Bringing you today’s stories on issues important to Native communities. NewsClips is a complimentary service of the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement. Don’t miss the biggest event in Native Hawaiian community development! Register now for the 4th Annual Native Hawaiian Conference from August 30 – September 2 2005 at the Sheraton Waikiki Hotel. Special scholarships are available. For conference registration, scholarship forms, and for information and updates on our training workshops and events, please visit our Web site at: www.hawaiiancouncil.org.
June 1, 2005
· Akaka bill best way to address all issues
· Pacific leaders look to grow economies
· Call for Nominations – 2005 Native Hawaiian Business Award
· ANA focuses on Ohana
· Akaka bill seeks ethnic-Hawaiian government
· Senate committee debates U.S. apology resolution
· Tribe thinking of youth, elders
· Berger conciliator for Nunavut land claim
· Hawaiian registry has 18,000 on its list
· Team needs help to get to national contest
· American Indians and Alaska Native veterans have higher mortality rate after surgery than Caucasians
· Crow Agency walk focuses on diabetes
· American Indian and Alaska Native health struggles
· Wellness program producing WiseWomen at Fallon tribe
· UHM graduate aspires to help others
· Community College to offer Native American language program
· Found in translation
· Taking root
May 28, 2005
Honolulu Advertiser
Letter to the Editor
Akaka bill best way to address all issues
There should not be more local hearings regarding the Akaka bill (Senate Bill 147). Further hearings would be fruitless, I believe, because if residents didn't go before, they will probably not in the future. Elected government officials are paid to lead us and sometimes must make tough decisions that indecisive residents cannot figure out.
From the commentaries of May 1 and the April 10 printout of the Akaka bill, I believe that I, a non-Native Hawaiian resident, know enough to support the bill's advancement in Congress. Clearly, I see that the status quo is unacceptable for the indigenous people of Hawai'i. The structured negotiation process led by the Native Hawaiian governing entity proposed by the bill will be able to address issues affecting all residents of Hawai'i resulting from the overthrow of the Hawaiian kingdom.
I can see that the bill cannot — and therefore does not — propose a predetermined outcome regarding Native Hawaiian issues (requirements regarding jurisdiction and membership criteria, for example) but rather proposes the establishment of a tangible governing process that can.
It appears to me that the Akaka bill is the means to the establishment of a new, more equitable Hawai'i.
Stuart N. Taba
Manoa
Friday, May 27, 2005
Pacific leaders look to grow economies
A meeting held here includes discussions on aquaculture expansion
By Tara Godvin
Associated Press
Legislators from island nations scattered over thousands of miles in the Pacific Ocean gathered in Hawaii this week to discuss solutions to shared problems and learn more about the aquaculture industry.
Though there are many political lines that separate the nations participating in the 24th General Assembly of the Association of Pacific Island Legislatures, there are many issues that unite them, said Joanne Brown, president of the association.
Among those issues is the need for economic development.
Holding the association's meeting in Hawaii this year enabled representatives to take a closer look at aquaculture as a way to bolster the islands' economies, Brown said.
The lawmakers spent part of yesterday at Oahu's Oceanic Institute, a marine research center that specializes in aquaculture research.
Many of the residents of Pohnpei -- home to Palikir, the capital of the Federated States of Micronesia about three-quarters of the way from Hawaii to Indonesia -- are either fishermen or farmers.
The fishermen like to farm and the farmers like to fish, said Sen. Fernando Scaliem of Pohnpei.
"By becoming aquaculturalists we can become farmers and fisherman at the same exact time," he said.
Lolo Moliga, the Senate president in American Samoa, said he has other interests in meeting with fellow association members -- learning more about how the United States deals with other islands in the region.
After ruling the U.S. territory for more than 100 years, the superpower has yet to live up to its promises to the island nation of improving education, health services and the local economy, Moliga said.
American Samoa plans to hold a constitutional convention soon during which it will review its relationship with the federal government, he said.
"They'll have to live up to their commitment after all these years," he said.
June 1, 2005
Call for Nominations – 2005 Native Hawaiian Business Award
American Savings Bank and the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement (CNHA) are looking for nominees for the 2005 Native Hawaiian Business Award. The recipient of this award will be recognized at CNHA’s 4th Annual Native Hawaiian Conference on Thursday, September 1, 2005.
The 2005 Native Hawaiian Business Award will recognize a business that is Native Hawaiian owned and/or serves the Native Hawaiian community. Judges will consider the business’ involvement with volunteerism or contributions; promotion of Native Hawaiian values; innovation; job generation and profitability; and the need or demand for venture. Click here for the nomination form which contains more detail on judging criteria.
Nomination forms should be sent via e-mail to Blaine Cacho, Community Development Specialist, at bcacho@asbhawaii.com or faxed to 808.539.7239 by Friday, June 17. If you have any questions, please call Blaine at 808.539.7131.
June 1, 2005
ANA focuses on Ohana
The Administration for Native Americans (ANA), in conjunction with the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announces its Native American Healthy Marriage Initiative (NAHMI), also known as Strengthening Marriages and Relationships in Tribal and Native American Communities (SMART NA Communities).
In an effort to improve child well-being and remove barriers to forming lasting families and healthy marriages, ANA provides this funding opportunity for organizations seeking to implement healthy marriage projects such as pre-marital education, marriage education, and relationship skills for youth, adults and couples within Native communities.
“My Administration is committed to strengthening the American family. Many one-parent families are also a source of comfort and reassurance, yet a family with a mom and dad who are committed to marriage and devote themselves to their children helps provide children a sound foundation for success. Government can support families by promoting policies that help strengthen the institution of marriage and help parents rear their children in positive and healthy environments.” stated President Bush.
NAHMI is a component of the ACF Healthy Marriage (HMI)
Initiative that specifically promotes a culturally competent strategy for
fostering healthy marriages, responsible fatherhood, child well-being and
strengthening families within Native communities. With a funding ceiling
of $150,000 and a floor of $50,000 per budget period, HMI will fund applications
for 36 month projects with three 12-month budget periods.
Applications
must be received by Friday, July 8, 2005, 4:30 p.m. Eastern Standard
Time.
For more information on this funding opportunity please contact Ms.
Sarah Skriloff at the Administration for Native Americans at 1-877-922-9262 or
click here.
Published May 30, 2005
Akaka bill seeks ethnic-Hawaiian government
By Ralph Z.
