Volume 20 Fall 2008 Issue No. 1

In This Issue:
Native Voices, Modern Media

VOLUME 20, NO. 1

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ON CAMPUS

Menominee Constructing Green ‘Silver’ Library

By Joel Kroenke

A new, “green,” environmentally friendly, and sustainable library is under construction at College of Menominee Nation’s (CMN) Keshena, WI, campus. When completed the library will be 18,600 square feet in size, replacing a current facility of 2,200 square feet now housed in the windowless basement of Glenn Miller Hall, the college’s administrative building.

A new library has long been a priority for CMN, but lack of capital funding limited the college from moving forward until now. Still facing tight budget realities, the project will be completed in phases. An award from the U.S. Department of Education, Title III, will fund Phase I construction, including the shell of the building and the first floor in time for the fall 2008 semester. Additional funding is being sought for completing the upper and lower levels of the building.

CMN has taken its commitment to sustainability seriously in designing its new library. The “flagship” building is being built to the equivalent of a U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED “Silver” rating, designed to be 29% more efficient than Wisconsin’s Uniform Building Code minimum standards. Earth-friendly features include 36 geothermal wells that will heat and cool the main and upper floors of the building, natural daylighting throughout the building, structural insulating roof panels, heat recovery ventilation, and locally produced building materials including white pine paneling from the Menominee Indian Tribe’s sustainably managed forests, and daylight and occupancy sensors. The building also has low volatile organic compounds (an indoor air contaminant found in various building materials).

Landscape features will include a bioswale stormwater retention area featuring native plants as well as a public plaza area and a campus green. Over 60 sizable pine trees were saved and moved from the building site to other locations on campus as part of the project, and a local “Wild Ones” chapter moved native wildflowers that would also have fallen victim to the construction. New walking trail improvements are planned with lots of potential “hands-on” opportunities for native plantings to follow.

Construction of CMN’s new library symbolizes an active commitment by the college to its growth and long-term vision. The library will not only be the center of campus research but also an important center for further developing the sense of community at the college. It will provide a unique focus on important archival collections, many of them unique to the Menominee people.

The new library is one of a number of capital projects being celebrated in 2008, the 15th anniversary of CMN. Recently a mechanical maintenance building and an addition to the trades building were completed on CMN’s Keshena campus. The college recently broke ground for an expansion of the college’s Cultural Learning Center.

For more information on the project, contact Joel Kroenke, campus planner, College of Menominee Nation, at (715) 799-5600 or jkroenke@menominee.edu

Warrington Named Head Of Native Law Students

BURTON WARRINGTON

NNALSA PRESIDENT. Burton Warrington (Menominee, Prairie Band Potawatomi, and Ho-Chunk) is a law student at the University of Kansas. Photo courtesy of Burton Warrington.

Burton Warrington, a graduate of Haskell Indian Nations University, was elected president of the National Native American Law Students Association (NNALSA). Now a law student at the University of Kansas (KU), Warrington will serve during the 2008-09 term. He says his vision for the group is to bridge the gap that exists between Native American undergraduate students and the Native American legal community.

“I see NNALSA serving as a bridge organization, helping to encourage, support, and introduce Native American students to the law and to legal careers,” he says. “Therefore, the majority of my time over the next year will be focused on recruitment.”

Stacy Leeds, professor of law and director of KU’s Tribal Law and Government Center, says, “He has been an outstanding student leader since his undergraduate days at Haskell….His peers, on a national level, have recognized his leadership qualities, and they have made an excellent choice. Burton is already engaged and highly visible in the field of Indian law, having received tribal governmental appointments as a law student.”

Warrington (Menominee, Prairie Band Potawatomi, and Ho-Chunk) was elected to the post by the association’s membership at the annual board meeting. He was president of the KU chapter of the group. He is the son of Rebecca Warrington and the late Royal E. Warrington of Keshena, WI. He attended classes at College of Menominee Nation before graduating with a bachelor’s of arts Degree in Tribal Management from Haskell.

In addition to his law coursework, Warrington co-teaches a course at the business school at Haskell and serves on the athletic commission for the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation. He is student director of the Tribal Law and Government Center and has participated in NNALSA’s moot court competition.

NNALSA is committed to the success of Native American law students. It exposes to the legal community and the greater public the issues that Native American people and tribal governments face. The organization also promotes the study of federal Indian law, tribal law, and traditional forms of governance. It sponsors an annual job fair, moot court competitions, writing competitions, and provides networking opportunities for its members.

Reprinted with permission from the Kansas University School of Law.

IAIA Campus Features Energy-efficient Dorm

By David Collins

Santa Fe’s high housing costs and limited on-campus housing have been among the college’s greatest barriers in recruiting students at the Institute for American Indian Arts (IAIA), according to IAIA President Dr. Robert Martin (Cherokee).

The new dormitory that opened in January has more than 35,000 square feet and 77 dorm rooms for 154 students. Multicolored exterior walls express the pueblo-revival style of the area. More subtle comments on pueblo traditions are found in the floor plan of the new dorms. “The entrance was associated with the northeast to focus on the Jemez Mountains, which are sacred to many Native people,” Martin says. Inside, hallways are aligned along north-south and east-west axes, which reflect the four cardinal directions common to many American Indian traditions. At the intersection of hallways are shared lounge and study areas.

As the college looks forward to its 50th anniversary in 2012, planners are taking a new look at the college’s mission and how to accomplish it. The new dorms are part of that effort. The $7.9-million dorm project is Phase I of an emerging Lifelong Learning Center intended to more firmly root IAIA in the lives of tribal communities. With private bathrooms and hotel-style accommodations, the dorm can provide housing for other groups when students are away, Martin says.

Currently in the design phase, a conference center is slated to be finished adjacent to the new dorms some time in 2009. That design, Martin says, will feature curvilinear forms similar to those that define existing buildings at the campus center. At the entrance of the new conference center, a tipi structure will memorialize life on the Plains in earlier times.

The planned $5 million conference center will help IAIA accomplish its mission to area tribes and pueblos, Martin says. In addition to training young people for careers in the arts, the institute, through its planned conference center, hopes to promote tribal sovereignty and economic development in tribal communities.

Targeted to meet stringent environmental standards in both construction and building operations, the conference center is expected to have a LEED-Gold certification, which would place the college among the front ranks of institutions that reduce the environmental impact of their buildings. The dorms were built to meet a LEED-Silver standard, but dorm plans did not include formal certification, Martin says. Next on the list of building plans is a science and technology building.

A new 4-year degree program in Indigenous Liberal Studies reflects IAIA’s ambitions to move beyond narrowly focused arts training. The science and technology building will anchor plans to expand the curriculum beyond the core focus on arts.

“Expansion of our science and technology program will enhance our mission to advance Native arts and cultures,” Martin says. Science education can still be arts-oriented, he says. Physics and math come into play in arts production. Success in the arts industry often requires business acumen, so the institute is also training students in business and leadership skills needed for work as museum curators and managers.

Reprinted with permission from the Santa Fe New Mexican.

SWC Plants Campus With Sustainability in Mind

Sisseton Wahpeton College (SWC, Sisseton, SD) has received approval from the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate to place two small, electricity-generating wind turbines on its land, which it received from the tribe in 1979 to devote to educational needs of the Lake Traverse Reservation. The wind turbines will generate energy to supply about half of the college’s electrical needs.

Another project on prairie restoration will bring many species of native plants back to the campus and will include several outdoor classroom areas for the science department. This project is expected to be completed by fall 2008, although SWC personnel expect to be adding more indigenous plants every year.
Of the approximately 120 acres of land that SWC has access to, about 100 acres will be planted with native grasses and wild flowers. On the southeast part of the campus, four exterior classrooms will be built along an existing one-mile walking trail. Native plants will be used to populate the classroom spaces, the area along the trail, and the open land.

The 20-acre area that surrounds the SWC campus also will be cultivated with native plants, which will be the most noticeable improvement. To plan the project, SWC personnel received help from local tribal traditionalists and native plants experts as well as experts from South Dakota State University in both native plants and landscape design.

For information, visit the tribal college website, www.swc.tc , or contact Pam Wynia by telephone (605) 698-3966 or by email: pwynia@swc.tc

College Fund Names 2008 Students of the Year

            The American Indian College Fund has named its top tribal college students as 2008 “Students of the Year” based on their academic achievements and service to the community.  Each recipient received the prestigious award and was also awarded a scholarship sponsored by the Castle Rock Foundation.

            American Indian College Fund President Richard B. Williams (Oglala Lakota) lauded the winning students’ accomplishments. The Students of the Year represent a variety of tribes and attend tribal colleges and universities throughout the United States. Each student winner is selected by his or her individual tribal college.

            The 2008 Students of the Year are:

Red Crow Community College selected Lana Wolf Child, who received her award from the American Indian Higher Education Consortium since Red Crow is located in Alberta, Canada, and thus not eligible for College Fund scholarships or awards.  

The American Indian College Fund was established in 1989 to increase educational opportunities for Native students. It is based in Denver. In addition to distributing scholarships to students attending tribal colleges across the country, the College Fund also supports endowments, developmental needs, and public awareness for the tribal colleges.

For more information, see www.collegefund.org

TCJ Writers Receive National Writing Awards

Tina Deschenie (Diné/ Hopi) and Michael Thompson (Mvskoke Creek) were honored in June by the Society of National Association Publications (SNAP). Their awards were for articles published in Vol. 19, No. 2 of Tribal College Journal.

Deschenie’s editor’s essay (“Why We are Sticking to Our Stories”) won the Bronze EXCEL Award in the editorial award category. Thompson’s article (“Honoring the Word: Classroom instructors find that students respond best to oral tradition”) won the Gold EXCEL Award in the feature article category.

The EXCEL program judges over 1,000 magazines, newsletters, scholarly journals, electronic publications, and websites each year. SNAP said, “With a record-breaking number of entries, it was more difficult than ever to win an award. Your submissions displayed superior quality and truly represent the best and the brightest in the association community.”

Thompson teaches high school English. He is a frequent contributor to TCJ.

Deschenie has been the editor of TCJ since 2006. In May, she received the 2008 Governor’s Award for Outstanding New Mexico Women. Deschenie was selected for her activism, writings, and education efforts.

Twenty outstanding women were selected for the Governor’s Award. According to the New Mexico Commission on the Status of Women, “These recipients are selfless women working to improve the status of New Mexico’s women and families.”

Prior to coming to TCJ, Deschenie was an educator and administrator in American Indian education for 25 years. She has been involved with the tribal colleges both as a student and a staff member. In 2004, Deschenie was the associate dean of continuing education at Crownpoint Institute of Technology (renamed Navajo Technical College).

LCO Honors Founders At 25th Anniversary Event
KIM BEAUDIN

NICHES IN NURSING. Kim Beaudin, B.S.N., R.N., credits her tribal college with introducing her to her nursing specialty, public health. Photo by Pat Kelly.

Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe Community College (LCOOCC) celebrated its 25th Year with a ceremony and feast in March at the main campus in Hayward, WI. LCOOCC President Dr. Danielle Hornett invited the public to the event to help honor the founders of the college, including the original board of regents, individuals who established the college charter, and elders in the community who have supported the college throughout the years.

“We have always respected and relied on the community leaders and elders who have invested so much of their wisdom and vision into the college,” Hornett said.

Among the honored guests who received special recognition were the college charter founders: Odric Baker, Peter Larson, Rick St. Germaine, James Schlender, Bruce Taylor, Frank Thayer, and Gordon Thayer. Also honored were the original board of regents members: LaVonne Barber, Delores Beaudin, Marilyn Benton, Margaret Cooper, Arthur Fleming, Beverly Gouge, Marie Kuykendall, Delores Merez, John Quaderer, and Theresa Williams. The Lac Courte Oreilles Elder’s Association was also honored.

The college celebrates students like Kim Beaudin, who was encouraged by faculty to pursue a nursing career. While pursuing the associate degree in community health education at LCOOCC, she was persuaded to join the college’s pre-nursing program – a joint “2 + 2” program with the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire (two years at LCOOCC in the pre-nursing program followed by two years in the UW nursing program).

