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Canku Ota |
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(Many Paths) |
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An Online Newsletter Celebrating Native America |
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February 22, 2003 - Issue 81 |
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"Cama'i" |
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The Alutiiq Greeting |
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Means "HI" |
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"MIKICIWPICIM" |
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EAGLE MOON |
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CREE |
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"Remember
to live a good life, and do good things with each day that you are given.
Help each other and encourage each other to be good people.
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We
Salute Dr. Begay is a nationally recognized researcher for work in the neuroscience-multiple intelligences area and a longtime advocate for Native American gifted and talented student activity. But this is not all that makes Dr. Begay unique. Dr. Begay is a homegrown, nurtured "walking encyclopedia" born and raised in Tuba City, at the heart of the Navajo reservation. He is a direct product of the Tuba City District school system, K through12, and an exemplary academic role model who happens to be native. |
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We introduce another of our regular contributors ... Dorreen Yellow Bird. Dorreen is a community journalist for the Grand Forks Herald. Her beat includes insight stories and story assignments. She also writes bi-weekly columns and some editorials. She is a member of the Grand Forks Herald editorial board. |
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The information here will include
items of interest for and about Native American schools. If you have news
to share, please let us know! I can be reached by emailing: Vlockard@aol.com
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Our Featured Artist: |
Our Top Story: |
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Helen Jane Simeonoff Helen Jane Simeonoff was born October 23, 1941 in Kodiak, Alaska to William Simeonoff, Jr. (Sugpiaq/Russian) of Kodiak, Alaska and Alexandra "Alice" Chernikov Channa Knagin Simeonoff Spracher of Afognak, Alaska. She graduated from Kodiak High School in 1959, studied art in San Diego, California, and learned watercolor painting at the University of Alaska-Adak in 1983. For 20 years she worked as a legal secretary, and then joined the staff of the Anchorage Police Department for 6 years. In 1993, she left the department to become a full time artist, her current profession. Today she lives in Anchorage. Helen is probably the only Sugpiaq female artist earning her income solely from the sale of watercolor paintings. |
700 Gather for Inupiaq Celebration In the time before time, the Inupiat neither drummed nor danced. Seeing their desperate plight, Eagle Mother had her son teach the people to build a large gathering house, to make drums to fill the hall with sound, and to create songs and dances that celebrate life. Ever since, residents of Alaska's northern coast have congregated in midwinter to share the bounty of their world during three days of dancing, storytelling, Inupiaq games and feasting. |
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Thunderhawk - Our Featured Story: |
Northwestern Wisconsin History: |
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Thunderhawk
- The Great Cross Country Adventure - Part 4
Writer Geoff Hampton shares this story that should delight both young and old. |
C.H.
Cooke's Diary of a Trip Up the Chippewa River in 1868; Indians Wary in
Trading
This is the third installment of diary kept by C. Cooke, now of Mondovi, when, he Professor Shadrach A. Hall, and George Sutherland made a canoe trip up the Chippewa River in the spring 1868. |
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Opinion and Commentary |
Opinion and Commentary | |
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'Unity' Serves All Journalists of Color When the West opened up to settlers, many tribes were pushed almost to extinction. There are those who say the tribes would have fared much better if they had united - the Sahnish, Dakota, Hidatsa, Mandan, Cheyenne, Chippewa, Lakota and others - and formed one force against encroaching non-Natives. Perhaps we would have held the spread east of the Mississippi, they say. Most tribes held to their own nations, their own prejudices and even fought against each other. |
Half the Lesson About Indian Education Several issues back, in Indian
Country Today, we lauded the advances Native America has made in the field
of education. It took decades of lobbying for congressional monetary support,
of innovative administration and decision-making and of institution building
to make these gains. There have been hundreds of Native students who have
excelled in their college careers and moved on to on-rez and off-rez professions.
In these things we can take heart. This is "Indian education"
as we envisioned it.
The lesson is only half learned, however. |
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Health and Fitness |
Health and Fitness |
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The
Exercise of Fancy Dancing* Last October I experienced one of those 'eureka' moments that might fit more with the likes of Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, or even Bill Gates than to a middle-aged gray-haired woman - writer-wannabe, like me. It happened in the middle of a round dance in the Leavenworth Penitentiary gym where I had the honor of participating in the Fall Spiritual Gathering of the Native American Inmates. My partner, a respectful and handsome young man was taking me through an arch of human arms when it came to me: This is aerobic exercise, Indian style! |
The Moment of Truth "The Moment of Truth" is a term that has been used in so many ways by so many different people over the last fifteen years that it has almost become nebulous. It's business implication is that the "moment of truth" relates to a "make it" or "break it" scenario that is related to successful customer service. It is often temporary in its significance and in other instances it is totally illusional. For other business operators the concept is simply a lie designed to disguise a high percentage sales closing ratio. As an industry we need to take a good look in the mirror and decide who we are, where we are going and whom we are going to serve. We are clearly at the most defining Moment of Truth that we have ever faced. In the words of Country Music Singer, Aaron Tippin, "You've got to stand for something, or you'll fall for anything." |
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Traditional Knowledge |
Traditional Knowledge |
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Creation Story "When I was a small boy the wise men of the tribe used to call all of us youngsters together in the evening and relate to us the lore and legends that they themselves had learned in the same manner from their wise men when they were young, for this was the only way the legends and stories of our people could be kept alive. The story I will tell you now is of how the Indian came to the earth and how he gets to what you call heaven." |
Lakol Wounspe Stresses Culture, Values
Only
during the Lakota Nation Invitational tournament would the answer to a
Knowledge Bowl question be, "What is peji hop-hop?" In
case you're not fluent in Lakota, peji hop-hop is a contemporary word
for "grasshopper." Students and adults alike will probably remember that
from the Lakol Wounspe competition, held Thursday in conjunction with
the girls LNI tournament here. |
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Nunavut News |
USNavy News |
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Ron and Don Show to Make Historic Broadcast from Nunavut Februry 14, 2003-A star-studded cast of Canadian hockey players and CBC broadcasters are in Iqaluit this weekend to film the fourth-annual Hockey Day in Canada. Ron MacLean, the host of Hockey Night in Canada, arrived in the city on Feb. 10 to admiring fans and a CBC North camera crew. Before rushing to his hotel, the ever-accommodating MacLean stopped for photos with well-wishers. |
Navajo Builds Community on Ship ABOARD THE USS CONSTELLATION
- On a cluttered desk deep in the bowels of this massive aircraft carrier
cruising the Persian Gulf, Jeff Baloo keeps a small flag of the Navajo
Nation where he grew up.
