Native American Heritage Month 2022

November is Native American Heritage Month

During the month of November, the United States pays tribute to the rich ancestry and traditions of Indigenous people all across the nation.

It’s a valuable time for those who are at a distance from the culture to learn and reflect upon the history of Native people and their resilience in the face of colonization and erasure. It’s also a time for those who live near tribal communities to acknowledge the tribes’ contributions and recommit themselves to elevating the diverse collection of cultures, languages and legacies that make up a way of life.

From the Navajo and Hopi to the Havasupai, Kaibab-Paiute and Hualapai peoples, Flagstaff is a town whose cultural roots are intertwined with those of the surrounding Native tribes

Their history is etched into the walls of Walnut Canyon, and their towering and intricate pueblos can be found at Wupatki.

Indigenous cultures have made their mark here for more than 800 years, but despite this, many have tried to assimilate and relocate the Native people of the Colorado Plateau.

Over the years, Native Americans have persevered through the trials of western expansion but have lost parts of themselves along the way; however, they continue to push forward, reclaiming and reviving lost and stolen traditions in order to fortify their way of life for the generations to come.

Flagstaff has a lot to be grateful for this month, so with this special edition of the Arizona Daily Sun, we honor and celebrate Northern Arizona’s extensive Native American communities

JAKE BACON ARIZONA DAILY SUN

Quaking aspens paint the afternoon sky gold on an autumn afternoon in Flagstaff

JAKE BACON ARIZONA DAILY SUN

Samiah Mockta performs with the Yoyhoyam Hopi and Tewa dancers from Flagstaff at city hall as part of the Indigenous Peoples Day program

Reshaping their name

Kinlani Bordertown

PAUL GARCIA

ThesummerafterIturned

fourteen, I graduated from what most Amer icans would consider junior high and began the process of selecting a place to continue my education If I stayed on the reservation I would have been at a severe disadvan tage because of the finite re sources and outdated textbooks allocated to the schools by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) Off the reservation was almost out of the question because it would place me at one of the numerous Indian residential schools in the southwest

Residential schools have be come infamous for the years of physical, emotional and psy chological abuse inflicted on Native students, but it wasn’t until recently that the horrors of residential schools were brought to the attention of mainstream media outlets Over 1,000 stu dent bodies have been recovered to date, and as more is discovered through both historical and literal excavation, more is asked of these institutions in the present day I was already well versed in the long ugly history of the often re ligious boarding schools that the children of Indigenous commu nities were forced to attend Most of my aunts and uncles had been sent to a boarding school in Utah: the Intermountain Indian School The rest were shipped off across the country to other residential schools Fortunately, there was another option available to me and my siblings that had to at tend school: Kinlani Bordertown Dormitory Kinlani first opened its doors in 1958 and is still operational today, but it finds itself in a rather unique situation because it’s solely a dormitory and not a residential school

“There is some stigma when you say [dormitory] ” said The resa Boone Schuler, CEO of Kinlani Bordertown Dormitory Some of the stigma of boarding schools include the lack of stu dent safety, the denial of Native culture and heritage and severe deficiency in education of the students that attend them “But there are parents in my genera tion that went to school here that want their children and grand children to come to school here Over the years there has been a transition from the old school boarding school to now”

Some of these changes that Boone Schuler is referring to is the incorporation of traditional Indigenous values and lesson plans into extracurricular activ

ities at the dormitory In the past, any and all mention of Native culture and language would have resulted in swift punishment that was often traumatizing Thank fully this is no longer the case at least at Kinlani

“We had a welcome back to school celebration a few weeks ago The staff made N’tsidigo’i’ (kneel down bread) with the kids and we had a feast,” Boon Schuler laughed “We have a staff member that engages the students in speaking Navajo We do have Hopi presenters from time to time, and the students do share their own culture and dances For about two years now, we have had a group of stu

dents that practice traditional singing also”

Student safety is another area that Kinlani has set to improve In the past, residential schools were rife with violent abuse and neg ligence of children in their care

