Leap Year and Minding the Gap

It happens relatively rarely in a lifetime, this date that adjusts for the inaccuracies in our calendar.  I can’t help but take comfort in the reminder that human ingenuity requires human fallibility. Dine (Navajo) weavers, Yakama beadworkers, Appalachian quilters sometimes become so good at their crafts that they purposefully place mistakes in their work.  It’s an act of humility, recognition that nothing humanly constructed can be perfect.  Most of us don’t need… Read More

Grandmothers on Fathers’ Day

Two American Indian men stand together.  The Elder is Wyandotte and Choctaw of the Mississippi Valley; the younger is Walla Walla of the Columbia River.  They are of two generations and they are friends.  The men chat with one another during a break in a graduate class of mostly non-Indian students.  The students are preparing to be teachers and counselors and taking this course on contemporary Native American life. The older man… Read More

“I can’t do this alone.”

       “Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, can transform the world.”       Howard Zinn        Last night in the State of the Union Address, President Obama said these five words.  “I can’t do this alone.”  He said many notable things.  Two in particular match well with what many of the people who make up the 100 voices of EX:Change were saying this time last year. The public officials elected by… Read More