Native News Network

Century-old Handwritten Letters Translated from Cherokee for Yale University

Native News Network Staff in Native Education

TAHLEQUAH, OKLAHOMA – Over 2,000 Century-old journals, political messages and medicinal formulas handwritten in Cherokee and archived at Yale University are being translated for the first time.

Cherokee Their researchers and linguistic specialists have helped adapt 21st century technologies with their traditional culture.

The Cherokee Nation is among a small few, if not the only tribe, that has a language translation department who contracts with Apple, Microsoft, Google and Ivy League universities for Cherokee translation projects.

One of the tribe's 13 translators, Durbin Feeling, is transcribing some 2,000 documents at Yale's Beinecke Library, to catalogue and eventually make public.

The documents, spanning from the late 19th to mid-20th century, are from the collection of the late Jack and Anna Kilpatrick, Cherokee researchers.

“Native American communities have endured some of America's most sustained forms of cultural oppression, and contemporary Indian nations, tribal members and supporters work tirelessly to reverse generations of assimilation-orientated designs. The work of linguists and language speakers in such efforts is particularly essential, especially in keeping alive and vibrant the languages of the first Americans,” said Ned Blackhawk, Yale professor of history and American studies, and advisory member at Yale's Native American Cultural Center.

“The Cherokee Nation works at the leading edge of such linguistic activism. Their researchers and linguistic specialists have helped adapt 21st century technologies with their traditional culture and have developed among the most advanced pedagogical practices in the nation,” Blackhawk said.

The Cherokee Nation translation department is also currently working with museums in Oklahoma and finishing up its largest translation of 500,000 words for Microsoft.

“Our speakers are taking Cherokee history, in the form of our language, and preserving it for our future by incorporating our written alphabet into smart phones and computer language settings, making it possible for our youth to email entirely in Cherokee,” Principal Chief Bill John Baker said.

“They are one of our most valuable resources, not only passing on their wisdom to our Cherokee Immersion students learning to speak, but for our future who will know more about our lives and way of thinking, revealed in all these translated archived manuscripts.” Feeling's first language is Cherokee. He has a master's degree in linguistics from the University of California, Irvine, and honorary doctorate from Ohio State. He has traveled across the United States and Germany sharing how to speak, read and write the 85 character Cherokee syllabary. He's also taught Cherokee language and culture at the University of Oklahoma and Northeastern State University.

“Universities and museums often have all these documents and nobody to read them, to tell them what they say,” Feeling said.

“They'll choose the ones they're curious about and let me translate, which benefits us all.” The Cherokee Nation has a comprehensive language program that includes community language classes, online language courses, employee language classes, a language technology program, an office of translation and an immersion school for preschool through sixth grade and partners with Northeastern State University on a degree program for Cherokee language.

In addition to these initiatives, the Cherokee Nation also shows a strong dedication to language by including protection of language in the Chief's oath of office, council resolutions supporting language and a quantity of signs on Cherokee Nation property that are written in the Cherokee syllabary.

Century-old Handwritten Letters Translated from Cherokee for Yale University

Native News Network Staff in Native Education

TAHLEQUAH, OKLAHOMA – Over 2,000 Century-old journals, political messages and medicinal formulas handwritten in Cherokee and archived at Yale University are being translated for the first time.

Cherokee Their researchers and linguistic specialists have helped adapt 21st century technologies with their traditional culture.

The Cherokee Nation is among a small few, if not the only tribe, that has a language translation department who contracts with Apple, Microsoft, Google and Ivy League universities for Cherokee translation projects.

One of the tribe's 13 translators, Durbin Feeling, is transcribing some 2,000 documents at Yale's Beinecke Library, to catalogue and eventually make public.

The documents, spanning from the late 19th to mid-20th century, are from the collection of the late Jack and Anna Kilpatrick, Cherokee researchers.

“Native American communities have endured some of America's most sustained forms of cultural oppression, and contemporary Indian nations, tribal members and supporters work tirelessly to reverse generations of assimilation-orientated designs. The work of linguists and language speakers in such efforts is particularly essential, especially in keeping alive and vibrant the languages of the first Americans,” said Ned Blackhawk, Yale professor of history and American studies, and advisory member at Yale's Native American Cultural Center.

