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Canku
Ota
(Many Paths) An Online Newsletter Celebrating Native America |
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June
2017
- Volume 15 Number 6
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"Neenjit
dagoonch'uu"
The Gwich'in Greeting "How Are You?" |
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"DEHALUYI"
GREEN CORN MOON Cherokee |
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"Our
treatment of Indians...still affects the national consciousness...It seems
a basic requirement to study the history of Indian people. Only through
this study can we as a nation do what must be done if our treatment of
the American Indian is not to be marked down for all time as a national
disgrace" -- John F. Kennedy
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Our Featured Artist: | Honoring Students | |
RedCan
2017
RedCan is rising once again. With interest in Indian Countrys only invitational graffiti jam hotter than ever, CRYPs third annual RedCan event will take place from June 29 to July 1 at CRYPs Waniyetu Wowapi (Winter Count) Art Park and throughout the city of Eagle Butte. |
HUNAP And Wings Of America Partner For First-Ever Pursuit Program Five Native high school students were selected to
participate in activities held at Harvard and the Boston Marathon.
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Our Featured Story: | First Person History: | |
An
Inspiration For Youth: Grandma Thomas Walked 80 Miles Each Year To Raise
Funds For Youth Complex
If you've been wondering where she's been, look no more. She had walked for years raising money for the youth of Chinle. Her 80-mile trek between Chinle and Window Rock was a common sight in September during the Navajo Nation Fair. |
History of
the THE OTTAWA AND CHIPPEWA LANGUAGE - Verbs |
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Education News | Education News | |
CALLING
ALL VOLUNTEERS
Volunteer at the Largest Native American High School Tournament in the Country! July 9-15, 2017 |
Belcourt ND Native Graduates From Harvard University At Age 20 As if graduating from Harvard with a degree in Molecular
and Cellular Biology isn't impressive enough try doing it before you
can even legally drink.
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Education News | Education News | |
Native
American Students Take On Substance Abuse
A group of seven Native American students at Browning High School in Montana will serve as role models to help middle school students avoid drugs and alcohol with a substance abuse prevention program called Be Under Your Own Influence. The program is primarily designed for seventh graders and has been found to reduce substance use through positive, future-oriented messages. |
Pendleton
Introduces The 2017 American Indian College Fund Blanket
Pendleton Woolen Mills, the acclaimed- lifestyle brand headquartered in Portland, Oregon, introduces a new, exclusive blanket for 2017, Gift of the Earth, to benefit the American Indian College Fund. For more than 25 years the College Fund has supported access to higher education for Native American students. |
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Honoring Students | Education News | |
Being
True To Himself
When Damon Clark '17, a member of the Navajo (Diné) Nation, arrived on campus from New Mexico, he wore short hair, a cowboy hat, and hiking boots. He was here to absorb the best of Western education, to be transformed by the Harvard experience. At graduation, the "transformed" Clark plans to wear a traditional turquoise necklace and his moccasins, with his long black hair tied into the traditional bun called "tsiiyéél" in Navajo. In his culture, Clark noted, hair is considered an extension of a person's thoughts and should not be cut. |
How
"Rez Accents" Strengthen Native Identity
An emerging field of research suggests that much like Cajun English or African American Vernacular English otherwise known as Ebonics unique speech patterns also have developed among indigenous people in Canada and the United States, creating Native American English, or "the rez accent." Here's what else researchers have discovered: The rez accent short for "reservation accent" occurs in indigenous communities regardless of whether a heritage language is spoken; and that through English, indigenous people are creating and maintaining their own ethnic identities. |
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Honoring Students | Education News | |
NSU
Inducts Wildcat Into Its Hall Of Fame
Northeastern State University recently inducted Miss Cherokee 2016-17 Sky Wildcat into its Hall of Fame for bringing state and national recognition to the university in her role as a tribal ambassador. NSU recognizes students annually who have brought special recognition to the university or who have made contributions to the school. Wildcat, of Muskogee, was one of three 2017 NSU Hall of Fame inductees recognized at this year's Hall of Fame Ovation Awards Ceremony. |
Quebec
Woman Crowned Miss Indian World
Raven Swamp, 23, a member of the Mohawk tribe has been crowned 2017 Miss Indian World at the Gathering of Nations. Swamp from Kahnawake, Quebec, Canada, received the honor April 26 out of 23 Native American women representing their different tribes. Contestants were judged on areas of tribal knowledge, dancing ability, public speaking, and personality assessment. |
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Preserving Language | Preserving Language | |
New
Mexico Pueblo Attempts To Save Language From Extinction
With fewer than 100 speakers remaining, the Acoma Keres language is on the verge of extinction. Few young people under the age of 40 have learned the language. If no action is taken, the Native American Pueblo of Acoma stands to lose a fundamental part of its heritage, an Acoma educator said. Acoma's Department of Education and the Language Conservancy have created an Acoma Language Recovery Plan to restore the Keres language and preserve the pueblo's legacy for future generations. They wrapped up the first phase of the project mid-March. |
Online
Classes, Modern Textbooks Helping Revitalize Cherokee Language
Recent research focusing on Native American languages and how they are taught is helping revitalize the Cherokee language, in part, through online courses and modern textbooks developed by the Cherokee Nation. Using these updated methods, the Cherokee Nation's Cherokee Language Program continues to have a far-reaching impact, with up to 3,000 students taking online courses and around 400 taking community classes each year.
