Ermine aka Short-tailed Weasel (Mustela erminea)

Born on the family farm in Tussy, Okla., Leon Edwards came from a large, loving family. A U.S. Army draftee serving during the Korean War, he learned the connections needed to form family bonds come from more than just blood.

This summer in early July, when the Medford volunteers returned from their community service week at Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, they brought with them a sample of artwork known as ledger art done by an Oglala Lakota artist, Patrick Pulliam, at the reservation.

To say Navajo student Kinsale Hueston, 17, is an aspiring writer would be to miss the point. The senior at St. Margaret's Episcopal School in California is by any definition an accomplished poet who has just been named one of five National Student Poets for 2017, the nation's highest honor for young poets.

I chased a dream and followed myself to the 'Lake at the End of the River.' You would probably call it the beginning of the river because you first think of where the river flows through and to, whereas I always think about where it is coming from. Seeing the world backwards from the norm has its place, dancing backwards has a purpose which cannot be denied, when one hears that song being played. I would rather live down river from no one and above all the rapids, waterfalls and discharges along the way. Life is not perfect at the Lake at the End of the River, but it never is anywhere anyway. Here it is merely pure, untainted and unabused.

Corded headbands made of raffia, bird songs set to the percussion of gourd rattles and animal hooves, basketry and pottery are just a few aspects of Native American culture presented to third- and fourth-graders during the 18th annual California Indian Cultural Awareness Conference Sept. 18 – 22 at Cal State San Bernardino.

Founded in 2001 by the Grand Canyon Music Festival, the NACAP (Native American Composers Apprenticeship Program) has had overwhelming success as the only Native music composer program for high school aged American Indian students in the nation.

A Diné coloring book created by a Diné woman isn’t just a coloring book – it’s a multimedia resource to learn the Navajo language. And not just that, it’s a sought after resource at a school on the Navajo Nation.

In the wake of the racial tensions in Charlottesville, Va., a local lacrosse team is collaborating with the University of Virginia to help bring about change.

The largest gift in the history of the University of Minnesota Medical School’s Duluth campus will be used to establish a Native American Center of Excellence, school officials announced Wednesday.

The cash gift of $10 million, to be paid over five years, comes from an anonymous donor from Minnesota who recently learned of his own Native American roots, said Dr. Paula Termuhlen, dean of the school’s Duluth campus. It comes with virtually no strings attached.

During Sean Kernan’s second visit to the Crow Indian Reservation, after he had decided to make a documentary about the Crow people, he was asked by a tribal member what he wanted to say with his film.

“I don’t want to say anything,” Kernan answered. “I want to listen.”

He was true to his word. “Crow Stories,” which will be shown on Oct. 5 at the Yellowstone Art Museum, contains no narration, only the words of people Kernan chose to profile.

Coconino Community College is hosting a free Career and Tech Round-Up on Saturday, Oct. 7, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. The curriculum includes engineering, science, technology, hospitality and other educational opportunities.

"The CTE Round-Up is one of the premier events in the area for students to investigate career opportunities and career and technical education and get some hands-on experience with real-time demonstrations with people from the industry and faculty who teach those fields," said Jeff Jones, Dean of Learning, CTE and Director at CCC's Fourth Street Innovation Center.

The sound of kids learning the Ojibway language fills the hallways at École Riverbend Community School in Winnipeg.

Singing, speaking and playing in Ojibway, or Anishinaabemowin, is part of the bilingual curriculum for kindergarten to Grade 4 students at this school.

Tony Incashola, director of the Séliš-Ql?ispé Culture Committee, was acknowledge Friday at the Montana Historical Society's 44th annual Montana History Conference in the Capitol City.

Incashola was presented with the MHS Board of Trustees Heritage Keeper Award for his dedication to preserving, protecting, and perpetuating the culture, history and language of the Salish and Pend d'Oreille people of the Flathead Nation, said trustee Tom Nygard.

A UCR linguistics professor, Wesley Leonard, specializing in Native American languages, has been awarded a government grant to host a unique workshop on the intersection of linguistics and activism. Professor Leonard of the UCR Department of Ethnic Studies received a $150,000 grant to organize and facilitate “Expanding Linguistic Science by Broadening Native American Participation,” an application-only conference to be held in Salt Lake City, Utah in January 2018.

There is a lot to unpack when you open a conversation about the larger meaning of hip-hop culture with Brad Bellegarde and Dave Nelson, better known as InfoRed and Emotionz.

"I think that hip hop is a really unique way of connecting students to Indigenous culture," said Bellegarde in an interview with CBC Radio's Saskatoon Morning.

Whether the stars, the sun or the moon, the Lakota people have always been avid watchers of the sky. They called the stars the "Woniya of Wakan Tanka:" the holy breath of the Great Spirit.

This ancient tradition has held fast in modern Lakota culture in part because Victor Douville, an elder and member of the Sicangu Oyate Lakota Tribe, which is formally known as the Rosebud Sioux Tribe and based on the Rosebud Indian Reservation within the U.S. state of South Dakota. He's been a Lakota studies teacher at Sinte Gleska University on that reservation since 1971, but his interest in the stars started many years before that.

IN 1878, THE AUSTRIAN GEOLOGIST and explorer Ferdinand von Hochstetter went prospecting in the hills above Innsbruck. He wasn’t looking for gold or minerals. Rather, he needed exhibits for a newly founded Museum of Natural History in Vienna, of which he had just been named the director. He found what he was looking for in a dusty drawer of the Renaissance-built Ambras Castle—a magnificent piece of feather work, tucked away in a case together with assorted objects from North America, China, and the Sunda Islands in Indonesia.

Jéan Sexsmith isn't afraid to admit it. "I loved "Indiana Jones" as a kid." he laughs

Sexsmith is a Dene anthropologist who's been working at Yellowknife's Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre for the last year and a half. Originally from Hay River, Sexsmith decided to make a career move a few years back — leaving behind his job as a security guard to connect with his roots.ed Indiana Jones as a kid," he laughs.

On Sept. 8 the Cheyenne and Arapaho (C&A) tribes Economic Development and Lucky Star Casino, along with bucking bulls trainer, Jerry Mullins collaborated on the first ever Buck Off Rodeo held at the El Reno Rodeo in El Reno, Okla.

The stands filled with people eager to witness the first of many rodeos to come within the C&A community. The Buck-Off featured various activities, including mutton-busting, junior bull riding, pro bull riders, pro stock, world famous one-armed bandit and buckle presentation with $10,000 in added money for the event.

Their cautious curiosity was like my own — what is this tiny creature? This hissing, barking little predator was surely no country mouse or squirrel. Rather, there was a scary amount of quickness and unpredictability in its movement. Ounce for ounce, it may have been the toughest animal I've ever seen.