Native Village
Youth and Education News
June 15, 2005 Issue 154 Volume 1
“I have my community. Not to say that it is a
developed community, but it is true that we all live like the five fingers in a hand, which know how to join with each
other.”
— Panchito Ramírez
Indigenous grandmothers pray
for the world
New Mexico: The International Council of 13 Indigenous Grandmothers
gathered for prayers at sacred Pueblo sites. The Elders from the Takelma, Lakota, Arapaho, Cheyenne, Hopi and Yupik
tribes along with grandmothers from Africa, Mexico, Brazil, Tibet and Nepal sent a message to the world to protect
Mother Earth and honor the sacred ways for peace. The grandmothers message is that there must be better medicine and a
new awareness of the pollution around us.
Among their comments:
''The grandmothers of the world want to
go forward and not only talk to the women of the world, but the president of the United States and the world leaders. We
want them to hear our voice. There has got to be a better way of taking care of our Mother Earth,'' ''Agnes
Baker-Pilgrim, 80, Takelma.
''We need to enlighten people and tell
the world leaders there has to be a better way. If we allow the animal kingdom to disappear, at the rapid rate it is
disappearing, then we are killing ourselves faster than we think." Agnes Baker-Pilgrim, Takelma
''We are the natural nurturers of the
Earth Mother. The Earth Mother needs our help, she needs our prayers. We need to educate the women of the world that
prayer works." Agnes Baker-Pilgrim, Takelma
"We
want to preserve the beauty we walk in for the seventh generation, for the unborn to be able to walk in beauty and have
clean air and good water." Agnes Baker-Pilgrim, Takelma
''Now the government wants our
reservation land, our First Nations land, for garbage dumps. Years ago, smallpox blankets were given to my people to
kill them off. Now they are sending garbage and toxic waste to be dumped on our reservations." Agnes Baker-Pilgrim,
Takelma
''Many of the grandmothers are
practitioners of their earth-based medicines, keepers of [the] medicines of their people. Many are involved with
struggles involving multi-national corporations coming into their homelands to take their natural resources; they
oppress them for the practice of their religious indigenous ways. We are able to support one another through prayers and
our ceremonies. '' Mona Polacca, Hopi/Tewa/Havasupai
''This is
a prayer from the grandmothers of the world, from the four directions of the world. We are not leaving anyone out. We
are praying for our existence and our generation. Everyone, no matter what color our skin is, is part of this prayer.
Mona Polacca, Hopi/Tewa/Havasupai
"We all have sacred places within
ourselves and wherever we might be.'' Mona Polacca, Hopi/Tewa/Havasupai
''[I am]
praying for freedom, that [my] people may reclaim their country and the Dalai Lama will be able to return home."
Tsering Dolma Gyalthong, Tibet
Indian Country Today
Rare white buffalo born at
ranch
Kentucky: When a rare white buffalo was recently born in Shelby County,
the owners thought the baby part of a prophecy. This white calf is a granddaughter of Chief Joseph, the ranch's
award-winning, 3,000-pound bull that was struck by lightning on Sept. 11, 2001, and died two weeks later. "It's
just unbelievable," owner Bob Allen said. For those who follow American Indian Plains spirituality, the appearance
of a white buffalo is compared to the Christian idea of the second coming of Christ, said researcher Bob Pickering. As
the story goes, Lakota Sioux rituals and beliefs were brought to the tribe by a spiritual being known as the White
Buffalo Calf Woman. A white buffalo calf is interpreted as the sacred reincarnation of the woman, Pickering said, adding
that the incidence of white buffalo births is about 1 per 16,000,000.
http://mytwobeadsworth.com/WhiteBuffalo2605.html
Dakotans purchase Sitting Bull gravesite
South Dakota: Near Mobridge sits a bust of Sitting Bull, marking the
famous American Indian leader's burial site. Broken beer bottles and trash litter the area. The nose is chipped; so is
the inscription on the granite pillar supporting it: "Tatanka Iyotake, Sitting Bull, 1831-1890." Thanks
to Bryan Defender and Rhett Albers, who recently purchased the property, the destruction is about to change.
