Tradition, Culture, Healing

Bunski Leonard danced on the air, his steps so light and secret that gravity could not find him.

Lifted by a cadence of drums and chants, he laughed at the ground of the Puyallup Tribe of Indians headquarters until the old song floated away. Earthbound again, he walked from the grassy dance floor, and the bells on his legs clattered.

His grandparents taught him to dance 54 years ago at his home in Warm Springs, Ore., when he was 6. Ever since, he has shared his gift with anyone willing to watch. Sunday was his third visit to the Puyallup tribal powwow. It won't be the last.

Cultural Footprints

"It's so, wow"

The 60-year-old Blackfeet Indian was taught the dance "as a knee-high" in Browning, Mont.

It'd fallen so out of favor that Blackwater, a resident of Lethbridge, Alberta, remembers being the only one dancing it at regional powwows for years.

The prairie chicken is back.

Twenty-one men did the dance -- strutting, pecking and bobbing in imitation of the grassland birds -- at Saturday's Spokane Falls Northwest Indian Encampment and Pow Wow.

Cass Lake Boys & Girls Club to Expand, Remodel

CASS LAKE, MN - More than 2,000 times this summer, the door of the Boys & Girls Club of Leech Lake/Cass Lake, 119 Second St., opened to youngsters seeking fun, companionship and a secure environment.

The club has been open from 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Saturday during the summer. It will reopen after renovations are complete Sept. 16. The renovations are funded by a $23,900 grant from the George W. Neilson Foundation and donations from Home Depot.

Where Few Women Dare to Tread

RAPID CITY, SD — Boxing was once considered “The manly art of self-defense,” but a young Oglala Lakota woman is changing that perception.

Tawanna Martin, 17, has been boxing since near the end of her freshman year in high school.

“I was starting to kind of get in trouble during my 9th grade—I didn’t like school—I was bored and needed a challenge. It was Tim O’Daniel—my Mom’s friend who got me started in boxing and I loved it,” Martin said. Her mother is Michelle Bissonette.

Crossing America: A World Away in the Heart of Navajo Nation

MONUMENT VALLEY, AZ. — There might not be a place on Earth farther from the events of September 11 than Rose Yazzie's heart. It isn't a haughty or angry distance, but a simple sense of apartness summed up in the words:

"That is your world; this is ours."

Yodelin' Yup'ik

Follow the twang of a banjo at the Alaska State Fair, and you'll likely fetch up at a small Native crafts booth, face-to-face with the most unlikely of cowboy yodelers.

Meet Henry Shavings, craftsman, folk musician and recording artist. He sings of "My Home By the Bering Sea" with a voice so irrepressibly sunny, one might think he had his own private Arizona tucked somewhere under his left breast pocket. When he launches into "You Are My Sunshine," it's near-impossible not to sing along.

Klamath Tribes Celebrate Restoration

Hundreds of people from all over the West gathered at the high school in Chiloquin Saturday to drum, dance or just watch the action at the Klamath Tribes Restoration Celebration.

The three-day event, which continues today, is part of the 16th annual Klamath Tribes Restoration Celebration.

The event recognizes the federal government’s 1986 restoration of tribal status for the Klamath, Modoc and Yahooskin band of Snake River Indians.

Dance and Song at WVC Festival Belie Educational Challenges Facing Indians

"The circle is a way of life," said Alex O. Shepherd, nodding toward a group of children, some in lavish costume, others in street clothes, all of them dancing in the ring formed by tents in the middle of Granger Park.

"They have their own destiny, and they are tested to grow up to be adults and then grandfathers and grandmothers. It's a full circle."

Native Models Are Unique

The front cover of the new "Women of the Earth" calendar for 2003 that represents 11 young females from various tribes throughout our nation, hit the mainstream newspaper in Detroit this August (2002).

Although "Exploitation of Native Americans" is a disturbing factor against Natives being included in the main stream, the fact is Native Americans are beautiful. It's just a matter of time before the uniqueness and flawless side of the Native American people will be on negatives for print.

Wanted: Native American Talent

In an effort to land more Native Americans in film and television roles, a national talent search is coming to Vermillion in November, hoping to find fresh artists from the area.

But while Native American artists from South Dakota believe Four Directions Talent Search will be helpful, they have differing views on the causes of the lack of native performers, directors, writers and comedians. Some acknowledge that access to the industry is a factor, while others say stereotypical material limits performers' opportunities.

Showing Their Colors

SOUTH BEND, IN -- Eight years ago, the Dowagiac-based Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians, after a long legal battle, was formally recognized by the federal government as an American Indian tribe.

Now, the band has its own flag, symbolizing its status as a sovereign nation.

"This is our national flag,'' said Tribal Chairman John Miller Friday as he proudly held up a corner of the colorful flag.

Also displaying the flag at the news conference at St. Patrick's County Park were tribal members Bill Morsaw and Mike Zimmerman.

The water has many lessons to teach:

Humility.

Respect.

Tradition.

For all those reasons and more, several American Indian tribes have chosen to take part in The Spirit Returns Paddle -- the finale to Seattle's sesquicentennial celebrations this weekend.

Pechangas Work to Save Their Language

PECHANGA RESERVATION ---- Beyond the view of hotel and casino guests, in impromptu classrooms set up at their government and senior centers, members of the Pechanga Band of Luiseno Indians are learning to speak their ancestral language.

Luiseno is one of at least 100 tribal languages native to California. Half of them are now nearly extinct, experts say.

At the reservation, students of all ages gather to train their tongues to embrace the words their people were once beaten and shamed by white people for uttering, even to one another. And, ironically, the teacher who earnestly instructs them is a white man.

ARLEE, MT - For more than 20 years, Salish cultural leader Johnny Arlee has been dreaming, planning, writing and rewriting the script for a spectacular pageant.

It would show the world the rich cultural traditions of the Salish Indians before white settlement of western Montana, and depict the historic encounter between the Bitterroot Valley band of Salish and members of the Lewis and Clark expedition almost 200 years ago.

It was at this meeting at Ross' Hole in the southern Bitterroot Valley that the Salish, demonstrating remarkable compassion, helped the expedition onward at a critical juncture, instead of wiping out the helpless foreign interlopers, as the Salish warriors easily could have done.

About This Issue's Greeting - "Kia ora"

New Zealand Mäori is most closely related to language such as Cook Islands Mäori, Tahitian and Hawai'ian, and forms with them a language grouping known by linguists as Eastern Polynesian. It is more distantly related to other languages of Polynesia, such as Samoan and Tongan, and can eventually be linked with the languages of Melanesia, Indonesia, the Phillippines, Taiwan and Madagascar.

This Date In History

Recipe: Sweet Treats for Diabetics

Story: How to Scare a Bear

What is this: Black-tailed Jackrabbit

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