Hallow
THE WASHINGTON
TIMES
A Senate Democrat is pushing a bill that would allow a separate government for ethnic Hawaiians.
Hawaii Gov. Linda Lingle and other Republicans also support the bill, which critics say would have dire ramifications beyond Hawaii.
"By creating a race-based government in the United States, we would be enhancing a trend toward the Balkanization of our culture," said Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona, the Senate Republican Policy Committee chairman. "This would be the first time that we would actually be creating a race-based government entity within the United States."
The bill, sponsored by Sen. Daniel K. Akaka, Hawaii Democrat, would designate ethnic Hawaiians -- thought to account for about 20 percent of the state's population -- as an "indigenous people" comparable to American Indians and Alaska natives.
"All my bill does is clarify the political and legal relationship between native Hawaiians and the United States, thereby establishing parity in the federal policies towards American Indians, Alaska natives and native Hawaiians," Mr. Akaka told The Washington Times last week.
In March, Mrs. Lingle said the bill would help preserve ethnic-Hawaiian culture. She denied critics' claims that "federal recognition of native Hawaiians constitutes a race-based preference or racial discrimination."
She told the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs that the bill would help "individual native Hawaiians to become more self-sufficient, which reduces their reliance on state and federally funded services." She said that a "Native Hawaiian government" could take control of state and federal programs for social services that spend money collected from taxpayers nationwide.
Mr. Akaka said the bill does not automatically "transfer ... any lands, assets or natural resources," but provides for a process for the proposed ethnic-Hawaiian "governing entity" to negotiate such matters with the state and federal governments.
Although details would have to be negotiated, a separate government likely would grant ethnic Hawaiians the same kind of dual U.S.-tribal citizenship as American Indians. Like Indian tribal members, they could be prosecuted for crimes by federal and native authorities and would travel under U.S. passports.
The transfer of any lands to the ethnic-Hawaiian government would be negotiated and, proponents say, probably require further federal and state legislation.
Opponents claim that the process would lead to the ethnic-Hawaiian "entity" having a government-to-government relationship with the United States and autonomy over the affairs of native Hawaiians, with the rest of the state's population represented by Hawaii's state government.
"This bill is un-American in that it seeks to define citizenship based on race, rather than shared ideals," said Bruce Fein, a constitutional lawyer and Justice Department official in the Reagan administration.
Critics say the Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act of 2005 would deny state and county governments the full exercise of civil and criminal procedures and jurisdiction over homeland security, render the "tribal" government immune from lawsuits for breach of contract and personal injury, and empower the entity to make unlimited campaign contributions of untaxed dollars as a way to buy political influence.
Sen. Craig Thomas, Wyoming Republican, said his major concerns are the "high, ongoing costs" for federal programs aiding native Hawaiians under the bill as well as the process it sets out for a separate governing entity.
Sen. James M. Inhofe, Oklahoma Republican, has opposed similar legislation, citing concerns from some of his state's tribes.
Mr. Akaka said his bill "provides a process for the reorganization of the native- Hawaiian governing entity for the purposes of a federally recognized government-to-government relationship."
He said the "action is similar to the restoration of an Indian tribe."
"Congress has recognized native Hawaiians as the indigenous
peoples of Hawaii and has enacted more than 160 laws to address the conditions
of native Hawaiians."
Thursday, May 26, 2005
Indianz.Com. In Print.
URL:
http://www.indianz.com/News/2005/008407.asp
Senate committee debates
U.S. apology resolution
The leader of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee said on Wednesday he would help secure passage of a resolution to apologize to Native peoples for their treatment by the United States.
Fresh off his role in securing a compromise on judicial nominations, Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona), the chairman of the committee, held the first-ever hearing on the apology resolution. He praised Sen. Sam Brownback, a conservative Republican from Kansas, for introducing the measure.
"Reviewing the history of this government's treatment of Native Americans makes painfully obvious that the government has repeatedly broken its promises and caused great harm to the nation's original inhabitants," McCain said.
McCain noted that the resolution was approved unanimously by the committee last year but never made it to a floor vote. He promised Brownback that the situation would change under his leadership.
"Maybe I could do what I can to assist you in get some floor consideration of this issue," McCain told his colleague. "I'd be glad to support you in whatever way I can."
Brownback welcomed the backing and said he was prompted to seek the apology after he encountered lingering feelings of bitterness among Native people his state, home to four federally recognized tribes. He pointed to a long history of "broken treaties, mistreatment, and dishonorable dealings" that demand reconciliation.
What this resolution does do is recognize and honor the importance of Native Americans to this land and to our nation -– in the past and today -- and offers an official apology to the Native peoples for the poor and painful choices our government sometimes made to disregard its solemn word," he testified.
Two tribal witnesses welcomed the measure. Tex Hall, the president of the National Congress of American Indians, called it a "long-time coming."
"Passage of the apology resolution would mark the federal government's first effort to extend an official apology for the years of wrongdoing in interactions with Indian tribes," Hall told the committee.
Dr. Negiel Bigpond Sr., a member of the Euchee Tribe that is now part of the Creek Nation and president of the Rivers Native American Training Center in Oklahoma, said the resolution was an important step in the reconciliation process between Native and non-Native citizens of the country. "I believe that acknowledging past atrocities and asking the indigenous First Nations people of this land for forgiveness is needed as a first step for healing of this land," he testified.
But a prominent Alaska Native leader said was troubled. Ed Thomas, the president of the Tlingit and Haida Tribes of Alaska and a vice president of NCAI, recalled his "reluctant support" of the resolution when it was first introduced in the 108th Congress.
That feeling has since turned into serious doubt, Thomas continued. He cited major failings in the handling of billions of dollars in Indian trust funds, a lack of tribal consultation, cuts in federal funds to Indian programs and an erosion of tribal sovereignty in the courts.
"Things have deteriorated so much that it is a fact that federal prisoners get more health care funding per capita than Native Americans," he said. Any apology would be worthless unless accompanied by "positive action" to correct and compensate for centuries of neglect, mismanagement and pain, he added.
McCain sought to address some of Thomas' concerns by noting that an apology would heighten public awareness of Native issues and could lead to positive changes. He cited the U.S. government's apology in 1988 to Japanese-Americans who were interned, or whose ancestors were interned, in camps during World War II.
"I believe that is very likely that an apology could have the same effect because I'm always astonished and disappointed when I find out how little Americans in general -- and even federal officials in particular -- know about the history of our relationships with Native Americans," he argued.
