Indigenous Languages. 10 Things Teachers Should Never Do When Teaching Native Kids. The Missing Native Vote | Blog. This post first appeared at In These Times. It was mid-April, and Montana was gearing up for this year’s primary election. Voting would get underway in Big Sky Country on May 5, with a month of advance voting by absentee ballot — by mail or by delivering a ballot to the county courthouse — leading up to primary day on June 3. If people hadn’t registered, they could head to the courthouse to sign up. In the second decade of the 21st century, nearly 50 years after the Voting Rights Act of 1965 outlawed discriminatory voting practices, American Indians are still working to obtain equal voting rights. But for Ed “Buster” Moore, who lives on the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation in north-central Montana, it wasn’t so simple.
If he had to vote today? Moore’s situation isn’t unusual. Montanans can register to vote during the month preceding elections — but there’s a catch. And that’s just registration. Leaping voting hurdles “Native people have a very hard time in Montana. The Senate at stake? The Missing Native Vote | Blog. 2014 International Conference of Indigenous Archives, Libraries, and Museums | ATALM. ATALM Guardians of Culture and Lifeways International Awards Announcement.
ATALM Guardians of Culture and Lifeways International Awards Announcement. Top Ten Things You Need to Know About Tribal Libraries | TLAM Project. 1. Without Lotsee Patterson and her infinite amounts of moxie, tribal libraries would be a far cry from where they are today. Patterson has been actively campaigning and working towards library services for tribal communities since the late 1950s.
Lotsee Patterson 2. A group of AILA members from 2012 3. 4. 5. The TRAILS manual has undergone 3 revisions and can be found online 6. This photo was taken November 2013 by Della Nohl at the Convening Culture Keepers hosted by the Ho Chunk Nation in Baraboo, WI 7. 8. The James E. 9. 10. Other related readings: Biggs, B. (2000).
Culturally responsive guidelines for Alaska public libraries. Top Ten Things You Need to Know About Tribal Libraries | TLAM Project. Indigenous peoples hold sustainable solutions to environmental crises. An Andean woman carries a local grass for making ropes to be used in the construction of the Qeswachaka hanging bridge in Cuzco, Peru on June 11, 2010.REUTERS/Enrique Castro-Mendivil Any views expressed in this article are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters Foundation. I first met Victoria Tauli-Corpuz 11 years ago in Rome. An indigenous Filipina activist, Vicky was attending a meeting on indigenous peoples' rights at the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the United Nations rural development agency where I work.
In fact, it was the first time indigenous peoples' representatives had ever been invited to IFAD's offices on the outskirts of the Eternal City. Flash forward to New York this spring, when I heard Vicky's name called by the chair of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in the General Assembly hall at UN headquarters. I felt a sense of pride and admiration, which I'm sure was widely shared in the crowded hall.
Indigenous peoples hold sustainable solutions to environmental crises. Cherokee Speakers Narrate Children’s E-books for Unite for Literacy. L to R: Cherokee Language Program Manager Roy Boney watches as Cherokee speaker and translator David Crawler is prepped by Unite for Literacy CEO Michael McGuffee on narrating a book. TAHLEQUAH, OKLAHOMA — The Cherokee language will now be shared in even more homes across the country. This week fluent speakers in the tribe’s translation department read 10 early literacy books in the Cherokee language that were recorded for Unite for Literacy’s online e-book library. Unite for Literacy, based in Fort Collins, Colo., currently has more than 100 e-books that parents can access for free at The books, targeting ages 0-8, are narrated in 17 different languages, including Navajo, Spanish, Arabic and German, with Cherokee now being the 18th language offered.
“The Unite for Literacy group has a pretty far reach, and their goal is to create literacy among children,” said Roy Boney, manager of the Cherokee Language Program. Like this: Like Loading... New Discovery Confirms Native American Views on Their Ancestry. The discovery and scientific examination of one of the oldest human remains found in the Americas confirms what Native people have known all along, that they are the original inhabitants of this hemisphere. For the past 15 years the question of whether modern American Indians were descended from the ancient people who lived in North and South America more than 10,000 years ago has been the subject of a contentious and bruising scientific debate. This debate has had profound legal implications, since under the current laws in the United States, the custody and control of human remains is dependent on whether or not there is a relationship to a modern Indian tribe.
The new discovery of “Naia,” as the human skeleton found off the coast of the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico has been named, as well as the recent examination of the Anzick child, may have now put this debate to rest. RELATED: DNA Politics: Anzick Child Casts Doubt on Bering Strait Theory. New Discovery Confirms Native American Views on Their Ancestry. Guidelines for Respecting Cultural Knowledge | Alaska Native Knowledge Network.
