Reporting from Indian Country

Published in Barn Raiser in February 2024. A n ambitious public-private partnership has ushered in a new space race to the moon. However, tribal nations warn that the rush for lunar development bodes poorly for the moon—and the Earth. On February 22, a robotic lander called Odysseus became the first U.S. vehicle to land on the moon in more than 50 years. Intuitive Machines, which built and operated Odysseus, is one of 14 companies hired by NASA under Commercial Lunar Payload Services, or CLPS. The program allows private companies to bid on NASA contracts worth a total of $2.6 billion through 2028 to launch and land moon missions, manage onboard payloads and carry out scientific experiments. Through CLPS, NASA claims it is supporting new science and growing the commercial space economy. The inaugural moonshot was the month before, on January 8. It was the first since the missions of the 1960s and ’70s. NASA paid United Launch Alliance, a Lockheed Martin–Boeing joint venture, $110 millio

Where justice and healing meet: Indigenous Peacemaking Initiative participants, including Native American Rights Fund attorney Brett Lee Shelton (4th fr r) and peacemaker Laurie Vilas (6th fr r). F ederal charges ordinarily cover matters of national reach: immigration, voting rights, racketeering and the like. Not in Indian Country.    Tribal members may find themselves in federal court for a wide range of allegations—not just serious crimes, such as murder, but lesser offenses, like burglary. Once in federal court, they face sentencing guidelines that are stiffer than if they were tried in state court, where non-Native cases are generally heard. Diversion, probation and other mitigation actions, typical of state courts, are also less common, as is a jury whose members include their peers, which is to say, other Natives.   As a result, Native Americans receive significantly longer sentences than non-Natives for similar crimes. The U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics says they are 38 perc