SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Eight Oregon high schools will have to retire their Native American mascots after the Board of Education voted Thursday to prohibit them, giving the state some of the nation’s toughest restrictions on Native American mascots, nicknames and logos.

The 5-1 vote followed months of passionate and emotional debate about tolerance and tradition.

The schools have five years to comply with the order or risk losing their state funding. Another seven high schools identified as the Warriors will be allowed to keep their nickname but will have to change mascots or graphics that depict Native Americans. An unknown number of elementary and middle schools also will be affected.

The ban doesn’t apply to colleges, but none in Oregon have Native American mascots after Southern Oregon University and Chemeketa Community College dropped them.

Since the 1970s, more than 600 high school and college teams across the country have done away with their Native American nicknames, including 20 in Oregon.

Critics say Indian mascots are racist, contending they reinforce stereotypes and promote bullying of Native students. Supporters say the mascots are a way to honor Native American history, evoking values of strength and bravery.

“It is racist. It is harmful. It is shaming. It is dehumanizing,” Se-ah-dom Edmo, vice president of the Oregon Indian Education Association, told the board.

In 2006, the Oregon Board of Education adopted a nonbinding recommendation that schools stop using Native mascots. A handful did, but some small communities have resisted the trend, saying the nicknames are a source of pride.

“It’s a chance for us to talk about family and tradition and loyalty,” said Jim Smith, principal of Banks High School – home of the Braves – who grew up on the Fort Peck Reservation in Montana.

Banks, west of Portland, has a logo depicting an Indian head on the gymnasium floor and walls, and even on the hurdles used by the track team. When the Star Spangled Banner is played at the beginning of every game, the crowd joins in and tweaks the last stanza: “and the home of the Braves.”

Some critics of the ban said they were concerned about the costs of changing sports uniforms and equipment, school letterhead and street signs.

In some areas, schools have worked with nearby tribes to change their practices without changing their nickname. Roseburg High School, home of the Indians, switched a logo depicting a Native American to a simple feather. Molalla High School changed sports jerseys to say “Molalla” instead of “Indians” and stopped using a mascot dressed like a Native American to lead cheers.

Students and teachers from schools with Native American nicknames packed two public hearings on the topic. Some suggested they be allowed to keep their Indian nicknames if nearby tribes consent.

The board rejected that idea, with board member Artemio Paz describing it as a “search for acceptable levels of racism.”

Oregon Department of Education officials say Wisconsin is the only other state to enact restrictions on Native American mascots. The NCAA limits the use of imagery and names considered hostile and abusive, and a debate still rages over the University of North Dakota’s “Fighting Sioux” nickname and a logo with the profile of an American Indian warrior.

The Oregon Legislature voted in 2001 to eliminate the word “squaw” from geographic names because many Native Americans consider it offensive.

Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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by Eryka Charley –

My name is Eryka Charley and I am a Navajo woman born into the Red House People Clan and for the Towering House People Clan. My maternal grandfather is of the Meadow People Clan and my paternal grandfather is of the Mexican People Clan. In the Navajo culture, it is customary to introduce your clans to give people a sense of who you are and who you represent. Since this is my first contribution to the AJE forum I thought that you should know who I am.

Since I became a doctoral student at Penn State, the question, “what is Indian education” comes up rather frequently. In many ways I am constantly asking myself that question and find that there is no simple answer. The statistical profile of American Indian education is stark. Only 71% of all American Indians have a high school diploma, compared to 90% for the white population (National Indian Education Association [NIEA], n.d.). Eleven percent of American Indians have a Bachelor of Arts degree, compared to 31% of the white population (NIEA, n.d.). The literature offers the following priorities for American Indian education focuses on strengthening tribal control of education, sustaining tribal culture and languages, developing a population of Native educators and improving the federal government’s support of education (NIEA, 2011). I am often overwhelmed with where to begin. These priorities have become a framework for my work but I cannot help but focus upon the scarcity of American Indian educators. I realize now that as an American Indian educator, I not only have an obligation to educate Indian students, but also the non-Native educators they encounter. I cannot simply resurrect American Indian educators to support the underlying theory to promote positive environments for American Indian students.