The Katie John Case: Alaska Natives Shouldn’t Wait a Century to Get a Fair Shake. Katie John at Batzulnetas Fish Camp.Photo from Native American Rights Fund newsletter. Guest Commentary The Katie John case is at an end. Or perhaps another beginning. First the background: The Supreme Court this week rejected the State of Alaska’s petition to review lower court rulings that affirm rules for subsistence hunting and fishing on federal land and navigable waters. Tara Sweeney, co-chair of the Alaska Federation of Natives said in a news release, “This is not only a victory for the late Katie John and her extended family, for Alaska Natives and other rural Alaskans who depend on subsistence to feed their families, but for all Alaskans who seek a prosperous, fair and equitable society.”
But that call for an equitable society remains a distant goal in Alaska. More than a decade ago, former Gov. Mark Trahant Fast forward to the current Gov. He told the Juneau Empire that he disagreed with Knowles and pushed to have the case heard by the Supreme Court. Call for Papers | American Indigenous Research Association. You are invited to present a paper or poster of your Indigenous Science Research work at the 2014 Meeting of the American Indigenous Research Association, to be held October 10-11 at Salish Kootenai College in Pablo, Montana. Papers and posters may be submitted for either STEM Research (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) or Social Science Research Sessions.
Undergraduates, graduate students, faculty, researchers, and people who plan or implement Indigenous research in tribal, state, federal, or other agencies and organizations are encouraged to participate. Proposals will be reviewed by an Indigenous Research panel assembled for that purpose. The number of proposals that can be accepted will be determined by time and space limitations at the meeting. Proposals must be received no later than June 1, 2014. Instructions: If you have problems downloading the Form or submitting your Abstract, email the webmaster. We look forward to seeing you in October! Compass: Media fail to see achievements in Native communities | Compass: Guest Columnists. As we begin to take hold of this new year, many of us find ourselves making ambitious resolutions about what we hope to accomplish in 2014.
It's also a time to reflect on the past 12 months, and there's no shortage of print and broadcast coverage to remind us where we've been, how we compare and even how we've fallen short. I'm proud of our progress as a state but at the same time I'm concerned - in particular with how Alaska Natives from every region, including the North Slope, are portrayed by anyone with a keyboard, microphone or camera.
Stories exploring rural Alaska's poor graduation rates trump those highlighting the Alaska Native Science & Engineering Program, or ANSEP. Articles showcasing the high incidence of violence and suicide among our Native people are prominently featured when the focus should be on the many resources available to eradicate those issues. Even stories on successful dividend programs in the Native community are painted in a discouraging light. AFN Announces Honoring Our Children Day — Alaska Federation of Natives. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE March 5, 2014 CONTACT Aurora Lehr – 907.263.1305alehr@nativefederation.org AFN Announces Honoring Our Children Day Anchorage, AK – The Alaska Federation of Natives’ (AFN) announces April 26th as Honoring Our Children Day.
AFN and its members issue this statewide invitation for collaborative, community action to celebrate and share our collective love, respect, and belief in the importance of our children. “This is the right time and we are the right people to get up and stand up for our kids,” Melanie Bahnke, President of Kawerak. Honoring Our Children Day is an Alaska Native led, grassroots initiative where all in our communities are welcome to participate so long as children are at the center.
Honoring Our Children Day is not a fundraiser, it is not affiliated with any political campaign, and is non-partisan. “This event is about sharing our knowledge and expectations with our children and their importance to our communities,” AFN President Julie Kitka. Drop the “Latino” and Re-Adopt the Indigenous Label: This is Our Idle No More Movement | The Quinde Journey | Wankavilka Nation.
Late last night, my father and I talked about how the ethnic term Latino mislabels Indigenous and mixed-Indigenous Mexicans, Ecuadorians, Puerto Rican, etc.. For a long time, he and I believed Latino and Hispanic correctly defined the Spanish-speaking mixed-Indigenous people of Mexico, Central America, South America, and the Caribbean. His argument was, “We speak Spanish. We dance to Spanish music. We have Spanish names.
As we crossed the George Washington Bridge, I looked at the Hudson River and wondered, Why is this so? “So I guess that means Filipinos are Hispanics and Latinos, too?” “They’re Asians, though. “Exactly, so what makes you think we’re Latino or Hispanic? “No, well..” he stammers. That’s it hits me. Latino or Hispanic is a term coined by the United States to identify Spanish-speaking people coming from south of Mexico. Since 2011, more Latinos/Hispanics identify as Native American, census shows. But many of us do not come from the Roman origins of Europe. Like this: Drop the “Latino” and Re-Adopt the Indigenous Label: This is Our Idle No More Movement | The Quinde Journey | Wankavilka Nation.
