Native Traditions

Tribes Struggle to Protect Sacred Lake from Energy Company

July 17, 2002

Source: Los Angeles Times

On July 17, 2002 the Los Angeles Times featured the article "A Power Struggle: Electric vs. Spiritual" on the struggle between a big energy company and California Native American tribes over the company's plans for a sacred lake in California. The company, "Calpine Corp., hopes to harvest megawatts from generating plants only a few miles from the sacred lake. Exploratory drilling is to begin this week... Tribal lore has it that the Creator bathed in Medicine Lake, and it remains a place of raw spiritual power... Tribal elders...

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Religious Diversity in Texas Prisons

July 14, 2002

Source: The Dallas Morning News

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dallas/tsw/stories/071402dntextdcreligion.32e5c.html

On July 14, 2002 The Dallas Morning News reported that "at first glance, prisons may seem an unlikely place to find religion... But as inmates grapple with the despair and monotony of prison life, some find religion... In all, nearly 140 denominations are represented in the Texas Department of Criminal...

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Book to Focus on Religious Diversity of Ohio

July 12, 2002

Source: The Columbus Dispatch

On July 12, 2002 The Columbus Dispatch reported that "the Interfaith Association of Central Ohio... and the Religious Experience Advisory Council of the Ohio Bicentennial Commission are planning [a new] book, Religion in Ohio: Over 200 Years of Experiences... As the state approaches 200, Christian and Jewish bodies remain prominent, but now they have plenty of company. [The] book for Ohio's bicentennial in 2003 also will discuss the beliefs of American Indians, Baha'is, Buddhists, Hindus, Jains, Muslims, Sikhs and...

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New Native American Interpretive Center Built on Preserved Land in California City

June 9, 2002

Source: The San Diego Union-Tribune

On June 9, 2002 The San Diego Union-Tribune reported that "in a ceremony marked by solemn chanting from the Bird Song Singers, American Indians and the descendants of European settlers joined yesterday to dedicate the Kumeyaay-Ipai Interpretive Center, [in Poway, California]... Kumeyaay leaders praised... the city of Poway, Scouting groups and others who have cleaned up the site, built trails, gardens, ramadas (shade structures) and a native house made of sticks and reeds."

LDS Church Attempts to Buy Public Land of Religious Significance

May 15, 2002

Source: Los Angeles Times

On May 15, 2002, the Los Angeles Times reported that "a bill in Congress, opposed by conservationists and history buffs, would allow the Mormon Church to buy a chunk of historic public land beside four pioneer trails southwest of Casper, Wyo... The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints wants to buy a 1,640-acre site known as Martin's Cove, where at least 56 Mormon immigrants died in a blizzard in 1856... But conservationists worry that the U.S. Department of the Interior would set a dangerous precedent by selling...

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Native Americans Protest Federal Task Force Decision

March 30, 2002

Source: The Boston Globe

On March 30, 2002, The Boston Globe reported that "as farmers cheered, federal officials let the water flow yesterday from a canal into fields for the first time since last summer, when irrigation was halted amid fears about endangered sucker fish... Members of two Indian tribes chanted and banged drums to show their concern that the Bush administration is favoring the needs of farmers over their own. The fish are considered sacred to tribes in the Klamath Basin."

Summer Camp Eliminates Offensive Practice

March 24, 2002

Source: The San Diego Union-Tribune

On March 24, 2002, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported that "for 80 years, 4-H members at summer camp in West Virginia have split into tribes and followed rituals patterned after American Indian customs, from copying rain dances to wearing headdresses to creating self-styled tribal yells... Now, the practice -- a large part of the summer camps themselves -- is being eliminated because of a formal complaint that it is offensive to American Indians... West Virginia has more than 10,000 full-or mixed-blood...

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Fightin' Whities Mascot Draws Attention to Racist Caricature

March 17, 2002

Source: The Denver Post

On March 17, 2002, The Denver Post featured an article on the Fightin' Whities, the new satirical mascot of an intramural basketball team at the Univeristy of Northen Colorado. The mascot was designed to aid the protest against a local high school mascot. "Dan Ninham, a member of the Oneida Nation... formed a multiethnic committee to oppose the Fightin' Reds mascot at Eaton High School - a caricature of a defiant Indian with a misshapen nose, eagle feather and loincloth. Ninham has called it 'one of the most blatantly racist...

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'Hiroshima Flame' Carried Across America as Memorial

February 12, 2002

Source: The San Francisco Chronicle

On February 12, 2002, The San Francisco Chronicle reported that "the 'Hiroshima Flame' kindled 57 years ago from embers of the atomic bombing of Japan... wends its way across America... Its escorts are a diverse group: a seemingly indefatigable Japanese nun who's walked across the United States four times, a Native American elder from Massachusetts, an idealistic 15-year-old girl from Honolulu, and others united in the hope that their unusual spiritual pilgrimage will foster world peace... The five-month journey...

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Prayer Vigil Protests Construction on Sacred Land

January 24, 2002

Source: Star Tribune

On January 24, 2002, the Star Tribune reported that "protesters who want the University of Minnesota to pull out of the Mount Graham telescope project in Arizona are holding a 24-hour prayer vigil outside the university president's house... The group, including representatives of the American Indian Movement (AIM), the Mount Graham Coalition and local activists, set up a red tepee Wednesday afternoon outside the fence bordering Eastcliff, the St. Paul home of university President Mark Yudof. They say construction of the telescope...

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Editorial: "American Dream" Explores Spirituality and Commercialism

January 14, 2002

Source: The Boston Globe

On January 14, 2002, The Boston Globe featured "American Dream," an editorial about America's search for meaning. "Considered a sacred object in [Native American] culture, the web-like dream catcher - which is supposed to hang above a baby's cradle to trap nightmares and let good dreams into the soul - has become a staple in mall trinket stores... But while this popularization of the spiritual can be written off as the co-opting and secularizing of a belief system, it is, at its heart, a search for meaning... Our society is a...

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Fire Breaks Out at New York Cathedral

December 19, 2001

Source: Newsday

On December 19, 2001, Newsday reported that a "fire that swept through the gift shop of the world's largest Gothic cathedral," the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York. "From its inception, the cathedral was chartered not just as the mother church of the Episcopal Diocese of New York but as a house of prayer whose bronze doors were open to all people... Indeed, in recent years, sermons have been delivered by rabbis, Zen Buddhists and African animists. The Dalai Lama, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, retired U.S. Army Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf...

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Tribes form Coalition to Save Sacred Lake

December 1, 2001

Source: The New York Times

On Saturday December 1, 2001, The New York Times reported that "environmental groups and Indian tribes... formed the Zuni Salt Lake Coalition... to fight a utility company's plan to strip mine coal in Western New Mexico... Tribal members say the 18,000 acre area is sacred, especially the Zuni Salt Lake, where salt is extracted for religious ceremonies."

Native American Naming Ceremony in Michigan

October 28, 2001

Source: St. Petersburg Times

On October 28, 2001, The St. Petersburg Times featured an article on "a sacred Indian naming ceremony in Michigan. Medicine man C.W. 'Sings Alone' Duncan, a Cherokee Indian storyteller and shaman, performed the traditional ceremony. Although Cherokee, Duncan studied the Lakota Sioux traditions and perfers to use their ceremonial ways over the Cherokee ways... The naming ceremony began when the shaman, or healer, built and then lit the ceremonial fire. The group gathered in a circle around the small ritual fire as the shaman beat...

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