Upon reflecting on this question, I have mentally mapped out the crossroads and currents that have brought me here, with the hope that my personal experiences might provide some insight into addressing this question. My father’s stern, military rearing and my mother’s patient, Christian upbringing has been a sturdy catalyst for my success. From my grandmother I was taught that if I truly wish to pay respect to those who enabled my aspirations I need to personally guide young people. I have also received a tremendous amount of support and advice from my siblings, both of whom are educated, young professionals. As I cannot attribute my own success to one event, I wonder, what is the thread that ties all of my experiences together?

I cannot generalize my upbringing to every American Indian person. I have access to a chain of privileges that are not afforded to every American Indian child and these privileges are pivotal reasons for my academic success. However, I realize that as an American Indian person who spent a part of her childhood on the Navajo reservation, and did not have the opportunity to be taught by someone with the same racial background, that there is a mystery hidden within my experience. Somewhere within my story the practices called for within the literature came into fruition.

In thinking about the educators, I have witnessed individuals either actively encourage students or serve as an obstruction towards academic progress. I have observed individuals who tout being an ally or advocate to underrepresented students as if it were a certificate of perfect attendance. However, based on my own personal experiences it is from their words and actions that I have been wounded deeper than any bigoted comment or action I have ever been subjected to. Fortunately, despite their efforts to discourage me, I have had influential educators who honed my talents in preparation for the next person who questioned my ability. Interestingly enough, these educators did not identify as American Indian.

In high school, it was a White guidance counselor with Dutch heritage and an infatuation for the outdoors and mandolins, who preferred to be called ‘T’. A week before my freshman year of high school, my mother and I visited T to schedule my courses. I had mixed feelings about transferring to this new school. I had a negative experience at the local school and it was only a few months after my grandmother passed away. I knocked on the door to a tiny office and an enthusiastic, White man with curly hair popped from his chair and welcomed us into his office. My mom giggled and greeted him, “Thank you for making time for us, Dr. Tamminga.” He shook his head with modesty while hopping back into his office chair, “You can call me ‘T’. The kids do.” Cordial introductions were given and he asked my mom where she was from. She responded, “Coyote Canyon.” He exclaimed with glee, “Oh! Ma’ii teehitlizhi, where the coyote fell in the watering hole.” I was surprised to hear Navajo come from his mouth. Suddenly, my inhibitions were gone. Needless to say, I excelled and exceeded my own expectations and established a life-long relationship with T that I continue to nurture to this day.

In college, Dr. Mario Montaño, more fondly known simply as Mario, a Mexican Anthropology professor with a passion for food took me under his wing. In my second year of college, a friend invited me to join him and Dr. Montaño for lunch at a local hamburger restaurant. I hesitantly accepted the invitation, not certain if it was appropriate for me to join. Apprehensively, I walked into the restaurant and there sat a man with small stature and floppy graying hair. He rose to his feet and embraced me as if I were a family member. I instantly felt welcomed. During our lunch, Mario asked me about T & R, a grocery store near the Navajo reservation, where he always buys mutton. Mario exclaimed, “It’s great. You just take your cooler and fill it up with mutton. It’s just great.” This initial conversation would later generate a paper entitled The Navajo Churro Sheep: Historical, Symbolic, and Cultural Texts, that I would present at an Anthropology conference in Quebec two years later. I was one of three undergraduate students who were invited to present at this conference, all three of which were mentored by Mario.

As a child I would stand before my parents, reciting my introduction in Navajo. I would roll my eyes, while they would lecture me on the cultural importance of being able to introduce myself. As I pursue my academic career, it has been critical for me to remember who I am and where I come from. In particular, reminding myself that the contributing relationships for my academic success were built upon a mere introduction. From the first introductions that I shared with T and Mario, I felt that they respected who I was and they invited me to fully participate in my education. I cannot engage in the academe without bringing my whole self to the table. Just as I am asked to engage in a culture that is distinctly different then my own, I ask that you consider the culture of your students. Being of a different cultural background is not a barrier to academic success; in many ways being a Navajo woman is the thread that ties my experience and success together.

