A member of the Tohono O’odham Nation was shot and killed in front of his home by U.S. Border Patrol agents Thursday night. Raymond Mattia was fired at 38 times, family members said.

Sandra Hale Schulman
Special to ICT

It’s going to be a long hot summer for the striking writers of television and films.

A nationwide strike by the Writers Guild of America over working conditions and pay is already raising questions about how long Native-centric productions such as “Reservation Dogs,” “Dark Winds” and “Rez Ball” can continue if the strike goes on for months.

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Diné writer Sierra Ornelas is among those who have been on the picket line. She was co-creator of the series, “Rutherford Falls,” and oversaw a writers’ room that included four other Indigenous writers – Tazbah Chavez, Tai Leclaire, Jana Schmieding and Bobby Wilson.

Having five Indigenous writers for a series is believed to have been a first for a major television production, and her deal with Universal Television was renewed in August 2021.

“We really want to ensure the future of this job, the future of this business for the writers coming up,” Ornelas told ICT by phone from Los Angeles about the decision to go on strike.

“Television is a writer’s medium. I think that over the last few years our power has been taken from us. And I’ve been writing for television for 10 years, and I’ve seen over time the budgets have gotten smaller for writers. The ability for a writer to be on set or to stay on through the entire production is less.”

With the exception of late-night shows, which went off the air immediately, viewers may not notice anything amiss for a while, since networks and streaming services have plenty of banked content.

Production has already wrapped up for the upcoming new seasons of “Reservation Dogs” and “Dark Winds,” with “Reservation Dogs” set to open Season 3 starting Aug. 2 on Hulu and “Dark Winds” returning to AMC and AMCPlus in July.

“Rez Ball,” a new film about basketball backed by LeBron James, is set to be filmed this summer in New Mexico.

Reality shows, news programs and some of the scripted series made by overseas companies are unaffected by the strike, and most of the movies scheduled for release this year are past the writing stage.

Ornelas, however, said the strike could last months and the delays will pile up, but she believes the writers are making fair demands.

“Being a writer in television right now has changed drastically over the last five years,” Ornelas said. “Ironically, that’s been the years where more Native writers than ever have been staffed for television. It’s pretty ironic; they started letting brown and Black people make television right when they decided to stop paying us.”

‘Until something changes’

The Writers Guild of America, which represents 11,500 screenwriters, went out on strike May 2, with writers for studios, streaming services and networks walking picket lines coast-to-coast.

It looks to be several months before a new deal is made with the Alliance of Motion Pictures and Television Producers, and is likely to affect the Emmy Awards, scheduled for Sept. 18, and possibly delay the fall TV season.

The WGA has vowed to stay on with the strike for as long as it takes.

“The first week has shown, I think, just how committed and fervent writers’ feelings are about all of this,” Chris Keyser, a chair of the WGA negotiating committee, said in an interview with The New York Times. “They’re going to stay out until something changes, because they can’t afford not to.”

The writers want more money and more job security, especially regarding residual payments they get from streaming services, which have expanded to markets overseas. Prior to streaming, writers, directors, actors, and other creatives received residual payments whenever a show was licensed for syndication, for an international deal or for DVD sales.

Now that the streaming era is changing rapidly and DVD sales have slowed, the big streaming companies are reluctant to license their hit series, allowing them to keep subscribers and cut off those who benefited from the outside distribution.

The WGA has put forth proposals for mandatory staffing and employment guarantees. In what is called a miniroom, studios hire a group of writers to develop a series and write a few sample scripts in a few months. But by not officially ordering the series, the studios pay writers less than if they were in a traditional contract for a series.

With just a two- or three-month job, writers are then immediately looking for the next job if the show doesn’t get picked up. If a show does get optioned, fewer writers are hired since the outline and several scripts have already been written.

Writers also want companies to agree to guarantee that artificial intelligence will not take away from writers’ credits and compensation.

The strike has even caught the attention of President Joe Biden. During a White House screening for the film, “American Born Chinese,” which features Native Hawaiians, Biden called for the major studios to come up with a “fair deal” for striking writers during the event honoring Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month.

“Nights like these are a reminder of the power of stories, and the importance of treating storytellers with dignity, respect and the value they deserve,” Biden told CNN. “We need the writers, and all the workers, and everyone involved, to tell the stories of our nation and the stories of all of us.”

‘We’re not messing around’

Ornelas said she learned on the job, and wants to preserve that right for up-and-coming writers.

“I went to every production meeting, I was on set every day of my episode, and sometimes for other people’s episodes,” she said. “Coming from a weaver family, [Ornelas’ mother is award-winning Grey Hills Navajo weaver Barbara Teller Ornelas] you learn from your elders. You learn from the people who came before you how to do the job, so that you can one day teach younger people how to do the job.”

