Group items tagged

Native Voices: Native Peoples’ Concepts of Health and Illness explores the interconnectedness of wellness, illness, and cultural life for Native Americans, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians. Visitors will discover how Native concepts of health and illness are closely tied to the concepts of community, spirit, and the land.

What: The fourth Friday of September was designated by the 1997 Legislature as American Indian Heritage Day, in recognition of Montana’s constitutional commitment to preserve the cultural integrity of American Indians. The definition of a quality education in Montana includes specific language for the integration of Indian Education for All throughout the curriculum. MCA 20-9-309. Activities that celebrate American Indian Heritage Day can create sustained interest in learning about the distinct and unique cultural heritage of American Indians, setting the tone and creating connections for a year of integrating Indian Education for All. Spark interest with these activities… Display information about Montana tribes – tribal specific posters, maps, and books. Learn the names of all Montana reservations, tribes that live on them and languages spoken there. Research how names of the tribes are spoken in their own languages. Explore nearby Montana Indian cultural and historical sites and community museums. Invite cultural resource experts from Montana’s tribal nations to visit. Display OPI Indian Education for All curriculum materials. Through the study of Montana Indian cultures and peoples, all students become more self-aware of their own cultures and develop a reference point to support greater understanding of others. Explore the OPI Indian Education website for links to DVDs, websites, publications and lessons for most content areas and grade levels: http://opi.mt.gov/Programs/IndianEd/Index.html When: Friday, September 23, 2011

The Affordable Care Act will help make health insurance coverage more affordable and accessible for millions of Americans.  For American Indians and Alaska Natives, the law will address inequities and increase access to quality, affordable health coverage, invest in prevention and wellness, and give First American individuals and families more control over their care. 

Int. Traditional Games Society, founded in 1997 by Tribal College Presidents and Cultural Directors of Montana and Southern Alberta. Through the research, resurrection, and restoration of traditional games to Plains Indians tribal cultures, the Traditional Games Society has discovered a window to the past practices of educating American Indian youth for mental, physical, social, and spiritual survival. Many of those old time games are just as relevant for survival in the modern world. 200 years ago, the survival of American Indian families, bands, clans, and tribes depended on the youth learning survival skills from older tribal members.

Click here to download the flyer for this event (PDF) What: LETRS for Early Childhood Educators June 16-17th Learning Essentials for Teachers of Reading & Spelling with Lucy Hart Paulson June 18th LETRS Training of Trainers Saturday, June 18th Early Childhood Session Topics: CSEFEL (6 hours) Technology Traditional Native Games Native American Math Love & Logic Movement Part C to Part B Trauma Informed Educational When: June 16-18th, 2011 Where: Salish Kootenai College Pablo, MT

An effort by the Obama administration to overhaul the troubled federal agency that is responsible for the education of tens of thousands of American Indian children is getting major pushback from some tribal leaders and educators, who see the plan as an infringement on their sovereignty and a one-size-fits-all approach that will fail to improve student achievement in Indian Country. As Barack Obama makes his first visit to Indian Country as president this week, the federal Bureau of Indian Education—which directly operates 57 schools for Native Americans and oversees 126 others run by tribes under contract with the agency—is moving ahead with plans to remake itself into an entity akin to a state department of education that would focus on improving services for tribally operated schools. A revamped BIE, as envisioned in the proposal, would eventually give up direct operations of schools and push for a menu of education reforms that is strikingly similar to some championed in initiatives such as Race to the Top, including competitive-grant funding to entice tribal schools to adopt teacher-evaluation systems that are linked to student performance. The proposed reorganization of the BIE comes after years of scathing reports from watchdog groups, including the U.S. Government Accountability Office, and chronic complaints from tribal educators about the agency’s financial and academic mismanagement and failure to advocate more effectively for the needs of schools that serve Native American students. It also comes a year after U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell called the federally funded Indian education system “an embarrassment.” The BIE is overseen by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which is housed within the U.S. Interior Department. Pushback From Tribes The proposal, released in April, was drafted by a seven-person “study group” appointed jointly by Ms. Jewell and U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. Five of the panel’s members currently serve in the Obama administration. Some of the nation’s largest tribes, however, are staunchly opposed to the proposal, including the 16 tribes that make up the Great Plains Tribal Chairmans Association, which represents tribal leaders in South Dakota, North Dakota, and Nebraska. “It’s time for us to decide what our children will learn and how they will learn it because [BIE] has been a failure so far,” Bryan V. Brewer, the chairman of the 40,000-member Oglala Sioux tribe in Pine Ridge, S.D., said last month in a congressional hearing on the BIE. In the same hearing before the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, Charles M. Roessel, the director of the BIE and a member of the panel that drafted the plan, said the agency’s reorganization “would allow the BIE to achieve improved results in the form of higher student scores, improved school operations, and increased tribal control over schools.” (Despite multiple requests from Education Week, the BIE did not make Mr. Roessel or any other agency official available for an interview.)

The Wellstone Fellowship for Social Justice is designed to foster the advancement of social justice through participation in health care advocacy work that focuses on the unique challenges facing many low-income and minority communities. Through this fellowship, Families USA hopes to expand the pool of talented social justice advocates from underrepresented economic, racial, and ethnic minority groups, including from the American Indian and Alaska Native, Asian American, Black/African American, Latino, and Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander communities. The Wellstone Fellow plays an integral role in the work of Families USA’s Field and Minority Health Initiatives Departments.

Int. Traditional Games Society, founded in 1997 by Tribal College Presidents and Cultural Directors of Montana and Southern Alberta. Through the research, resurrection, and restoration of traditional games to Plains Indians tribal cultures, the Traditional Games Society has discovered a window to the past practices of educating American Indian youth for mental, physical, social, and spiritual survival.

Click here to register and get more information!What:The theme of this year’s conference is “Leadership through Action and Participation.” We must all be strong advocates and willing to step up and make our voice heard through participation in policy development at the local, state, tribal and national level. Montana has become a recognized leader in Indian education in the nation and it has been because of the action taken by many MIEA members and friends of Indian education to make these positive changes.Great speakers, workshops, a student leadership strand, awards banquet and an elder’s luncheon just to mention a few. This year the parent forum on Thursday will focus on parent issues such as: the Johnson-O’Malley Program, Title VII Part A, Indian Education for All and Impact Aid. We encourage parent committees and others involved in supporting Indian parents to attend.When:April 12-15, 2012Where:Bozeman, MTBest Western Plus GranTree InnContact:Ron Juneau            406-850-9982     mieadirector@gmail.com                                Michelle Mitchell     406-833-0106     michell.mtchll@gmail.com     

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) today announced grants to 41 health programs operated by the Indian Health Service; tribes and tribal organizations; and urban Indian organizations. The grants will help improve outreach and enrollment of American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) uninsured children eligible for, but not enrolled in, their state’s Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Programs (CHIP).

Blackfeet Tribe, Po'Ka ProjectMontana$300,000Indian Health Board of Billings, Inc.Montana$300,000

Indian Education for All Advocacy Institute When: June 13 - 15, 2010 Where: Hilton Garden Inn, 2520 14th Street SW Great Falls, Montana   Who should attend? Teachers, administrators, grant directors, librarians, Indian Education instructional coaches, post-secondary educators, Native language instructors…   … who have background knowledge about Indian Education for All, ... who enthusiastically integrate IEFA into their instructional practice, … who will be an IEFA resource for others in their building or district.