Northern Mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos)

Excitement was in the air last week as the 11th Annual Global Exchange Human Rights Awards ceremony was held at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco, California.

Crystal Lameman, a member of the Beaver Lake Cree First Nation, was presented with the 2013 Grassroots Award. Ms. Lameman is an ardent fighter for her community and land, and for the rights and sovereignty of First Nations in Canada.

I had been in contact with S.D. Nelson since the South Dakota Book Festival of 2012. I happened to pass him by one afternoon there. He had just finished a conversation with another festival attendant and it was obvious that he had other business to attend to, and I had wanted to meet him so I called out to Nelson. He gave me a nod and wave, and intended to continue on, but when I said, “I’m from Standing Rock.” Nelson immediately stopped in his tracks, turned around and made time to visit with me.

On Friday, I had the honor of addressing a class of graduates at Navajo Technical College in Crownpoint, New Mexico. The Navajo Tech graduating Class of 2013 earned certificates in 34 fields that will provide the tools they need to serve their community as teachers, nurses, engineers, mechanics, bankers, chefs and countless other opportunities all made possible by their commitment and dedication to improving themselves through the pursuit of a higher education.

Today the mouth of the Mississippi River will drink from its source, tasting its healthier beginning and, it is hoped, remembering and healing.

For two months, walkers have carried prayers of hope and well-being along with a pail of water drawn from Lake Itasca, Minnesota, source of the 2,500-mile-long waterway. A half dozen people have journeyed steadily along its banks since March 1, joined here and there by well-wishers who took up portions of the walk.

A Historical Romance - The Derivation of the Word Milwaukee

It has remained for the historians of this late day to furnish the key in a long locked matter, namely, the derivation of the name of this city. The pioneer writers, many of whom had the advantage of consulting interpreters of the Indians languages, were unable to determine the point, owing to a singular contrariety of information. Augustin Grignon had been told by an old Indian that the name was derived from a valuable aromatic root used by the natives for medicinal purposes. The name of this root was 'man wau', and hence, man-a-waukee, or place of the 'man wau.' The Indians represented that it grew no where else, to their knowledge, that it was considered very valuable among them, and that the Chippewas on Lake Superior would give a beaver skin for a piece as large as a man's finger.

Cherokee High School hosted its annual student art show on the night of Thursday, May 9. The show, which featured a variety of art from paintings to beadwork, ran until the next day.

"We will always have artists," said CHS art teacher Alyne Stamper. "These kids are gifted. They are very easy to teach."

"They have the talent.

"If you can read this, thank a teacher," the bumper sticker ahead stated triumphantly. It takes passion to be a teacher. It takes devotion. It requires patience and it requires an understanding some students are going to excel in a vocational setting while others will earn doctorates.

It is why yesterday, America observed National Teacher's Day.

Food is medicine.

It also can wreck your health.

Mike Jimerson knows the reality of both.

A steady diet of processed foods and a fairly sedentary life took Jimerson onto a path that pushed his weight to 377 pounds by the time he was in his early 40s and into a health condition far too common on Seneca Nation of Indians territory: diabetes.

I grew up knowing about my Cherokee heritage. My maternal grandparents are both mixed-blood Cherokees from Oklahoma. They would tell me, “You are part Native American, and you should know about it.” At 6 years old my grandpa gave me a Scholastic book called Custer and Crazy Horse. Reading that book solidified in me an understanding of the injustice that had happened to tribes in this country. It was the start to the eventual path I was led on. I went from reading Native books, to attending Powwows, to getting involved in local tribal meetings and concerns, to joining the American Indian Movement of Southern California. It also led to the creation of the Tribal Nations Map.

When Jack Gladstone, “Montana’s Blackfeet Troubadour,” performed at North Idaho College, he captured the attention of his audience with both his songs and his easy manner, sometimes asking them to sing along and at other times regaling them with the history behind his songs. He knows Native history and legend far better than most, talking easily of events involving many tribes and many individuals and his songs, written and produced by him, frequently relate these events in lyric form.

When all was said and done, teamwork, timing and design of their car are what helped the Bombers from Mesa Elementary School in Shiprock win this year's 2013 Zia Solar Car Race.

After five rounds of elimination last Friday at the Albuquerque Explora Museum, the Bombers coasted their solar-powered car to the championship, where they beat Native Pride of Santo Domingo Pueblo. The 19th annual solar race, sponsored by Public Service Co. of New Mexico, had a field of 28 teams, including several from Mesa Elementary.

A new website has been launched to be a valuable online resource for Native American tribes, organizations and individuals involved in food systems and agricultural efforts and/or aiming for better health and nutrition for their families and communities.

The site, www.NativeFoodSystems.org, was created by the Longmont-based First Nations Development Institute with funding provided by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.

With only 2 to 5 percent of children currently speaking Lakota, Thomas Short Bull, president of the Oglala Lakota College, said the time has come to raise the alarm.

As the day begins at the Lakota Language Immersion School, a young boy passes an abalone bowl of sage to each child sitting on the floor in a circle. Children from kindergarten through third grade gather for the morning ceremony with prayers, songs, and a short discussion of things to know and remember.

An exhibit created by the Nicollet County Historical Society and students and faculty at Gustavus Adolphus College is headed for the biggest stage in the museum world.

"Commemorating Controversy: The Dakota-U.S. War of 1862" will be displayed by the Smithsonian Institution in New York and Washington, D.C.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ National Diabetes Education Program is offering a free fat and calorie counter that contains a list of foods commonly eaten by American Indians and Alaska Natives.

This food list helps people keep track of fat grams and calories eaten so that they can choose the healthiest food options. People may order the fat and calorie counter by emailing aianpt@cdc.gov or visiting or go to http://ndep.nih.gov/media/AIAN-Fat-Calorie-Counter-508.pdf.ntrol the disease and lower the risk of complications.

Students representing the Cherokee Nation's Cherokee Language Immersion School, Sequoyah Schools and Rocky Mountain Elementary brought home nine awards from the 11th annual Oklahoma Native American Youth Language Fair on April 1-2 at the Sam Noble Museum of Natural History.

The immersion school's second grade won first place in the Pre-kindergarten to Second Grade Large Group Spoken Language category with its tale of "Why the Possum's Tail is Bare."

One sunny afternoon early this month Jeffrey Gibson paced around his studio, trying to keep track of which of his artworks was going where.

Luminous geometric abstractions, meticulously painted on deer hide, that hung in one room were about to be picked up for an art fair. In another sat Mr. Gibson's outsize rendition of a parfleche trunk, a traditional American Indian rawhide carrying case, covered with Malevich-like shapes, which would be shipped to New York for a solo exhibition at the National Academy Museum.

Five Hopi quilters created a quilt last summer under the watchful eye of Linda Visnaw, master quilter for the Hopitutuqaiki Art School.

The quilt has been on tour for nearly half a year and has been helping to raise money for the Hopitutuqaiki Art School, which is in its ninth year of operation on the Hopi Reservation.

In 2002, a group of retired men began hiking together once a week in the Southern Appalachian Mountains and started finding old, scenic trails they claimed nobody knew about. They decided to revive these trails and make them available to the public, first forming a nonprofit group called Mountain Stewards, headed by president Don Wells.