“Reframing” Native Narratives: The Allure of Project 562. You’ve probably heard about Matika Wilbur by now (and if you haven’t, now is a good time to fix that!) Matika Wilbur’s story is that of a young woman with places to go and people to photograph – the 28-year-old Swinomish/Tulalip photographer from the Swinomish Reservation in Washington has started an ambitious project to photograph and collect oral histories from all 562 federally-recognized Indigenous tribes in the United States. With stories on Upworthy, ICTMN, the New York Times, NBC News, Huffington Post, and more, Wilbur’s story has gone viral – and at last count she has more than quadrupled her crowd-sourced Kickstarter fundraising campaign, which covers project expenses such as photographic equipment, travel fees, and more.
Why is this creating such a buzz? Why does everyone love Wilbur? Sure, her photographs are gorgeous – but what is it about this particular project that is so captivating? In 1906, photographer and ethnologist Edward S. “Reframing” Native Narratives: The Allure of Project 562. Bill making 20 Alaska Native languages official advances - Fairbanks Daily News-Miner: Alaska News. JUNEAU, Alaska - Amid cheers and clapping from spectators in a packed room, the House Community and Regional Affairs Committee advanced a bill symbolically making 20 Alaska Native languages official languages of the state along with English. "I love to see clapping when a bill passes," committee co-chair, Rep. Gabrielle LeDoux, R-Anchorage, said. "I have never seen that before. " Misty eyes and emotional voices accompanied much of the public testimony.
"There is no one in school to teach us our language," said Savoonga High School student Chelsea Miklahook. "Our grandparents taught us our own language. " When asked by Rep. Rep. "This is not a step for bilingual state paperwork or forms," said Kreiss-Tomkins. Kreiss-Tomkins said he hopes next year that steps will be taken to allow for announcements on the ferry system in English and the Native language of the area. "This law also helps out grandparents and our parents who have fought to keep their language alive," Frank said.
'Choose Respect' and tribal sovereignty. Gov. Sean Parnell recently published an op-ed urging Alaskans to “Choose Respect.” It is insulting to domestic violence victims in Alaska when the governor’s use of that campaign slogan serves merely to distract from a set of policies, which would — if the governor is successful — make domestic violence worse for victims. If Parnell wishes to “Choose Respect,” he should start with the actions of his own administration.
Recently, Parnell tried to reverse a Minto tribal court decision to protect an abused wife from her husband. It is not hard to understand that Parnell has his priorities backwards. Sadly, the Minto case is not an isolated example of Parnell’s assault on tribal sovereignty. Fortunately, the courts have rejected Parnell’s attempts to undermine tribal sovereignty.
Rather than pursue a narrow-minded vendetta against tribal sovereignty, Parnell should “Choose Respect” himself. . • Marina R. Updated Federally Recognized Tribes List Published. It’s called the Federally Recognized Indian Tribe List Act of 1994 and one of the things it does is mandate the Bureau of Indian Affairs to publish a list of federally acknowledged tribes each year. Accordingly, the BIA published a notice January 29 in the Federal Register announcing this year’s updated list. The list is maintained, updated and published by the BIA’s Office of Indian Services, Division of Tribal Government Services. It’s a bit ahead of schedule – the last list was published in May 2013. “The Bureau of Indian Affairs notice in the Federal Register of Indian entities recognized and eligible to receive services from the BIA is the official listing of all federally recognized tribes in the United States,” Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Kevin K.
The list includes the 566 American Indian and Alaska Native tribal entities – nations, tribes, bands, communities, Pueblos, and villages – that are acknowledged to have: “Native Voices on Mixed Race” at the Mitchell Museum of the American Indian. Local Native Americans discuss the legal, cultural, & social boundaries of Native American status EVANSTON, ILLINOIS – There are over 30,000 American Indians living in the Chicago area, all of whom identify or hold status with different tribal nations across the country. But how is tribal status preserved in bands, and how do the rules differ from tribe to tribe?
How do individuals maintain their American Indian culture when they or their children no longer qualify for membership? What are the difficulties culturally blended families face as they create new traditions, on and off the reservation? The Mitchell Museum of the American Indian hosts a panel discussion on these varied perspectives of American Indian identification on February 13, 2014 from 6:00 to 7:30 at the Mitchell Museum in Evanston, Illinois. The discussion panelists each have something different to share from their personal perspectives. This diverse panel is moderated by Melissa Halverson, curator at the Mitchell Museum. Athabascan Friend and Mentor | Athabascan Woman. American Indian youth address suicide through innovative media project. American Indian youth address suicide through innovative media project.
Old knowledge and new science: using traditional knowledge in CGIAR research. What Really Happened at the First Thanksgiving? The Wampanoag Side of the Tale. What makes a good conference? Or: Why we loved ATALM in New Mexico | TLAM Project. New publication offers view into Diné way of life.