Hall pointed out that the U.S. in 1994 apologized to Native Hawaiians for the unlawful overthrow of their kingdom in the late 1800s. Even Canada apologized to its Native population, he said, a move that was accompanied by a financial set-aside to be used for healing initiatives.
Negiel said Native Americans are more than willing to accept an apology and start healing for events like the Sand Creek Massacre and abuse at government boarding schools. "This is a first step to many things," he said. "This is history making."
"My hope is that the president of the United States will stand before all of the chiefs, before all of the tribes, and say 'Can you forgive our government, our forefathers, for how we treated you?'" he continued.
The next step for the resolution would be approval by the committee, which McCain said he expects, followed by a floor vote. A similar resolution has been introduced in the House.
5/30/2005
Tribe thinking of youth, elders
Put in bid for senior center, open development center
TAHLEQUAH OK
Native American
Times
In what officials with the tribe say is proof positive of
a commitment to the youth and the elderly, the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee
Indians voted to approve applying for a grant to finance building an Elder
Community Center.
The center is designed to serve low and
moderate-income elders by increasing living standards and developing a tribal
community.
The same day the application was approved, the tribe held a
groundbreaking ceremony for the Keetoowah Child Development Center. The center
will accommodate approximately 80 children.
“We have been working toward
this goal for the past couple of years,” said Michelle Deason, UKB Program
Director of Child Care and Development. “The grant was approved last fall. We
had to wait for the Wellness Center to be completed before this project could
begin. It was a long process to select the design builders. We wanted to get a
firm that was experienced building childcare centers. The architectural firm,
EWC and the builder, Finch Building Corporation, have worked with designing and
building day care centers, several with tribes.”
“We have built the
Youth and Family Services building for the Kaw Nation, designed a facility for
the Ponca Tribe, and Finch Building Corporation has built facilities for the
Seneca-Cayuga and the Choctaw tribes,” said project architect Katie
Mihalevich.
Builder Larry Finch said the center should be completed by
November of this year.
“Getting started this time of year, we should be
able to move more quickly than if the project had begun in the winter or
spring,” said Finch.
UKB officials say the center is being constructed
to meet the standards set by the Department of Human Services: 45 square feet
per infant and 35 square feet per child indoors, and 75 square feet outdoors
play space per child. The facility will be approximately 7,500 square feet per
child featuring a multipurpose playroom, six classrooms, a kitchen, sick room
and offices.
“This project not only benefits the tribe, but the whole
community as well,” Deason said. “Tribes, unlike the state, can build child care
centers. It will be a state-of-the-art center that will serve the whole
community, not just the Keetoowah Cherokees.”
UKB Chief George Wickliffe
said in his speech at the groundbreaking, “This project is a continuation of the
design plan that was put in place five or six years ago. I am happy to be able
to help realize this dream and to serve our Keetoowah Cherokee people. The
entire UKB council is committed to serve our people, and our elders and children
are especially precious.”
May 26, 2005
Berger conciliator for Nunavut land claim
CNEWS Canada
OTTAWA (CP) - Former B.C. Supreme Court justice Thomas Berger has been named as a conciliator to help implement the Nunavut land claim agreement.
"He is known nationally and internationally for the work he has done with aboriginal people," Paul Kaludjak, president of Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., said in a release Thursday.
"I am confident he will help us resolve this impasse and work with integrity to ensure that Inuit in Nunavut soon begin to fully enjoy the benefits included in the Nunavut land claims agreement."
Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. is the organization that oversees the implementation of the land claim that was signed in the early 1990s and led to the creation of the eastern territory.
Housing, education and control of resources have all been issues that have been raised by both Nunavut Tunngavik and the territorial government as needing attention from Ottawa.
Premier Paul Okalik echoed Kaludjak's optimism.
"We welcome the appointment of Mr. Berger and look forward to his impartial assistance in helping all parties to . . . realize the agreement's spirit and intent to benefit Nunavummiut and all Canadians," he said.
Berger, 72, has been involved with aboriginal issues and self-government since the 1960s. During his time as a justice of British Columbia's Supreme Court in the 1970s and '80s, he headed many inquiries, including one into the original Mackenzie Valley pipeline proposal.
His landmark report recommended against a pipeline across the northern Yukon and called for a 10-year moratorium on such construction in the Mackenzie Valley to permit settlement of prior land claims.
Berger also served as legal counsel on the Calder case in 1973, which started the Canadian aboriginal entitlement movement. The case reviewed the existence of aboriginal title claimed over lands historically occupied by the Nishga Indians of northeastern B.C.
Chief Calder lost the case, and the aboriginal title issue was not settled, but the decision led to more federal willingness to negotiate native land claims.
From 1983 to 1985, Berger was head of the Alaska Native Review Commission, a two-year inquiry sponsored by the Inuit Circumpolar Conference into the effects of the 1971 Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act.
May 30, 2005
Hawaiian registry has 18,000 on its list
An estimated 400,000 Hawaiians are living worldwide
By Jeannette J.
Lee
Associated Press
Bradford Lum is Irish, Dutch, German and Chinese, but it's the three-eighths Hawaiian blood running through his veins that matters most.
That's why Lum and his elderly mother, Lily, entered their names with the Native Hawaiian Registration Program, a database of people with documented proof of their Hawaiian bloodlines.
Many Hawaiians believe a catalog of all living Hawaiians, estimated at 400,000 worldwide, is the key to founding a nation, or at least gaining federal recognition, for Hawaii's native people.
"We need to be a nation within a nation," Lum said, "but we're not even recognized as an indigenous people right now."
Others who entered their names in the registry, including John Kaukali, 67, do not believe a Hawaiian nation or government is a practical goal.
"I really don't think so," said Kaukali, who is half Hawaiian. "You cannot have a nation within a nation."
Kaukali doubts the registry, dubbed Kau Inoa, or "place your name," will do anything to help Hawaiians in his lifetime. He signed up hoping his grandchildren will benefit from any social services the government offers to Hawaiians if they manage to gain the same federal status as other indigenous groups in the United States.
The Native Hawaiian Recognition Act, also called the Akaka Bill, after its sponsor, Democratic Sen. Daniel Akaka, would formally recognize native Hawaiians as an indigenous people in the same way the U.S. government recognizes American Indians and Alaska natives.
Congress is scheduled to take up the bill later this year.
Kau Inoa is the third attempt to count Hawaiians since the 1990s when self-determination for Hawaii's native population became a more prominent issue.
