March 2012
167 posts
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Medical Expert Recommends Ditching Pills for... →
A medical expert in the United Kingdom recommends doctors prescribe gardening to help patients beat depression, reported the Fraser Coast Chronicle.
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Brazeau and Trudeau Bare (Almost) All to Box... →
Two high-profile Canadian politicians from a pair of rival parties will be looking to register a knockout victory on Saturday March 31—in a boxing ring… .
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This Eagle Has Something to Say →
The origins of this graphic are unknown, but this eagle asks an important question. Should we trust the government? This eagle thinks not … .
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A Look Back at a ‘Bully’ Film With a Native Twist →
What if you made a movie about teens under siege and somebody decided you couldn’t show it to teens?
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First American Indian Qualifies for Ice Fishing... →
The Turtle Mountain Times reported on local angler, hunter, and horseman Glen Delorme, Jr., securing himself a spot on the US Ice Fishing Team for the 2013 World Ice Fishing Championship (WIFC). As an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, Delorme’s also the first American Indian to make the team. The Times reported that Delorme is a lineal descendant of the Spirit Lake...
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Lights Out for Earth Hour at Wild Horse Pass →
On Saturday, March 31st, millions of people around the globe — 135 countries and territories across every continent — will observe Earth Hour 2012 responding to a growing international movement of positive change in environmental attitudes.
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Apology for Cowboys and Indians Party a Step in... →
n front of a crowd of more than 100 peers, professors and community members, two University of Denver Greek Life representatives apologized to the members of the Native Student Alliance for a February 25 Cowboys-and-Indians theme party where students dressed in faux Native garb.
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Navajo’s Planned Grand Canyon Development Draws... →
The jubilant announcement of a Navajo Nation plan to develop the East Rim of the Grand Canyon for tourism is getting a chilly reception from tribal residents of the area, the Hopi tribe and Grand Canyon National Park.
But Navajo Nation President Ben Shelly is undaunted in his enthusiasm – and promises that “a lot of collaboration” will happen in the coming months and years, as plans for the...
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Pow Wow Weekend Planner →
Pow wow season has officially begun, and this coming weekend is a big one in the world of pow wows, with celebrations and ceremonies happening on colleges, reservations, and throughout Indian country.
So if you’re near by to one of these events, we suggest you head on over and enjoy some thrilling dances, incredible music, and, of course, delicious traditional foods.
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Urban Siouxs Navajo Outfitters →
I find it ironic the Navajo Nation is suing Urban Outfitters for copyright infringement on a pair of underwear.
First off, I pledge total support toward the Navajo effort and anticipate the case will set precedent for future legal action by Tribes with regard to misappropriation. The American Indian Arts and Crafts Act is a weapon Tribes have yet to fully wield on the legal battlefield.
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Journalism and Native Storytelling: Writer Richard... →
Ojibwe author, journalist, producer and broadcaster Richard Wagamese has been making waves in the world of media since 1979. Wielding a veritable Midas touch in every genre he has tried, Wagamese can boast an abundance of awards, including the first National Newspaper Award for column writing given to a Native Canadian, the Canadian Authors Association Award for fiction, two Native American Press...
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Two Studies Tie Mysterious Decline in Bee... →
The collapse of honey bee populations in recent years has been one of the underpublicized environmental crises likely to have real-world consequences for humans—plainly put, bees are dying, scientists don’t know why, and food as we know it will suffer if we can’t reverse this trend. A frequently cited estimate is that one-third of the food we eat depends on pollinating bees.
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Popcorn, an Indigenous Discovery, Contains Healthy... →
A new study by Tufts University reveals popcorn may contain higher levels of healthy antioxidants known as polyphenols than some fruits and vegetables, reported CBS News.
“Based on fiber, whole grains and antioxidant levels, popcorn is the king of snack foods,” said Joe Vinson, PhD, professor of chemistry at the University of Scranton.
