::Native.Strength::

February 19, 2011

Ahkwesahsne Mohawk School Science on the Wall Results

Filed under: Canada,Education,Native Education,News Alerts — leeanne @ 2:00 pm

Every year Ahkwesahsne Mohawk School holds a science fair called Science on the Wall, in which students research a subject of their choice and present it as an experimental or study project. Research topics this year spanned the alphabet with air pollution and zombies being studied.

In third grade, first place winners were Colton General and Ella Bero; second place winners were Angel Cook and Jessica White; and third place winners were Angelina Roundpoint and Brittney Lazore.

In fourth grade, first place winners were Teeweewees Swamp, Laney Tahy and Tiana Leef; second place winners were Shayna Jacobs and Ocean Francis-Roundpoint; and third place winners were Havana Benedict, Reese Francis, Jimmy Jock and Jaida Square.

In fifth grade, first place winners were Trinity Jock-Cole and Devyn Nichols; second place winners were Karson Porter Leaf and Keighlan Herne Thompson; and third place winners were Edward Thomas and Angel Edwards-Square.

“Congratulations to all the winners and to all the students who participated at this year’s Science Fair,” said Robert Boyer, of the Ahkwesahsne Mohawk School in a press release. “Also, nia:wenko:wa/thank you to all the judges who took the time to help us out.”

Read more @ Indian Country Today Media Network.com.

February 22, 2011

Akaka Now Leads Senate Committee on Indian Affairs

Filed under: News Alerts,Politics — kpolisse @ 2:00 pm

WASHINGTON – Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hi., was elected Feb. 16 as the new chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs for the 112th Congress. According to the Senate, he is the first Native Hawaiian to chair the committee, and he was elected unanimously by members of the committee at its first organizational meeting of the year.

“Our native communities face problems that are serious, severe, and sometimes chronic,” Akaka said in a press release. “I intend to continue the long tradition of working together on this committee in a bipartisan manner to find solutions that will improve the lives and strengthen the futures of America’s native people.”

Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., was re-elected to serve as vice-chairman.

“Both Akaka and Barrasso pledged to continue the committee’s tradition of bipartisanship in addressing issues important to American Indians, Alaska Natives and Native Hawaiians,” according to a press release from the committee.

“At the meeting, the committee also adopted its rules for the new Congress and its funding resolution for committee operations. The committee’s rules are essentially the same as in the 111th Congress, with some technical and clarifying changes made. The one exception extends the previous two-day requirement to a three-day requirement for notice and items on the agenda prior to any business meetings of the committee.”

Akaka also named Loretta Tuell as his new staff director. She is a citizen of the Nez Perce Tribe with vast experience in Indian law and who served on the committee before.

“Loretta brings to the committee a wealth of knowledge and experience in Indian law,” Akaka said in a press release.  “She is very familiar with issues facing Native Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Alaska Natives.  I am looking forward to working with her to find solutions that will improve the lives and strengthen the futures of America’s native people.”

Democrats on the committee are: Sen. Maria Cantwell of Washington; Sen. Kent Conrad of North Dakota; Sen. Al Franken of Minnesota; Sen. Daniel Inouye of Hawaii; Sen. Tim Johnson of South Dakota; Sen. Jon Tester of Montana; and Sen. Tom Udall of New Mexico.

Republicans include: Sen. Mike Crapo of Idaho; Sen. John Hoeven of North Dakota; Sen. Mike Johanns of Nebraska; Sen. John McCain of Arizona; and Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.

Read more @ Indian Country Today Media Network.com.

February 9, 2011

Alaska Congressman Introduces Frankenfish Ban

Filed under: Environment,News Alerts — Kristin Butler @ 7:15 pm

Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska) introduced two pieces of legislation on February 8–one would require that genetically engineered fish are labeled as such, and the other would ban genetically-modified fish, according to a government press release.

Young’s legislation comes in response to a proposal by AquaBounty Technologies, a Boston-based company seeking to produce a biotech salmon called AquAdvantage, currently under consideration by the Federal Drug Administration (FDA).

“Frankenfish are uncertain and unnecessary,” Rep. Young said in a statement.  “The assessments of these ‘fish’ are flawed at best and the threat to the population of our wild salmon stock is unacceptable.  Additionally, consumers have the right to know that they are eating a supposedly sterile fish spliced with the growth hormone of a Chinook and the genetic code of an ocean pout.  We cannot allow these alien fish to infect our stocks and I will put forth every effort to ensure they stay in the labs where they belong.  I choose Alaskan wild salmon every time.”