The process became easier after the U.S. Census began counting native Hawaiians for the first time in 2000. Many Hawaiians were inspired by the 1993 centennial of the overthrow of Queen Liliuokalani and a congressional apology for the U.S.-backed coup that same year.
The apology resolution included federal recognition of Hawaiians' sovereignty over their lands.
"We have been robbed of our country," Lum said. "I believe it's time to be recognized."
So far, the Kau Inoa project has registered only 18,000 since starting sign-ups in January 2004, according to Hawaii Maoli, the group funded by the state Office of Hawaiian Affairs to gather and store the information.
At the Moiliili Community Center this weekend, Corrane Park-Chun waited for registrants at a table covered with sign-up forms and free Kau Inoa souvenir pens.
She collected just nine registration forms after an hour and a half, but said overall sign-ups have risen because of recent publicity generated by large, colorful newspaper ads and TV commercials offering free T-shirts to Hawaiians who "kau inoa."
Each week, Park-Chun, a community outreach specialist for the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, canvasses neighborhoods, sets up small booths at neighborhood fairs or larger events such as the Merrie Monarch hula festival in Hilo, and has even visited prisons to persuade Hawaiians to sign up.
"My husband is going to divorce me. I'm never around. I have no life," Park-Chun said.
Many Hawaiians have not entered their names in the Kau Inoa registry, which accepts birth, marriage or death certificates as proof. Some do not want state or federal officials to know they support Hawaiian interests.
"I understand people not wanting to give out their names and addresses," said William Ha'ole, a recent registrant who manages the docent program at Iolani Palace. Queen Liliuokalani, Hawaii's last reigning monarch, lived in the palace under house arrest for eight months spanning 1895-96.
The Office of Hawaiian Affairs, a state agency, is funding the ads and the sign-up effort, but Administrator Clyde Namuo said the registry is free of state or federal influence because the information is stored in an independent repository.
Almost half of the people with Hawaiian blood live on the U.S. mainland, clustered mainly in West Coast cities, according to the U.S. Census, which included the Hawaiian designation for first time in 2000.
But even those living far from Hawaii are encouraged to sign up. Hawaiians, however, have divergent views on what such a nation or government would be. Many scoff at federal recognition and say the Hawaiian nation is already legitimate.
Others support a Hawaiian government based in the state of Hawaii and sanctioned by the United States. Some demand full sovereignty and the reinstatement of a monarchy.
The most radical endorse a separate nation-state that would partner with the United States only on certain issues, such as defense or trade.
Saturday, May 28, 2005 11:37 AM
Team
needs help to get to national contest
Maui News
MAKAWAO – Three students at Kalama Intermediate School could make history with their documentary on Hawaiian language.
They have won a shot at the National History Day competition being held in two weeks. But first they’ll have to find their own way to the competition being held in College Park, Md.
Eighth-graders Keao Adams, Brian Keohuloa and Justin Tabar earned second place in the junior group documentary category at the Hawaii History Day contest.
By placing second, the students qualified to represent the state at the National History Day Fair scheduled for June 12-18 at the University of Maryland. First place went to Kahuku Intermediate School, which will have its expenses covered.
The Hawaii Council for the Humanities, organizer of the Hawaii History Day contest, will cover some of the expenses for the Kalama team to participate in the national contest, but the boys and their teacher, Renee Adams, will need to find enough money for airfare, hotel and other necessary expenses that go with traveling 6,000 miles across the country.
Adams has had students win state History Day contests in the past, but this is the first time she’s been forced by contest budget cuts to conduct fundraising to get them to the national competition.
Adams, whose son is Keao, said after winning second place on April 23, state contest organizers only gave her and her students three days to decide whether they would go to nationals.
The estimated price tag of $7,500 for the three students and one teacher gave them pause. But the incentive for continuing to study history persuaded them to try.
“We have never participated in this because of the competition,” Adams said.
She said she encourages students to participate in History Day projects to learn and “to have a love for history.”
None of the boys has ever traveled to the East Coast. Kaeo Adams and Tabar have been to California, while Keohuloa has never been out of the state.
All three are excited at the chance to participate in the contest that will be held just 12 miles from Washington, D.C.
Adams said he wants to go to the nationals “for the experience”; Tabar “just to go” and Keohuloa because “it’s probably going to be fun. I’ve been thinking about it for a long time”
Renee Adams notes that the three Native Hawaiian students worked for months to produce their award-winning documentary called “I ka ’olelo no ke ola, i ka ’olelo no ka make – In the language there is life, in the language there is death.”
They’ve worked after school, on evenings and weekends and during their winter and spring breaks to conduct extensive research on their topic, the history of Hawaiian language and its relationship to this year’s contest theme: “Communication in History, Key to Understanding.”
Their research took them to Oahu and the Big Island, which state contest organizers did help to fund. On Oahu, they looked through materials in the Hawaii State Archives and the Bishop Museum Library and Archives, and visited the Judiciary History Center and the Iolani Palace.
The students conducted research at the Maui Community College Library as well, and interviewed local Hawaiian language immersion teachers and scholars. They attended the Celebration of Culture and the Arts at the Ritz-Carlton Kapalua and listened to lectures and panel discussions by prominent Native Hawaiians.
While their documentary took second as a junior group documentary, it won a special award for Outstanding Historical Research, which was sponsored by the Hawaii Association of School Librarians.
“These 13- and 14-year-old historians have genuinely embraced history habits of the mind and gained a deeper understanding of their culture and identity,” Renee Adams said.
All three have registered to learn Hawaiian when they enroll at King Kekaulike High School in the fall.
To raise money, the trio and Adams have sent letters of solicitations to numerous Hawaiian organizations, elected officials, family and friends.
They’re hoping community support will help them reach their goal.
Donations may be sent to Renee Adams, c/o Kalama Intermediate School, 120 Makani Road, Makawao 96793. For more information, call Adams at 573-8735, ext. 309, or e-mail renee_adams@notes.k12.hi.us.
Claudine San Nicolas can be reached at claudine@mauinews.com.
Public release date: 1-Jun-2005
American Indians and Alaska Native veterans have higher mortality rate after surgery than Caucasians
HANOVER, NH/WHITE RIVER JUNCTION, VT – Contributing to growing literature on marked racial and ethnic disparities in US healthcare, a study led by Dartmouth Medical School has concluded that American Indians and Alaska Natives have a greater chance of death within 30 days of surgery and suffer more from several preoperative risks compared to Caucasian patients.
