Native Village
Youth and Education News
June 9, 2004, Issue 135 Volume 1
"We need to save those Elders who cannot
speak for themselves -- the trees."
--Haida Gwaii, Traditional Circle of Elders
WORLD PEACE AND PRAYER DAY
From June 19-22, Japan will host a gathering of all
nations and all faiths to celebrate World Peace and Prayer Day. Chief Arvol Looking Horse, spiritual leader of the
Lakota people and the 19th generation keeper of the Sacred White Buffalo Calf Pipe, will attend.
More about World Peace and Prayer Day: http://www.wppd2004.org/eng/
Message from Chief Arvol Looking Horse: 2004
World Peace and Prayer Day
http://www.wppd2004.org/eng/schedule.html
Navajo elders give 150,000
hours to nation
Flagstaff, AZ: Almost two hundred Navajo foster
grandparents came from every corner of the Navajo Nation to be recognized for volunteering with children. “You
truly are the fabric of our nation,” said guest speaker U.S. Rep. Rick Renzi, R-Ariz. Among the comments:
“When I go into a cafeteria, they are all shouting, Grandma!
Grandma! It is a good feeling...Everybody then turns around and looks. They’re like baby lambs crying out.”
Laura Desh, 64;
“Today’s kids are losing their culture and language. When we
first meet them (kids) we tell them who they are and where they come from. Some are slow and some don’t want to
listen. They are all different.” Irene Franklin;
“Last year, a state official recognized that some children even had
improved their reading skills with the help of the grandparents.” Irene Eldridge, program director;
“They have better relationship with children, then off-reservation
people. They are the knowledge of the people and are an untapped resource." Carole Mandino, Northern Arizona
University.
Carole Mandino has spent 20 years working with senior volunteers throughout northern Arizona. She believes the high
volunteerism within the Navajo Nation is due to the culture. “There have been so many generations of volunteers
on Navajo that it has become part of the culture," Mandino said. The Navajo Foster Grandparents program is
run by the Navajo Area Agency on Aging. It's volunteer rate is 3-4 times higher than other Arizona projects.
To become a foster grandparent, an applicant must be 60 years of age, meet certain income eligibility
requirements, love children, and be willing to volunteer 20 hours a week.
http://www.daily-times.com/artman/publish/article_11479.shtml
Nipmucs preserve history
Massachusetts: The Nipmuc Nation is pushing ahead with
plans to restore historic tribal sites. One current project is to reopen a house on its Hassanamisco reservation that,
until last winter, was considered to hold the regional record for continuous occupation by a Native family. The tribe is
also raising funds to preserve several centuries-old dugout canoes, or mishoons, discovered at the bottom of an icy
lake. Further down the road, it hopes to open a museum and cultural center in Worcester, Mass. the state’s second
largest city. "We all have 10 different projects," said Rae Gould, the Tribal Historic Preservation
officer.
http://www.indiancountry.com/?1086287548&PHPSESSID=a00df486639ec6f4521fcfa5240e96e6
Indigenous peoples living
in voluntary isolation
Sixty-four indigenous tribes are living in voluntary
isolation in Amazonian Ecuador, Peru, Brazil and Bolivia. These people avoid all contact with strangers because they
prefer the isolation they have maintained for centuries. But these tribes -- the Tagaeri, Huaorani, Taromenane, Corubo,
Amamhuaca, Mascho, among others – are condemned to gradual extinction. Their numbers are rapidly dwindling:
The Coruba speakers
number only 40;
Mascho
speakers number
between 20-100.
The Amamhuaca language,
it is thought, is spoken only by 720
people: 500 in
Peru and 220 in
Brazil.
