Commissioner's Speeches

Commissioner Stamps Keynotes the Generations United Opening Plenary

July 26, 2007, Commissioner Stamps delivered the following speech during the opening plenary of the Generations United 14th International Conference in Washington, DC.  The plenary session highlighted the importance of intergenerational communication of traditions, beliefs, rituals and language within the Native American culture.  The session opened with a performance by Waki and the Little Thunder Dance Troupe from South Dakota.  Dr. Carole Locust and Regina Siquieros joined the Commissioner on the panel, chaired by Dr. Valerie Kuehne.

Remarks of Quanah Crossland Stamps, Commissioner:

Thank you Valerie, for your very generous introduction.  Thank you also to the Waki and the Little Thunder Dance Troupe for your beautiful performance this morning – what a great way to begin our day!

I am honored to be participating in your 14th International Conference and to be part of this opening plenary session to highlight the importance of intergenerational communication of traditions, beliefs, rituals and language within the Native American culture.  I am also honored to be part of this panel with Dr. Carol Locust and Regina Siquieros.  My role today is to talk about the Administration for Native Americans and the importance of intergenerational activities in the funding of our projects.  Dr. Locust will be discussing Native American culture, celebrations and lifestyles.  And Regina will tell you about the successful storytelling project she implemented in her community.

I am the Commissioner of the Administration for Native Americans – or ANA.  ANA is a Program Office under the Administration for Children and Families in the Department of Health and Human Services. 

ANA’s mission is to promote the goal of economic and social self sufficiency through 3 competitive discretionary grant programs to eligible Native Americans including American Indians, Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians, and Native populations in American Samoa, Guam, and the Northern Mariana islands.

For a community to be self-sufficient, it must have access to, control of, and coordination of services and programs that safeguard the health, well-being, and cultures of the people.  ANA projects are designed, planned, and implemented by Native communities.  ANA’s role is not only to fund community based projects, but to also provide training and technical assistance that builds community capacity so they can develop and implement projects that make a difference in the lives of our children, youth and elders.  This empowering approach to development, allows communities to take control of opportunities to address their needs and generates creativity far beyond what we at ANA may be able to dream up.  Equally important, community involvement and local partnerships promote sustainable projects that will continue on long after ANA funding for the project has been completed.

Too often discussions about Native Americans focus on the challenges faced by our people, rather than the strengths and wealth of our communities.  I think it is important to begin all conversations with a reflection on our strengths.  We are a community that is organized, informed, active, business savvy, and we have committed leaders.  We have culture and traditions, we are self-governed, we have traditional languages, and we have history.

We are surrounded by and we have a deep appreciation for the land.  We control waterways, coastal areas, fishing and water rights and we hold the last large land reserves in the continental United States.

But beyond these assets and the beauty that surrounds us, the true wealth of our communities is our people.  We are resilient as a community.  We are a culture that values people, togetherness, family, volunteerism, and relationships.  We respect and cherish our elders and we value the role they play in passing our culture and traditions forward to the next generations… our youth, who will be tomorrow’s leaders. 

Generations United shares these values.  Their work is about improving the lives of children, youth, and the elderly through an understanding of the relationship between the generations.  This is accomplished by creating and supporting collaborations between the generations and providing a forum to explore areas of common ground.

Intergenerational activities bring individuals of different ages together, as partners, to explore, study, and work toward a shared goal.  These activities provide learning experiences, foster cooperation among generations, and enable culture and traditions to be passed from one generation to the next.

ANA has a strong history in promoting intergenerational activity and includes among its performance goals an annual outcome to increase the number of intergenerational projects in Native communities.  Historically, our grandparents have always been closely involved in the lives of their grandchildren.  Many of the challenges facing our Native communities today are the result of the breakdown in our traditional culture.  ANA values intergenerational interactions because they simultaneously transmit tradition and culture while building strong families and communities. 

Let me tell you how ANA does this…  ANA provides funding in three areas:  Social and Economic Development, Language Preservation, and Environmental Regulatory Enhancement.