Published in the June issue of the Journal of the American College of Surgeons (JACS), the Dartmouth Medical School-led study is the largest to explore surgical outcomes in the American Indian population. The study examined data on 4,419 male patients at Veterans Affairs (VA) hospitals across the country.
"As a nation, we want to deliver healthcare that is equal across all ethnic groups and races, but we're finding that some disparities exist," said lead author, Dr. Lori Arviso Alvord, assistant professor of surgery and of psychiatry at Dartmouth Medical School. "The results of this study add surgical outcomes to the list of health disparities experienced by Native Americans and offer further opportunities for investigation, intervention, and improvement in this understudied population."
Patients in the study were selected from the Veterans Affairs National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (NSQIP), an ongoing government-funded program that provides risk-adjusted surgical morbidity and mortality data to measure the quality of care at VA hospitals. A total of 2,155 American Indians and Alaska Natives in the NSQIP database who had surgery between 1991 and 2002 were matched by facility to an equal number of randomly selected Caucasian patients. Alvord and colleagues found a significant difference in mortality rates after surgery, with 3.1% of American Indians dying compared to 2.2% of Caucasian patients.
"We want to be sure that differences in the care American Indians receive is not the reason for this disparity," said Alvord, who has clinical appointments at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center and the VA Hospital in White River Junction, Vermont. "We will continue our research to explore factors that could lead to these variations and determine how they can be corrected," she said. The first Navajo woman surgeon in the U.S., Alvord notes that the health status of American Indians is generally lower than the total U.S. population, with a higher prevalence of diabetes and a shorter life expectancy.
The study also revealed higher rates of some preoperative risk factors among American Indians compared with Caucasians. These findings confirm previous reports that nearly twice as many older American Indians as Caucasians experience some type of functional impairment. The higher risk factors found in the study include wound infections, low platelet counts, and diabetes.
The JACS article cited related studies that found that American Indian patients received fewer kidney transplants than Caucasians and experienced a greater delay from onset of treated end-stage renal disease to transplantation. Another study found that the native population underwent coronary revascularization procedures less often than Caucasians. "Our results contribute to the growing literature on racial and ethnic health disparities in general, and in surgical outcomes in particular," the authors wrote in their conclusion.
May 26, 2005
Crow Agency walk focuses on diabetes
By BECKY SHAY
Of The
Gazette Staff
CROW AGENCY - There is a traditional belief that good winds come from all directions. As walkers traversed from four corners of the Crow Indian Reservation this week, they brought the winds of positive change.
About 1,200 walkers participated in the Spirit of the Four Winds Walk, which began Monday and covered a total of 166 miles en route to Crow Agency Wednesday afternoon.
They walked 64 miles from Pryor and St. Xavier to the west; 37 miles from Wyola and Lodge Grass to the south; 23 miles from the 107 Reservation Line from the east, and 42 miles from Hardin and Custer to the north.
The walk was sponsored by the Crow Diabetes Prevention Program. Its purpose was to spread the word, especially to children, that diabetes is preventable through a lifestyle that includes activity and healthy diet, said Valerie BirdinGround-Hogan, the tribe's Health and Human Services Cabinet head.
Yasway White Wolf said taking part in the walk was important. She is 11 and has seen the effects of diabetes on her family. She was honored to carry the American flag and Crow tribal flag for part of the walk.
"My feet hurt, and it was hot," she said, and broke into a grin. "But I made it!"
Tribal leaders were on horseback, ready to lead the walkers from the four corners of Crow Agency when the walking kids beckoned them to join the walk.
"So we started walking," Vice Secretary Darrin Old Coyote said.
Tribal Chairman Carl Venne said the walk took after the traditional belief that good things come from all the four winds.
By having the kids walk and making them aware of diabetes prevention, Venne said, the walk's good message may save lives.
"If we can catch them young, they can take care of themselves," Venne said.
Two years ago, 10 percent of the Crow population had been diagnosed diabetic, Venne said. Now the figure is up to 14 percent.
"We have to get the word out," Venne said. "Prevention, exercise and a good diet - it's really simple."
Program co-coordinators Todd Wilson and LeeAnn Johnson said that about 400 kids from all reservation schools, as well as Hardin students, participated in the walk. People walked or ran several miles, and several participated each day. Organizers broke down the walk to one-mile increments, Johnson said, so people would realize they were capable of that distance.
Diabetes diagnoses on the reservation are increasing for several reasons, including earlier detection, BirdinGround-Hogan said. Even though the number increases, it is a life-extending change because people can start treatment or stave off the disease through lifestyle changes.
Another reason for the rise is learned behaviors such has styles of cooking and ways of dealing with stress, such as eating, Johnson said.
"Pop, TV and cars," Johnson said. "We've got to break that cycle."
The biggest change that the program hopes to teach is to eat healthier and be active.
"To prevent this is just to move," Johnson said.
"Kids don't get out," BirdinGround-Hogan added. "We encourage them to be more active and teach them that activity can help you be healthier."
05/26/05 14:36
American Indian and Alaska Native health struggles
People's Weekly World Newspaper
Author: David Lawrence, People's Health
The Bush administration does not care about low- and middle-income Americans, and they certainly don’t care about the nation’s indigenous peoples. The Indian Health Service (IHS) recently announced plans to dramatically reduce vital services at its Albuquerque, N.M., facilities using the excuse of “budget deficits,” yet Albuquerque has one of the largest concentrations of urban Indian populations in the United States. Worse yet, the per capita health care funding for reservation-based populations is less than half of what is provided to those on Medicaid or in prison. Even Senate Indian Affairs Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) recently charged: “The federal government has continually reneged on its trust and moral obligations to meet the educational, health care, and housing needs of Indians, and these needs far outweigh the imperceptible contribution that the proposed cuts will make to reducing the deficit.”
The federal government has a unique relationship with American Indians and Alaska Natives that is defined by the U.S Constitution, treaties, Supreme Court cases, and legislation. The historic contract was that in exchange for tribal lands, the U.S. government agreed to provide health care to members of federally recognized tribes. The IHS, an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, was supposed to have fulfilled that responsibility since 1955, but in reality, it has failed miserably.
American Indians/Alaska Natives are among the fastest growing populations in the United States. In the 2000 Census, 4.1 million people (about 1.5 percent of the U.S. population) identified themselves as American Indian and/or Alaska Native, solely or in combination with one or more other racial or ethnic groups. But at the same time, looking at mortality rates, American Indians and Alaska Natives die sooner than whites at each stage of the lifespan, with persistent disparities in infant mortality, life expectancy, and mortality from a variety of conditions including chronic diseases. There are also serious disparities in health care financing, access to care, and quality of care.
When the IHS was established in 1955, more than 95 percent of Indian people lived on or near their home reservations. Now, despite the fact that more than 60 percent of members of U.S. tribes reside outside their home reservations at least part of the year, only 1 percent of the IHS budget is earmarked for urban Indian health care — and even that meager care is being slashed.
In fiscal year 2003, the Indian Health Service had an operating budget of $2.9 billion to provide or pay for care for approximately 1.5 million of the 4.1 million people who identify themselves as American Indians or Alaska Natives. This amounts to $1,914 per patient per year, which was about $1,600 less per year than the nation spent on other public health care programs serving the non-elderly. According to one study, an additional $1.8 billion is needed to provide current IHS users with services at the same level as those provided to federal employees.
Despite this history of extraordinary neglect by the federal government of Native American health issues, there is one very hopeful development. Most of the Native tribes, villages, and organizations in Alaska have banded together to form the Alaska Native Tribal Health Coalition, which cobbles together a statewide health care system by adding cash from third-party payers such as private health insurance and Medicaid. This looks a lot like a democratically operated non-profit health maintenance organization.
All Americans have to join with American Indians and Alaska Natives in struggle against the decimation of their health care systems. Moreover, we need to support struggles to get local control of health care where they are taking place. Further, we must make sure that any national health plan takes into account these unique considerations and contributions.
May 27, 2005
Wellness program producing WiseWomen at Fallon tribe
JOSH JOHNSON, jjohnson@lahontanvalleynews.com
Lahontan Valley News
Women of the Fallon Paiute-Shoshone Tribe are taking charge
of their health and learning to be a WiseWoman through a newly-implemented
wellness program.
WiseWoman, which stands for Well-integrated Screening
and Evaluation for Women Across the Nation, is administered through the Centers
for Disease Control's Division of Nutrition and Physical Activity as a
cardiovascular health screening tool for women. The Fallon program is conducted
in coordination with the Fallon Tribal Health Clinic diabetes
program.
Since the program's start at the Fallon Paiute-Shoshone Tribe in
January, eight women have made steps to improve the health of them themselves
and their families, said Jenevie Lucero, a tribal senior health
advocate.
"What we're trying to do is emphasize the nutritional needs,
exercise and being healthy," Lucero said. "It's all built on your lifestyle and
intervention. This is one of the best programs I've seen."
Women first
undergo a screening and evaluation session designed to identify possibly
lifestyle changes. A wellness plan is created and members are matched up with
others with similar needs.
There are no fees and no formal measure of
success. Participants monitor their own progress and are encouraged to
journal.
Many women use walking and exercise bands to improve their
health, she said. Some are walking three miles per day as part of their daily
routine.
Lucero said she's looking to incorporate water aerobics into the
program through the use of the Churchill County indoor pool. The program is open
to any woman in Churchill County.
The program has a trickle down effect,
where women incorporate wellness into the lives of their families, she said.
Nutrition and exercise are especially important to indigenous people, who have
increased risk of diabetes.
"Diabetes is very high among our people,"
Lucero said. "It's very important to understand the disease and the eating
habits they have."
The program has helped Linda Oxborrow, Lucero's
sister, feel more energetic and improve her physical stamina. Though it took a
while for her body to adjust, she's incorporated walking into her daily routine,
especially while picking asparagus.
"I have more energy," Oxborrow said.
"After the initial aches and pains, you tend to have more muscular
flexibility.
Women need to change their diets and exercise levels to
compensate for today's on-the-go lifestyle, she said.
"We're a rural
community. Many of us have grown up eating foods made from scratch," Oxborrow
said. "We never had a lot of packaged and processed foods. Now that we've gotten
supermarkets and superstores, our diets have changed."
For more
information on the WiseWoman program, contact Lucero at the tribal senior center
at 423-7569.
Josh Johnson can be contacted at jjohnson@lahotanvalleynews.com
May 26, 2005
UHM graduate aspires to help
others
By Keahi Lee
Ka Leo
Staff Writer
On May 15, Kaiwipuni "Punihei" Anthony graduated from the University of Hawai'i with a bachelor's degree in Hawaiian Studies. Punihei spent her early childhood at a Hawaiian language immersion school and went on to graduate from Kamehameha School.
Considering her Hawaiian background and that her mother is Lilikala Kame'eleihiwa, UH professor of Hawaiian Studies and the former director for the Center of Hawaiian Studies, majoring in Hawaiian Studies would seem a likely choice for Punihei. But like many graduates, Punihei started her freshman year at UH with different intentions.
"When I started at UH in August 2001 my intended major was pre-med," Punihei said. "But I took Jon Osorio's Hawaiian Studies 107 class and it just raised a lot of issues in my own mind, issues that I thought I had answered for myself prior to coming to college. After taking the class, I realized that there were still a lot of things I had to learn for myself in order to be able to work for my community."
Soon after, Punihei declared her intention to major in Hawaiian Studies with an emphasis on Hawaiian Language. Although she was on a merit-based scholarship from the School of Hawaiian, Pacific and Asian Studies for her sophomore through senior years, Punihei still had to work.
"My toughest challenge was balancing work with school," she said. "I had to try and be financially stable enough to stay in school and try to find scholarships. Money was my biggest issue, but I realized that I had to keep working and keep going to school because that was the only way to get through it."
Punihei found jobs as a student aide for the Native Hawaiian Leadership Project and as a Bishop Museum research assistant, helping with projects involving the Hawaiian language. "Currently I'm working on a Hawaiian language newspaper project called Ho'olaupa'i, where we're working on digitizing the old Hawaiian language newspapers and making them available on the Internet," she said.
Besides school and work, Punihei also immerses herself in the Hawaiian language and culture through hula. "I have been formally dancing in a hula halau since I was nine years old," she said. "I was part of Chinky Mahoe's halau for 5 years, and then I took a break from the halaus for a little while, but I continued dancing hula for fun at Kamehameha. I started up again in 2002 and now I'm part of Manu Boyd's Halau O Ke 'A'ali'i Ku Makani."
This year, at the 42nd annual Merrie Monarch Festival, Punihei represented Halau O Ke 'A'ali'i Ku Makani as a soloist in the Miss Aloha Hula competition and took second runner-up.