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Indian Health Law in Danger at Supreme Court →
WASHINGTON – If the U.S. Supreme Court decides to throw out the Obama administration’s Affordable Care Act (ACA), a major Indian health law would go out with the bathwater.
The widely known law, which would lead to greater health insurance coverage in the United States by 2015, also includes the “permanent” reauthorization Indian Health Care Improvement Act (IHCIA). That portion of the law...
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An Open Letter to the Neshui Ertegun Jazz Hall of... →
Dear Mr. Wynton Marsalis and fellow Selection Committee Members:
My name is Julia Keefe, and I am a student at the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida, studying vocal jazz performance. I am also a member of the Nez Perce Indian Tribe. Shortly after I first became interested in jazz over 10 years ago, I began researching the life of Bing Crosby, who also...
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Haida Band Chief Councilor Wants International... →
Rather than wait for the tsunami debris floating across the Pacific from Japan, a Haida First Nation band leader is suggesting that an international team be marshaled to go out and meet it.
“First and foremost as Haidas we’re concerned about that big mess coming in from Japan,” said Robert Mills, chief councilor of the Skidegate Band of the Haida Nation, one of two aboriginal communities on the...
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Tribal Gaming Pioneer Josephine Jackson Walks On →
Josephine Jackson, who held a number of positions with the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe, walked on at the age of 76 on Monday, March 19.
She was partially responsible for improving economic development on the Isabella Indian Reservation by bringing bingo to the tribe. She was part of a group that traveled to Florida in 1981 to see how the Seminole Tribe ran its bingo operation, reported...
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Tsunami Ghost Ship Spotted off Haida Gwaii... →
A fishing vessel swept out to sea off Japan in last year’s post-earthquake tsunami has been spotted about 150 nautical miles off of the islands making up Haida Gwaii territory in British Columbia.
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Mariah Watchman of ‘America’s Next Top Model’... →
Jason Ward kicked off his 2012 election in style, with a little help from Indian country’s next top model.
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Adam Beach to Speak on Drugs and Alcohol at Red... →
Famous Indian actor Adam Beach will give the keynote address at the Sixth Annual Red Lake Youth Leadership Conference at 9:30 a.m. on March 28. The conference–themed “Miikanaakeyang Giniigaanayi’iiminaan” (Making a Path for Our Future)–will be held March 27-29, 2012 at Red Lake High School in Red Lake, Minnesota.
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Students to Apologize for Cowboys and Indians... →
Some things in this life are entirely unacceptable. Yet offending the American Indian community does not appear to be among them.
Case in point: Last month, two University of Denver Greek Life chapters, Lambda Chi Alpha and Delta Delta Delta, hosted a cowboys and Indians theme party where students donned loincloth-like miniskirts, painted faces, phony-feathered headdresses, and faux buskin...
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Hilarious Youth Propagandazine ‘Conservative Teen’... →
A magazine called The Conservative Teen, an effort by the out-of-touch right to reach out and touch the nation’s young people, has been a hot topic today on blogs and social media. In case you haven’t heard of it, here’s some of the buzz:
Vice.com called it the “Worst Magazine Ever.”
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The Making of the Great White Race →
Historically, when different groups of people came into contact with one another, they offered different explanations for the phenotypic variations they saw. Because skin color was so noticeable, it was the most frequently explained trait and most systems of racial classification came to be based on these explanations. Race would later become both a classifier and ranking of human beings according...
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Radiation Level of Nuclear Reactor in Japan Said... →
An internal examination of the Fukushima Daiichi No. 2 Reactor has found that it has “fatally high” levels of radiation, according to a report by the Associated Press.
A year ago, the earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan severely damaged the reactor, but many reports thus far have suggested that the lingering effects are less severe than they might have been. Today’s report, however, paints a...
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A Response to Gyasi Ross’s Column on Trayvon... →
It seems that we all can be lost on what a “call to action” really entails. As a society, we are pulled in various directions, the amount of information which we choose to consume or ignore is limitless, and often the decisions we make can cause a stir on Facebook, Twitter and other social media. While reading Gyasi Ross’s column featured on Race-Talk and reposted on...
