Clutching to a culture: Arapaho reinvigorate tribe (fwd)

Sun Sep 11 19:20:24 UTC 2005

September 11, 2005

Clutching to a culture: Arapaho reinvigorate tribe

Associated Press
http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?id=1&display=rednews/2005/09/11/build/wyoming/25-arapaho-tribe.inc

ETHETE, Wyo. - Two lines of women sit facing each other, hidden from the
afternoon sun under a tent canopy behind the Wind River Tribal College.

The hands of four of the women swing back and forth in time with beating
drums, fists closed. Each woman hides a small stick in one of her hands.
It is up to a player from the opposing team to guess where the sticks
are hidden, earning points for her team in a traditional Arapaho hand
game called koxouhtiit.

About 100 yards away, under another canopy, Arapaho adults step in a
circle as drums echo off the stone of the old mission building nearby.
They are learning traditional social dances, or nii'eihii ho'eii.

The games and social dances are not everyday activities for the Arapaho
people living on the Wind River Indian Reservation, but they once were.
Traditions as simple as games and dances, as integral as the Arapaho
language and religion, have fallen by the wayside in recent decades.
Some tribal leaders, however, are working to return such knowledge to
their people.

Last month, the college hosted a three-day immersion language camp for
adults, teaching not only language, but also elements of religion and
culture.

"We teach on the protocol of the religion, the history of the tribe,
wellness and health the way it used to be compared to now," said Eugene
Ridgely, bilingual education coordinator for the college. "This
afternoon, we get into traditional games, then some social dancing."

Most participants won't walk away with more than a few words of Arapaho.
But more important, some will gain a spark of interest in their culture,
perhaps taking advantage of language classes offered at the college or
of other cultural renewal activities sponsored on the reservation.

The quest is about more than protecting a dying language and culture.
It's about turning to the ways of the past to correct some of the
modern challenges facing the Arapaho people.

"If we had retained the language like we should have, the family
structure would still be strong," said Zona Moss, Ridgely's secretary.
"It lies within the language, within the culture."

Ardeline Spotted Elk, a great-grandmother who has spent her life on the
reservation, spent the three days teaching about kinship, or
neito'eino', traditions in the tribe. Weeks earlier, she shared her
memories of growing up and of how the world has changed in her
lifetime.

"We lived in real old cabins with dirt roofs and floors. We had to get
water from the river. We had kerosene lamps. Everything was gravel,"
she said. "We learned Arapaho. We never spoke English until we went to
school at St. Michael's (Mission).

"It was a real nice, real enjoyable life. We just enjoyed our lives.
There was no alcohol, no drugs; we just lived a real peaceful life. The
way it is now is a real terrible life."

Not everyone on the reservation agrees that life has changed so
negatively, but some differences are indisputable, even if it's hard to
pinpoint just how extreme the reservation's social and economic problems
are.

The Wind River Indian Reservation makes up a big piece of Wyoming's
Fremont County, though most of the county's population is white.
Fremont County consistently has the highest unemployment rate in
Wyoming, and unemployment is even higher among American Indian workers,
according to the 2000 census.

Kathy Vann, who heads the University of Wyoming Cooperative Extension
Service office in Ethete, said many men lacked the education necessary
to get the few high-paying jobs on the reservation. Most are forced to
choose between travel-intensive work in the region's oil fields or
staying home with their families.

"I find that a lot of mothers work, and fathers, it's harder for me to
find jobs than for women because there aren't that many jobs," she
said. "Men have to go to the biggest employer, the oil fields, where
they work seven (days) on, seven off."

Even with some men working the oil rigs and making good money, families
in Fremont County tend to bring home considerably less income than
those in other parts of the state, making poverty a stark reality for
reservation families.

Many families turn to grandparents for help; American Indian
grandparents are more likely than any other demographic group to live
in the same households with their grandchildren.

In Vann's family, for example, her ironworker sons gave up traveling
throughout the West for work, and one's family moved in with her.

"My (surrogate son) moved out of his mother's house and couldn't make it
financially, so he moved back in, along with his wife and three kids,"
she said.

"My sons got tired of living in hotels. I don't know if they thought
about getting their own place. They probably did, but didn't see why,"
she said with a laugh.

A shortage of housing on the reservation has left some families on
waiting lists for generations.

Vann said she believed some children were being raised by their
grandparents because of rampant teen pregnancy and a culture of drug
and alcohol abuse by parents. Residents of the reservation say
alcoholism remains a chronic problem and methamphetamine use is on the
rise.

"Meth around here is getting crazy," said Margo Williams, who with
husband Brian is raising seven children in a blended family.

But while the numbers are somewhat worse on the reservation, many
Arapaho people said the problems aren't limited to the reservation.

"I don't know if it has anything to do with the situation on the
reservation," Vann said. "I think, statewide, a lot of communities are
like that. It reflects what's going on in Wyoming."

The difference is that, in a community as small and tight-knit as the
reservation, such issues hit every home.

And on the reservation, people are looking to different kinds of
solutions: those from the past.

The Wind River Indian Reservation has several programs to combat its
social troubles, including the Indian Health Service Center, Bureau of
Indian Affairs Social Services and an Intergenerational Family Resource
Help Center.

Schools work with these agencies to provide services for children, and
Arapaho language is part of the curriculum at Wyoming Indian
elementary, junior high and high schools, though tribal elder William
"Icky-John" C'Hair said it's given too little time in the school day.
He wants to see a new immersion preschool program grow, introducing the
language to 3- and 4-year-olds, whose linguistic abilities are the most
ripe, and following them through their academic careers.

This fall, Arapaho Charter High School will open near the town of
Arapahoe. Designed to combat high dropout rates among reservation
students, the school will focus on Arapaho language, culture and values
and will use more hands-on and individual teaching styles to keep teens
interested in education.

The Arapaho Council of Elders also works to educate tribal members about
traditional skills, from radio personality Big Joe's daily Arapaho
language lessons to subsidized courses in language and nearly lost
skills such as meat cutting.

It's not just about history or identity, C'Hair said. He said the
Arapaho language and culture provide a lifestyle guide that can help
stem the tide of social challenges.

"We believe, we firmly do believe, that the language was a gift from our
Creator. As such, it is sacred to us," C'Hair said. "Without it, we
cannot exist in the manner the Creator intended for us."