"Do not wrong or hate your neighbor, for it is not he that you wrong but yourself."

( PIMA )

We Salute
Angelique EagleWoman

Angelique EagleWoman remembers the moment when she decided she wanted to devote her life to law.

She was 8 and watching the television in her family’s living room in 1978 when news broke that her uncle, a black man who had married into a Native American family and was beaten by five deputies when he went pay a speeding ticket, was awarded $75,000 in punitive damages.

“I knew I wanted to make my life about justice,” said EagleWoman, who grew up in Kansas and lived on a reservation in South Dakota.

Our Featured Artist:

Honoring Students

Renowned Blanket Maker
Expands Iconic Art Form

For Anna Brown Ehlers, the Chilkat blanket isn't just art – it's a lifelong passion. She recalled seeing her uncle, Roy Brown, wear one in a Fourth of July parade when she was 4 years old. "The movement of the totemic designs and fringe of the blanket intrigued me at first sight," she said. "I knew then that I wanted to spend my life making Chilkat blankets."

The large five-sided blanket with its dominant yellow, white and black colors is one of the most identifiable traditional art forms in Alaska. It's also among the most complex and labor-intensive items.

Hopi Students Complete
Harvard Exchange

Seven Hopi High School students studied at Harvard Medical School this summer as part of the unique Hopi-Harvard summer program.

The seven studied how alcohol and drug addictions impact the brain and the impacts this has on their communities.

The Hopi-Harvard program started 10 years ago. Former Governing Board member Wallace Youvella Sr. came up with the idea with the help of Superintendent Paul Reynolds, Principal Glenn Gilman, former Principal David Herbert and former teachers Thomas Mentzer and Dave Loveland.

Our Featured Story:

Northwestern Wisconsin First Person History:

Stickball Workshop
Introduces Craft,
Art Of Traditional Game

During a cloudless weekend in July those curious about Cherokee stickball visited the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center to make sticks, hear the Cherokee language, and play a friendly game of the ancient American Indian sport.

The Indian Priest
Father Philip B. Gordon
1885-1948
Chapter 8 - College Days

Education News

Education News

Eastern Band Opens
Long-Awaited
New School Campus

The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians on Friday opened its new school complex on land it acquired five years ago in a trade with the National Park Service.

The 473,000-square-foot complex houses elementary, middle and high school students in a facility that makes use of cultural imagery and design. The Eastern Band built the $140 million campus on the 143-acre Ravensford Tract.

Grand Opening
For New Meskwaki High
School Addition

The fulfillment of a long-envisioned advancement for education will be celebrated during a day-long grand opening of the new Meskwaki High School addition to the Settlement school this Friday, Aug. 21. The Meskwaki Tribal Council and Board of Education will be joined by federal and state government and educational leaders in ribbon cutting and other activities.

Education News

Education News

LCO Project Citizen
Gains
First Place Rating

A local Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe School 5th grade citizenship project represented Wisconsin at the Project Citizen National Showcase Hearing in Philadelphia during July.

The 5th grade project "Limiting Buses Helps Environment,” created by Arianna Crone, Jaime Vega, Joseph DeNasha, and Robyn Trepania had been selected as the first place rating at a hearing showcase in Madison and was evaluated along with 49 other citizenship projects.

Teammates Become
Competitors At
Native All-Star Game

The game turned into a defensive battle with a final score of 7-0 favoring the white team. John Harjo, game director and member of the Creek Nation of Oklahoma, said rather than having an east versus west game, they had the two coaches alternately select players to build their teams, hoping to create equality.

Honoring Students

Honoring Students

2009 National UNITY
Conference Demonstrated
Diversity And Unity

Nearly 1,200 youth and youth council advisors from 24 states convened in Albuquerque, New Mexico for the youth-led 2009 National UNITY Conference over the 4th of July weekend. The conference theme – Diverse We Are, United We Stand, Together We Rise – was intertwined in conference activities and sessions throughout the five-day convening of young Native leaders.

In what was described by many as possibly the most exciting opening ever for a UNITY conference, youth from the Pueblo of Jemez shared several dances amidst a fog which resembled clouds.

Pechanga Band Of Luiseño
Indians Hands Down
Traditions To Their Youth

A summer program run by the Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians teaches ancient skills and customs to tribal youth.

Besides making kiichas -- houses made from brush -- and arrowheads, those in the Traditional Knowledge Summer Youth Program say they learn to value each other as well as their culture.

"It's like a special bond they have with each other," said Art Masiel, the tribe's youth director. "You don't see that outside in the general public."

Honoring Students

Education News

Education Department
Awards Young Creative
Spirits

Paige Fourkiller, a Cherokee eighth grader from Oklahoma, has been working overtime to be recognized for her artwork.

For the last few years, she entered a competition sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Indian Education that encourages kids in pre-kindergarten through 12th grade to create artistic and written representations of certain themes.

Perseverance Pays Off For
Florida Marlins Reliever
Brian Sanches

The only American Indian in the National League has the lowest ERA in the majors.

Marlins reliever Brian Sanches is proud of his heritage and pleased with his success. But what's even more gratifying to him has been his perseverance, reaching the majors when there were many times he wanted to give up.

Living Traditions

Living Traditions

Canoe Culture Flourishes
At Paddle To Seattle's
20th Anniversary

Twenty years after he led a flotilla of canoes in the Paddle to Seattle, retired Coast Guard Cmdr. Emmett Oliver sat beneath a striped umbrella at the edge of the beach as about two dozen canoes, with their crews, windblown and sunburnt, glided past him, singing in the summer sun.

"Grandpa! They're singing a Quinault song," said his granddaughter, Christina Oliver, 29

Gardeners Fight Diabetes
With Homegrown Foods

“I said, ‘I’m going to go for it.’ What better way to find out what we need? And why wait? We’re on the front lines of the fight against diabetes.”

Living Traditions

Eighth Generation Shoes:
Made For Walking In Two
Worlds With Style

It happens to me everywhere I go, but this time I was caught off guard. I was standing on the banks of Port Madison Bay where the annual Intertribal Canoe Journey landings were being hosted by the Suquamish Tribe. As I watched the amazing sight of more than 90 canoes come in, a woman dressed in full Coast Salish regalia, a beautiful floor-length cedar dress, woven cedar hat and vest made of dark blue glass beads and bone stopped to talk to me. “Where did you get those shoes? They are incredible! Make sure that you wear those with pride.”

Saskatchewan
Native
Theatre

Gossip over tea, fights over laundry and pancakes caused a ruckus in the lives of actors during the Performers Playhouse, the finale for the Bell’s Point Elementary School’s drama week.

“All the plays came from their own heads, we didn’t write a script or anything, said Lance Larocque, one of the three workshop facilitators for the Saskatchewan Native Theatre, who spent a week working with children and youth at the school Aug. 10 through 13."

Living Traditions

Tribe's crew
'Tip Of Spear'
On Fire Lines

When a brush fire rages in San Diego, one of the most important and least visible firefighting tools is an eight- to- 10-man crew that clears brush and cuts fire breaks on the front lines.

Swift Fox
To Be Transplanted To
Fort Peck Reservation

Beginning next month, some swift fox in north-central Montana will be hitching a ride to new accommodations on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation.