5 things Parents Should Never say to their Kids

"I don't care." "Act your age!" "Say you're sorry!" "Don't you get it?" "I'm going to leave without you!" Studies show children's actions have a lot to do with how they are raised. Parents should take a little more time and plan ahead while raising their children. If I ever have children, I will remember this blog.

Hunting and Gathering

When Larry came into class and talked about hunting and gathering in his village, I thought of my own. Unalakleet is a rich country. There is the river, ocean, tundra, cliffs, and sky. Before I was born, there was a musk-ox farm that was maintained for years. The giant animals grazed on grass around the tundra, but it ran out. People over hunted them and they were no longer around the Unalakleet. In the past 5 years, there has been sitings of musk-ox right out of town. Residents of my hometown have decided not to hunt the animals until there are more. As for the river, we used to thrive with King Salmon. Now, that is scarce. I feel it will take years before the fish population returns to normal-if it ever does. In the early, 21st century, the moose population declined. For nearly five years, no moose were allowed to be hunted. In the past 2 years, people have been able to hunt, however there is a limit. Not over harvesting seems to be forgotten and animals are not being respected. I feel this is why they have disappeared. To take only what is needed is an important rule and I am happy that Fish and Game helps regulate that.

Overpopulation and Food

Not too long ago, I found this HUGE strawberry. The small strawberry next to it is a regular sized one. Eating the beast scared me because I wondered what was injected into it to make it so big. Maybe nothing was and mutation was the problem? -Most likely not. It is cliche to say the world is overpopulated, but that is the truth. I have read several articles that talk about how food is wasted. There is not enough natural resources to sustain the current human population... therefore, there are growth hormones. Food is processed and there are many additives. Knowing this fact, makes me cautious of the food I eat.

Blahhh-uuggg

This will be my blog of venting. It is personal, and in this case I would agree with Daniel Quinn that systems always fail...Excuse me if I interpret this wrong but systems really are lame. I feel like they have failed me instead of worked with me. First of all, our whole life is run by something. There is so much control over us. The stronger the system, the better the programs and the more power there is. What am I getting at?! Well, UW. At this moment, I am annoyed with the Office of Student Fiscal Services and Office of Financial aid. All semester, I have been between two schools figuring out what to do. I transferred back to Alaska because of expenses and to be closer to family. Also, my grades there were slipping. After graduation from High School, I was confident and felt I knew what was going on. My ego was broad. I was accepted into a fairly well school, I had scholarships, and I was leaving Alaska! I knew little. After arriving in Washington for the first time, I had the whole city life and 40,000 student body population to adjust to. There no longer was a small town feel and I was lost. I was gungho to succeed though, so I made friends and stepped totally out of my comfort zone. I tried my best but everything was too much. I had the hardest decision to make. EVER! I chose to transfer back to UAA. Doing this was giving up in my eyes. I hated it and that started showing in my emotions and confusion. I needed to stop dwelling and being hard on myself because I was getting no where. I didn't give up, I just took a different route because some plan didn't fall through. Stillll... I am adjusting and getting situated here. Because I registered for one class at UW and did not withdraw correctly, I was charged a few thousand dollars. I would pay that, but first I would need my financial aid money. In order to receive it, I needed to be officially admitted to UAA. but first I needed my Official Transcript... and to get that I needed to pay my bill. Pffff! I was not aware of what was going on until my account was locked and I received notices a month after they were postmarked. I wrote 2 letters of petition and talked to who I could, but I was too late on taking action apparently. Everything was rejected. It was announced to me last week I would not receive any of my grants because the semester would end and by the time paperwork 3 weeks would pass. This was ooberly irritating, but I was able to luckily find a way. Again my plans have changed and working this summer will make up for everything. I was super frustrated with everything and felt like dropping out of school, but after sleep and moral support, I am now chilled out. This whole learning experience is humbling.

