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Canku Ota
(Many Paths)
An Online Newsletter Celebrating Native America

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October 2017 - Volume 15 Number 10
 
 
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"Manahoo "
Paiute
Welcome
 
 


Ermine aka Short-tailed Weasel (Mustela erminea)

 
 
"Cawapekasna wi"
Moon when the wind shakes off the leaves
Lakota
 
 
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"A Warrior is challenged to assume responsibility, practice humility, and display the power of giving, and then center his or her life around a core of spirituality. I challenge today's youth to live like a warrior."
~Billy Mills~
 
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We Salute
Leon Edwards Understands The Meaning Of 'Brotherhood'

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.

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Our Featured Artist: Honoring Students
Ledger Art From Pine Ridge Indian Reservation

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.

 
Navajo Student Wins Highest National Honor For Young Poets

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.

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Our Featured Story: First Person History:
Wayekwaagamaa-zaaga'igan
(Lake at the End of the River — Ojibwe)

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.

 
A Historical Romance - The Derivation of the Word Milwaukee

It has remained for the historians of this late day to furnish the key in a long locked matter, namely, the derivation of the name of this city. The pioneer writers, many of whom had the advantage of consulting interpreters of the Indians languages, were unable to determine the point, owing to a singular contrariety of information. Augustin Grignon had been told by an old Indian that the name was derived from a valuable aromatic root used by the natives for medicinal purposes. The name of this root was 'man wau', and hence, man-a-waukee, or place of the 'man wau.'
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News and Views Banner
Education News Education News
Students Learn About Native American Culture

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.

 
Native American Composers Apprenticeship Program Returns To Tuba City High

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.

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Preserving Language Education News
Multimedia Coloring Book Teaches Diné Bizaad

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.

 
Rapid City Lacrosse Team Bringing Native American Healing To UVA

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.

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Honoring Students Living Traditions
UMN's Medical School In Duluth Given Record $10M To Focus On Native American Concerns

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.

 
In "Crow Stories," Filmmaker Takes Time To Look, Listen

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.

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Education News Education News
CCC Career & Tech Round-Up 2017 Coming Sat., Oct. 7

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.

 
Elementary School's Ojibway Language Program So Popular It Needs More Teachers

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.

 

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Living Traditions Preserving Language
SQCC Director Tony Incashola Presented With Montana Historical Society Heritage Award

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.

 
UCR Linguistics Professor To Host Conference On Native American Languages

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.

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Education News Living Traditions
Hip Hop Goes To School In Saskatoon, Exploring Connections With Indigenous Culture

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.

 
For Lakota, Traditional Astronomy Is Key To Their Culture's Past and Future

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.

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Saving History   Saving History
The Fight To Bring Home The Headdress Of An Aztec Emperor

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.

 
All In A Day's Work: Dene Archaeologist Following His Dream, Reconnecting With Roots

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.

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Saving History   Living Traditions
Human Bones In Underwater Mexico Cave Dated To 13,000 Years Ago — Thanks To A Pelvis-Stalagmite

In February 2012, researchers discovered a human skeleton in an underwater cave in Mexico. Their joy, however, was short-lived. Just days after photos were made public, unknown divers plundered the cave, stealing the complete skeleton and everything else they could find. They were never identified, the skeleton never located. Still, researchers managed to date a bone, based on measurements conducted on a stalagmite in the cave. The research findings have now been published in PLoS ONE.

 
Cheyenne & Arapaho Tribes Showcase Their First Bucking Bulls During Buck Off Rodeo

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.

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Living Traditions   Nature
Chickasaw Artist Featured At Historic Paseo Art Festival

A Chickasaw artist's vision of the famed Paseo Arts District has been selected the official poster for the 41st festival.

Brian Landreth's digital creation harkens back to the 1960s. The historic housing district north of downtown Oklahoma City was enjoying a rebirth. An eclectic population of artists influenced by the freewheeling 1960s filled Paseo.
 
Ounce For Ounce, The Ermine May Be Toughest Critter In Alaska

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.

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In Every Issue Banner
About This Issue's Greeting - "Manahoo"
The Paiutes speak, along with the Great Basin peoples "speak languages in the Numic group of the large Uto-Aztecan family of languages. The Uto-Aztecan language family in many parts of the Southwest and go through Mexico and all the way down to South America.
Nature's Beauty:
Ermine
 
This Issue's
Favorite Web sites
 
A Story To Share:
Why The Weasel Is Nervous
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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.
 
 
Canku Ota is a copyright © 2000 - 2017 of Vicki Williams Barry and Paul Barry.
 

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