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Canku Ota

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(Many Paths)
An Online Newsletter Celebrating Native America
 
August 1, 2010 - Volume 8 Number 7
 
 
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"Auka"
 
 
The Kumeyaay Greeting
 
 
"Hello-This New Day!"
 
 


Yellow-headed Blackbird

 
 
"TSENEAGA"
 
 
Dog Days
 
 
Yuchi
 
 
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On Friday, July 2, Canku Ota lost one of our special contributors. Timm Severud passed away at his home in Northern Wisconsin. Timm was with us in the very beginning and his stories and love of history will be missed. We are grateful to have known Timm and treasure the works that he shared with all of us.
 
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We Salute
Martha Garcia

When Montana State University nursing student Martha Garcia describes how Native American nurses are in demand on reservations, she tells this story: Last summer, when Garcia was volunteering at an emergency room on the Crow Reservation in southeastern Montana, she witnessed something that made her realize she was needed. A Native American woman was brought into the emergency room, disoriented and distressed, and medical staff members were unable to calm her down. The patient saw Garcia, another Native American, and things began to change

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Our Featured Artist: Honoring Students
Shocking Story Behind Sealaska Art Show Winner

The "Best of Show" piece in the traditional category at the fifth Sealaska Juried Art Competition, a Tlingit war helmet by carver Wayne Price, came with an electrifying back story.

The wood came from an alder tree that knocked out the power in Juneau for half a day when it came down, the artist said.

 
Six Red Cloud Indian School Students Receive Gates Millennium Scholarships

Six students from Red Cloud High School on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, S.D., have received the coveted Bill and Melinda Gates Millennium Scholarship, putting them one step closer to realizing their dreams of going to college.

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Our Featured Story: Northwestern Wisconsin First Person History:
Nourishing Native Foods Win National Cooking Competition

Members from the Tohono O’odham Community Action Youth Cooking Class tantalized the taste buds of the judges in a national cooking competition with Native ingredients from their community, winning them the prestigious contest in Detroit, Mich. in May.

 
The Indian Priest
Father Philip B. Gordon
1885-1948
Chapter 17 -
An Unforgettable Journey
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News and Views Banner
Education News Education News
Graphic Artists Illustrate American Indian Tales In 'Trickster'

Pairing 21 American Indian storytellers with graphic artists, editor Matt Dembicki has produced a spectacular color anthology of trickster tales.

While Dembicki and his contributing artists have taken pains to respect the cultural integrity of the stories, their visuals never feel politically correct or preachy. Instead, reading this book creates the same excitement that discovering the Brothers Grimm or Italo Calvino's "Italian Folktales" does, only with pictures as well as words.

 
Documentary On Fort Chip Kids Makes Toronto International Film Festival Shortlist

A documentary on children in Fort Chipewyan and their concerns about oilsands pollution has made it onto a short list for an award at the upcoming Toronto International Film Festival.

The short documentary, called Keepers of the Water, features several children aged nine to 12 talking about what they think the industry is doing to their water supply and their health. The film is competing with four others for fan votes to determine best emerging filmmaker.

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Education News Education News
Waap Galts’ap A Hit With Crowd At Official Opening

Hundreds came out May 8 to Northwest Community College’s Terrace campus to witness the historic and long anticipated opening of Waap Galts’ap, the longhouse that is the first of its kind to be built on a Canadian college campus.

To commemorate the event, NWCC invited the public, chiefs, matriarchs, elders and special guests and dignitaries to an afternoon of celebration that kicked off with the ceremonial raising of two nine-foot totem poles carved by graduates of NWCC’s Freda Diesing School of Northwest Coast Art.

 
Young Oneidas Dig Their History

A group of Oneida Nation young people spent the past week excavating an archaeological site hidden back in the woods which was once home to their tribe hundreds of years ago.

The archaeological dig at the Vallaincourt site is part of the six-week Youth Work/Learn summer program run by the Oneida Nation.

"It gives them a little bit of an understanding of who they are and an understanding of where they come from," said Clint Hill, Oneida Nation Men's Council member. "Just to give them overall more of an understanding of themselves and the things that they can do."

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Preserving Language Preserving Language
Native Voices Heard At National Language Summit

Native languages are alive and well, and they need the federal government to help their voices flourish.

That was the message of a group of Indian educators who gathered for the National Native Language Revitalization Summit on Capitol Hill July 13 – 14 to make legislators and administrators aware of their concerns and desire for support.

 
Southeast Languages Focus Of Books

Sealaska Heritage Institute has published a new series of learners' dictionaries for the Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian languages and the first-ever Alaska Haida phrasebook.

"We've been working on language restoration for nearly 10 to 12 years, and I would say for a greater part of this we've been working on these dictionaries," institute president Rosita Worl said in a press release.

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Living Traditions Living Traditions

Exhibition Spotlights Native Americans In Rock And Roll

“Up Where We Belong,” a 1982 crossover hit co-written by Cree folk singer Buffy Sainte-Marie, lends its name to an upcoming exhibition about American Indians in rock and pop music at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian.

“We’re trying to show where Native musicians were instrumental in crafting the big American music,” said Tim Johnson, one of the museum’s associate directors, “and document instances where Native musicians were right in the center of it.

 
Long Walk Re-Enactors Recall Centennial

Dianne Livingston was 15 when she participated in the Long Walk reenactment in the summer of 1968.

Livingston, now 56 and living in Church Rock, N.M., was one of the many re-enactors who attended a reunion Saturday at the Window Rock Sports Complex during the Treaty Days Celebration.

Approximately 300 Navajos from throughout the reservation participated as re-enactors, camp crew, horse wranglers, cooking crew and security staff.

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Living History Living History
Prehistoric Pet?
Dog Burial Found In O.C.

It might have been a treasured pet, or the victim of traditional destruction of property after its owner's death. The reason for its burial remains a mystery.

But 18 centuries ago, someone carefully positioned the body of a small dog in what was likely a shallow grave in the marshlands of Laguna Canyon, then turned over a stone grinding bowl to cover the animal.

Four years ago, the dog's burial place was discovered by archaeologists keeping watch for artifacts during the widening of Laguna Canyon Road.

 
Native Hawaiians Served On Both Sides During Civil War

Henry Ho'olulu Pitman, the son of a Hawaiian high chiefess, was born in Hilo, served as a young man in the Union Army during the American Civil War, and died from the effects of being held in the South's Libby Prison.

James Bush, also part Hawaiian, was in the Union Navy in the war between the states, and he received a veteran's pension when he was older.

The history of Isle service on both sides of the war isn't widely known, said Justin Vance, a Civil War and military history professor at Hawai'i Pacific University.

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In Every Issue Banner
About This Issue's Greeting - "Auka"
 

The Kumeyaay Nation extends from San Diego and Imperial Counties in California to 60 miles south of the Mexican border. The Kumeyaay are members of the Yuman language branch of the Hokan group.

Included with the Kumeyaay in the Yuman branch are the PaiPai, Kiliwa, Cocopa, Mohave, Maricopa, Quechan, Yavapai, Havasupai, Hualapai. The Hokan language group is wide ranging, covering most of the coastal lands of southern California. It includes tribes as far north as the Kurok of Northern California.

Nature's Beauty:
Yellow-headed Blackbird
 
This Issue's Web sites
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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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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, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 of Vicki Lockard and Paul Barry.
 

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