5K Walk & Free Health Fair

Howka brothers and sisters, as you know many of our tribal members suffer from heart issues and or have heart transplants... I thought maybe tribal members might want to participate in this event being held at the Oceanside Pier on April 26th. The Cardiovascular Disease Foundation is hosting a 5K Walk & Free Health Fair from 8:00am-2:00pm Cholesterol, glucose and blood pressure screenings will be offered at no charge.



Kids 12 and under walk free – many organizations such as Boys & Girls Clubs are forming walking teams to bring some attention to childhood obesity and the importance of exercise. I think it would be great to rally together a walking group to represent our reservations in support of this event.



This is a great cause and directly relates to many of the challenges we face with our own families. What better way to fight cardiovascular disease then to get the whole family out and walking toward health.

HP offers free online classes

HP offers free online classes to help you navigate your way through your personal computer’s software and hardware.
Many people now have Vista on their computers but still have their old projects and coursework on Windows. Learn how to navigate your way in migrating to Vista by going to http://h30240.www3.hp.com/

Digital photography

» Photo restoration basics: preserve your family photos
» Adobe Photoshop for photographers
» Beyond basics: fundamental photography techniques
» Five common photo problems and how to solve them (quick lesson) UPDATED!
» Home office
» Migrating to Microsoft® Windows Vista
» Intermediate Microsoft® Excel 2007
» Introduction to Microsoft® Word 2007
» Using the HP Yahoo! Printing Toolbar (5:28) NEW!
» Getting started with LightScribe (quick lesson) NEW!
» Go wireless: using Bluetooth to connect and print (quick lesson)
» Print wirelessly at home or on the road (quick lesson)
» Microsoft® Windows Vista: find files using basic Search (2:45)
» Security solutions
» Tune up your Windows Vista PC
» Tune up your Microsoft® Windows XP PC
» Firewall basics
» Laptop PCs: basic troubleshooting and repair (quick lesson)
» Laptop PCs: troubleshooting wireless problems (quick lesson)
» Microsoft® Windows Vista: find files using basic Search (2:45)
» Windows Vista: decrease Windows Vista startup time (3:30)
» Protect your PC from spam, spyware and viruses
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» Plan and build your first website (with podcast)

GET MONEY FOR COLLEGE

Howka brothers and sisters... sorry I haven't been posting.
I want to share a website that will allow you to either get money back from the things you purchase or allows you to save the money and use it for college. The website www.upromise.com will allow you to register your grocery card & your credit card so that everytime you make a purchase a portion of your money spent goes into an account.The money can accumulate and then can be used towards your college education or you can request a check be sent to you directly. Its a great site, i have registered myself to help me pay back my student loans.
I also want to remind our tribal members going to college to please register with www.fastweb.com to also help them get scholarships. there are lots and lots of Indian scholarships on there.

Justice for residential school victims

I know many of our families have suffered through the boarding schools back in the day, so I wanted to share a recent post I received from a 2 spirit site about the cruelties of the boarding schools in Canada and what is happening with our sisters and brothers up there.
Recommended Website
To: Shannon



More at Hidden from History: http://www.hiddenfromhistory.org

Where are the children buried?

Posted by Brenda Norrell - January 3, 2009 at 10:38 pm

International tribunal vital for justice for residential school victims

By Brenda Norrell

Churches in Canada have not been held responsible for the rape, murder and disappearance of 50,000 to 100,000 Native American children in Canada's residential schools, said Kevin Annett, speaking on RedTown Blog Talk Radio today.

Canada has not made an attempt to provide real healing for Native people, or to prosecute the perpetrators, including those who murdered and buried children.

Annett said many of the Indian survivors of residential school abuse have taken their own lives.
"They are crushed and broken by this."
"Who will speak for the children who never came back?"
"What about all those children who died? Are we going to pretend it never happened?"

During the 90-minute program aired on RedTown, Annett said the churches pushed the Canadian government to keep these schools open, even after Canada wanted to close the schools. Now, the churches place themselves above the law, refusing to even identify where the children's graves are.

One of the survivors said after a young girl was raped by a priest, she gave birth to a child. The priest threw the baby in the furnace. On a video on the Hidden From History website, Irene Favel, survivor of Muscowequan Catholic residential school in Lestock, Saskatchewan, describes seeing a newborn baby thrown alive into a furnace at that school by a priest in 1944.
"They heard the little cry," Annett said on RedTown radio.