Shawshank Redemption story

This is not the Youtube video I wanted to share, but the narration of it is what I wanted most. The movie this is from is Shawshank Redemption
Brooks was an old man who spent 50 years in prison. When he was set out of parole, he got a job at a halfway house bagging groceries. Because of his age, he was not really good at this job. He was institutionalized and did not know how to deal when he got out. The world changed. I imagine before he went to prison people would wave at each other while passing on the street, when he came out....that was not happening. That is happening everywhere-no body trusts anybody and people have become tunnel visioned. I assume because of all the change in the world and not knowing how to interact with the newer society, Brooks felt helpless. In the end he killed himself. I wonder ad would bet that is why suicide rates are high-people are lonesome.
For the world to be saved, individuals need to build relationships. This may happen from noticing one another, interaction and knowing how to communicate instead of things being so fast and in a hurry. Nobody could survive on their own.

Swing Life Away

I like this song but I really don't know how it would relate to the book Ishmael because the purpose of the book is to make us think about how we could save the world. The lyrics are awesome and I think this song is easy to understand. We have control of our lives for the most part, the only thing is people need to understand what is around us. Easier said than done. We are lazy and tend to just swing at life. "The winters so cold, summer is over too soon."--Super true in Alaska. 
This past winter I was in a depressed-ish mood and would listen to this song....kind of emo, but it helped. I was reading Ishmael and this song gave me hope I guess you can say, so did the book. I wanted to be happy and do positive things and thankfully the mix of this song and the book helped me get out of the weird slump. I want my "swing in life" to aim towards goodness and well being.

Whisper From the Wood

This picture of the mask in not the mask from our fast write, however it is sort of similar. "I am a mask that belongs to a young Native Dancer. His uncle is a shaman and he was the individual who carved me from a piece of driftwood. My shape is simple because my owner is still learning to dance. I am not supposed to be a mask that is a collector's item. Now, my original owner is gone and grown into a man. He most likely has forgotten about me. I was supposed to be burnt like my other mask ancestors traditionally were. Now, I am trapped between two worlds being displayed on a wall." That was my fast write. After sharing what the mask spoke to us, I felt dingy making the guess I did. The mask that was shown to the class is from Belize. I should have guessed that from the writing on the back of the it. I did not know people about the ancestor relationship between people in Belize and the Mayans.

Hybrid Shark Discovered off Austraila Coast.

Scientists have identified the first-ever hybrid shark off the coast of Australia, a discovery that suggests some shark species may respond to changing ocean conditions by interbreeding with one another. A team of 10 Australian researchers identified multiple generations of sharks that arose from mating between the common blacktip shark (Carcharhinus limbatus) and the Australian blacktip (Carcharhinus tilstoni), which is smaller and lives in warmer waters than its global counterpart. “To find a wild hybrid animal is unusual,” the scientists wrote in the journal Conservation Genetics. “To find 57 hybrids along 2,000 km [1,240 miles] of coastline is unprecedented.” Chapman, who first documented in 2008 that some female sharks can reproduce without having intercourse, said this latest discovery suggests “there’s yet another path to reproduction that these species can do. It just reinforces that sharks can do it all when it comes to reproduction.”

I didn't want to copy the whole article because I feel my posts are kind of long. I think that is insane. Animals are insanely smart. Definite proof of climate change. I predict the more the Earth changes, there will be more bizarre sitings that will come up.

