Canku Ota - April 3 2004

	Canku Ota
	(Many Paths)
	An Online Newsletter Celebrating Native America
	April 3, 2004 - Issue 110


	"Ka-hay Sho-o Dah Chi"
	The Crow Greeting
	Hello. How are you?
	"Signs of Spring" by Terry Isaac

	"Nvda Atsilusgi "
	FLOWER MOON (when plants come to life and bloom again and the Earth is renewed)
	Eastern Cherokee

"A Warrior is challenged to assume responsibility, practice humility, and display the power of giving, and then center his or her life around a core of spirituality. I challenge today's youth to live like a warrior." ~Billy Mills~

We Salute
Jerry C. Elliott

When Jerry C. Elliott watched the movie "Apollo 13," the Tom Hanks film about the 1970 aborted journey to the moon, his palms started to sweat.

"It was so real," Elliott said.

Elliott, a physicist with NASA, was in a position to know just how true to life the movie was.

As the lead retrofire officer at Mission Control in Houston, he played a major role in the real drama of bringing three American astronauts safety back to Earth after an onboard explosion.

For the last 3 1/2 years, Paul and I have shared "Canku Ota" with you, at no charge.
To date, we've received no funding for our work, either.
But, we now have a dilemma, and we need your help.

Our Featured Artist:		Preserving Language
Carsen Gray Carsen is 11-years-old, is a full-time student, actress, singer and Princess of the Haida tribe. The Queen Charlotte Island, First Nations prodigy has sung for dignitaries, danced in Haida ceremonies and performed as a nightclubsinger in Vancouver’s famed Rossini’s restaurant, a favorite of jazz aficionados. She performed in Brisbane, Australia before coming home to Canada to rouse the audience to a standing ovation at the Leo Awards for Film and TV in Vancouver. Carsen enjoys horseback riding, soccer, and skating. She speaks French, Haida and learned Mohican for her role in Peter Pan.		Spring Forms Bonds Among All Cultures by Dorreen Yellow Bird It was a day of awakenings. As I drove crossed the straight and smooth Agassiz lake bed of the Red River Valley, I could see the furrows of the resting fields still gripped by long, white fingers of winter. Just above the fields and against the gray skies, I saw my first flock of geese - wings wide and mouths open. They were flying just above the field in a slightly askew "V." The flock landed somewhere out of sight, but before they disappeared, I rolled down my window and listened to their squawking and calling.

Our Featured Story:		Northwestern Wisconsin First Person History:
The Easter Bovine by Geoff Hampton		The Indian Priest Father Philip B. Gordon submitted by Timm Severud (Ondamitag) Chapter 1 - The Indian Priest Reminisces The aging Indian priest sat, as his ancestors had, beside the war drum. A stiff breeze whistled through the tops of the tall pines, but beneath their sheltering branches, the eagle feathers in his war bonnet were barely ruffled. Although the priest was a Chippewa, the headdress he often wore was Sioux; he received it while he was doing mission work in the western states.

Entertainment News		Museum News
Playworks: Week of the Young Child Playworks will join early childhood educators and programs around the country in celebrating the Week of the Young Child April 18-25, 2004. This event is an annual celebration sponsored by the National Association for the Education for Young Children (NAEYC), the world's largest early childhood education association. NAEYC, which has over 100,000 members and a network of nearly 450 affiliates, designates the dates and theme for the week, but events are planned and implemented by local communities.		American Indian Museum Prepares for Opening Facility Houses Largest Collection of Native American Artifacts The Smithsonian's newest museum is dedicated to one of the hemisphere's oldest subjects, the history and culture of Native Americans. NPR's Juan Williams tours the construction site of the National Museum of the American Indian, which opens in Washington, D.C., this fall, with its director, W. Richard West.

Athletic Success		Academic Success
Hemlock Can't Wait For Spring Most athletes thrive on getting their sport up to scratch, but in the case of Jake "0.J." Hemlock, it's quite the opposite. The local 17-year-old PGA pro-prospect would much prefer to get his golf game down to scratch. "Last year, I was a three handicap," said Hemlock, a member of the Caughnawaga Golf Club since he was nine.		Kahente Horn-Miller a Role Model for Higher Learning Kahente Horn-Miller has been pursuing her post-secondary education since 1991, with an emphasis on Onkwehonwe culture. She is currently in her first year of the Humanities Doctoral Program at Concordia, and is also active on a committee working to establish a Native Studies program for that university, pointing out that Quebec is the only province without such a program in place.

Living Traditions		Living Traditions
Toadacheene Wants to Inspire the Young San Juan County Clerk candidate Glojean Todacheene would like to bring fresh views and diversity to the county clerk’s office. "I'll bring new ideas. I think people who know me know that I care about the people of this county, the tribe and the state. Just give me a chance," said Todacheene, a Democrat who is of Navajo and German origin.		Indigenous Youths Inspired to Sovereignty Native Youth Movement members defending sacred mountains in Vancouver joined Lakota from the Black Hills in South Dakota, Hopi and Navajo from Black Mesa, Ariz., and Chicano from the barrios of Tucson and urged one another as spiritual warriors, during Tonatierra’s workshop for indigenous youths. "I had to come here to realize what I have inside myself," said Shirley Alvarada, indigenous youth from Peru, speaking of the united effort stemming from Tonatierra’s indigenous rights efforts in downtown Phoenix.

