Canku Ota

(Many Paths)

An Online Newsletter Celebrating Native America

May 17, 2003 - Issue 87

"Kisuk Kiyukyit"

The Kootenai Greeting

"Greetings"

photo by Timm Severud (Ondamitag)

Waiting Moon

Hopi

"I dance for it lifts my spirits. I reach out and touch the hands of my ancestors and know that I've come home."

- John Active, Bethel, Alaska

We Salute
Jennifer Villalobos

Short film director Jennifer Villalobos has always been passionate about working with Native youth. She travels to speaking engagements around the state telling them an education is the best thing they can achieve. She graduated from St. Mary’s College in California with a bachelor’s degree in Psychology.

Our Featured Artist:

Health and Wellness

Litefoot

Litefoot is an Actor, the first Native American Rap Artist, a motivational speaker and President and Founder of three successful corporations. Litefoot first gained notoriety through his music career. In mid 1992, he released his first album "The Money" on his own Red Vinyl Records. In October of 1992 he began to receive radio play and won the Rap Search Contest with the title track from "The Money." This Song soon became a regional hit and paved the way for his second release "Speciality."

A Healthy Village Begins

As we all must know by now, we are in the midst of an ugly national health crisis. This crisis is especially hard hitting in the Native American community. The crisis in the Native American community encompasses physical, emotional and mental health. It includes many types of afflictions and resulting consequences. Watching the adult's that have been stricken and are suffering grotesque consequences is alarming enough, but unfortunately, now the rate of affliction in our children is growing fast and without immediate intervention will only get worse.

Thunderhawk - Our Featured Story:

Northwestern Wisconsin First Person History:

Thunderhawk - The Great Cross Country Adventure - Part 10
by Geoff Hampton

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

Interesting Sidelights on the History of the Early Fur Trade Industry (part 5)
submitted by Timm Severud (Ondamitag)

The talk given by W.W. Bartlett at the gathering of Chippewa Valley Historical Society at the Ermatinger place at Jim Falls on Saturday (June 10, 1925) on early fur trading in this section of the state was a great revelation to those present and provided his listeners with much that was new and interesting in connection with the early history of this section.

Role Models

Traditions

Native Americans Everyone Should Know

Recently I polled 38 young children - ages 4 to 12 - asking them to name 5 famous Native Americans. Most, of course, knew the historical figures: Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, Tecumseh, and Squanto. When asked to name Native people alive today, only a handful had an answer and, for over half, it was Wilma Mankiller. Not one child knew of the Native American astronaut, race car driver, golfer or Olympic figure skater. And when I said there was a Native American rap artist, they were astonished!

Walking In The Sand

The beach at Quileute beholds much natural beauty. You can look out to sea for miles and miles, while your senses take in the salty aromas of the sea, the vistas of the ocean waves as they roll in, the sounds of seagulls flying about and the pounding surf roaring as it crashes upon the beach. You can sit on driftwood logs or giant root wads and take in the awesome view of the ancient shoreline formations of James Island to the north and the "Needles" or pointy sea stacks to the south. You can also watch beautiful, white colored Beluga whales, passing by in the breaking swells, While Walking in the Sand.

Traditions

First Powwow

''For that first powwow, we had to kill some chickens the night before to get some feathers for the kids' costumes,'' said Lolita Hendrickson, who with Head Start administrator Jeanne Christopher started the event when there were only two Head Start centers on the entire reservation - one in Arlee and one in Mission/St. Ignatius.

Gathering to Share Food, Fun, Dance and This Year, Some Tears

Traditional and contemporary dance competitions, cheering crowds in the stands and on the arena floor, a special honoring song for U.S. Army Pfc. Lori Piestewa’s family, tears, laughter, food and fun, plus feathers in every hue imaginable set the scene for the 20th anniversary of the Gathering of Nations (GON) pow wow.

Education News

Education News

Hopi Alumni Are Good Role Models

Beverly Honanie, Native American Recruitment Retention Specialist at Arizona State University-West, was talking to students about attending the university. Freshmen through seniors visited with working-world folks to learn about the various careers.

Rez High School Students Learn the Ropes in Prescott

Twenty high school students from Kayenta's Monument Valley High School and Tuba City High School got a taste of adventure recently with the help of Prescott College Adventure Education undergraduates. The students engaged in a variety of outdoor activities over two-day sessions in Prescott's Granite Dells and Granite Basin and Chino Valley's Promised Land.

Honors

Honors

Medicine Crow to Receive Honorary Degree from USC

Crow Tribal Historian Joe Medicine Crow, 90, will finally receive the anthropology Ph.D. that he would have earned six decades ago if world events hadn't intervened.

Next Friday, he will join the University of Southern California 2003 graduating class for an honorary doctorate.

First Book Award for 2003 Recipients Selected

The Native Writers' Circle of the Americas (NWCA) announces the recipients of the literature awards in poetry and prose.

Marlon D. Sherman (Oglala Lakota) of Eureka, California, Susan Supernaw (Creek/Munsee)a of Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Geary Hobson (Cherokee/Arkansas Quapaw) of Norman, Oklahoma.

Education News

History

Riverside Indian School Chosen for Pilot Education Program Sponsored by NASA

Acting Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs Aurene Martin announced today that Riverside Indian School, Anadarko, Okla., has been chosen for a pilot program, sponsored by NASA and presented by the Busey Group. The grant is for the purpose of promoting careers in the math, science, IT and healthcare area with special emphasis in the space industry.

The Lost Birds

A long time ago there was a girl called Zintkala Nuni, or Lost Bird. She got this name after the battle of Wounded Knee. This is her story.