I do not offer these anecdotes as a one-step solution to the problems within Indian education, but as a request for non-Native educators to join me in making Indian education a priority. I do not have the ability to be in every school, college, or university to educate and support American Indian students. So I have to depend on you and every other educator in this country to make a commitment to want to support these students. The drop-out rate for American Indians is prevalent throughout the education system, from primary school to higher education. Without the support of the educators throughout this system, there will always be a scarcity of American Indian educators. As Brayboy and Deyhle (2000), state, “Although I could never become a complete ‘insider’ – no matter how much I have been taught, I will never become Navajo – I have used my position, as Swisher (1998) would describe, to become ‘broker of sorts’ ” (as cited in Brayboy & Deyhle, 2000). In whatever capacity you can become a ‘broker of sorts’, I ask you to engage in dialogue with your students, you never know where the pivotal learning opportunities await.

Brayboy, B. M., & Deyhle, D. (2000). Insider-outsider: Researchers in American Indian communities. Theory into Practice, 39(3), 164-69.

National Indian Education Association. (n.d.). Native education 101: Basic facts about American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian Education. Retrieved from: www.niea.org/data/files/policy/nativeeducation101.pdf

National Indian Education Association. (2011). Restoring the trust in Native education. Retrieved from: http://www.niea.org/Policy/Briefing-Papers.aspx

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Fonda Walters’ higher education journey started when she was just 5, a Navajo girl growing up in Tuba City, whose father frequently asked her at dinner, “Where are you going to college? And, what are you going to study?”

Answers to the questions he posed changed through the years, but Walters always knew college was possible and probable because her parents never doubted her potential. Now, she is a proud member of a family of six siblings, all of whom are first-generation college-degree earners, including a brother who has earned his doctorate.

Walters has reached the pinnacle of educational attainment at Arizona State University by earning her doctoral degree in education through the Leadership for Changing Times accelerated program for working professionals. Besides her hard work, she credits her family’s support and that of the Navajo community who gave her strength through prayer ceremonies to excel in her studies.

“I went to my family for guidance and help. We held traditional ceremonies to get me through while we were doing this,” she said. “This is my family’s degree, and those who came to my ceremonies who I didn’t know well. They stayed up all night for me.”

Walters had been thinking about earning her doctoral degree for years before she found the program at ASU that was just starting for working professionals. Accepted in June before the start of her August 2009 semester, she was one of the first to be accepted.

“I thought, either I go out and do it, or I stop talking about it,” she said. “However, I didn’t have money for school or a job in the Valley at the time.”

After landing an ASU job in downtown Phoenix, Walters searched for funds to finance her doctorate and ended up securing the support she needed at the last minute.

“It was an extremely accelerated program with a very supportive environment and an excellent structure,” she said. “I was up for it. I had to take that leap of faith.”

That’s not to say working on her doctorate didn’t require sacrifice, especially when it came to spending less time with her children who ranged in age from 8 to 17 when she started her degree. Eventually, Walters landed a job at ASU as senior research analyst for the American Indian Policy Institute.

“That was a Godsend. The American Indian Policy Institute has been extremely supportive of me,” she said.

“Promoting Entrepreneurship in a Tribal Context: Evaluation of the First Innovations Course Sequence” was Walters’ dissertation topic. First Innovations is a collaboration between the American Indian Policy Institute and American Indian Studies that combines an intensive internship with classes focused on developing innovation and entrepreneurial skills for American Indian sustainability. She conducted an assessment of the program, developed the summer field practicum and evaluated the first field internship last summer.

“First Innovations students work with real people and real organizations,” she said. “The concept of social entrepreneurship resonates with a lot of students when you talk about language preservation and other drivers that sustain who we are as a people.”

This is especially important among tribes that can take lessons learned through the First Innovations practicum and apply entrepreneurial thinking and practices to the next level beyond gaming, Walters said.

Because of her work with the groundbreaking American Indian Policy Institute’s First Innovations Initiative, Walters is poised to be a national leader in innovation and entrepreneurship education for American Indian students. No other entrepreneurship curriculum focuses on high-impact entrepreneurship with culture as a wellspring of innovation. By working as a staff person in the Institute, Walters found the ideal topic for her doctoral research. Providing educational opportunities such as those that Walters experienced is a key part of the American Indian Policy Institute’s mission.

