DID YOU KNOW THEY ARE NATIVE AMERICAN?
NATIVE AMERICAN MUSIC AWARDS LAUNCHES NEW WEB
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IN HONOR OF NATIVE AMERICAN HERITAGE DAY
In observance of Native American Heritage Day on Friday, November 27, 2009, and as part of National Native American Month as proclaimed by the President of the United States each year, the Native American Music Awards & Association has published a photo gallery entitled, "Did You Know They Are Native American ?" on their website to raise awareness of the contributions made by leading figures of Native American descent in the music, entertainment, and sports industries. Featured individuals range from performers Tina Turner and The Jacksons to NY Yankees pitcher Joba Chamberlain
and actor James Earl Jones among others.
Originally a featured segment which debuted
at the First Native American Music Awards in 1998, "Did You Know?" highlights nationally
recognized and critically acclaimed musicians, actors and athletes with confirmed
or reported Native American heritage. Tribal enrollment status is not included.The
Native American Music Awards continues to be an extraordinary and unprecedented celebration
of today’s best contemporary and traditional musical performances and recordings
by artists with Native American heritage. The Eleventh Annual Native American Music
Awards was recently held at
the Seneca Niagara Hotel & Casino in Niagara Falls, NY.
To view the full photo gallery of musicians, athletes and actors,
please visit the "DID YOU KNOW?” page at: www.nativeamericanmusicawards.com
As the largest single resource for Native American music initiatives in the world,
the Native American Music Awards continues to remain “devoted to bringing indigenous
music to the world’s consciousness” NY Times.
To view the full photo gallery of musicians,
athletes and actors, please visit the "DID YOU KNOW?" page at www.nativeamericanmusicawards.com
Taking a Stand
Against Poverty in
Indian Country
By Jay Winter Nightwolf, Guest editorial Story Published: Sep 11, 2009
Hidden away, dotted throughout the landscape of America, are the reservations of the indigenous peoples of our land. Mostly unknown or forgotten by the mainstream culture of the dominant United States society, the average person knows little or nothing about these people other than what they see in movies and television, or in the nearest reservation casino.
Most assume whatever poverty exists on a reservation is most certainly comparable to that which they might experience themselves. This is not the reality for the people who live on the Pine Ridge Reservation.
Pine Ridge is the second largest reservation in the U.S. and where the most impoverished of any people in the country live. Pine Ridge is home to the Oglala Lakota who are members of a major Sioux division known as the Western or Teton Sioux. The Pine Ridge Reservation is situated in southwestern South Dakota on the Nebraska state line, about 50 miles east of the Wyoming border. The area includes more than 11,000 square miles, contained in seven counties.
Equally as impoverished on other reservations are communities such as Kyle, Wambli, Cheyenne River Sioux and Standing Rock, located in North and
South Dakota; the Three Affiliated Tribes (Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara) of North Dakota, the Arapaho Tribe of Oklahoma, the San Carlos Apache Tribe of Arizona, and the Navajo Nation. There are many Native people living in worse than third world conditions.
Four years ago I received an e-mail from a little Indian girl who lives on the Pine Ridge Reservation asking for a new toothbrush and some good tasting toothpaste for Christmas. Many Americans find it hard to believe that in the 21st century people still live under these deplorable conditions. However, those who grew up on an Indian reservation or in an Indian community understand the dynamics of existing on land that is not suitable for human habitation.
Fortunately, there is plenty of goodwill throughout Indian country. Brothers Who Care, a Maryland nonprofit organization focused on preserving Native American culture, will host an inter-tribal powwow Oct. 24 – 25 in Mount Airy, Md., as a way of raising awareness and encouraging others to help, whether by donating funds or items such as warm clothing, household items, furniture and appliances. Items collected at this powwow and throughout this effort will be moved to a central storage facility in Washington, D.C., and then transported to the tribes and communities out west.
Already, there is encouraging forward movement. Not only have numerous individuals responded to this call, but tribes like the San Manuel Band of Serrano Mission Indians and the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation have supported this effort as well. Additionally, the U.S. Census has made a sizeable donation to the powwow fund. By law, all donations – cash, products and in-kind services – are tax deductible.
