Hope on the Rez: The American Indian College Fund

Just had to share this video. It is an amazing little promotional piece.

I gotta feeling. Kids are great! Have fun kids! Let old folks join :D

 University does a one take on the song.


It is going to get good.

"We're going to have a ball...


Isn't it great there are young people in the world?

Others:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EeGDRSWB46w&feature=related UVIC  British Columbia
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mw6I51UE1W8&feature=related  Boston
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJkjDAFuB1M&feature=fvwrel EMLYON business school
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5cJDBGR-14&feature=related  Montreal
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7TI-AJi2O8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZuvMZvVMNY&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqma8fFJzNI&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKKK8JVrbfs&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5QnGrO1ATQ&feature=related

Rewarding bad behaviour

Anti-gang initiatives have been in the news lately. With the month of April anti-gang programs are being dropped by the Federal government, some people and politicians are showing concern. "It costs less to stop kids from joining gangs than putting them in jail". Jail is an awful thing for the young people, Aboriginal kids. Death is also an awful thing for our kids.
Our kids are dying. Maybe not right away, but the life for Aboriginal people is a tough one. Going into gangs might be a way for some kids to try and make money. Gangs is not about alternative families. If someone tells you that, punch them right in the face. That is pure bullshit. Gang lifestyle is all about being lazy. A lazy way to make a living. Think about it. They make money by visiting, talking with other people. Lot of them sit at home and the buyers come to their house. No having to be on time for anything. No deadlines to meet. No obligations. Except for owing the supplier. Even then sellers mess up. Can't even make that one obligation. Gang lifestyle, drug dealing life is the easy lazy way out. However, it steals life. Drug dealers and gangsters are directly responsible for loss of life.
So why do Gangsters get rewarded by the public? If you quit the gangs, or pretend to quit the gangs you are rewarded. Paid for doing anti-stuff? In many cases the anti=gang message is pure bullshit. Exaggerated stories of big money and fun in the gangs. Are these the same gang members that stay in public housing complexes? Drive stolen bikes because they can't afford a vehicle or license? The same gang members that stand around the outside of skid bars? Are these the same gang members crying for their women to wait for them to call from jail? Wanting their girl friends to bring the babies over to the remand centre so they can look out the windows? Make their girl friends do time with them, making them stay home while they are in jail? Yeah the good life for sure.
I think that the Native communities should try new things. Try to encourage good behaviour before they need to reward the bad guys/girls.
Let's face it.Aboriginal people face hardships. The hardships manifested in the lifestyle of our kids, our selves, our community and our politicians. If this were not true, wouldn't we be in a better social, economic, spiritual, healthier, and political environment? Wouldn't our kids be finishing school? Not joining gangs? You want to know the reflection of our community, start at home. Of course we have exceptions, that is true in all of society. Largely our community(s) is suffering. How do we fix it?How do we fix it?
That is where the dialogue starts.
There are training programs and funding for Aboriginal people. I think instead of continuing with the same old lifeskills programs that are band-aid solutions, maybe the community should do something more drastic.
I know that it may not be a solution, but it might be an different try for a short-term.
But maybe good behaviour or trying could be rewarded. The Reserve could give cash incentives to kids that are successful in joining the army or the police service or some other career organization. A place that takes the youth out of the environment and gives them a new look at things.
Giving a cash reward of ten thousand to a kid who has successfully been accepted in the police or army. These two entities teach new skills. Like discipline, team work, obligations, commitment and it goes on. Pride in accomplishment will just come with that as well.

It may not be the answer for everyone, but it could be for some.

Tommy Prince, decorated warrior.




A reflection in pride, heritage and an alternative to the "life".

Heard you been talkin' bout me?

My brother in law Smiley and I were friends as kids. Not best friends but did alright. He lived about a half-mile (a kilometer) away from the school. We were about 14 years old. He asked me to come with him. Poody and his brother Waab lived not too far away from Smileys. Smiley had an older brother Merv. Merv was a fantastic fighter. But in this case Smiley asked me to come with him. He was going to fight Poody.
We caught up to Poody on the road close to his house. I was only there just in case his brother was around. To make sure two of them didn't jump on Smiley.
So we walk up to Poody on the highway and Smiley says "heard you been talkin' bout me?".  Poody says "Let me go home and change my shoes". So Poody walks away and goes to his house. We stood around on the road talking with each other. I don't recall how long it took, but "I don't think this guy is coming back?".

Old Poody sure pulled a good one.


Funny how kids are. I don't think that kind of thing would happen these days. I believe that for what ever reason kids are wiser. If not wiser, more aware. Like childish things are not for children anymore. No more pretending to play with imaginary men in war or other games> Kids seem to have different interests. It is not cool to be a kid for too long. I worry about that. I know every kids wants to grow up, but I like the child who can laugh at farts or just laughs because they like to laugh.

Too much sadness and trouble in growing up. I prefer  kids that are kids. Dumb as knobs. Happy as a puppy in a pile of stink.

Water:

I have been thinking of medicine a lot lately. Been wondering why we discount so much Traditional medicine. For example the Chinese have a civilization that is ancient. They have practiced the art of Medicine for so long that some of what they have learned must be valuable. But yet we are attracted or conditioned to go right for the "pill". A pill, made of things that profit companies have put out to help what ails us. We depend on the companies to cure us of sickness. I wonder why we do not have belief in things that are not company driven? Even if we do not believe in a higher power, prayer, we should have some faith in our fellow people. Belief in things other than companies, institutions but of people. I am hoping to have a more open mind when it comes to thinking about modern medicine and old medicine. Maybe each has good to them.


