Sorted by date Results 51 - 64 of 64
• First Native American woman to direct a full-length film • Co-founder, Tribal Alliance Productions When Georgina Lightning was 18 years old, her father-who had displayed occasional violent outbursts-committed suicide. Georgina searched for reasons. Her quest for information was the incubating force, which resulted in an idea for a screenplay. Georgina, a Mushwatchees Cree member of the Samson Band of the Hobbema Indian Reserve near Edmonton, Alberta, remains an out...
* Five-time US National Ice Dance Champion * Two-time Four Continents champion * Olympian When Karuk tribal member Naomi Lang, at age six, first performed as a bonbon in The Nutcracker it was only a glimpse of the heights to which she would eventually reach. Born in Arcata, California to Jason Lang (Karuk) and Leslie Dixon (French/English/Irish heritage), Naomi began her ballet training in California at age three at the Redwood Concert Ballet. But Lang's interests took a turn...
The doctor who came from the valley into our log cabin in the hills looked at me, threw up his hands, and whispered to my father, 'You send him away. He doesn't belong in the valley community. He'll never learn like other children. He'll never speak like other children. You send him away.'" Those were some of the first words spoken over a newborn Chippewa infant in 1939. Don Bartlette was born into the world in rural North Dakota with fetal alcohol syndrome, resulting in a...
Born in Miami, Oklahoma, (Edna) Moscelyne Larkin was one of the distinguished Native American ballerinas from Oklahoma dubbed "The Five Moons." She was the only daughter of a Peoria/Shawnee father (Rueben Francis Larkin) and Eva Matlagova-Larkin, a Russian ballerina who tutored Moscelyne herself until at age 15, when Moscelyne was old enough to continue her studies in New York City. Moscelyne joined the Wassily de Basil's Original Ballet Russe in Europe and the Americas. She a...
DURHAM, N.C.-Like many indigenous people in Canada, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson's family was disconnected from the practices of their ancestors. But as a young adult, Simpson, who is Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg, an Indigenous people with a homeland in what is now southern Ontario, returned to learn the language and traditions from the elders of her community. Among those practices is a rich tradition of storytelling, which she describes as "deeply relational and emotional,...
I was born and raised in Fort St. John, BC, and I've worked in sawmills in the area for over 30 years. When I was 16 my "career" with alcohol began. I believe my habit of alcohol got out of control when I lost my best friend and my brother through carbon monoxide poisoning in 1977. At that time I didn't care if I lived. So I drank until I dropped, and I even thought about suicide. My life spun out of control. I drank, I fought and I survived numerous auto accidents....
Wayne Leman, an Alaska Native, worked with the Cheyenne for many years. In his darkest hour, it was the Cheyenne who came to rescue him. "They were the ones with whom I felt safe. I shared my story and it was a breakthrough." Twenty-five years ago, our mission administrator told us he was requiring us to move from the Cheyenne reservation to one of our mission centers to get counseling. It was a shock to hear that, but we moved. Counseling sessions were confusing. I didn't...
I was speaking at a summer camp for aboriginal teens. The rule with teens is that if you get one of them by himself or herself he or she has many, many functioning brain cells. Put two teens together and the number of functioning brain cells is immediately halved. But these were great kids with great potential. Life is challenging for them, though. Drug and alcohol abuse is common. A father in their lives is not. Many have considered suicide. One told me, "Things are dark...
Arnold: We come here every fall around this time-end of September, beginning of October-to harvest fish and moose meat, most of which we bring back to Garden Hill to share. We also come here to reflect on God's creation, and it is also a time of prayer. We came to know Jesus Christ about 35 years ago. Before that we were living a life of sin. Things were not working out right for our family, and for our marriage, but God intervened. We didn't have anything to do with the...
Somewhere inside, my brain knew it was cold. I saw white puffs when I breathed. I heard the wind whipping the chains on the courthouse flagpole. But as I put my head against the frosty green Pinto, I didn't feel cold. It was a good thing-I didn't know where my coat was. If I had noticed the cold, I probably would have noticed the stink. My shirt was soaked with a regurgitated mixture of grain alcohol and orange juice. "What will we do with him this time?" I heard one of my...
The first few years of Conrad's life took place in the northern Manitoba Cree community of Garden Hill, along with his three brothers and sister. His father was a hunter and trapper, out in the bush weeks at a time. When Conrad was about eight, his father turned ill, necessitating a move for the family to Winnipeg. Up North Conrad had always gone to church with his mom. "But they didn't really teach us about salvation there," he says. At age 18 a motorbike accident helped...
It was the last day in March when I went to my trap line on Assinika Lake in northern Manitoba. I needed to check my traps. My son was to follow. When I first got there, I set some beaver snares, and then I checked my fish net. Toward evening I went for firewood from the bush. As I was returning to the cabin, I met some men from my village. They came to tell me of my son's tragic death. He had locked himself in a closet and hanged himself. After I heard that message I said to...
Born to Mi'kmaq parents Mary Ellen Pictou and Francis Thomas Levi in a small Indian village in Nova Scotia, Canada, Anna Mae Pictou was the third of four children. Her father disappeared before she was born, leaving Mary Ellen and her children to live in poverty. Even so, Anna Mae attended school on the Mi'kmaq Reserve and did well in her studies. Mary Ellen married again (1949), this time to Mi'kmaq traditionalist Noel Sapier, a migrant farmer, as were many other Mi'kmaq....
"When I wake every morning, I am surprised I'm still alive. I don't do anything. I don't produce anything. I don't add anything to society. Each day I ask God why He let me live one more day." These were the words my father told me just two months before he died. When I was a child, every evening brought fearful anticipation of my father's drunken arrival home. Paydays were the worst. My family stacked tin cans inside of the front door to the house. We thought this crude...