“To ensure the students are safe, everyone that comes here needs to background check at state, federal, local, and some times tribal levels” Boone Schuler said Student safety doesn’t stop there “There have been a lot of mental health is sues with the students including anxiety, depression, and grief We took advantage of technology, and we have programs available to students like PBIS to help the

student self identify their emo tion and alert the staff We also have a mental health counselor on staff to meet with students and hold group sessions with them ”

Since opening its doors, Kin lani has given the students that attend the dormitory the oppor tunity to take advantage of the, comparatively, well funded pub lic education system of Flagstaff With the concerns of cultural exposure and student safety ad dressed, this gives the students and staff the ability to focus on cultivating the students educa tion We have a lot of opportuni ties that aren’t available on the

reservation ” Boone Schuler said “We provide tutors for the students, we have ongoing af ter school programs to help the students succeed We focus a lot on career and college readiness We have presenters that come to tell [the students] how to pre pare for college note taking, time management how to fill out applications We try to fo cus on what they’re going to do after they leave here We’ve had a lot of successful students over the years”

Along with the focus on edu cation, Kinlani also fosters niche student interests While I was at Kinlani, the staff there helped me create a monthly newsletter and coordinate a tour of the Arizona Daily Sun This year, Kinlani stu dents are focusing on cinematog raphy

“We have a filmmaker, Deidra Peaches, that is helping the students make short films and learn all about cinematography,” Boone Shuler said “I’m really excited about that ”

Kinlani has adapted and changed over the years to meet the expectations of the parents who send their children there and the needs of the students who don’t have a choice. The dormitory is still growing strong and continues to move away from the sordid his tory of residential schools that it has been entangled with over the years,but for survivors of residen tial schools, any real reforms may be too little too late. I

Ideally, those toxic institutions would be closed down in favor of schools that are run by or in volved in the Indigenous commu nities they serve, but until then, we can only endure what we have to and change what we can for the kids without a choice

Dormitory makes an ongoing effort to amend the sordid history of boarding schools

PAUL GARCIA

Kinlani Bordertown Dormitory takes pride in their efforts to empower Native boys and girls

Diedra Peaches is coming to the dormitory to teach the students about cinematography Courtesy photos

Students at Kinlani are given the opportunity to learn more about agricultural and ecological issues

First Native American woman in space awed by Mother Earth

MARCIA DUNN AP AEROSPACE WRITER

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla (AP)

The first Native American woman in space said Wednesday she is overwhelmed by the beauty and delicacy of Mother Earth, and is channeling “positive en ergy” as her five month mission gets underway

NASA astronaut Nicole Mann said from the International Space Station that she’s received lots of prayers and blessings from her family and tribal community She is a member of the Wailacki of the Round Valley Indian Tribes in Northern California

Mann showed off the dream catcher she took up with her, a childhood gift from her mother that she’s always held dear The small traditional webbed hoop with feathers is used to offer protection, and she said it’s given her strength during challenging times Years before joining NASA in 2013, she flew combat in Iraq for the Marines

It s the strength to know that I have the support of my family and community back home and that when things are difficult or things are getting hard or I’m getting burned out or frus trated, that strength is some thing that I will draw on to con tinue toward a successful mis sion,” Mann told The Associated Press which gathered questions from members and tribal news outlets across the country Mann said she’s always heeded her mother’s advice on the im portance of positive energy, es pecially on launch day

“It’s difficult for some people maybe to understand because it’s not really tangible,” she said “But that positive energy is so important, and you can control that energy, and it helps to con trol your attitude ”

Mann, 45, a Marine colonel and test pilot who was born in Pet aluma, California, said it’s im portant to recognize there are all types of people aboard the space station It s currently home to three Americans, three Russians and one Japanese astronaut

“What that does is it just high lights our diversity and how in credible it is when we come to gether as a human species the wonderful things that we can do and that we can accomplish ” she said

