Donald Bradley, (Kansas City Star) Native American Times

Mioshia Wagoner, also known as “Yosh” is a member of the Navajo community, ready to complete her Master’s degree, and she holds the Olympic silver medal for light-heavyweight boxing!

After receiving her undergraduate degree from Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, Yosh went to China to compete in the World Championships and brought home the silver medal for Team USA.

In China, she defeated the fighters from Egypt and Romania. The fighter from the host country won the gold (this time).

It is interesting how she became interested in boxing.

She was covering amateur fight night at the Haskell Boxing Club. while working as a reporter for The Haskell college newspaper, The Indian Leader.

For  Yosh, most of the evening was boring until she saw two women fight.
 According to Yosh,

“One was higher-skilled, quicker and, kicked butt.”

After the fight, She spoke to Darren Jacobs a trainer about wanting to box.  Jacobs states,

“[I] wasn’t impressed. She wasn’t the first girl who had seen Million Dollar Baby.
But from the first punch, I knew she was born to fight,…
And now? …She’s fast and hits real hard.”

Ms. Yosh Wagoner is highly intelligent, and cares deeply for her people. She is pretty, and possesses a warm smile. She has also won the Native American Championships for  2007 and 2008.

She’s  the second best fighter in the world,  and she  just might become the first in her division.

This is an inspirational article about a wonderful, strong, and  independent  young woman! We want to hear more about her in the future.

Read the article and share your thoughts.

Tags: Boxing, Haskell Indian Nations University, Mioshia Wagoner, Navajo, Olympics

Newsroom, Argonne National Laboratory

People are discovering that Tribal lands represent enormous potential for the production of renewable energy, and this translates into money for the tribal members. Money for better health care, schools, and living conditions.

According to the statistics,

“The 55 million acres of land across the nation controlled by Native American tribes can potentially produce an estimated 535 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity from wind power and more than 17 trillion kilowatt-hours from solar energy. These projections are equivalent to more than four times the amount of electricity generated annually in the United States, and represent new economic and employment opportunities for many Native American communities.”

Argonne National Laboratory and the U.S. Department of the Interior are working together to develop training opportunities that will educate future tribal leaders on the importance of energy resource development and environmental evaluations. The programs are Tribal Energy Internships and the Indian Education Renewable Energy Challenge.

Argonne is hosting an internship program for summer (this will be it’s second year) specifically for American Indians and Alaska Native college students. This year, the program will include students from the following tribes: Quapaw, Navajo, Shoshone Bannock, Seneca Nation, Confederated Salish and Kootenai, and Eastern Shoshone, Cherokee.

Tony Dvorak, director of Argonne’s Environmental Science Division, make this observation,

“Despite being rich in renewable resource potential, many tribes struggle with poverty and soaring unemployment. This program helps develop renewable energy resources locally that can create jobs and revenue opportunities for tribal communities.”

Students will spend their summer working on a variety of research projects, and will have the opportunity to work with Argonne mentors.

Several colleges already involved in the program are Little Big Horn College, University of New Mexico and San Juan College.

All interested students, parents, and educators  should  read this article and follow up by speaking to the appropriate organizations. Click on any of the highlited areas to receive contact  information.

Tags: Argonne National Lab, cherokee, College, Confederated Salish and Kootenai, Eastern Shoshone, Ennergy, Indian Education Renewable Energy Challenge, Internships, Little Big Horn College, Navajo, Quapaw, San Juan College, Science, Seneca Nation, Shoshone Bannock, Students, U.S. Dept. of the Interior, UNM

By Cindy Yurth,  The Navajo Times

The Navajo Code Talkers were instrumental in helping the United States defeat the Japanese during World War II. Young Navajo men created an ingenious form of secret code for communications that was based on the Navajo language.  Because the Japanese were never able to decipher the code,  many lives were saved and the United States was able to make advances to end the war.

There are many people (Indian and non-Indian) who are not aware of these brave men and their important role during the war. Code Talkers Bill Toledo of Torreon, N.M., and Frank Chee Willeto of  Pueblo Pintado, N.M., participated in a memoir-writing workshop at the Navy Memorial in Washington, D.C. The goal of the program is to eventually obtain videos of the remaining Code Talkers and record their stories so that more people will learn about who the the Navajo Code Talkers are, and their important contribution during WW II.

Read the article, then share your thoughts with us.

Sources for further information about Code Talkers:

Navajo Code Talkers: World War II Fact Sheet

Logoi.com

OracleThinkQuest

Tags: Bill Toledo, Frank Chee Willeto, Japanese, Navajo, Navy Memorial, United States, Washington D. C., WWII

By Linda Braden Albert, The Daily Times, Originally published: March 28. 2010

Children and their parents enjoyed the celebration in honor of the Historic Sam Houston School House, and had a wonderful time learning about Sam Houston, American Indian history, and culture. Members of the Cherokee and Navajo tribes performed. The festivities included Indian storytelling, native American dances, flute playing, tomahawk throwing, and singing. It was a fund raiser for the school house.

An enjoyable article.

Tags: American Indian history, celebration, cherokee, dances, festival, flute playing, Navajo, Sam Houston School House, tomahawk

NM School Goes From Worst to Among Best in 3 Years By Heather Clark, Published: Oct 19, 2009 in Indian Country Today.

This article discusses first-year principal George Bickert and how he encouraged the students of Tohatchi Public School located on the Navajo lands in Tohatchi, New Mexico.  Before the arrival of Mr. Bickert, the students were struggling academically, with many of them classified as English language learners.

He found a way to make learning fun and challenging for the students. Part of his strategy was using  lots of smiles and hugs with the students. The other part was knowing his students.

A couple of important  points to note in this article (other than the influence of Mr. Bickert, and the amazing  progress of the Indian students)  is that there are many American Indian children (and adults) whose first language is not English. Many of the Indigenous Indian people of this country still struggle with learning  English as a second language.  Another equally important fact this article discusses is that many of our Native schools are impoverished, as are the living conditions of the people.

This is such an inspiring and informative piece, that I  highly recommend teachers have students read the article in its entirety online.

Find addittional information and lessons plans for the Navajo people here.

Suggested Exercises based on this news article:

Vocabulary Exercise:

1. In groups designate paragraphs from the article.

Discussion Questions for Comprehension:

1. Where is the school located?
2. What are some of the problems children face in this area?
3. Why do you think that 80% of the students are English language learners?
4. Identify and discuss the two main causes for the low scores of the students.
5. Discuss the ways Mr. Bickert  motivated the students.
6. In addition to English language learners, what other group of students does Mr. Bickert mention?
7. Compare the education system in your home city, to that of the Navajo Indian school in this article. Discuss the similarities or the differences.

Tags: American Indian children, George Bickert, indigenous, Navajo, Tohatchi New Mexico, Tohatchi Public School