She continued, “What’s been happening is due to budget cuts, writers have not been allowed to learn on set how to do production, how to become showrunners, which is the job that I have. And so when and if they get their own shows, they’re going to be woefully unprepared for the job.”

The two sides are very far apart now, and Ornelas sees a long haul ahead.

“I hope that they come back to the table soon, make a deal with us,” she said. “I think that what we’re asking for is very fair. You see some of these CEOs of these companies making $250 million a year, which is half of the total amount that we’re asking for 12,000 writers.”

She said writers are a key component of a successful production.

“When you think about it, it all really starts with the writer,” she said. “The construction worker can’t build a set, the costume designer can’t pick the clothes. The actors can’t be cast until we fill up a blank page, until we write the scripts.”

She continued, “We’re dealing with big, streaming corporations and they’ve never had a great history of being kind to labor. But I do see a lot of solidarity, which has been amazing. We have the Screen Actors Guild, the Directors Guild, and the Teamsters behind us, as they are all experiencing the same problems.”

Pressure is building for the studios to negotiate, Ornelas said.

“Right now we’re trying to shut down productions and slow them down to get them back to the table,” she said. “I’ve been on the picket line and the mood is really enthusiastic. I think everyone that is there, they understand why we’re there. The union is more unified than it’s ever been. The strike authorization vote was almost 98 percent, the highest it’s ever been, the highest turnout.

“Everyone is really hungry to get a good deal and to really express to these studios that we are in business and that we’re not messing around.”

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Pauly Denetclaw
ICT

WINDOW ROCK, Arizona — Navajo Nation President Buu Van Nygren was not coy about his intention to lift the COVID-19 mask mandates on the Navajo Nation once elected. This was one of his campaign promises that he made for his first 100 days. He’s kept that promise.

On Friday, Nygren signed an order that lifted the last of the COVID-19 restrictions that mandated masks be worn in schools, healthcare facilities and assisted-living homes.

“It’s an exciting time because it just shows that as president, I believe in our people at the local level, as well as really trying to empower them,” Nygren told ICT.

This decision was not made hastily. Since taking office the Nygren administration has been getting feedback from these facilities and institutions on what they wanted when it came to the Navajo Nation health mandates. According to Nygren, they wanted to have autonomy over their own policy and procedures.

“The schools, majority of them, wanted to lift it because it’s so hard to require the students to wear them in class, to go to school, all the write ups, and it was just really tough on the administrators,” Nygren said. “But as far as assisted-living facilities, that’s up to them. I know they run their own facilities. Health care facilities, that’s up to them.”

In January, Nygren lifted the general public indoor mask mandate with the exception of health care facilities, assisted living facilities and schools.

Beginning in spring of 2020, the Navajo Nation quickly sent workers home, shuttered offices and non-essential businesses, mandated masks, closed its borders to visitors and enacted curfews. This was in an attempt to limit the spread of the COVID-19 virus.

The nation became a hotspot for coronavirus cases and deaths over the course of the pandemic.

Approximately 170,000 people who live on the Navajo Nation, according to the U.S. Census. The Navajo Department of Health reported nearly 84,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases as of May 5, 2023. The nation also reported 2,117 deaths.

The pandemic worldwide has claimed nearly 7 million lives in the last three years, according to the World Health Organization.

On Friday, the World Health Organization determined that the COVID-19 pandemic was no longer a global health emergency, saying the virus has been on a downward trend for the last year. The United States is set to let its health emergency order end on May 11.

“I think I’d be so hesitant if the Navajo Nation was the first organization to reopen,” Nygren said. “I’d be very hesitant but a lot of entities around the Navajo Nation have been reopened, some of them, over a year now, some of them into the months. We’re just playing catch up at the moment.”

Cabinet member Rhonda Tuni, and head of the Navajo Department of Health, supports the removal of the final mask mandates on the nation.

“We are very excited to finally lift the mask mandate all across the Navajo Nation,” Tuni said. “Continue to practice the guidelines, hand sanitizing, and anything else that you’ve learned throughout these last three years.”

As the school year winds down, the mask mandate for next year has been a topic of discussion for the public schools on the nation.

“We’re very thankful to President Nygren and his staff to not necessarily lifting the mask mandate but just making it an option for our families,” said Shannon Goodsell, superintendent of Window Rock Unified School District. “This provides an opportunity for all of our students, all of our moms across the Navajo Nation to make the best decision for their families in order to keep their children safe while they’re in our schools. On behalf of the public schools across the Navajo Nation, we would like to say thank you.”

Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation, Hopi Tribe, Pueblo of Zuni and White Mountain Apache Tribe are the handful of tribes that still have a mask mandate, according to the Arizona Department of Education.

Earlier this year, Nygren received backlash about his decision to lift the general mask mandate.