“The Cherokee Nation works at the leading edge of such linguistic activism. Their researchers and linguistic specialists have helped adapt 21st century technologies with their traditional culture and have developed among the most advanced pedagogical practices in the nation,” Blackhawk said.

The Cherokee Nation translation department is also currently working with museums in Oklahoma and finishing up its largest translation of 500,000 words for Microsoft.

“Our speakers are taking Cherokee history, in the form of our language, and preserving it for our future by incorporating our written alphabet into smart phones and computer language settings, making it possible for our youth to email entirely in Cherokee,” Principal Chief Bill John Baker said.

“They are one of our most valuable resources, not only passing on their wisdom to our Cherokee Immersion students learning to speak, but for our future who will know more about our lives and way of thinking, revealed in all these translated archived manuscripts.” Feeling's first language is Cherokee. He has a master's degree in linguistics from the University of California, Irvine, and honorary doctorate from Ohio State. He has traveled across the United States and Germany sharing how to speak, read and write the 85 character Cherokee syllabary. He's also taught Cherokee language and culture at the University of Oklahoma and Northeastern State University.

“Universities and museums often have all these documents and nobody to read them, to tell them what they say,” Feeling said.

“They'll choose the ones they're curious about and let me translate, which benefits us all.” The Cherokee Nation has a comprehensive language program that includes community language classes, online language courses, employee language classes, a language technology program, an office of translation and an immersion school for preschool through sixth grade and partners with Northeastern State University on a degree program for Cherokee language.

In addition to these initiatives, the Cherokee Nation also shows a strong dedication to language by including protection of language in the Chief's oath of office, council resolutions supporting language and a quantity of signs on Cherokee Nation property that are written in the Cherokee syllabary.

Christopher Columbus and the Indian by Howard Zinn

[Howard Zinn is an author and lecturer. His most noted work, from which this selection is excerpted, is A People's History of the United States.]

Arawak men and women, naked, tawny, and full of wonder, emerged from their villages onto the island's beaches and swam out to get a closer look at the strange big boat. When Columbus and his sailors came ashore, carrying swords, speaking oddly, the Arawaks ran to greet them, brought them food, water, gifts. He later wrote of this in his log:

"They... brought us parrots and balls of cotton and spears and many other things, which they exchanged for the glass beads and hawks' bells. They willingly traded everything they owned.... They were well-built, with good bodies and handsome features.... They do not bear arms, and do not know them, for I showed them a sword, they took it by the edge and cut themselves out of ignorance. They have no iron. Their spears are made of cane.... They would make fine servants.... With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want."

These Arawaks of the Bahama Islands were much like Indians on the mainland, who were remarkable (European observers were to say again and again) for their hospitality, their belief in sharing. These traits did not stand out in the Europe of the Renaissance, dominated as it was by the religion of popes, the government of kings, the frenzy for money that marked Western civilization and its first messenger to the Americas, Christopher Columbus.

Columbus wrote: "As soon as I arrived in the Indies, on the first Island which I found, I took some of the natives by force in order that they might learn and might give me information of whatever there is in these parts." The information that Columbus wanted most was: Where is the gold?

The Indians, Columbus reported, "are so naive and so free with their possessions that no one who has not witnessed them would believe it. When you ask for something they have, they never say no. To the contrary, they offer to share with anyone...." He concluded his report by asking for a little help from their Majesties, and in return he would bring them from his next voyage "as much gold as they need . . . and as many slaves as they ask." He was full of religious talk: "Thus the eternal God, our Lord, gives victory to those who follow His way over apparent impossibilities."

Because of Columbus's exaggerated report and promises, his second expedition was given seventeen ships and more than twelve hundred men. The aim was clear: slaves and gold. They went from island to island in the Caribbean, taking Indians as captives. But as word spread of the Europeans' intent they found more and more empty villages. On Haiti, they found that the sailors left behind at Fort Navidad had been killed in a battle with the Indians, after they had roamed the island in gangs looking for gold, taking women and children as slaves for sex and labor.

