The World Eskimo-Indian Olympics is almost as old as the state of Alaska, but the games it features are far older. They test strength, agility, endurance and mental tenacity with unique contests developed by the Native people who have inhabited this end of the North American continent since before recorded history.

WEIO, which begins today at the Carlson Center, both preserves those traditional contests and provides a interesting, exciting show for residents and visitors alike. This is the only place on Earth that a person can spend a few days watching the modern version of Alaska’s ancient Native games.

It all began in Fairbanks in 1961, just two years after Alaska became a state. The games were organized with the help of the Fairbanks Chamber of Commerce and several local men who were familiar with Bush Alaska.

They worried that the traditional Native games and dancing would disappear as modern civilization moved into the villages. With the event still going strong decades later, WEIO has helped prevent those fears from becoming reality.

The event has more than sporting competitions and dancing exhibitions, too. There is a pageant, a baby contest, a Native regalia contest and, of course, an arts and crafts fair famous for its variety and volume.

Starting today, sporting events begin daily at

10 a.m. and are free. Evening events, which include dance performances, begin at 6 and cost $10 for adults, $8 for students and elders. For more information, go online to www.weio.org.

Next year, WEIO will celebrate its 50th anniversary, and organizers are already planning to recognize the half-century mark with special events. Compared to the hundreds or even thousands of years during which these games evolved, a half-century isn’t much. But it has been a time of great transformation in Alaska. WEIO has helped to sustain these unique traditions despite that change, and we’re all the richer for it.

via Fairbanks Daily News-Miner – The voice of Interior Alaska since 1903.

It will be an odd sort of a homecoming for Eric Brunnemann, the new superintendent at Badlands National Park.

He's never been to the badlands of western South Dakota. Yet, he feels like he's coming home to a landscape of lifelong familiarity.

“Those desert landscapes have been calling to me my whole life,” Brunnemann said Wednesday, during a telephone interview from Pinnacles National Monument in California, where he currently serves as superintendent. “You see things that just completely capture your imagination. And this is one. I made every effort to get this appointment.”

Brunnemann, a 49-year-old son of an Air Force father, spent most of his formative years in Texas. And he began and spent key periods of his National Park Service career in the arid, starkly beautiful landscapes of the Southwest, in places similar to South Dakota's badlands.

He fine-tuned archaeological skills and deepened his understanding of cultural resources that remain priceless to Native American tribes. That, too, is part of a Badlands National Park posting that becomes official on Aug. 29, when Brunnemann begins his superintendent duties.

Brunnemann succeeds former superintendent Paige Baker, who retired in December. Baker, a Native American of Mandan-Hidatsa descent, made outreach to and cooperation with the adjoining Oglala Tribe one of his priorities. That work is essential at the park because its southern portions are managed with the tribe.

Brunnemann has experience working with tribes and will continue the effort emphasized by Baker, said National Park Service Midwest regional director Ernest Quintana.

“Eric's work with tribal government and experience managing both natural and cultural resources will be of great benefit at Badlands,” Quintana said in a news release. “We look forward to having Eric as part of the Midwest management team.”

Brunnemann said he looks forward to continuing the work begun by Baker.

“I have watched with admiration the work of Paige Baker as Badlands developed its general management plan with the Oglala Sioux, and I am honored to now have the opportunity to be part of this journey,” he said.

If the official journey begins in late August, the personal one will start sooner. Brunnemann and his family will travel to Badlands National Park at the end of July for a vacation.

via Badlands National Park superintendent named.

To scientists, ancient human bones and artefacts from Native American burial sites can offer a unique window onto history. But to some modern Native American tribes, allowing researchers to study these remains amounts to desecration. Long-standing tensions between the two groups were meant to be eased by the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) of 1990, which allows tribes to reclaim many remains held in museum collections.

But the first official audit of the government agency that administers NAGPRA portrays a troubled organization that has failed to serve tribes well, and does not always give a fair hearing to scientists' claims. The final report, from the US Government Accountability Office (GAO), is expected by autumn, but Nature has obtained a draft that is currently under review. Both the GAO and the NAGPRA office in Washington DC declined to comment on the draft.

The act created a system in which museums, universities or federal agencies that hold ancient skeletal remains and associated funerary objects had to file inventories of such items by 1995 with the NAGPRA office, part of the US Department of the Interior. Any tribe could reclaim items that were shown to be culturally affiliated with it, while the remainder could be kept by institutions for further study. The GAO report says that under the NAGPRA, 142,186 specimens have been repatriated from 209,626 publicly disclosed items. These constitute 55% of the human remains and 69% of the associated funerary objects that were inventoried.

via Audit picks a bone with US relics office : Nature News.

Today’s passage of the Tribal Law and Order Act is an important step to help the federal government better address the unique public safety challenges that confront tribal communities. The fact is, American Indians and Alaska Natives are victimized by violent crime at far higher rates than Americans as a whole. Native communities have seen increased gang and drug activity, with some tribes experiencing violent crime rates at more than ten times the national average. And one in three Native women will be the victim of rape in her lifetime.

The federal government’s relationship with tribal governments, its obligations under treaty and law, and our values as a nation require that we do more to improve public safety in tribal communities. And this Act will help us achieve that. It will strengthen the relationship between the federal government and tribal governments. It will improve our ability to work with tribal communities in the investigation and prosecution of crime, and it authorizes resources for tribes to fight crime more effectively. While many members helped pass this bill, I especially want to applaud Senators Dorgan, Barrasso and Kyl, and Representatives Herseth Sandlin, Kildee, Cole, Conyers, Scott, Rahall, Simpson and Pastor for their leadership on this issue. I look forward to signing the Act into law.

via Statement by the President on the Passage of the Tribal Law and Order Act | The White House.

Buffalo, NY – The Iroquois Nationals, prevented from competing this week at the 2010 World Lacrosse Championships in England because of a passport dispute, will be recognized today at the Empire State Games in Buffalo.

The Seneca Nation of Indians will present a $10,000 check to team officials at 1:30 p.m. at the Rev. James M. Demske S.J. Sports Complex on the Canisius College campus. The athletic center is the venue for men’s lacrosse at the Empire State Games.

The money is intended to help defray the legal and travel expenses the Iroquois Nationals accumulated last week as the team unsuccessfully fought to travel to the world championships using passports issued by the six Haudenosaunee governments.

Nationals members insisted on using the Haudenosaunee passports as a matter of national identity. The British government, citing year-old rules requiring passports capable of being scanned, insisted that the team and its entourage carry U.S. or Canadian passports

The Senecas, Onondagas, Cayugas, Mohawks, Oneidas and Tuscaroras comprise the six Haudenosaunee governments.

via Senecas to honor Iroquois Nationals lacrosse team at Empire State Games | syracuse.com.

Three Oklahoma universities top a list of American Indian bachelor's degree producers in the nation, according to a report by Diverse Issues in Higher Education, a national publication.

Northeastern State University, Oklahoma State University and the University of Oklahoma had the most American Indian students who earned bachelor's degrees in 2008-09, the report shows. State universities made up six of the top 12 schools, and 12 of the top 100. Other high-ranking universities were Southeastern Oklahoma State University, East Central University and the University of Central Oklahoma.

Oklahoma schools consistently top the list, officials said. Representatives from several top-ranking universities said their universities have strong American Indian programs, services and student groups that attract students. Oklahoma also has a large American Indian population from which to draw, officials said.

via Oklahoma universities top list for most American Indian baccalaureate graduates | NewsOK.com.

As one of the original 13 colonies, Georgia is studded with rare, historic architectural gems. Since a year ago this summer, however, that treasure trove has been in jeopardy as Georgia’s historic sites have come under siege.

Because of Georgia’s budget crisis, the Division of State Parks & Historic Sites at the Department of Natural Resources cut funding to historic sites by more than 39 percent — reducing the number of staff and cutting their hours.

The Chieftain’s Trail, a cluster of Native American sites in northwest Georgia that features the 19th century plantation home of Cherokee leaders James and Joseph Vann, the Cherokee capital town of New Echota from the same historical period, and the ancient Etowah Mounds built by ancestors of southern Indians, have been especially hard hit, with their staff numbers reduced by half.

The Chief Vann House site, which includes a manor house, a restored Cherokee farmer’s cabin, an exhibit on African- American life, and award-winning formal gardens, is by far the most fully interpreted Native American historic site of its kind in the nation.

Besides the Chief Vann House, only one other restored Cherokee plantation home exists for public viewing — the Murrell House in Oklahoma. Despite its beauty, educational value, high visitation rates, and absolute rarity in the nation as a whole, the Chief Vann House, like other priceless sites on the Chieftain’s Trail, has seen drastic cuts in staff, hours and operating budget.

Local citizens groups and the Cherokee Nations of Oklahoma and North Carolina have organized to protect these Indian sites, but to no avail.

And now there is talk of removing remaining staff members and providing visitors with pre-recorded self-guided tours of historic sites — an insult to the worth and weight of these special places.

via Georgia’s historic sites need funds  | ajc.com.

On one side of the Ninepipes Museum in Charlo, at the heart of the Flathead Reservation in Northwest Montana, the display is dominated by Indian jewelry, blankets and traditional beaded moccasins. On the other side, it’s a collection of cowboy hats and paintings of white men on horses.

Indians and settlers have lived side by side on this reservation for 100 years, but at the museum – and in the community – the division between them is still evident.

This year is the centennial anniversary of the Flathead Indian Reservation being opened to settlers. In 1910, under the Homestead Act, settlers were allowed to claim land that had been set aside for the Kootenai, Salish and Pend d’Oreille tribes. Though the natives and non-natives didn’t share cultures, beliefs or lifestyles, they now share this history – which both groups are striving to preserve and re-tell.

Bud Cheff is in his mid-70’s, but when he gives a tour of the Ninepipes Museum – which he constructed and financed – he’s like a young boy, starting a new story before the last is finished.

Cheff, who has spent his life collecting the artifacts, pictures and paintings that fill the museum, walks to a glass case and looks at a shotgun inside. He squints, pointing out notches that have been carved into the gun’s leather handle. Each represents a buffalo killed, he says. Many of the notches have worn away by now, but there used to be more than 30.

That was in a different time, when wild buffalo roamed Montana from Pablo to Ravalli County, the last free-roaming herd in the country. Those buffalo were eventually captured and sold to Canada to make room for homesteaders, Cheff says.

“It took ‘em about seven years to catch them all, though,” he says, a small smile growing from the corners of his lips.

Cheff, who wears cowboy boots and a hat, is white, but grew up learning Indian traditions. His father used to go out with the natives to dig roots, gather herbs and hunt for pine nuts. That background has made Cheff integrate well with natives in the area.

via 100 Years of White Settlers on the Flathead Reservation: Is This a Celebration? | Guest Writer | Politics | NewWest.Net.