The response on Nygren’s Facebook live announcing the lift is mixed, some people agree but many do not.

“I’m not here to please everybody but I’m here to make decisions as president,” Nygren said. “I think that’s very important. You got to make decisions and move on.”

ICT is a nonprofit news organization. Will you support our work? All of our content is free. There are no subscriptions or costs. And we have hired more Native journalists in the past year than any news organization ─ and with your help we will continue to grow and create career paths for our people. Support ICT for as little as $10. Sign up for ICT’s free newsletter.

On the Wednesday edition of the ICT Newscast, troubled waters on the U.S. Canadian border mean Tribal leaders look to treaty rights. Representative Mary Peltola weighs in on her first hundred days in Congress. And Holly Cook Macarro shares Biden’s record in Native communities

Tribal and First Nations leaders were in Washington, D.C., last week for meetings of the International Joint Commission. That is the body that oversees the 114-year-old treaty governing the waters that straddle the Canada and U.S. border. Communities in British Columbia, Washington state, Idaho and Montana have been contending for decades that toxins are leaking into their watershed from coal mining operations in the province’s Elk Valley. Chairman Tom McDonald of the Confederate Salish-Kootenai Tribes was there.

The country’s first Alaska Native Congress member has just completed her first hundred days in office. ICT’s McKenzie Allen-Charmley has this interview with Rep. Mary Peltola.

The 2024 Presidential race is shaping up to be a repeat of 2020. ICT regular contributor Holly Cook Macarro joins us once again to review it all. She is a partner with Spirit Rock Consulting and a board member of IndiJ Public Media, ICT’s parent company.

• Indigenous leaders in South Dakota, are calling newly adopted social studies standards disappointing. The state’s Board of Education voted, in a five to two decision, to accept new guidelines for K through 12 schools. Under the new standards, between eighth grade and graduation, students will only encounter two lessons that directly reference Native people.
• The Native American Rights Fund is challenging a North Carolina school board on its grooming policy. In February, Ashley Lomboy says school officials told her that her son would have to cut his hair, or the first grader wouldn’t be able to attend class. In a letter, NARF requested the removal of a network-wide policy that prohibits male students from wearing long hair. A decision over the changed grooming policy will be made at the next board meeting.
• Another city in California has joined the calls for Indigenous land and rights to be protected. Last week, the Mountain View City Council adopted a resolution urging the local Santa Clara County to deny permits for a proposed mine. The location of the project is on sacred land to the Amah Mutsun people and is known as Juristac.
• Thousands of spectators and dancers were in Albuquerque, New Mexico last weekend for the Gathering of Nations powwow. The crowning of Miss Indian World, saw a record number of contestants. Roselynn Yazzie has this report.

Today’s newscast was created with work from:

Shirley Sneve, Ponca/Sicangu Lakota, is vice president of broadcasting for the ICT Newscast. Follow her on Twitter @rosebudshirley. She is based in Nebraska and Minnesota.

Aliyah Chavez, Kewa Pueblo, is the anchor of the ICT Newscast. On Twitter: @aliyahjchavez.

R. Vincent Moniz, Jr., NuÉta, is the senior producer of the ICT Newscast. Have a great story? Pitch it to vincent@ictnews.org.

McKenzie Allen-Charmley, Dena’ina Athabascan, is a producer of the ICT Newscast. On Instagram: @mallencharmley.

Paris Wise, Zia and Laguna Pueblo, is a producer for the ICT Newscast. Instagram and Twitter: @parisiswise. Email: paris@ictnews.org.

Drea Yazzie, Diné, is a producer and editor for the ICT Newscast. On Twitter: @quindreayazzie. Yazzie is based in Phoenix.

Virginia Rigney, Chickasaw, is a video editor for the ICT Newscast.

Pacey Smith Garcia, Ute, is a production assistant for the ICT newscast. On Twitter: @paceyjournalist.

RipLey-Simone Kennebrew is an intern for the ICT Newscast. On Twitter: @ripleysimoneken

Daniel Herrera Carbajal is an intern for the ICT Newscast. On Twitter: @daniulherrrera

Indian Country Today is a nonprofit news organization. Will you support our work? All of our content is free. There are no subscriptions or costs. And we have hired more Native journalists in the past year than any news organization ─ and with your help we will continue to grow and create career paths for our people. Support Indian Country Today for as little as $10.

California and Arizona are currently fighting each other over water from the Colorado River, but this isn’t new – it’s actually been going on for over 100 years; at one point, the states literally went to war about it – and the problem comes down to some really bad math from 1922.

Arizona border communities face a “humanitarian disaster” in two weeks if the federal government does not step in to help with the crush of migrants expected when Title 42 ends, officials from Pima County, Yuma and Sierra Vista told a Senate panel Wednesday.