Thresher Shark

Noted Native American scholar and author Robert J. Conley, the Sequoyah Distinguished Professor of Cherokee Studies at Western Carolina University, died Sunday, Feb. 16, 2014, at Harris Regional Hospital after a period of declining health. Conley, 73, a registered tribal member of the Cherokee Nation, was appointed to the WCU professorship in July 2008.

Rhonda Holy Bear is an enrolled member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe. She was born in South Dakota, at Old Cheyenne River Agency--also known as "Chief Martin Charger's Camp." Rhonda grew up in extreme poverty and was raised mainly by her grandparents, DeSmet and Angeline [Soft] Holy Bear. Rhonda's earliest dolls were a hammer and a clothespin. She sometimes even dressed up her cats and dogs and pretended they were babies. One day, she made a doll from some scraps of cloth she found around the house. "Look Grandma! I made a doll!" she said, handing her creation to her Grandmother Angeline, who was almost completely blind. Her grandmother examined the doll in her hands and told Rhonda the story that has inspired her to create dolls to this very day:

More than 700 youth are expected to compete in the 15th Annual Muscogee (Creek) Nation Challenge Bowl, one of the largest cultural events hosted by the MCN.

The purpose of the Challenge Bowl is to encourage Muscogee (Creek) children to learn more about Muscogee (Creek) culture, history, government and language, using traditional values of brotherhood as the foundation. The competition, coordinated by the MCN Johnson O'Malley Program, is divided into three age divisions: elementary, middle school and high school.

The 'Aha Punana Leo, Language Nest Foundation, continues to make indigenous language education history. The organization has now opened a pathway for distinctive accreditation of indigenous early education across the globe through guidelines set by the World Indigenous Nations Higher Education Consortium (WINHEC).

A Sequoyah High School freshmen's engineering project won first place at the 8th Annual Cherokee Nation Science and Engineering Fair.

Onendanegea Rhoades' project on which sand best filters water earned him a $1,500 tuition waiver from Northeastern State University.

For the first time in intertribal history, the Cherokee Nation and Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians are partnering to host "Cherokee Days," a public educational program that shares the true Cherokee story.

At an early age, Kristin Olson revealed a love for cooking.

She remembers sitting on the counter by her grandma Anna Marie, mixing up cookies and punching down bread dough — just the beginning of her culinary calling.

That calling has provided "Bison: My Way!" — a cookbook filled with unique bison recipes.

In the center of each table there's a delicate orange glow from a candle. Each flicker of light is reflected in the framed picture of a Comanche Code Talker that's placed on each table. The tables are dressed in red, yellow or blue cloth, and the candles are adorned with the Comanche Nation emblem.

There appears to be a lot of interest in a new kind of court in Washtenaw County.

More than 80 lawyers, mediators, and probation officers packed Judge Timothy Connors' courtroom on Friday.

The 2014 Explore Hopi Guides are ready to help people take a trip back in time to explore the centuries of Hopi history firsthand, in a way that is sensitive and respectful to the Hopi people.

Every day, hundreds of cars cross over the busy intersection at Hillsboro Pike and Old Hickory Boulevard going north and south to and from Nashville and Franklin, or east and west to Brentwood and Highway 100.

It was the first day of my fifth grade year, but I was not going to be in class. At 5:00 a.m. while my classmates slept, waiting to start yet another year of school, I had already had breakfast and bundled up for the opening of the Silver (Coho) Salmon run. We made a beach seine set, right around a school of Silvers. I had never seen so many fish. We had 1500 fish in that set, and one lone chum for good measure. Growing up, this was my life.

The winter season is the busiest time of year for Cherokee Nation pediatricians because of peaking numbers of cold and flu cases, as well as aggravated asthma and allergies.

Cherokee citizen and Vinita Health Center Pediatrician Nicole Willis, 31, of Claremore, has seen a rise in visits firsthand.

Shiprock High students gather around their Navajo language teacher, Cecilia Silentman-Carr.

They listen intently to what she's says during a quiz to give the right response in Navajo.

The Cherokee Nation celebrated with Microsoft officials today on the groundbreaking progress being made by translators in the Cherokee Language Program.

An event was held for 17 Cherokee translators at Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Tulsa to coincide with International Mother Language Day, a United Nations event to honor the more than 6,000 diverse languages worldwide.

For more than 20 years anthropologists have debated whether the first Americans arrived in the New World by walking over a land bridge across the Bering Strait, as millions of schoolchildren have been taught, or by sea from southwest Europe, perhaps in animal-skin kayaks.

A new analysis challenges the out-of-Europe hypothesis, which has figured in a political debate over the rights of present-day Native American tribes.

Vision Maker Media is proud to announce its biggest film festival yet--the Fifth Biennial Vision Maker Film Festival. Being held Friday, March 14 through Thursday, March 20 in the Nebraska cities of Lincoln, Omaha, and Kearney, the Festival will showcase over 40 works by Native filmmakers.

Derrick Suwaima Davis, from old Oraibi on Hopi, won an unprecedented seventh adult title world hoop dance championship at the Heard Museum Feb. 8-9.

Davis won the title capturing 234 points out of 250, besting the second place finisher by 14 points.

The National Postal Museum, part of the Smithsonian Institute, has arranged an online exhibit in cooperation with the National Museum of the American Indian that spotlights and explains murals depicting Natives that were painted as part of the New Deal. Under the Section of Fine Arts, part of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), artists, sculptors, and writers all over the United States were subsidized to create public works, and one of the most widespread legacies of this program is the countless murals that adorn the walls of U.S. Post Office buildings great and small. Indians at the Post Office includes works by and about Native Americans, and the depictions range from scenes of Native life to specific moments in history.

On Wednesday, February 26, students, teachers and notable figures all over the world will promote the anti-bullying campaign "Pink Shirt Day." The day is commemorated by anti-bullying advocates who will wear pink shirts to promote awareness about bullying in school and the effects of bullying on children in today's society. The campaign, which was started in 2007 by two students in Nova Scotia who sought to protect a fellow classmate, is now garnering support from Indian country, particularly by Fashion Designer Jill Setah and the design company Native Northwest.