Now, from his base on Haiti, Columbus sent expedition after expedition into the interior. They found no gold fields, but had to fill up the ships returning to Spain with some kind of dividend. In the year 1495, they went on a great slave raid, rounded up fifteen hundred Arawak men, women, and children, put them in pens guarded by Spaniards and dogs, then picked the five hundred best specimens to load onto ships. Of those five hundred, two hundred died en route. The rest arrived alive in Spain and were put up for sale by the archdeacon of the town, who reported that, although the slaves were "naked as the day they were born," they showed "no more embarrassment than animals." Columbus later wrote: "Let us in the name of the Holy Trinity go on sending all the slaves that can be sold."

But too many of the slaves died in captivity. And so Columbus, desperate to pay back dividends to those who had invested, had to make good his promise to fill the ships with gold. In the province of Cicao on Haiti, where he and his men imagined huge gold fields to exist, they ordered all persons fourteen years or older to collect a certain quantity of gold every three months. When they brought it, they were given copper tokens to hang around their necks. Indians found without a copper token had their hands cut off and bled to death.

The Indians had been given an impossible task. The only gold around was bits of dust garnered from the streams. So they fled, were hunted down with dogs, and were killed.

Trying to put together an army of resistance, the Arawaks faced Spaniards who had armor, muskets, swords, horses. When the Spaniards took prisoners they hanged them or burned them to death. Among the Arawaks, mass suicides began, with cassava poison. Infants were killed to save them from the Spaniards. In two years, through murder, mutilation, or suicide, half of the 250,000 Indians on Haiti were dead.

When it became clear that there was no gold left, the Indians were taken as slave labor on huge estates, known later as encomiendas. They were worked at a ferocious pace, and died by the thousands. By the year 1515, there were perhaps fifty thousand Indians left. By 1550, there were five hundred. A report of the year 1650 shows none of the original Arawaks or their descendants left on the island.

The chief source-and, on many matters the only source of information about what happened on the islands after Columbus came is Bartolome de las Casas, who, as a young priest, participated in the conquest of Cuba. For a time he owned a plantation on which Indian slaves worked, but he gave that up and became a vehement critic of Spanish cruelty. In Book Two of his History of the Indies, Las Casas (who at first urged replacing Indians by black slaves, thinking they were stronger and would survive, but later relented when he saw the effects on blacks) tells about the treatment of the Indians by the Spaniards. It is a unique account and deserves to be quoted at length:

"Endless testimonies . . . prove the mild and pacific temperament of the natives.... But our work was to exasperate, ravage, kill, mangle and destroy; small wonder, then, if they tried to kill one of us now and then.... The admiral, it is true, was blind as those who came after him, and he was so anxious to please the King that he committed irreparable crimes against the Indians..."

Las Casas tells how the Spaniards "grew more conceited every day" and after a while refused to walk any distance. They "rode the backs of Indians if they were in a hurry" or were carried on hammocks by Indians running in relays. "In this case they also had Indians carry large leaves to shade them from the sun and others to fan them with goose wings."

Total control led to total cruelty. The Spaniards "thought nothing of knifing Indians by tens and twenties and of cutting slices off them to test the sharpness of their blades." Las Casas tells how "two of these so-called Christians met two Indian boys one day, each carrying a parrot; they took the parrots and for fun beheaded the boys."

The Indians' attempts to defend themselves failed. And when they ran off into the hills they were found and killed. So, Las Casas reports. "they suffered and died in the mines and other labors in desperate silence, knowing not a soul in the world to whom they could tun for help." He describes their work in the mines:

"... mountains are stripped from top to bottom and bottom to top a thousand times; they dig, split rocks, move stones, and carry dirt on their backs to wash it in the rivers, while those who wash gold stay in the water all the time with their backs bent so constantly it breaks them; and when water invades the mines, the most arduous task of all is to dry the mines by scooping up pansful of water and throwing it up outside....

After each six or eight months' work in the mines, which was the time required of each crew to dig enough gold for melting, up to a third of the men died. While the men were sent many miles away to the mines, the wives remained to work the soil, forced into the excruciating job of digging and making thousands of hills for cassava plants.