“I look at this as just the beginning. I think we need to model big thinking with high impact. I would love to put this curriculum into tribal colleges across the country,” she said.

Walters also hopes that other Native American students will realize that they can complete college, despite challenges experienced along the way.

“It can be done, one class at a time. It comes with sacrifice and you may not have money. You have to be prepared to accept the long, rough, and sometimes smooth road. You have to set your goal and go,” she said.

By Tish Leizens

Tourists have long known Pennsylvania’s Lancaster County as Amish Country, but what was life like before the horse-and-buggy rides?

The answer will come this fall in the form of a permanent outdoor exhibit that will showcase the history and culture of American Indians and their influence on Central Pennsylvania during the colonial period.

“It is important to tell the story of Native Americans prior to the Herr family settling here,” said Becky Gochnauer, director of the 1719 Hans Herr House & Museum. Hans Herr, a Mennonite, was a high-ranking religious leader who came to settle south of Lancaster in the 1700s.

The Museum, the Lancaster Mennonite Historical Society, the Circle Legacy Center and members of the local Native American community are collaborating to construct a replica of a Native American Longhouse—a large multi-family home made of logs, saplings and tree bark— that when completed is said to be one of the only interactive outdoor exhibits of Native life in the state and one of only a few similar buildings in the country.

The Longhouse Project is a big step in repairing relations between American Indians and early European settlers, and follows the honor and healing event held in October 2010 when church leaders and government officials apologized for the misunderstandings and abuse of American Indians three centuries ago.

Gochnauer said the construction of the projected $350,000 Longhouse structure is about to begin. “The big thing is the public kick off on April 28. We will be stripping the bark off of the saplings just like the Native People did centuries ago. We need 100 volunteers to strip the bark.”

Gochnauer said the ground breaking of The Longhouse Project on the grounds of the Museum is slated for May 5, and by fall its door will be open to welcome visitors to demonstrations, exhibits, curricula and tours.

The Longhouse is 20 ft high, 20 ft wide and 62 ft long. Gochnauer said the structure is based on historical and archeological research into Eastern Woodland Construction of the late 17^th century.

It will tell the story of south-central Pennsylvania from the time American Indians lived in Lancaster in 1570 to the time the population disappeared in 1770.  Pennsylvania is one of a few states with no official recognized tribes and no tribal reserve.

“Our goal here is we want to tell an honest and accurate story of what happened—the good and the bad,” said Gochnauer.

“We mourn for the acts done by our sisters and brothers in faith,” Presbyterian moderator Rev. Jane DeFord said in a press statement issued at the honor and healing event. “We ask that our native brothers and sisters forgive the wrongs done to them.”

The leaders recounted the friction between the Indians such as the infamous massacres of Conestoga Indians in Lancaster in 1763 and other offenses including encroaching on Native land, poaching game and imposing European cultural standards on Native Groups.

“The stories that we’ve heard this morning are very disturbing,” said Mitchell Bush of the Onondaga/Iroquois Confederacy in response to the apologies, “but let me tell you something about the Onondagas—we’re not raised to hate.”

Other than the Onondaga/Iroquois Confederacy, the Delaware/Lenape, Nanticoke, Shawnee, Susquehannock, Mohawk and Dakota/Lakota tribes in Montana represented the American Indians at the event.

Among the volunteers to The Longhouse Project is Uhma Ruth Py, who is part Lenape from her mother and father and who moved to Lancaster from Bucks County 20 years ago. Py said she is on the committee to furnish the Longhouse and has been involved in the project since the honor and healing.

“Native Culture is something I pursued all my life. From the time I was little I always thought that knowledge was meant to be shared, not kept to oneself,” she said, adding that she has been speaking to school groups and teaching the Native American culture.

Py, married to a Navy man and whose family has been assimilated with white culture, said that The Longhouse Project is significant to her. In all her travels she said this is the first time the two cultures have come together.

“We need to teach our children about how things are related back then and how they are related today,” she said.