“I really didn’t want to do nursing at first,” she says. “I thought nursing was just about taking orders from doctors and giving people shots and pumping them full of medicine. I didn’t want to do that.”

Beaudin later learned that nursing incorporated much more then technical skills. “Nursing encompasses the whole person, their physical, mental, and spiritual health,” she says. “When I found out that the nursing program offered alternative therapies such as massage therapy and healing touch, I knew a nursing degree was for me.”

Today, Beaudin is a registered nurse with an associate of science degree from LCOOCC and a bachelor’s degree from UW-Eau Claire. She works as a public health nurse for Sawyer County where she offers reproductive health services, cancer screening access, communicable disease testing, and immunizations for children. She also is involved in several community programs designed to educate the public about health concerns. She collaborates with the LCO Health Clinic and other community partners on the suicide prevention coalition, smoking cessation programs, injury prevention initiatives, and substance abuse programs.

 “I provide extensive teaching in my job,” she says. “Much of what I learned at LCOOCC is the foundation of understanding the importance of education and teaching.”

 “There are many niches in nursing,” she says. “I found mine in public health, and it all started at LCOOCC.”

The college offers associate of arts and science degrees and certificates in business, environmental studies, health and nursing, human and family services, and Native American Studies as well as community, cultural, and professional coursework.

For more information, visit the college online at www.lco.edu or call (715) 634-4790, ext. 104.

Golden West Helps Build OLC’s Johnson Endowment

Oglala Lakota College (OLC, Kyle, SD) received $10,000 from Golden West Telecommunications as the second payment of a 3-year pledge of $30,000. This grant will assist the college in meeting the match agreed upon by the Johnson Scholarship Foundation and OLC.

“The pledge by Golden West is a natural expansion of the scholarship program that we already have in place for graduating high school seniors,” says Golden West General Manager/CEO George Strandell. The company annually gives $1,000 scholarships at 44 high schools throughout its service area. “We recognize the importance that education plays and hope that the additional scholarships will help the college expand the role it plays in providing a skilled workforce for the Pine Ridge Reservation,” concludes Strandell.

Since 2005, OLC has received $200,000 annually from the Johnson Scholarship Foundation by matching this amount with $300,000. This will result in $800,000 from Johnson over a period of four years. The endowment set up as the Johnson Scholarship Foundation Endowment will provide scholarship assistance to OLC business and/or entrepreneurship students with financial need.

“We are extremely pleased that Golden West recognizes the importance of scholarships to our students,” states OLC President Thomas Shortbull (Oglala Lakota).

In 2005, OLC embarked on Phase IV of the Rebuilding the Lakota Nation through Education campaign by announcing goals to raise $6 million for Faculty Endowments and $5 million for student scholarships. OLC’s goal is to raise these funds by 2011. The Johnson Scholarship Foundation’s matching grant gives OLC a big boost in reaching the goal of $5 million in student scholarships by 2011.

For more information, contact Oglala Lakota College President Thomas Shortbull at (605) 455-6000.

SKC Produces TV Show On Traditional Cooking

By Vince Devlin

Jody Perez was sure that when, after a week at a Traditional Living Challenge Camp, she stepped on the bathroom scales back home, she wouldn't like what she saw. “I really thought I was overeating all week,” Perez says. There were buffalo and elk steaks, salmon, dried meat, vegetables, fruit‚ and even camas that participants harvested, peeled, dried, and baked in the ground with black tree moss wrapped in skunk cabbage leaves.

“People use camas in soups sometimes, and if you boil it, you get a bitter taste,” Heather Cahoon, Perez’s sister, says. “But baking it made it so sweet, it was similar to a yam.” The food at the camp was delicious, plentiful, and as it turned out, good on the waistline.

Perez ate to her heart’s (and stomach’s) content and lost six pounds in the process. Her four children – 7-year-old Olivia, 5-year-old Jonathan, 3-year-old Robert, and 1-year-old Sierra – spent the week living in a tipi at the camp with her. Perez was none too pleased when her husband, Juan, picked the kids up at Blue Bay and immediately herded them through the drive-through at McDonald's in Polson.