Thus husbands and wives were together only once every eight or ten months and when they met they were so exhausted and depressed on both sides . . . they ceased to procreate. As for the newly born, they died early because their mothers, overworked and famished, had no milk to nurse them, and for this reason, while I was in Cuba, 7000 children died in three months. Some mothers even drowned their babies from sheer desperation.... In this way, husbands died in the mines, wives died at work, and children died from lack of milk . . . and in a short time this land which was so great, so powerful and fertile ... was depopulated.... My eyes have seen these acts so foreign to human nature, and now I tremble as I write...."

When he arrived on Hispaniola in 1508, Las Casas says, "there were 60,000 people living on this island, including the Indians; so that from 1494 to 1508, over three million people had perished from war, slavery, and the mines. Who in future generations will believe this? I myself writing it as a knowledgeable eyewitness can hardly believe it...."

Thus began the history, five hundred years ago, of the European invasion of the Indian settlements in the Americas. That beginning, when you read Las Casas--even if his figures are exaggerations (were there 3 million Indians to begin with, as he says, or less than a million, as some historians have calculated, or 8 million as others now believe?) is conquest, slavery, death. When we read the history books given to children in the United States, it all starts with heroic adventure--there is no bloodshed-and Columbus Day is a celebration.

The treatment of heroes (Columbus) and their victims (the Arawaks) the quiet acceptance of conquest and murder in the name of progress-is only one aspect of a certain approach to history, in which the past is told from the point of view of governments, conquerors, diplomats, leaders. It is as if they, like Columbus, deserve universal acceptance, as if they-the Founding Fathers, Jackson, Lincoln, Wilson, Roosevelt, Kennedy, the leading members of Congress, the famous Justices of the Supreme Court-represent the nation as a whole. The pretense is that there really is such a thing as "the United States," subject to occasional conflicts and quarrels, but fundamentally a community of people with common interests. It is as if there really is a "national interest" represented in the Constitution, in territorial expansion, in the laws passed by Congress, the decisions of the courts, the development of capitalism, the culture of education and the mass media.

2 Howard Zinn, "Columbus, the Indians, and Human Progress," A People's History of the United States   

 http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Zinn/Columbus_PeoplesHx.html

WASHINGTON – The National Congress of American Indians, NCAI, has released the following statement regarding the budget impasse and the shutdown of the federal government:

The trust responsibility to tribal nations is not a line item.

"The failure to come to a budget agreement threatens the capacity of tribal governments to deliver basic governmental services to their citizens. The federal government has made treaty commitments to our people, and in return we ceded the vast lands that make up the United States. The immediate shutdown crisis poses very real threats to tribal governments and denies health, nutrition, and other basic services to the most vulnerable tribal citizens.

As Washington faces the threefold crisis of the shutdown, sequester, and debt limit, we call on the Congress to reach a long-term budget deal that meets the nation’s obligations to tribal nations and Native peoples. It is time to address the ongoing fiscal crisis caused by the sequester. The trust responsibility to tribal nations is not a line item and tribal programs must be exempt from budget cuts in any budget deal."

posted October 2, 2013 6:00 am edt

American Indian Education Resources: An Annotated Bibliography

1. AIHEC (American Indian Higher Education Consortium). http://www.aihec.org/.  The American Indian Higher Education Consortium (AIHEC) provides research on tribal colleges and universities. The "Research" portion of the Web site is most useful for locating learning research.

2. Alaska Native Knowledge Network. [Online]. Alaska Federation of Natives, University of Alaska, National Science Foundation, Rural School & Community Trust. Retrieved April 8, 2002 from http://www.ankn.uaf.edu/index.html.  The Alaska Native Knowledge Network seeks to maintain the indigenous culture while providing information for the improvement of cultural learning and educational practices for Alaskan native students.

3. American Indians and Alaska Natives. [Online]. ERIC: Clearinghouse on Rural Education and Small Schools. Retrieved April 10, 2002 from http://www.ael.org/eric/indians.htm.  Good source for finding research and resources for Native American education. The ERIC digests are particularly useful and are freely available on the Web. "The Clearinghouse is part of a nationwide system of 16 clearinghouses in the Education Resources Information Center. Each clearinghouse is responsible for adding to the ERIC database education-related works on specific topics."

