Greetings, relatives. (can be in traditional language, make intro your own)
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The Coachella Valley is a diverse place, with soaring temperature extremes, underground mineral water aquifers, and abundant sunshine.
For the small Augustine Band of Cahuilla Indians, it is the tribe’s native land, and they are using those resources to forge a future that connects with their integrity, unity and family through Temalpakh Farm.
Just down the road from the tribe’s Augustine Casino, the farm’s well-tended operation on 50 acres produces an abundance of chard, kale, celery, butternut squash, and four kinds of dates, a major crop for the region.
The farm, which got its start about 10 years ago, draws its name from the Cahuilla word meaning “from the Earth.” All products are organic, local, sustainable and grown without the use of pesticides or chemicals.
“Starting an organic farm was my mom’s idea,” Ronnie Vance, a tribal council member, told ICT, sitting in the shaded landscaped courtyard of the Temalpakh Farm store. READ MORE. — Sandra Hale Schulman, Special to ICT
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For years, Sandy White Hawk has been invited to bring the Wabléniča Ceremony to Indigenous communities around the country, welcoming home fellow adoptees taken through adoption and foster care. Using cultural items to “wipe off the smog of shame, sadness, and hurt from the shoulders of all who stand in the circle,” healing can begin, the founder of Minnesota’s First Nations Repatriation Institute writes in a new memoir released Dec. 6.
Ceremonies, sweat lodges, and sundances have been key to White Hawk’s own recovery from a traumatic past as a Sicangu Lakota woman, she describes in “A Child of the Indian Race,” published by the Minnesota Historical Society Press.
“In the Wabléniča Ceremony, we can stand in the circle, open that part of our heart, and let the medicine of smoke from the sage, the sound of the drum, and the song go into that dark place and begin healing,” she writes. READ MORE. — The Imprint
After tidal surges and high winds from the remnants of a rare typhoon caused extensive damage to homes along Alaska’s western coast in September, the U.S. government stepped in to help residents — largely Alaska Natives — repair property damage.
Residents who opened Federal Emergency Management Agency paperwork expecting to find instructions on how to file for aid in Alaska Native languages like Yup’ik or Inupiaq instead were reading bizarre phrases.
“Tomorrow he will go hunting very early, and will (bring) nothing,” read one passage. The translator randomly added the word “Alaska” in the middle of the sentence.
“Your husband is a polar bear, skinny,” another said.
Yet another was written entirely in Inuktitut, an Indigenous language spoken in northern Canada, far from Alaska. READ MORE. — The Associated Press
The Jeannette Rankin Foundation earlier this month launched the Native Woman Program for Montana Indigenous students.
The program will award up to 60 education grants to women 25 and older attending tribal colleges in Montana.
The individual $2,500 grants are unrestricted and will be awarded directly to students, allowing them to use the funding in whatever way is most needed to reach graduation. READ MORE. — Missoulian
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Coming up, we learn about policy agenda items for Native nations in Montana and we talk Tlingit weavers. Plus, we tell you how we’re ramping up our Indigenous coverage in South Dakota and Oklahoma.
Watch:
Hundreds of Indigenous people disinterred by archaeologists at the historic Etowah Mounds in Northwest Georgia will be returned to their descendants with the cooperation of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.
Etowah is one of the most well known of the so-called Mississipian mound cities in the Southeast which thrived in the centuries leading up to European colonization. Those sites include Cahokia in Illinois, which is a UNESCO world heritage site. In Georgia, the Ocmulgee Mounds are now a National Historic Park. There are still about 100 major Mississippian sites.
Since the 1960s, displays of what was taken from the funeral mound have been the real draw to the state-run museum at Etowah in Bartow County about 45 miles north of Atlanta. Two marble statues of human figures are probably the best-known Etowah objects, but displays also included art, jewelry and, at one time, human remains. READ MORE. — GPB News
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- Five Indigenous mushers set to compete in 2023 Iditarod despite rising costs: First climate change and now financial worries are forcing some competitors to stay off the trail this year.
- Indigenous hockey sticks gifted: The hockey championship had some First Nations flair.
- Tribal leaders stress education, water issues in Colorado: Chairs of Southern Ute and Ute Mountain Ute highlight need for consultation and cooperation in their first annual address to the state’s General Assembly.
- Tribal chairman calls for collaboration in South Dakota: Crow Creek Sioux Tribe Chairman Peter Lengkeek delivered the annual State of the Tribes address to lawmakers at the Capitol.
- US renames places that used racist Native woman slur: The renamed sites are in California, North Dakota, Tennessee and Texas.
- VA plans to waive medical copays for Native American vets.
- Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara purchase of Las Vegas property comes under fire from former tribal chairman.
- Leaders needed to reconcile the races in South Dakota.
We want your tips, but we also want your feedback. What should we be covering that we’re not? What are we getting wrong? Please let us know. dalton@ictnews.org.