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In the spring of 2011, the Film and Video Center held its Native American Film + Video Festival, which included a special program entitled Mother Earth in Crisis. This program began with an evening screening of Inuit Knowledge and Climate Change, a film that looks at the impact of warming temperatures in the Arctic. The screening was followed by a conversation with the filmmakers, including Zacharias Kunuk (Inuit), who took part via Skype from Igloolik, Nunavut, northern Canada.

The second part of Mother Earth in Crisis was a day of films and panel discussions with a focus on rivers. Throughout the program, we saw how industrial development is endangering the Earth’s rivers and glaciers. We heard warnings from all parts of the Americas about the effects of climate change on indigenous communities, as well as calls to action to protect our Mother Earth. 

This video is a compilation of footage from both parts of Mother Earth in Crisis. We hope it will get you thinking about, and involved in, the problems facing our Mother Earth in the 21st century. Just as the festival was a hemispheric event, this video contains both English and Spanish speakers.

In Spanish and English. Use the CC button at the bottom of the video to switch between language and closed caption tracks. 

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The word wisdom is used frequently every day, whether it is spoken and heard or written and read. Yet it is debatable, in my opinion, if most of us know what it is. In most dictionaries it is defined as “the quality or state of being wise, sagacious, discerning and insightful.”

There are wise people in the world from all walks of life, from many nations and cultures. But there is one unalterable reality: No one who is truly wise is young. By the same token there are many old cultures on this planet of ours. Therefore, if we universally regard elders as repositories of wisdom, than those old cultures would have much to offer.

Many indigenous cultures were already populating every nook and cranny of what came to be called North America when the migration of Europeans began, roughly 500 years ago. Those peoples that greeted the newcomers with varied degrees of curiosity and apprehension had, by then, lived on and with this land for thousands upon thousands of years. Consequently they had evolved societal values and ways that enabled them to not merely survive, but thrive for all those millennia. Without going into the sad and difficult details and consequences of the interaction between Europeans and indigenous North Americans, it is important to note that the indigenous people were deeply and traumatically impacted; to the point where our cultures were diminished and, in some cases, entirely lost. The good news is that some of us have survived: just over 480 ethnically identifiable native tribes or nations in the United States.

A popular axiom says that “whatever does not kill you will make you stronger.” If that is true, native societies have endured much to survive to the present day, so we should be among the strongest people in the world. That strength is not physical, however, and certainly has nothing to do with military might. That kind of strength has to do with the experiences we had and the insights we gained from it.

Furthermore, all of us, as indigenous cultures and nations, are older than any of the modern nations of North and Central America. As societies, therefore, as with individuals, we have acquired wisdom. It would be accurate to say that we are among the elders in the global village.

When I was a teenager, my paternal grandfather made an interesting observation. He said that native peoples of this country (meaning the United States) needed to hang on to their ways and their values, but not only for themselves. He said that we might have to save this country from itself with our ways and our wisdom as native peoples. Unfortunately, he did not elaborate beyond that. It would have been extremely helpful for him to have laid out a blueprint as how we should that. But as I get older the more I see the truth in his observation.

I know little of the specific traditions, customs, languages and values of other native tribes and nations. But I do know something of the Lakota third of our nation that also includes the Dakota and Nakota. What I have learned is that the foundation of our wisdom is all the realities of the physical world. Some are obvious: the sun comes up in the east and goes down in the west; there are four seasons in the yearly cycle — winter, spring, summer and autumn — and each has its own whims and characteristics. Others are a bit more subtle, but no less unrelenting, such as the knowledge that it is impossible to survive without knowing those realities, and living within them. That is why we did not place our villages on a known flood plain, therefore precluding having to blame the river when it flooded. Furthermore, because all our values, traditions and customs are based on reality, the wisdom derived from practicing them is real, and not based on myth and legend.

Therefore, what is wisdom? There are many answers. Here are a few:

• Wisdom always takes the path of reason.
• A wise person never speaks before immersing himself or herself in a long and thoughtful moment.
• Wisdom is the most effective antidote to fear and the absence of reason.
• The wisest man or woman is also the most humble.

