Canku Ota

(Many Paths)

An Online Newsletter Celebrating Native America

June 19, 2004 - Issue 115

"LaXayfN nayka shiks"

The Chinuk-wawa Greeting

Hello my friend

"PASKAWEHOWLPICIM OR PINAWEWIPICIM"

EGG HATCHING OR LAYING MOON

CREE

"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
Dani Daugherty

A 2003 law school graduate, she is currently a federal law clerk — the first American Indian to hold that job in South Dakota.

She is also happily married, with four daughters.

Yet if not for a few simple choices along the way, Daugherty's life might be very different today. Eight years ago, she was newly divorced, a single mother scraping by on a meager salary. She had a high school diploma and a trailer house on Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.

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:

Another Story

Tammy Beauvais

Young Mohawk designer Tammy Beauvais understands very well that starting your own business is no ticket to the easy life. "You have to work hard to make a name for yourself," she says.

Beauvais's name is getting more attention these days, thanks to the cashmere shawls she created for the wives of 34 heads of state attending the Summit of the Americas in Québec City. She made the shawls at the request of Aline Chrétien, wife of the Prime Minister. Beauvais has received some orders for her clothing as a result of that high-profile exposure. But she's very aware that she's just starting out, and that a great deal of work lies ahead.

Students Blossom with the Flowers on Prairie Outing
by Dorreen Yellow Bird

About three months ago, I had a visual field exam that tested my peripheral vision. I scored 100 percent. I attribute my good peripheral vision to roadside deer. They keep my eyes sharp trying to spot them before they leap onto the highway in front of my car.

On my return trip from Turtle River State Park on Thursday, I perked up when I spotted tawny brown movement in the grass between the field and highway. A doe was jumping through the tall grass at a fast clip, coming toward the road.

Our Featured Story:

Northwestern Wisconsin First Person History:

The Eagle and the Snake – Redman Speaks – Part 11
by Geoff Hampton

Geoff is taking a little break. He'll be back. with part 11, in the next issue.

The Indian Priest
Father Philip B. Gordon
submitted by Timm Severud (Ondamitag)

Chapter 6 - Happy Reunion

Living Traditions

Living Traditions

Back to Basics: Ways of the Past Help Shape the Future

Like those of her ancestors, the hands of Daynetta Bald Eagle are seldom idle. Methodically they move, pushing the bone needle through the deerskin, pulling the sinew tight and repeating the motion as she sews a knife sheath. There is little wasted motion. At the same time, she continues to talk with her guests.

"I do wish that I could have raised my children 200 years ago, in a place like this," she says. "I think it would have been a lot easier. Nowadays, there are so many distractions - gangs, drugs, so much violence - too much is asked of them and much too early."

Santa Ana Pueblo’s Cooking Post

The green shoots of blue corn are bursting through the ground on Santa Ana Pueblo and Ray Leon is in the mill grinding Osage red corn kernels from Oklahoma into flour.

In Santa Ana Pueblo’s mill, a sophisticated, high-tech machine is being readied for tea bag packaging for the American Indian Tea & Coffee Company in nearby Santa Fe.

With Native wild rice, maple syrup, salsa and deer jerky ready for shipments, Santa Ana Pueblo’s Cooking Post is providing a rare service. It is bringing Native harvests to kitchens, pow wows and restaurants across America.

Preserving Language

Once-dying Chinook Language Finds Future in Voices of Children

To Tony Johnson, the Chinook jargon widely spoken by his ancestors was not just a second-class language used for trade but a language of tribal rituals, family gatherings and courtship. Until recently, it was almost extinct.

Now, due largely to the 33-year-old Johnson, who regards each word of his ancestral tongue as an heirloom, the jargon also known as "Chinuk-wawa" has become a language of the future.

Saving Native Languages on Akaitcho Agenda

People attending the Akaitcho Assembly say they want to improve aboriginal language services in their N.W.T. communities.

Akaitcho delegates suggested paying elders and teaching syllabics.

They say a lack of money and a cumbersome bureaucracy interferes with getting more people fluent in their native languages.

Sport News

Sport News

Special Olympics Summer Season Begins

With the lushly covered San Jacinto mountains as a backdrop, the 2004 Special Olympics summer season began in a very unique way at Pechanga Resort & Casino. The resort hosted the Special Olympics’ Law Enforcement Torch Run opening ceremonies and brought out hundreds of spectators and participants.

Inter-tribal Games Provide Fitness, Culture and Fun

He’s part coach, mentor, friend and counselor. Angelo Baca knows what’s it’s like to grow up Native and wants to do what he can to help Chief Leschi kids grow strong and rich in the traditions of the past and be prepared for the future.

