Owlet Family

Read how the Beaver Racing Team and KanDo inspire a young girl with "a little bit of autism"

Start your day with an eclipse of the full Moon!
On the morning of October 8, 2014, a total lunar eclipse will be visible across most of North America.

Colorado Creative Industries (CCI) has announced that Walt Pourier (Oglala Lakota) of Nakota Designs has been named as a recipient of the 2014 Governor’s Creative Leadership Award. Pourier was one of three nominees selected from a list of 18 individuals and organizations throughout the State of Colorado.

The Governor’s Creative Leadership Awards honor Coloradans who have demonstrated a significant commitment to the state’s creative landscape through civic leadership and volunteerism, including advocacy, vision, collaboration, or innovation.

When your science education program figures in remarks made by a former U.S. president, folks pay attention.

President Bill Clinton recognized the work of the PAST Foundation during his opening statement at the 2014 Clinton Global Initiative America Meeting, saying, "In 2012 the PAST Foundation and its partners committed to improve STEM education in rural and Native American reservation schools in South Dakota by equipping 450 teachers with the necessary training to implement an innovative and culturally relevant approach to teaching

At Diné College and Sinte Gleska University, faculty are working to record the wisdom of the elders for posterity. Using state-of-the-art digital media, these two TCUs are paving the way by archiving oral histories that can be accessed with the click of a button. Readers can view and learn about these documentaries at TribalCollegeJournal.org.

If these elders' wisdom reaches the wider community where it can become living knowledge, much of the battle has been won. In the feature, "A Hundred Ways of Learning," Martha Lee builds on this premise, maintaining that teaching and learning about cultural knowledge is a community endeavor.

Karen Begay wants to preserve Native American languages from becoming extinct by recording and documenting tribal and family history from tribes across the United States told by elders in their own languages.

She envisions turning her work into an archive titled Native American Oral History that can be passed on to future generations. A big part of the project is capturing the time when the elders grew up, a time that does not exist now.

Since it's opening, the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) has dedicated itself to the promotion of native identity and cultural understanding. Now celebrating the 10th anniversary of the D.C. museum, it is launching an ambitious exhibit this September that seeks to highlight the role of treaties between the United States and Native Nations. Upon opening September 21, 2014, the exhibit "Nation to Nation: Treaties Between the United States and American Indian Nations," will explore the Native diplomats and leaders who crafted some of the earliest agreements with the Founding Fathers.

The National Museum of the American Indian will open its first exhibit exploring the contentious issue of treaties between the U.S. government and Indian Nations next week.

"This exhibit is a tangible reminder of the federal government's relationship with sovereign tribal nations of this country," Senate Indian Affairs Chairman Jon Tester, D-Mont., said Thursday. "It's also a reminder of the moral and legal obligations that the United States has to honor and uphold our treaties with Indian country."

The White House has named Cherokee Nation citizen Daryl Legg a "Champion of Change" for going from a three-time convicted felon to someone who's helped positively change the lives of dozens.

Legg was sentenced to prison three times for drug possession, but turned his life around and now runs a work re-entry program helping other Natives overcome similar obstacles.

The 100 Mile Club has just completed its final challenge at the Hopi Veteran’s Memorial Center on Monday, August 25th with 5k, 2 and 1 mile courses. This 16 week walk/run program began as a step forward to encourage people to come together to exercise and build a foundation of health awareness. With the 100 Mile Club coming to a close; we hope you all continue to work on bettering blood glucose readings, make exercise a part of your daily routine, and schedule annual doctor’s visits - PREVENTION is the key.

The U.S. Mint has announced its designs for the 2015 and 2016 Native American copy coins, and the choice of subjects—Mohawk Iron Workers and Code Talkers—represent a focus on late 19th- and 20th-century Native history. Since 2009, beginning with a depiction of the "three sisters" agricultural technique, which Natives practiced for thousands of years before European contact, reverse-side coin designs have spotlighted elements of Native culture or episodes from history in a sort of timeline. The 2014 coin commemorated the Native role played in Lewis and Clark's 1804-06 journey into the Pacific Northwest.

Women warriors have always existed in many tribes across Indian Country. Their fearless feats in combat and security for their tribes have long been told in historic and contemporary storytelling. One such woman warrior of is Crow, Hidatsa, Gros Ventre and Northern Cheyenne heritage has been recognized by the White House as a Champion of Change.

Sometimes community outreach begins by planting seeds in your own backyard.

"This shows culture in action — history brought to life," said Van Samuels, a Tribal community outreach specialist at the site of a new authentic Seminole garden on the grounds of Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Museum.

The Administration for Native Americans has awarded the 'Aha Punana Leo Hawaiian language nest preschools a $300,000 grant for the first year of a three-year grant project. The project will enhance and strengthen Punana Leo's quality and impact in the Native Hawaiian community through increasing language proficiency and the professional capabilities of its staff.

Football season has kicked off another round of scrutiny over how professional sports teams use Native American mascots. But in eastern Washington, a minor league baseball team has earned the approval of its native namesake.

Avista Stadium in Spokane is full of the familiar sights, sounds and smells of baseball. And then, there are things that might make you do a double take.

Given the pressure building nature of competing on the final day of the Navajo Nation Fair, the last thing you want to do is abandon your mechanics.

For Odessa Yazzie and Autumnrain Chee they stuck with the fundamentals and kept things simple, as they emerged as the average and Final Four winners in their respective events at this year's fair.

From shearing the sheep to spinning the wool to weaving the pattern, Navajo weaver Lola Cody spent almost two years making the rug that won Best of Show at this year's Santa Fe Indian Market. She said the weaving portion alone took her eight months "weaving every day, up to 14 hours a day."