Perhaps my grandfather was, and is, right. However, I do know that we Lakota (as well as other indigenous peoples) have much to offer to the world at large. Among our ancestors there were some values that were held very high, among them humility, compassion, courage and generosity. But all values lead to the one we consider the greatest: wisdom. And it is our hope that one day wisdom — rather than might, arrogance and bluster — will rule the world.

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Calvin C. Pohawpatchoko Jr., a member of the Comanche Nation, is a Ph.D. candidate in an interdisciplinary program in technology, media and society at the University of Colorado-Boulder. He supports insourcing call or data centers that can be based at a distance from their customers (compared to outsourcing to India, the Philippines, or other places).

The idea is not without drawbacks—for cost-conscious business leaders, services abroad might still be cheaper in terms of educated workers commanding relatively low wages in unregulated working conditions, but in America’s job-starved economy insourced call or data centers might provide social capital.

Call centers involve employees who seem to belong to a computer firm, for example, as they respond to questions from callers, but generally they are employees of the call center. Data centers, sometimes combined with call centers, store data for others, as in digitizing data for states and the transportation industry as part of a growing global field.

Pohawpatchoko says educated workers are a critical component for reservation-based business, so ventures near tribal colleges or universities might be a place to start. He notes that in South America, for example, “it’s the role of universities” to create economic skills and economic stability in the area.

One challenge for Indian America is that more than 50 percent of Native American students drop out of school before they graduate, 20 percent may go to college but only half graduate, so “we may be left with 10 percent actually graduating from college,” he notes.

Other hurdles include elected tribal councils that may change every two years or so, sovereignty issues that could discourage outside investment, and lack of funds for needed infrastructure, he said.

Some reservations have already taken the plunge into call and data systems, a field which Powhawpatchoko, who worked as an employee of Electronic Data Systems has watched with interest.

Cayuse Technologies, owned by the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, offers such services as digital document processing, software development and a call center to governmental and commercial clients.

The tribally owned firm in northeastern Oregon was initiated “to diversify the local economy and to create living wage jobs that allow people of the Umatilla Reservation and surrounding rural communities the opportunity to live and work on or near the Umatilla Reservation and their homes,” reads the Cayuse website.

There are other data or call center enterprises in Indian country, one of them Lakota Technologies Inc., in Eagle Butte, South Dakota, on the Cheyenne River Sioux Indian Reservation, where jobs are scarce. The firm has 10 to 15 tribal members as employees, primarily in data conversion work and it is “an opportunity for our people economically,” said Candace Le Beaux, operations supervisor.

An umbrella organization of seven tribes and several Native nonprofits, the Intertribal Information Technology Co. LLC, was formed primarily to meet Department of Defense needs for advanced digital formats and through its Native American Document Conversion Program “has created employment for as many as 500 people in Native communities [including Eagle Butte] typically suffering 50 percent or greater unemployment.”

Pohawpatchko lauds these and other ventures: “We haven’t really grasped the idea of sovereignty itself—we still have the mindset of trying to catch up. We should always be looking forward and seeing what could be done.”

Read more:http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2012/02/01/native-proposes-reservation-business-95163 http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2012/02/01/native-proposes-reservation-business-95163#ixzz1lNVrhC00

What does Groundhog Day have to do with Native American language and history? And how did Punxsutawney Phil, the now famous groundhog millions look to for weather predictions, end up in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania?

Let’s start at the beginning.

Groundhog Day, at its most basic, is an astronomical holiday. February 2nd falls midway between the December solstice and March equinox.

“Solstices, equinoxes and seasonal midways called cross quarters were vital to ancient people for regulating their calendars and knowing when to plant, when to harvest, when to stay, when to move,” says an article about the seasons on Archaeoastronomy.com. As illustrated in the image to the left, the equinoxes and solstices are separated by 90-degree angles. The cross quarters bisect those and served as Celtic boundaries for the four seasons—Beltaine, Lughnasad, Samain and Imbolc.

Imbolc corresponds to Groundhog Day and the beginning of spring and gave way to Candlemas, its church-approved name, when clergy in Europe would bless and distribute candles marking the end of winter. People also looked to a hedgehog for its shadowy prediction.

An old English song goes like this:

If Candlemas be fair and bright,

Come, Winter, have another flight;

If Candlemas brings clouds and rain,

Go Winter, and come not again.