Living Traditions

Tribal Members Soar in Eagle Feather Ceremony

Lincoln County School District officials bid a special farewell to 52 graduates during the Indian Education Program's annual Eagle Feather Ceremony held June 8 at the Siletz Community Center.

Sponsored by the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians, the ceremony marks the achievements of members of various Indian tribes who are graduating from Newport, Taft, Toledo and Waldport high schools. According to Patty Savage-Socha, Keeper of the Feathers and a teacher at Siletz Valley School, the eagle feather symbolizes "the soaring of the human mind at its best."

Honoring the past to ensure the future

After surviving tours of duty in East Timor, Iraq and Afghanistan, Navajo warrior Sergeant Lance C. Davison returned home to entrust his family staff for safekeeping to his father, John.

The passing of the staff was one of many National Dedication Day Observance Powwow activities held at Fort Tuthill May 29—certainly an appropriate ceremony for Memorial Day. Attired in his Marine Corps dress blues, Sgt. Davison embraced his father in the presence of other war veterans. Navajo Code Talkers Alfred Peaches, Arthur Hubbard Sr., Lloyd Hubbard (one of the 29 original code talkers) Ted Draper Sr. and Dan Akee were witnesses.

Preserving Language

Preserving Traditions

Conferences Focus on Saving Native Languages

Chochenyo, the language of the Muwekma Ohlone people, has been silent since the 1930s, but a handful of tribal members working with mentors from the University of California, Berkeley's linguistics department are bringing it back to life.

Today, Chochenyo is being heard once again in conversation and song, and can be seen in written communications and a guidebook being prepared to help teach others.

In Teec Nos Pos, It's All About Leaders, Tradition

It was appropriate that 6-year-old Frederick Wing led the group of walkers down the sandy, rocky path that swirled around the base of the pale peach and yellow buttes in the hot morning sun.

That's because last year, Wing's little sister Lynell, lead a group of people up the Carrizo mountain to a waterfall, considered sacred by some members of the community.

Student News

Student News

Indian Students Urged to Enter Health Careers

Scalpels in hand, 32 American Indian teens bowed over cow eyeballs in a laboratory at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center one afternoon last week.

The teens were eager to cut into the bulbous tissue to find the lens, optic nerve and other structures inside the large blue-gray eyes. The program that brought them to the health sciences campus for six weeks this summer was created in hopes they also will find future careers in health-related fields.

Native American students encouraged to be 'Agents for Change'

Young Native Americans can help get an Indian point of view into mainstream media, the leader of the Native journalism organization said.

"Becoming a journalist will help continue to change America's perspective and stop newsroom excuses" for ignoring Indian issues, said Ron Walters, executive director of the Native American Journalists Association.

Student News

Student News

High School Senior Likes Rubbing Elbows with U.S. Presidents

Cordell Curleyhair has a meeting with President George Bush in Washington, D.C., he'd like to make, but he needs the public's help to get there.

The St. Michael's High School senior was selected to participate in the Presidential Classroom program, which brings together high-achieving high school students from across the globe for a week-long immersion into the ways of the U.S. government in the nation's capital. The catch is the $1,175 he needs to make it happen, which will cover the program's tuition fee, room and board.

Tribal Study Center Opens its Doors

A fledgling tutoring program is taking off - to the point where spacious new digs are a reality. Associates of the Tule River Indian Study Center in Porterville hosted an open house Wednesday to celebrate their relocation to a bigger and better building on West Olive Avenue in the Town and Country Shopping Center. The after-school tutoring program is fully sponsored by the Tule River Tribal Council and targets children from kindergarten to high school who are affiliated with the Tule River Indian Tribe.

Living Traditions

France honors Lakota woman

An Eagle Butte woman who was an Army nurse during World War II will be one of 100 former military personnel to receive France's most prestigious civilian honor at the 60th anniversary celebration of the Allied invasion of Normandy.

On June 5, the Republic of France will bestow the prestigious Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur - Knight of the Legion of Honor - on Marcella LeBeau, 84, in a ceremony in Paris.

She and 99 other World War II veterans will travel to France as guests of that country to receive medals for their military service and their efforts to liberate France during World War II.

About This Issue's Greeting - "LaXayfN nayka shiks"

Until recently, the Chinuk Wawa or Chinook Jargon language was in jeopardy of being lost forever.

"This language was used everywhere in the Northwest, from Northern California to British Columbia.; The one place in the world where it survived and probably the place it is finest in terms of impressibility and where it's really used is in Grand Ronde."

This Date In History

Recipe: Watermelon

Story: The Coyote and the Quail

What is this: Gambel's Quail

Craft Project: Make Your Own Pinata

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, 2004 of Vicki Barry and Paul Barry.

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