We can’t solve all the issues of poverty and hunger in Indian country, but we can try to help who we can, and that deed of human kindness is of the utmost importance.
Jay Winter Nightwolf (Cherokee/Shoshone/Taino) hosts a national Native American radio program that has aired for more than eight years and reaches more than 1.9 million listeners in the mid-Atlantic region alone on WPFW 89.3 FM – Pacifica Radio out of Washington, D.C. Nightwolf is the 2009 recipient of the Maryland Governor’s Volunteer Service Award. He can be reached at wahyasunoyi@aol.com.
Four years ago I received an e-mail from a little Indian girl who lives on the Pine Ridge Reservation asking for a new toothbrush and some good tasting toothpaste for Christmas. Many Americans find it hard to believe that in the 21st century people still live under these deplorable conditions. However, those who grew up on an Indian reservation or in an Indian community understand the dynamics of existing on land that is not suitable for human habitation.
Fortunately, there is plenty of goodwill throughout Indian country. Brothers Who Care, a Maryland nonprofit organization focused on preserving Native American culture, will host an inter-tribal powwow Oct. 24 – 25 in Mount Airy, Md., as a way of raising awareness and encouraging others to help, whether by donating funds or items such as warm clothing, household items, furniture and appliances. Items collected at this powwow and throughout this effort will be moved to a central storage facility in Washington, D.C., and then transported to the tribes and communities out west.
Already, there is encouraging forward movement. Not only have numerous individuals responded to this call, but tribes like the San Manuel Band of Serrano Mission Indians and the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation have supported this effort as well. Additionally, the U.S. Census has made a sizeable donation to the powwow fund. By law, all donations – cash, products and in-kind services – are tax deductible.
We can’t solve all the issues of poverty and hunger in Indian country, but we can try to help who we can, and that deed of human kindness is of the utmost importance.
Jay Winter Nightwolf (Cherokee/Shoshone/Taino) hosts a national Native American radio program that has aired for more than eight years and reaches more than 1.9 million listeners in the mid-Atlantic region alone on WPFW 89.3 FM – Pacifica Radio out of Washington, D.C. Nightwolf is the 2009 recipient of the Maryland Governor’s Volunteer Service Award. He can be reached at wahyasunoyi@aol.com.
Denver Energy Comp Reaches out to the Navajo Nation
By Jeremy Eggers, Denver OPA
They exchange greetings with one another: “Yah-tah-hey.” That’s how they say “Hello.” Patiently, these men and women of the Navajo Nation sit and they wait. They’re perfectly content because they know they’re about to be seen by somebody who cares—somebody who can help. That somebody is the Department of Labor’s Paula Heidel. Heidel travels from Denver to Shiprock, N.M., and Kayenta, Ariz., each month to provide outreach support to members of the Navajo Nation seeking benefits under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act. Her’s is a critical mission for the Department, one arising from identifying the need to break through a number of barriers—cultural, linguistic, and otherwise—to provide claimant advice and service to Navajo uranium miners and millers, whose work dating back to the 1950’s proved vital to the security of the United States. “First thing I tell them is, ‘I will not leave here until everyone of you has been seen.’ I don’t care how long I have to stay,” said Heidel. “If I’m not here to help then what am I here for?”