4. Barnhardt, Ray. (2002). Teaching/learning across cultures: strategies for success. Alaska Native Knowledge Network. Retrieved April 15, 2002 from http://www.ankn.uaf.edu/TLAC.html.  This article reports that learning is improved when educators are aware of the indigenous worldview and incorporate such knowledge into the curriculum. Furthermore, Barnhardt suggests that ways of determining what has been learned should be altered as well.

5. Bobiwash, A. Rodney. (1999). Long term strategies for institutional change in universities and colleges: facilitating native people negotiating a middle ground. http://www.cwis.org/fwj/41/strat.html.  This article depicts the ideal learning environment in higher education for Native students. The author calls for higher education institutions to open their doors to the Indian population by striving to harmonize nontraditional academics with their Native background and worldview. "

6. Cajete, Gregory, “Look to the mountain: An ecology of Indigenous education,” Skyland,: Kivaki Press 1994 An important contribution to the body of indigenous cultural knowledge and a way to secure its continuance.

7. Demmert, Jr., William G. (2001). Improving academic performance among Native American students: a review of the research literature. [Online]. ERIC Clearinghouse on Rural Education and Small Schools. Retrieved April 8, 2002 from http://www.ael.org/eric/demmert.pdf.  Except for the tribal schools, responsibility for the education of Native children and youth has been transferred from the tribes to state agencies, mostly to administrators and other individuals outside the communities or tribes. With this transfer of responsibility, Native students began experiencing high levels of educational failure
and a growing ambivalence toward learning traditional tribal knowledge and skills. They often exhibited indifference to formal Western academic learning, as well."

8. Evans, Susan D. (2001). The potential contribution of comparative and international education to educational reform: an Examination of traditional, non-Western education. [Online]. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Comparative and International Education Society (Washington, DC, March 14-17, 2001). Retrieved April 8, 2002 from http://www.indianeduresearch.net/nonwestern.pdf.  The ancient methods of education and learning are essential to the reform of modern education. The author advocates drawing paradigms from Native American cultural modes of education. The reasons for such suggestions include an emphasis on character education, integrated curriculum and lifelong learning.

9. Introduction to the DVC Learning Style Survey for College. [Online]. DVC Learning Style Survey for College. Retrieved April 15, 2002 from http://www.metamath.com//lsweb/dvclearn.htm.

10. Jacobs, Don Trent and Reyhner, Jon. (2002). Preparing teachers to support American Indian and Alaska Native student success and cultural heritage. ERIC Digest, EDO-RC-01-13. Retrieved April 8, 2002 from http://www.indianeduresearch.net/edorc01-13.htm

11. Journal of American Indian Education, http://jaie.asu.edu Is a professional journal that publishes papers directly related to the education of American Indian/Alaska Natives. The Journal also invites scholarship on educational issues pertaining to Native Peoples of the world.

12. Lipka, Jerry. (2002). Schooling for self-determination: research on the effects of including Native language and culture in the schools. ERIC Digest, EDO-RC-01-12. Retrieved April 15, 2002 from http://www.indianeduresearch.net/edorc01-12.htm.  This article discusses the impact of acculturation in American schools and ways in which this might be remedied

13. McKay, Michelle. (1999). Relating indigenous pedagogy to the writing process. Journal of Indigenous Thought. Retrieved April 15, 2002 from http://bit.ly/IndigenousPedagogy Although this article is written from a Canadian perspective, the author's intent to describe the Indigenous worldview and its role is education is valuable. The author focuses of the commonalities that exist among North American Indian nations to define the concept of "Indigenous pedagogy."

14. More, Arthur J. (1989). Native Indian learning styles: a review for researchers and teachers. Journal of American Indian Education, special ed., August 1989. Retrieved April 12, 2002 from http://jaie.asu.edu/sp/V27S1nat.htm.

This article provides a clear explanation of the current theory of learning styles and the implications of such theory in educating American Indian students.

15. National Center for Education Statistics, American Indian and Alaska Native Education. (2002). Office of Educational Research & Improvement, U.S. Dept. of Education. Retrieved April 15, 2002 from http://nces.ed.gov/.  This is a good source of statistics regarding Indian Education, including statistics on tribal colleges, graduation rates, and conditions facing Indian education.