The challenge facing the region's impoverished governments is to balance land development and protect the riches of the
Amazonian belt and the fragile indigenous groups. Brazil was among the first to adopt a policy of creating
enforced territorial reserves for people living in voluntary isolation. Colombia, Ecuador and Peru are also
looking at similar action.
http://www.un.org/events/tenstories/story.asp?storyID=200#
Inuit say 'Yes' to
Labrador land-claim deal
NEWFOUNDLAND--Inuit in northern Labrador have voted to
accept a historic land-claim deal that will give them ownership of more than 15,000 square kilometres of land. The deal
also gives them management rights over resources in another 56,000 square kilometres and a share of any future
development. The agreement also gives the Inuit the power to make their own laws and to control their education system
and their social services. The new nation, Nunatsiavut, will be located in Hopedale, Labrador, with the administration
in Nain. It will have 16 members, including some who live outside the region. Community governments will be established
in Nain, Makkovik, Hopedale, Postville and Rigolet.
http://north.cbc.ca/
Former Cherokee Chief
Still Making a Difference
Having just returned from South Africa, Wilma Mankiller is
now planning to release her third book about powerful native women. Mankiller, the first female elected principal
chief of an American Indian tribe, led the Cherokee Nation from 1985 to 1995. Under her reign, she started gaming, built
a Job Corps Center for Cherokee teens to learn skills, and taught her people to care, says those who know her. But Wilma
says she's just a regular woman. "Every single person has leadership ability," she says.
"Some step up and take them. Some don't. My answer was to step up and lead."
The Associated Press
Archaeologist
searches for artifacts from the Hopewell people
Kansas--The Hopewell culture is best known for earth
mounds built along the Ohio River from 50 B.C. to 500 A.D. Now their passage through eastern Kansas is being researched.
Archaeologist Jim Dougherty is studying artifacts to learn how far into Kansas the Hopewell People lived. "We know
they had villages in northeast and southeast Kansas, but I am intrigued with the question of the extent to which they
may have traveled west along the Arkansas River drainage system. We know they obtained meteorites from southwestern
Kansas and obsidian (volcanic glass), bear teeth, and bighorn sheep horns from the Rocky Mountains. We do not know,
however, what routes they took and where they camped." Dougherty hopes that Kansas farmers, ranchers and
amateur archaeologists will help by contacting him if they find artifacts.
http://www.dodgeglobe.com/stories/060104/sta_0601040015.shtml
City Is Losing a Part of
Its Soul in Playa Vista
CALIFORNIA: Over the last few months, one of the largest
American Indian burial grounds ever found in the nation has been rising out of the earth in West Los Angeles. Rib cages
and skulls, basketry remnants and personal goods are sifted from the dirt. Some remains are 4,000 years old; some date
from the days of the Spanish missions. Each is laid in a cardboard banker's box to be reinterred someplace else. It is
all being done as competently, rapidly, legally and as quietly as possible. The burial site is being opened for the
13,000 people who will populate the master-planned Playa Vista community.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-nabokov7jun07,1,2153978,print.story?coll=la-news-comment-opinions
Despite Traditions and
Bloodlines, Government Says Some Tribes Don't Exist
REDDING, Calif. Once, there were 14,000 Wintu; today, just
125 remain. Their ancestors lived along the McCloud River in Northern California where Wintus still gather to pray and
visit their sacred sites. As did their ancestors, today's Wintu believe it's their purpose to protect the McCloud.
But despite their history and traditions, the federal government says the Wintu tribe does not exist. This makes the
tribe ineligible for land, grants, or other benefits. "We're a traditional, historic tribe. We still live and
follow our traditions and culture that has been handed down generation by generation," said Caleen Sisk-Franco,
Wintu spiritual leader. '"We're put here to protect the sacred places, for there to be snow on the mountain,
fish in the river. But [the government] still can't see us."
