"Our art is not a separate kentity. It is a universal gesture of prayer...and it harmonizes with the express of life...art is always there. There is always something done, something woven, something painted, something sculpted." -
Jose Rey Toledo - Jemez Pueblo
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
The Great Yellow-Jacket
Cherokee legend...
A long time ago, the people of the old town of Kanu'ga'la'yi on Nantahala river, in the present Macon County, North Carolina, were much annoyed by a great insect called Ulagu. Large as a house, it used to come from some secret hiding place and snap up children and carry them away. It was unlike any other insect ever known and the people tried many times to track it to its home, but it was too swift to be followed.
They killed a squirrel and tied a white string to it, so that its course could be followed with the eye, as bee hunters follow the flight of a bee to its tree. The Ulagu came and carried off the squirrel with the string hanging to it, but darted away so swiftly through the air that it was out of sight in a moment. They repeated the operation with a turkey, then a deer ham, but nothing worked. At last they killed a deer and tried again. This time the load was so heavy that it had to fly slowly and so low that the string could be plainly seen.
The hunters got together for the pursuit. They followed it along a ridge until they saw the nest of the Ulagu in a large cave in the rocks below. On this, they raised a great shout and made their way rapidly down to the mountain and across to the cave. The nest had the entrance below with tiers of cells built up one above another to the roof of the cave. The great Ulagu was there, with thousands of smaller ones, that we now call yellow-jackets. The hunters built fires around the holes, so that the smoke filled the cave and smothered the great insect and multitudes of the smaller ones, but others which were outside the cave were not killed, and these escaped and increased until now the yellow-jackets, which before were unknown, are all over the world. The people called the cave Tsgagunyi "Where the yellow-jacket was", and the place from which they first saw the nest they called "Atahita" "Where they shouted" and these are their names today.
A long time ago, the people of the old town of Kanu'ga'la'yi on Nantahala river, in the present Macon County, North Carolina, were much annoyed by a great insect called Ulagu. Large as a house, it used to come from some secret hiding place and snap up children and carry them away. It was unlike any other insect ever known and the people tried many times to track it to its home, but it was too swift to be followed.
They killed a squirrel and tied a white string to it, so that its course could be followed with the eye, as bee hunters follow the flight of a bee to its tree. The Ulagu came and carried off the squirrel with the string hanging to it, but darted away so swiftly through the air that it was out of sight in a moment. They repeated the operation with a turkey, then a deer ham, but nothing worked. At last they killed a deer and tried again. This time the load was so heavy that it had to fly slowly and so low that the string could be plainly seen.
The hunters got together for the pursuit. They followed it along a ridge until they saw the nest of the Ulagu in a large cave in the rocks below. On this, they raised a great shout and made their way rapidly down to the mountain and across to the cave. The nest had the entrance below with tiers of cells built up one above another to the roof of the cave. The great Ulagu was there, with thousands of smaller ones, that we now call yellow-jackets. The hunters built fires around the holes, so that the smoke filled the cave and smothered the great insect and multitudes of the smaller ones, but others which were outside the cave were not killed, and these escaped and increased until now the yellow-jackets, which before were unknown, are all over the world. The people called the cave Tsgagunyi "Where the yellow-jacket was", and the place from which they first saw the nest they called "Atahita" "Where they shouted" and these are their names today.
American Indian Higher Education Consortium Prepares for New Leadership
By: Mary Annette Pember
Carrie Billy of the Navajo tribe will take over the position of executive director of the American Indian Higher Education Consortium effective June 1.
She replaces Dr. Gerald Gipp of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, who has served as executive director since 2001. Billy, currently serving as the organization’s deputy director and director of STEM development, has worked in American Indian higher education circles for a number of years. She joined AIHEC for the second time in 2001. An attorney, she served as Federal Relations Counsel for the organization from 1997 to 1998.
From 1998 to 2001, Billy served as the first executive director of the White House Initiative of on Tribal Colleges and Universities under the Clinton administration. During her tenure, TCUs received their largest ever federal funding increase as well as the establishment of the American Indian Teacher Corps Program, the Tribal College Technology Information Program and other important advances in tribal college funding and programming. She is a graduate of the University of Arizona and Georgetown University Law School.
In addition to overseeing the day-to-day operations of the central AIHEC office in her current position, she oversees the American Indian Measures for Success data collection initiative which is defining, collecting and reporting quantitative and qualitative indicators of American Indian student and institution success. She also oversees the Indigenous Evaluation Initiative, a multi-year effort to develop a framing for indigenous evaluation, which will synthesize indigenous ways of knowing and western evaluation practice.
