Donkey ball lives. We missed this good news from an AP story earlier this month out of Moravia, Iowa. When the donkeys came to Moravia, a town of 680, 600 people paid to see the game.

Donkey basketball was invented in the 1930s. The game is played 4 on 4 as local celebs (elected officials, school teachers, maybe even a newspaper publisher) mount imported donkeys and play a game of hoops. Sometimes the donkeys cooperate, but mostly they don't, which is where the fun begins. There are squads of donkeys roaming from one small town to another. Mostly, the donkey games are held as fundraisers. The Moravia event pulled in $2,300 to help pay for a summer trip by the high school band.

There are inevitable calls by animal rights activists to end donkey ball. The donkeys are "confused," said one PETA spokesperson. (Our memory of donkey ball is that it's the people who are the most perplexed.) "We're just a bunch of good ol' boys and farmers down here in rural Iowa, so we're not too worried about PETA," said Angela Stufflebeam, who organized the Moravia event. "I'm more worried about the guys on the donkeys."

A designer comes back to her native rural region and marshals the skills of textile workers into an industry that's à la mode.

 Generations ago, banishment of offending members was the ultimate in tribal justice. The traditional practice of banishment among tribes has been revived recently and has been used effectively in dealing with modern day criminals. For tribal members living on the reservation, banishment means loss of access to basic services or political representation and for some tribes, loss of per capita payments. Banishment is akin to a jail sentence but in some cases,the practice leads to permanent disenrollment from the tribe.

Per capita payments, usually offered among gaming tribes, are often relatively small sums, such as $500.00 per year. But for residents of hardscrabble reservations with little or no jobs, every penny counts. Only a handful of gaming tribes are able to offer their membership the whopping $5k or more per month, stories of which are so often portrayed in the mainstream media.

Many in Indian Country allege that banishment and disenrollment are sometimes being used as political tools by tribal leadership to silence opposing voices within the community.  Some also say that these practices are the results of plain old human greed. Since the ability for American Indian tribes to determine their own membership is such an essential element of tribal sovereignty, banished or disenrolled members have little recourse.  A recent U. S. District Court decision in Washington State, however, is presenting a viable challenge to this practice. Judge James Robart ruled that the under the Indian Civil Rights Act,  the Snoqualmie Tribe failed to follow due process in banishing nine of its members.

Carolyn Lubenau told the SnoValleyStar, “Banishment is a horrible, evil punishment.” Lubenau, who was tribal council vice chair before her banishment hopes to help other American Indians who have been banished from their tribes.

Only 20 of the nearly 300 native languages originally spoken in America are spoken today by Native youth.
According to Ryan Wilson, Oglala Lakota, President of the National Alliance to Save Native Languages, indigenous languages are sacred and vital to the cultural survival of Native peoples.

Leaders in then Native language revitalization movement are convening in Washington D. C. this week at the National Museum of the American Indian. Participants also plan to meet for a briefing session on Capital Hill at the Senate Indian Affairs Committee Hearing Room. The session will be followed by visits to their congressional delegations to share information about supporting Native language systems through the Ester Martinez Native Languages Preservation Act.

In a statement to the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, Wilson reported that Indian students who attend language immersion schools routinely out perform their counterparts attending English-only schools.  Students also display lower drop out rates, disciplinary problems, substance abuse and lower rates of truancy.  These problems are epidemic for Native youth, especially those living on reservations.