She was sold on the benefits of a healthier, and more traditional, diet. She and Genevieve King co-host a new cooking show, “Rez Chef,” that premiered last spring on KSKC-TV, the public television station at Salish Kootenai College (SKC, Pablo, MT). King and Perez and their guests weave cooking and healthier lifestyles in with Indian tradition and culture on the half-hour program.

Anita Dupuis, director of the SKC Community Health and Development Department, came up with the ideas and grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for both traditional living camps and the cooking show. “Historically, Native American genetics weren’t made to properly digest and metabolize non-Native cuisine, i.e., sugar, flour and trans fat,” Dupuis explains. Her goal is to help Flathead Indian Reservation residents combat diabetes and cardiovascular disease by returning to more traditional diets or by using foods with similar nutritional values to the ones their ancestors ate.

“In order to be successful, an intervention in Native communities must speak to who we are, must be based in and founded upon the traditional wisdom of our ancestors, and it must be learned by experience,” she says.

Under the direction of KSKC-TV General Manager Frank Tyro, Ph.D., they taped five episodes (two were combined into one show).The episodes aired on KSKC-TV for a month in spring 2008. Pend d'Oreille tribal elder Stephen Smallsalmon helped the women prepare an elk and vegetable stir fry for the first show.

“My phone rang off the hook,” King says. “Lots of people seemed to see it.” King, Perez, Cahoon, and Dupuis are writing a grant proposal that would allow them to produce 13 more episodes of “Rez Chef.”

Vince Devlin is a reporter for The Missoulian in Missoula, MT. The story was reprinted with permission from the The Missoulian.

Leech Lake Enrollment Grows, Library ‘Shrinks’

Steady enrollment growth combined with knowledge-hungry students have resulted in the Leech Lake Tribal College (LLTC) Library in Cass Lake, MN, bursting at the seams. The library’s 1,050 square feet of space is consistently filled to capacity. Students utilize the eight computers, three study tables, and collection of 6,000 plus holdings.

Usage of the LLTC Library by students, staff, and community members has seen unprecedented growth: Monthly library visits were up an average of 58.5% during the 2006-2007 academic year, and March 2008 saw visits up by 108% from the same month last year.

The growth in demand for library and multimedia services means the current library space will soon be outgrown. Preliminary planning discussions are taking place in the LLTC Campus Planning Committee regarding the feasibility of a stand-alone library and cultural learning center. The new center would offer an array of amenities – study carrels, a larger computer lab, teaching and gathering space, and a faculty/staff development library lounge.

It would also enhance the academic resources, house the library collection, offer curriculum-supporting materials, and preserve the special collections and archives focusing on the Anishinaabe people, land, language, culture, and history.

For more information, contact Leech Lake Tribal College Director of Library Services Melissa Pond at melissa.pond@lltc.edu or Director of Institutional Advancement Kyle Erickson at kyle.erickson@lltc.edu

UTTC Student Lands Job At Bismarck TV Station

JEREMY PETTIGREW

PURSUING A DREAM. Jeremy Pettigrew is the studio camera operator at the KFYR TV station in Bismarck, ND. UTN photo by Dennis J. Neumann.

By Dennis Neumann

Jeremy Pettigrew wants to edit – the kind of editing done on the computer with moving pictures and sound, where you tell a story using scenes shot on videotape. He has landed a job in the media, bringing him closer to his dream. Pettigrew is employed as a studio camera operator at KFYR-TV, the local NBC affiliate in Bismarck, ND.

Several nights each week his work site is a TV studio on the second floor of a downtown office building. There he wears an audio headset and maneuvers a video camera in front of the evening news desk under rows of bright lights suspended from the ceiling. Using hand signals he relays timing cues to the news anchors from a director in the control room.

“It’s not exactly what I trained for, but I like my job,” says Pettigrew with a smile. “Everything is so time oriented – right down to the second. It’s interesting. Pretty cool.”