If FDA-approved, frankenfish would become the first genetically-engineered animal available for human consumption. AquAdvantage was created from a fertilized egg of the North Atlantic salmon. This process is far different from cloning—scientists extract the growth hormone from the chinook, or king, salmon and a gene from the bottom-dwelling, eel-like ocean pout fish—a combination that causes the salmon to grow year-round, while wild salmon only grow in the warmer months. The AquAdvantage salmon hits the eight-pound market weight in only 18 months rather than the typical 36, and consumes less food over its lifetime, compared to a wild North Atlantic Salmon.

Read more about genetically-modified super-salmon that Rep. Young seeks to derail from entering grocery stores and overtaking the place of wild salmon on kitchen tables.

Read more @ Indian Country Today Media Network.com.

February 27, 2011

Amazon Gold Rush Laying Waste to Peruvian Rainforest’s Madre de Dios

Filed under: Business,Environment,Global,News Alerts — ICTMN Staff @ 7:00 pm

Up to 10,000 miners are working illegally in a 60-square-mile area in Guacamayo to extract gold from the Peruvian Amazon region known as Madre de Dios, and it is ruining the once pristine section of rainforest, known as one of the most diverse places on Earth.

Guacamayo is just one of dozens of illegal mining sites that have sprung up over the past three years thanks in part to the new, 1,600-mile Trans-Oceanic Highway connecting Brazil‚Äôs Amazon ports with those of Peru, the UK’s¬†Telegraph reports.

In addition, legal mining concessions number more than 2,600 today, up from 500 in 2004, the Telegraph said in a January 28 feature story. The rush is fueled by record-high gold prices, which on February 27 were $1,408 per ounce, according to the website Goldprice.org.

On February 20 the website AllMediaNY.com reported that the Peruvian government mobilized nearly 1,000 military and police personnel to destroy 300 pieces of illegal mining equipment, including 200 Chinese-made dredgers, along a stretch of nearly 200 miles of the Inambari River.

“We cannot afford to let rivers get destroyed, with fish subjected to three times the amount of mercury tolerated internationally,” Environment Minister Antonio Brack said, according to AllMediaNY.com.

Although the $9 million highway is touted as South America’s infrastructure improvement extraordinaire, it is instead proving to be a conduit for the 300 people who flock to Madre de Dios daily, the Telegraph said. Two thirds of them head to illegal gold-mining sites like Guacamayo.

Illegal gold mining is a $600 million industry in Peru that employs 100,00 people, up from a few thousand several years ago, and the practices have already destroyed at least 2,000 square miles of forest, the Telegraph said.

‘Madre de Dios is the most biodiverse region in the world because it was so remote and inaccessible,‚Äô the botanist Oliver Whaley told reporter Alfonso Daniels. ‚ÄúThe Trans-Oceanic Highway is like putting a knife into the last large area of rainforest left on earth.‚Äù

Moreover, Whaley said, “Madre de Dios is the source of the Amazon, the upper watershed, so everything knocks on from there. The way seeds are dispersed, the fish moving upstream to this region to find breeding grounds, they’re the base of the nutrient cycle. If Madre de Dios collapses, everything will collapse.”

Read the entire tale of reporter Alfonso Daniels’s harrowing journey through the illegal gold-mining region here.

Read more @ Indian Country Today Media Network.com.

February 23, 2011

American Indian Cultural Center & Museum holds Native Science Speaker Series

Filed under: Education,Native Education,News Alerts — leeanne @ 2:00 pm

The Native Science Speaker Series—sponsored by the University of Oklahoma’s Diversity in Geosciences Project and the American Indian Cultural Center & Museum (AICCM)—continues March 22 with Dr. Willard Sakiestewa Gilbert, who will discuss “Promoting Academic Achievement among Native Students: Integration of Western Science with Traditional Knowledge (Ways of Knowing)” at 6 p.m. at the National Weather Center Auditorium, 120 David L. Boren Boulevard, in Norman, Oklahoma.

According to the AICCM press release, Gilbert is an education professor at Northern Arizona University who specializes in curriculum and instruction, American Indian education and bilingual/multicultural education. ‚ÄúHis research and scholarly work focuses on how Indigenous knowledge ‚Äòways of knowing‚Äô has contributed to Native student’s academic achievement in the discipline of science education,‚Äù the release explained.

