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Oklahoma

A Native American elder performs a ritual ceremony using a feather.

COVID-19 deaths among tribal elders threaten cultural loss

COVID-19

To lose an elder is like burning a textbook, says Jason Salsman, a spokesperson for the Muscogee (Creek) nation in Oklahoma. For Native Americans, the overall COVID-19 mortality rate is nearly twice that of white Americans.

A 1790 Treaty of Muscogee (Creek) Nations and the US, written with elegant cursive script

Supreme Court recognizes Native sovereignty in much of Oklahoma

Conflict & Justice
A group of protesters stand in a line holding signs protesting family separation and incarceration of migrants

Oklahoma’s Fort Sill has a history of jailing minority groups. Migrant children could be next.

Protest
Lucia Lucas

This opera singer says the ‘hype’ should be on her voice, not her transgender identity

Arts, Culture & Media
dedication

The Choctaw of Oklahoma stepped up to help the Irish during the potato famine

Conflict
A woman in a factory

In one Oklahoma county, the number of women in prison is falling. This treatment program might be why.

Conflict

In 2015, 40-year-old Ronna Stone was looking at another prison sentence until she was offered a way out and a new life.

Teacher Suzanne Sutton takes a selfie in front of rows of empty desks at her classroom.

In Oklahoma, some teachers try to make ends meet. Others move out of state for better pay.

Education

Suzanne Sutton watches her money carefully and works a second job after school. But Shawn Sheehan, who was named Oklahoma’s 2016 teacher of the year, took a teaching job in Texas.

Texas wind farm

Congress boosted spending on science and the environment, even as Trump administration tried to cut

Environment

Billions of dollars in additional funds for scientific research, including renewable energy research, earth systems observations and sea level monitoring were tucked inside the $1.3 trillion omnibus spending measure that passed on March 23, but the Trump Administration is still working to gut environmental regulations.

Cherise Greer in the backyard of her home in Duncan, Oklahoma.

‘I don’t want to miss any more’: One woman tries to stay clean and out of jail

Economics

Oklahoma has had the highest female incarceration rate in the nation. It’s been that way for the last 25 years. The state imprisons 151 out of every 100,000 women, according to the US Bureau of Justice Statistics — more than double the national rate. Cherise Greer is out of the system but is now faced with the challenges of life on the outside.

The Tiangong-1 space station passes over the moon in this photo taken in September 2013. The station is scheduled to make a crash landing in Europe within the next few weeks.

Chinese space station likely to land in Europe in a few weeks

Technology

Scientists know that a Chinese space station will be re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere within a couple of weeks. The exact time of that happening, though, is a little fuzzy.