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read Lee Allen's interview w/ @UFC Champ,... →
Don’t believe all the Mixed Martial Arts hype about Ultimate Fighting Championship’s recently-crowned interim welterweight champion Carlos Condit — one of the best strikers in his division — known professionally as “The Natural Born Killer.”
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Scalping? Not in Assassin’s Creed III →
According to a story posted at PlayStation Universe, developers of Assassin’s Creed III initially included a depiction of scalping in the game’s action, but removed it when they discovered the practice was a historical inaccuracy.
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In Praise of Vine Deloria →
In his groundbreaking 1969 volume Custer Died for Your Sins: An Indian Manifesto, Vine Deloria Jr. wrote a now famous critique of anthropologists. He argued that they—as well as academics in general—were mainly interested in their own intellectual ends and were insufficiently concerned with the real-life challenges of Indian peoples.
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Suicide Survivor Arnold Thomas To Kick-off Red... →
The “I Want to Live” suicide prevention presentation takes place Monday at 7 p.m.
On Monday, March 26, the evening before the Sixth Annual Red Lake Youth Leadership Conference, Mr. Arnold Thomas (Shoshone-Paiute) will share a powerful message about suicide prevention and intervention.
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Should the Wolves of Isle Royale be Saved From... →
Isle Royale is located in the northwest region of Lake Superior, and it is the nexus of the longest-running predator-prey study in the world. The predators are the wolves that populate the island; the prey are moose.
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The New York Times‘s “Mangled Horses, Maimed... →
It is often painful to read, but the New York Times‘s piece “Mangled Horses, Maimed Jockeys,” is still essential for anyone who wants to understand what, exactly, goes on at horse tracks in America. With the cancellation of HBO’s Luck, a drama set on a horse track, after the death of three horses during production, there’s suddenly a spotlight on a sport that has long operated in the relative...
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See the Fantastic Vochol, a Huichol-Beaded... →
The old Volkswagen Beetle is iconic in Mexico, its little dome ubiquitous in thousands of vehicles zipping around major cities and chugging along country roads.
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Nuu-chah-nulth Treasure Returned to Home Territory... →
It was a breathtaking moment for Mowachaht-Muchalaht First Nation member Margarita James. She was on hand for the return of a Nuu-chah-nulth ceremonial club that was given to the English explorer Captain Cook more than 200 years ago.
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More Than Frybread Mockumentary Going Rez to Rez →
American Indians take their frybread seriously — could it also be a laughing matter? The question is addressed in the film More Than Frybread, a documentary-style account of the fictional Frybread Championship, which showed in Moscow, Idaho, on Thursday night.
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Montana Judge Issues Restraining Order Against... →
Just days ago, American Indians of the Fort Peck Indian Reservation joyously welcomed 62 pure strain buffalo transferred from Yellowstone National Park.
A story on the event posted to this site earlier today quoted numerous sources — some Indians, some not — who saw the transfer as a long overdue restoration. Said Iris Grey Bull, a Sioux member from Fort Peck, “This is a historical moment for us....
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Dale Carson: Grow Your Own Herb Garden →
Spring is finally here—the time for renewal and new life!
In Abenaki it is Zigwan, meaning the months of March, April and May. Just as the warm weather is rolling in and sunlight is bathing the land, I am starting to plant my container gardens on the patio, including herbs and edible flowers.
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The Murder of Trayvon Martin Is About You →
This column originally appeared on Race-Talk.org.
This goes beyond skin color or politics. This is about the joys of life, and the notion that all of us should have unfettered access to those joys as long as we are not harming anyone else.
No, he wasn’t your son.
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Proud to Bead Abenaki: A Conversation With Abenaki... →
Just in case you can’t get to the Abbe Museum in Bar Harbor, Maine to see “Twisted Paths: Contemporary W’Abanaki Art Informed by Tradition,” before its end in May, Indian Country Today Media Network traveled there for you.
