Hello to You All
I hope you are enjoying your sunny weather - finally. David told me Memphis has gone several days without rain! Yahoo for you. I lost my snow fall lottery. I woke up on Saturday and we had 1 inch or less of snow on the ground. I tried to tell my group of teachers that it really wasn't snow it was "Termination Dust Part 2". Remember, I have November 15 for the snow fall pool. I still lost. Monday I woke up to 5 inches of snow and 5 more today. Tomorrow we are expecting another 6 inches of the white stuff. It was beautiful. It was so white and fluffy. I am sure you are getting tired of hearing it but it was gorgeous.
So November is Inter-tribal Multicultural Month. Every day and each weekend Anchorage hosts a wonderful event. If you watched TV last week, President Obama addressed the National Native American conference. One Native gentleman stood up and told President Obama if he needed to take a break and really get a feel for the "real Native" he needed to come to Alaska. Consequently, the President has agreed to visit Alaska but only in the summer. The gentleman that invited the President to Alaska is a parent of one of my students. He is a Tribal Leader of one of the largest Athabascan tribes. He speaks very good english but when he comes to school he speaks very thick accented Yup'ik. I thought I was on a roll with my Samoan, Yup'ik and Inupiaq words. So I welcomed my class last week and one of the Samoans said, "Ms Sheryl, we are the Samoan class not Yup'ik." My students are continually teaching me things. By the way, Wasilla means "breath of fresh air" in Yup'ik
It is still Native Cultural month and I attended the Lakota Sioux Dancers. They were fabulous. I can't imagine doing some of these dances in the summer's heat. Their regalia (not costumes - that is an insult) was exceptionally vivid. Yellows, reds, pinks, and many shade of pink. I wasn't allowed to take pictures, so you won't see a picture attached. The female is held in the highest honor because they give back to Mother Earth. David and I have traveled parts of the Trails of Tears but it didn't have the impact on me until these Natives sat and talked with us. They have two names - their tribal name and their government name. Here are the names of the people who talked to the audience before the dance retcital - Lillian Good Eagle; Annamae One Star Pusetonequa, Buck Spotted Tail, Gerimiah Holy Bull. I don't remember their government names but they referred to each other by their Tribal names. The regalia was so amazing. Did you know that the Government forbid Native dancing when they sent the Natives to the reservations and sent children to boarding school so they could "kill the Indian and safe the man." Eagle feathers are used in their ceremonial dances so they have to request Eagle feathers from the National Eagle Feather Respository in Colorado. The paper work is about 40 pages in length and it may take up to eight months to get approval to receive Eagle feathers. John Wolf Dancer told us about the eagle feather bustle. One of the main dancers had two Eagle feather bustles (one on the lower back area and one on the back of the head). Spectacular. John did mention that we can find Eagle feathers all over Alaska which is a way to get around this heavy paperwork request. If you remember, Seward is on the Kenai Penninsula where most Eagles make their homes.
Then in my graduate class we had an Aleut speaker. He survived the Native Alaskan interrment from the government during WWII. The Aleutian Islands stretch 1200 miles south west from Anchorage. Until recently (15 years ago), the people of the Aleutian Islands received their mail and packages by boat. Most of the news was 3 - 4 weeks old by the time the mail was delivered. He told about how the Natives were treated during the war and how the Aleuts came to settle in the Juneau area.
I went hiking at Eklunta Lake with some friends. Eklutna Lake is a glacier fed lake which provides 80% of the water supply to Anchorage. It is estimated that the people of Anchorage use approximately 135 gallons of water per person per day. You will notice the greenish blue color of the water. This is due to the glacier melt and it varies depending on where the sun is shining. We started our 8 mile hike and it was 42 degrees. When we finished it was 26 and started snowing. You know what you get when a group of teachers are hiking together? A lot of talking and laughing. So how do we explain the teen moose that came out to us. We can't. We were not quiet by any means. My friends make fun of my "camera necklace" but they were envious because they couldn't get their cameras out fast enough for a picture. You will notice teen moose was about 3 feet from me and you can see the hair on his back standing straight up. That is a sign that it is irritated and will probably charge. No it did not charge but we saw Mom moose coming and she was big. We all hid behind the nearest tree until the teen moose and Mom moved along. We are not sure why the teen moose was tagged but it looked very uncomfortable to wear that big tag. Perhaps that is why it approached us to take the tag off his neck.
On our way home we stopped by St. Nickolas Orthodox Church and cemetary. Those are not dog houses (David's guess) but those are burial plots. They bury their loved ones above the perma frost and in family colors. Very interesting!
I am tardy with my blog this week because we are doing H1N1 flu clinics at school, my prinicpal is observing my teaching lesson, and I have several other obligations this week. I will try to get back on schedule. Enjoy your week. I am on my family count down until they arrive in Alaska for the week of Thanksgiving. Have a great week.