Intergenerational projects are a natural fit in ANA’s Native Language Preservation and Maintenance program.  This program grew out of recognition that Native people must have the opportunity to preserve their culture.  Without our language, we do not have a distinctive culture. 

In the early days of the United States there were more than 300 Native languages spoken.  Currently there are approximately 175 languages spoken.  The remaining languages are classified as deteriorating and are near extinction.  We are acutely aware of the passing of elders who are sometimes the sole speakers of a language, elders who may be the last persons in a tribe or Native community who can share the moment of enrichment that comes when something can be given its proper name and understood from the heart. 

Language projects are a perfect vehicle to establish intergenerational activity.  Some of our current projects include:

• The Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation in the northwest corner of Kansas has partnered with the Bay Mills Community College in Brimley, Michigan to create an immersion program.  Presently, there are very few Tribal elders who are fluent in the language.  These elders are engaged in teaching individuals with mid-level fluency, who will go on to become certified language teachers.  This is a beautiful example of an ANA project engaging elders in passing-on language and maintaining the important connection to the Potawatomi culture.
  
  
• The Waadookodaading Charter School in Wisconsin is expanding intergenerational language learning through family language classes, seasonal feasts and other immersion sessions, involving young children, parents, grandparents, and elders.
  
  
• Last month, I visited the Salish Kootenai College in Montana – what an inspirational intergenerational project!  The project is located in the College Library’s basement where elders, young adults, children, and even a few infants work together every day to develop a Salish curriculum.  During my visit, I sang along to a song about colors written by a 3rd grader and participated in a lesson taught by a fluent elder.  The group has so much fun while they learn together - passing culture and traditions forward.  The Program Director, Joshua Brown, so eloquently stated “We all have something to learn from each other and we all have something to teach.”

These are just a few of dozens of innovative and successful ANA language projects.  Many of our projects partner with Head Start centers where elders are invited to interact with children through storytelling.  Storytelling is an important part of our culture because most of our history and teaching is still oral.  Through stories, elders pass our traditions and history to our youth.

Most of these projects are intergenerational and provide a vehicle to not only preserve Native languages, but to also sustain culture and tradition, because culture cannot be divorced from language.  There has been a recent resurgence to save and revive Native languages, because without our languages, we will lose our distinct culture.

In addition to ANA’s language program, ANA supports many projects in the Social and Economic Development Strategies (SEDS) program area that bridge the generational divide, bringing together youth and elders to promote and preserve Native cultures.

• Last year, I had the pleasure to visit the canoe restoration work site of the Healani Canoe Project in Hawaii.  This project preserves culture by bringing elders and youth together through the restoration of two koa canoes.  An ancient Hawaiian cultural tradition is revived and a vital connection that Native Hawaiians have between the land and the sea is restored.  Each morning, the elders start by telling stories to the youth in Hawaiian.  The project includes the training and mentoring of 50 Hawaiian youth and includes a cultural component that focuses on genealogy and tradition.  During my visit, three young men introduced themselves and their lineage in Hawaiian.  It was beautiful to watch these healthy young men work beside and take direction from their elders.
  
  
• The Lodge Pole District Community Development Corporation is involving children, youth, families, and elders in a project to reintroduce the youth and families of the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation to the almost lost tradition of the ‘horse culture.’  Participants become familiar with the horse, learning how to care for a horse, and learning skills that will improve their employment opportunities.  The elders are relating the history and cultural value of the horse to the Nakoda people through story telling and workshops.
  
• One of my favorite ANA intergenerational projects is with the National Society for American Indian Elderly (NSAIE).  NSAIE is developing a traditional Native American cookbook, based upon interviews with Native elders across Indian Country and Alaska.  Young AmeriCorps Volunteers are engaged in conducting the interviews.  Upon completion the cookbook will be published and distributed by a national publisher and profits will be reinvested into Native elder programs.  The book goes well beyond “favorite recipes” by describing how traditional food is grown and raised, how it is collected, and finally how it is prepared.  The project is already increasing the quality of life for seniors and youth alike through intergenerational interaction and the elders’ knowledge that their gifts will be passed on to future generations.