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Living Traditions | Living Traditions | |
Wadopana
Canoe Journey 'Will Revive Part Of Our Culture'
Since contact, the history of the Wadopana Nakoda people has been reinterpreted and rewritten by others, and the people have been attacked by disease, displacement and relocation to reservations. But the Wadopana Nakoda never forgot who they are, never forgot their ties to the waterhow Iktomi created them and the land from mud from the bottom of the sea; how they traveled by canoe on their ancestral waters, what we know now as the Great Lakes. How their name, Wadopana (pronounced Wa-DOH-pa-nah), means "canoe paddler." |
SHS
Students Learn Cherokee Booger-mask Making
In May, Cherokee National Treasure Roger Cain visited Cherokee languages classes at Sequoyah High School to teach students how to make booger masks. "I've been bringing a cultural component to the language class. (Language teacher) Chris (Holmes) has been gracious to invite me over to share some knowledge," Cain said. "We've got more stuff planned for next year as well." |
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Living Traditions | Honoring | |
Inuit
Designers Revive Sealskin Fashion, Celebrate 'National Seal Products Day,'
May 20
Sealskin fashion has claimed its place in haute couture. Once simply an essential winter wardrobe material in the icy cold of Northern Canada, today Inuit designers are expressing their cultural pride and creativity through less traditional means: high-fashion parkas, stilettos and even lingerie. "It's part of my culture," Victoria Kakuktinniq,
founder of Victoria's Arctic Fashion,
told The
Guardian. "The Inuit are really trying our best to promote our culture
and show our way of life and how our ancestors lived."
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WCU
Honors Revered Cherokee Elder During Spring Commencement
Commencement at Western Carolina University included the awarding of an honorary doctorate of humane letters to Jeremiah "Jerry" Wolfe, an elder of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and U.S. Navy veteran of World War II. Wolfe taught young men and women at the Oconaluftee Job Corps in Cherokee for more than 20 years, and since 1997 has worked in outreach and education at the Museum of the Cherokee Indian, where he has shared his extensive knowledge of tribal history and culture with thousands of visitors. | |
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Healthy Living | Honoring History | |
Native American Breastfeeding Expert Speaking In Wisconsin Camie Goldhammer, the countrys leading Native
American expert on breastfeeding, will be speaking in Wisconsin as part
of Great Lakes Intertribal Councils Breastfeeding: The Traditional
Way Program, sponsored by W.K. Kellogg Foundation. The goal of
the program is to improve breastfeeding duration rates for tribal communities
in Wisconsin by normalizing breastfeeding as the traditional and natural
way to nourish and nurture our young.
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'Remember
The Removal'
Participants Depart Tuesday The Cherokee Nation will host a send-off ceremony at 9 a.m., May 30 at One Fire Field west of the Cherokee Nation Tribal Complex for the 14 Cherokees who leave for the 2017 Remember the Removal Bike Ride. This years cyclists range in age from 16 to 24. They will join eight cyclists from the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians in North Carolina on a 950-mile ride that begins June 4 in New Echota, Georgia, and concludes June 22 in Tahlequah. | |
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What We Do | Legends | |
Debra
Haaland of As former New Mexico Democratic State Party Chair,
Debra Haaland, an enrolled member of Laguna Pueblo, has an impressive
record of helping get Democrats
elected. New Mexico was one of only two states in the 2016 elections
to have its state house turn from red to blue. In addition, the number
of Democratic State Senatorial seats increased by three, and Democrats
won two out of three statewide elections. Haalands campaign is
hoping to build on that spectacular winning streak by getting the first
ever Native American woman elected to the U.S. Congressnamely,
herself.
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The
Native American's Legend of Crystals
In ancient times, people lived in harmony
with Nature. As time went on, humans lost this
innocence and harmony.
