Sorted by date Results 26 - 50 of 137
CHICKASAW NATION, Okla.-Like pioneer aviator "Pearl" Carter Scott or retired Navy test pilot and astronaut Cmdr. John Herrington, Austin Wallace is making his mark on Oklahoma aviation. Recently, Wallace took a leap of faith by following his dreams of opening Adventure Air, a premier flight school in Goldsby, Oklahoma. "Pearl shows us that people crave freedom," Wallace said. "People are going to do what they love. Nothing will stop them. Flying is uniquely challenging. Each d...
CARLSBAD, Calif.-To help shine a light on the Indigenous community and honor iconic Indigenous players, Upper Deck created a limited-edition set featuring Indigenous hockey players who have not been featured on a NHL® licensed trading card before. The goal was to create a set that was for the community, by the community. So it was important that from the start, Upper Deck worked with the Indigenous community to ensure that the set properly celebrated the players and the...
CHESTERMERE, Alb.-Stephane Friday, a young Cree man from Kashechewan First Nation in northeastern Ontario is one of seven people who was presented with the Herbert Carnegie Trailblazer Award at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto as part of The Carnegie Initiative's CI Summit, Jan. 20–22, 2023. Friday can't remember a time when hockey was not part of his life. He grew up watching hockey on TV and playing street hockey in his Indigenous community. This led to Friday becoming i...
WINNIPEG, Man.-Meet Simon Monteith. He's a nine-year-old Opaskwayak Cree Nation boy from Manitoba who is passionate about science. "I like being curious and finding out new things," said Simon has told reporters. Simon's curiousity has led him to create more than 60 You Tube videos doing just that-finding out about new things and sharing what he learns with others, under the YouTube moniker "Simon the Scientist." Simon's experiments with videos started during the pandemic. He...
ADA, Okla.-Sara Ellis is one of the few girls enrolled in Ada High School's aviation program. "I never thought I would want to be in the aviation field," Ellis said. "I was not good at math or science. The aviation program has taught me that if you have something that you really want to do, like flying, it makes things like calculus easier when you see how they are applied." Now, the 17-year-old is learning the ins and outs of the lucrative and male dominated aviation...
LONG BEACH, Calif.-Two years ago, Deontay Begay was overjoyed when he and his twin brother, Deondre, were recruited to play basketball for Northwest Indian College. It was a way to explore the world beyond Sheep Springs, a rural community of 250 on the Navajo Nation in New Mexico. But the pandemic ultimately meant his first basketball season was canceled, as was his move to Bellingham, Wash., where the tribal college is located on the Lummi Nation. Begay, who is Navajo, spent...
ADA, Okla.-The Chickasaw Nation proudly announces that Chickasaw citizen Sania Richardson of Ada High School has made the top 25 on ESPN's 2025 HoopGurlz Recruiting Rankings. As a freshman, Sania ranks 13 on ESPN's list and currently has multiple offers to play college basketball. Richardson was already considered one of the top girls basketball players in the state-media attention is nothing new to this athlete-and some talent evaluators have put her in the top spot-before...
WINONA, Minn.-In June 24-year-old, Rachel Evangelisto became the first woman to be crowned Miss Minnesota at the Miss Minnesota Scholarship Org. Pageant and will move on to compete in the Miss America pageant. Evangelisto graduated from the University of Minnesota–Morris with a degree in political science and an emphasis on law. She currently works as a guardian ad litem for the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWN) Division of Minnesota. She is a court-appointed advocate looking o...
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....
TULSA, Okla.-The Cherokee Nation Film Office and Oklahoma Film & Television Academy are partnering to help educate Native American students to be set-ready as industry continues to grow in Oklahoma. The tribe's film office recently sponsored and hosted OFTA's Set Ready course at Cherokee Nation's COVID Response Virtual Soundstage. Through CNFO scholarships, Native American students attended the course at no charge. "Oklahoma's television and film industry continues to grow at...
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...
