"Mique Wush Tagooven"
The Northern Ute Greeting
"Hello My Friend"

 nvda gahlvsga
PLANTING MOON
(strict translation "the putting it in a hole moon")
Eastern Cherokee

"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~

Michelle Tom stared into the screen. The Navajo doctor had just finished a grueling shift at the Winslow Indian Health Care Center urgent care facility in Winslow, Ariz., caring for Covid-19 patients. Now, she was spending her Friday night speaking via livestream to Native American youth about the pandemic.

"I've seen it hit everyone," she said of the coronavirus. "But I have the strength of my ancestors, the strength of my prayers, and the strength of all of you. We have to keep talking about it, especially to our young people."

  For this series, we asked curators and members of the Native arts community to spotlight five artists whose work they were looking forward to seeing at the 2020 Indian Market, with the hope that this can play a small part in making up for some of the exposure lost from the postponement of this year's market. Our goal is to highlight Native artists who have continued to make important work amid these trying times. You can find past spotlights here.

It's not likely schools on Manitoba First Nations will reopen before the fall, but a number of communities are planning what back-to-school might look like in response to COVID-19.

In Sandy Bay Ojibway First Nation, 130 km northwest of Winnipeg, it won't be a simple task.

The American Indian College Fund announced it selected five tribal colleges and universities to participate in a new 30-month program to increase the schools' capacity to better recruit and work with students while also increasing their sustainability as higher education institutions in the process.

There are some notable "firsts" on the list of newly elected members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The organization is the nation's oldest honor society, founded in 1780 by John Adams, John Hancock and other scholars.

This year's firsts includes eight Indigenous scholars, a record number. And on that list includes the first time the president of a tribal college has been elected.

Navajo Technical University will use a grant from the National Science Foundation to begin work on a bachelor's degree program in environmental engineering.

NTU announced in a press release that it received almost $2.5 million from the NSF to increase science, technology, engineering and mathematics curricular offerings and research capacity by introducing the new program, which will center on uranium mine remediation and mitigation.

Sequoyah High School has named Boniblu Choate as the class of 2020 valedictorian and Chelbie Turtle as salutatorian.

SHS has tentatively set a commencement ceremony for the graduating seniors to take place at 6 p.m. on July 31 at the Chota Conference Center inside the Cherokee Casino Tahlequah, using the Centers for Disease Control's social-distancing recommendations and pending guidelines.

Mari Hulbutta, a star student and Citizen of the Chickasaw Nation of Oklahoma, graduated May 20 from Columbia Law School.

Hulbutta grew up in a suburb just north of Oklahoma City, and has known for years she was destined for a career in law.

As Miss Shoshone-Bannock, Stormie Perdash has represented her people all across the United States. Now, amid the coronavirus pandemic, she's representing them in a different way.

Growing up on the Fort Hall Reservation in Idaho, Perdash remembers just how badly she wanted the Miss Shoshone-Bannock title – or Miss Sho-Ban for short.

In the first few weeks of 2020, as president Donald Trump dismissed and mocked warnings about a novel virus killing people faraway in China, Native American leaders were taking the deadly threat seriously.

And they were right.

The infection rate among the Navajo Nation has now surpassed the state of New York, the centre of the pandemic in the US.

When a woman named Shanawdithit died from tuberculosis in Newfoundland nearly 200 years ago, it was widely believed that her death marked a tragic end to her people's existence.

For centuries, the Beothuk had thrived along the rocky shores of the island, taking on a near-mythical status as descendants of the first people encountered by Norse explorers in what is now Canada. But their population was devastated by decades of starvation and diseases, and when she died in 1829, Shanawdithit was believed to be the last of her line.

In the Lakota creation story, beings emerged from the Wind Cave in South Dakota's Black Hills—some in human form and some in buffalo form. There's no difference between people and buffalo in this worldview.

"We're Lakota people and that means we're buffalo people," said Wizipan Little Elk, the CEO of the Rosebud Economic Development Corporation (REDCO), the economic arm of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe. "They've always taken care of us and we need to take care of them."

Like many graduates, Gerika Kingbird is not experiencing the senior year she had planned, but she is making the best of it and has a laundry list of accomplishments.

She is graduating as the valedictorian of the Red Lake High School Class of 2020.

Before she fell in love with soccer Caitlyn Stevens did gymnastics, softball and lacrosse.

Those sports didn't really stick with her as much as soccer did. In fact, the North Carolina Diné teen has professed that she's been playing the sport all her life.

The Keya (Turtle) Cafe and Coffeehouse has been a mainstay of the Cheyenne River Youth Project's social enterprise initiatives since it opened in 2011. In recent years, it also has led the charge as the nonprofit youth organization seeks to become more environmentally friendly.

In today's Keya Cafe, customers will find biodegradable to-go boxes in all sizes, as well as biodegradable cups for both hot and cold drinks. The cafe already uses biodegradable trash bags, and as soon as CRYP staff can secure a supplier, it will make the transition to using biodegradable to-go bags as well.

Dr. Jennifer Jackson-Wheeler is a former Miss Navajo, an associate professor, grandmother and a lover of cooking. She has combined all these attributes into making short cooking videos in Navajo and posting them on Facebook for her one-year-old granddaughter.

"I do what I can with family, sharing knowledge given to me by my mother, Ella Jackson, my aunts, and my late grandmother, but when I became a grandparent recently, it changed me," said Jackson-Wheeler.

For the past three months Summer Secatero had her sights set on playing golf collegiately at Mesalands Community College.

The Alamo Navajo grad signed her letter of intent on Feb. 20 to attend the Tucumcari, New Mexico, school even though she hadn't played the game for almost four years.

"I was extremely surprised that I still had a natural swing, even though it has been that many years since I've picked up a club," she said.

About This Issue's Greeting - "Mique Wush Tagooven "

Nature's Beauty:
Mouse Facts

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