 
This is a sampling of the variety of intergenerational projects that ANA supports.  There are projects with youth helping elders with chores, or teaching them computer basics, there are projects where elders mentor youth, and projects where youth and adults work to improve the natural environment.  Projects can entail youth serving elders, elders serving youth, and youth and elders serving the community at-large together.

I certainly cannot leave you today without mentioning one of the most important and prevalent intergenerational issues in Native communities…grandparents raising grandchildren.

Large numbers of Native children are being raised by grandparents due to many different factors.  Some Indian tribes estimate up to 60% of their children are being raised by their grandparents.  As I mentioned earlier, Native grandparents have traditionally played a major role in the lives of their grandchildren.  Today, their roles are often shifting to become one of the primary caregivers.   

Native communities are fortunate to have grandparents willing to step in and provide care and create a home for our grandchildren.  This willingness enables the grandchildren to remain in the Native community, whereas otherwise they may be housed in Non-Native foster care.  Grandparents raising grandchildren in Native communities often times lack support and access to resources.  This year, ANA is partnering with the Corporation for National and Community Service and the Administration on Aging to implement Volunteer Stations on Reservations to provide support and resources to grandparents in need.

Despite what most people think is a hardship, the grandchildren are greatly benefiting from living with their grandparents.  Grandparents provide a stable family and install traditional cultural values and customs in the home.  A strong sense of cultural identity greatly impacts their ability to overcome the challenges they will meet as adults.

As our people raise the youth that will become tomorrow’s leaders, it is critical that our children have a strong sense of their history and culture.  Through intergenerational exchange youth develop a sense of pride in their culture, in their history, in their traditional language, and form a confident identity.  ANA encourages intergenerational activities in all of our projects because it is important that we recognize and respect our past, and move forward with hope, love and strong families.

To have healthy communities, we must have healthy families.  Through your work, together, we can partner across the generations, breaking down barriers of isolation and improving the overall wellness of our communities.  I want to thank each of you for all that you do to improve the lives of children and families in our communities.  And thank you, again, Donna Butts and Brent Elrod for the honor and opportunity to be part of your conference.

Commissioner Stamps Keynotes at the Sixth National Conference on Service in Indian Communities

On December 6, 2006, Commissioner Stamps gave a Keynote speech at the Corporation for National and Community Service’s Sixth National Conference on Service in Indian Communities in Sparks, Nevada.  The conference was designed to unite and reinforce Tribes, Service Programs, and Partners in their work to strengthen communities. 

Commissioner Stamps discussed ANA’s partnership with the Indian Health Service and the Corporation to fund Community Emergency Response Training (CERT) and First Responder Training for the three Tribal Civilian Community Corps (TCCC) at Hoopa, the Navajo Nation and the Tanana Chiefs of Alaska.  In fiscal year 2005, 220 youth in the TCCC program completed CERT Training.  This year, 304 additional youth were trained; that is a 38% increase since last year. 

The Commissioner recognized the Hoopa TCCC for their response in January to a devastating flood.  The TCCC and AmeriCorps volunteers delivered bottled water and wood to those in need with special focus on the elderly.  Volunteers worked through the night to dig-out the water purification system to restore the water to Hoopa Valley.  Hoopa’s successful handling of this emergency opened doors at the state level and throughout Native communities in Northern California.  “TERT Teams,” Tribal Emergency Response Training, have been created based on the CERT concept that exists at Hoopa.  FEMA officials were so impressed that they have begun emphasizing the TERT Team concept to all Emergency Management Directors of the Northern California Tribes.

ANA encourages all project grantees to use AmeriCorps and VISTA Volunteers.  In Hawaii, nine AmeriCorps volunteers are working on the Island of Molokai to complete a Reef Restoration Project.  These volunteers are energetic and having a great time while they restore a damaged underwater reef that feeds and houses some of the most incredible and unique fish. 

Another ANA project that incorporates AmeriCorps Volunteers is the Red Lake Tribal Youth Initiative.  Dozens of youth have been recruited to help with childcare, mentoring of young children in Head Start and Elementary School, and to provide transportation services.  These volunteers are also being trained in CERT and have participated in disaster drills.

