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

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February 2018 - Volume 16 Number 2
 
 
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"Posoh!"
Menominee
"Hello!"
 
 


Amerian Badger (Taxidea taxus) By Yathin S Krishnappa - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link

 
 
Kohmagi mashath
FEBRUARY - the gray month
Pima
 
 
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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
Mary Kathryn Nagle

Fighting For Native Americans, In Court And Onstage

An icy January afternoon was turning into evening, and inside a warmly lit rehearsal room at Arena Stage, the company of a new play called "Sovereignty" had arrived at the final scene.

The sweet, 21st-century ending unfolds in an unlikely setting: a family cemetery in rural Oklahoma, not far from the spot where, in 1839, a Cherokee Nation leader named John Ridge was stabbed to death in an act of political retribution. His influential father, Major Ridge, was assassinated the same day, and for the same reason.
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Our Featured Artist: Honoring Students
Charles Huntington

The Ojibwe artist's massive steel sculptures propelled him from blue collar beginnings to the top of the art world as he devised a career all his own.

It began with boredom, Charles Huntington once told a reporter, when his first career as an auto mechanic became monotonous.

With spare parts, and odds and ends around the garage, he began making art out of crushed wheels, hood ornaments and whatever else drew his imagination.

 
Page CCC Student Receives New Spring To Success Scholarship

A student at Coconino Community College in Page will be springing to success after receiving a newly created scholarship.

Marissa Tsinnajinnie of Bitter Springs received the first-ever Spring to Success scholarship to attend classes at CCC in Page. The $750 scholarship was specifically created for a CCC Page student to attend in the Spring 2018 semester, said Kay Leum, Director of Special Projects and Grants.

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Our Featured Story: First Person History:
Native American Rap Star, JOEY STYLEZ, Seeks To Empower The People

Joey Stylez, real name Joseph LaPlante, has opened up about his own experiences with drugs and alcohol - and how those experiences robbed him of happiness but he's not ashamed of his past. He wants to use it to empower the people. "We are not the things we've done, but the things that we think about consistently. When inner pain is not dealt with, it can become something that propels alcohol and drug abuse," said Stylez.

 

Early Copper Mining History In the Lake Superior Basin (Part 1)

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News and Views Banner
Education News Education News
Alianait Lists This Year’s Iqaluit Concert Series

It’s that time of the year again for Alianait concert goers.

The annual Nunavut concert series is kicking off Jan. 20 with an Inuktitut music tribute concert.

“Igloolik musicians Lazarus (Mister) Qattalik and Allan Kangok will join Mason Angnakak from Pangnirtung and local artists Daniel Kolola and Charlie Panipak to perform many favourite Inuktitut tunes,” Alianait’s executive director, Heather Daley, said in a Jan. 11 release.

 
New Scholarship Helps Students 'Re-boot' At CCC

Coconino Community College students who may have had difficulties with the rigors of college in the past now have a chance to "re-boot" their college careers.

A new Re-Boot scholarship is now being offered at CCC through the CCC Foundation with the generous help of Bryan Bates, emeritus professor who recently retired from the College.

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Education News Education News
American Indian Science And Engineering Society Honors Two Sandia Employees

Sandia National Laboratories researcher Ginger Hernandez and Tribal Government Program manager Laurence Brown have been honored by the American Indian Science and Engineering Society for their career accomplishments. Hernandez is the recipient of the AISES Technical Excellence Award and Brown has received the Government Partner Service Award.

 
Middle School Class Keep Nisqually Legacy Alive

Yelm Middle School teacher Cody Colt’s seventh grade Washington state history class keep the legacy of the Nisqually Indian Tribe alive by presenting to younger peers.

 

 

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Education News Living Traditions
Art Invigorates Participation At Standing Rock Schools

The walls of Standing Rock Elementary School and Standing Rock Middle School are lined with artwork and the sound of music reverberates from the classrooms.

For both of the schools' administrators and teachers, a real change has occurred in the past two school years. Morale among students and teachers has improved at the schools on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation, which faces challenges of poverty. Through the arts, self-confidence among students has been boosted, the middle school principal said.

 
Seal, Moose, And Rabbit On The Menu For Canadian Indigenous Chefs Reclaiming Culinary Heritage

When Algonquin chef Cezin Nottaway was 5 years old, her mother taught her how to kill and skin a beaver with her bare hands. The little girl also learned how to snare a rabbit and to draw a moose out of the forest by emulating its haunting grunt.