On Turtle Island, the genocide of Indian people was the worst genocide in the history of mankind, he said.
In Canada, the churches had a motivation for genocide. The churches stole land from the west coast tribes and sold it off to logging companies. In return, the churches received kickbacks.

Now, Canada's system of compensation payments to survivors of residential school abuse is designed to produce more trauma, as survivors relive the abuse. Using a crude system, Canada gives a number of points for abuse. For example, victims of rape or beatings are given specific numbers of points.

The survivor has to remember the name of the perpetrator. But Annett asked how many five-year-olds remember the name of the person who abused them. The survivors also have to provide proof that they attended residential school, even though many of the documents have been destroyed. Now, of those seeking compensation, 8 out of 10 have been disqualified.
Canada designed a system to victimize the victims.

"They know that when someone relives that, they will go off and kill themselves. That is not an accident, it is deliberate," Annett said.

Canada is not concerned about healing, he said. Canada is concerned about minimizing the liability. There are actions people can take to help, like recording the stories of survivors and writing letters to newspapers. Urging people to people exchanges, rather than relying on the Internet, is how change happens, he said.

In Canada, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission is holding forums which do not allow for exposure of the actual crimes or naming of the perpetrators.

"That is their plan, to whitewash the whole thing." Annett wants real observers, from outside Canada, to go to the children's graves. Then, for the children to be repatriated and charges and prosecution to follow.
Annett said it is vital to have an international tribunal resulting in charges and prosecutions.

There is also a Boycott of the 2010 Olympics underway, so the media and government will take notice of the crimes, including the Indian sterilization clinics in mass all over the west coast of Canada.

It was a crime of genocide.

Still, no one responsible for the rape, torture and murder of these children has been prosecuted. Some of the perpetrators are still alive.

Annett said his personal life was destroyed and he was defrocked by the church because he exposed the systematic genocide of Indian children by the churches in Canada. Annett described his own journey and what happened to him over the past 15 years of exposing the genocide.

Annett's own transformation began as a minister in Vancouver when he met many Native people who were suffering. He became aware of the suicides and widespread intergenerational trauma. Then Native people began talking about the abuse.

"The churches have never been prosecuted for these crimes."
Indian children were sterilized and other atrocities of Nazi Germany were carried out.
"The institutions got away with that."

Annett discovered in historical archives that early medical records reveal that 40 to 60 percent of the children in Canada's residential schools died. It was a systematic effort to kill off Indian people. Children were locked in dorms with others with tuberculosis and fast spreading diseases.

"It was germ warfare."
"They were doing it to depopulate the west."
"It is genocide. It has to be treated like any other crime," Annett said.

Referring to financial compensation for survivors, he said acts this terrible cannot be compensated or apologized away. In many cases, when money is paid to the victims of residential school abuse, there is a gag order and an agreement that the government cannot be sued.

The money that has been paid out has not solved anything and in some cases has resulted in suicides and other forms of death.
"It is designed to protect the perpetrators."

The churches widespread abuse of children was designed to wipe out Indian people. The schools began in the 1800s. The last school in Canada did not close until 1996. Besides speaking out for 15 years about the systematic genocide, Annett produced a film, "Unrepentant," which can be viewed online.

While his own personal life was destroyed, it made him realize what the church was capable of.
"Native people are disposables in our culture," he said. The abuse has not stopped. Today, police in Canada still take Native people outside of town and leave them to freeze to death.

When Annett began to expose what he found in archives, he realized there was a conspiracy of silence.
"Everything is run by the government here," he said. In Canada if anyone challenges the government or churches, he is considered a threat. He said it is a very Totalitarian government.

Annett was fired from his pulpit. "They tried to scapegoat me like there was something wrong with me."
The church offered to pay for his wife's divorce. After the divorce, he lost custody of his children. But, then the Native people began to tell him more of their stories and invite him to their healing circles.

Today, he said there is a great deal of denial in Canada. However, there is more openness from the young people when there are protests and calls for action.

"Most of the people who come by on the street are supportive of us."

The older clergy knows it is true and become angry at the protests and truth.
"I can see real change happening,"

"I'm still under a real blacklist, in terms of getting work in Canada."
When asked if he ever considered giving up, he said he did not want them to win. He wanted to be able to look his children in the eyes one day and for them to know what he did.