On April 21, Dr. Steven Semken will discuss “Place is Where We Learn from Earth and Sky” at 3:30 p.m. at the Sarkeys Energy Center A235, 100 East Boyd Street, in Norman, Oklahoma. According to the release, Semken is an ethnogeologist and geoscience education researcher in the School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University. “His research focuses on ways that scientific inquiry and teaching of Earth system sciences interact with indigenous and local knowledge, sense of place, and the affective domain,” the release said.

The Native Science Speaker Series concludes with James Rattling Leaf Sr., who will discuss “Utilizing a Lakota Worldview to Develop Science and Cultural Leadership for a New Generation” April 28 at 6 p.m. at the National Weather Center Auditorium. Rattling Leaf works with the University of Colorado, Boulder-based Consortium for Capacity Building, as a cross-cultural consultant. According to the release, “he specializes in developing programs that utilize the interface between Native traditional ecological knowledge and earth system science.”

All events are free and open to the public. For disabled accommodations, contact Heather Ahtone at (405) 325-8560.

Read more @ Indian Country Today Media Network.com.

February 22, 2011

American Indian Storytelling Alive on University of Montana Campus

Filed under: Education,News Alerts — leeanne @ 7:00 pm

The Student Assault Resource Center at The University of Montana’s Curry Health Center is putting on a series of men’s and women’s groups for American Indian students, according to The Montana Kaimin, the university’s newspaper. The groups are meant to serve as a “modern outlet” for storytelling, the newspaper reported.

“With the lunches and gatherings that we had, a similar vein kept popping up. There were so many stories,” Stoney Sasser, SARC’s outreach coordinator, told The Kaimin. “The goal of the group is to provide a space for people to tell their personal stories.”

The groups met for the first time February 17 and will meet every other Thursday from 4 to 5:30 p.m. at the Payne Family Native American Center on The University of Montana campus. The last session will be held April 28.

Abby Higgins—this week’s Student of the Week—is an enrolled Northern Cheyenne member who will co-facilitate the women’s group. She is a senior majoring in social work.

“We’ll talk about our experiences before coming to school, our experiences now and what we want to do in the future,” Higgins told The Kaimin. “I hope they’ll get the support that the group was set up for.”

For more information e-mail stoney.sasser@mso.umt.edu.

Read more @ Indian Country Today Media Network.com.

February 11, 2011

AMHE Request for Proposals for Audit Services

Filed under: Uncategorized — Matt @ 6:30 pm

Read more @ Indian Country Today Media Network.com.

February 18, 2011

Apartments Available at Seaside Plaza Apartments, Staten Island, NY

Filed under: Classifieds — Matt @ 7:02 pm

Read more @ Indian Country Today Media Network.com.

February 26, 2011

Arctic Ice

Filed under: Uncategorized — Theresa Braine @ 4:34 pm

The Arctic ice may be melting, but you wouldn’t know it from looking at these chunks of frozen water that still grace the top of the world.

Read more @ Indian Country Today Media Network.com.

February 13, 2011

Arctic Lab Expansion Provides Early Detection of Infectious Disease and Bioterrorism

Filed under: News Alerts — Kristin Butler @ 2:00 pm

The spread of infectious diseases and bioterrorism across Alaska, especially in the state’s rural villages, will meet its match with early detection from a new, expanded Arctic Investigations Program in Anchorage.

The advanced program is part of an effort by the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which has worked with the Indian Health Service in Alaska since 1948. The CDC recently launched a $2.3 million lab renovation and addition near the Alaska Native Medical Center–an initiative that Dr. Ted Mala, head of the traditional healing clinic at Southcentral Foundation, refers to as the “eyes and ears for any kind of infectious problems that come up in Alaska,” reported The Arctic Sounder.

“What’s important here is this lab will mean more testing, more surveillance, more early warning,” said Mala, an Inupiaq enrolled in Buckland’s tribal government, reported the Sounder. “The more they know, the more they’ll tell all the doctors and nurses and clinicians in the state. It’s all a win-win.”

The lab proved itself as a successful warrior in its battle against Hepatitis B in the 1980s and 1990s. Alaska Natives once claimed the highest rates of the liver disease in the country, but vaccines introduced to fend against it brought Alaska Native rates of infection down to one of the lowest tiers, said Brian McMahon, a liver specialist at the Alaska Native Medical Center, to the Sounder.

“The important question we’re asking now is how long will the protection last?” McMahon said. “So to do that, we have groups of people enrolled in studies, where we follow their blood to see how long their protective antibodies are present. All that laboratory testing is done down here in this lab. So now we can tell people they’re protected for 20, 30 years and if they ever need a booster we’ll know when to do it before they get ill.”

Read more @ Indian Country Today Media Network.com.
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