"We were using local ingredients long before it became fashionable," Nottaway, 38, said in her log-cabin kitchen on the Kitigan Zibi reserve, near this town about 136km north of Ottawa, Ontario.

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Who We Are Who We Are
Infant Skeleton Sheds New Llight On Early Native American Populations

Scientists divided the ancient American populations into two categories: the Southern and the Northern Native Americans. The two groups are related, but a link between them and an ancient Siberian population was missing, until now.

 
Stone Shrine Discovered Inside Mexican Volcano Depicts Mythical Aztec Universe

Mexican archaeologists have discovered a stone sanctuary at the bottom of a pond below the Iztaccihuatl volcano that seems to depict a mythical model of the universe.

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Who We Are Living Traditions

From Lookout Mountain To Belgium, Setting The Record Straight On American Indian Performers

On top of Lookout Mountain, past roads named Moonview and Indian Paintbrush, François Chladiuk inscribes a message in Old Lakota in an open book.

"Wakan ni un," the 65-year-old Belgian says to the couple standing over him at Buffalo Bill's Pahaska Tepee gift shop and café. "It's a quote from Walter Littlemoon. It means, ‘Live in a sacred manner.' "

 
Tribal Cultures Remain As Different As Their Indigenous Languages

I hear time and time again “Native culture.” What does that phrase even mean? It seems to me people are uneducated and uninformed about our first people and our culture. We become one tribe to people when in fact tribes across the United States are very diverse and unique. Each nation and tribe has its own values, cultural teaching and languages.

In 1990, Congress passed the Native American Languages Act (NALA) in order to, “preserve, protect, and promote,” Native American Languages. They put the act together to make sure the languages could survive.

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Healthy Living Living Traditions
Indigenous Group Tackles Diabetes With Storytelling

When Emily’s mother lay dying of kidney failure from years of diabetes, Emily begged the doctors to take her kidney and transplant it into her mom. But the doctors refused — Emily had diabetes too. She would need both kidneys herself.

Like many Indigenous groups around the world, the James Bay Cree of northern Québec have a disproportionately high rate of diabetes. They’re facing it down with a decidedly Indigenous solution: A Talking Circle in print.

 

 
Tea Collection Launches United States Inspired Collection With Native American Collaborations And First Ever Tween Line

Tea Collection, a high-quality children’s clothing brand with designs inspired by the beauty of global cultures, introduces its first ever United States inspired collection. Although world travel and exploration will always be at the heart of Tea Collection, the brand understands that that same diversity, found just down the road or across the street here in the United States, also deserves celebration. The 2018 collection honors the extraordinary cultures, colors and creative spirit of our beautiful home, with the hope of motivating others to explore their backyards to discover the beautiful global richness that makes America what it is today.

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Education News   Living Traditions
FDLTCC Hosts Third Annual Beekeeping Workshop

Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College, in partnership with the Northeast Minnesota Beekeepers Association, is hosting a day-long workshop called “Beekeeping and More!” on Saturday, February 17, 2018, for anyone interested in learning about beekeeping as a hobby or as a commercial enterprise. The Symposium will open at 8:30 a.m. and classes run from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. starting in the college commons. Pre-registration is encouraged. The first Beekeeping and More workshop held in 2016 drew in more than 150 beekeepers and the event has kept growing, making it one of the largest beekeeping workshops in northern Minnesota.

 
Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum Featuring Tulsa Native American Family In Exhibit 'Fluent Generations: The Art Of Anita, Tom And Yatika Fields'

A family of accomplished Native American artists will showcase their works of photography, ceramics and paintings, celebrating the vitality of indigenous cultures, in the newest exhibit to be unveiled this month at the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History, 2401 Chautauqua Ave.

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Education News   Honoring
Closing The Gap: How A poor, Rural School Uses Culture To Help Native American Kids Learn

If you hit gravel on He Dog Road, you’ve gone too far.

Just before the pavement ends on the southwest-bound curve, there’s an unmarked turn where the road winds south, crosses Cut Meat Creek and ends in front of a red brick schoolhouse.

The cement steps leading to the door are so crumbled and worn they’re unusable. An auxiliary staircase leads to the creaking wooden floors inside. The Bureau of Indian Education has recommended the 90-year-old elementary school be condemned, but for now, it’s home to 155 students.

