Sorted by date Results 26 - 50 of 128
BROOKINGS, S.D.-Tashina Red Hawk was just 7 years old when her parents bought her first horse. Her mentor, Kassandra Chauncey, a Todd County Junior Division 4-H member at the time, was training her how to ride when her own horse became injured the day before the Todd County 4-H Horse Show. "The day before the 4-H county horse show I received a phone call from Kassandra asking if she could use my horse, because her horse got hurt. She needed to show my horse in showmanship,...
PHOENIX-Just minutes before her high school graduation in Gallup, New Mexico, three years ago, Dakotah Harvey was told to remove the eagle feather from her mortarboard or she would be escorted out of the ceremony and her diploma would be withheld. Her grandfather had tied the feather to the cap's tassel earlier that day, Harvey told Cronkite News. He loaned it to her after performing a Navajo prayer in celebration of her achievement. "I didn't have the heart to tell him I...
Window Rock, Ariz.-Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez, First Lady Phefelia Nez, and Second Lady Dottie Lizer recently signed a proclamation recognizing March 2022 as "Read Across Navajo Nation Month," in coordination with "Read Across America" to celebrate the joys of reading and to promote literacy to enhance the lives of Navajo students and families. The signing ceremony was held at the Navajo Nation Museum in Window Rock, Ariz., with Miss Navajo Nation Niagara Rockbridge...
Fort Worth, Texas-Caroline Rowland is proud of her Choctaw heritage and knows the history of her tribe. She's also a criminal justice major and history and writing double minor at Texas Christian University (TCU) in Fort Worth, Texas. During a recent U.S. history class, when the Trail of Tears was only briefly discussed, she was confused and even a little upset. Rowland says she was trying not to get angry, and that's when she realized that maybe it was a resource issue....
LISTUGUJ, Que.-Mi'kmaw Students in one Canadian school are learning about life-sustaining elements of their Indigenous culture in very practical ways. Recently, eight students at the Alaqsite'w Gitpu School school in Listuguj, Que., were taken hunting as part of their outdoor education program. The school started an outdoor education program two years ago, encouraging and teaching fifth- to eighth-grade students to spend two hours a week doing land-based activities. They...
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz.-Vanguard University student body president Matthew J. Holgate is a visionary leader. While many students are just trying to navigate their way through classes, Holgate is taking a lead in fighting against human trafficking in Navajo Nation, working to make lasting change. While a senior in high school, Holgate attended a Native American youth leadership conference workshop about human trafficking among Native American tribes. Holgate, a Navajo from Flagstaff,...
Lawrence, Kans.-This summer, the Lawrence, Kansas, school district and their Native American Student Services (NASS) hosted an Indigenous Family Cooking Class open to anyone in the school district. "The class was part of the district's Culture Academy, which we run all year, hosting classes for Indigenous students," explains Susanne Stoupakis of NASS. "This was the first time we have hosted the cooking event, but it was very successful and we plan to do it again." At this...
Fort Smith, NWT-A workshop hosted by the Northwest Territory Métis Nation and non-profit arts organization, Western Arctic Moving Pictures (WAMP) was the birthplace of a new board game to help students learn about the Cree language and way of life. Two young men from Fort Smith, Ryan Schaefer and Eyzaah Bouza, attended the workshop in 2018, when they were 18 years old. While there, they designed Trails and Overflow, a game that was like Snakes and Ladders with a traditional...
DENVER, Colo.-In early July, Colorado governor Jared Polis signed two bills that affect Native American young people and culture in Colorado. The first bill, the Native American tuition classification bill, ensures that Native American students from 46 tribes whose ancestors were relocated from their Colorado homelands by the U.S. government during the 1800s will receive in-state tuition to Colorado public colleges and universities next year. Colorado joins a growing list of...
WOLFVILLE, N.S.-As Leah Creaser, a student at Acadia University and member of the Acadia First Nation, sat in her biology classes, she ended up being bewildered. It wasn't the materials being taught that confused her, but the materials she felt were being left out. For instance, in her first-year lab about plant identification, she wondered why the professor didn't mention how those plants had been used by the Mi'kmaq for centuries. In class after class, the Indigenous...
GLENDALE, ARIZ.-It might have been the optics, but whenever professional bull riders Keyshawn Whitehorse and Cody Jesus entered the ring, the crowd seemed louder, more engaged. In fact, Gila River Arena appeared to shake at the sound of their names as they competed in the Professional Bull Riding competition. Whitehorse and Jesus are both a part of the Navajo tribe, which has deep roots in Arizona. Whitehorse, 23, grew up in McCracken Spring, Utah, and is currently ranked No....
INNPEG, Man.-The Minecraft world just got a little more interesting for students in Louis Riel School division in Winnipeg as they worked on a new Indigenous extension of the Minecraft video game. In Minecraft, players create and break apart various kinds of blocks in three-dimensional worlds. The game's two main modes are Survival and Creative. In Survival, players must find their own building supplies and food. They also interact with block like mobs, or moving creatures....