The National Society for American Indian Elderly (NSAIE) is collecting and archiving traditional food recipes for publication in a traditional American Indian Cookbook.  Their project entitled “Knowledge Preservation Project” has 35 member Tribes and Tribal organizations participating with 19 VISTA volunteers working to provide services to more than 20,000 American Indian Elders.  VISTA Volunteers are talking with seniors to gather and document some of their favorite cultural recipes.  The information collected goes beyond a simple recipe of listing ingredients and quantities, and includes information on how to process a particular corn meal, how to grow, harvest and process special herbs, fruits and seeds.  The money earned from the sale of these cookbooks will go back into programs that provide services to our elders.

In her closing, Commissioner Stamps stated, “In my opinion, you all have the best jobs!  You work daily with our leaders of tomorrow, and you have the opportunity to mentor and shape their experiences and perspectives.”  She shared the following quote from Lance Secretan,

“Leadership is not so much about technique and methods as it is about opening the heart.  Leadership is about inspiration of oneself and of others.  Great leadership is about human experiences, not processes.  Leadership is not a formula or a program, it is a human activity that comes from the heart and considers the hearts of others.  It is an attitude, not a routine.”

Volunteers of all ages serve as examples of leadership to all of us.  As Directors of these programs, you share your leadership skills, creativity, optimism, and knowledge with passionate volunteers.  These experiences and synergy will stay with the volunteers long past their service. 

Commissioner Stamps announced ANA’s Methamphetamine Initiative.  The effects of methamphetamine abuse have a great impact on our families and communities.  Grandparents have to step-in to raise our children fulltime because some parents are succumbing to addiction.  Meth is challenging the foundation of our families because it often leads to abuse, family violence and sometimes death.  A workshop was held during the Conference to brainstorm community responses to meth abuse.  ANA is working with a variety of experts in state, local, tribal and non-profit organizations to come up with projects that will be supportive of community efforts. 

Commissioner Stamps gave a Keynote Speech at the First National Native American Fatherhood Conference

On November 14, 2006, Commissioner Stamps gave a Keynote speech at the First National Native American Fatherhood Conference hosted by the Native American Fatherhood and Family Association (NAFFA).  NAFFA has created a successful program entitled Fatherhood is Sacred to provide community services to fathers.  Approximately 1900 participants have been through the program, the youngest 13 and the oldest 75.  The skills NAFFA teaches include: why fatherhood is sacred; how to build character and integrity; serving others and contributing to society; understanding the power of wise choices; gaining practical skills in parenting, relationships choices and social judgment; developing the skills to be a responsible and nurturing father; and strengthening identity through understanding Native American heritage. 

ANA supports and fosters strong Native American families and healthy communities.  One of the program areas of interest under Social and Economic Development Strategies (SEDS) is projects to strengthen the bond between fathers and children.  Studies demonstrate that children whose fathers are in the home do better in school, are less likely to be depressed, and are more successful in relationships with other children.  Furthermore, boys living in a home with their fathers are less likely to be involved in crime and fathers living with their families are more likely to be employed.  A child’s self image is affected by how loving their fathers are to them and to their mothers.  ANA also funds projects that include approaches to improve child well-being by removing barriers associated with forming healthy marriages, sustaining healthy marriages and strengthening families in Native American communities through the Healthy Marriage Initiative.    

During her speech Commissioner Stamps stated “Fathers factor significantly in the lives of their children.  There is simply no substitute for the love, involvement, and commitment of a responsible father.”  Using the American Heritage Dictionary to define “Father” as “a man who raises a child.” Commissioner Stamps challenged the audience to assume responsibility to love our sons and fathers through the shame and to help them find the path to their own forgiveness.  "In my opinion, it does not matter the age of your father, or the age of the children, all men want to contribute, all men want the love of their family, and all men want to be responsible fathers.”

