Native Americans

Late last year, the Trump administration announced it would dedicate more resources to all missing and slain Native Americans and Alaska Natives. A presidential task force that will look at ways to solve new and cold cases is scheduled to meet for the first time in Washington. Newsday heard from Annita Lucchesi - a survivor of domestic and sexual violence, as well as trafficking - who is the Executive Director of Sovereign Bodies Institute, a group which uses research and data sharing to fight gender and sexual violence against indigenous people.

(Photo: Native American march; Credit: Sovereign Bodies Institute)

The National Eagle Repository in Colorado helps Native American tribes to source dead eagles.

A Native American movement is encouraging indigenous people to reconnect with their ancestral practices.

The senator and 2020 presidential candidate publicly apologised for her claims to indigenous heritage.

Joy Harjo has been appointed as the United State's new poet laureate - the first Native American to hold the position. 

Harjo is a member of the Muscogee Creek Nation She is known for such works as 'The Woman Who Fell From the Sky' and 'In Mad Love and War

Joy Harjo spoke to Newsday's Bola Mosuro about her new position and shares the poem 'I Give You Back' which she credits with helping to save her life.

(Photo: Joy Harjo. Credit: Shawn Miller, Library of Congress)

Clare Balding meets a group of native American women who live and work in the UK.  A sense of isolation and homesickness led them to the Rainmaker Gallery in Bristol seeking connection with other indigenous people.  They now meet regularly. Clare joins them on a walk around Henley in Arden in Warwickshire and hears how despite different tribal affiliations, the common cultural and spiritual backgrounds  they share bring great comfort to them thousands of miles from home.  Leandra Nephin is from the Omaha tribe of Nebraska and grew up on the reservation there. Sarah Sense is a Chitimacha artist who met her husband while she was exhibiting her work at the Rainmaker Gallery in Bristol run by Joanne Prince, while Stephanie Pratt is an academic and art historian from the Dakota Crow Creek tribe.  Melinda Schwakhofer is Muscogee Creek and through her artwork is attempting to reconnect with her culture from her home on Dartmoor.

The walk: Start Henley in Arden Centre ending Preston Bagot Church. Distance approximately four miles  OS grid reference SP151660

Producer: Maggie Ayre

Harvey Pratt is a Native American artist who became a pioneer of a technique called soft tissue post-mortem drawing. For the past fifty years, Harvey has been using his artistic skills to reconstruct disfigured bodies and help with forensic investigations. Harvey is also a painter and a sculptor and he has designed the National Native American Veterans Memorial in Washington DC. (Photo courtesy of Harvey Pratt.)