So it goes today. If Punxsutawney Phil sees his shadow, it’s an omen for six more weeks of bad weather. But if the day is cloudy and he doesn’t see his shadow, it’s time for spring.

But how did Punxsutawney become Groundhog Day central? The first Europeans to settle in Pennsylvania were the Germans early in the 18th century. They found an abundance of groundhogs in the area. The creatures weren’t the hedgehogs they were used to back home, but they figured the groundhog would do.

The earliest observance of Groundhog Day in Punxsutawney was 1886 reported The Punxsutawney Spirit newspaper. The celebration moved to Gobbler’s Knob—where it’s still held—in 1887, the same year the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club was formed.

The club named Phil its furry prognosticator back in 1887, and then declared his immortality. Every summer the group feeds Phil a “magic elixir of life,” which members say extends Phil’s life by seven years.

Phil even got a movie out of his fame. In 1993, Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell starred in Groundhog Day, which wasn’t actually filmed in Punxsutawney, but in Woodstock, Illinios.

Image from YouTube user SacerdosMagnus2001

Punxsutawney is in the hills of the Appalachian Plateau and takes its name from past inhabitants. The name itself comes from the Native American word ponki for sand fly. Indians called the place Ponsutenink, “the town of the ponkis.” The area was a campsite used by Native Americans halfway between the Allegheny and Susquehanna rivers. Ponsutenink was on the Shamokin Path, the earliest known trail to the east. At various times the area was inhabited by Shawnee, Delaware, Seneca and Iroquois.

The groundhog even has Native roots. The burrowing rodent is also called a woodchuck, which according to the Cornell Chronicle, Natives once used as hides for the soles of moccasins. Even the word woodchuck has Native origins. Many sources say it came from the Algonquian word wuchak, which English colonists turned into woodchuck. The World English Dictionary says it came from the Narragansett word for woodchuck ockqutchaun and the Cree word for fisher, a member of the weasel family, otcheck.

According to Native-Langauges.org, “the Wabanaki tribes of New England and the Canadian Maritimes have a mythological woodchuck character, named Grandmother Woodchuck, who is the adoptive grandmother of their culture hero Glooskap. She is usually depicted as a wise elder whose patience and wisdom teaches lessons to the good-hearted but often impetuous Glooskap.”

Watch Phil’s prediction via live webcast starting at 6 a.m. online at VisitPA.com.

See last year’s prediction:

Punxsutawney Phil’s Inner Circle:

Groundhog Day movie trailer:

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Native American History RV Vacation

For an RV camping vacation that’s a history lesson, as well, consider exploring Native American historical sites.  The suggestions below represent just a few of the hundreds of places you can learn about the role of Native Americans in our nation’s history.

Native American History RV Vacation – Four Corners Itinerary

Where the borders of Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and Utah meet, you’ll find a treasure trove of Native American history. In the Four Corners area you can visit Mesa Verde, Hovenweep National Monument, Canyon de Chelly National Monument and Monument Valley.

Mesa Verde, in southwestern Colorado, is the site of ancient cliff dwellings and spectacular scenery. Winding roads lead to the canyon rim throughout this National Park. You will find numerous lookout points offering amazing glimpses of the cliff dwellings where ancient Puebloans lived for more than seven hundred years

North and west of Mesa Verde, along the Utah/Colorado border, you’ll find Hovenweep National Monument. The ruins of six prehistoric Pueblo dwellings dot the canyons of Hovenweep, with towers rising far above canyon walls.

Continue your Native American History RV vacation with a stop in Monument Valley in northeastern Arizona. You’ll probably remember the sandstone buttes and towers from hundreds of Westerns filmed there. Native American guides who live within the valley will lead you off the main trails to sites that mark the legacy of their ancestors.

Your final leg of a Four Corners RV camping trip should definitely include Canyon de Chelly near the Arizona/New Mexico border. The Canyon, completely located on Navajo tribal land, offers an entire vacation’s worth of historical treasures. The windswept canyons and buttes of Canyon de Chelly are home to more than two thousand archaeological sites.