Living Traditions		Living Traditions
Plenty Coups Tales Aid Culture Lessons When Crow Chief Plenty Coups learned that he had won a land dispute with the federal government, he stood up in a Washington, D.C., courtroom, grabbed his coup stick and proudly sang a victory song. That's a story that Robert Yellowtail Sr., a Crow who argued Plenty Coups' case, liked to share with his daughter, Winona Plenty Hoops. Yellowtail, himself a legend among the Crow, learned English as a young man. He graduated from an Indian boarding school in California and was just completing law school when he felt the need to return to his family on the Crow Reservation.		Native Language Classes Teach Manners in Addition to Words It is a sunny spring morning, but Moon Woman, Bear Woman, Little Bird and Baby Baby -- their translated Aleut names -- are huddled inside an annex of the Alaska Native Heritage Center, trying to master the sound of a rough "G." In the western dialect of the Aleut, or Unangax, language, the sound of a regular "G" comes from one part of the mouth and the sound of a rough "G" comes from another -- subtle but critical to meaning. "Forget it. You're going to get yourself upset," Sally Swetzof (Moon Woman) tells her aunt, Angelina Guenther (Baby Baby).

Preserving Traditions		Preserving Languages
AMERICAN COMPOSERS FORUM RECEIVES FORD FOUNDATION GRANT FOR FIRST NATIONS COMPOSERS INITIATIVE (FNCI) To address the need to raise national consciousness regarding the diversity of American Indian musical forms, the Ford Foundation has granted planning funds to the American Composers Forum (ACF) to develop an organized infrastructure representative of the field of American Indian music. To be called the First Nations Composer Initiative (FNCI), this project will provide a critical response to the issues, needs, and concerns of American Indian musical artists.		Pumped up about Puente In one classroom, students are speaking in Spanish. In the classrooms on the other side of the office, students talk to their teachers in Navajo. In yet a third classroom, the students speak English. The sounds of the children's voices blend together in the hallway of this wing of Sinagua High School, where Puente de Hozho Bilingual Magnet School is located. The school is at the center of a controversial move to Weitzel Elementary School next year. The FUSD governing board voted Feb. 24 to move the school from SHS to Weitzel and move current Weitzel students into four other elementary schools: Thomas, Sechrist, Killip and Cromer (for Gray Mountain students only).

Honoring Success		Education News
Screenwriter Breaks Stereotypes of Native Americans Frustrated by not being offered legitimate roles as an actress in Hollywood or roles that didn't perpetuate stereotypes associated with Native Americans, Valerie Red-Horse wrote and starred in a movie after her husband suggested she write her own. Red-Horse, of Los Angeles, showed her 1998 Sundance film "Naturally Native" at the University of Redlands' Orton Center Thursday evening. In it she portrays Vickie Lewis Bighawk, one of three sisters who struggle to launch their own business selling herbal medicines based on formulas passed down by their ancestors.		NAMBÉ Governor Dances to His Own Beat About 600 students at the Santa Fe Indian School applauded when Nambé Pueblo Gov. Tom Talache told them about plans for a meeting center that would empower tribes. Plans for the United First Nations Assembly building in Santa Fe are under way, he said. Three hundred tribes that are represented in the National Congress of American Indians would be served by the facility, through which tribes can broker business deals, hold conferences and document native history. "The new facility will give Native Americans a chance to be heard," said 16-year-old Victoria Garcia of Santo Domingo Pueblo. Garcia acknowledged that tribes are plagued with problems such as teenage pregnancy and drug abuse.

Preserving Traditions		Academioc Success
It Takes a Village This American Indian village probably won't ever see a national grocery chain, coffee shop, or fried chicken for that matter. Yet it's being built in downtown Helena by students of the Wakina Sky Learning Circle and Center. In its third month of construction, local Indian students are as busy as ever attending to all the details of the tiny scale-model village.		Two Students Head for National Science Fair Two Fort Wingate High School students will head to Oregon in May to compete in the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. Junior Rachelle Bill and her classmate Nathanael Willie were among the winners here this weekend at the 17th Annual National American Indian Science and Engineering Fair.

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About This Issue's Greeting - "Ka-hay Sho-o Dah Chi"

In traditional and contemporary Crow culture, it is customary to greet each other with a quick glance away or a blink and nod of the head. If they are wearing a hat, they might tip the brim of the hat. Handshaking is a white man's custom and was only recently accepted as a greeting in Crow culture. You will rarely see Crow people embracing publicly. From: Vincent Goes Ahead, Jr., Museum Interpreter, Vice Chairman of the Crow Tribe

This Date In History		Recipe: Pasta Meals


Story: Why the Mole Lives Underground		What is this: Mole


Craft Project: Colored-sand Vases		This Issue's Web sites


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.







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