Sorted by date Results 1 - 18 of 18
NEW YORK-For the first time in its 94-year history, the 2020 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade featured a land acknowledgement and blessing to honor the Wampanoag and Lenape people. This broadcast took place on Thursday, November 26, Thanksgiving Day 2020 in the United States. Ryan Opalanietet Pierce (Lenape) and Joan Henry (Tsalagi/'Nde/Arawaka) acknowledged the Lenape territory of Manahattan, where the parade takes place annually. Mashpee Wampanoag tribal members and language...
To avoid my ho-hum attitude associated with taking earth and its marvels for granted, I try pretending. What if I lived in a distant galaxy and came to visit earth for the first time? What would I think of it all? I began my series on miracles with our atmosphere. I take it for granted. I breathe it in, walk around in it, view distant stars through it, and ignore the fact that without the atmosphere I would cease to exist. Flight is another matter. I have never lost my awe...
"There's darkness down there," our four-year-old granddaughter whispered as she peered down the stairs. She was right. Bright spots on planet earth seem scarce these days. I love cheering people up. In April, 2020, during COVID-19, I told my wife, "I'm pretty excited about my car. We just got 43 days to the gallon." But life can drain our joy tank. A few years ago, we made a can't-miss-investment in a hotel. The bank foreclosed. Thankfully, I invested in some airline stocks. O...
Deb Haaland, an enrolled member of the Pueblo of Laguna People, was born in Winslow, Arizona into a military family. Her father, J.D. "Dutch" Haaland, a Norwegian-American, was a decorated 30-year career Marine. He was awarded the Silver Star Medal for saving the lives of Marines in Vietnam in 1967. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery. Mary Toya, Deb's mother, served in the U.S. Navy. According to a New York Times article, Haaland connected with her New Mexico voters...
WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission has granted broadband spectrum licenses to 11 Arizona tribes in what FCC Chairman Ajit Pai called "a major step forward in our efforts to close the digital divide on Tribal lands." The awards, announced last week, were the result of a "first of its kind" Rural Tribal Priority Window that gave tribes the chance to apply for and receive spectrum licenses at no cost. Those licenses – which can be used for high-speed wireless b...
OKLAHOMA CITY-More than 30 Chickasaw elder veterans received custom-made quilts during a Nov. 10 drive-thru luncheon, thanks to the stitch work of a Chickasaw citizen and her quilting friends. Summer Roberts, Chickasaw Nation Senior Center manager and quilter, surprised the veterans with individual gifts as they pulled up to receive lunches at the Chickasaw Nation Oklahoma City Senior Center. Roberts, with the help of David McDowell and Zach Burnett, who prepared the meals,...
PIÑON, Ariz.-One student runs 85 feet up a hill every morning, just to get a cellphone signal so he can call in his attendance. Another moved to Phoenix by himself, after his only parent died of COVID-19, to work construction while going to school online. Then there's the high school senior who spends six hours most days doing homework in a car next to a school bus turned Wi-Fi hotspot-the only way some kids on the Navajo Nation can get assignments to their teachers. These kid...
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...
"A Chickasaw Dictionary" by Rev. Jesse Humes and Vinnie May (James) Humes, originally published in 1973, is now accessible in digital format at AChickasawDictionary.com. "Language and culture are intertwined in a manner that makes revitalizing our language essential to preserving Chickasaw culture and keeping it relevant for generations to come," Chickasaw Nation Governor Bill Anoatubby said. The dictionary can be used to search for specific words or browsed alphabetically in...
WASHINGTON, D.C.-Thanks to a newly completed digitization effort by the U.S. National Archives and the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture (MIAC) in Santa Fe, researchers and the public now have unprecedented access to hundreds of digitalized Native American Treaties. The online collection features 374 ratified Indian treaties from the archives' holdings. These documents are housed in a specially protected area of the National Archives building and are unavailable for use in...
OTTAWA, Ont.-Over decades, an estimated 150,000 Indigenous Canadian children were removed from their homes and communities to attend residential schools. To partially atone for wrongs done to First Nations families, in May 2006, the Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement was approved. The implementation of the Settlement Agreement began in September 2007 with the aim of bringing a fair and lasting resolution to the legacy of the Indian Residential Schools. Canada was...
HELENA, MT.-In October, the eight tribes of Montana gathered to celebrate rising of their tribal flags as a permanent display in front of the Montana State Capitol. The legislation to construct the Tribal Nation Flags Plaza was passed in the early 1990s. However, funding wasn't available until the 2019 Legislative session when Rep. Marvin Weatherwax, Jr. (D-Browning) introduced HB-524 to fund the construction of the Tribal Flag Plaza. It passed both houses of the Legislature...
THUNDER BAY, Ont.-Thirteen people have died in jail in Thunder Bay, Ontario, since 2002, and more than half were First Nations people-in fact, some report that 39 percent of incarcerated individuals there are Indigenous; others say that number is closer to 75 percent. Of the 13 who have died, 12 were in remand, waiting for their futures to be decided. More than half were younger than 30 years old. And inquests still have not been completed on five of the deaths. Four deaths...
Perhaps like DeBora Gurno, you feel you’ve reached the bottom of your life. But you are not alone. Your Father in heaven is waiting for you to turn to Him through Jesus Christ. He is longing for you to enter a relationship with Him. We all need to have a relationship with God. And that is not a thing we can achieve on our own. Jesus Christ said in John 14:6 in God’s book, the Bible, “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the father but through me.” Jesus is the Son of God and only by giving our life to Him,...
The windshield was cracked. Not just a hairline fracture but a spiderweb that had the potential to make Spider-Man sit up and take notice! So I got it changed. Such a difference-from the gravel-battered glass of yesterday to the clear, shiny drivability that I could now experience. It reminded me of how God's Word talks about His forgiveness in Isaiah 1:18 (NIV). "Come now, let us settle the matter," says the LORD. "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as...
WINNEPEG, MB-Almost 175 First Nations communities across Canada have received kits including personal protective equipment (PPE), Bibles and other support supplies from a coalition of Canadian Christian ministries led by Northern Youth Programs, Native Evangelical Fellowship of Canada and Samaritan's Purse. The coronavirus can strike anywhere, even in Canada's remote First Nations communities. Many health care staff and emergency first responders in these places have had...
RAPID CITY, S.D.-If you're seeing tepees outside of Rapid City, S.D., you might assume it's yet another Black Hills attraction for the tourists. But you might assume wrongly. You might be catching a glimpse of Camp Mniluzahan. Camp Mniluzahan is a homeless camp set up by Lakota members on 90 acres held in trust for the Cheyenne River, Rosebud and Oglala Sioux tribes. Once upon a time the land was home of the Rapid City Indian Boarding School. Because it's on trust land, city...