Native American History RV Vacation – Northern Itinerary

When you’re ready for another round of Native American history, plan some RV camping in the Badlands and Black Hills of the north central U.S. Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument in Montana lets visitors relive the battle that claimed the lives of most of the 7th Cavalry Division under Lt. Col George Armstrong Custer in 1876. Here in the place Sitting Bull and several thousand Lakota and Cheyenne warriors were victorious, you’ll find breathtaking scenery and plenty of Native American artifacts to explore.

The Black Hills of South Dakota are home to the Crazy Horse Memorial, where sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski began creating his enormous tribute to the Lakota chief in 1948. Come watch as progress on the colossal sculpture continues, and stay to visit the Native American Cultural Center and Indian Museum of North America.

Finish your RV camping trip to find Native American history with a stop at the Wounded Knee Museum in Wall, South Dakota. About fifty miles from the actual site of the Wounded Knee Massacre in 1890, the Museum tells the story of the tragic deaths of almost 300 Lakota Sioux at Pine Ridge.

As you travel the Badlands and Black Hills, there are plenty of well-equipped RV campgrounds to serve you. Why not learn more on your next vacation about the major contribution Native Americans have made to our history? Turn your motorhome into a rolling classroom and get ready to be inspired!

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We love this great teaching approach for learning about Native American History from David Freeburg. His website ‘Epic Epoch’ is a place full of great teaching ideas. David describes himself as someone ‘who enjoys his experience in the classroom teaching his students how to use the web, social media, Interactive White Boards with student response systems, and other hardware though he loathes dead batteries and forgotten passwords.’ He’s clearly someone who fits into our way of thinking of how new technologies can support learning in schools. Check out his brilliant blog post below:

Every year I try to fit in a Native American unit into my eighth grade U.S. History curriculum. If I were to follow the prepared curriculum out of our mammoth sized textbooks, this would probably never happen. But, I think it’s important to recognize the uniqueness of Native American history and culture alongside the expansion if the United States history, so I make time for it.

Previous years I’ve tried to allow students to work to their strengths and create a final assessment for me that not only demonstrates their understanding and comprehension of the material, but affords them the opportunity to stretch themselves creatively. Students have turned in dioramas, movies, created songs, written reports, and other types of projects, all on a specific tribe they research. While it was very interesting to see what the students came up with, I felt they were placing more emphasis on the finished product, and not as much on the learning objectives. A sort of teaching to the diorama, if you will.

Out with the old
This year I was intent to reverse that trend, by limiting the projects students would do in favor of having them spend more time on research, analysis, and application. Rather than allow students to choose anything they wished, I narrowed the focus and required each group (3 or 4) of students to:
Research a Native American tribe.
Summarize their information in the form of a Google Doc they create and edit together.
Apply that information to a Google Map they create.

Step 1
Students started out by first researching a specific Native American tribe they were assigned at random. There was a pool of about 20 different tribes I gathered ahead of time to ensure enough quality information could be found by each group. Their research packet was split into three categories: Geography, Society/Culture, and Economy/Resources.

Step 2
After they had done their research and filled out their packet, they had to choose one of the aforementioned categories and summarize their research in paragraph form on a shared Google Doc. Since all of the groups information was on one Google Doc, it became incredibly easy for me to give them feedback in the form of comments, and, it allowed them to peer edit each others work.

Step 3
With their research analyzed and summarized in paragraph form, they could now easily create their Google Map. I created a rubric for students to follow, and also provided some simple instructions on how to get started. What was surprising was how quickly most students picked it up. After reading through the directions, the majority of students would shoo me away and finish the map on their own. Each group had to insert Placemarks of the three categories, insert relevant pictures that would help explain their paragraph, draw the area the tribe lived in and, for extra credit, they could insert a YouTube video about their tribe.

In with the new
So..did it work?
Compared to years past, this project was much more successful at having students meet learning objectives. Not only did they have fun and use their creative energy to create a Google Map, but after giving them a reflective final assessment, it was clear to me that they had a better grasp not only on their tribe, but on the histories and cultures of Native American tribes across the U.S. during the 19th century. If you’ve ever thought about using Google Maps with your students, I highly recommend you dive right in and try it out. Especially, if your district uses Google Apps for Education, as mine does.

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