The Associated Press
Program focuses Native
Americans
New Jersey--The impact of the Lenape Indians' culture has
influenced New Jersey society more than most historians realize, says Dr. Jean R. Soderlund. Despite many tribes
moving west, "we seem to have forgotten that people stayed in the East as well," she said. "They had an
impact on American culture as it developed, not just on the frontier." Soderlund points to the civilizations
developed by Native Americans, which ranged from the Great Lakes to the Gulf Coast. It was based on the growing of corn,
beans and squash and hunting and fishing, but they also engaged in trade. "They valued their freedom. They
were not interested in being subservient to a king," she said. While children learn about Native Americans in
school, the culture seems to have vanished from the curriculum of colleges and universities, she said.
http://www.nj.com/printer/printer.ssf?/base/news-8/108608162662770.xml
Navajo Code Alive in Iraq
Since the age of 12, Cpl. Kayelee Yazzie knew she wanted
to be a communicator in the Marine Corps. Yazzie, a Navajo, comes from a long line of military family members. Her
father was an airman in Vietnam; her grandfather served with the Army in Germany during World War II; and his
stepbrother was a Marine codetalker in Japan during the same war. Yazzie has now learned the Navajo code talker
secret code and says it wasn't difficult because ''...it's just the Navajo language. Code talkers are highly
respected people in my tribe,'' the 20 year old said. ''I knew I wanted to follow in their footsteps and carry on
their legacy. The code talkers helped the U.S. beat the Japanese because no one could crack the code.'' In May
2001, Kayelee joined the Marines to become a communicator. She is currently being deployed to Iraq for the second
time.
http://www.scienceblog.com/community/article2894.html
In the Language of Our
Ancestors
Across Indian Country, many efforts to revive and
revitalize Native American languages are under way. Of the hundreds of languages existing here before European
invasion, it's estimated 66% may have disappeared. Of those that remain, many could die along with the elders, the
dwindling brain trust of tribal language. In Arlee, Montana, a former bowling alley is home to Nkwusm, a tribal-run
language school for preschoolers. The adults are fluent in Salish and committed to keeping the language alive,
even if it means coming out of retirement. "The power and wisdom of language is what has kept our people together
so that we can do meaningful things," said elder Pat Pierre. "If I can teach the little ones the language,
then we keep our identity." In Nkwusm, the Salish are using a "language nest" --a language
immersion program for their youngest tribal members. Twenty years ago, Maoris in New Zealand saved their language with
language nests. Hawaiians soon adopted the Maori model and, a similar program has been established on the Blackfeet
Reservation in Northwest Montana. Language nests are seen by many as a key to reviving tribal languages. Last year
Hawaii Senator Daniel Inouye proposed an amendment to the Native American Languages Act of 1990. If passed, it would
provide federal government support for Native American survival schools, including language nests.
http://www.nwrel.org/nwedu/09-03/language.php
Linking families, language
and heritage
CALIFORNIA: Seventy-year-old Marie Wilcox has a simple
dream, a dream in which she hears the language spoken by her Wukchummi grandparents once again. "It is something I
feel in my heart, I want to hear again," Wilcox said. Her dream is now becoming a reality at the Owens Valley
Career Development Center in Vistula. The center's mission is to provide Native American Indians with cultural
education, programs and opportunities. Wilcox will teach families that go to the center the Wukchummi her grandparents
taught her. "[Learning the language] will help bring families together," Wilcox said. "And they will be
proud of their heritage."
http://www.visaliatimesdelta.com/news/stories/20040526/localnews/504888.html
Beef up support of Inuit
culture, says NTI
Nunavut Tunngavik, a land claims organization, has
released its report on the state of Inuit culture and society. The report moves through what it calls 10 priority areas
for Nunavut Tunngavik and Nunavummiut. Among the recommendations:
Create all signs and
advertising in Inuktitut and English, and French;
The federal government must
provide money to build social housing for Inuit;
The federal government
must commit $3,500,000 to teach all K-12 classes in the Inuktitut language.
http://north.cbc.ca/regional/servlet/EmailStory?filename=nun-ntilangcult12052004®ion=North
shaman photo copyright: www.ohiohistorycentral.org
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