"This is a site that deserves national and international attention. It is being used as a dumping grounds,"
Albers said. "We've always thought that something needed to be done." Albers said he and Defender plan to
provide 24-hour security and clean up the area by summer. Eventually, they hope to develop a visitor or cultural
center. Sitting Bull helped lead the Indian resistance against the U.S. Army in the 1870s, which culminated in the
1876 Battle of Little Bighorn. He and some of his Sioux followers fled to Canada after the battle, but he returned after
five years and surrendered. Sitting Bull was killed in 1890 on the Standing Rock reservation while being arrested by
Indian police.
http://www.billingsgazette.com/
Museum displays
Pocahontas' earrings
England: In their first public showing since 1907, a pair of mussel shell
earrings believed to belong to Pocahontas went on display at a London museum. Each earring is formed of a rare, white,
double mussel-shell found on the eastern shore of the Berings Strait. They are set in silver rims, inlaid with
mother-of-pearl, and are worth approximately $500,000. Pocahontas, daughter of Chief Powhatan of the Algonquin Nation,
gained fame for serving as an "ambassador" between American Indians and British settlers. She may have
received the earrings during a 1616 trip to England with her English husband, John Rolfe, to obtain funds for a school
for American Indian children. She died in 1617 and was buried at St. George's Church in Gravesend, near London.
The earrings were handed down through the Rolfe family and now belong to the Association for Preservation of Virginia
Antiquities. The earrings are on loan until July 10, when they will be moved back to Jamestown.
http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/news/nation/11865893.htm
Some say decision was
missed opportunity
Nebraska: Donna Wendzillo Ponca, inherited the story of Chief Standing
Bear from her grandmother. In 1879, Standing Bear left Indian Territory with the body of his 12-year-old son to
bury him in Ponca homelands along the Niobrara River. After he was arrested, Standing Bear won a legal challenge in
Nebraska that said Native people were indeed people and citizens under the U.S. law. Now 78, Wendzillo felt a rush of
emotion when she learned that Nebraska's governor, Dave Heineman, chose not to place Standing Bear's image on the
quarter dollar. "My heart is broken," she said as she wept. Other Standing Bear supporters shared reactions
from disappointment to anger with Heineman's choice of a covered wagon rolling past Chimney Rock. "I think politics
was a part of the decision and I regret that it entered the picture," said John Wunder, a University of
Nebraska-Lincoln professor who has taught students about Standing Bear. Judy Morgan Gaiashibos from the Nebraska
Commission on Indian Affairs called the governor's decision "unconscionable ... an insult to Nebraska's first
citizens. I think all of us can identify with wanting to keep your word to your son, wanting to bury your child in your
state, wanting to return home." She also found it ironic that the Heineman selected a Euro-migration symbol
that brought an end to traditional Native life. "I think this would have given an opportunity to make amends for
the Manifest Destiny tragedies that befell our people," she said.
http://mytwobeadsworth.com/ChiefStandingBear605.html
Indigenous In The Border
Zone
Arizona: The Tohono O'odham Nation is protesting militarization along the
U.S. border in the Tohono homelands. The O'odham claim they are intimidated and harassed by Homeland Security when
attending ceremonies on ancestral land in the U.S. and Mexico. "We were resisting the destruction of the
O'odham way of life on O'odham sacred lands, including animal life, plant life, mountains, water and waterways,"
said Ofelia Rivas. Rivas, founder of the "O'odham Voice Against the Wall," is fighting a
proposed U.S. border wall that would dissect O'odham communities and bar passage on traditional ceremonial routes
between Arizona and Mexico. O'odham demonstrators said they have the right to protect the Him'dag (O'odham
way of life) and self-governance.
http://www.indiancountry.com
Freedmen's descendants
discover past
Oklahoma: Intrigued by Oklahoma's black Indians, Rick Kittles tested his
hypothesis that today's descendants of Oklahoma Freedmen would average about 20% Native American. DNA samples were
taken from more than 100 Freedmen descendants, and when the results came back, the results were surprising: Native
American bloodlines averaged 6%. "It was shocking to see it was so low," said the Ohio State geneticist.