Annett described how he went with survivors into a Vancouver church and respectfully held up a banner, "All the children need a proper burial." Alongside him was a survivor who was almost tortured to death as a child in residential school. But after standing in that church with that banner, the man stopped drinking. He said he found a power within himself that he didn't know he had, as they were standing there together.

The priests were very angry and called the police. But when they left this church, the congregation stood and honored them.
Annett said their message to the people of Canada has been, "If it happened to your child, wouldn't you want to know where they are and what happened to them."

There were 50,000 to 100,000 Indian children in Canada that never came back from church-operated residential schools. A lot of these crimes are continuing today, as Indian children are put into white foster homes.
Now, pedophile networks are exploiting children from the reserves.

"Unless you can confront this, it is carried on. People who are abused, become the abuser." A report form UNESCO shows Vancouver is one of the top cities in the world for child prostitution.

During the RedTown Radio show, host Brenda Golden, Mvskoke (Creek) in Oklahoma, said both she and her mother are survivors of residential schools. Golden's mother was forbidden to speak her language and isolated from her family. "My mother had a detachment, my mother didn't know how to love us kids because she hadn't had that."

Annett relayed the story of a survivor and how an eight-year-old was stretched out on a rack in a residential school in a form of Medievil torture. "He saw someone die on that rack." But the survivor said he had been taught his own traditions and that is how he survived.

"When you lose touch with the spirit, you start dying from the inside out," the survivor said.
Annett said this is what happened to white people, to Europeans. They lost touch with the spirit.

"We survive by remembering who we are."
This was a war and some children survived it, but they carry this with them, at a cellular level. He said we all have to find out how to heal ourselves, with the traditions passed on.

What Annett discovered, and lived through, is the dark side of the culture in Christianity.

While Canadian churches are fighting the exposure of this truth, Golden said in the United States people refuse to believe that the US government sterilized Indian women.

During the show, one caller, Kathy from Florida said, "If we are not a watchdog for the children, we will have no future. She said her brother is a survivor of residential school in Ireland. "It happens everywhere."

In closing Annett spoke of his ancestor Peter Annett who was also persecuted for speaking out. "The power of one person speaking the truth is something we must honor."

"People are judged by their actions, instead of their words."

Praising the qualities of Native people, Annett said Indian people have withstood the genocide because of their great strength. Now, all of humanity must struggle together if mankind is to survive. "It is how we are going to survive, together now, if we are even able to," Annett said, pointing out the destruction of the old growth forests.

When asked about his current beliefs, Annett said he is a spiritual person, but not in a way that he expected.
"I feel a deep peace inside. I feel I have done the right thing."

More at Hidden from History: http://www.hiddenfromhistory.org/

2009 Native American Student Artist Competition

Entries for the 2009 Native American Student Artist Competition (SAC) are continuing to arrive! We at the Office of Indian Education want to remind everyone that students must register their entries, and artwork and essays must be postmarked by Friday, January 16, 2009. We have also provided a few tips for artists and writers entering the competition.

Don’t Forget to Register!
Students can register their entry online or call our toll-free number 1-866-259-0060. If you register online you will receive an Application and Release form in your registration confirmation. If you register over the phone, we will send you an Application and Release form. Important! We must receive your artwork with your signed Application and Release form. Complete SAC Instructions

Art Tips


Working with oil-based paints: when painting with oil-based paints, you always want to start with the background and work your way forward. To get your foreground colors to pop, apply wet paint only to previous layers of wet paint.
Working with watercolor paints: to prevent your colors from bleeding into each other and making your painting look messy, use a hair dryer to dry each color.

For more art tips, visit the Artist Circle on the OIE kids website.

Writing Tips

Don't expect a perfect essay when you start out. A great essay takes many drafts to write, not just one or two - more like 10 to 12.
Keep all of your drafts, doodles, ideas, brainstorms, or anything that helped you with your writing in one place. A folder or notebook works great.
Plan on writing in chunks of time from 15 minutes to 1 hour per day.
Give yourself time to think about what you want to say. Digest what you have written and come back to it the next day. Re-read what you wrote and decide whether revisions are warranted.
For more writing tips, check out the Artist Circle on the OIE kids website.

