Canku Ota

(Many Paths)

An Online Newsletter Celebrating Native America

January 25, 2003 - Issue 79

"Keshi"

The Zuni Greeting

Means "Hello"

Yuchi

"And when your childrens' children think themselves alone... they will not be alone...At night when the streets of your cities and villages are silent and you think them deserted, they will throng with the returning hosts that once filled and still love this beautiful land."
~Chief Seattle~
1855

We Salute
Cecelia Lucero

"I am a child of the land. My father instilled in me a reverence for the land of my birth. He taught me a sense of place. In the words of Irving Standing Chief, 'In my grandfather's time, knowledge of the world was the power; in this generation, knowledge is the power of the world.' By integrating traditional Pueblo teachings into my environmental science lessons, my students are making a connection to their own sense of place through the knowledge they are gaining on our reservation. I am teaching a second generation of students and these children are sharing their knowledge with their parents who didn't have the opportunity to learn this in the past." -- Cecelia

In the next several issues, we're going to introduce you to some of the contributors who make "Canku Ota" what it is. One of these is Geoff Hampton, the author of "Thunderhawk" and "Cowrate." So, meet Geoff!

Artist:
John Hoover

John Hoover was born in Cordova, Alaska although he now resides in Washington State. Born to an Aleut mother, who was raised by Russian priests and a German father, John spent his youth, involved in a combination of fishing and art making. His participation in boat building inspired his interest in sculpture. Inspiration for his personal artistic vision began with traditional Northwest Coast Indian carvings. John was drawn to their colors and to the legends that they illustrated. His work has continued to develop and move into the more surreal as a result of travels to Japan, Taiwan and the Philippines where he learned the woodworking techniques of those indigenous cultures.

Wheat Kings, City Honor Toots

The Western Hockey League’s Brandon Wheat Kings have honoured right-winger Jordin Tootoo for his outstanding Silver Medal performance at the 2003 IIHF World Junior Hockey Championships in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Both the club and City recognized the 19-year old Tootoo before Friday night’s (January 10th) game against the visiting Tri-City Americans at the Keystone Centre.

Thunderhawk - The Great Cross Country Adventure - Part 2
by Geoff Hampton

Writer Geoff Hampton shares this story that should delight both young and old.

Dairy of Chippewa River Trip in 1868 Describes Abode of Jean Brunet, Picturesque Figure of the Early Days
submitted by Timm Severud (Ondamitag)

From the Eau Claire Telegram August 18, 1917; From the Sunday Leader, in four installments.

The Leader has obtained from C.H. Cooke of Mondovi, a pioneer farmer of the Chippewa Valley, a diary of a canoe trip up the Chippewa River in the spring of 1868 in company with Captain Shadrach A. Hall, principle of the old Wesleyan Seminary, which stood on the site now occupied by the Eau Claire High School, and George Sutherland, brother of A.J. Sutherland of this city.

American Indian College Fund Announces New Morgan Stanley Scholars Program

The American Indian College Fund today received a grant of almost $200,000 from Morgan Stanley. The two-year grant provides funding for two new scholarships aimed at increasing American Indian participation in the financial services industry.

Tribal Colleges a Study in Success

When college language instructor George Roy greets his students in Ojibwa 101 each semester, he tells them that he also goes by another name.

"My tribal family name is Signaak and it means 'Blackbird,'" explains Roy, 56, an instructor in the Native American studies program at Saginaw Chippewa Tribal College, located 65 miles north of Lansing.

Navajo Physician is Twice the Healer

Before seeing his patients, Dr. Michael Tutt sits quietly as nurse Anna Barber folds and ties his waist-long black hair into a traditional Navajo knot, or tsiiyéél.

Tutt, whose grandfather was a medicine man and whose mother was a nurse, works at the Fort Defiance Indian Hospital on the Navajo Reservation, and in nearby clinics. He is one of a small but growing number of American Indian physicians.

Seminoles Rev Up Campaign To Fight Diabetes

Elsie Bowers recalls a childhood on a rural Florida Seminole reservation where walking was the only way to get around. She helped grow beans and corn, and boys helped hunt wild hog and deer. It's not the same for kids, today, she said.

"All they know is McDonald's," said Bowers, 62.

Making History

As the only Navajo female attending West Point Academy, cadet Sierra Blue continues to deal with loneliness and the pressures of academics.

"It took me a couple of years to get adjusted," Blue said. "It gets lonely from time to time."

Blue is originally from Kirtland, N.M. She is the daughter of Kendall Blue and the late Charlene Cambridge-Blue. She is Tl'aaschii'i born for Bilagaana.

Penn State 'Recruiter' Visits Hopi High School

Ted Honyumptewa, a sophomore at Penn State, dropped by Hopi High School Jan. 9 to let students know what the university has to offer.

Honyumptewa, who serves as a volunteer recruiter for Penn State, said the university is one of the most academically competitive in the nation. He is the lone Hopi student among the 41,000 on campus and said 75 percent of the students attending Penn State have some sort of scholarship. There are 40 Native Americans in attendance.

State Urged to Allow Teaching of Tribal Languages in Schools

Tribal elders from all corners of the state appeared before the Washington State Board of Education on Wednesday to urge the board to act now to approve a pilot program certifying American Indian language and culture teachers.

More than 130 tribal representatives crowded into the board hearing room, offering a prayer song led by Lummi elder Pauline Hillaire to "clear the way" for a positive exchange of ideas before testimony began.

Thanks to one scholar, study of Native literature became a vital academic field

LaVonne Brown Ruoff's interest in American Indian literature began not as a scholar but as an adoptive parent of a Native American child.

"My children were learning absolutely nothing about American Indians in school," said. "The only time schools — and this is largely still true — deal with American Indians is at Thanksgiving, when every Indian in Chicago loves to leave town."