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In 1988, when Anne Fadiman met Lia Lee, then 5, for the first time, she wrote down her impressions in four spare lines that now read like found poetry:.

barefoot mother gently rocking silent child ¶ diaper, sweater, strings around wrist ¶ like a baby, but she’s so big ¶ mother kisses and strokes her ¶ The story of Lia, the severely brain-damaged daughter of Hmong refugees who had resettled in California, became the subject of Ms. Fadiman’s first book, “The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down,” published in 1997. ¶ Its title is the English translation of the condition known as qaug dab peg (pronounced “kow da pay”), the Hmong term for epilepsy, from which Lia had suffered since infancy. ¶ In traditional Hmong belief, qaug dab peg, like many illnesses, is spiritual in origin, caused when the soul becomes separated from the body. A traditional cure might entail visits from a shaman, who would attempt to reunite body and soul.¶ A work of narrative nonfiction, Ms. Fadiman’s book is a cautionary tale about the cultural chasm between Lia’s family, with its generations-old animist beliefs, and her rationalist American doctors.

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.

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.