Punihei said that placing in the competition didn't matter to her. "What really mattered were my performances," she said. "I was really happy with them and so was my kumu. Once I was done, I really didn't think about it. Placing was kind of just a nice extra."
"I think the most important thing for any hula dancer, especially if you want to be Miss Aloha Hula, is to know what you're talking and dancing about," she added. "It's important to understand the language and the culture because you just can't dance hula any other way."
While some may aspire to be Miss Aloha Hula, Punihei aspires to become a counselor to help others. She counseled Native American, Alaskan and Hawaiian kids for Oregon State University during the summers of 2002 and 2003.
"My job was to help and encourage these kids to learn about the college experience, specifically in the sciences, as there is a lack of native kids interested in going into sciences," she said. "That's kind of when I decided I wanted to become a counselor."
After graduation, Punihei plans to join the counseling and psychology program at Chaminade University. Her long-term goal is to become a counselor and help Native Hawaiian kids learn and get through college.
While at UH, Punihei found time to be an ASUH senator and spent last spring semester at Waitago University in New Zealand on an international exchange program. At the commencement ceremony, Punihei was a marshal for the School of Asian and Pacific Studies.
Punihei, along with this year's Hawaiian Language and Hawaiian Studies graduates, opened the commencement ceremony with the chant "Welina Manoa.”
07:58 AM PDT on Tuesday, May 31, 2005
Community College to offer Native American language program
Associated Press
EUGENE, Ore. -- Lane Community College is poised to become Oregon's first community college to offer an American Indian language course, thanks to a $1 million gift made to the college last year from an anonymous donor.
Interest income from the donation will be used to invite an Indian scholar to spend a year at the school laying plans the new language program.
The college has not yet decided which language it will offer, in part because that will depend on the background of the person it ultimately hires. But Lane Community College President Mary Spilde said it will be a language spoken by a Northwest tribe and said they hope to choose a scholar by this summer.
Ultimately, the college hopes to offer a program rigorous enough that students who pass the native language class will be able to transfer the credits to a four-year university and have them count toward the language requirement for a bachelor's degree.
Although perhaps only six of the 25 tribal languages that existed in Oregon before European arrival are still spoken, researchers and linguists say learning one still has value.
"If you learn Nez Perce or Klamath or any of a number of languages, this gives you access to a large body of traditional lore and literature and mythology," University of Oregon linguistics professor Scott Delancey, who studies Northwest Indian languages. "And the truth is, you really don't get a lot of the story if you just read the English translation."
Twila Souers, a Lakota tribal member, said many tribal languages already have died out and the few remaining are spoken only by a few people, usually elders. Teaching them in college is seen not only as a way to preserve dying languages but also to share the culture they reflect, she said.
Thursday, May 26, 2005
Found in
translation
By Joe Burns/ jburns@cnc.com
The first time that Jessie "Little Doe" Baird heard her native language spoken is when it came out of her mouth.
"We haven't had any speakers of our language for six generations," says Baird, a member of the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe who has made it her mission to return the Wampanoag tongue to her tribe. Her journey began a dozen years ago with a recurring dream.
"I had visions and dreams of people that looked like my family but weren't people that I knew. They were talking to me and I didn't know what they were saying," Baird says.
One day while driving along Route 28 in Falmouth she saw a street sign with the Wampanoag word Sippewissett. Misspelled and mispronounced Wampanoag words such as Matacheese, Cotuit, Santuit, Poponesset and Sippewissett are common on the Cape. But this time this word connected with Baird on a subliminal level.
"When I read it, it dawned on me. I think those are Wampanoag people talking to me and I think it's Wampanoag [that they're speaking]," Baird says.
That realization set Baird on a course to revive a language that hadn't been spoken in 150 years, and return it to her tribe.
"There was prophesy about our language coming back. One of the prophesies that talks about our language coming back is that the ones whose families were there when the circle was broken will be the families that would heal the circle if the community wanted language back," Baird says.
"My job basically was to go and ask the people of our nation if they wanted to welcome our language back into the community. I was promised that if they did, I would have all the help that I needed."
Baird contacted an elder from the Aquinnah Wampanoag tribe on Martha's Vineyard to see if there'd be any interest there. The response was: "I've been thinking about this for years."
Encouraged, Baird polled members of both communities and again the answer was positive.
"Nobody said 'I'm not interested,'" Baird says. "In a tribal community, that's a huge feat to get a consensus on anything immediately."
Wampanoag is one of 33 languages in the Algonquin language family and has two dialects - Mainland and Island. And with the blessing of both communities Baird went about learning the language of her ancestors. "At the time I didn't know anything about Wampanoag [language]. I didn't know anything about the Algonquian language family. I didn't know anything about linguistics," Baird says.
Taking a leave of absence from her job, Baird immersed herself in her studies, eventually earning a master's degree in linguistics from MIT. Through her research she discovered a rich written legacy from which she could draw.
"I started looking around and lo and behold I found that the Wampanoag language is the first American Indian language on this continent to have a writing system," Baird says. "At a certain period in the 17th century there were more Wampanoag people that were literate in Wampanoag than there were English people in written English."
Even the first Bible set to print on this continent was written in Wampanoag, Baird says. "People recorded everything from personal letters to diaries and transactions."
Learning to decipher these documents gave Baird and her community insight into their history. "I got to see what position my family took on different matters hundreds of years ago. I got to see where some of our traditional behaviors come from learning the language. Reading from these native written diaries and letters, there were some really horrific things that took place around here."
There was no standardized spelling at the time. But the variety of spellings proved helpful to Baird in trying to determine the sound of the words. "It can eliminate what consonants or vowels should not be present," Baird explains. She also could look to similarities in Wampanoag and in other Algonquin languages that are still spoken.
"There are four types of languages in the family. If you're not sure of the sound of a particular item all you have to do is look at the pronunciation of these sister languages.
A language is returned
"When I started there was no regularized spelling system. We have that now. We had no dictionary. We now have a 10,000-word dictionary," says Baird, who has created a curriculum through trial and error and taught the language to more than 100 members of her community in Mashpee and Martha's Vineyard.
"What we're trying to do is get everybody at a conversational level so that they can have an everyday conversation with each other," Baird says.
Instruction is limited to members of the Wampanoag tribe.
"A lot of the elders felt that this is something that's ours and it's no less precious and important to us than our land. And it's one thing that we can probably have to ourselves if we're careful," Baird says. "It's great source of pride. People don't feel like they've lost every single thing we had."