"That's how science is. When you start looking into things like this, you should be aware and be ready to deal with
the unexpected." Another surprise was the percentage of European genes -- about 20% -- in the study
participants. "That was much higher than I thought," Kittles said, "but in talking with some of the
anthropologists, they say many of the Native Americans in that area were already mixed with whites." The
Freedmen's battle has its roots before the Civil War. Most Eastern tribes had adopted and intermarried with blacks
over generations of contact. In addition, when then Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw and Creek were removed from their
southern homelands to Oklahoma, they brought African slaves with them. Post - Civil War treaties required tribes
to free their slaves and either adopt them into their tribes or send them off for relocation. By the 1900s, more
than 20,000 Africans had been adopted into the Cherokee, Choctaw, Creek and Seminole. The Chickasaws refused to adopt
blacks, but the slaves were not relocated. Today's Freedmen descendants said the findings will not stop them from
seeking citizenship and equal rights. "We're not wannabe people who are pretending to be Indian people or
pretending to have Indian rights," said Marilyn Vann, president of the descendants' group. "We have
documents to prove who we are and we know who we are."
http://www.nesok.com/print.php?article=1516392
As tribal speakers
dwindle, a rush to teach their words
Michigan: George Roy, 58, has spent 10 years teaching Ojibwe 101 to
students at Saginaw Chippewa Tribal College. ''The first thing I tell my students at the beginning of each
semester is that we're fighting a battle to hold onto our own cultural identity," said the language instructor from
the Ottawa tribe. ''Language is the glue that holds our culture together. . . . I think most of us who teach
Native American languages and culture in the Great Lakes realize that we're fighting an uphill battle to preserve our
own heritage." Most of the 40 Native American languages and dialects used on Midwestern reservations and in
Native families are expected to vanish within the next few decades as tribal elders die. The growing threat to
Midwestern Indian languages is only part of a worldwide phenomenon. Linguists say that, on average, a language
becomes extinct every two weeks. Many blame English language television programs and English language software.
''The scholars tell us there are almost 7,000 languages in the world, and that half of them will probably be lost in the
next century, "said Bruce Cole, chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities. He added that 400 world's
languages have fewer than 100 fluent speakers each, and that 74 of them are Native American languages in the U.S.
In an effort to rescue some threatened languages, the NEH and the National Science Foundation have announced a
$4,400,000 program of grants and fellowships designed to preserve both written and spoken elements of more than 70
threatened languages.
New York Times
Scarce resources hobble
Dene language teachers
Northwest Territory: People working to keep aboriginal languages alive say
school libraries are full of texts in English or French but often house less than one shelf in Dene. Dene language
instructors recently met in Fort Smith to create more educational resources. "It's not as easy as opening a
book and going to chapter six to read lessons one to three," says Joanie Lafferty. "You actually have to
build it." The books and projects they create will be available to aboriginal language instructors across the
Northwest Territories.
http://north.cbc.ca/
Bid to save nearly lost language
Vancouver Island: Some 300 descendants of a Native American people in west
Canada still speak Nuuchahnulth. But almost no young people know the ancient language. Now, after 5,000 years, the
Nuuchahnulth language will get its own dictionary. Compiled by Dr. John Stonham, the dictionary was created with help
from current speakers and notes from linguist Edward Sapir, taken almost a century ago. The dictionary has 7,500 entries
for the complex language. "Entire sentences can be built up into a single word," Dr. Stonham said. "But
there are also some concepts that can be encapsulated in a single syllable. A single sound describes the state of
remaining in seclusion when the husband goes out to hunt, for example." Stoneham hopes the text will help the
language survive by aiding teachers.
SAVED SYLLABLES
puqee-oh Always-absent
woman
hina?aluk I look out for what I know is to happen
Simaacyin?ahinnaanuhsim?aki their whaling spears were poised in the bow
haasulapi-ck'in?i sing a little louder---
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/4583455.stm
Volume 2
Native
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