Canku Ota - June 2021

	Canku Ota (Many Paths) An Online Newsletter Celebrating Native America
	June 2021 - Volume 19 Number 6


	"Wáa sá iyatee?" The Tlingit Greeting How are you?
	Caibou (Rangifer tarandus caribou)

	"Hotehimini kiishthwa" Strawberry Moon Shawnee

"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~

We Salute
Rick West

Today we celebrated and honored Rick West’s museum career on his last day of being a director. His multi-decade leadership has transformed how institutions think and present Native American culture. He, as they say,"decolonized" the museums he led long before the term was invented. In fact, his perspective, hard work, and dedication, have influenced our current thinking regarding museums and how they should operate. Always a gentleman, Rick’s gentle but determined efforts will have a legacy that will last generations.

Our Featured Artist:		Honoring Students
Allan Houser-The Making of a Legend Allan Houser is known world-wide as one of the most important American artists of the 20th Century, but he experienced a winding road to the status of legendary art icon. Given the dramatic impact of his art and its continued status even 30 years after his death, you might rightly expect that his art was his only means of support for the better part of his life. But he had to take various jobs to pay the way, including construction, handyman work and his favorite, teaching. In truth, it wasn’t until much later in his life that he felt ready to “retire” and concentrate solely on his art.		Culturally Congruent Care: Salish Kootenai College's Registered Nursing Program Registered nurses (RNs) are one of the nation's top in-demand occupations. The Bureau of Labor Statistics expects the field to grow from 3 million in 2019 to 3.3 million in 2029, an increase of 7%. New registered nurses are also needed to replace the 175,900 who are projected to retire over the next seven years. For Native communities, the demand for RNs is particularly important.

Our Featured Story:		First Person History:
Shawnee Reclaim The Great Serpent Mound The Shawnee tribe returned home to the Serpent Mound on the longest day of the year. The Summer Solstice, June 20, the longest day of the year, marks the first time that the Shawnee tribe has officially returned to the Serpent Mound located in Ohio to present their history and connection to this place that they called home so many years ago. Although it was certainly ancestors of the Shawnee people who built the magnificent serpent shaped mound, the largest earthwork effigy in the world, Ohio failed to involve the tribe in conveying its meaning to the public until now.		A New Chahta Homeland: A History by the Decade, 1870-1880 Iti Fabvssa is currently running a series that covers the span of Oklahoma Choctaw history. By examining each decade since the Choctaw government arrived in our new homelands using Choctaw-created documents, we will get a better understanding of Choctaw ancestors' experiences and how they made decisions that have led us into the present. This month, we will be covering 1870-1880, an era dominated by Choctaw Nation's engagements with railroad companies, its entry into the coal mining industry, and constant attempts by U.S. Congress to undermine Choctaw sovereignty over our own lands.

Education News		Education News
New Made-In-Manitoba Animated Series Brings Sacred Indigenous Teachings To Life A new animated series aims to educate Manitobans about a set of traditional Indigenous teachings. The Seven Sacred Laws is series of three- to four-minute vignettes, which follow an Indigenous boy as he embarks on a spiritual journey and meets the seven sacred animals who deliver lessons about each teaching.		Crazy Horse Memorial's Horn Chips Collection Introduces School Children To The Real Crazy Horse Crazy Horse Memorial marked a significant milestone in May when it welcomed its first school group to view the Horn Chips Collection in The Indian Museum of North America. Thirty-six students and six teachers traveled from the Pine Ridge Reservation's Batesland School on Friday, May 21 to learn more about Crazy Horse through the medicines a holy man made for the Lakota leader more than 150 years ago.