16. NativeCulture.com. (2001). NativeCulture.com: teaching, learning and information sharing. Retrieved April 15, 2002 from http://www.nativeculture.com/learn/.  The "Teaching and Learning" component of this cultural resource supplies the reader with current research articles in education and links to various educational institutions that serve indigenous learners.

17. Office of Indian Education (OIE) http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/oese/oie/index.html The U.S. Department of Education's Native American component provides links to statistical and educational research pertaining to indigenous education.

18. Reyhner, Jon. (2002). American Indian Education. [Online]. Northern Arizona University. Retrieved April 12, 2002 from http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~jar/AIE/index.html.  This is a Web site provided by a major researcher in the area of Native American education. Teacher resources are included, as well as research reports and issues that need to be addressed in further research.

19. Reyhner, Jon, Lee, Harry, & Gabbard, David. (1993). A specialized knowledge base for teaching American Indian and Alaska Native students. Tribal College Journal, 4(4). Retrieved April 15, 2002, from http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~jar/TCarticle.html.

This article discusses the high-risk status of Native students in education. The main arguments address the lack of cultural appropriateness of the classroom setting and the uniqueness of educating indigenous people. The authors advocate the acquisition of Native cultural knowledge of the part of the teachers of Native students in order to facilitate a culturally appropriate learning environment.

20. Roy, Loriene and Larsen, Peter. (2002). Oksale: an indigenous approach to creating a virtual library of education resources. D-Lib Magazine, 8(3). Retrieved April 21, 2002 from http://www.dlib.org/dlib/march02/roy/03roy.html.  Although this article details the experiences of a particular project, the first half of the article describes the indigenous approach to learning which is quite useful for educators of indigenous learners.

21 Schulz, William E. and Bravi, Gerry. (1986). Classroom learning environment in North American schools. Journal of American Indian Education, 26(1). Retrieved April 8, 2002 from http://jaie.asu.edu/v26/V26S1cla.htm.

In light of the educational problems that are facing Native American educators, these authors suggest a shift in perspective in the research carried out. The lack of motivation of students is related to the kind of culture that is put forth in the education environment.

22. Swisher, Karen. (1991). American Indian/Alaskan Native learning styles: research and practice.. ERIC Clearinghouse on Rural Education and Small Schools. ED335175, 1991-05-00. Retrieved April 15, 2002, from http://www.ed.gov/databases/ERIC_Digests/ed335175.html.  “An improved teaching style may be improved by understanding the learning styles and preferences of Native American students. Swisher discusses learning style research conducted in indigenous environments and makes suggestions to teachers about how they might incorporate such knowledge into their classroom and teaching style.”

23. Swisher, Karen. (1994). American Indian learning styles survey: an assessment of teachers knowledge. The journal of educational issues of language minority students, 13. Retrieved April 7, 2002 from http://www.ncbe.gwu.edu/miscpubs/jeilms/vol13/americ13.htm.

A survey of non-Indian and Indian educators, investigated the knowledge of learning styles on the part of the educators. The study also addresses how much the educators believe that cultural values of American Indians influences a student's learning style and demonstration of learning.

24. Deloria Vine Jr., and Wildcat Daniel (2001) Power and Place: Indian Education in America. American Indian Graduate Center and Fulcrum Resources, Golden, CO, This book examines the issues facing Native American students as they progress through the schools, colleges, and on into professions.

25. National Center for Education Statistics: National Indian Education Study (NIES) is administered as part of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/nies/nies_2011/national_sum.aspx#overall

26. Joely Proudfit, Ph.D. and Seth San Juan, “The State of American Indian and Alaskan Native Education in California” California Indian Culture and Sovereignty Center, California State University-San Marcos, 2012 Compiles information about American Indians and Alaska Native (AIAN) people in the K–12 system in California http://www.csusm.edu/cicsc/projects/education-report.html

27. National Center for Education Statistics (2008). Statistical Trends in the Education of American Indians and Alaska Natives. Washington, DC: US Department of Education. http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2008/nativetrends/

