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Canku Ota

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(Many Paths)

An Online Newsletter Celebrating Native America

 

August 14, 2004 - Issue 119

 
 

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"LaXayfN nayka shiks"

 
 

The Chinuk-wawa Greeting

 
 

Hello my friend

 
 

 

 
 

OPUNHOPIZUN

 
 
THE MOON YOUNG DUCKS BEGIN TO FLY
 
 

CREE

 
 

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"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~

 

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We Salute
Edgar Perry

Geronimo spoke it. So did Cochise. For hundreds of years, Apaches roamed the Southwest, speaking the language of their fathers' fathers.

But now television and the Internet are doing what years of warfare and incarceration failed to do.

"We're losing our language. And when we do that, we become a lost tribe. We become a white man, just like you."

The words belong to Edgar Perry, a White Mountain Apache who is striving to save his people's language - and way of life.

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School News Banner

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:

Education

Joseph M. Marshall III

Joseph M. Marshall III is a teacher, writer, actor and traditional storyteller who celebrates his heritage in his book and CD "The Lakota Way: Stories and Lessons for Living" (published by Viking Compass and Makoché Records, respectively). The CD version of the Lakota stories won the 2004 Audio Publishers Association "Audie" Award for Best Spiritual and Inspirational Recording.

Marshall’s new book is set for release in October, "The Journey of Crazy Horse: A Lakota History", which is based on Lakota oral history about the great leader. An excerpt will be published in the September issue of Cowboys and Indians Magazine.

 

Keeping Our Promise to American Indian Children
by Senator Tom Daschle

The right to attend a good school should be the birthright of every child in America. When tribal nations negotiated treaties with the U.S. government and surrendered portions of their ancestral lands more than a century-and-a-quarter ago, the United States government promised to help provide the descendants of all American Indians with education, health care, housing, and other basic necessities of life, forever. Sadly, our nation has failed to live up to that promise.

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Our Featured Story:

Northwestern Wisconsin First Person History:

The Eagle and the Snake – Redman Speaks – Part 13
by Geoff Hampton

 

 

The Indian Priest
Father Philip B. Gordon

submitted by Timm Severud (Ondamitag)

 

Chapter 10 - Ordination and More Problems

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News and Views Banner

Living Traditions

Living Traditions

Tribal Gifts to Olympics

"While celebrating the Greeks for their greatest gift to peace, joy and health, in history - THE OLYMPIC GAMES... And the French for reviving the Olympics in 1896, I hope the world also reflects on the contributions of the First Americans and other Indigenous Peoples," said Olympic skier Suzy Chaffee. "Most people are not aware of the roots of ten Olympic sports that the American Indians invented: Soccer (kicking a ball for days), ice and field hockey, canoeing, kayaking, overhand swimming stroke, baseball, basketball, tobogganing (sled sports), as well as the three day Marathon, for spiritual and messenger purposes, like their South American brothers and sisters.

 

Peace and Dignity Journey Runners Unite

Tohono O’odham elders on horseback and young runners packed in vans, joined the Fourth Annual Peace and Dignity Journey, as runners arrived after crossing 5,000 miles from Chickaloon Village, Alaska on their way to Panama.

Near the international border, William Antone of GuAchi District was among Tohono O’odham elders traveling with runners from the sacred mountain of Baboquivari Peak, home of I’itoi the Creator, to tribal headquarters in Sells, Ariz.

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Preserving Traditions

  Preserving Traditions

A Mississippi Mound Mystery

The Mississippi River has its mysteries, but none that can touch the one that unfolded on its banks 1,000 years ago in what is now southwestern Illinois, across the river from St. Louis. We began the second week of our journey down the Mississippi by visiting the eerily magnificent mounds of the native American metropolis of Cahokia and hearing an archeologist describe the rapid rise and fall of "the city that history forgot."

 

The Place That Shines

Qaummaarviit Historic Park got an overhaul last summer, but the ancient island in Frobisher Bay remains mostly unchanged since Inuit abandoned the camp site over 200 years ago.