Beginnings
There’s a certain irony behind Heidel’s service as the Denver region’s technical advisor on the Compensation Act, which has paid out more than $4.7 billion nationwide since its July 2001 inception. The Grand Junction, Colo., native’s father worked in and around the uranium mills of Colorado’s Western Slope, and she nonchalantly talks about visiting those mills as a kid. “I remember seeing people who had their own Geiger counters and they would go and find loose (uranium) ore and bring it to the mill,” said Heidel. That’s the way things were, she said. “There was nothing unusual about it.” Furthermore, living in Boulder, Colo., as well as in Denver from the 1970s on, Heidel also had heard of the issues surrounding the Rocky Flats Arsenal, a former nuclear weapons plant outside of Denver. “When I applied for this job and the interviewer started talking about all of these things, it all just clicked—I said, ‘Yeah, I know all about that’,” said Heidel. Indeed, Heidel does know all about that. The former family law attorney closed her private practice, took a brief hiatus, and then started working for the Labor Department as a claims examiner in October 2005. A few years later she became a senior claims examiner, and just weeks into that position, the technical advisor job came open. Heidel was a perfect fit. “She’s just a wonderful woman to work with,” said Sally Chirinos, chief of operations for Denver’s Division of Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program. “The
By Jeremy Eggers, Denver OPA
They exchange greetings with one another: “Yah-tah-hey.” That’s how they say “Hello.” Patiently, these men and women of the Navajo Nation sit and they wait. They’re perfectly content because they know they’re about to be seen by somebody who cares—somebody who can help. That somebody is the Department of Labor’s Paula Heidel. Heidel travels from Denver to Shiprock, N.M., and Kayenta, Ariz., each month to provide outreach support to members of the Navajo Nation seeking benefits under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act. Her’s is a critical mission for the Department, one arising from identifying the need to break through a number of barriers—cultural, linguistic, and otherwise—to provide claimant advice and service to Navajo uranium miners and millers, whose work dating back to the 1950’s proved vital to the security of the United States. “First thing I tell them is, ‘I will not leave here until everyone of you has been seen.’ I don’t care how long I have to stay,” said Heidel. “If I’m not here to help then what am I here for?”
Beginnings
There’s a certain irony behind Heidel’s service as the Denver region’s technical advisor on the Compensation Act, which has paid out more than $4.7 billion nationwide since its July 2001 inception. The Grand Junction, Colo., native’s father worked in and around the uranium mills of Colorado’s Western Slope, and she nonchalantly talks about visiting those mills as a kid. “I remember seeing people who had their own Geiger counters and they would go and find loose (uranium) ore and bring it to the mill,” said Heidel. That’s the way things were, she said. “There was nothing unusual about it.” Furthermore, living in Boulder, Colo., as well as in Denver from the 1970s on, Heidel also had heard of the issues surrounding the Rocky Flats Arsenal, a former nuclear weapons plant outside of Denver. “When I applied for this job and the interviewer started talking about all of these things, it all just clicked—I said, ‘Yeah, I know all about that’,” said Heidel. Indeed, Heidel does know all about that. The former family law attorney closed her private practice, took a brief hiatus, and then started working for the Labor Department as a claims examiner in October 2005. A few years later she became a senior claims examiner, and just weeks into that position, the technical advisor job came open. Heidel was a perfect fit. “She’s just a wonderful woman to work with,” said Sally Chirinos, chief of operations for Denver’s Division of Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program. “The
A year ago, there wasn’t a line at all. One, two, maybe even three people would stop by during the daylong event. Back then, 10 a.m. was early. Nobody came before 10. But the word spread like wildfire. Now, it’s a few minutes before 7 a.m. and the line is already forming. One by .one they walk in, step up to a small desk,sign in, and then take a seat in a nearby waiting area.
customer service and assistance she provides to the Navajo Nation is critical. She has effectively broken down barriers and built strong, lasting relationships. As a result, the outreach program has turned out better than we ever hoped.”
Tough job
In the beginning, hopes for the outreach program were undoubtedly tempered by the enormity of the task at hand. A notable challenge is the fact that the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act is a vast, intense piece of legislation requiring highly-specialized expertise, knowledge of various health issues, and in Heidel’s case, a certain degree of cultural knowledge and sensitivity. Another challenge is inherent to the goals of the act and the population segment it works with: compensating eligible current or former workers who have developed illnesses directly resulting from their work in the atomic weapons industry. Lung cancer, for example, is particularly high among former Navajo uranium miners. In some cases, these workers have already succumbed to their illnesses, in which case surviving family members may file compensation claims. Aside from constantly dealing with illness and death, there are additional challenges to providing assistance to the Navajo Nation, the greatest of which may be language barriers. For many Navajo, English is, at best, a second language, yet claims forms and written communications are all in English. Outreach, then, not only requires a highly-skilled subject matter expert, but one who is empathetic, understanding, and trusting. Through fact-to-face, one-to-one communication, and with the help of an interpreter, Paula faces these challenges head-on in order to provide the Navajo Nation the assistance they need in filing claims and understanding the provisions of the act. “I’m here to help. Sometimes it’s to answer questions or to provide the status of a claim. Sometimes I have to tell a claimant why he or she hasn’t been approved. That’s not always easy, but the Navajo are appreciative of the face-to-face contact,” said Heidel.
