generation and direct heating on tribal lands.

Gila River invests $25M in tribal-land medical school to build physician workforce

Health Care

Gila River Health Care will invest more than $25 million to establish a University of Arizona medical school branch on the Gila River Indian Community, a long-term workforce investment aimed at training and retaining physicians within tribal and rural health systems.

The Insects Moved Faster Than the Paperwork

Opinion | Op-Ed

Guest Essay. In the summer of 2019, a fire started along Interstate 5 in southern Oregon, at a spot the highway signs mark as Milepost 97. It burned into the forest that the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians had regained only the year before, when Congress placed more than 17,000 acres of the tribe’s ancestral homeland in trust for it. 1 The fire destroyed about 3,600 of those acres and damaged more than 45 million board feet of timber.

Why Infrastructure Stewardship Starts With Knowing What You Own

Sponsored Storytelling

Sponsored Storytelling. Tribal governments invest millions of dollars in clinics, administrative buildings, public safety facilities and other community infrastructure. Before leaders decide what to...

Treasury tribal affairs office undergoes leadership change as founding director departs

Policy and Law

Fatima Abbas has left the U.S. Treasury Department office responsible for coordinating tribal policy across the agency to join a global law firm’s Washington, D.C. office.

Most Recent

People on the move in Indian Country

Seminole Tribe sues DraftKings over alleged illegal sports betting in Florida

Siletz coastal land return builds on broader reclamation effort

Bipartisan bill would let tribes redistribute unused veterans housing vouchers

Alaska tribes establish conservation district to advance stewardship, access federal resources

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