Preserving Heritage		Preserving Heritage
More Than A Century Later, Disinterment Starts A Native American Girl Toward Home In the summer of 1901, a petite 12-year-old girl was plucked from an orphanage in Alaska and shipped across the continent by boat and train. She arrived in Pennsylvania 25 days and 4,000 miles later, a world away from the windswept island in the Bering Sea where she was born, where her Aleut heritage went back generations. So began the final chapter in the heartbreakingly short life of Sophia Tetoff, one that would end five years later at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in rural Pennsylvania.		Peace Medal Returned To Seneca After 116 Years Red Jacket's Peace Medal, measuring about 7 inches, is made of silver and depicts George Washington, the former United States president, and Red Jacket, the former Seneca chief, shaking hands. It was given to Red Jacket as a gift from the man with whom he is pictured to commemorate discussions that led to the Treaty of Canandaigua of 1794. Red Jacket so cherished the medal that it he is said to have worn it every day until his death.

Living Traditions		Living Traditions
Native American Tribe In Maine Buys Back Island Taken 160 Years Ago The advert painted an idyllic picture of White's Island. For $449,000 you could buy 143 acres of forests with sweeping views of the rugged shoreline of Big Lake in Maine, on the east coast of the United States. "[It's] a unique property … steeped in history … with only two owners in the last 95 years," wrote the real estate agent from privateislandsonline.com.		Coast Salish people persevered in the Puget Sound region despite settlers who took their land and forced them into unfair treaties The archaeologists concluded that the area’s first human residents arrived at least 12,500 years ago, making Puget Sound one of the longest continuously inhabited landscapes in the Lower 48 states.

Revealing History		Revealing History
The First 10 Native Americans To Win The Medal Of Honor Aside from the code talkers of WWII, many other Native Americans contributed to the war effort. Of the 350,000 American Indians living in the country at the time, nearly 45,000 of them enlisted in the Armed Forces, making them the demographic with the highest rate of voluntary enlistment in the military throughout the entire war.		7 Native American Inventions That Revolutionized Medicine And Public Health November is National American Indian Heritage Month, a time of recognition for the substantial contributions the first Americans made to the establishment and growth of the U.S.

Revealing History		Revealing History
Rare Aztec Map Reveals A Glimpse Of Life In 1500s Mexico Early maps of the Americas made by indigenous people are rare—extremely rare. This map, dated 1593, is one of fewer than 100 such documents that have survived the ravages of time. It provides a fascinating glimpse into the early interactions between the indigenous people of Mexico and the recently arrived Spanish.		New Evidence May Change Timeline For When People First Arrived In North America AMES, IA– An unexpected discovery by an Iowa State University researcher suggests that the first humans may have arrived in North America more than 30,000 years ago – nearly 20,000 years earlier than originally thought.

Revealing History		Living Traditions
In A Remote Amazon Region, Study Shows Indigenous Peoples Have Practiced Forest Conservation For Millennia The Amazon, the world's largest and most biodiverse tropical forest, spanning nine countries and more than 2.3 million square miles, was once thought by scholars to hold untamed, unaltered, pristine wilderness. However, the Amazon rainforest has long been home to many indigenous societies. In recent decades, researchers have found evidence of the many ways since prehistoric times that Indigenous peoples have shaped forest composition and its diversity, and domesticated native plants.		Whales Appear During Indigenous Ceremony For 215 Children In Campbell River The 7 Generations Steward Society had a surprise during a small ceremony they held last week to commemorate the 215 children found buried at the Kamloops Residential School. "There was an ceremony downtown, but because it was during the day, a lot of people had to miss it," said Cory Cliffe, founder of the society. "I talked to the board of directors with 7 Generations Steward Society and we agreed that something needed to happen down at the Spit. It didn't need to be huge, but something needed to happen."

About This Issue's Greeting - "Wáa sá iyatee?"

"How are you?" is "Wáa sá iyatee?" in Tlingit. That is pronounced similar to "wah sah ee-yah-te." But that is not generally used as a greeting. Modern Tlingit people sometimes greet each other with "Yak'éi yagiyee" which literally means "good day."

Nature's Beauty: Caribou Facts	This Issue's Favorite Web sites	A Story To Share: The Boy Gets Caribou Medicine Power







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