Success
Heidel thumbs through the file folder she relies on while “on an outreach,” a folder that contains all the forms necessary to file a claim. While providing outreach, she also relies on support from claims examiners back in the Denver office. “It’s really a team effort,” she said. “They (the Denver office) know the importance of outreach and will drop everything to help me with a claimant. I can’t say enough about the work they do to help make this program a success.” There are, perhaps, plenty of statistics and numbers out there that could be used to quantify and measure the outreach program’s success: Processing times. Claims filed. Money paid. Attendance numbers. However, there’s one number in particular that matters most to Heidel: her phone number. “People call here all the time asking, ‘When are you coming back?’ Word spreads quickly, and now, I’m seeing more and more people each visit.” There’s another word that spreads quickly when Paula visits the Navajo Nation: “Aw-hay-hey.” It means “Thank you” in Navajo, but to Paula, it means so much more. “I feel so fortunate to have the opportunity to provide this help and support—we’re making a difference.”
Tough job
In the beginning, hopes for the outreach program were undoubtedly tempered by the enormity of the task at hand. A notable challenge is the fact that the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act is a vast, intense piece of legislation requiring highly-specialized expertise, knowledge of various health issues, and in Heidel’s case, a certain degree of cultural knowledge and sensitivity. Another challenge is inherent to the goals of the act and the population segment it works with: compensating eligible current or former workers who have developed illnesses directly resulting from their work in the atomic weapons industry. Lung cancer, for example, is particularly high among former Navajo uranium miners. In some cases, these workers have already succumbed to their illnesses, in which case surviving family members may file compensation claims. Aside from constantly dealing with illness and death, there are additional challenges to providing assistance to the Navajo Nation, the greatest of which may be language barriers. For many Navajo, English is, at best, a second language, yet claims forms and written communications are all in English. Outreach, then, not only requires a highly-skilled subject matter expert, but one who is empathetic, understanding, and trusting. Through fact-to-face, one-to-one communication, and with the help of an interpreter, Paula faces these challenges head-on in order to provide the Navajo Nation the assistance they need in filing claims and understanding the provisions of the act. “I’m here to help. Sometimes it’s to answer questions or to provide the status of a claim. Sometimes I have to tell a claimant why he or she hasn’t been approved. That’s not always easy, but the Navajo are appreciative of the face-to-face contact,” said Heidel.
Success
Heidel thumbs through the file folder she relies on while “on an outreach,” a folder that contains all the forms necessary to file a claim. While providing outreach, she also relies on support from claims examiners back in the Denver office. “It’s really a team effort,” she said. “They (the Denver office) know the importance of outreach and will drop everything to help me with a claimant. I can’t say enough about the work they do to help make this program a success.” There are, perhaps, plenty of statistics and numbers out there that could be used to quantify and measure the outreach program’s success: Processing times. Claims filed. Money paid. Attendance numbers. However, there’s one number in particular that matters most to Heidel: her phone number. “People call here all the time asking, ‘When are you coming back?’ Word spreads quickly, and now, I’m seeing more and more people each visit.” There’s another word that spreads quickly when Paula visits the Navajo Nation: “Aw-hay-hey.” It means “Thank you” in Navajo, but to Paula, it means so much more. “I feel so fortunate to have the opportunity to provide this help and support—we’re making a difference.”
United States Federal Defenders Attorney Office financed DNA testing, along with proven genealogical work, confirmed that James Warren ‘Flaming Eagle’ Mooney is of direct lineage to the famed Seminole Spiritual Leader (Medicine Man) and War Chief Osceola.
United States Attorneys and Investigators did an exhaustive and thorough investigation. Sending a federal attorney, and investigator to Florida, Texas, Missouri, Southern Utah and South Dakota, it was found through their expert interviewing and investigative tactics that James Warren ‘Flaming Eagle’ Mooney is of American Native decent, and had been legally proven to have received blessings by a Seminole Tribal Chief and her Tribal council, a Lakota Sioux Rosebud President and Roadman of the Rosebud Reservation Native American Church of South Dakota and a renowned Huichole Mara’akame of Mexico, to be a bona fide and legally instituted Medicine Person of American Native Spirituality. The United States Government’s investigation also substantiated that at the age of 4, he had been blessed by his American Native Grandparents, on his father’s side, to be a Medicine person through their American Native spiritual dedicative blessing ceremony (Sweat Lodge) for an infant child to becoming a bona fide American Native Spiritual Leader.