Qaummaarviit, or “the place that shines,” is a misty island that sits off the end of Peterhead Inlet, 13 km west of Iqaluit. When the sun is out, mica in the rocks glitters, literally making the island shine. In grey weather, the thick green moss and grass are luminous under the clouds.

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Preserving Traditions

Youth News

Celebrating the Drum at the Alaska Native Heritage Center

Visitors will be able to see Alaska Native Dance groups and artists celebrate the drum on Saturday, August 28th from 9am to 6pm. Dance Groups will be performing throughout the day and artists will be demonstrating drum making from different Alaska Native cultures.

"In celebrating the drum, we are honoring this important part of our culture," stated Jonathon Ross, President and CEO. "The drum is a unifying and recognizable aspect of all Alaska Native cultures and in all other indigenous cultures. We offer this program to share with the public the culture of the drum."

 

River Outings Provide Needed Release for Teens

Inching my way into the floating craft, careful not to misstep, I inquired where the driest area was to shoot photographs and view the ride.

The answer provided was practical. "You might want to sit on that side of the raft so if we flip you can get out," the helmsman urged, paddle in her hand.

Nervously, I paid heed to her suggestion, clutching my camera bag with a death-like vice grip.

"Nah, I’m just teasing. I always do that with first timers," she remarked brazenly.

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Education News

  Education News

Grant Aids American Indian Training

The Penn State graduate program designed to train students to be principals in American Indian schools received a $1 million federal grant Thursday.

U.S. Deputy Secretary of Education Eugene Hickok announced the award Thursday and presented the College of Education's American Indian Leadership Program with a ceremonial check for about $500,000, the first part of a three-year award.

"This grant really strengthens an already strong program and provides us an opportunity to do something we wouldn't ordinarily be able to do with our own resources," said Rodney Erickson, Penn State's executive vice president and provost.

 

Indian Nursing Program Lands $500,000

A UND nursing program that caters to American Indian students has picked up a grant totaling $567,000 to enhance recruitment and retention of students and to address a critical health-care work force shortage in rural areas.

The three-year federal grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will go to the school's Recruitment and Retention of American Indians into Nursing program, or RAIN, which has produced more than 100 American Indian health professionals since it began 15 years ago.

Many of those nurses have gone back to work in Indian reservations, a segment of the population in critical need of health-care workers.

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Education News

  Education News

A $1 Million Boost for Indian Education in Minneapolis

Mid-August, and school is in session at Minneapolis' Native Academy.

Operating out of a Lake Street storefront across the street from McDonald's, the place is a hive of teenage activity, with dozens of students -- mostly American Indians -- toiling away on the computers.

Native Academy is at the forefront of efforts to raise American Indian student performance, so often weighted down by poverty and transience. It has a simple, overarching mission: To make American Indian kids better students with better prospects for life after high school.

 

Tribal Program Promotes College, Science

After more than a century of sovereignty, less than 1 percent of American Indians are college-educated, leaving tribes reliant on outsiders to help manage their lands and natural resources.

For the last four years, a tribal-run program called Young Native Scholars, has been working to change that by exposing future leaders to college and careers in science. Over two summer weeks, Indian high school and undergraduate students live on, and study at, reservations and universities throughout the county.

"It's important that we make a bridge between the university and the reservation," said Marc Chavez, program director and a graduate of UC San Diego. "You don't find many Native American people in the science profession. Our goal is to encourage them so they can help with very important things like water and land."

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Living Traditions

Center Celebrates Heritage

In December a traditional Native American hogan was constructed on a grassy knoll behind the Farmington Inter-tribal Indian Organization.

The hogan was officially welcomed into the world by Navajo medicine man Francis Mitchell, who performed a traditional hogan blessing ceremony Wednesday.

A hogan blessing ceremony is performed only after the last nail has been put in place and no ceremonies can be held in a hogan until it is blessed by a medicine man.

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In Every Issue Banner

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: Quick & Easy After School Snacks

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Story: Blue Jay and His Companions

 

What is this: Stellar Sea Lion

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Craft Project: Blue-Jean Book Bag

 
This Issue's Web sites

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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.  
 

Canku Ota is a copyright © 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 of Vicki Barry and Paul Barry.

 

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