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Mofe News from Indian Country
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Pdge 9
Teen uses song to preserve language
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP)
— Alyson McCarty speaks Latin.
She knows a little Greek and few
words of Spanish. But when the
14-year-old sings, she sings in her
mother’s language of Yup’ik.
McCarty recently recorded
her seventh CD of Yup’ik and
E nglish hym ns. O f the 14
tracks, McCarty recorded four
in Yup’ik. There’s a rendition of
“A m azing G race” called
“Naklekuti Nitnirqekria” and a
translation of the Lord’s Prayer.
Even the thank-yous, “Quyana,”
are in the Western Alaska lan­
guage.
M cCarty’s CDs have been
heard on radio stations in Bethel,
Nome and Fairbanks. She sang
“God Be With You” in Yup’ik
at a memorial for Lu Young,
Don Y oung’s late G w ich’in
Tribe explores
if Arctic
grayling
restorable
DETROIT (AP) - Long be­
fore the arrival of white trap­
pers, loggers and farmers, Ot­
tawa Indians fished the waters
of northern Michigan for abun­
dant native species like the iri­
descent, high-finned Arctic gray-
ling.
Overfishing and habitat de­
struction drove the grayling to
extinction in the state decades
ago.
But one band of Ottawa In­
dians has landed a $200,000 fed­
eral grant to work to bring it
back.
The band has enlisted Michi­
gan Technological University
scientists for a two-year research
effort to test the feasibility of
reintroducing the grayling in the
Big Manistee River watershed of
the northern Lower Peninsula.
The study concentrates on a
short and relatively pristine sec­
tion o f the 230-m ile river in
eastern Manistee County.
Restoration m ight happen
soon, or perhaps only after many
years.
Athabascan wife, at the 2009
Alaska Federation of Natives
convention.
That year she recorded a CD
of hymns entirely in Yup’ik.
McCarty counts her growing
discology as one more step -
along with efforts to create
Inupiaq language educational
softw are or revive the dead
Eyak tongue - in the effort to
preserve fading Alaska Native
languages.
M cCarty said she doesn’t
hear teens her age speaking the
w ords her m other, M innie
M cC arty, grew up w ith in
Napakiak.
“Maybe if I sing it, they’ll
want to learn their language,” she
said.
Napakiak is 15 miles south­
w est o f B eth el on the
K uskokw im R iver, w here
Minnie said teachers forced her
to speak English in school.
“Otherwise we get whipped
with a ruler or put in a closet,”
she said.
Minnie began teaching her
daughter the chorus of hymns
in Yup’ik when the girl was 6 or
7 years old. Now A lyson is
teaching herself to read the lan­
guage too, sounding out the
words that she’s been singing.
When people send text mes­
sages to Minnie in Yup’ik, she
so m etim es asks A lyso n to
translate, the mother said. “It’s
on Facebook that people start
talking to me in Yup’ik or my
brother would text me... And
I couldn’t read nothing,” she
said.
“And then A lyson would
A tT y g h V a lle y
Marge Kalamâ for the Spilyay
Warm Springs Chief
Delvis Heath (above at
microphone) and
drummers welcome
visitors to the Wasco
County Fair and Rodeo,
held this past weekend
atTygh Valley.
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ro.
EARLY HEAD START
Pregnant Women + Children o to 3-yrs.-oid
Services Include:
*preschoo|
*£r)acKs/(Y)eals
*Home Visits
*Group Socials
^Family Services
^Health +
American Indian activist
Means battling cancer
PORCUPINE, S.D. (AP)
— An American Indian activ­
ist who says he has survived
nine assassination attempts is
now battling throat cancer.
Former American Indian
M ovem ent leader R ussell
Means said that doctors have
told him the cancer is too
advanced for surgery. He
says he would not have cho­
sen surgery anyway because
it would have meant the re­
moval of his tongue and his
ability to speak.
M eans also is forgoing
m ainstream m edical treat­
ments such as radiation and
chemotherapy, turning instead
to alternative treatments and
traditional American Indian
remedies.
He says he is at peace with
the possibility that he might
die because Lakota people
believe death is a change of
worlds.
Means also is an actor,
known for his role in “The
Last of the Mohicans.”
HUD says Lumbees must
repay more than $98,000
PEMBROKE, N.C. (AP) -
The federal housing agency says
the Lumbee Indian Tribe must
repay more than $98,000 in mis­
spent money.
The Fayetteville O bserver
reports that the U.S. Depart­
ment of Housing and Urban
Development initially said the
tribe misspent $115,000.
Tribal chairwoman Sharon
Hunt says she intends to further
appeal.
M ost of the money stems
from a contract with a Wash­
ington, D.C., consulting firm
hired to help the tribe earn fed­
eral recognition and assist in its
housing program.