Chaos Around the Pole

This is a picture taken at the Kaltag Stickdance in 2012 during the last night of dancing. The picture is blurry, but if it was clear it wouldn't make as much sense to me. I love this picture! The Athabaskan people of Kaltag and Nulato take turns hosting this ceremony every other year. The ceremony is a week long event that is held in memory of ones that have passed on. During class, Don talked about the circle of life vs. the linear spectrum. I feel people today are confused about the whole circle thing and why it is done, but for me the life being the start and death being the end does not make sense. The pole is an important symbol for the Stickdance...hence the name. It is dressed with ribbons and feathers and placed in the center of the hall. Wolf and wolverine furs are placed at the top of the pole throughout the night. I am not 100% sure why, but I believe it has something to do with those two animals being symbols of power. The pole is guarded by people being dressed as community members dance around going right to left-the same cycle of the sun. The pole is the last time to dance with loved ones before they continue onto the spirit world. When the sun rises the next day-Saturday. The ribbons are cut off the pole. People gather them for good luck. Afterwards, it is taken out of the hall and walked around town by each person's house. Then, the pole is brought to the bank where it is broken and thrown onto the Yukon River. In the spring time, it is washed away with the river ice.

Tupaq- to Awaken

^^^^^^^^ COPY AND PASTE THIS LINK AND READ THIS ARTICLE(for a picture) ^^^^^^^^^ If not, I copied and pasted the article below my comments. From reading Ishmael, we, as a class, have learned about saving the world, Takers, and Leavers. I enjoyed reading about Mr. Carlson and how he wants to become connected with his roots. I assume many people from his tribe have never thought of doing this- any tribe actually. I feel to maintain closeness to traditional values, one has to always have hope I love finding articles that I can connect to on different categories. One thing that reminds me the world is so small and everyone every where is connected is how we can read/hear about an act and relate to it. An example, of me connecting to this article is the rehab center, Mr. Carlson was a part of. One of my best friends who is also native went to the same rehab center in California. Kind of weird, but cool. I love how there are many places in Alaska that people can originate to.... talking about villages. I have heard once, a person will always go back to where they came from. A question I have is, why does it seem like a person does this after they have gone through a really hard time?! Maybe that is the Taker attitude in us all. " A Vision of Reviving Tribal Ways in a Remote Corner of California By PATRICIA LEIGH BROWN KLAMATH, Calif. — From a forested bluff, Willard Carlson Jr. stands watch over Blue Creek where its indigo eddies meet the gray-green riffles of the Klamath River. The creek is sacred to Yurok Indians like himself: it flows into high country, a pilgrimage point and a source of curative power for tribal healers. The Yurok consider it their “golden stairway” and weave its stepped pattern into their basketry. This is a California few outsiders know, where remote villages still await electricity, and the river is a liquid neighborhood. For the state’s largest tribe, with about 5,000 members, well-publicized battles over fishing rights and hydroelectric dams are perhaps less pressing day to day than the question “What part of the river are you from?” Five years ago, Mr. Carlson was rebounding from alcohol and drug abuse when he felt the need to return here, to his family’s ancestral ground. One night, cooking salmon and eel over an alder fire, he vowed to do something that had not been tried here for at least 150 years: to build a traditional Yurok village from scratch, a ceremonial place that will “bring people home to reconnect with the old ways,” he said. Mr. Carlson, now 59, his salt-and-pepper hair heavy on the salt, named the village now rising in a clearing Ah Pah, or “the beginning of the stairway.” He views it as a place of healing for “the many people who have lost their way.” Aided by foundation grants, the project is part of a broad resurgence in traditional tribal culture that began in tandem with the American Indian civil rights movement and aims to foster community resilience and identity. The Yurok villages that once existed by the hundreds on the banks of the Klamath, now reservation land, were homesteads for extended families. Ah Pah will be a ceremonial rather than a residential gathering place — “a college of knowledge,” Mr. Carlson said on a foggy, chilly morning, sipping tea made from wild coastal vines. Mr. Carlson has already built a dance pit and plans to build a sweat lodge for prayers and a plank house where basket weavers and other artisans can demonstrate