Something else the United States Governments investigators substantiated, James Warren ‘Flaming Eagle’ Mooney is a direct descendent and named after, the famed American Native Smithsonian Institute Ethnologist James Mooney. The same James Mooney that argued for American Native Spiritual Constitutional Rights in front of the United States House of Representatives and co-assisted with Comanche Spiritual Leader Quanah Parker the formulation and Incorporation of the Native American Church in 1918.
Another interesting finding by United States Attorneys and Investigators was that ‘prior’ to the State of Utah raiding Oklevueha Native American Church (Benjamin, Utah) a bona fide Native American Church, State of Utah Governor Michael Leavitt had awarded ‘Flaming Eagle’ a citizen of the Year Accommodation for the Spiritual Medicine work rendered by James to the State of Utah Department of Corrections for his outstanding contribution in establishing the ‘first’ Nationally recognized American Native Ceremonial Program for the State of Utah Department of Corrections.
James Warren ‘Flaming Eagle’ Mooney, along with Richard ‘He Who Has the Foundation’ Swallow, co-founded the Oklevueha Lakota Sioux Nation Native American Church, December 17, 2007. Presently, there are over 81 Branches of the Oklevueha Native American Church in the United States, spreading from the State of New York to the State of Hawaii, Two Peruvian, One European, and Five American Native Federally Recognized Tribal Nation Oklevueha Native American Churches (Cherokee, Choctaw, Lakota Sioux, Navajo and Paiute Nations with CEO’s that are federally recognized Indians of their prospective tribes).
“My Gift" by James Warren ‘Flaming Eagle’ Mooney
Commentary
According to all the Paiute, Shoshone, Goshute and Ute ‘Elders’ that I have sat with around the fire, most have passed over now, they considered the "most" distained of all the Christian religions, that their culture has encountered or endured for the last 700 years is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS or Mormons). An interesting note, most of these elders, if not all were baptized into the LDS faith. These wonderful elders shared the following thoughts with me about this issue, “we ‘falsely’ believed if we exhibited honor and respect toward the Mormon faith they in return would receive likeminded respect for their beliefs of honoring Mother Earth and Father Sky, we were wrong.
In my opinion the Inner Mountain West American Native people must be the ‘first’ to forgive the atrocities and cultural genocide that have and still is being perpetrated upon their culture by the policies of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints, installed and enforced by its upper leadership and has a significant effect upon States of Utah and Idaho legislators. It seems the LDS Church upper leadership is so intoxicated by their good works and their elaborate campaign, to cover-up any all miss-steps to deny any wrong doing the church policies is responsible for, thus condemns them to repeat these atrocities in some form or manner and consequently falsely place’s themselves above the need to apologize.
In my opinion, following a cultural "forgiving" process first enacted by the American Native culture and their allies will initiate a blossoming of healing between these two distinctive and beautiful cultures and thus a profound healing will eventually become a beam of empowering light that will eventually influence the entire world to live in a more respectful and harmonious manner with each other.
As a Woman Elder ‘Woman with Much Wisdom’ gently said to me “James, love and forgiveness cures any and all injustices”
“My Gift”
In the summer of 1848, thirteen Mormon pioneers were in the middle of a twenty-six-day journey across a Utah desert when they were attacked by a band of thirty "enraged" Ute warriors.
From the days of the Spanish excursions into the Inter-Mountain West the American Native people had endured horrific atrocities perpetrated upon their spiritual love for Mother Earth and their culture by Spanish religious zealots and other greed laden, love for gold and silver individuals. Eventually the American Native People collectively rose up and repelled the Spanish in a very violent and horrific manner.
