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Education & Culture (Josi Willcox) - Graduation is Friday, the 10th at the school. It's going to be a barbeque/potluck, just as in past years, and we invite everyone to come and share in the celebration with us. It starts at 11AM and will end around 2 or 2:30 so mark the date on your calendars! If you'd like to bring a dish to share, please contact Tina or Natalie at 745-0793. Tsin'aen and hope to see you there!
Culture Camp begins June 12th and goes until the 17th in Tazlina. We are in need of cash donations for food items, as all meals are communal and we are expecting over 75 attendees. This is the 10th year for Culture Camp and it is a drug and alcohol free family camp, connecting children, youth and adults to their language and traditions. If you'd like to donate or attend, contact Kari Shaginoff at 745-0722 or Josi Willcox at 745-0793.
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Health & Social Services (Dorothy Boatright) - If any Elders are planning to go to the Ya Ne Dah Ah School graduation on June 10th and need a ride, call me at 745-0704. I will be going to Graduation and can pick up several Elders.
Elders' Lunch was held at the CVTC Building with 35 Elders, staff, guests, and community members present. We had a taste of first season baked red salmon caught on the Copper River by Jess Lanman. Thank you, Jess, for your generous donation. It was delicious! Alma Blum brought in a collection of artifacts that includes birch baskets, woven baskets, tools, ornaments, arrowheads, pottery and miscellaneous painted items. Everyone enjoyed looking at the Native artwork. We also celebrated the James twins first birthday. Crystal brought in a carrot cake to share with the Elders, and we all joined in singing "Happy Birthday". Albert Harrison played his guitar and he and Alma sang some oldies, but goodies. Everyone enjoyed visiting and socializing.
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The Chickaloon News (Patricia Wade) - I'm in North Charleston, South Carolina attending the National River Rally 2011. It's warm, humid and beautiful for my first venture to this part of the country. The days and evenings have been full of learning and meeting wonderful people who sincerely care about the Earth and Water. It's such a refreshing feeling to be surrounded by those types. I'll have a report in the next mini as we will still be going strong until Monday evening. I very much appreciate this opportunity.
Here's my report about telling Ya Ne Dah Ah stories at "Wonder in the Woods at Wilani" near Veneta in Southern Oregon.For some unknown reason, both Cousin Jan and I were unable to sleep well Monday night. Maybe it was because we knew we had to get up early Tuesday morning and head south. My alarm went off at 7AM just as Jan called; saying she finally got up at 6AM after waking up every hour on the hour, and she had our lunch fixed and was ready to go. I got ready, and headed out to pick her up. We stopped in Oregon City for a fancy coffee and began the 130+ mile trek to Camp Wilani. Rain was pouring down and whenever I neared a big truck, it was really hard to see.
Finally we drove out of the rain and saw a few rays of sunshine as we traveled through Eugene out into the woods. We parked by a fence and started our hike up and down the hills till we found the tipis seeing a beautiful little deer along the way. The road was muddy and slippery and it was a bit chillier than we dressed for, but we made it to our storytelling spot. Trying so hard to not be late, we got there an hour early, so we sat on a couple of stumps to rest.
We looked at the list of "2011 Clans." The kids got to create their own names. Here are some that had us chuckling. Albino Squirrel, Ugly Short Beaver, Tree Fungus, Crazy Frog and Big Guppy.
Finally noontime rolled around and kids started pouring into the tipi. I had my laptop set up so I could show Dimi's illustrations while I shared our ancient Ahtna legends. There were two sets of kids, and they were tough crowds as some of them wanted to talk and would blurt out a word or two during the stories. It's good for me to have to stay on track and ignore the interruptions so they get the hint to stay quiet. Both kids and grownups enjoyed the stories.
During the last hour we heard a noisy truck drive by in those quiet woods. Later we were told it was a logging truck and when we left to walk back down the muddy road, we could still smell the toxic exhaust fumes from that truck. Jan mentioned the poor greenery that had to clean those poisonous fumes from the air. It really did ruin the ambience of the camp type experience, and I appreciated once again my family and friends who are working so hard to prevent coal mining and dirty trucking in our beautiful forests.
Afterwards we stopped at Our Daily Bread, an old church turned into a restaurant with homemade bread and soup. It was another grand adventure.
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Tribal Department of Transportation (Marilyn Staggs) - Have you checked the air pressure in your tires lately? As the summer heats up, so do your tires, and the inflation may not remain at the optimum pounds for each tire. This will affect your gas mileage! It could affect your life! From 2005 - 2009 nearly 3,400 people died and an estimated 116,000 were injured in neglected tire-related crashes.
Please check the tire pressure in your vehicle as soon as possible to ensure your best gas mileage, best summer of fun and your lifetime of smiles. Maintain proper tire pressure, particularly in hot weather; observe tire and vehicle load limits - DON'T overload your vehicle, etc. Have a safe summer and wonderful trips!
The Transportation Department is still awaiting the completion of this year's funding from the Federal Highway Administration. Until this funding is received, we can do little in the way of construction on Todd's Road. (We are planning to complete at least enough additional roadway that the Housing Department can easily work on a new building.)
We are beginning to review and rewrite the Long Range Transportation Plan. It can be located on our website (www.chickaloon.org) under the Transportation Department, (LRTP) in approximately the center of the page. Please help us by reading it and forwarding ideas for other transportation types, projects, or corrections you would like to see, etc. Anything you want to forward would be appreciated! Please send it to Marilyn@chickaloon.org, or call (907) 745-0854.
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Accounting (Ingrid Ling) - Welcome Paul Babusio, he was hired as a laborer/ heavy equipment operator.
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