When you go to ceremonies there are Women who carry the Water. Water is the life-giver. In Teachings there are the Women of the water. Each a different aspect of Water and Teachings.
Most likely ALL people realize that water is beautiful. That we need water. That water is vital to life. I think we can agree on that. But how much do we really know about water?

"The Seventh Prophet was younger than the others who had come and there was a glowing light from his eyes. He said that there would come a time when the waters had been so poisoned that the animals and plants that lived there would fall sick and begin to die. Much of the forests and prairies would be gone so the air would begin to lose the power of life."


I saw this film the other day and felt that maybe it might interest some people. It is quite extraordinary look at the memory that Water has and its structure, properties. The amazing memory of water. The way it bends, and moves. It is unbelievable.

I really liked the words that mean much: Love & Gratitude. That is what I took away from the movie.

If nothing I hope it entertains your brain and gets you to question.


http://rightojibwe.blogspot.com/2009/08/inside-voice.html

Water and air, the two essential fluids on which all life depends, have become global garbage cans.

-Jacques Cousteau (1910-1997)

The littlest birds sing the prettiest songs

Babies cry and they laugh. No one has the best laugh as a child does. I like that.
Can you hear the laughter of the children?

Give me My Father's Body. A book that should be read.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/north/story/2011/01/27/north-experimental-eskimo-lawsuit-inuit.html#ixzz1CH2Wbraq

In the 1950's and 1960's Seven Inuit (In the U.S. the term Eskimo is still used) from Nunavut were taken from their homes to be raised in Southern foster homes. It was an experiment (the term experimental Eskimo comes from the government documents).  It didn't go so well for the Seven children. They have attempted to file a lawsuit, but it does not look like it will be heard. The rationale is that it has been too long. So that's how it goes. One of the interesting things that the government did in effort to track the Inuit was to issue tag's to them. Like dog tags. The Inuit traded the tags with each other, so the information on tracking them was not accurate. Kind of funny trick to pull on the government.  If you think of bird tagging or animal tagging, that is what the government was trying to do with the Inuit. As the Inuit lived in a very harsh climate, lived a sustenance lifestyle and traveled with the weather and season.

This brought to mind a book I had purchased a few years ago. I didn't finish reading it. I did read the beginning and then I  lent the book to this old lady, an Elder and I never had the chance to get it back. But I always remember what I read and how horrible and callus that " pioneer", Robert Peary was. He was heralded as a great explorer. He was a bad man but you wouldn't know it by the press coverage he received. I hope you get to read the book.

Minik in 1897. He was left to fend for himself in New York.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0HSP/is_1_5/ai_83698174/ This is a short review of the book.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minik_Wallace Wikipedia article


http://www.amazon.com/Give-Me-My-Fathers-Body/dp/1883642531

"At last returning to print, Give Me My Father's Body is the thought-provoking tale of Minik, a young Inuit boy brought to New York by Robert Peary around the turn of the 20th century. Told simply and interspersed with personal letters and newspaper clippings, the book examines Minik's life both as a cross-cultural meeting place and a deeply personal search for a place to call "home." Photographs throughout of Minik give a glimpse into the incredible differences between the multiple worlds he inhabited, and how impossible it must have been to live in these worlds successfully. The title derives from one of Minik's more harrowing experiences--finding his father's bones displayed in a natural-history museum as a "curiosity"--and his attempts to retrieve the bones for a more respectful burial. Author Kenn Harper, while including many facts and articles about Arctic exploration, refrains from sharing opinions about the various explorers or their methods, choosing to share this story--and his years of research--plainly. From the death of Minik's birth father to the financial ruin of his American foster family, the events of Minik's childhood seem like one disaster after another, and his adulthood--the successful return to Greenland, followed by disappointment and a subsequent return to New York--is an unhappy struggle to find some kind of personal fulfillment. Questions of racial and cultural differences make an inescapable larger framework for Minik's life, and the emotions brought forward in answering those questions make reading this book a powerful experience. --Jill Lightner

From Publishers Weekly

When six-year-old Minik was chosen as one of six Eskimos from Qaanaaq, Greenland, to accompany explorer Robert Peary to New York City in 1897, he expected a brief adventure. Instead, he became an orphan and an exile. Treated as scientific curiosities, Minik's father and three others quickly succumbed to pneumonia, leaving the boy alone after the only other survivor returned to Greenland. Adopted by a middle-class family, Minik enjoyed a few relatively happy years until the family suffered financial disgrace. Peary refused to help support the boy or finance his return to Greenland, and Minik languished in poverty for several years. The horrific climax to his ordeal came when Minik learned that his father's body had been put on display at the American Museum of Natural History. Though his efforts to claim the body launched a media frenzy, they ultimately failed. Minik eventually returned to Greenland, where he had to relearn his native language and customs. Feeling marginalized among his people, he returned to the U.S. in 1916 only to die here two years later. Harper, who has lived for more than 30 years in the Arctic and is fluent in the Canadian Eskimo language, tells Minik's story straightforwardly and with sympathy. Yet he adheres so scrupulously to Minik's letters and other written accounts that his narrative is sometimes dry. As a tale of scientific arrogance, however, the book is chilling; as a portrait of an exploited, charming, intelligent, needy, sometimes vengeful and culturally ambivalent individual, it is truly unforgettable. B&w photographs. (Apr.) BOMC selection; rights sold in England, France, Germany and Spain; film rights optioned by Kevin Spacey.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc."