Executive Order 13021 -Tribal
Colleges and Universities1998 NOTES FROM NATIVE AMERICA
(1) "Native American Geometry," an internet website developed by a Window Rock, Arizona, archaeologist and teacher, was selected as Cool Math Site of the Week by the Canadian Mathematical Society s Knot-A-Braid site for the week of September 15-21, 1998. Recently it was chosen by San Francisco s Exploratorium as a Top Ten site for October. The site will also be featured on Bonus.com s Supersite For Kids.
University of New Mexico Computer Science student and AISES member Shaun Tsabetsaye from Zuni, NM remarked, [The] website... is awesome. It's a breakthrough for Native American academics and philosophy.
Juliana Marez, Title IX Indian Education teacher from Roseburg, Oregon commented, I really liked the way you put it together. You re right: when you do the art, math happens!
Christopher Hardaker, the site's author and developer, says that "Native American Geometry is a 15-megabyte website that covers a broad range of hands-on exercises that integrates multicultural art with mathematics.
Subject matter ranges from Chaco Canyon s great kivas and prehistoric art to Madison Avenue's logos. "Though the site was primarily designed for students and teachers between 4th and 12th Grades, the methodology was originally developed as an archaeological tool," says Hardaker. The site is sponsored by the Navajo Nation s Dine College where Hardaker is an adjunct professor.
Hardaker, who has a M.A. in Anthropology (University of Arizona, 1989), is an educational consultant who has taught, lectured and given workshops for teachers (Grades 4-12) who are interested in what he calls "a revolutionary and scientific integration of art and mathematics for the cost of a compass and ruler." The geometry program seamlessly integrates the math with art traditions from around the world along with astronomy, architecture, Southwestern archaeology, and natural history.
The Native American Geometry website is designed to introduce students, educators and scholars alike to a multicultural perspective of geometry. "This paradigmatic perspective prevailed for millennia among many civilizations and cultures around the world," Hardaker says, "and yet it has somehow been overlooked or forgotten by modern educators and academicians."
"Native American Geometry" can be found on the internet at
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(2)
MEDALS OF HONOR SOUGHT FOR NATIVE AMERICAN CODE TALKERS
ANADARKO, OK, April 8, 1998 - Many of the American public know that in World War II a large number of Navajo served as "code talkers" for the Marines in the Pacific. There have been books and articles published which cover their service, and they have been highly honored in many ways.
Fewer people are aware, however, that there were other code talkers in both World Wars from many tribes who served in the Pacific and in Europe. In all, at least 17 tribes have been identified as serving in this manner by Dr. William C. Meadows, an Anadarko, OK scholar whose book on the
Comanche code talkers of World War II is currently under review by the University of Texas Press. The tribes identified include Cheyenne, Comanche, Cherokee, Choctaw, Osage, and Yankton Sioux in WW I, and in WW II, Chippewa, Creek, Hopi, Kiowa, Menominee,Comanche, Muscogee-Seminole, Navajo, Choctaw, Oneida, Pawnee, Sac & Fox, and Sioux (both Lakota and Dakota dialects).
Meadows identifies two types of code talking, which he calls Type I and Type II. The former involved actual encoding of messages and translation of code into the code talkers' native languages. The second type involved the planned or spontaneous use of Native American languages to relay strategic messages without further encoding.
An informational appendix is included below which identifies the tribes whose warriors served United States armed forces in this manner, beginning with the Choctaw in World War I, who practiced the first type of code talking. In all instances, the use of these native languages foiled enemy attempts to decipher the communications of United States armed forces.
The result was often a dramatic turn in the tide of battle, and thousands of allied lives were saved which would have inevitably been lost in continued fighting.
The code talking of these American Indian warriors was practiced under dangerous, harrowing conditions, willingly and without question. Perhaps even more remarkable, it was a service which they rendered to a government which had conquered their own people. Some of the code talkers lost their lives, and many were wounded during the two World Wars. Many of these brave men have since passed on to the land of the spirits, unrecognized by this country. The United States has never officially recognized the code talkers, although the French government awarded them or their tribes their highest military honor in 1989.
Appendix adapted from:
Meadows, William C. _They Spoke Comanche: the Comanche Code Talkers in World War II_. In Press. University of Texas Press, Austin, TX.
INFORMATIONAL APPENDIX:
Native American Code Talkers : World Wars I and II
Code Talking Types 1 and 2: Explanation
Type 1 = Formally developed special coded-encoded vocabularies in Native American languages.
Type 2 = Informal use of everyday non-coded Native American languages.
World War I:
Tribes Type of Code Talking (1 or 2)
> >Cheyenne 2
> >Choctaw (15) 1
> >Comanche 2
> >Cherokee 2
> >Osage 2
> >Yankton Sioux 2
World War II
> >Comanche (17) 1
> >Navajo (420) 1
> >Chippewa 2
> >Choctaw 2
> >Creek 2
> >Hopi 2
> >Kiowa 2
> >Menominee 2
> >Muscogee-Seminole 2
> >Oneida 2
> >Pawnee 2
> >Sac and Fox (19) 2
> >Sioux (Lakota & Dakota) 2
FOR FURTHER INFO:
Liz Pollard, Smoke Signals Enterprises,
505 W. Louisiana Ave.,
Anadarko,OK 73005
(405)247-2251 Email: lpollard@smokesig.com
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(3)
Ohiyesa Remembers the Past
(Lakota) Sioux
As a child I understood how to give; I have forgotten this grace since I became civilized. I lived the natural life, whereas now I live the artificial. Any pretty pebble was valuable to me then; every growing tree an object of reverence. Now I worship with the white man before a painted landscape whose value is estimated in dollars! Thus the Indian is reconstructed, as the natural rocks are ground to powder and made into artificial blocks which may be built into the walls of modern society.
The first American mingled with his pride a singular humility. Spiritual arrogance was foreign to his nature and teaching. He never claimed that the power of articulate speech was proof of superiority over the dumb creation; on the other hand, it is to him a perilous gift. He believes profoundly in silence - the sign of a perfect equilibrium. Silence is the absolute poise or balance of body, mind, and spirit. The man who preserves his selfhood is ever calm and unshaken by the storms of existence - not a leaf, as it were, astir on the tree; not a ripple upon the surface of the shining pool - his, in the mind of the unlettered sage, is the ideal attitude and conduct of life.
If you ask him: "What is silence?" he will answer "It is the Great Mystery!" "The holy silence is His voice!" If you ask: "What are the fruits of silence?" he will say: "They are self-control, true courage or endurance, patience, dignity , and reverence. Silence is the cornerstone of character."
"Guard your tongue in youth," said the old chief, Wabashaw, "and in age you may mature a thought that will be of service to your people!"
from: Charles Alexander Eastman, The Soul of the Indian. Eastman (Ohiyesa) was born near Redwood Falls, MN, in 1858, His father was a full blooded Sioux, his mother the daughter of an army office, granddaughter of a famous Sioux chief. As a boy he lived still the free nomadic life of his people; later, however, he took up the ways of the white man, went to college, graduated in 1887 at Dartmouth College, NH, whereupon he took medical courses at Boston University.
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(4) From "This Week In American Indian History"
November 11th:
1804: Lewis and Clark meet Sacajawea.
1907: An Executive Order today will set aside certain lands for the JICARILLA APACHEs in New Mexico.
1912: The OSAGE tribe will have an oil lease auction for its Oklahoma reservation today. Many auctions are held under an elm tree in Pawhuska, Oklahoma. Eighteen leases sell for over $1,000,000. The tree will be called "The Million Dollar Elm."
November 14th :
1638: According to some sources, the first Indian reservation is established in Connecticut
1805: Lewis and Clark reach the Pacific.
November 15th :
1836: West Point graduate, and CREEK Indian, David Moniac, is promoted to Major today during the SEMINOLE War. He will lead soldiers in several engagements, including the Battle of Wahoo Swamp, where he will be killed 2 weeks from now.
1944: The National Congress of American Indians holds its' first meeting, and is established, today. The NCAI established to "enlighten the public toward a better understanding of the Indian race, to preserve Indian cultural values, to seek an equitable adjustment of tribal affairs, to secure and to preserve Indian rights under Indian treaties with the United States, and otherwise promote the common welfare of the American Indians. Judge Napoleon Johnson (CHEROKEE) is elected at the organization's first President.
November 16th
1805: The CHOCTAW sign a treaty today.
1990: The Native American Grave Protection Act takes place.
1858: Thomas Henley, Indian Superintendent in San Francisco, receives a notice from J.W.Denver, of the Commissioner's Office of Indian Affairs, dated today. The notice says the Secretary of the Interior has decided to set aside the entire Nome Cult Valley (Round Valley, California) as an Indian Reservation.
November 19th
1619: Today, representatives of the British colony in Virginia, and the POWHATAN Confederacy will agree to a treaty of alliance.
November 22nd :
1873: Colorado River Agency addition: President Grant, by Executive Order today, adds to the Colorado River Agency. The land will be at the old northern boundary to within 6 miles of Ehrenberg, Arizona. This is east of the river to the "mountains and mesas." It will eventually be 376 square miles in size. It will be home to: CHEMEHUEVI, WALAPAI, KOWIA, COCOPA, MOHAVE and YUMA Indians.