That pride can be seen in how the language is once again becoming part of the community.
"It's typical now that children are named traditional Wampanoag names. Our language is being used for ceremony again, in poetry," says Baird, who has recently been asked to assist the Mashantucket Pequot of Connecticut in restoring its language.
"I've helped other tribes too. For the Pequot I'm going to help them reorganize their grassroots effort and help them develop a short term and long term community fluency plan," Baird says.
"I think that I was actually born to do this. This is for my community circle. This is just what I'm supposed to be doing," says Baird, who will see the Wampanoag prophesy realized when her daughter Mae Alice Weekanashq, whose Wampanoag name means sweet grass, starts to talk.
"We haven't had a living native speaker until my 10-month-old daughter," Baird says. "She will be a native speaker because when we're home together during the day, that's all she gets."
May 30, 2005
Taking root
ULUPALAKUA – Hawaiian family members long separated from their roots returned home Saturday in an emotional reunion that many thought might never happen.
Eight alani seedlings went back to the Auwahi forest, taking their place in the shadow of their only known ancestor living in the wild.
“This is where they’re supposed to be,” said a proud Martha Vockrodt Moran, caretaker of the tree that produced the seeds, as she watched another plant go from pot to posterity. “It’s so great that they’re going home.”
The story of the alani – a native Hawaiian tree that once flourished on the back flank of Haleakala – has become yet another piece of the ongoing miracle at Auwahi, the dryland forest that was all but dead five years ago. With its dwindling collection of rare trees reaching old age and unable to reproduce in a landscape made hostile by cattle, kikuyu grass and fire, the native forest was fading away.
Since it was man who unwittingly led to the downfall of the forest, it seemed only right that it was men – and a whole lot of women, too – whose exhaustive efforts have brought a strand of it back, restoring hope for the land and the Native Hawaiian people whose culture centers on the sights, the sounds, the smells and the very spirit of the forest.
“In a Western sort of thinking, man has dominions over nature,” said Kalei Tsuha, the kumu whose family led the chants and prayers that welcomed back the alani. “In the Hawaiian perspective, we are one and the same. As Hawaiians, we need to have contact with the forest and the forest needs to have contact with us.”
Until a year ago, there was the very real possibility that contact with the alani would become a thing of the past. Biologists were aware of only two left – one in the wild at Auwahi on Ulupalakua Ranch and the other in the arboretum started by Moran’s grandfather, the renowned agronomist D.T. Fleming. Even worse, both were ailing and appeared to have lost their capability for producing viable seeds.
But Moran was determined to carry on the legacy of her grandfather who had collected the alani from Auwahi 50 years ago and planted it in his arboretum at nearby Puu Mahoe along with other plants that he feared were nearing extinction.
Alani were once prolific at Auwahi, where they grew to 30 or 40 feet tall and developed trunks a foot in diameter. Formerly known as “Pelea” for Pele, the goddess of Hawaiian volcanoes, the leaves release a fragrance similar to oranges and were used to scent kapa. The bark was used for medicine.
Calling herself “only a gardener,” Moran knew she needed help to save her tree, so she assembled a crack team that made Saturday’s homecoming possible: Makawao arborist Ernie Rezents, who diagnosed the tree’s disease and prescribed the cure; Nellie Sugii, a researcher at Lyons Arboretum on Oahu, whose experiments led to germination; and expert growers Anna Palomino, Richard Nakagawa, and Dan and Noah Judson, all of Maui, who produced the eight seedlings.
Meanwhile, Auwahi, with the permission of ranch executives Pardee and Sumner Erdman, was being readied for its return by tireless biologist Art Medeiros and his crack team of volunteers who have spent the last eight years fencing, weeding, digging, propagating, planting and willing the land back to life. After successfully restoring one 10-acre enclosure, they have fenced off another 20 acres that includes an old lava channel where the last alani was struggling to survive.
“When it gets cloudy here, it’s like you’re in a cathedral,” said Bob Mikell, one of the volunteers who has given up weekend after weekend to see Auwahi revived. “Everyone here is really possessive of this place. It’s part of their body and part of their spirit.”
The feeling of family was in the forest air as the plants were unloaded from four-wheel drive vehicles that traveled as far as they could, and then the plants were carried by hand the rest of the treacherous way across loose rocks and tangles of weeds. As the alani were going home, Moran couldn’t help but think of her grandfather on the afternoon that he went to Auwahi and gathered the alani that would become the mother to this new generation. Also thinking back was Mahealani Kaiaokamalie, seventh generation of his ohana to live in the area. Kaiaokamalie’s grandfather, William Ainoa Kaiaokamalie, saw the forest collapse in his lifetime. When famed botanist John Rock, who once described Auwahi as one of the top two dryland forests in Hawaii, returned in the 1960s to see it again, he asked the elder Kaiaokamalie to lead the way. As the men came upon the forest near death, Rock broke down and wept.
Mahealani Kaiaokamalie, who has spent much of his adult life restoring native ecosystems, wondered what his grandfather – and other ancestors – would be thinking at the scene below.
“I can only imagine they’re looking down and saying ’mahalo,’ ” said Kaiaokamalie. “My family has always been private, but I think they would be proud that somebody from their genealogy is here today. That’s all I live for – to make them proud.”
It was a day when pride seemed to ooze from the ground. Once the holes were dug, they were checked and rechecked to make sure they were deep enough (but not too deep) and wide enough (but not too wide).
Finally, with the holes deemed ready for occupancy, Kalei Tsuha and her family – husband, Mark, and daughters, Kawai and Joanna – called for silence as the crowd gathered around the single ancestor alani left in the wild. Holding the keiki up to the kupuna tree, Kalei Tsuha summoned the forest gods in a chant of celebration and introduced the young alani to the old one while reuniting a larger ohana.
“The forest is the greater kuahu (altar),” Tsuha said earlier. “The kuahu is where the gods dwell. For Hawaiians, those are our ancestors. Since we’re losing them, we’re losing ourselves.”
But on this afternoon, the ancestors – and their living descendants – got a boost and made contact. Moran was even startled to see how different the alani seedlings looked once they were sprung from their pots and had settled into their beds of rich volcanic soil.
“They seem to have gotten bigger by just getting into the ground,” she said with joy.
After years on the brink of extinction, the alani were back where they belong. They were home with the ancestors.
Valerie Monson can be reached at vmonson@mauinews.com.
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