Eleanore Falck loves bringing worlds to life. The University of Wisconsin-Stout junior majoring in game design and development-art created the game "Growing Up Ojibwe: The Game" during a summer internship with the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission (GLIFWC) in 2019 and then expanded the game during an internship last summer. "I like world-building," said Falck. "I can invent many things that fit together. I like adventure and exploration. It's something I am...
PHOENIX-The sight can be jarring: As a runner's graceful stride brings her closer, her face comes into focus. A rich, red handprint covers her mouth. We will not be silenced. The painted hand has become a powerful symbol for the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Movement, known as MMIW, a cause boosted by the increasing number of athletes embracing it. "I didn't really think the paint would impact me as much," said Rosalie Fish, a member of the Cowlitz Tribe of southwest W...
FORT SMITH, N.W.T-While many people have learned to do quite a variety of things from home during the 2020 pandemic, Isaiah Wiltzen, a 19-year-old history student from the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation, has perhaps had one of the most creative pandemic achievements. Wiltzen has created a museum exhibit. In non-pandemic times, the young man was studying history in Edmonton at the King's University. But during the pandemic, he's been at his home in Fort Smith, where he has...
TORONTO, Ont.-When a message popped into his email box with the subject line, "Draw for a Marvel Comic?" David Cutler almost deleted it, thinking it was a scam. Yes, he was an artist. And yes, he'd tried to get in Marvel's sites . . . but his attempts had never succeeded in landing him a job there, and it had been a few years since he'd tried. But just in case, he opened the email instead of clicking delete. And there was the dream invitation in black and white. The...
PHOENIX-After winning the title of Miss Navajo Nation in September 2019, Shaandiin Parrish immediately got to work on the cultural preservation and advocacy efforts central to the role. At times, she attended five or more events in a single day, traveling across the 27,000-square-mile reservation to speak to elementary school students and attend conferences. "You really hit the ground running," Parrish recalled. "There's no event too small. There's no event too big." But in...
Blackfeet Nation-ESPN Films has produced a new documentary focusing on Native American women called "Blackfeet Boxing: Not Invisible." Directed by Kristen Lappas and Tom Rinaldi, "Blackfeet Boxing: Not Invisible" documents the story of the Blackfeet Nation Boxing Club, opened in 2003 by Frank Kipp, a third generation boxer of Blackfeet descent and a former welterweight. The saying is common on reservations across America: A Native American woman who disappears goes missing...
EDMONTON, AB-Oilers defenceman Ethan Bear honored his Indigenous heritage during the July 28 Battle of Alberta exhibition game by displaying his jersey name bar in Cree syllabics. The 23-year-old from Ochapowace Nation in southern Saskatchewan said he was donning the name bar proudly on behalf of all past, present and future Indigenous hockey players. It was an honor to wear the jersey, Bear said. "I feel like I will be wearing it for all those Indigenous players who came...
PHOENIX, Ariz.-The life of a college athlete can be stressful. Balancing academic and sports or taking the game-winning shot against a Top 10 team involves pressure. Former Arizona State basketball player Michelle Tom did both, including a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to down No. 7 Washington in 1999. Now she deals with more serious stress: treating coronavirus patients in an underfunded community hospital for Native Americans. Tom works for the Little Colorado Medical Center in...
TSIDI TO'II, Ariz.-In December, Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez signed the master lease between the Navajo Nation and the Navajo Housing Authority for the Birdsprings Elderly Group Home, located adjacently east of the Tsidi To'ii Chapter in Birdsprings, Ariz. The facility was constructed in 2009 with the Native American Housing and Self-Determination Act, which assists Native American tribes in improving housing and infrastructure. The facility has approximately ten...
Denver, Colo,-The American Indian College Fund has received a four-year, $300,000 grant from the Clare Boothe Luce Program at the Henry Luce Foundation, specifically to help Native American women get degrees and build their careers in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields. Native American women currently have the lowest representation in the STEM fields. The College Fund will award $75,000 to four outstanding American Indian and Alaska Native women...
Los Altos, Calif.-The Heising-Simons Foundation has announced that Rebecca Nagle is a recipient of the 2020 American Mosaic Journalism Prize. Rebecca Nagle is a writer and audio journalist, as well as an advocate, based in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. Her work has appeared in The Washington Post, USA Today, Teen Vogue, the Guardian, VICE News and the Boston Globe. She is the creator and host of the podcast "This Land" (Crooked Media), which explores Native American rights. A citizen...
MADISON, S.D.-Dakota State University student Carl Petersen has developed a computer game that he hopes will help people develop their ability to learn and speak the Lakota language. The senior computer game design and computer science major, who has a minor in mathematics, presented the game, "Tipi Kaga" at the imagineNATIVE film and Media Arts Festival in Toronto, Canada, in October. The imagineNATIVE Festival is the world's largest festival showcasing film, video, audio,...
Alisha Merrill never imagined that her class project would become a nationwide teaching tool. "I put together this board game, Journey Home, touching on the five major regions of Native Americans," said Merrill, who graduated in 2018 from Binghampton University, with a major in childhood and early childhood education. "I brought a little bit of my culture in and tried to connect it to standards and bring it to classrooms." The board game was a product of an elementary...