28. Carolyn J. Mar, Assimilation Through Education: Indian Boarding Schools in the Pacific Northwest, The goal of Indian education from the 1880s through the 1920s was to assimilate Indian people into the melting pot of America by placing them in institutions where traditional ways could be replaced by those sanctioned by the government http://content.lib.washington.edu/aipnw/marr.html

29. National Indian Education Association (NIEA) The National Indian Education Association advances comprehensive educational opportunities for American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians throughout the United States http://www.niea.org,

30. National Council on American Indian Education (NCAIE) Advises the Secretary of Education concerning the funding and administration of any program, including any program established under Title VII, Part A of the ESEA, that includes Indian children or adults as participants or that may benefit Indian children or adults http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/oese/oie/nacie.html

31. Tribal Education Departments National Assembly (TEDNA) This membership organization for the Education Departments of American Indian and Alaska Native Tribes. The Native American Rights Fund and the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Indian Education have supported the founding of TEDNA. http://www.tedna.org

32. Native American Rights Fund (NARF) Founded in 1970, the Native American Rights Fund (NARF) is the oldest and largest nonprofit law firm dedicated to asserting and defending the rights of Indian tribes, organizations and individuals nationwide http://www.narf.org/nill/resources/education.html

32. National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) Established in 1944 in response to termination and assimilation policies the US government forced upon Tribal Governments in contradiction of their treaty rights and status as sovereign nations. Protecting these inherent rights remains the primary focus of NCAI http://www.ncai.org/policy-issues/education-health-human-services

33. The Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) Their mission is to provide quality education opportunities from early childhood through life in accordance with a tribe’s needs for cultural and economic well-being, in keeping with the wide diversity of Indian tribes and Alaska Native villages as distinct cultural and governmental entities. http://www.bie.edu/

34. American Indian Indigenous Education, This web site is designed to provide information, including links to related web sites, on the and current thinking about American Indian and Indigenous education. http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~jar/AIE/index.html

35. Brittany Dorer and Anna Fetter, Cultivated Ground: Effective Teaching Practices for Native Students in a Public High School, Harvard University and the National Indian Education Association, This project was to assess the effective teaching practices being used in one or more superiorly performing United States public high schools that had a high number of American Indian/Alaskan Native students. http://bit.ly/CultivatedGround

36. The State of Education for Native Students. The study outlines that progress in improving achievement among students of color, achievement results for Native students have remained nearly flat. As achievement has stagnated, the gaps separating Native students from their white peers have mostly widened. http://bit.ly/StateOfNativeEducation

Greetings from the Columbia University and Yale University Offices of Undergraduate Admissions! We invite you to join us for a special series of virtual chats to learn about selective college admissions and affordability.

Jessica Cho, Assistant Director and Native American Outreach Coordinator at Columbia, and Bowen Posner, Associate Director of Admissions and Coordinator of Native American Outreach at Yale, will offer two virtual chats to cover topics that we know are of concern for families and educators. You can tune into these chats from anywhere as long as you have an internet connection, and we will offer the chance to pose questions before and during the chat!

Over the next few weeks, we will be discussing the following topics:

Highly Selective Admissions, Tuesday, October 15th at 9:00pm EST: Registration Form
What does “highly selective admissions” mean? What do highly selective colleges look for in applicants? How do I best prepare myself or my students for the admission process?

Financial Aid: Tuesday, October 29 at 9:00pm EST: Registration Form
How does one afford a college education? What resources are available to offset the cost? What does the financial aid application process entail?

Please RSVP for the session(s) that most interest you, and and we encourage you to pose any pressing questions in advance on the registration form. We hope the academic year is off to a great start and look forward to the opportunity to speak and work with you over the upcoming weeks.

Sincerely,

Jessica Cho and Bowen Posner 

Walking In Balance In Indian Country.  https://www.facebook.com/events/693560837338612/?ref_dashboard_filter=upcoming

This conference is put together to enhance culturally appropriate approaches to better serve American Indian Crime Victims and their families and and to improve general services to the Native American community. The conference is hosted by The Northern California Tribal Healing Coalition Members that include local Tribes and Native agencies. All Social Service providers and agencies are encouraged to attend!  Registration limited to 200.  To get registration forms go to http://www.twofeathers-nafs.org/events2013oct.html