Every time I think people like Glenn Beck can't tick me off more than they have, they pull it out of somewhere.

Stumbled on this little bit in Indian Country Today about Glenn Beck comparing Indian Health Service to the proposed health care reform. It is a little bit "one plus one… Read full post »

I'm a little surprised this isn't getting more play in the news, but it would mean huge changes for the Native people of Hawaii if it were to pass. From RezNet:

Sam Hirsch, deputy associate attorney general for the Justice Department, told the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs Thursday that the… Read full post »

I was really intrigued with this man's story, after reading the article on Reznet. Joe Medicine Crow will receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in America, from Obama on Aug. 12.

A 95-year-old Crow Indian who wore war paint into battle beneath his World War II uniform a… Read full post »

Found this pretty interesting piece a few days ago in Indian Country Today:

Scholars are pushing evidence of human habitation in North America well beyond the non-Native accepted wisdom that places it at a relatively recent 13,000 to 14,000 years ago...

A perhaps-controversial 33,000 years ago, &ldquo… Read full post »

Okay, my impatience has finally paid off (not sure that had anything to do with it, but moving on!)

One of the major campaign promises of Obama's to Native people around the country was a Native senior policy advisor - and he's made good on that promise!

From RezNet:
Obama names Cherokee as Native… Read full post »

From Indian Country Today:

(World Health Organization) briefed reporters June 9 that reports to the agency of infections in Inuit communities in Canada showed “disproportionate numbers of serious cases occurring,” said WHO senior official Keiji Fukuda.

Read full post »

From Kyle Hopkins over at the ADN rural blog, The Village, on Palin's letter to Obama over rural flooding:

One of the bigger Alaska Native stories lately has been the congressional investigation of the federal contracts awarded Alaska Native corporations. Essentially, Alaska Native corporations are given contracts as disadvantaged businesses - or able to get the contracts without competition.

I haven't com… Read full post »

Such was my reaction to the ongoing news today.

Impressive - Ken Salazar.
(from the Anchorage Daily News)

Not impressive - Palin rural advisor John Moller
(from the Fairbanks Daily News Miner)

WTF?! - Palin's latest action regarding her appointment craziness.
(from the ADN)

And I do mean crazy.

Mudflats and… Read full post »

Have you ever heard of Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell?

How about George Orwell?

George Eliot? Boz? Junius? Voltaire? Lewis Carroll? Clive Hamilton? Publius?

How about Silence Dogood?

My guess is that some of these names are familiar to you - authors - and some not. They are all pen names - names the "real"… Read full post »

Alaska Native leaders ARE speaking out!

It's been a bit discouraging to NOT hear a lot of Native leader voices in public (I'm hearing many in private) about Palin's visit to Western Alaska recently. I've been wondering if that's because they are not speaking up, or because they are not being asked.… Read full post »

I spotted this bit in Obama's plan about meals for seniors, including specific allocations for Native programs. Without too much detail, I happen to know a little bit about the great importance local Native programs have right here in Anchorage - including having restrictions on how many seniors they… Read full post »

I was reading an article in the Arctic Sounder about the words of Byron Mallot, a well-respected Native leader in Alaska:

He’s an optimist, he said, who sees a future where Native and non-Native neighbors live side-by-side, have a sense of responsibility one to another and responsibility to ones… Read full post »

Something I'd be interested to get others' opinion on - in perusing the ADN Newsreader, they highlighted this Canadian "sentencing circle" practice.

From the article:

The sentencing circle is about "community building," he says; it is about "healing" those affected by crime, and those who committed… Read full post »

While perusing the ADN Newsreader, it struck me that two governors had some pretty bad timing when it came to spending they opposed. First, the "uproar" one, Gov. Jindal of Louisiana. He opposes the $140 million in the stimulus bill for volcano monitoring, and was pretty derisive in his address about… Read full post »

From the Alaska Report:

BIA Announces Emergency Funding for Emmonak, Alaska

Traveling to Bethel with U.S. Sen. Mark Begich today, Bureau of Indian Affair’s (BIA) regional director for Alaska, Niles Cesar, announced the BIA will provide emergency financial assistance to help residents in Emmonak… Read full post »

A month into the Obama Administration, and there are now officially some problems.

Okay, okay. Yeah, there were problems before, and it was never going to be perfect. But this one quite alarmed me from Indianz.com:

Obama administration to fight Indian preference case

If you don't know, Indian preference… Read full post »

For as much as I probably won't even know who the guy or gal is, I've been biting (proverbial, at least) nails to find out who Barack Obama will appoint as his senior Native American policy advisor.

After a tip from the overworked Dennis Zaki, I was happy to discover Michelle Obama… Read full post »

There was a great editorial in the Anchorage Daily News, written by a teacher from Bethel.
She addresses the breakdown of family as being the real problem:

What is killing our Native cultures is not our schools but the breakdown of our families.

Read full post »

Read full post »

Read full post »