Cedar Waxwings

Dr. Patricia Nez Henderson, is a member of the Dine' (Navajo) tribe. She is Vice President of the Black Hills Center for American Indian Health, an Native American nonprofit based in Rapid City, S.D., and is the first Native American woman to graduate from the Yale School of Medicine.

For more than 21 years, Jim Northrup has been one of the premier literary voices of the American Indian and the Midwest writers' communities. He is a playwright, a fiction writer, a newspaper columnist and teacher, but he calls himself a bull****** - another name, he says, for a storyteller.

For 41 years the American Indian Graduate Center has made higher education more attainable for American Indians/Alaska Natives by providing scholarships and mentor programs – giving undergraduate and graduate students alike the opportunity to obtain college degrees or certifications and develop professionally

"We must never ever forget them," Lyndreth "Tugger" Palmer said of veterans. "(We) pay honor to the people who make the supreme sacrifice. Their name will never die, never."

The Ton-Kon-Gah, Kiowa Black Leggings Warrior Society, was established generations ago to honor veterans, and it continues to celebrate each year with a ceremonial at Indian City in Anadarko, Okla.

Twenty teachers from the Navajo and Hopi nations will be participating in Lowell Observatory's Educational Astronomy Program (LEAP) thanks to a generous grant of $26,000 obtained from the Motorola Foundation. To date, the program has impacted more than 1,700 students and 50 teachers since its inception in 1996.

A unique center at Bemidji State University could become a national home for Ojibwe language and cultural education.

Built in 2003 largely with private dollars and contributions from local tribes, the $2.6 million American Indian Resource Center, has become an important gathering place for American Indians.

With their eyes on the future of Indian Market, organizers have selected 12-and 13-year-old siblings to create original artwork for the 2011 poster and official merchandise.

As the market goes into its 90th year, the Southwestern Association for Indian Arts wanted to honor its intergenerational nature and highlight the artists of tomorrow.

Sumner, 24, is the drum major of the University of Oklahoma's Pride of Oklahoma marching band and its "corporate identity." Dressed in his tall white hat and red and white uniform, he performs his signature strut down Owen Field as he leads the 300 Pride members onto the field to the tune of "Oklahoma."

Recognized as the first album in history with solely works by American Indian student-composers, OSHTALI ("divide into four parts"), is the latest CD to feature the Grammy-nominated string quartet, ETHEL.

This 16-song collection showcases the contemporary classical music of students of the Chickasaw Nation Summer Arts Academy of Ada, Okla. Recently released, OSHTALI is sponsored by the Chickasaw Nation and is part of ongoing groundbreaking initiatives created by the Chickasaw Nation Division of Arts and Humanities.

There has been quite a bit of buzz recently about Native American writers, particularly with the landmark production of Native writer Louise Erdrich's Master Butchers Singing Club at the Guthrie Theater. In fact, the Native writing scene here in the Twin Cities has been going strong for quite some time due to a tight, supportive network of artists who encourage and support each other, combined with a number of institutions that have been fostering Native voices.

Dreams of buffalo have arisen on the Wind River Indian Reservation of central Wyoming, reaching like long shadows down to the banks of the Big Wind River.

On the other side, a band of people waits.

In 1889, a Paiute prophet saw buffalo returning, and spread the good news among Northern Arapahos and other plains people. Those hopes turned to bitter tears.

But a hundred years on, Arapaho elders were dreaming buffalo again.

As the sun rose over the ocean and made its way to Kilauea crater, Halau Na Pua Ha’aheo o Kona dancers, their friends and family gathered to purify themselves and pay homage to the goddess of the Hawaiian volcano, Pele. The hula dancing group’s morning began hours earlier when they left their homes in Kona to reach the goddess’ home, Halema’uma’u, by sunrise. Later that morning, they would take the stage for a Hula Kahiko performance at the Volcano Art Center. But first, they needed to follow protocol and recognize whose home it was they were in.

Tammie Billie points to traditional Seminole bead work and palmetto fiber dolls that she, her seven daughters and her grandmother makes to sell at their vendor booth at pow-wows around the country.

"Everything we make has been passed along from generation to generation," Billie says from her table at the 13th annual American Indian Arts Celebration at the Big Cypress Seminole Indian Reservation on Saturday afternoon. She says she and her family make the traditional crafts to earn extra income and to preserve their cultural heritage."We don't want to die out," Billie says. "If we lose our language and our culture, then there's no more of what we are."

The current master plan for a revised Cherokee Heritage Center includes a new and expanded Ancient Village.

CHC Executive Director Carey Tilley said Cherokee Nation Cultural Tourism is putting up $250,000 for the first of three phases for the new village. He said funds must be raised for the second and third phases. Overall, the project is estimated at $1 million. Construction has started, and he said he hopes all phases are done by spring 2011.

The new village will have 13 stations for demonstrations such as basket weaving and canoe making. Eight pairs of winter and summer homes, winter and summer council houses, an orchard, ball field, gardens and a re-circulating stream are other features. Plants and trees native to the Southeast and Oklahoma that are important to Cherokees will also be planted.

The Ktunaxa for Tots curriculum is a new Ktunaxa language program designed by Paqmi Nuqyuk Aboriginal Early Years employee, Chelsea Nicholas. The program developed by Nicholas, in collaboration with the Little Badger's Learning Centre, was designed to help children under the age of six connect with their culture and language. It is at this age when children have the greatest capacity to learn something that they can carry with them the rest of their lives.

Award-winning Canadian playwright Tomson Highway is releasing two of his most famous works in his first language — Cree.

The Cree versions of the plays The Rez Sisters and Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing were officially released at a launch party at the University of Ottawa Monday night. Highway, 58, said a publisher, Fitzhenry and Whiteside, approached him earlier this year and expressed its interest in releasing the plays — both of which have been performed in English since the 1980s — in Cree.

In collaboration with Sole Nation Health, Cherokee rap artist, actor and entrepreneur Litefoot has become the first Native American celebrity to develop and produce a personal brand of sneakers to accommodate diabetics.

"A lot of orthopedic shoes are not the coolest looking shoes, and some of the young people who should be wearing those shoes don't because it's not a cool shoe," Litefoot said. "I think this shoe will give them the opportunity to wear something that's really cool and that they won't be embarrassed of, and it also speaks to their Native American heritage."

The United States Mint has announced the reverse design that will appear on the 2011 Native American Dollar. This series of circulating dollar coins features a different reverse design each year, representing the contributions and accomplishments of Native Americans.

The theme for the 2011 design is Diplomacy – Treaties with Tribal Nations. The selected reverse design specifically highlights the treaty between Supreme Sachem Ousamequin, Massasoit of the Great Wampanoag Nation and Governor John Carver of the European settlers at Plymouth Bay.