Fringed in gold, it's smudged from 15 years aboard a series of Navy ships. For Baloo, the flag represents something virtually unknown in the modern Navy: a community of Navajos on a single ship. |
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Wisconsin History |
Wisconsin News |
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An Old Indian Chief CUMBERLAND, Wis. Aug. 8 - Probably the most remarkable Indian character in northwestern Wisconsin in the present time is an old Chippewa Chief, generally known as "Little Pipe". His age is not definitely known, but according to the best information obtainable, Chief Little Pipe is now in his 108th year. He is still in robust health, and stands six feet tall, is very erect, weighs 180 lbs. and is robust as a roebuck. He is known to have resided in this region for the past seventy years, and through tradition tell us that previous to 1825 his hunting grounds were near Fairbault, Minnesota, yet the Indian records of the Lac Courte Oreilles Reservation would indicate that he was born in northwestern Wisconsin about the year 1788. |
Oneidas Give $5,000 to UW-Oshkosh Teaching Program The Oneida Tribe of Indians of Wisconsin recently donated $5,000 to a University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh program aimed at educating more American Indian teachers. The Indian Teachers for Indian Children program, which begins a fifth year in April, is running out of money because state funding is being eliminated due to budget cuts. The program only has enough money to continue through the end of this year. One-year costs for the program are about $27,600. |
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Alaska Heritage |
Oklahoma News |
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Culture Torchbearer Helps Bring People Together Cea Anderson was an adult before she embraced her Alaska Native heritage, but she has made up for lapsed time in the past decade. In addition to promoting Alaska Native and American Indian cultures through personal performances throughout the community, Anderson represents a host of local talent in the traditions of indigenous people from Ireland, India, Ecuador, Peru, Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United States. |
Princeton Students Volunteer Time in Bell BELL- Most college students spend Christmas break eating, sleeping, or spending time with family, but eighteen students from Princeton University volunteered a week of their time to help the residents of the Bell community. During the day, the volunteers did various projects, such as painting, building repair, and reading to students at Bell school. In the evenings, they were treated to dinner, provided by members of the Bell community, and guest speakers who spoke on the Cherokee culture and aspects of the Cherokee Nation. After their nightly activity, the students retired to their makeshift campground inside the Bell school gym. |
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About This Issue's Greeting - "Cama'i" |
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Cama'i, a traditional Alutiiq greeting, is a friendly, welcoming word used much like the English term "Hi." Cama'i you might say as you meet a friend on the street or enter a room full of people. The Alutiiq continue to greet each other with this familiar word. To many it symbolizes pride in Native culture and a continuing respect for Alutiiq - the traditional language of Kodiak, Prince William Sound, the lower Kenai Peninsula, and the Alaska Peninsula. Alutiiq is one of six Eskimo languages spoken in Alaska and Siberia. It is most closely related to Central Alaskan Yup'ik, the traditional language of the Bering Sea Coast, and speakers of Alutiiq and Yup'ik can converse easily. Within Alutiiq there are two distinct dialects and many smaller regional variations in vocabulary and word pronunciation. Residents of the Kenai Peninsula and Prince William Sound speak Chugach Alutiiq, while residents of the Alaska Peninsula and Kodiak Archipelago speak Koniag Alutiiq. Today there are less than 500 fluent
Alutiiq speakers, although many more can understand the language. Alutiiq
communities are working hard to preserve their language. Speakers are
helping linguists write dictionaries and develop lessons that can be taught
to school children, and many consider language preservation the most important
goal of the heritage movement. |
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This Date In History |
Recipe: Mardi Gras Madness |
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Story: Iktomi and the Ducks |
What is this: Wood Duck |
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Craft Project: Newspaper Beads |
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Opportunities |
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"OPPORTUNITIES" is gathered from sources distributed nationally and includes scholarships, grants, internships, fellowships, and career opportunities as well as announcements for conferences, workshops and symposia. |
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| Canku Ota is a free Newsletter celebrating Native America, its traditions and accomplishments . We do not provide subscriber or visitor names to anyone. Some articles presented in Canku Ota may contain copyright material. We have received appropriate permissions for republishing any articles. Material appearing here is distributed without profit or monetary gain to those who have expressed an interest. This is in accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107. | ||
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Canku Ota is a copyright © 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 of Vicki Lockard and Paul Barry. |
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The "Canku Ota - A Newsletter Celebrating Native America" web site and its design is the |
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Copyright © 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 of Paul C. Barry. |
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All Rights Reserved. |
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