Sorted by date Results 26 - 50 of 122
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...
NORMAN, Okla.-A Potawatomi tribal member, Creed Humphrey, was one of three finalists this year for the Rimington Trophy honoring the nation's top center. A redshirt sophomore and team captain from Shawnee, Okla., Humphrey has started 25 of his 27 career games for the University of Oklahoma Sooners at the center position. He is the anchor of a line that has paved the way for Oklahoma to lead the nation with 8.2 yards per play and 11.4 yards per pass attempt (min. 10 attempts...
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...
PABLO, Mont.-Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP) Chairman Aimee Jorjani entered into an agreement with Salish Kootenai College (SKC) in Pablo, Montana, and the ACHP Foundation on September 23, 2019 to provide educational, personal development, and professional growth opportunities to students in the Tribal Historic Preservation and Tribal Governance and Administration degree programs. As one of her first official actions as chairman since being confirmed by the...
EAGLE BUTTE, S.D.-On Labor Day weekend, the Cheyenne River Youth Project officially graduated 11 Lakota teens from its summer arts internship program. This is a record-breaking number for the nonprofit youth organization, which began offering teen internships in 2013. "Normally, we see five or six kids complete the full arts internship track," said Jerica Widow, CRYP's youth programs director. "This time, we doubled that number. It's incredible." Not only did the teens...
PORTLAND, Ore.—The Native American Youth and Family Center (NAYA) in Multnomah County, Oregon, works with over 100 youth, ages 16 to 24, experiencing homelessness and housing instability. The program follows a housing-first, trauma-informed service model, providing stable supports around housing and other basic human needs like food, hygiene, childcare, and connection to culture. This model is especially culturally appropriate for Native youth, most of whom come to NAYA in crisis. Up to two-thirds of program participants a...
Hayzil Yellow Fox was just a small child when she first began coming to Cheyenne River Youth Project's (CRYP) youth center. Back then, as for many children, it was all about the daily fun, from arts and crafts to playing with the short- and long-term volunteers. And, as with many children, Hayzil looked forward to being old enough to play basketball at Cokata Wiconi (Center of Life). As a teen, she could attend Midnight Basketball and enjoy open gym hours. But there was a far...
CHINLE, Ariz.-The Chinle High School basketball team, in Chinle, Arizona, is getting a lot of attention these days. On August 2, the small-town high school team on the Navajo Nation, made its debut Friday, Aug. 2, on Netflix. The series, called "Basketball or Nothing," is comprised of six episodes and follows the team's pursuit of the semifinals during their 2017-2018 season. "We fell in love with the story because a lot of these kids have some difficult situations at home,...
