NAN Decade for Youth  – (M-3 Post #4)                        

http://www.nandecade.ca

Website designed by Nishnawbe Aski Nation’s Decade for Youth & Development Office.   The Nishnawbe Aski Nation (NAN) started this web site to give NAN youth a voice in the decision-making processes that affect our future as a Nation. The website is a resource for young Nishnewbe Aki youth wanting to learn more about youth empowerment or wanting to know more about youth activities.  The information could prove valuable to other young aboriginals as well.  The website contains information on history of the Nishnawbe Aski Nation, a section devoted to young aboriginal females, several topics involving aboriginal suicide and prevention and youth council news.   There are other links to pertinent websites and other information.  The site serves as an example to other Indigenous groups as a tool for reaching their young people.

SAY Magazine (M-3 Post #3)

http://www.saymag.com/canada/index.php

SAY Magazine was developed for Native youth and is distributed throughout Canada at international news stands, Indigo Chapters, and is also distributed to high schools, post-secondary institutions, libraries, First Nations communities, Friendship Centres, youth serving agencies and others.  You are able to view past issues and the current issue of the magazine and you can subscribe to the online version for full access to articles.  The website contains an abundance of links to Aboriginal media, careers, education, financial aid & scholarships for aboriginal students, health, sports, Aboriginal languages, and other Aboriginal organizations.

http://www.abo-peoples.org/CAP/Index.html

Media section devoted to aboriginal issues in the news which contains links to videos and articles.  CAP  also consists of a Congress of Aboriginal Peoples Youth Council (CAPNYC).The Mission of the CAPYNC) as stated on the website “is to represent, promote, advocate, empower, protect and educate off-reserve, Aboriginal youth from across Canada; and further, to encourage unity and the growth of emotional, physical, mental and spiritual well being of oneself, family and community.

Aboriginal Peoples Television Network  (M-3 Post #1)

 http://www.aptn.ca/

APTN programming is by, for and about Aboriginal Peoples.  Programs include but are not limited to the APTN National news and APTN In Focus which takes a look at aboriginal news stories and offers context and historical perspective.

“History would have been told differently if our reporters had been there.”

APTN Investigates tries to uncover and expose the truth about some of the most controversial news stories involving Aboriginals each week.  In addition there is children’s programming, cartoons, and programs in English, French and a variety of aboriginal languages.  The website offers access to some past news segments and programs.

The Native Village web site is professional and well maintained. It is copyrighted by an individual, but  is too good to be run as a hobby. However, no mention is made of how it is maintained financially.

Web site: http://www.nativevillage.org/index.htm

This vibrant site publishes twice a month and is designed for educators and youth. It is not particularly scholarly but is a great example of a functioning format of a Web resource for an Indigenous community.

The first publication is “Native Village Youth and Education News” which is a news magazine of interesting stories on Indigenous topics.

Link to Volume 1: http://www.nativevillage.org/NOV%20News/V1%20November%202009%20headlines.htm

The second publication is “Native Village Opportunities and Websites”, which is divided into two sections:

“Opportunities” lists all the activities (and there are plenty) going on related to Indigenous Knowledge and Community.

Link: http://www.nativevillage.org/Opportunities/10-15-09%20OPPS.htm

“Websites” offers a selection of interesting Websites every fortnight.

Link: http://www.nativevillage.org/Libraries/NativeVillageLibrariesHOME.htm

There is also the “Native American Language Library”, which received recognition by the American Indian Review Magazine as the “Best Language Website on the Internet”. The page offers a lot of good links to websites on Indigenous languages and is a great resource for teachers wanting to bring Indigenous content into the curriculum.

Link: http://www.nativevillage.org/Libraries/Language%20Libraries.htm

Archives of ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU

Indigenous Languages and Technology

Web site: http://www.u.arizona.edu/~cashcash/ILAT.html

The ILAT site is an open forum Listserv, something that I had read about, but never seen. The site is run by the University of Arizona, and is visually simple with no frills, unlike other webpages. It is similar to the forums we use on Blackboard.

It is a list of messages archived by month on topics related to Indigenous Languages and Technology. It is up to date as there are 23 threads for November 2009 alone. It is a useful site because it allows you to search the archive by keyword. This means you can find out what people in the field have said about any topic. I did a search on the Listserv for the word Wiki and got 27 matches, the most recent being from January 2009. This post took to me to a site (http://drupal.org/project/i18n) where you can download Drupal, a free online program that allows for the creation of an online dictionary that can include audio, and video. The post suggests that the dictionary can be set up in a Wiki style so that users could add words.

I did another search on the word “Zapotec” and found that a researcher brought students down to Oaxaca each year to work on a Zapotec dictionary in a village not far from my house.

A real mine of information

http://www.lib.virginia.edu/etd/masters/ArtsSci/English/2002/Daniels/curtis/throssel/professional.html

Whereas Edward Curtis was a White man photographing Indians, Richard Throssel was a Crow Indian, hired by the Indian Service (of the US Gov’t) from 1909 to 1911 to depict everyday life on the Crow Reserve. While Throssel’s photographs are also coloured by the late-Romantic notion of the “noble Indian”, his insider’s perspective led to many photographs that depict a somewhat truer reality: Indians who weren’t living in an idealized past, but as contemporary to the rest of America at the beginning of the twentieth century.

On the page linked above, Valerie Daniels has posted a representative selection of photographs from Throssel’s employment by the Indian Service and his later private venture, Throssel Photocraft Co., along with a brief biography. A number of these photos, such as Showing the Better Class of Indian Home (1910) and Interior of the Best Kitchen on the Crow Reservation (1910) had been produced for use in educational pamphlets on “Indian Health”.

http://www.edwardscurtis.com/

I came across the name Edward Sheriff Curtis while reading Thomas King’s 2003 Massey Lectures, The Truth About Stories. Curtis travelled throughout North America in the early twentieth century, photographing “Indians”. According to King, Curtis took over 40,000 photos, of which over 20,000 were published. The gallery linked above shows thumbnails of a small portion of these photos, along with links to Curtis’ biography and some of his writings.

What is particularly interesting about these photos, again according to King, is the way Curtis constructed an image of the “Indian”, carrying “Indian” clothing, wigs and and other cultural paraphernalia to lend to those who didn’t look quite Indian enough to match the late-Romantic image of the noble Indian, even paying some to shave off western-looking facial hair.

I thought it would be fun to have a little inspiration

check out this video: Teachers Today