A member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, Pettigrew was raised in and around Wounded Knee, SD, and educated at Red Cloud Indian School, where he first got his hands on a computer to work with media. At  United Tribes Technical College (UTTC, Bismarck, ND), he studied film and animation and editing in the college’s Art-Art Marketing Program and graduated with an AAS in May 2007. He and his wife, Elisha Yellow Thunder, a student in the UTTC Environmental Science Program, have three children ages 2, 4, and 5.

During a class field trip to the TV station, he thought of applying there and decided to give it a shot. Three months later he received a call from the station’s operations manager; he was hired part-time and trained on the job for doing camera work. He also changes light bulbs and moves the furniture that makes the set for different programs.

 “The people are really nice to work with,” he says. Occasionally it can be pretty crazy what goes on behind the camera, he observed, people running around to get things together. “You never see that on TV, of course. They’re very professional.”

During the day Pettigrew continues to attend UTTC. He carries 19 credit hours of classes in Small Business Management, his second major. Someday, he hopes to make his own films and videos. He’d like to try for more advanced media schooling when time and money permits.

For now he sees the studio camera job as a good start – a place where he can get more experience. Next, he’d like to put his college training to work by editing videotape. After that? Well, stay tuned.

People in the News

Study Tells How to Best Teach Native Students

The U.S. Office of Indian Education (OIE) has released results from a study designed to identify effective instructional strategies for educators (Native and non-Native) of American Indian/Alaska Native students. Beginning in 2006, a total of 52 focus groups with stakeholder participants were selected from the surrounding areas of Portland, OR; Albuquerque, NM; Minneapolis, MN; Oklahoma City, OK; Yakama, WA; Anchorage, AK; and Pembroke, NC.

The following themes emerged from the study:

            1. Instructional strategies that were deemed most effective for teaching American Indian/Alaska Native students depended on the subject. For instance, for math, some participants suggested that direct instruction is the best instructional method. For the physical and social sciences, participants agreed that constructivist methods of learning (such as cooperative learning, project-based learning, and discovery) were the most appropriate. Participants suggested that the latter forms of instruction are more consistent with traditional Indigenous ways of learning through experience; students can relate what they learn in the classroom to real life.

            2. Participants indicated that teachers (both Native and non-Native) are the critical components in infusing various aspects of Indigenous culture within the classroom experience. However, they pointed out that the Indigenous cultural components must be tied to state K-12 testing standards. Without such ties, many teachers may not attempt to infuse culture into the classroom.

            3. Participants also said non-Native teachers need to learn important facts about American Indian/Alaska Native people such as tribal sovereignty, basics of tribal laws and significant court cases, structure of local tribal government, local tribal and educational history, and key historical tribal figures (i.e. past and present). Such knowledge could dispel myths and stereotypes (e.g., American Indians get everything free), giving the instructors a more accurate view of American Indian/Alaska Native students.

For more information, contact Dr. Raphael Guillory, assistant professor, Eastern Washington University by phone, (509) 359-2274, or email, rguillory@mail.ewu.edu

NTC Student Chefs Demo Cooking At Trade Show

By Sunnie Redhouse

LENA NATAN

CULINARY CULTURAL CELEBRATION. Lena Natan, a first-year student at the Navajo Technical College’s culinary department, serves food at the Celebration of Native Culture in San Diego. Reznet photo by Tetona Dunlap.

Far from home on the Navajo Reservation, four culinary arts students made their largest cooking debut for hundreds of hungry strangers at the five-star US Grant Hotel. The beginning students traveled 730 miles from Crownpoint, NM, to downtown San Diego to share their culinary skills at the National Indian Gaming Association’s 17th annual meeting and trade show.

“I've worked for the biggest restaurant in New Mexico, but this is pretty big for me,” says Travis Freeland, 23, one of the four students chosen from Navajo Technical College (NTC, Crownpoint, NM) to participate in a “mini internship” during the four-day convention. The students helped prepare a number of dishes at the event, including sweet corn polenta, king crab legs and poached shrimp with red chili cocktail sauce, and herb-roasted buffalo ribeye.

