The Daily Oklahoman du lieu suivant : Oklahoma City, Oklahoma • 2

FROM PAGE 1A THE OKLAHOMAN NEWS0K.COM 2A SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2015 Culture: 'We really want our children to know the history' Far left and left: Sisters Isabella and Gabby Cornell, wearing their native regalia, and their mother, Sarah Adams-Cornell. Right: Dana Sternloff Campbell, in her native regalia. Below: Randi Sunray 'it Below: A selection of medals won by runner Dana Sternloff Campbell in her hundreds of races. PHOTOS BY DOUG HOKE, THE OKLAHOMAN she said. Her mother had always encouraged her to do her best at anything she ever tried.

"I would come home with a baton and want to do baton twirling. She would just crack up," Sternloff Campbell said. "But running, she could see that it was something natural for me to do. I just remember entering my first race and her encouraging me and saying, 'Just have fun, don't worry about winning the race. Just go out there have a good Sternloff Campbell remembers her mother was always in a hurry.

She respected and honored her mother greatly and when her mother asked her to do something, she never refused. "So when she would say, 'Go run to the store to get a bag of bread or groceries' or whatever, I literally would run," Sternloff Campbell said. If her mom needed the TV Guide, she would run for it. If her mother asked her to run for anything, she ran. To date, Sternloff Campbell has run hundreds of races and never takes her passion and ability for running for granted.

"Anything can change at any moment," she said. "Just like losing my mother. I could've been sad and I could've been angry. I just grew up and I said, want to help SEE CULTURE, PAGE 3A dents. Among other findings, Cornell found it disturbing that the report noted indigenous students are disciplined at much higher rates than students of other ethnicities for the same infractions, especially among girls, she said.

Bella recently was quoted in a Huffing -ton Post article, in which she stated that her history teacher, while lecturing about Columbus, called indigenous peoples "vicious, violent vermin." The teacher also allegedly said the natives were cannibals. Later, Bella was bullied by some classmates who called her a cannibal, Cornell said. From the article: "This is direct bullying, but nothing can be done about it because that's what the teacher said," Bella told government officials in November 2014. "So my sister, mother, and I came into the school and presented on the actual history of Columbus. We shouldn't have to do this.

The teacher should know the correct history." "We know that some of these things happened, but it's not all native people," Sarah Adams -Cornell said. "We need more information, accurate information on Native American people in general." She wants people to be aware of negative images society portrays of Indians. "We're talking about mascots. We're talking about Land Run re-enactments. Things that impact our children," she said.

"One philosophy with the Native American culture is that when we make decisions, we think to the seventh generation how will this impact people seven generations from today?" she said. "It changes your focus. It changes what's important, and you get to deeper issues. That's something that's very important to FROM PAGE 1A Indian and Alaska Native residents. Oklahoma, however, has a significant population of Indians about 12 percent of the nearly 4 million Oklahomans identify as either American Indian only or a combination with another ethnicity.

The median age for Indians in Oklahoma is 29.3. About 32 percent of Indians are under age 18. For white, non-Hispanics, the median age is 41.5, and about 24 percent of the total population is under 18, according to the National Congress of American Indians. With these large numbers of American Indian youth, many native elders, matriarchs and patriarchs are working to educate younger generations about their heritage. Museums, history centers such as Cherokee Heritage Center in Tahlequah, Chickasaw Cultural Center in Sulphur, Five Civilized Tribes Museum in Muskogee and events like the Red Earth Art Center and Festival in Oklahoma City help keep traditions and history alive.

However, tribal identity often is nurtured and grown within families and communities. So, often, women are the keepers of heritage and tradition within their families. In honor of Native American Heritage Month, The Oklahoman reached out to American Indian readers to learn how they keep their culture strong in their homes and communities. Here are some of their stories: Moved to action Sarah Adams -Cornell and her daughters, Isabella and Gabby, strive to make big changes for the indigenous community. Adams -Cornell makes sure her children are educated on the good and the bad history their people endured.

