Native Village 

Youth and Education News

September 1, 2004,  Issue 137 Volume 4

"[Sovereignty is] the nearest and dearest, No. 1 issue in Indian Country. It's not something that was given to us. As tribes, we see sovereignty as something we've always had." Jacqueline Johnson, Executive Director, National Congress of American Indians

GRADUATION PLEDGE OF ALLIANCE
"I pledge to explore and take into account the social and environmental consequences of any job I consider and will try to improve these aspects of any organizations for which I work."
Humboldt State University (California) has initiated the Graduation Pledge of Social and Environmental Responsibility (above).  The students define for themselves what it means to be socially and environmentally responsible.  Now students at over 100 colleges and universities are using the pledge, along with graduate and professional schools, high schools and schools overseas.  Graduates who voluntarily signed the pledge have turned down jobs they did not feel morally comfortable with, or have worked to make changes once on the job. Those who have signed the pledge include students from
Colgate    Skidmore   Oregon State   Utah State    Harvard   Stanford    Manchester College    France    Taiwan    Canada    Australia
To join and learn more, visit: http://www.graduationpledge.org

EPA acknowledges most fish tainted by mercury
The Environmental Protection Agency has issued warnings to 48 states about their fish being contaminated by mercury poisoning.   This is up from 44 states in 1993, the first year the data was reported. The only two states are not included: Wyoming and Alaska. Mercury poses a health risk to pregnant women and young children. Environmentalists say the Bush administration is not doing enough to combat pollution.
Read the report: http://www.epa.gov/ost/fish/

Harvard fails in bid to control forest roads
NEW ZEALAND: Harvard University has lost a bid to control roads in its New Zealand forests when Crown lands are returned to Maori ownership. Paul Quinn, spokesman for the Ngati Awa tribe, says future access must be negotiated because it was not dealt with when the licences were created. About 2500 trucks travel over private roads through Harvard's North Forest each week.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/

Breakup of the North Pole
The Northeast passage across the Siberian polar ice is open;
The channel between Greenland and Ellesmere Island is open;
Only 250 miles of ice remains on the North shore of Greenland connecting it to the polar ice. And that is breaking up;
The entire north shore of Alaska and Siberia is ice free.
In short, the North Pole is falling apart--and some claim global warming isn't real?
http://www.aljazeerah.info/Opinion%20editorials/2004%20opinions/August/16%20o/Breakup%20Of%20The%20North%20Pole%20By%20Dirk%20Dunning.htm

Arctic May Offer 50-million Year Records of Climate
Scientists believe a 50-million-year record of the Earth's climate lies in an underwater mountain chain in the ice-clogged waters near the North Pole. An international team is drilling deep into the Arctic Ocean ridge for the first time to extract sediment. They hope the sediment will provide a climatic history and help explain how humans are changing the planet.  ''Think of it as a book,'' said Kate Moran, co-chair of the Arctic Coring Expedition. ''We're turning back the pages of time.''  Scientists will drill three 1,640-foot holes beneath the sea floor to extract the needed sediments. The cores will be taken to the University of Bremen, in Germany, for further analysis
AOL News

Wetlands Project Begins on San Francisco Bay
California:  One of the nation's most ambitious environmental-restoration projects has gotten under way near San Francisco Bay. Officials have begun the year long process of turning industrial salt ponds into marshes brimming with wildlife. Officials expect to see new species of birds, fish and plants as well as endangered species such as the salt marsh harvest mouse and California clapper rail.  ''This is one of the most dynamic, complicated restoration projects in the country and in the world,''  said Steve Thompson of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The project is the biggest effort to restore wetlands on the West Coast.
AOL News

Lewis Pottery on New U.S. Postage Stamps
New Mexico: Lucy M. Lewis, Acoma Pueblo, was honored to have her pottery chosen as one of 10 designs on U.S. postage stamps honoring the Art of the Native American.  The first day of issue and dedication ceremony was on Saturday, August 21, in Santa Fe.  Lucy is a renowned potter and has been honored many times for her art and has pottery in the major museums in the states.  She was instrumental in reviving the traditional art of pottery in the 1950's because the women of the pueblo were no longer making them.  The pottery on the stamp will be in the new Museum of the American Indian in Washington D.C. 
Cecelia Lewis-Lucero

Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art Is Recipient of $15 Million Gund Collection of Western Art
Indiana: The Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art is the recipient of the Gund Collection of Western Art, valued in excess of $15,000,000. The 57 pieces in the Gund Collection consist of oil paintings, watercolors, sketches, lithographs and sculptures owned by the family of George Gund (1888-1966) of Cleveland, Ohio. The collection comprises works by such master artists as Frederic S. Remington, Charles M. Russell, Albert Bierstadt, Henry Farny, Frank Tenney Johnson, William R. Leigh, Alfred Jacob Miller and Charles Schreyvogel.
Eiteljorg Museum: http://www.eiteljorg.org
AOL News