“This is my first time working at a big hotel like this,” Freeland says. Freeland and the other students — Dewanye Rintale, Lena Natan, and Karla Howard — came with instructor Joseph Chapa and worked with the hotel chefs preparing meals for the event.

Like his colleagues, Rintale, 27, from Window Rock, AZ, has enjoyed and practiced the art of cooking since he was a young adult. “I like to cook all kinds of food,” Rintale says. “That’s what made me pick culinary arts.” He hopes to work on a cruise line once he gains more experience in the field, he says.

About 50 more students are enrolled in NTC's 6-year-old culinary arts program. The college just launched a 2-year culinary arts program and is looking to start a certified program.

Chapa, a baking instructor at NTC, says it is one of three or four chef schools in New Mexico. In those programs, Native Americans have shown a great interest in the field. “I think a lot of it has to do with watching the chef shows on TV and people getting interested in cooking, and saying, ‘Well, our food is delicious, too,’” says Chapa, who has been teaching for 10 years.

Howard, 19, from Twin Lakes, NM, says she's gained a lot from the hands-on experience. “What I've learned here is experience in the kitchen. You have to be committed to what you’re doing,” Howard says. “You have to really work hard and know what you’re doing and be responsible for everyone and just have fun.”

Janelle Atcitty, trade show coordinator, says the opportunity not only helps Native students obtain experience but also helps open their eyes to different career fields. “They got hands-on experience working individually with the chefs,” Atcitty says. “I hope they see that there's a true career field for them out there in this area, and that it’s a well-paid career. They can actually work in a tribally owned facility.”

            Reprinted by permission of reznet (www.reznetnews.org), the online journalism training and mentoring program for Native American college students around the country.

ALLISON STEINMEYER AND STEVEN RAINING BIRD

2008 MS. AIHEC and MR. AIHEC. During the annual American Indian Higher Education Consortium (AIHEC) Conference in Bismarck, Allison Steinmeyer of Comanche Nation College (Lawton, OK) and Steven Raining Bird of United Tribes Technical College (Bismarck, ND) were named as the new ambassadors of the tribal colleges. Judges selected them based upon their academic performance and community service. Steinmeyer is a biology major and served as Miss Comanche Nation College in 2007. Raining Bird completed a carpentry certificate program in May 2008. Photo by Dennis J. Neumann.

Haskell Writer Named To National AWP Board

Denise Low-Weso, chair of the English Department in the College of Arts and Sciences, at Haskell Indian Nations University was elected to the national board of the Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP).This group provides services for creative writing students and faculty, as well as professional writers. AWP serves more than 28,000 students, writers, teachers, and administrators at more than 400 colleges. Membership benefits include classroom use of the publication, The Chronicle; job placement services, and the website.

The annual conference, which will be in Chicago Feb. 11-14, 2009, will feature many Native writers in panels and as speakers. The 2008 conference included presentations by LeAnne Howe, Eric Gansworth, Janet McAdams, Alison Hedge Coke, Diane Glancy, and others. Simon Ortiz was in the audience and also presented an independent reading nearby. Many presses that feature Native writers have booths at the conference book fair.

Haskell has made institutional AWP membership a priority because they receive copies of the Chronicle for classroom use; access to archived Chronicle articles; membership rates at the conference; eligibility for conference panels (Haskell students and faculty presented at the Kansas City conference); the AWP job list; listing in the AWP national writing programs guide; and insider access to the website. The AWP website (www.awpwriter.org) has benchmark and assessment guidelines and curriculum for creative writing classes online.

LYMAN "YOGI" VIVIER

STUDENT ARTIST WINS DISNEY INTERNSHIP. Lyman “Yogi” Vivier (Standing Rock Sioux), 29, is an Art-Art Marketing student at United Tribes Technical College (UTTC, Bismarck, ND). He and his wife, Jenifer, a Teacher Education student at UTTC, have three children ages six, seven and eight. Vivier was awarded a six-month internship in the Disney College Program at the Disneyland® Resort Anaheim, California. The program’s website calls it the “internship of a lifetime.” Disney interns may custom design their learning curriculum, take education courses (tuition free), engage in specialized learning and possibly earn college credit.

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