ANA 2009 Calendar
The AIR Program has made ANA's annual Calendar. To view hit the link-thank you ANA!
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San Diego State University
University of San Diego
California Sate University
San Marcos
University of California
San Diego
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Welcome to the AIR Program
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AIR Summer Program Starts
Thank you to all the students and mentors who participated within this semester's AIR Jr. and Sr. programs. Special thanks to: Dr. Michelle Jacob (USD Ethnic Studies-Yakima), Dr. Margaret Field (SDSU Dept. of American Indian Studies-Chair), Tishmall Turner, MA (CSUSM, Tribal Liaison), Dr. David Kamper (SDSU, Department of American Indian Studies), Dr. Belinda Lum (USD, Dept. of Sociology), Dr. Thomas Spady (CSUSM), Phillip White MA (SDSU Library), Devon Lomayesva, Esq. (California Indian Legal Services, Exec. Director), Cindy Revira (Mesa Grande Tribal Youth Program), Margaret Blackbear (Community Member), Kathy and Steve Garcia (Community Members), Apache and Will Mims (Community Members), George Zuniga (Iipay Nation of Santa Ysabel), Darren Hill (Cahuilla Reservation), Dr. Joely Proudfit (CSUSM) and Dr. Linda Parker (SDSU, Department of American Indian Studies)
Congratulations to Rose Vasquez on being Awarded a Competitive
"Save Me A Spot In College" Scholarship!
The "Save Me a Spot in College" Youth Scholarship Contest provides Middle and High School students with an opportunity to learn about college, promote the value of college participation, and ensure that California provides a spot for every student who seeks it.
Scholarship goals include:
- Increase awareness about college going and get students to think concretely about their future as it relates to higher education,
- Encourage young people to actively advocate for access to higher education by raising awareness within their communities and by putting pressure on elected officials to help solve the problem,
- To assist in funding the college education of hundreds of students across the state
- Support teachers, schools, and youth serving organizations to continue their work in building a college going culture and preparing their students for a future in higher education.
This year more than 14,000 entries were received and there were only 250 winners! Congratulations to Rose for such a great accompishment.
AIR Program is Honored with PSA Social Conscience Award
The AIR Program was honored with the Pacific Sociological Association's Social Conscience Award, given to a worthy community-based organization located in the city in which the PSA Annual meeting is held. The honor is given to a community organization based in San Diego that is engaged in providing a much-needed social service in the community. We thank Dr. Belinda Lum (USD, Dept. of Sociology), Dr. Fritsvold (USD, Dept. of Sociology), and Dr. Reifer (USD, Dept. of Sociology) for their nomination and give special thanks to to the Department of Ethnic Studies at USD and the Department of American Indian Studies at San Diego State University for their support these past few years. This award represents all the work that past and present AIR Program mentors and students have put into our program and we thank and congratulate each and everyone of our participants, its been a great 15 years...(April 9, 2009)
The American Indian Recruitment (AIR) Program has been established with the ideals of promoting higher education in the American Indian community. To successfully achieve such an ideal the AIR Program is dedicated towards offering after-school academic services to American Indian students through supplemental educational instruction through tutoring, mentoring, and various activities designed to achieve success within high school and higher education.
Although American Indians have gained ground in many areas they still remain far behind the rest of American society in pursuing higher education and educational attainment. The AIR Program firmly believes in our mission statement and hopes to bring greater success to those who our disadvantaged within our community.
News Brief for Students
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Legal:
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Native American boy fights Texas school over hair cut
June 29, 11:03 AM
A Native American boy is fighting a Texas school district for the right to keep his long hair. A small rural school district in Fort Bend County Texas wants to force Adriel Arocha to cut his hair in compliance with the terms of the school district's dress code.
Hence, the Needville school district and a determined mother are tangled in a dispute over hair. Michelle Betenbaugh says her son, Adriel Arocha, wears his hair long because of religious beliefs tied to his Native American heritage. The dispute began last summer, when Kenney Arocha and Michelle Betenbaugh informed Needville ISD officials of their plans to move from Stafford and have their son, Adriel Arocha, attend kindergarten in the district.
Made aware of the couple’s and the boy’s views on the practice by some Native American men of wearing their hair long, school officials told Adriel’s parents he would have to cut his hair according to terms in Needville ISD’s dress code. The parents refused, and a drawn out court battle followed.
The leaders of the Needville school district have strict rules about long hair on boys and don't see any reason to make an exception in this case. Needville's dress and grooming code, which does not allow hair past the collar or eyes for boys, is similar to other rural districts' in the Houston region.
The case illustrates that some rural Texas school districts have strict grooming codes that reflect the traditional or old-fashioned values of small-town America. Yet the Texas school district has no right to force Adriel to cut his hair. The supposed old fashioned values are simply tools of oppression and conformity. Indeed, the whole thing is a throwback to 1970. It is amazing that there are still such ugly and intolerant backwaters of American society.
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NAGPRA
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Tohono O’odham Nation reburying bones, fear more digs
By Tom Beal
Tucson, Arizona (AP) 6-09
The Tohono O’odham Nation will soon rebury the remains of nearly 200 of their ancestors, dug up in the late 1970s and early ‘80s by teams of archaeologists working on what was then known as the Anamax-Rosemont site.
They fear further disturbance of their ancestors’ graves if permission is given to Rosemont Copper to dig an open-pit copper mine in the foothills of the Santa Rita Mountains – an area rich with archaeological evidence of Hohokam and other settlements.If that happens, the Tohono O’odham will do what they already have done with thousands of cremated and skeletal remains dug up in the name of science or in advance of pipelines, freeways and housing developments.
They will bless them and rebury them in ceremonies that Joe Joaquin has a tough time calling traditional.