They took more then they needed. They forgot their prayers of gratitude. They killed animals, and each other, for sport and pleasure. | |
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Honoring History | What We Do | |
Dakota Gather At Fort Snelling, Recall Their Exile For the first time, Dakota people whose ancestors
were exiled from Minnesota 154 years ago met last week at Fort Snelling.
It was just below the fort, where women, children, and the elderly were
put onto steamboats and sent down the Mississippi, up the Missouri,
then to the Crow Creek Reservation in South Dakota.
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Girl Scout Cookie Phenomenon Began In Indian Country Millions of people look forward each year to Samoas,
Thin Mints and Tagalongs, but few know that the tradition of Girl Scout
cookies started in Oklahoma, in the heart of Indian country, 100 years
ago.
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Living Traditions | Honoring History | |
So What Is Singing? So, what is singing? What's the purpose of singing?
I've heard the term or phrase, "All they do is sing." When it comes
to singing, it plays an important part, a piece of our Culture, our
traditional ways of life. The creator has given each individual a gift,
whether you're a singer, speaker, dancer, craftsman, athlete, it's up
to you to find it, not everyone is a singer. The purpose of the Singing
Society was to keep the singing going, keep it strong.
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Osage Nation Finds Jesuit Archives Preserving Its History The Osage Nation knew the Jesuits had some documents
relating to the history of the tribe. Delving into those papers has
brought new revelations. "It was so much more," said Osage Chief Geoffrey
Standing Bear. "
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Honoring History | LIving Traditions | |
The Many Hands Shirt: Reuniting A Family And An Heirloom In late 2013, I got an out-of-the-blue call from
Stella Iron Cloud, a member of the Oglala Lakota (a.k.a. Oglala Sioux)
Tribe of South Dakota. She asked if she could visit the Denver Museum
of Nature & Science (DMNS), where I am the chair of the anthropology
department, to see a beaded shirt that once belonged to her family.
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With Native Song And Dance, Ponca Tribe Celebrates As It Takes Ownership Of Chief Standing Bear Trail For so long, this sliver of land has pierced the
hearts of the Ponca people.It is their trail of tears, a path trudged
140 years ago by more than 700 people at the end of bayonets belonging
to a government the Poncas had never resisted.
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Living Traditions | Honoring Students | |
CRYP Hosts First Peoples Fund's Rolling Rez Arts On April 18-20, the Cheyenne River Youth Project®
welcomed the First Peoples Funds' Rolling Rez Arts mobile unit to the
Cheyenne River Lakota Nation. Visiting artist Wade Patton and First
Peoples Fund Coordinator Bryan Parker spent three evenings with the
nonprofit youth organization's teen arts interns, providing valuable
instruction in multiple mediums.
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Showdown For The Gold The state shot put finalist in Division II had to
take a backseat to Tyson Jones and Turner Washington.
As one of the top billings at the Arizona state track meet, Jones and Washington made it an eventful one on Saturday afternoon at Mesa Community College. The two best throwers in the state regardless of class upped the ante as spectators watched this event in suspense. | |
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Honoring History | Living Traditions | |
This Tiny, Human-like Species Coexisted With Early Humans 300,000 Years Ago Scientists unveiled the first evidence on Tuesday
that early humans co-existed in Africa 300,000 years ago with a small-brained
human-like species thought to already be extinct on the continent at
that time.
The findings, published in three papers in the journal "eLife," raise fresh questions about human evolution, including the prospect that behaviors previously attributed to humans may have been developed by hominin precursors of Homo sapiens. |
Chickasaw Begins 322-mile Washita River Adventure Chickasaw master craftsman and artist Richard Thomas
plans to kayak more than 320 miles down the Washita River to honor the
memory of Southern Cheyenne tribal leader Black Kettle, who died near
here 149 years ago.
Black Kettle lost his life in the 1868 Battle of the Washita, which some historians characterize as a massacre, as George Armstrong Custer led his men in a daybreak attack on the Cheyennes winter encampment. | |
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About
This Issue's Greeting - "Neenjit
dagoonch'uu"
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"How
are you?" is "Neenjit dagoonch'uu" in Gwich'in.
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Nature's
Beauty:
Tundra Swan |
This
Issue's
Favorite Web sites |
A
Story To Share:
The Red Swan |
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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.
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Canku Ota is a copyright © 2000
- 2017 of Vicki Williams Barry and Paul Barry.
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The "Canku Ota - A Newsletter
Celebrating Native America" web site and its design is the
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Copyright © 1999-
2017 of Paul C. Barry.
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All Rights Reserved.
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