Toronto dance company taking global stage by storm
The sounds of 10,000 caribou hooves pulsating with vibrations and deafening echoes leave spectators frozen on the edges of their seats. This isn't the actual migration of the famed Porcupine caribou herd north of the Arctic Circle. Rather this realistic experience is courtesy of clever sound mixing amplified in a small venue. The "Caribou Song,"  an original piece choreographed by Red Sky Productions, has played to audiences on four continents. The Toronto-based company emphasizes contemporary Aboriginal performances with disciplines of dance, music and folk tales  "We want to be a world player in theater, dance and music … in five years," says artistic director Sandra Laronde.  Red Sky continues its globetrotting when it returns to the United States to perform in Washington, D.C. between Sept. 18 - 21 in conjunction with  the opening of the National Museum of the American Indian along the
Mall.
http://www.indiancountry.com/

Cherokee National Youth Choir Nominated for Indian Summer Music Award
The Cherokee National Youth Choir was recently named a finalist for a 2004 Indian Summer Music Award. The youth were  nominated in the religious category for their CD, "Building One Fire." "The kids worked hard on this CD," said Kathy Sierra, mother of Ryan Sierra, a member of the choir. "They had to give up a lot of their time in the summer to record everyday."  ISMA winners will be announced September 11 at an awards ceremony in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Building One Fire: www.cherokeegiftshop.com
american_indians_news_source_tulanappes_list@yahoogroups.com

Wilch wins National Native American Boxing title
Kansas: Waha Canka Wilch is the champion of the  Ringside National Native American Boxing Championships in the 154 lb., 16-year-olds open class. This national tournament was held on the campus of Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, KS. The three-day event drew 90 boxing amateurs from the United States and  Canada.
http://www.plaintalk.net/stories/071604/spo_0715040072.html

Tribal contributions to the Olympics
"Most people are not aware of the roots of ten Olympic sports that the American Indians invented: Soccer (kicking a ball for days), ice and field hockey, canoeing, kayaking, overhand swimming stroke, baseball, basketball, tobogganing (sled sports), and the three day Marathon, for spiritual and messenger purposes." Suzu Chaffee. 
"The People of Turtle Island (America's 500 Nations) were the first to invent team sports, including baseball, basketball, as well as lacrosse. While  the 'civilized' world played war games, our tribal men, women and children  were settling disputes playing team sports with long bats and lacrosse  sticks." Oren Lyons, Chief of the  Onondaga Nation of the Iroquois Confederacy
"Basketball evolved from an ancient Mayan-Aztec game and lacrosse. The South  American tribes first threw or kicked a rubber ball (they invented) through a  vertical hoop in an outdoor court."  Woody Vaspra, President of the World Council of Elders
"Over 100,000 years ago the tribal people of Lemuria in the Pacific (predating Atlantis), and Africa first threw rocks for survival, then sport, which evolved into the shot put. Spear throwing became the javelin, and then bow and arrow became universally adopted as the art of archery."  Woody Vaspra
"The polar tribes, spanning from Lapland to Siberia and Alaska, invented ... most of our favorite Winter Olympic sports. The Sami are credited for pioneering skiing and  skating 5,000 years ago, and the Inuits for kayaking and their unique Winter Games. The polar tribes, as well as the First Nations of Canada and American  Indian Nations, developed snowshoeing, cross country, canoeing, and tobogganing,"  Oren Lyons
http://www.nativetimes.com/index.asp?action=displayarticle&article_id=4974

Indigenous athletes compete at Olympics
Looking for indigenous participation at Athens 2004? Try the South Pacific. Oceania comprises Australia, New Zealand and 13 other countries that are home to the island cultures of Polynesia, Micronesia, and Melanesia.  Among Oceania participants are:
Kaitinano Mwemweata and Karianako Nariki, 100-meter sprinters, from Kiribati;
Tereapii Tapoki, discus, Cook Islands;
Ana Po’uhila, shot put, Tonga;
Itte Detenamo and Yukio Peter, weightlifters, Nauru;
Doug Ma’afu Hawke, boxer, Tonga;
Makelesi Bulikiobo, women's 400-meter, Fiji.
The Australian Sports Commission lists nine indigenous Olympians: three boxers, two sprinters, one men’s soccer player, one women’s softball player and two men’s water polo players.
New Zealand has 16 Maori competitors:  five women’s hockey players, four women’s basketball players, and a women’s Taekwondo competitor. Two Maori men are on the hockey team and four are on the basketball team. On the Paralympics team, there is one wheelchair rugby competitor and two track and field competitors.
Oceania High Performance Training Centre: http://www.hptcoceania.com/
http://www.indiancountry.com/?1093359678

2004 World Eskimo Olympics winners
This summer, the World Eskimo Olympics was held in Fairbanks Alaska. The results:

Volume 3  

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