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Youth + Camp + Culture

Today our lives are like a scrabble game. We are divvied out our individual pieces with which we will play the game. The game board is universal (the land). Our job is to create our own words and our own concepts. That was what we did recently when we responded to the request of a… »

Thaxtuuy—Baby Basket

The basket for swaddling babies differs in form from baby baskets in other regions. Cradleboards are common throughout North America. In northwestern California the baby carriers are woven using fine straight sticks (the term used interchangeably for the hazel withes and the willow sticks). The shape is a sort of trapezoidal container, open weaved most… »

Descended From the Mediocre

Tonight’s PBS news coverage on the dismal economy in Greece elicited a very interesting response from one economist. He felt that the incredibly prestigious ancestry of all Greeks is somehow an impediment to being able to buckle under and do what the International Monetary Fund or the European Union. He said he wished that his… »

Native American Punditry

Native American Punditry
By Julian Lang
Personally Friday evenings are special for the punditry on Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). I rarely watch the Sunday morning talking head programs for many reasons (we are not cable or satellite people). Besides that, on Sundays I prefer to go to my life drawing class at the local arts organization, the… »

What It Be?

I can only say that our future will consist of the young people we make. Mean People Suck has always been the basis of my philosophy for the future. Mean People Suck and Nice People Have Problems is probably a give away for the discussion. However, it is in my opinion that we, the People,… »

Shtink Talk

Here’s a little quiz /challenge/example for the more advanced students of the Karuk language. It’s a little conversation. See if you can translate it! Send me your translations by sending me a Comment.
Yíthavan is Speaker One. Áxakavan is Speaker Two.
Fâat Úum Pay?

Yíthavan: Fâat úum pay?
Áxakavan: Íim pu’aapúnmutihum?
Y: Hãa, puraharíxay uum tanimah.
A: Uum chínim.
Y: Ayú’… »

Let Them Be Heard

Discovered a new speaker last week. The speaker is, Mettah, a young feller who is descended locally from Karuk, Hupa, Yurok and Tolowa peoples as well as Apache and Yaqui tribal folks from the southwest.
He has quite a vocabulary in the Karuk and the Yurok languages already. I thought I’d test the waters with… »

Ayukîi–Welcome!

Welcome to the first days of the new Institute of Native Knowledge website using WordPress. We’ve chosen WP because we think it will provide the added oomph needed to maintain a website that provides interactive website features. Our language pages are intended to be a two-way street–not talking but at least… »