 
Native American Veterans Will Be Honored With A Memorial On The National Mall

The Mall is studded with monuments to iconic people and events, from presidents to wars to civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. Later this month, finalists will be announced for a memorial to a group with less name recognition: Native American veterans.

In the 20th century, Native Americans served in the United States military at a higher per capita rate than any other ethnic group, and their service stretches back to the Revolutionary War. This might sound surprising, given their fraught history with the U.S. government. Why would so many choose to fight and sacrifice for a country that has often treated native tribes so badly?

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Protecting Our Land   Living Traditions
Bennett Orders Full Environmental Assessment For Nunavut's Grays Bay

The huge Grays Bay Road and Port project proposed for western Nunavut will undergo a full environmental review that will scrutinize the impacts of more mining and shipping on the region’s residents and environment, the Nunavut Impact Review Board said late Wednesday.

The responsible federal ministers said in a Jan. 15 letter to the review board that they have accepted its recommendation to refer the Grays Bay project proposal for a full environmental assessment, a process that the the NIRB had recommended last October in its screening report.

 
Omaha Tribe Working To Restore Hospital Built By First Native American Doctor

The 26-year-old Omaha woman woke up early that morning, long before the sun began to warm the frozen prairie of her northeast Nebraska reservation.

Susan La Flesche moved as quickly as she could, harnessing her horses to her buggy and dropping her small black bag on a seat before setting out. She knew time was her enemy.

Somewhere out in the cold and the dark and the two feet of snow, a girl lay dying. And La Flesche, the Omaha Reservation's doctor, refused to let her people down, knowing how much they had pushed to get her into medical school and into a profession dominated by men.

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Honoring   Living Traditions
First Nations, Inuit And Métis Among Order Of Canada Appointees

Not too many recipients of the Order of Canada would say they felt sadness when notified that they were being awarded the honour.

Elder Harry Bone from Keeseekoowenin Ojibway First Nation in Manitoba, was one of 125 new appointees announced last week.

His wife died three years ago, and her memory was the first thing he thought of when he found out he had been named for the honour.

 
Cherokee Copper hopes to sell jewelry worldwide

With hopes of getting Cherokee jewelry in fine jewelry stores worldwide, Greg Stice, owner and artist of Cherokee Copper, is on his way to doing just that with a key part of his jewelry consisting of copper and pearls.

"Our goal is to take the Cherokee, our tradition to the world…so that you can walk into any fine jewelry (store) and you will be able see Cherokee fine jewelry," he said.

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Living Traditions   Living Traditions
Poet Natalie Diaz Talks Indigenous Culture, Womanhood

Northwestern welcomed poet Natalie Diaz on Wednesday to share her poetry and lead a conversation about preserving indigenous culture through literature.

The conversation, co-sponsored by Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences' Department of English and the Center for Native American and Indigenous Research, took place in Harris Hall as part of the Moore Lecture Series. The project aims to provide a platform for established writers to talk to students, faculty and other community members, according to the English department's website.
 
Tribal Cultures Remain As Different As Their Indigenous Languages

I hear time and time again “Native culture.” What does that phrase even mean? It seems to me people are uneducated and uninformed about our first people and our culture. We become one tribe to people when in fact tribes across the United States are very diverse and unique. Each nation and tribe has its own values, cultural teaching and languages.

In 1990, Congress passed the Native American Languages Act (NALA) in order to, “preserve, protect, and promote,” Native American Languages. They put the act together to make sure the languages could survive.
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About This Issue's Greeting - "Posoh"
In most respects Menominee is a typical Algonquian language. Menominee has six vowels rather than the usual four, and has complex rules governing vowel length, but otherwise the sound system is similar to Ojibwa, Mesquakie (Fox) and Shawnee. The vocabulary is also similar to the neighboring languages; especially, most Menominee words will have an exact equivalent in Potawatomi and Ojibwa. The noun inflections are similar to other Algonquian languages, but Menominee has a number of verb inflections not found in the other languages, and consequently some sentences are put together in a different way than in Ojibwa or Mequakie.
Nature's Beauty:
American Badger
 
This Issue's
Favorite Web sites
 
A Story To Share:
How The Badger's White Stripes Came To Be
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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 - 2018 of Vicki Williams Barry and Paul Barry.
 

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