Elijah's Bath

Canyon Day

Here's a view of Canyon Day that I took with friends after hiking up the Nighttime Pass. The large building with the blue roof is Canyon Day Junior High and the houses to the left is my neighborhood.

Photos from the Rez

Lock-In

Here I sit, bleary eyed, a big mug of coffee in front of me, at 9 a.m. on a Saturday morning for Saturday School. Not such an ungodly hour, but last night was (what I'm considering labelling in the newsletter and yearbook) the First Annual Canyon Day Junior High Lock-In.

As far as I know, it went off without any major problems. Around fifty kids showed up between seven and eight last night, and they were locked in until seven this morning. I volunteered early (pre-the coordinator's motivational speech to the teachers), so I got the 7-10 shift. But because the coordinator and my fellow Language Arts teacher and friend was suffering from a fever, his girlfriend and I walked back here at one and hung out for about an hour and a half, making sure everything was okay while he went home to get at least a bit of a cat nap.

The fact that the lock in was a success bodes well for our school, and I think I will write an article for the Apache Scout (a local newsletter) to congratulate student council on a successful and fun lock-in. Even the chaperones had fun. There was a country dance (I had an eighth grader ask me to dance and did! Haha!), movies, games, enough pizza to feed everyone three times over, and an open gym (many of the kids played basketball for about six hours straight). If (and I wasn't there for the whole thing, but I'm guessing this is the case) no one got caught smoking glass or pot (there were quite a few pot busts this week), drinking, or having sex...well, it'll just prove that our kids are great and improve the opinion that our school is a nice, safe place to be.

I felt a strong desire to be here with the kids, because of something I found out yesterday that underscores how rough life is here for most of them. Last night, I was talking about it with the counselor and she said, "You know, I believe it was the Quakers who were one of the first to say not to give alcohol to Indians, that it was alcohol that would finish them off. But it's not alcohol. It's meth."

Film Makers Visit CDJH

Yesterday, I had Dyanna Taylor visit my class, briefly. She's a cinematographer who shot "Homeland: Four Portraits of Native Action," "The Missing," and most recently, "North Country." For "North Country," she worked with Niki Caro, the writer of the screen play and director of the film adaptation of Whale Rider.

Our students finished reading the novel recently (many secretly weepy-eyed in their books) and are now watching the film. Taylor stood in the back of my classroom, beaming to see the students watching this film (She repeatedly stated what a great film it is.). She didn't stay long enough to talk to my class or much to me (I think she had to rush off to an unexpected shoot), but today I found out that she's going to try to get Niki Caro to come in! And she seems to think that Niki Caro would love to visit us!

How awesome would that be?

Not to mention the connection to Dyanna Taylor herself. It would be cool to show part of "Homeland" to the students and have her come in and talk about the filming of the movie and her job as a camera operator/cinematogropher and life in the movie biz. We could also discuss the theme of native action and ways that it is necessary right here on this rez: What problems need attention here? (So many.)

The Ropemaker

For fantasy lovers, I highly recommend this extremely creative and intelligently put-together novel, The Ropemaker by Peter Dickinson.

Tilja is heartbroken when she learns that she does not possess any magic abilities, which are passed down from generation to generation in the female line of her family. Those who inherit these abilities stay on the family homestead and sing to the cedars in the snow, listening to the voices of the forest, and keeping the magic that protects their people from the Empire alive and strong.
But when that magic starts to fade, Tilja is chosen, despite her inability to hear the voices, to go on a quest to find the one man who can help save the people of the valley. And it turns out that her inability to sense and perform magic is an extraordinary power in and of itself.

This novel was shortlisted for the Whitbread and won the Printz Honor in 2002. Recommended for grades 7-10.

The Grass Dancer

The Grass Dancer by Susan Power had me mesmerized from first page to last. I swooped the book up from one of my best readers, a girl who stuck with this 300-plus-page novel and spoke highly of it in her soft-spoken way.

The Grass Dancer's narrative about the Dakota Sioux works in a circle, going backwards and then moving forwards in time so that it ends where it starts, with Harley Wind Soldier. Yet, just as the circle, in many American Indian cultures, is symbolic of the life cycle, the characters in this cyclical narrative change, grow, learn, love, live, die. In fact, it was hard for me, while reading, to imagine that the many characters were merely characters. I kept waiting to find Mercury Thunder working some sinister magic over me or searching for Harley Wind Soldier's grandmother on the moon or wondering what Herod Small War would say about my dreams.

I highly recommend this novel for eighth grade and beyond. It is a beautifully woven piece of literature.

My Hero

Here's an article written by little Cody, one of my personal heroes. We got to hang out together at Saturday School. We'd try to do work, but before we knew it, we were talking again.

Me: Okay, we need to try to get some of our work done!
(30 seconds of work)
Cody: Ms. L, who are your naughtiest students?
Me: I don't think I ought to tell you that.
Cody: Do you have so-and-so? Is so-and-so naughty?

Or...

Cody: Ms. L, what's your favorite movie?
(Discussion about favorite movies, and then...)
Cody: I'm not getting any work done. Stop distracting me!

Safety Concerns

Only 9 more days left before the winter break, and I'm supposed to give a lesson on drug and alcohol awareness and safety. Not only am I wondering when I'll have time, I'm also wondering what I have to offer these kids in a district where 20 high-school girls were raped one year over winter break; where junior-high boys were found naked in a ditch, after having been drugged and raped; and where a little girl was sleeping on her roof rather than in her house to protect herself from the dangers that were going on indoors.

What do I say? Keep your drink with you at all times? Have an escape route?

I think I'm going to have the kids write a journal entry about these concerns and issues, and then the next day, I'll lead a discussion about the possible situations that scare them and how they can be avoided or prevented. It's about all I feel qualified for here.