While fascinated with stars and space as a child, Mann said she did not understand who be

Mann

The first Native American in space, in 2002, was now retired astronaut John Herrington of the Chickasaw Nation

The

Copyright

Sentinel: Scolder and Horned Toad Mural by Art of the People

This mural depicts the two Sentinels Scolder or Hask’e taught Navajo warriors and youth how to be on guard and prepared to protect The other Sentinel, the Horned Toad or Grandfather, is another guardian of Navajo Grandfather Horned Toad, Schi’chei’ Na’ashó’ii dich’ízhii, is the way Navajo people address the toad for its power and protection

See the full collection of murals, which tell the story of the Diné, at Twin Arrows Casino Resort.

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astronauts or even what they did “Unfortunately in my mind at that time, it was not in the realm of possibilities” she said That changed later in her ca

reer Now, she’s taking in the sweeping vistas of Earth from 260 miles (420 kilometers) up and hoping to see the constella tions, as she encourages young sters to follow their dreams

As for describing Earth from space “the emotions are abso lutely overwhelming,” she said “It is an incredible scene of color of clouds and land, and it’s dif ficult not to stay in the cupola

(lookout) all day and just see our planet Earth and how beautiful she is and how delicate and frag ile she is against the blackest of black that I’ve ever seen space in the background ”

rocketed into orbit with SpaceX on Oct 5 She’ll be up there until March She and her husband, a retired Navy fighter pilot, have a 10 year old son back home in Houston

Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute s Department of Science Education The AP is solely responsible for all content

2022 The Associated Press All rights reserved This material may not be published, broadcast rewritten or redistributed without permission

UNCREDITED HOGP NASA

In this image from video made available by NASA, astronaut Nicole Mann shows her dreamcatcher during an interview on Wednesday, Oct 19, 2022

The first Native American woman in space said Wednesday that she’s overwhelmed by the beauty and delicacy of Mother Earth and is channeling positive energy as her five month mission gets underway

joining NASA in 2013, she flew combat in Iraq for the Marines.

“It’s the strength to know that I have the support of my family and community back home and that when things are difficult or things are getting hard or I’m getting burned out or frus trated, that strength is some thing that I will draw on to con tinue toward a successful mis sion ” Mann told The Associated Press, which gathered questions from members and tribal news outlets across the country Mann said she’s always heeded her mother’s advice on the im portance of positive energy es pecially on launch day

“It’s difficult for some people maybe to understand because it’s not really tangible,” she said “But that positive energy is so important, and you can control that energy, and it helps to con trol your attitude ”

Mann, 45, a Marine colonel and test pilot who was born in Petaluma, California, said it s important to recognize there are all types of people aboard the space station It’s currently home to three Americans, three Russians and one Japanese as tronaut

“What that does is it just highlights our diversity and how incredible it is when we come to gether as a human species, the wonderful things that we can do and that we can accomplish ” she said

While fascinated with stars and space as a child, Mann said she did not understand who be came astronauts or even what they did “Unfortunately, in my mind at that time, it was not in the realm of possibilities,” she said

That changed later in her ca reer Now, she’s taking in the sweeping vistas of Earth from 260 miles (420 kilometers) up and hoping to see the constella tions, as she encourages young sters to follow their dreams.

As for describing Earth from space, “the emotions are abso lutely overwhelming, she said “It is an incredible scene of color, of clouds and land, and it’s difficult not to stay in the cupola (lookout) all day and just see our planet Earth and how beautiful she is and how delicate and fragile she is against the black est of black that I’ve ever seen space in the background ” Mann rocketed into orbit with SpaceX on Oct 5 She’ll be up there until March She and her husband, a retired Navy fighter pilot have a 10-year-old son back home in Houston

The first Native American in space, in 2002, was now retired astronaut John Herrington of the Chickasaw Nation

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute s Department of Science Education The AP is solely responsible for all content Copyright 2022 The Associated Press All rights reserved This material may not be published broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission

November is Native American Heritage Month