An estimated crowd of 6,000 jammed into and around the darkened dance arena to see fire-lit knives spun-about and tossed into the night sky by members of the powwow’s featured cultural group. The Tafiti Samoan Fire Knife Dancers wowed the audience with their flaming machetes. The group was led by cultural ambassador Kap Te’O Tafti, of the Polynesian Cultural Center, Laie, Hawaii.
American Indian College Fund President and CEO Cheryl Crazy Bull writes a blog titled The Native Ways. Check out her reflections about her first week at the American Indian College Fund, the role of tribal colleges, Indians in urban settings, and much more!
After five years of building intellectual capital across Indian Country, the American Indian College Fund’s Woksape Oyate $17.5 million dollar project, meaning Wisdom of the People and funded by the Lilly Endowment, is drawing to a close.
Rant-rant-rant is an expression of my developmentally- disabled- half- sister that she coined when she witnessed me feeling extremely stressed over challenges concerning getting her the care she needed. She calmly stated to me, “Therese, no rant-rant-rant.”
My hometown, Unalakleet, is an Inupiaq village located in the Norton Sound region of Alaska. We get a great deal of wind in our area because Unalakleet is located right on the coast: the Bering Sea. The town consists of about 750 people year-round. Most residents are of Inupiat Eskimo descent. The non-Natives that reside in Unalakleet are mostly teachers.
I remember the cold winters we had in the past, but this winter most likely beat the record low. Temperatures below zero are very common for Alaskan winters. Our winters typically last from mid-October to the end of May. This year we didn’t get our first snowfall until early November, so we thought maybe “Global Warming” was finally taking its toll. Boy, were we wrong! It wasn’t until January that the cold really hit us. It slapped us in the face!
I am Therese. I just completed my first semester at the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) in Santa Fe, New Mexico. I am on Create My Canvas Path, majoring in studio arts and museum studies. My Native affiliation is what I refer to as “mixed media”-Native, Mayan, and Mexican.
Nissan North America, Inc. (NNA) granted $50,000 to the American Indian College Fund to continue the Nissan Corporate Scholars Program. The program has provided scholarships to Native scholars attending tribal colleges and mainstream universities for more than a decade.
Hello all! My name is Amber. My Inupiat name is Kapuqqaq (pronounced “ga-bu-kuk”). I am a tribal member of the Native Village of Unalakleet, located on the Northwest coast of Alaska. The community itself consists of roughly 750 people year-round.
The Wakanyeja “Sacred Little Ones” Early Childhood Education Initiative at the American Indian College Fund announces a partnership with the Yale Child Study Center at Yale University of New Haven, Connecticut, for an early childhood education institute at the end of this month to receive training in working with children and families with special needs.