The Mormons came into the Inter Mountain West with the intentions of establishing a sanctuary to practice their religious believes, to posses the land and capitalize on Mother Earths many natural resources. In the beginning they were primarily interested in the Inter-Mountain West’s lush valley’s containing a bountiful amount of water and all other water sources. The Mormons as the Spanish Jesuits conducted themselves much like Munchausen Syndrome behavior that arrogantly interpreting the American Native Spirituality and its culture to be substandard to theirs and subsequently adopted the Monroe Doctrine in justifying President Brigham Young’s, then the president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, written proclamation to subdue and or extinguish all American Native people from these valley’s and other water sources. The Paiute elders to this day seethe with anger, toward the Mormons, justifying their anger (the elders claim to have in their possession) with pictures of wagons loaded with Paiutes severed heads with three men posed in front of the St. George Temple with the written caption ‘honorable Saints collecting $2.00 gold piece earned for each head’ (this quote may or may not be exact for I have not seen these pictures. I was only told of these pictures existence numerous of times and of their captions by three different Paiute Elders)
These particular settlers were substantially armed with rifles and with an abundance of ammunition. They immediately made a fortified circle with their carts and wagons and defended themselves. However over the three-day attack of warring engagements most of the migrating settlers were killed. By the early morning light of the fourth day, the Ute's for some unknown reason retreated and left their presumed dead behind. Only three settlers, a woman and two men, survived. All of their horses were stolen or killed.
As the settlers sorted through the carnage, and with the thick smell of death, they found only a meager amount of provisions and water that could possibly sustain them for about eight or nine days. Not knowing if any Ute warriors were nearby, the settlers had resigned themselves to joining their dead, family members and friends, through exposure, starvation and / or the lack of water. Just then, a faint moan was heard several yards outside of their encampment, seemingly from a young child.
The woman, against the warnings of the men, left the fortification and upon discovering a wounded but semi conscious young Ute boy summoned the men to carry him back to their beleaguered encampment. The men wanted to kill the boy, but the woman would not allow it. Instead, she nursed the boy by sharing their scant water supply with him and dressed his wounds. Because of the woman's care, over the next few days, the boy's wounds began to heal, but he would, only occasionally, regain a sluggish consciousness and then fall back into a quasi-coma.
A day or so later, the Ute warriors returned, catching the Mormons by surprise. As the warriors prepared to kill the remaining settlers, the young boy's voice could be heard, saying in his language, "Father, they saved me from death and shared water with me." Startled and amazed at hearing his son's voice, the tallest of the warriors momentarily softened his heart and requested that the other warriors temporarily withdraw from the two men and woman.
The pioneer's lives, for the moment, had been spared. After thoroughly inspecting the child's condition, the father carefully picked his son up, while still holding his war club. Carefully and tenderly cradling his child against his broad bare chest, the father, with a stoic look, in his tear filled eyes, walked to the side of his beautifully painted horse and carefully lifted his son and gently placed him onto the bare back of his magnificent animal. With the horses raw hide bridle in his right hand and his "war" club in his left, he turned away. As the father and boy left the encampment, without a word or even a glance at the settlers, the warrior dropped his club. The other Ute's slowly, also in silence, turned away and left the pioneers to their encampment.
After four more freezing nights and five sweltering days had passed, the settlers were in the hands of death. One of the men imagined an image of a person on horseback, with two other horses laden with food, quietly gazing at him in a seemly ghost like manner. With a dazed and feeble cry "Oh, Lord please safe us," waking the other man and woman from their deathlike slumbers, as the rider hovered over them.
The pioneers were barely able to discern that the rider was a young Ute Warrior and not a ghostly illusion. The nearly naked Ute Brave dismounted his horse; he kneeled next to the woman and with his moistened fingers, gently dampened the woman's lips, eyes and then her entire face. He then did the same with each of the two men. Very softly, in broken English, he said, "These horses and food are gifts from my father and mother."
The settlers slowly began to garner some feelings of hope that they were not going to be killed or die in this arid desert. However, the woman and the two men began to murmur that there were "only" three horses". After a few moments of quietly listening to the pioneers' voice their fearful concern, the young Ute Warrior stood and with broken English responded, "Yes, there are only three horses. The horses are a "gift" from my father while the food is a "gift" from my Mother" then he respectfully said "the ride from and the walk back to my village is "my gift" and turned and began his journey.