She makes no qualms explaining the genocide she says Indians experienced through colonization. She wants them to understand that American Indians, on the whole, live under the poverty line and that their children experience high rates of suicide, high school dropout, teen pregnancy and other societal illnesses. "The Choctaw Nation was actually deemed a promise zone by President Obama because of these very issues," Adams -Cornell said. The promise zone, however, is merely a designation to be at the top of the list for federal grants. There is no actual money behind it.

Adams -Cornell is fired up about the rejection of the Indigenous Peoples Day measure. It's incomprehensible to her why any council member should vote against it. "They see us as tokens," she said. "They'll use us for tourist dollars. "That's something that our native community will continue to work on," she said.

Adams -Cornell has helped arrange a grassroots campaign to install Indigenous Peoples Day, both statewide and nationally. She said rejection of a statewide measure spurred more American Indians in Oklahoma to register to vote and hold their elected representatives accountable for decisions regarding their people. Ongoing information about the campaign can be found at the group's Face-book page, Indigenous Peoples' Day OKC. Isabella "Bella," 14, and Gabby, 9, are highly motivated by their mother's activism. Both are quoted in a report released in October by the White House on the state of American Indian and Indigenous Alaskan stu- We thought long and hard about them," Sunray said.

Sunray works for the Chickasaw Nation as director of its Family Resource Center. She helped create Kiowakids. net, a website rich with history and language geared to provide a vehicle for Kiowa children to learn the language. In conjunction with Sam Noble Museum and the Endangered Language Fund, Sunray also helped published a children's book, "Saynday Kiowa Indian Children's Stories," which tells historical stories passed down from her grandmother to her and her family. The book is available at Kiowakids.net.

"As our elders pass away, (there) comes a loss of that cultural knowl esting to hear our children speak," she said. Keeping her family's names alive is important to Sunray. Her daughter's name is Niigan Zhaa Daa Yekwaa Giizhig, or "Going forward to the end of the sky." It's an Ojibwe name. The 14-year-old goes by Niigan. Her oldest son is Tdo-hasan, which is Kiowa for "Little Bluff." The 10 -year-old goes by Tdoha.

Her middle son, 7, is Kowi, Choctaw for "Panther," andher4-year-old son is Undain, a Kiowa name meaning "people of royalty." "For us as a family, we wanted to reconnect our children to their tribal culture in a way of naming them because it's powerful. Names are powerful. edge, so we try to engage with my mother daily and ask questions," she said. "We really want our children to know the history of the people and that they descend from and to know that they have an entire tribal community that will support and encourage them in any endeavors they do." Running in honor Dana Sternloff Campbell honors her Pawnee heritage by doing what she does best running. "My mother passed away at the young age of 38, and it was really tough.

It was a tough time and I felt really alone," she recalls. Culturally, being American Indian, it just felt natural to take up running, OUR PURPOSE STATEMENT Amid an ever changing world, one uplifted by achievement yet rife with disappointment, we create a brand new suite of products every day with an overriding principle in mind: We are Oklahomans. Our goal is to help make our state a better place to live, work and raise a family. We strive to create real value for our customers and advertisers by: 1. Serving as the fabric of our communities and their various interests.

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Power in names Randi Sunray's Indian name is Ahaun Tone Gope. In English, the name trans -lates to "Struck across the forehead with a hatchet by the enemy." The Kiowa woman, who was named for an ancestor chief, was given her Indian name by her grandmother. That Ahaun literally was struck across the forehead with a hatchet by the enemy in a battle with the Sioux, Sunray said. He lived. His attacker wasn't so fortunate.

A historical illustration by ethnographer George Catlin depicts Ahaun. Unlike the most men of the time, the chief has bangs. Sunray and her family wonder if the bangs were to hide his scar. In Sunray's home, her children and husband commonly speak the Kiowa and Choctaw languages of their lineage. "Sometimes, there's a blending of the two.

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