The federal agency says the
tribe must reimburse $62,000
for hiring the firm without a
competitive bid process.
It also says the tribe paid a
contractor too much to evalu­
ate its Boys and Girls Club. The
tribe must repay about $25,000
for that contract, which adjusts
her hourly rate from $110 an
hour to $21.
SANTA CRUZ, Calif. (AP)
— Protesters want construction
halted at a California housing
development after builders un­
earthed Native American re­
mains at what is believed to be
a 6,000-year-old burial site.
The Santa Cruz Sentinel says
about 100 people participated
in a two-mile march on Sunday
to demand a halt to construc­
tion of 32 homes.
Protesters held signs reading,
“All cemeteries are sacred” and
“No b u lld o zers on sacred
ground.”
C o ro n er’s
in v estig ato r
Naomi Silva says a partial skull
or mandible of a Native Ameri­
can child was found buried in
the grassy open space earlier this
month by builder KB Homes.
A piece of an Indian necklace
was also found at the nine-acre
site.
Sunday’s demonstration was
organized by a group called
Save the Knoll, which formed
about a week ago after mem­
bers learned about the remains.
Am erican Indian heads
Coconino County supervisors
APPLY NOW!
* '
August 24-, 2011
Protest after remains unearthed
Head £tart/Eariy Head Start
A TO
sound it out for me and I un­
derstand what he's saying.”
One o f the frequent mes­
sages from home: “When are
you coming?”
Alyson also is thinking of
creating English versions of
Yup’ik songs, such as a tune on
the new CD called “When I was
Lonely,” which she says was writ­
ten by a m an from the
Kongiganak after his wife left
him.
The latest disc is called “For
Those Tears I Died.” The title
song is dedicated to people who
have contemplated suicide in
rural Alaska, where suicide rates
are many times the national av­
erage, Alyson told Bethel radio
station KYUK in June.
M cC arty’s m usic can be
found online at alysongrace.com
Spilyay Tymoo
^Connection to
Community
■Resources
^parent
Involvement
^Transportation
(where available)
E1/ECSE
Dental In fo
for More Information
Call: (5ÏD553-32Ÿ2
Idaho Lottery:
Tribe complies
w ith gaming
compact
COEUR D’ALENE, Idaho
(AP) — The Idaho Lottery chief
says the Coeur d’Alene Tribe is
complying with its gaming com­
pact with the state.
The comments from Lottery
director Je ff Anderson are in
response to a recent report by
the Coeur d’Alene Press that
says the northern Idaho tribe
wouldn’t disclose details of how
it contributes the required 5
percent of its annual net gam­
ing income to support educa­
tion.
In an email to the newspa­
per, Anderson said tribal offi­
cials are “good stewards of
their gaming activities and gen­
erous neighbors.”
Lottery audits show 5 per­
cent o f the tribe’s 2010 net
gaming income was $1.5 million,
and the tribe decides how that
m oney is disbursed. Tribe
spokesman Helo Hancock said
the tribe takes pride in making
education contributions but
chooses not to announce them
publicly.
He said, “The determination
of how and when the amounts
are distributed each fiscal year
is at the sole discretion of the
Tribe per the compact.”
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) - A
Navajo woman from Tuba City
has become the first American
Indian to head the Coconino
County Board of Supervisors.
Lena Fowler began in the
new position last week. She says
she’s excited to serve as the
board’s chairwoman through
mid-April.
Fowler was elected to repre­
sent the upper central portion
of the county that she says is
rich in cultural diversity and re­
sourceful citizens. She’s in the
third year of her first four-year
term.
County spokesman Gregory
Roybal says each of the five su­
pervisors is given an opportu­
nity to lead the board at least
once during their term.
H istorian builds C hickasaw
legacy w ith in terview s
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -
Tribal historian Richard Green
was disappointed at the lack of
material detailing the lives of
m em bers o f the C hickasaw
Nation. So he did something
about it.
Green worked to collect oral
histories o f members of the
nation. M ost o f the 40,000
Chickasaws now live in Okla-
homa, having been forced from
north Mississippi and elsewhere
in the southeast to Indian Terri­
tory.
Green said most of the his­
tories he found 20 years ago
didn’t include the perspective of
the Chickasaws themselves.
Green has since used oral his­
tories to publish four books and
numerous articles.
Flandreau Indian School students
attending South Dakota State
BROOKINGS, S.D. (AP) -
Ten recen t grad u ates o f
Flandreau Indian School will
attend South Dakota State Uni­
versity this fall.
They’re part of the SDSU-
FIS Success Academy, an early
college preparatory program
started in 2000 to help more
American Indian high school
students move on to higher edu­
cation.
Each o f the students re ­
ceived a $1,500 H en rietta
Roberti Native American Schol­
arship.
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