“There was no ceremony for reburial, because we don’t do that,” said Joaquin, who has coordinated repatriation activities for the nation since the late 1980s.
Joaquin is busier than ever these days, working with colleague Peter Steere in the cultural affairs office of the tribe to pore over inventories of human remains, associated funerary objects, sacred items or objects of cultural patrimony compiled by the nation’s museums under the terms of a 1990 law called the Native American Grave Protection and Repatriation Act, or NAGPRA.
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Washington |
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Franken to join Senate Indian Affairs Committee
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
The Senate Indian Affairs Committee will be getting a new member -- Democrat Al Franken of Minnesota.
Franken learned of his assignment to the committee yesterday after winning a court decision that prompted the concession from Republican Norm Coleman, who was the incumbent U.S. Senator. The two had been locked in a battle that now gives Democrats 60 seats in the chamber. Franken, who campaigned on reservations several times last year, will be the ninth Democrat on the Indian Affairs Committee.
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Editorial
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WHAT IS INDIAN TRIBAL SOVEREIGNTY?
By Jim Marino, Contributing Write
Before the advent of Indian gambling casinos and the profits which enabled federally acknowledged Indian tribes to enter the world of big business, few people had ever heard of tribal sovereignty.
Generally the old European and international concept of sovereignty was associated with “nation states,” countries that saw their people and territory as having to answer to no other sovereign nation in their affairs.
Since the United States became a sovereign independent nation, it has exercised plenary power over all Indian tribes.
In the early days, there were only a few major recognized historic tribes, some with thousands of tribal members, unlike today, when tiny bands or groups of Indian descendants often claim to be a separate tribe.
In actuality, they are just splinter groups or families sharing a common or similar tribal ancestry.
In California, these tiny groups are no more than the remnants of families that at one time had a tribal ancestry.
The federal government’s Indian policies ran the gamut from treaties relations to welfare dependency.
In the beginning, when the European powers were struggling for hegemony, over the North American continent it was expedient to make treaties with various recognized tribes who were often allies in the war for control of what was called the American and Canadian territories.
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Government: |
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1989 pact keeps state and tribes talking
By Jerry Cornfield, Herald Writer
Uncertainty gripped Denny Hurtado as he arrived at Seattle's Burke Museum on Aug. 4, 1989.
The chairman of the Skokomish Tribe and two dozen other tribal leaders had come to sign a pact with Washington Gov. Booth Gardner pledging they would all talk more and try to get along better.
This past Tuesday, Hurtado stood on the stage of the Squaxin Island Tribe's Little Creek Events Center to say that 1,200-word agreement, known as the Centennial Accord, is working out better than he imagined.
"I had my fingers crossed when I signed that document, thinking about the treaties that weren't acknowledged or respected," he told the annual meeting of American Indian leaders and state officials prescribed by the agreement.
"We were very adversarial with the state at that time. We really didn't trust the state, and sometimes we still don't trust the state, to be honest," he said. "But we started this relationship. Once relationships are formed, trust happens."
Trust breeds respect, which is why relations between the government of Washington and those of the sovereign tribes may be their best since statehood.
The Centennial Accord created a structure in which the state and tribal governments exchange information, discuss grievances and deal with challenges of authority. One of the keys is that it seeks to ensure tribes are consulted.
"We envisioned something big," said Dick Thompson, Gardner's chief of staff when the agreement's initial outlines were drawn up. "We'd taken a century screwing things up. I thought, let's not take a century getting it right."
There are and will always be conflicts. State and tribal governments, like siblings, are constantly quibbling and irritating each other.
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Health
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U study: Teens who think they'll die young live fast
A self-fulfilling prophecy? Teens who are less hopeful seem to engage in riskier behavior, a University of Minnesota study found. For example, they were seven times more likely to later be diagnosed with HIV or AIDS.
By MAURA LERNER, Star Tribune
Last update: June 28, 2009 - 11:56 PM
They used to say that teenagers think they're immortal, and that's why they do such dangerous things.
Now, a University of Minnesota study has found that a surprising number of teenagers believe they're going to die young -- and that may be why they're so reckless.
Nearly 15 percent of teenagers said they have a 50-50 chance -- or less -- of living to the ripe old age of 35, according to a survey released today.
In truth, their odds are much higher: Roughly 96 out of 100 will celebrate their 35th birthdays, according to national statistics.
But the study shows that teenagers who are most pessimistic are also most likely to put themselves in danger -- taking drugs, attempting suicide or having unprotected sex.
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Environment: |
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Hungry, Forgotten and Alone
Troopers investigate Yukon River protest fishing YUKON RIVER: AVCP president says state should crack down on pollock fleet, not subsistence.
I am attaching a story which ran in our local paper this morning to bring your attention to the plight of our brothers and sisters in Western Alaska. This serious problem was recently exascerbated by a recent vote of the North Pacific Fishery Management Council (NPFMC) that voted to increase the chinook (king) salmon by-catch for the pollock industry to 60,000 fish. That number is almost twice the amount of by-catch than the 10 year average of chinook caught by the industry.
Our brothers and sisters in Western Alaska are crying out for support. They will go hungry, and as winter begins to show its signs of arriving, I am affraid their plight will become even worse. They are, by this action, doing what we at Greenpeace have always done: peacefully protest. However, the difference is, it seems to me, is that for them it is a matter of survival immediately and personally.
Perhaps we can help by writing the Secretary of Commerce. His email address is: TheSec@doc.gov. Simply request that he reviews the decision made by the NPFMC to increase the chinook by-catch amount and bring that number down from 60,000 fish to at least 30,000 fish. When that number is reached, which is not likely, the pollock fishery would be forced to shut down for the season.
Please share this with your friends. Our people need our support. Perhaps they are taking a page out of our action book by doing this protest.
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