As Redskins’ struggles drag on, so does court challenge to name

WashPo:  As Redskins’ struggles drag on, so does court challenge to name

 

Back in 1992, Washington reigned as Super Bowl champs with high hopes for two in a row under coach Joe Gibbs. That year, a Native American resident of the District, Suzan Harjo, became the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit seeking to change the team’s disparaging name: Redskins. As the legal battle over the name enters its 20th year, let’s review some highlights of a struggle in which moral victories by the plaintiffs often coincided with demoralizing losses by the team on the field — including dashed hopes of winning another Super Bowl.

ICT: Yankton Sioux Student First in Tribe to Earn a Physics Degree

 

Charee Peters wasn’t expecting to break any barriers when she made the decision to change her major from theater to physics while an undergraduate student at the University of Denver, but that’s exactly what she did. When she was handed that bachelor’s degree in 2011, she became the first member of the Yankton Sioux Tribe to earn a degree in physics.

 

NPR: For Some Tribes, New Year's Foods Provide A Sacred Link To The Past

 

Around the world last night, revelers marked the start of the new year. But in the Northwest corner of the U.S., some Native American tribes began their celebrations early. On Dec. 20, just before the winter solstice, tribes in Eastern Oregon held a ceremony called kimtee inmewit, a welcoming of the new foods. "This goes back to when the world was new. The first food that was created was the salmon — we call it nusux," says Armand Minthorn, the spiritual leader of the tribes that live on the Umatilla Reservation, on the dry side of Oregon. Minthorn explains that Indian New Year is the time to celebrate the return of the sacred foods.

 

AP: Alaska village to vote on school relocation

 

Voters in one of Alaska's most storm-eroded coastal villages will decide next week whether to build a new school seven miles away — a project one local official believes could hasten efforts to relocate the crumbling community. Janet Mitchell, Kivalina's city administrator, said a yes vote Tuesday also could speed construction of a long-desired road that would provide economic development and better access for subsistence hunters in the Inupiat Eskimo village. Kivalina is a traditional Inupiat Eskimo community of more than 400 people 625 miles northwest of Anchorage. It is built on an 8-mile barrier reef between the Kivalina River and Chukchi Sea, and is reachable only by boat or plane, and, in winter, also by snowmobile.