Currently, ANA has five fatherhood grantees:  Chugachmiut, Greater Minneapolis Council of Churches, Native American Youth and Family Center, Home for Women and Children and Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska.  Activities of these grantees include helping couples become better parents through responsible father involvement and healthy marriage skill building; developing an intervention project to provide urban teen and adult Native American fathers with a supportive, cultural environment to excel at parenting; couple mentoring; and premarital education to youth. 

For more information on NAAFA, go to:  http://nativeamericanfathers.org/

Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement (CNHA) Conference Comments Delivered by Robin Danner, President and CEO of CNHA, on Behalf of Commissioner Stamps

Aloha! Thank you for inviting me to be part of your Annual Conference. My regret is that I cannot be with you in person this year, but Robin Danner has graciously agreed to express my greetings and share with you ANA's recent FY2006 grant awards for the Pacific Region. Let me begin by congratulating the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement for all your wonderful success in such a relatively short period of time. As you celebrate your 5th anniversary, we are reminded of your unique dedication and hard work that has empowered communities in Hawaii and the Pacific Basin.

Before we announce the FY2006 ANA grant awards, I would like to share a little about my site visits and the Native Hawaiian projects I had the pleasure to visit last month. My first site visit was with Kapi'olani Barber, Executive Director of the Nanakuli Housing Corporation, and her dynamic staff. Their ANA project was to turn an abandoned Navy training center into classrooms so they could teach self-help home improvement classes for people living on Native Hawaiian homesteads. Part of the project also included a “material re-use center” on the site of a decommissioned military installation. The Nanakuli Housing Corporation uses this site to store and distribute home repair products and appliances such as refrigerators, washer and dryers to Native Hawaiian families. During my visit, Kapi'olani introduced me to several families that participated in the project. The families described their joy of learning new skills and they bragged about making repairs to their own homes. It was exciting to see how the classes gave them a new sense of “self-empowerment”….so far, 40 families have participated in the self-help classes and the Nanakuli Housing Corporation is doing an outstanding job making a difference in the lives of Native Hawaiians!!

My second site visit was with the Hana Community Health Center and the Hana Fresh Farm on Maui. I had the chance to visit with Executive Director Cheryl Vasconcellos, the Board of Directors for Hana Community Health Center, and with the creative and committed young staff that make it all work! This is a very unique project. Not only is it an outstanding example of how a community can revitalize an agricultural economic base, they also provide sustainable jobs and training opportunities while focusing on preventative medicine, using farm fresh food to promote good nutrition and a healthy lifestyle. What an inspiring and creative group of people the folks are that work and manage the Hana Community Health Center and HANA Fresh Farm!!

My third visit was with the Healani Canoe Club to see a canoe restoration project. I met with Master Canoe Builder Uncle Bobby, Rosie Lum, Aunty Ala, and several youth participants. The Healani Canoe Project is preserving culture by bringing elders and youth together to revive an ancient Hawaiian cultural tradition and to restore a vital connection that Native Hawaiians have with the land and the sea. The project includes training to restore two koa canoes and a youth mentoring component focusing on genealogy and tradition. There are 50 youth participating in this project and they are definitely inspiring young people, as well as our future leaders of tomorrow!! Uncle Bobby, Rosie Lum, and Aunty Ala you have done a wonderful job with these kids and you have implemented a very meaningful project!

My final visit was to the Papakolea Community Center, where I met with Paul Richards, the Executive Director of the State Council of Hawaiian Homestead Association and Puni Kekauoha, Executive Director of the Papakolea Community Development Corporation. I toured the digitization center and spoke with the young people that completed the “document digitization” training and were hired for “IT” positions with Hawaiian Homestead Technology. The participants couldn't say enough about the training and how much their new jobs have changed their outlook and life. This is really an outstanding business model.

With those wonderful projects as a lead in – Let me share a few ANA statistics regarding this year's grant competitions. This year:

• ANA had a demand for $108 Million dollars in project funding.
• ANA approved the largest number of project continuations in its history.
• ANA funded 120 projects for continuation totaling $23.8 Million in funding.
• Almost 10% of all applications received by ANA this year came from Hawaii and the Pacific Region.
• 8% of all ANA grants funded this year were from the Pacific Region.
• Of course, the Pacific Region has quite a few of these continuation projects. In fact, current ANA grant projects in American Samoa, Guam, Hawaii, and the Northern Mariana Islands total $4.5 million.

