Native Education

DENVER – The American Civil Liberties Union is arguing that former professor Ward Churchill should be reinstated by the University of Colorado because he was wrongly fired for exercising his right to free speech.

DENVER – The American Indian College Fund appointed Eric Anderson to the position of vice president for resource development.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Big Brothers Big Sisters of America is in the midst of an accelerated, nationwide effort to reach out to vulnerable youth in American Indian and Alaska Native communities.

BOZEMAN, Mont. – A group of American Indian students at Montana State University have launched an organization that is working to build leadership skills and promote global cultural exchange among indigenous youth.

The Chitimacha Tribe of Louisiana will be breathing new life into its language with the help of modern technology. The revival is being made possible with Rosetta Stone software.

MYSTIC, Conn. (AP) – Each June, Leslie Stalker accompanies his fellow Alaskan villagers as they use a small fleet of boats to herd beluga whales into shallow water. They then harpoon and shoot them.

Heavy snowfall made for some tough traveling at times, especially for Phoenix resident Kia Ratliff, but she said the Montana Post Secondary Educational Opportunities Council and Montana Tribal College’s sponsored six college/career fairs event was well coordinated and made even more worthwhile by the local hospitality.

On average, less than 50 percent of American Indian and Alaska Native students from the Pacific and Northwestern regions of the United States graduate high school, according to a new study by The Civil Rights Project/Proyecto Derechos Civiles at University of California, Los Angeles’ Graduate School of Education and Information Studies (GSE&IS).

VERMILLION, S.D. (AP) – The University of South Dakota is accepting applications for the inaugural summer university program at the Crazy Horse Memorial.

FORT YATES, N.D. – On the heels of President Barack Obama’s first State of the Union address, Sitting Bull College students traveled to Washington, D.C. and met with federal legislators.

WASHINGTON – The National Indian Education Association is set to lose a longtime director to the federal government.

The Senate Committee on Indian Affairs voted Feb. 11 to confirm Lillian Sparks as commissioner of the Administration for Native Americans at the Department of Health and Human Services. President Barack Obama nominated her for the job in the fall.

WASHINGTON – “As a young person I was shy and I didn’t find my voice until I went to law school,” Kim Teehee, President Barack Obama’s Senior Policy Advisor for Native American Affairs, told about two dozen Native American students attending the annual UNITY mid-year conference in Washington, D.C.

DENVER – Calm and cerebral may be the route high school mascot issues will take in coming months, as some of the state’s American Indian educators and others begin conversations with Colorado school districts whose high schools have “Indian” mascots and names.

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) – Oklahoma’s Senate president says large cities should have the right to establish charter schools on their own.

FORT YATES, N.D. – On the heels of President Barack Obama’s first State of the Union address, Sitting Bull College students traveled to Washington, D.C. and met with federal legislators.

TERRACE, British Columbia – Challenging the Paradigm, Northwest Community College’s third annual conference on decolonizing post-secondary education, will take place this year from May 5 – 8 at its Terrace Campus.

While Johnothan Bomboy spent several years in the school band and has a natural talent for music – he plays 11 instruments, including guitar – he couldn’t read music. But that changed during the Chickasaw Summer Arts Academy as Jerod Tate was explaining time signatures and music notation.

SANTA FE, N.M. – The National Rural Assembly is seeking 50 young adults from rural communities across the country to attend a National Rural Youth Assembly in Santa Fe, N.M., at the Institute for American Indian Arts.

SYRACUSE, N.Y. – Leaders of the Onondaga Nation, before a packed house in a Syracuse theater Feb. 8, reaffirmed their commitment to healing both the local environment and relations with their non-Native neighbors.

WASHINGTON – The National Indian Education Association is set to lose a longtime director to the federal government.