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(5) The American Indian Science & Engineering Society (AISES)
is a national American Indian
- Educational and professional opportunities for
- Undergraduate and graduate scholarships for
- 150 AISES College Chapters
- Nationwide teacher training and curriculum
- Precollege summer math and science programs
- The National American Indian Science & Engineering Summer Environmental Youth Camp
- 100 High School Chapters
- Winds of Change Magazine
- Annual National Conference & Career Fair
This year will be AISES' 20th annual conference and will be held in Denver, CO Dec. 3, 4, and 5th. Major sponsors for the 1998 conference are IBM and Hewlett-Packard. Activities include a career fair, interviews, concurrent sessions, a traditional dinner and awards banquet, and traditional closing pow wow.
When I attended last year's conference in Houston, nearly 2000 people were in attendance.This year I have been fortunate enough to be part of the local planning committee. We have had a number of people sign up from the Denver OSM office as volunteers, with the Regional Director's support.
To learn more, AISES has a website at:
http://bioc02.uthscsa.edu/aisesnet.html
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(6)
Even though virtually all of the coastal states and provinces of North American have European names, most of the states and provinces of the American interior still bear Indian names such as Yukon, Ontario, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan in the north, and Alabama, Mississippi, Texas - Caddo for "friend" - and Arizona in the south.
Often these names reflect the tribal names of the people who lived in an area. Such names might be a tribe's own name for itself, or it might be the name given them by a neighboring group. We have states named for the Dakota, the Kansa, the Masachuset, the Illini, and the Utes. Some are names that describe the land or water. Iowa is a Siouan word for "beautiful land", Wyoming derives from the Algonquian word for a large prairie, Michigan is Ojibwa for "great water", and Minnesota is Siouan for "waters that reflect the sky". The original meanings are often rather straightforward, but translators and local boosters have usually worked to derive the most poetic names possible.
Nebraska means "flat" or "broad river" in the Omaha language; this makes it similar in meaning but not pronunciation to the Algonquian term for "long river" that eventually became Connecticut. Ohio means "good river" in Iroquoian languages, and Oregon means "beautiful water" in Algonquian. Kentucky has one of the more mysterious meanings: "dark and bloody ground".
The native people often gave such simple, descriptive names as these to places because such names had greater utilitarian value than the names of people. Because native people rarely made or used maps, descriptive names helped native travelers to recognize places.
From:
Native Roots: How the Indians Enriched America, by Jack Weatherford, 1991
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(7) I tried to answer one of your questions earlier this month on native customs of thanksgiving. Along these lines, I wanted to share this little bit of Ojibwe lore concerning their understanding of creation and origin of thanksgiving. I wish all of you a joyous holiday with your loved ones.
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With the creation of the physical world and the beings in it, the work of Creator (Kitchi-Manitou) was complete. Creator had done all that needed to be done. From that moment on, the onus was on men and women and their co-tenants on the Earth - the animals, birds, insects, fish, and plants - to continue the work put in motion by Creator. Creator had furnished them with all they required to fulfill their visions and purposes.
Creator had done everything that was needed to be done and had provided all the means for humankind's well-being, growth and accomplishment, so Creator was finished with the world and would take no further part in humankind's affairs.
But was the Creator's abdication from the world and its affairs an act of disinterest? On the contrary, creation was seen as the highest act of selflessness, of generosity, that anyone can perform - the sharing of one's gifts. And Creator's grant of fredom to human beings to seek and fulfill their visions and dreams according to their individual abilities as an act not only of generosity but of trust.
And what obligation do the recipients and beneficiaries owe their benefactor for the abundance and variety of benefits received? What would be the most fitting gift to tender to Creator in recompense for all the things they received? Nothing. There was not a thing that human beings could offer Creator in return, other than to imitate Creator in the exercise of selflessness and generosity. By giving and sharing one's goods, knowledge, experience, and abilities with the less fortunate of their kin and neighbors - the elderly, sick, widows and orphans - human beings could emulate Creator.
From the innate sense of gratitude felt by most men and women sprang the practice of offering thanksgiving on public occasions and in private.
From: The Manitous, by Basil Johnston, 1995
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(8)
This is the last Note from Native America for this year. It has been my pleasure to provide information for you and also to receive the numerous comments and expressions of support. My thanks goes out to you all.
On Nov. 13 and 14, I was fortunate to be able to attend the Department of the Interior Tribal College Summit, in which the Executive Order establishing agency support for Tribal Colleges and Universities was examined and discussed. There was a lot of enthusiastic energy in the DOI team which put the Summit together. It was exciting for me to come away with ideas for many potential opportunities for the Office of Surface Mining to be able to implement the Order. I hope to be able to continue assisting OSM in this regard, helping to enhance education at all levels in Indian Country. Next year in November, I hope to be able to report to you some of the advances made in those OSM programs involving theTribal College Initiative.
Attached is a copy of Executive Order 13021 -Tribal Colleges and Universities
Until next year -