Today we will be announcing an additional $5.2 million in new grant awards to seven (7) Native organizations. So, beginning here in Hawaii, the awardees are:

• Hui Malama O Mo'omomi
  • The project is titled – “Care For and Eat From.” This is a 1-year award for $150,000 for a marine conservation project that will assist Native Hawaiian communities dependent on subsistent fisheries.
    
• Keiki O Ka Aina Family Learning Center
  • The project title is – “To Grow That Which is Planted.” This is also a 1-year award for $200,000 to establish a cultural and educational learning center for low to moderate income Native Hawaiian families on O'ahu. This project will focus on traditional Native Hawaiian agriculture and aquaculture by establishing a garden of Native medicinal plants and flowers and an aquaculture system for Native fish and shrimp.
    
• The Native Hawaiian Tourism & Hospitality Association
  • The project is titled - “Shaping the Future of Tourism; Expanding Economic Opportunities for Native Hawaiians.” This is a 3-year award for $872,000 to develop an authentic cultural sensitivity training curriculum for executives and employees in the O'ahu tourist industry. This pilot project will train and employ 25 Native Hawaiians.
    
• Na Kamalei-ko'olauloa Early Education Program
  • The project name is - “The Children of Ko'olauloa.” This is a 3-year award for $1,062,000, to increase the quality of the learning environment for Native Hawaiian children with special needs. The project will develop children's books and cultural curriculum, to train teachers & staff about embracing and understanding children with special needs.
    
• The Neighborhood Place of Wailuku
  • This is also a 3-year award for $1,149,000, to provide family strengthening, and leadership training programs, with a goal to promote healthy, self-sufficient lifestyles for at-risk Hawaiian families.

In Guam, ANA has awarded 1 grant:

• Pa'a Taotao Tano'
  • The project name is - “Pa'a Taotao Tano' Northern Cultural Performing Arts Project.” This is a 3-year award for $826,000, to provide opportunities for performance artists from the Northern Villages of Dededo and Yigo of Guam. This project will provide the opportunities to showcase the cultural traditions of the Chamorro people through training and performance of their songs, chants, and dances.

In the Northern Marianas, ANA has awarded 1 grant:

• Northern Marianas College
  • The project is titled - “Project Connect: Inter-Island Distance Learning Network.” This is a 3-year award for $900,000 to connect the 3 remote islands of Saipan, Tinian and Rota with reliable and consistent internet communication technology.

My congratulations to each of these grant awardees. These 7 new ANA grant awards brings the current total amount of ANA project funding in the region to $9.7 million. Funding of these projects continue to represent President Bush's goal of self-sufficiency for Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders by providing funding for unique community projects that make a difference in the lives of our children and families.

I would like to share one more thing. ANA is launching a Native Language Preservation Reference Guide, which I know will be of particular interest to all of you. With the daily passing of our elders, we are losing the sole speakers of our Native languages. In so doing, we lose our ability to identify something by its proper name and to understand the meaning of things from the heart. This Reference Guide does not have the power to restore a declining language, but it can assist Native people everywhere on how to preserve and revitalize their languages. It offers practical advice on what to preserve and how to catalog. It includes helpful interviews with curators of large collections and it will assist in the preservation of irreplaceable treasures.

This wonderful Reference Guide is available on CD and can be ordered by going to the ANA's web site and looking under “What's New.” ANA is making this available at no charge to help Native communities plan, collect, catalog, and begin a language preservation and revitalization program. I wanted to share this wonderful new resource with you because the Native people of Hawaii and other communities of the Pacific Basin appreciate the importance of preserving our Native languages. WE ALL KNOW that the Native Hawaiians have led the movement and leaders such as Senator Inouye remind us often that when we lose our languages, we lose our distinct cultures.

Thank you all for your time. I look forward to seeing you next year!!

Sincerely,

Quanah Crossland Stamps

Commissioner, ANA