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Canku Ota
(Many Paths)
An Online Newsletter Celebrating Native America

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NOVEMBER 2013 - Volume 11 Number 11
 
 
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"Cama'i"
The Alutiiq Greeting
Means "Hi"
 
 


Steelhead Trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss)

 
 
"Pne'kesis"
The Month of the Turkey and Feast
POTAWATOMI
 
 
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"You have noticed that everything an Indian does is in a circle, and that is because the Power of the World always works in circles, and everything tries to be round...Everything the Power of the World does is done in a circle. The sky is round ... and so are all the stars. The wind, in its greatest power whirls. Birds make their nests in circles, for theirs is the same religion as ours. The sun comes forth and goes down again in a circle. The moon does the same, and both are round. Even the seasons form a great circle in their changing, and always come back again to where they were. The life of a man is a circle from childhood to childhood and so it is in everything where power moves." - Black Elk, Oglala Lakota 1930
 
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We Salute
"Joanne Zacharias and Kan Do"

My KD Company LLC is Owned by Joanne Zacharias. "Kan Do, Don't Tell Me I Kan't" is a powerful statement that this company thrives on! Zacharias and her cousin Woody Sankey work together to empower people to enjoy the great outdoors.

Our vision is to grow a profitable company that will have the ability to support local charities that focus on youth, individuals with special needs, people with disabilities, and veterans. We want to give back to you in your community!

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Our Featured Artist: Honoring Students
'Cherokee Nation: A Portrait of People'

An exhibit showcasing portraits of Cherokee people from all walks of life is on display at the Cherokee Heritage Center through April 6.

CHC Curator Mickel Yantz said "Cherokee Nation: A Portrait of a People" is a traveling exhibit consisting of portraits taken in the Tahlequah area 12 years ago by award-winning photographer David Fitzgerald.
 
Alyssa Garcia Crowned Miss Indian Arizona 2013

The Ak-Chin Indian Community is pleased to announce Alyssa Rene Garcia was crowned Miss Indian Arizona 2013-2014. Garcia is the daughter of Lisa and Manuel Garcia and is the first member of the Ak-Chin Indian Community to ever participate in the Miss Indian Arizona Scholarship Program. She also won the best talent, best evening wear, and was the winner of the community service award.

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Our Featured Story: Northwestern Wisconsin First Person History:
Presidential Proclamation -- National Native American Heritage Month, 2013
 
Autobiography of
Black Hawk

Part 3
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News and Views Banner
Education News Education News
Diné Engineer Tells Story Of Journey From Rez To World-Class Research

Growing up in a single-parent household in a 500-square-feet substandard house with very little money, Stanley Atcitty remembers how he and his siblings made their bikes and toys from parts they found at a local junkyard.

Some of those parts the Shiprock, N.M.-native would grab from the dumpster included used tires and used mechanical systems.

From them and the end of it all, he created a "really nice product.

 
Cheyenne River Youth Project Fundraiser Has Global Reach

The Cheyenne River Youth Project has just launched its Christmas Star Quilt Raffle, giving members of the public a chance to win the distinctive, queen size Lakota star quilt appropriately named "A Christmas Star." CRYP's staff is eager to see where the requests for raffle tickets originate, as the 25-year-old, not-for-profit youth organization's raffle fundraisers tend to reach far beyond US borders. Previous years' raffle winners have come from as far away as the United Kingdom and New Zealand.

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Education News Education News
Better Dead Than Alive?
'The Inconvenient Indian' Takes a Seriously Funny Look at Native History

Indians are most "inconvenient" when they are … alive.

This stark, sardonic theme lurks beneath the narrative of Thomas King's latest book, The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native People in North America (Doubleday Canada, 2012; University of Minnesota Press, 2013).

 
Native Chef: 'Native American Cuisine Is The Mother Cuisine'

Nephi Craig is putting on a striped apron over his black, crisp chef coat. In a minute he's going to dice several smooth-skinned summer squash that he bought from last Saturday's food market.

"Cooking is a very important part of my life," said the 33-year-old culinary bonhomie as he started his cooking demonstration in front of sophisticated spectators that couldn't wait to possibly taste what he would be creating.

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Honoring Students Honoring Students
Native Archer Takes First Place at USCAA Championships

Filberto "Beto" Vecenti shot his way to first place in the USCAA 3-D North Region Archery Championships.

"Beto was on," said Clyde Henderson, Vecenti archery coach in a news release. "The 3-D course was different to him, but he shot well. He didn't miss a target."

"With his category, it takes a lot of skill," Henderson said. "You don't have the extra pins for sighting compared to bow hunter and compound divisions."
 
2014 Wings of America National Team Qualifying

The next USA Cross Country Championships will be held on February 15, 2014 at the Flatirons Golf Course in Boulder, CO. Since 1988, Wings has sponsored a men and women's team to represent Native America in the Junior (14-19) division of this race. The organization will cover travel expenses and room and board for fourteen student-athletes selected this December. Aside from competing with the best, the group will get the opportunity to absorb the culture of Boulder and the surrounding area through a number of site visits and activities planned by Wings.

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Living Traditions Living Traditions
'They pretty much know how to butcher'

Miss Navajo Contestants Impress Judges, Onlookers

When Miss Navajo Nation hopeful Natasha Hardy used her knuckles and strength to detach the skin in a "fisting maneuver" from the sheep's carcass, the hundreds of Navajo people in attendance during the 61st Miss Navajo Nation Butchering and Traditional Bread-making Competition affirmed her technique with cheers.

 
It Smells Like Success: How One Sweetgrass Business Grows

There are perfumes, body sprays, soaps, sachets, candles, air fresheners and more—all carrying the wonderful fragrance of sweetgrass. Since Toni McClue, a Chippewa-Cree from Turtle Mountain, put her sweetgrass products on the market three years ago, she has garnered a dedicated following. One Native man recently purchased 90 sweetgrass braids—her biggest seller, she told Indian Country Today Media Network.

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Preserving Language Living Traditions
Red Cloud Indian School Rolls Out Nation's First Comprehensive K-12 Lakota Language Curriculum

Like many members of the Oglala Sioux Tribe on the Pine Ridge Reservation, high school senior Kristian Big Crow never spoke his native Lakota language as a child. With only 6,000 fluent Lakota speakers left in the world, there are few opportunities for young Lakota students like Big Crow to learn the language. Which is precisely why teachers and administrators at Red Cloud Indian School, located just outside the town of Pine Ridge, spent the last five years developing the nation's first comprehensive K-12 Lakota language curriculum.

 
Keeping the Hopi Language Alive

What was the first word your baby spoke? Was it mama, papa or was it yuuyu or taata?

In many Hopi communities, Hopi is not the first language spoken by children because it is not spoken in the home.

According to Cynthia Pardo, parent awareness and community outreach coordinator with First Things First, studies show that as English becomes the primary language, the Hopi language, the tribe's oral history, cultural identity and strong early literacy skills are at stake.

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Cultural Preservation Living Traditions
How To Spy A Turquoise Lie

The surprising truth about buying turquoise jewelry

Some call it a blue stone, a green stone, a sky-stone; some call it handcrafted, handmade or painted chalk from China. The experts call it the Native's livelihood, the heart of the Southwest, New Mexico's cultural identity. They refer to it as rare, raw, natural, simulated, manufactured, stabilized and genuine. Thirty million years ago, it was just water, aluminum and copper in what are today rare mining sites in New Mexico, Arizona and Nevada.

 
Local Artists Appreciate Cherokee Art Market

The close proximity of the annual Cherokee Art Market allows local Cherokee artists to compete for prize money, show their art and hopefully sell some of it.

This year, more than 150 Native American artists representing more than 45 tribes attended the event and competed for $75,000 in prize money. Artists competed in 20 categories that included beadwork, pottery, painting, basketry, sculptures and textiles.

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Education News Education News
"A Cheyenne Odyssey"
Gives Middle School Students a Plains Indian Perspective

"A Cheyenne Odyssey," the third interactive game in the Mission US series of captivating, digital role-playing games created to engage middle school students in the exploration of US history. "A Cheyenne Odyssey" supports the study of westward expansion in the middle grade American history curriculum.

 
Students Learn About Geography, Landmasses Through Maps

This year, our class is engaged in a study of Earth’s geography.

To facilitate our work, I met with Shelly Riddle of the tribe’s Geographic Information System. Together we created a Montessori-style map using colors known to the children for continents. It also includes significant cities as reference points and political boundaries.

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Preserving Culture Education News
One Pawnee Lawyer's Passion for Protecting and Photographing Rock Art

A passion for rock art combined with a love of justice have been the driving forces in Lawrence Baca's life for decades. Famed among his peers, Baca is hardly a household name, but his work in Indian Law brought about important changes in Indian country over more than 30 years.

 
Suquamish Youth Take A Trip On A Tall Ship

The Tall Ship, the Adventuress, visited Suquamish in September for a cultural exchange with youth titled “Adventuress and Suquamish: Overnight Cultural Exchange in Port Madison Bay”. The exchange included 12 youth from Suquamish and 12 youth from Bainbridge Island.

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Making History   Historic Events
UN Special Rapporteur Conducts Research On Canada's Relations With First Nations People

United Nations Special Rapporteur James Anaya visited Canada this week on a special assignment, conducting hearings across the country to examine the relationship between the government of Canada and First Nations people. Mr. Anaya made Akwesasne his first stop on Oct. 7, hearing presentations from community officials on Akwesasne's experiences with the Canadian government.

 
Native History: How Natives Got Railroaded By The Medicine Lodge Treaty

On October 21, 1867 the Medicine Lodge Treaty was signed in Kansas. Michael Stewart, a Native history expert with Haskell Indian Nations University, said the treaty was important to the U.S. and development of the railroads because of Westward Expansion. "The question was, ‘How do we isolate the tribes?' The tribes had released their treaty lands to the railroads, which needed a 20-mile leeway, and the railroad cut through the hunting areas.

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Healthy Living   Healthy Living
Cooking With Acorns

Acorns, commonly used in stews and breads, are rich in fiber, complex carbohydrates, minerals, and vitamins, and lower in fat than most other nuts. To bring out the sweet chestnut-like flavor from your acorns, first leach the tannic acid. Native Americans used to clean acorns by leaving them in baskets in a fast-flowing stream for a day or two. Speed up that process by boiling the acorns for a couple hours, tossing out the brown-tainted water, revealing dark brown acorns with a pleasantly sweet aftertaste.

 
A Healthy Frybread Option

There’s something about frybread, maybe it’s that you can smell it a mile away and that scent brings back so many memories. This recipe was received as a request to test and it was surprisingly good. Since it contains mostly whole wheat flour it offers more filling fiber, which also helps to lower the net carbs of this tasty snack. The recipe indicates that it will make eight small frybread but I was able to make just over ten.

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Healthy Living   Healthy Living
Eating Indigenously Changes Diets and Lives of Native Americans

History and health came together one dark November evening for Marty Reinhardt at Northern Michigan University.

Reinhardt, a professor in the Native American Studies program, was helping to serve up fry bread, Indian tacos and other offerings at the annual First Nations Food Taster, a fund-raising event for the Native American Student Association, when he had an epiphany: “Would my ancestors even recognize this as food?”

 
NAPI And Non-Profits Are Pumpkin Partners

The 172-foot steeple on the United Methodist Church is a landmark in this small western Pennsylvania town.

The church is something from a picture postcard; the bell in its tower has chimed almost every hour for the last 130 years.

Yet every October, people in this town of 4,000 residents flock to the church for a different reason -- thousands of plump, orange pumpkins grown on the Navajo Nation.

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In Every Issue Banner
About This Issue's Greeting - "Cama'i"
 

Cama'i, a traditional Alutiiq greeting, is a friendly, welcoming word used much like the English term "Hi." Cama'i you might say as you meet a friend on the street or enter a room full of people. The Alutiiq continue to greet each other with this familiar word. To many it symbolizes pride in Native culture and a continuing respect for Alutiiq - the traditional language of Kodiak, Prince William Sound, the lower Kenai Peninsula, and the Alaska Peninsula.

Alutiiq is one of six Eskimo languages spoken in Alaska and Siberia. It is most closely related to Central Alaskan Yup'ik, the traditional language of the Bering Sea Coast, and speakers of Alutiiq and Yup'ik can converse easily. Within Alutiiq there are two distinct dialects and many smaller regional variations in vocabulary and word pronunciation. Residents of the Kenai Peninsula and Prince William Sound speak Chugach Alutiiq, while residents of the Alaska Peninsula and Kodiak Archipelago speak Koniag Alutiiq.

Today there are less than 500 fluent Alutiiq speakers, although many more can understand the language. Alutiiq communities are working hard to preserve their language. Speakers are helping linguists write dictionaries and develop lessons that can be taught to school children, and many consider language preservation the most important goal of the heritage movement.

A Story To Share: The Boy Who Dreamed of an Acorn
 
Recipe: Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
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Nature's Beauty: Steelhead Trout
 
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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 - 2013 of Vicki Williams Barry and Paul Barry.
 

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