Questions about the SAC? Contact Rayanne Ganuelas at rganuelas@kauffmaninc.com or 1-866-259-0060.

ART GRANTS

Howka sisters and brothers... we are getting closer to opening day. If all goes well I would like to see it open by Jan. 25th.2009 In the meantime I would like to provide some links for our tribal members that are artists.


MAJOR GRANT MAKERS TO ARTS AND CULTURE
The following Web links are not an exhaustive list of all the foundations and corporate grantmakers online. Instead, the focus is on providing a list of Web sites that reflect the major grant makers to the arts and culture as identified by The Foundation Center. For a more comprehensive look at the world of philanthropy, use the general information Web links below, especially The Foundation Center.

http://www.nasaa-arts.org/aoa/grant_makers.shtml

General Information on Foundations
Arts and Business Council: An organization devoted to "keeping the arts in business" by promoting mutually beneficial partnerships between corporations and nonprofit arts groups. Through its local and national programs the council brings expertise, resources and leadership talent from the business world to the arts community.

Business Committee for the Arts: Founded by David Rockefeller, a national not-for-profit that brings business and the arts together. It provides businesses of all sizes with the services and resources necessary to develop and advance partnerships with the arts that benefit business, the arts and the community.

The Chronicle of Philanthropy: The Web edition of the national biweekly newspaper of the nonprofit world provides highlights of the latest developments in philanthropy, nonprofit management, fundraising and listings for workshops, seminars and conferences.

Council on Foundations: This association of foundations and corporations also has a directory of Web links to its member foundations, as well as other resources.

The Foundation Center: A comprehensive site of Web links and information about grantmakers. The Foundation Center provides extensive information on grantmakers through its directories and publications, and it also provides assistance, all of which can be obtained through this site.

Grantmakers in the Arts: A nonprofit membership organization that focuses on philanthropy in the arts and culture. It is comprised of private foundations, family foundations, community foundations, corporate foundations, corporate giving programs and nonprofit organizations that make arts grants.

Grantsmart Center: An informational and interactive resource center for and about the nonprofit community. It includes data about private foundation activities that may be of interest to grantseekers, philanthropic organizations, and individual donors.

Independent Sector: This national organization provides information on issues and news affecting the nonprofit sector, focusing in particular on the areas of philanthropy and volunteerism.

NonProfit Times: This national newspaper is the leading business publication for nonprofit management.

Philanthropy News Network Online: The only daily online news service reporting on nonprofits, it provides coverage of foundation and corporate giving. Includes links to nonprofits and philanthropy organizations nationwide.


Private Foundations on the Web
Nathan Cummings Foundation
Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation
The Ford Foundation
The Heinz Endowments
The J. Paul Getty Trust
John Simon Guggenheim Foundation
John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
The Pew Charitable Trusts
Rockefeller Brothers Fund
Rockefeller Foundation
Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation
The Wallace Foundation



Corporate Grant Makers on the Web
Altria Group, Inc.
American Express Company
AT&T Foundation
Bank of America Foundation
The Coca-Cola Company
GE Fund
IBM Corporation
MetLife Foundation
SBC Foundation
Verizon Foundation

PBS IN EDUCATION

PBS KIDS Island Receives Accolades

On Oct. 15 PBS and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) launched PBS KIDS Island,( http://pbskids.org/read/ )the centerpiece of the new PBS KIDS Raising Readers Web site, which provides free reading games and activities for children, parents, caregivers and teachers to use at home or in the classroom.

PBS KIDS Island gives children the tools to build an online island by playing reading games with PBS KIDS characters from SUPER WHY, WORDWORLD, BETWEEN THE LIONS and SESAME STREET. The site, built on a literacy framework, guides children as they build seven core reading skills, from phonological awareness to letter sequencing and vocabulary. The site offers a progress tracker to assist teachers as they cultivate their students' learning, and enables teachers to chart progress for an entire classroom with detailed reports on each child's needs and successes.

Since its launch, PBS KIDS Island has been selected as an Editor's Choice Award from Children's Technology Review, an honor reserved for the highest quality interactive media products. Well known parent blogger, Tech Savvy Mama, also raves "This site is not only a great learning tool, but also an incredible parent resource!"

PBS KIDS Raising Readers and PBS KIDS Island is funded by the U.S. Department of Education's Ready to Learn grant.