SPECIAL GRANT PROGRAMS


Special Programs Introduction | Learning Support Center (LSC) | Native Games | Native Culinary Arts


NATIVE GAMES SUMMER CAMP

Introduction | Spirituality | Physical Fitness | Games

"Ceremony for Life" Kara Honanie (Hopi)

July 7-11, 2003

This summer IAIA hosted a summer camp for the youth of Intermountain Youth the week of July 7-11. Workshops were held on agriculture and herbs, traditional games, archery and traditional methods of bow-making and flint napping.

The group would gather at the Audubon Center of Santa Fe where Instructor Tomas Enos would give workshops on planting and herbology. The students were exposed traditional ways of planting sustainable plants native to the area including corn, squashes, peppers and herbs. Tomas took them on short excursions around the Audubon center and identified several useful plants growing naturally along the path.

The youth would engage in different activities centered around games. The facilitating adults would instruct on the meaning, history and significance of traditional games and the protocols involved. The students were exposed and actually got to play a number of traditional stick games including shinney and a traditional form of field hockey.

In addition to these games, members of Jemez pueblo and a Norman Brascoupe, a Canadian Indian married into the Tesuque Pueblo gave demonstrations on traditional bow-making, flint napping, arrow making and archery. The youth were exposed to traditional ideologies about hunting and honor, respect for the earth and its creatures and the pride in quality craftsmanship of ones own tools. The also got the opportunity to try basic archery using bows, arrows, and 3-d targets provided by IAIA.

Through out the camp, the guest specialists and myself worked into our demonstrations and discussions the topics of respect, honor, honesty, integrity, wellness and sobriety as well as the idea of making health choices and looking at our ethnic backgrounds as native peoples as a resource. We did this through traditional storytelling and team-building exercises geared towards disarming the youth so that we could present our message to them.

All the native members of the facilitating team, spoke of their experiences through life of the relevance of their heritage, tradition, spirituality and culture. We were able to present these youth with an opportunity to see, interact and engage with real, healthy, native role models. Being on the grounds of IAIA, at the Hogan, and through the use of the traditional games and agriculture as a vehicle, we had an opportunity to reach these youth during their detention and affect positive change in them.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact:
John Eagle Day: Instructor