“AIHEC is on the cusp of our growth potential,” Billy says.
She notes that the tribal college movement is maturing and has reached a firm foundation and is now ready to move into new development activities.
There's more to the story here: http://diverseeducation.com/artman/publish/article_11050.shtml
Carrie Billy of the Navajo tribe will take over the position of executive director of the American Indian Higher Education Consortium effective June 1.
She replaces Dr. Gerald Gipp of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, who has served as executive director since 2001. Billy, currently serving as the organization’s deputy director and director of STEM development, has worked in American Indian higher education circles for a number of years. She joined AIHEC for the second time in 2001. An attorney, she served as Federal Relations Counsel for the organization from 1997 to 1998.
From 1998 to 2001, Billy served as the first executive director of the White House Initiative of on Tribal Colleges and Universities under the Clinton administration. During her tenure, TCUs received their largest ever federal funding increase as well as the establishment of the American Indian Teacher Corps Program, the Tribal College Technology Information Program and other important advances in tribal college funding and programming. She is a graduate of the University of Arizona and Georgetown University Law School.
In addition to overseeing the day-to-day operations of the central AIHEC office in her current position, she oversees the American Indian Measures for Success data collection initiative which is defining, collecting and reporting quantitative and qualitative indicators of American Indian student and institution success. She also oversees the Indigenous Evaluation Initiative, a multi-year effort to develop a framing for indigenous evaluation, which will synthesize indigenous ways of knowing and western evaluation practice.
“AIHEC is on the cusp of our growth potential,” Billy says.
She notes that the tribal college movement is maturing and has reached a firm foundation and is now ready to move into new development activities.
There's more to the story here: http://diverseeducation.com/artman/publish/article_11050.shtml
Navajo journalist Shebala wins Distinguished Lecturer Award
By: Sam Stoker
FLAGSTAFF - It seems life has come full circle for Navajo Times senior reporter Marley Shebala. On Thursday, the Associated Press -the same newswire service she said 20 years earlier had told her nobody was interested in stories from the Navajo Reservation- awarded her with the Distinguished Lecturer Award at the 2008 Eunson Awards Ceremony.
Each year the Associated Press and Northern Arizona University recognize one NAU alumnus/a who has distinguished themselves in the field of journalism with the Eunson Award. Likewise, the Eunson Award program also recognizes a distinguished lecturer.
During Shebala's speech at the ceremony she spoke of the importance of journalists utilizing their roots and experience in the field. "It is important to use the expertise of, and to continue to understand, where you come from," she told the audience.
The statement was drawn from her own experiences as a Native American woman journalist. In the 20-plus years since she began her career, Shebala has dealt with racism from the white community as well as periods of disdain from her own community. She said it was an understanding of her roots as well as a commitment to accurate reporting that have pulled her through periods when she doubted her ability to continue in the field. She is now recognized as one of the finest community and investigative reporters in the state.
Keep reading here: http://www.navajohopiobserver.com/main.asp?SectionID=23&SubSectionID=23&ArticleID=6821
FLAGSTAFF - It seems life has come full circle for Navajo Times senior reporter Marley Shebala. On Thursday, the Associated Press -the same newswire service she said 20 years earlier had told her nobody was interested in stories from the Navajo Reservation- awarded her with the Distinguished Lecturer Award at the 2008 Eunson Awards Ceremony.
Each year the Associated Press and Northern Arizona University recognize one NAU alumnus/a who has distinguished themselves in the field of journalism with the Eunson Award. Likewise, the Eunson Award program also recognizes a distinguished lecturer.
During Shebala's speech at the ceremony she spoke of the importance of journalists utilizing their roots and experience in the field. "It is important to use the expertise of, and to continue to understand, where you come from," she told the audience.
The statement was drawn from her own experiences as a Native American woman journalist. In the 20-plus years since she began her career, Shebala has dealt with racism from the white community as well as periods of disdain from her own community. She said it was an understanding of her roots as well as a commitment to accurate reporting that have pulled her through periods when she doubted her ability to continue in the field. She is now recognized as one of the finest community and investigative reporters in the state.
Keep reading here: http://www.navajohopiobserver.com/main.asp?SectionID=23&SubSectionID=23&ArticleID=6821
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