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The gods of the Ad Seg (The Hole) world control the doors. They open and close at their wills. No resident of the hole has any control over the opening and closing of the doors, but the residents do play a part in the process. Let me explain. In order to go through the door, the resident must first go through the small door. Safety and high security are at the top of the agenda in the hole. No inmate steps outside his cell without being cuffed first. This is a must, no matter...
LOW MOUNTAIN, Ariz.-On a late-September morning deep within the Navajo Nation, Larron Badoni practiced his golf swing. Sun blanketed the plateaus and mesas surrounding the Lowerville Stingers Golf Club-nine holes scattered over a rocky, hilly, shrubby landscape dotted with blue shade structures, weathered carpets and pins flying red and white flags. It was just about time for the Lowerville Stingers Golf Club's seventh annual Rez Golf Two-Player Scramble to tee off in Low Moun...
CHINLE, Ariz.-Even with modern technology, it's nearly impossible to find the homemade boxing gym identified by a tattered wooden sign that reads, "Damon-Bahe Boxing Gym." In and around this small town on the Navajo Reservation, house numbers rarely exist. And Google Maps can't quite explain that, off Indian Route 7, less than a quarter mile west of the Chevron gas station, there's a dirt road that, after three right turns, leads to the gym and another sign, this one warning...
I was not impressed; they looked like a bunch of small confused trees that planted themselves upside down with only gnarly roots sticking out. Even in winter, evergreens retain their beauty, and hardwoods stand as impressive sentinels. These misshapen little trees did not look like anything a person would choose for a garden; yet, these trees, known as vines, flourished in the vineyard. No one chose them for their beauty; they pruned them to produce abundant fruit. Jesus...
Cherokee Nation citizen Adrienne Lyle was born in Coupeville, Washington. She was reared on Whidbey Island, Washington on a small cattle ranch. In 2005 Lyle worked part-time with highly successful dressage rider Debbie McDonald at Peggy and Parry Thomas' River Grove Farm (Idaho). In 2006, Lyle advanced to fulltime assistant trainer. That was when she "met" Wizard, a 13-year-old Oldenburg gelding by Weltmeyer purchased in the Netherlands as a five-year-old. At the River Grove...
Do you feel an unaccountable sense of heavy blues during the winter months? You just might be dealing with SAD. Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) is a type of depression that displays a recurring seasonal pattern. In other words you tend to have it in certain months-usually fall and winter months-and it feels better or goes away during other months. According to American Family Physician, four to six percent of people have winter depression with another 10 to 20 percent experi...
I am 36 years old, incarcerated at the South Dakota Women's Prison. I am serving a 10 year sentence at 40%. I have two years left before I am released on parole. I have lived a life of self-destruction, sin and chaos; however my life has not always been so corrupt. I was raised by my grandmother in a God-loving home, attending church at the Lakota Wesleyan chapel on the reservation. I had a good upbringing. In my teens, I rebelled against my family and society falling into a...
WINNIPEG-We are pleased to bring back the popular column, "The Council Speaks." This column answers questions you have about faith and heritage. Send your questions to "The Council Speaks" at: Canada- Indian Life, P.O. Box 3765, Redwood, Post Office, Winnipeg MB R2W 3R6; or United States-Indian Life, Box 32, Pembina, ND 58271. Or email your questions to joanne.director@ indianlife.org Why is Christianity so important? Isn't just believing good enough? Yes, I believe...
As Ecclesiastes 1:9 says, "There is no new thing under the sun." But nature's most simple edibles can be enjoyed in a myriad of ways. Take the cranberry, for example. This small, bouncy, perky berry, which grows in areas know as "bogs" on short evergreen perennial shrubs, tastes tart when eaten raw. But cooking cranberries mellows their taste, especially when they're mixed with a natural sweetener. Hence, cranberries taste delicious in pastries or as glazes on meats-think...
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....
WASHINGTON-The National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) is applauding a decision by Little League® International (the governing body of all global Little League-affiliated leagues and teams) to institute a new official policy in its 2019 Rulebook prohibiting the use of "racially insensitive, derogatory or discriminatory" team names and mascots, which NCAI has confirmed includes offensive Native "themed" names and mascots that cause significant harm to Native people. Th...
OPASKWAYAK CREE NATION-In an historic move, two women were recently held accountable for racist remarks on Facebook. It began last July when Destine Spiller posted on Facebook a picture of her vandalized car in Flin Flon and announced that she would "kill some Indians when I get home." She also proposed a "shoot a [sic] Indian day," and other derogatory comments about First Nations people. Another woman suggested a "24 hour purge" of Indigenous people. A pair of women who fit...
CALGARY, Alberta-Imagine having a teepee room in your school with elder volunteers taking turns being available for students. This is a reality, thanks to the HEADSTRONG program. Across Canada, youth are coming together to lead HEADSTRONG anti-stigma events. Alberta is at the forefront, hosting nearly half of the 30 summits planned for the 2018-2019 academic year. The youth-led gatherings are particularly resonating with Indigenous communities. Since the launch of Canada's...
LONGMONT, Colorado-First Nations Development Institute (First Nations) recently released the Native Farm-to-School Resource Guide, a comprehensive manual for planning and implementing farm-to-school programs in Native American communities. Farm-to-school is the common phrase for programs and activities designed to incorporate local foods into school systems to better educate students about nutrition, agriculture and culinary arts, as well as improving student nutrition and...
TAHLEQUAH, Okla.—The Cherokee Nation celebrates the Stigler Act Amendments of 2018 becoming an official law after President Trump signed the bill earlier this week. Enrolled tribal citizens of the Five Tribes can now inherit their family’s allotted land and keep it in restricted fee status without having to meet a required blood quantum. The Stigler Act Amendments of 2018 removes a one-half degree Indian blood quantum requirement that was part of the original law passed in 1947. “We’re so thankful our leaders in Washing...
OTTAWA, Ontario—Indigenous Services Minister Jane Philpott, with Assembly of First Nations National Chief Perry Bellegarde, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami President Natan Obed, and Métis National Council President Clément Chartier, recently announced that the Government of Canada has co-developed federal legislation on Indigenous child and family services. Indigenous children represent 52.2 percent of children in foster care in private homes in Canada, but account for only 7.7% of the overall child population. The ove...
EDMONTON, Alberta-For more than 30 years, a treasure trove has sat in boxes-a collection of 900,000 hours of video and audio tape focused solely on Indigenous events, messages, stories, and people. The Government of Alberta had purchased the collection for a cool $80,000. Eventually they turned around a resold it to Bert Crowfoot and the Alberta Native Communications Society for just $1-and the promise that the collection would be kept safe. The collection has sat untouched...
Port Alberni, BC-The provincial government of British Columbia announced Oct. 25 that it will fund 280 new housing units in support of victims of violence, the first major investment in transition housing in more than two decades. These homes will be delivered in 12 projects around the province. They are the first step in the government's new Building BC: Women's Transition Housing Fund, a $734-million investment over 10 years to build 1,500 transition housing, second-stage...
Washington—On Wednesday, January 16, 2019, 325 tribal nations, 57 Native organizations, 21 states, 31 child welfare organizations, Indian and constitutional law scholars, and seven members of Congress joined the United States and four intervenor tribes in filing briefs to urge the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit to uphold the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA), the long-standing federal law protecting the well-being of Native children by upholding family integrity and stability. “The Indian Child Wel...
WASHINGTON-The Department of the Interior has signed agreements with the Oglala Sioux Tribe of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, the Northern Cheyenne Tribe of the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation in Montana, and the Santee Sioux Nation of the Santee Sioux Reservation in Nebraska to guide implementation of the Land Buy-Back Program for Tribal Nations at each of these reservations. The Buy-Back Program implements the land consolidation component of the...
LONGMONT, Colorado-First Nations Development Institute (First Nations) has received a $98,772 Conservation Innovation Grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) to improve conservation practices on the grazing lands of Native American livestock producers. Under the grant, First Nations will work with selected Native producers in Arizona to develop conservation plans and monitor and evaluate their grazing systems. This project...
Washington, D.C.-The leaders of the Native Farm Bill Coalition are applauding the the enactment of the Agriculture and Nutrition Act of 2018, which passed December 19, 2018, citing its 63 provisions relating to Native American communities and producers. "The number and significance of Native American-related provisions in the new Farm Bill is unprecedented," said Ross Racine, executive director of the Intertribal Agriculture Council and co-chair of the Native Farm Bill Coaliti...
OTTAWA-The Government of Alberta recently purchased copies of the Canadian Geographic's Indigenous Peoples Atlas of Canada to be distributed in every junior high school and high school in the province. Produced in partnership with the Assembly of First Nations (AFN), Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (ITK), the Métis National Council (MNC), the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation (NCTR), and Indspire, the atlas is promoted as being a comprehensive education tool written from...
New York-The United Nations General Assembly has named 2019 as the International Year of Indigenous Languages. The UN typically chooses a different topic each year to raise awareness about issues that have an international impact. In this case, the UN's intention is to highlight the need to preserve, revitalize and promote the use of the world's estimated 7,000 Indigenous languages-2,680 of which are considered to be in danger. "Languages play a crucial role in the daily...
WASHINGTON—Nataanii Means spent part of his childhood on the Navajo Nation with little electricity or running water, while energy companies mined coal and uranium nearby. He said those operations left the water polluted and undrinkable. Means brought that experience to the Indigenous Peoples March in Washington Friday where he heard the same story with different roots: People from South Dakota, Minnesota and Washington talked of pollution caused by mining or leaking oil pipeli...
