Rep. Mary Peltola's election to the U.S. House of Representatives made history in several ways.

With her recent swearing-in, it became official for the first time in more than 230 years: A Native American, a Native Alaskan and a Native Hawaiian are all members of the House — fully representing the United States' Indigenous people for the first time, according to Rep. Kaiali'i Kahele of Hawaii. Now, there are six Indigenous Americans who are representatives in the House.

Ethnic minority groups in Russia are increasingly rising up in defiance against Vladimir Putin after being blamed for committing some of the worst atrocities of the war in Ukraine. 

When the strategic Ukrainian city of Mariupol finally fell to Russian forces, it was images of Chechen soldiers cheering and chanting in front of bombed-out, burning buildings that went around the world. Shocking footage that emerged last month showed a Russian soldier – reportedly from a Chechen unit – castrating a Ukrainian prisoner. 

After a robust campaign, Te Pati Māori, the political party representing New Zealand’s indigenous Polynesian people, announced it has collected 70,000 signatures on a petition to change the country’s name to “Aotearoa.” That’s enough support to compel the nation’s parliament to formally consider the proposal, which was first introduced last year.

The party also called on parliament to restore the original Māori names of all towns and cities across the country by 2026.

Pope Francis apologized to Indigenous peoples on Monday and asked for forgiveness for the “evil committed by so many Christians” against them in Canada’s brutal residential school system. 

“I am sorry,” the pope said, while addressing Indigenous elders and residential school survivors at a former residential school site in Maskwacis, Alberta, about 100 kilometres south of Edmonton. 

Pope Francis issued an apology to the indigenous people of Canada on Monday, asking forgiveness for the “evil committed by so many Christians” following international uproar over the treatment of indigenous children at residential Christian schools.

“I am deeply sorry — sorry for the ways in which, regrettably, many Christians supported the colonizing mentality of the powers that oppressed the Indigenous peoples,” Francis said, according to the Washington Post. 

Pope Francis visited the site of a former residential school for indigenous Canadian children on Monday morning and repeatedly apologized for Catholics’ role in government-sponsored “projects of cultural destruction and forced assimilation” that he said had devastated their communities.

Pope Francis issued a historic apology Monday for the Catholic Church’s cooperation with Canada’s “catastrophic” policy of Indigenous residential schools, saying the forced assimilation of Native peoples into Christian society destroyed their cultures, severed families and marginalized generations in ways still being felt today.

“I am deeply sorry,” Francis said, to applause from school survivors and Indigenous community members gathered at a former residential school south of Edmonton, Alberta, the first event of Francis’ weeklong “penitential pilgrimage” to Canada.

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Wednesday narrowed the sweep of its landmark 2020 decision declaring that much of eastern Oklahoma falls within Indian reservation lands, allowing state authorities to prosecute non-Indians who commit crimes against Indians on the reservations.

QUITO, June 18 (Reuters) - Ecuador's President Guillermo Lasso has declared a state of exception in three of the Andean country's provinces, in a bid to calm protests called by indigenous groups in rejection of the government's economic policies.

The measure will last for 30 days in the provinces of Imbabura, Cotopaxi, and Pichincha - areas that include capital city Quito - which have seen greater violence amid protests, with attacks on flower farms and damage to infrastructure, while police officers have also been detained by protesters.

President Biden on Friday became the first present to issue an official proclamation commemorating Indigenous People's Day.

The big picture: Biden's proclamation boosts efforts looking to shift the focus of the federal holiday celebrating Christopher Columbus to the contributions of Native Americans, AP reports.

He made an earlier proclamation for Columbus Day where he acknowledged "the painful history of wrongs and atrocities that many European explorers inflicted on Tribal Nations and Indigenous communities."