We also interviewed one exhibitor from her home in the small village of Whitefield, New Hampshire: Abenaki beadworker Rhonda Besaw. She explained that she worked for thirty...
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Ethereal Aurora Hovers Over Northern Quebec:... →
The solar flares of early March, plus a few others that have occurred since, are steadily igniting the northern lights this year. With the advent of spring, that activity will intensify as the aurora reaches its brightest season. This year and next, with the sun’s activity spikes as part of its 11-year cycle, that is going to be even more pronounced.
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Marchers Reached Ecuador Capitol on World Water... →
Demonstrators who marched for two weeks from the province of Zamora Chinchipe in southern Ecuador reached Quito, the country’s capital, on March 22, where they were joined by thousands of supporters.
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Native Languages Bill Takes Another Step Forward →
Native American language teaching won a victory March 21 when a bill that would help to preserve tribal languages sailed through an education committee of the Colorado House of Representatives by unanimous vote. The bill, already approved in a Senate hearing, appears destined for the governor’s signature and enactment.
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Redskins? How About Whiteskins? →
In the image above, you are seeing the helmet and attendant logo of the Whiteskins, a fictional team based on the Washington Redskins. It is the work of a man named Brittain Peck, who’s created a project to draw attention to the “offensive nature of stereotypical American Indian sports mascots and the need to change them,” as he wrote to the website Uni-Watch.com.
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Reading History in Regalia: Three Stories of... →
You can see many different types of regalia when you go to New England pow wows. Indian Country Today Media Network recently interviewed three distinctive dancers, each with their own rich cultural history, to learn the background of their regalia: why, where and how did they acquire their patterns, colors and materials? …
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Long Plain First Nation Celebrates $21 Million... →
Long Plain First Nation has settled its 141-year-old loss-of-use claim with the Canadian government for $21.3 million, tying off the loose ends of its 1994 land-claim settlement.
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Marty Two Bulls, ‘Don’t Shoot the (White) Buffalo’ →
To read more about the recent white buffalo hunting saga, see “$13,500 to Kill Sacred White Buffalo in Texas—Can This Be True?” and “White Buffalo Hunt Causing Uproar Throughout Indian Country Will Stop”
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Buffalo Harvest Sparks Dialogue at Colorado... →
Russell Means, iconic activist and long-time leader of the American Indian Movement, said he was proud of what Native American students at Fort Lewis College (FLC) were achieving as he addressed those attending a Buffalo Harvest ceremony at FLC March 16 to 18.
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Yankees’ Joba Chamberlain Dislocates Ankle Playing... →
New York Yankees relief pitcher Joba Chamberlain, Winnebago, dislocated his right ankle playing on a trampoline playing with his 5-year-old son, Karter, reported USA Today.
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The Thing About Skins: Newt and Co. Endeavor to... →
Who knew Robert De Niro was a racist? I always thought of him as a progressive minded actor who has been in some great movies. That is until I heard Newt Gingrich admonishing him for a joke told at a fundraiser.
For those who don’t know about it, here’s a recap of De Niro’s joke.
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Enter the Coliseum: The 38th Annual Denver March... →
This year’s Denver March Powwow is about to begin, yet Ken LaDeaux knows how, for him, it will end. “Every year before the powwow I see the Coliseum when it’s empty, and I’m happy—happy to know it’s coming, to know I’ll see the grandchildren of people who came to the earliest Denver pow wows,” says the president of the event. “And every year I see the empty Coliseum at the end too—and I’m sad that...
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Scientists Find Noise Pollution Affects Both... →
One would expect noise pollution to affect behavior of animal life — after all, critters have ears too, and the sound booming from a factory or oil well doesn’t discriminate. But according to an article at LiveScience.com, the cacophony of modern industrial life can influence the quality and quantity of life for flora as well as fauna.