It was December 1890. The winter was very difficult for the Lakota because the United States government had been killing off the Buffalo. The Buffalo are very sacred to the Lakota. They are one of our closest relatives and give of themselves to feed and clothe their Lakota relatives.

Wisconsin First Person History

Wisconsin First Person History

OS-KOSH
submitted by Timm Severud (Ondamitag)

Standing today on Main Street and viewing the surroundings of civilization and improvements that everywhere meet the eye, it seems hard to realize the fact, that but very few years have elapsed since the white man's right to the soil was acquired from its original possessors, and that there are those yet among us who remember it in all its wildness and who were familiar with the character, and features of the original proprietors.

The Grave of Shabbona in Evergreen Cemetery is Marked by an Appropriate Monument
submitted by Timm Severud (Ondamitag)

Friday, October 23, 1903, about fifty people gathered in Evergreen cemetery to witness the dedication of a monument to the memory of one, who in the early days of civilization in Northern Illinois saved his white brothers from massacre at the hands of hostile Indians.

Success

Honors

The Fish are Flying

Geela Evic slips into a yellow apron and disappears into the Pangnirtung Fisheries Inc. plant. The factory rumbles with conveyor belts and forklifts.

Evic joins 35 other rubber-gloved employees processing the final 225,000 kilograms of turbot hauled from Cumberland Sound this winter.

The year's inshore fishery netted triple the size of last year's 76,500 kilogram catch.

Oneida to host Ironworkers Competition
Building on a Proud Tradition

The skills, courage and long-standing contributions of ironworkers will be highlighted in the Oneida Indian Nation’s inaugural Ironworkers Skills Competition and Festival, scheduled for Saturday, September 13 on Nation Homelands in Canastota, located adjacent to exit 34 of the New York State Thruway.

Traditions

We Get Letters

Seminoles Stress Survival of Culture

Just beyond Snake Road on the Big Cypress Reservation, far from the Seminole Tribe's flashy casinos, cultural lessons come with a quiet determination amid spelling drills and computer class.

In an age of PlayStation and rap music, Victor Billie shows a group of teenagers, some sporting tattoos and multicolored hair, how to carve wooden knives and spoons in the traditional way.

Gangs

Alryte check it out people, i'm a young native amercian male, i'm 17, i come from the Northside of California, an here in my county gangs i guess are a problem, there's mexican gangs, an then there's us, the indian ones...for some reason people think indian gangs lost their culural idenity?...but if wer'e "native american gangs"..then how is that true?...*just a note, no, i'm not illiterate, but i'm just typing this message as i think it out*..anywayz, we never lost our cultural heritage, cuz in mah group, we sing, dance, pray and get commoditys like any other non-"gang"membered indians, so how is that yu people can say we lost our culture?

Traditions

Sharing History and Traditions

The Joy of Cooking

A blue haze engulfs the tiny kitchen as Nikki Burfiend fries fresh oysters and geoduck fritters in a skillet popping with fat. Outside, steam from fuming cauldrons full of clams and oysters twines with sweet alder smoke from sockeye filets sizzling on a homemade grill.

Elk roasts pack two ovens to their doors; elk steaks and elk ribs stuff two counter-top cookers.

All around the Skokomish Indian Reservation here on the elbow of Hood Canal's long arm — at home, at the tribal-center kitchen and especially in the packed little kitchen across from the longhouse — a feast is in the making.

Sacajawea's People Exiled From Homelands
Fighting to Restore Federal Recognition

FYI ... did you know that Sacajawea’s people were exiled to the Fort Hall Indian Reservation (Idaho) after an executive order established a 100 square mile Lemhi Valley Indian Reservation by an executive order from President Ulysses S. Grant on February 12, 1875. The executive order established the reserve for the exclusive use of the tribes of the Agaidikas (salmon-eaters) and the Tukudikas (sheep-eaters) later known as the Lemhi-Shoshone, Sacajawea’s People.

Education News

Language News

American Indian Students Honored

This year's graduating class consisted of 26 students with a variety of backgrounds and interests.

Lee Cook, the executive director of Bemidji State University's American Indian Resource Center, was the event's keynote speaker.

Cook reminded the audience that many school districts across the country expect their American Indian students to drop out of school. Because of that perception, those schools often force those students out of school.

Ancestral Language Revitalization Efforts Complete Successful First Year

Scholars at the University of California, Riverside and cultural leaders of the Pechanga Band of Luiseño Mission Indians are celebrating the completion of the first year of an ambitious effort to teach tribal members their ancestral language. The work is paying off.

Last week, Native Americans from Northern California visited UC Riverside to observe the Takic Language Revitalization Project in action at the Pechanga Tribal Headquarters near Temecula. They watched children learn Luiseño, one of approximately 100 tribal languages native to California. Fully half of those languages are now nearly extinct.

About This Issue's Greeting - "Kisuk Kiyukyit"

Kootenai is spoken in southeastern British Columbia, northwestern Montana, and northeastern Idaho. It is also known as Kutenai, Ktunaxa, and Ksanka.

The Montana Kootenai live together with the Salishan speaking Flathead in what is now called the Confederated Salish-Kootenai Tribes. This association between the Montana Kootenai and Flatheads apparently dates back before European contact.

Kootani is an isolate, not known to be related to any other language

This Date In History

Recipe: Culinary Herbs

Story: Story of the Rabbits

What is this: Green Frog/Bronze Frog

Craft Project: Herbal Dream Pillows

Opportunities

"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.

Canku Ota is a copyright © 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 of Vicki Lockard and Paul Barry.

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