Sheryl the Nanook of the North
I hope you are enjoying your sunny weather - finally. David told me Memphis has gone several days without rain! Yahoo for you. I lost my snow fall lottery. I woke up on Saturday and we had 1 inch or less of snow on the ground. I tried to tell my group of teachers that it really wasn't snow it was "Termination Dust Part 2". Remember, I have November 15 for the snow fall pool. I still lost. Monday I woke up to 5 inches of snow and 5 more today. Tomorrow we are expecting another 6 inches of the white stuff. It was beautiful. It was so white and fluffy. I am sure you are getting tired of hearing it but it was gorgeous.
So November is Inter-tribal Multicultural Month. Every day and each weekend Anchorage hosts a wonderful event. If you watched TV last week, President Obama addressed the National Native American conference. One Native gentleman stood up and told President Obama if he needed to take a break and really get a feel for the "real Native" he needed to come to Alaska. Consequently, the President has agreed to visit Alaska but only in the summer. The gentleman that invited the President to Alaska is a parent of one of my students. He is a Tribal Leader of one of the largest Athabascan tribes. He speaks very good english but when he comes to school he speaks very thick accented Yup'ik. I thought I was on a roll with my Samoan, Yup'ik and Inupiaq words. So I welcomed my class last week and one of the Samoans said, "Ms Sheryl, we are the Samoan class not Yup'ik." My students are continually teaching me things. By the way, Wasilla means "breath of fresh air" in Yup'ik
It is still Native Cultural month and I attended the Lakota Sioux Dancers. They were fabulous. I can't imagine doing some of these dances in the summer's heat. Their regalia (not costumes - that is an insult) was exceptionally vivid. Yellows, reds, pinks, and many shade of pink. I wasn't allowed to take pictures, so you won't see a picture attached. The female is held in the highest honor because they give back to Mother Earth. David and I have traveled parts of the Trails of Tears but it didn't have the impact on me until these Natives sat and talked with us. They have two names - their tribal name and their government name. Here are the names of the people who talked to the audience before the dance retcital - Lillian Good Eagle; Annamae One Star Pusetonequa, Buck Spotted Tail, Gerimiah Holy Bull. I don't remember their government names but they referred to each other by their Tribal names. The regalia was so amazing. Did you know that the Government forbid Native dancing when they sent the Natives to the reservations and sent children to boarding school so they could "kill the Indian and safe the man." Eagle feathers are used in their ceremonial dances so they have to request Eagle feathers from the National Eagle Feather Respository in Colorado. The paper work is about 40 pages in length and it may take up to eight months to get approval to receive Eagle feathers. John Wolf Dancer told us about the eagle feather bustle. One of the main dancers had two Eagle feather bustles (one on the lower back area and one on the back of the head). Spectacular. John did mention that we can find Eagle feathers all over Alaska which is a way to get around this heavy paperwork request. If you remember, Seward is on the Kenai Penninsula where most Eagles make their homes.
Then in my graduate class we had an Aleut speaker. He survived the Native Alaskan interrment from the government during WWII. The Aleutian Islands stretch 1200 miles south west from Anchorage. Until recently (15 years ago), the people of the Aleutian Islands received their mail and packages by boat. Most of the news was 3 - 4 weeks old by the time the mail was delivered. He told about how the Natives were treated during the war and how the Aleuts came to settle in the Juneau area.
I went hiking at Eklunta Lake with some friends. Eklutna Lake is a glacier fed lake which provides 80% of the water supply to Anchorage. It is estimated that the people of Anchorage use approximately 135 gallons of water per person per day. You will notice the greenish blue color of the water. This is due to the glacier melt and it varies depending on where the sun is shining. We started our 8 mile hike and it was 42 degrees. When we finished it was 26 and started snowing. You know what you get when a group of teachers are hiking together? A lot of talking and laughing. So how do we explain the teen moose that came out to us. We can't. We were not quiet by any means. My friends make fun of my "camera necklace" but they were envious because they couldn't get their cameras out fast enough for a picture. You will notice teen moose was about 3 feet from me and you can see the hair on his back standing straight up. That is a sign that it is irritated and will probably charge. No it did not charge but we saw Mom moose coming and she was big. We all hid behind the nearest tree until the teen moose and Mom moved along. We are not sure why the teen moose was tagged but it looked very uncomfortable to wear that big tag. Perhaps that is why it approached us to take the tag off his neck.
On our way home we stopped by St. Nickolas Orthodox Church and cemetary. Those are not dog houses (David's guess) but those are burial plots. They bury their loved ones above the perma frost and in family colors. Very interesting!
I am tardy with my blog this week because we are doing H1N1 flu clinics at school, my prinicpal is observing my teaching lesson, and I have several other obligations this week. I will try to get back on schedule. Enjoy your week. I am on my family count down until they arrive in Alaska for the week of Thanksgiving. Have a great week.
Sheryl the Nanook of the North
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