their work. In Yurok country, close to the Oregon border, rituals like the brush dance — a three-day ceremony to heal a sick child or pray for a long, healthy life — are flourishing, especially during the summer dance season, when they attract hundreds every weekend. Yurok language classes are now an elective at four local high schools, including the Klamath River Early College of the Redwoods, a charter school that incorporates fishing and other cultural knowledge into the curriculum. There is also a newfound expertise among the young in basketry and a growing interest in native foods, exemplified by a sign in the lobby of a multitribal health clinic in Arcata, about an hour’s drive south of Klamath, that says “Got Acorns?” To build his traditional village, Mr. Carlson and young student volunteers — all male, as is the custom — have cleared hundreds of stumps, hauled redwood logs from afar down muddy roads and split them into planks the old-fashioned way, using a hammer and an iron wedge. In a sense, Ah Pah is also Mr. Carlson’s own “golden stairway” — a path to personal and cultural renewal. His struggles with alcohol and methamphetamine, which he openly acknowledges, are endemic to generations of Yurok, who live with poverty and unemployment rates that range from 30 percent in coastal towns to 80 percent on the upper reservation. Some, like Mr. Carlson’s 76-year-old mother, Marguerite, live in houses accessible only by boat. Mr. Carlson’s son Per-gish, whose name means “gray eagle,” recalled the landmarks of his own childhood: “Three bars — that’s it.” Per-gish is now a professional fishing guide, with an eaglelike knowledge of the river and the seasonal arrivals of steelhead, eel and salmon. “Everything that happens everywhere else happens here,” he observed of the social ills that continue to reverberate. “There is an imbalance between bounty and want.” The Yurok have endured massacres during the Gold Rush in the mid-19th century, the subsequent forced removal of Indian children to boarding schools and a violent dispute in 1978 over a moratorium on salmon fishing that pitted Indians against federal agents. The fight politicized many Yurok. Mr. Carlson was arrested numerous times, once for “letting an agent have it,” he said, before diving off his boat and “side-stroking away like an eel in a Pendleton shirt,” he recalled. Years later, in his 40s with four children, his life hit bottom after four back-to-back D.W.I. convictions landed him in jail. “I wasn’t even visiting my children,” said Mr. Carlson, who was by then separated from his partner. “I knew it had to end.” His rehabilitation finally took hold eight years ago when he boarded a bus to San Francisco with $42 in savings and enrolled at Friendship House, a nonprofit residential substance abuse center for American Indians. Toward the end of the program, “praying for guidance,” Mr. Carlson noticed a street sign near Golden Gate Park that said “Willard North.” He took it as a signal that he was meant to go home. “Willard led his own rehabilitation,” said David Tripp, an associate professor at Redwood Community College who runs the tribe’s vocational rehabilitation program. “It was healing for him to go back to his points of origin.” Mr. Carlson needs more old-growth redwood to finish the village, he said, but the rectangular brush dance pit, composed of chiseled redwood planks, is now complete, as is the “dress house” for treasured dance regalia made from feathers, abalone and shells. The prospect of a first brush dance at Ah Pah, which is planned for July, is a much-anticipated event, said Christopher Peters, president and chief executive of the Seventh Generation Fund for Indian Development, a nonprofit foundation that regards the village project as a reaffirmation of spiritual practices. “Ah Pah is a pathway to sacred places,” he said. Because of its remote location near Blue Creek, he added, only “those most interested in revitalized traditional ceremonies are apt to be there.” The dances nearly disappeared early in the 20th century along with other rituals, said Geneva Wiki, founder of the charter school in Klamath and the executive director of the Wild Rivers Community Foundation. “There was a fair amount of hopelessness and depression,” she said. “It wasn’t O.K. to be an Indian.” Now, young people use Facebook to notify one another when the eels are running, or when there is good acorning in the hills. Among Mr. Carlson’s protégés is 18-year-old Sammy Gensaw III, who honed his building skills at Ah Pah. “The wood has a spirit, which will now live indefinitely in the village,” said Mr. Gensaw, whose goal is to be the first American Indian governor of California. “Those planks are going to see my kids.” This article has been revised to reflect the following correction: Correction: March 22, 2012 A previous version of this article misspelled the last name of one of Willard Carlson Jr.’s protégés. His name is Sammy Gensaw III, not Genshaw.