Building Healthy, Sustainable American Indian Communities

International Conference Building Healthy, Sustainable American Indian Communities B U I L D I N G H E A LT H Y, S U S TA I N A B L E A M E R I C A N I N D I A N C O M M U N I T I E S

EDUCATION • HEALTH • ENERGY

AGRICULTURE • CULTURAL PRESERVATION Friday, September 25, to Sunday, September 27, 2009 Maharishi University of Management, Fairfield, Iowa At the forefront of building healthy, sustainable American Indian communities

H O S T S A N D PA R T I C I PA N T S

Hocak Elders Council, Inc. National Council of American Indians (NCAI) Indian Health Services (IHS) National Indian Education Association (NIEA) Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) Winnebago Tribal Health Services (WTHS) Winnebago Treaty Hospital – IHS David Lynch Foundation

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B U I L D I N G H E A LT H Y, S U S TA I N A B L E A M E R I C A N I N D I A N C O M M U N I T I E S

5-Point Plan for Health and Sustainability

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EDUCATION Improving academic achievement and reducing stress and violence among American Indian youth HEALTH Preventing and treating diabetes, cardiovascular disease, substance abuse, and depression among American Indians

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ENERGY Promoting energy and economic self-sufficiency for American Indians through wind and solar technologies AGRICULTURE Creating food and economic self sufficiency for American Indians through organic farming CULTURAL PRESERVATION AND RESTORATION Safeguarding the land, language, and spiritual traditions of American Indians

Developed by the Ho-Chunk Elders Advisory Council (HEAC) and Hocak Elders Council, Inc. (HECI) Warner Earth HECI/HEAC Betty Earth HECI/HEAC Donald “Bucky” Pilcher HECI/HEAC Niki Solomon HECI/HEAC Edward Logan HECI/HEAC Harold Cleveland HEAC Morgan Earth HECI/HEAC

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B U I L D I N G H E A LT H Y, S U S TA I N A B L E A M E R I C A N I N D I A N C O M M U N I T I E S

Your program initiatives for health, education, renewable energy and sustainable communities resonate with our mission.

“American Indians are the true custodians of our land.”

American Indians are the true custodians of our land. You’ve assembled a panel of prominent experts to examine and share your innovative and highly effective approaches; approaches which are in harmony with nature’s laws and with Native American cultural practices.

• Your programs and methodology have significant impact for dramatically improving academic performance, and reducing the stress and violence that permeate impoverished Indian and non-Indian communities.

PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON’S OPENING ADDRESS A SPECIAL VIDEOTAPED ADDRESS TO THE CONFERENCE

Thank you for the opportunity to address the Hocak Elders’

“International Conference on Building Sustainable American Indian Communities.”

When I left the White House, I started the Clinton Foundation to address the global issues I cared most about in areas where I knew I could still make an impact. We’re now working in 40 countries to end the HIV/AIDS epidemic, to stop global climate change, to promote economic development and opportunity worldwide, and to halt the childhood obesity epidemic in the United States.

• Your work has prevented and actually reversed the onslaught of Diabetes, which strikes up to 80 percent of Native Peoples.

• You’ve generated clean energy and economic self-sufficiency for American Indians by harnessing nature’s wind and solar resources.

• You’ve provided healthy, nutritious food and economic self-sufficiency for American Indians through the establishment of organic agricultural greenhouses.

• And finally, you’ve safeguarded the precious land, language, and culture of American tribal communities, for they are truly the foundation for systemic change.

“Thank you for all you do to bring change for healthy, sustainable, peaceful communities worldwide.”

I congratulate the Hocak Elders Council, Inc. of the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska for developing and bringing forth a comprehensive and timely plan. And I congratulate the Hocak Elders Council, Inc. for already taking necessary steps to put the plan in place. Your programs are replicable, and they’ll have a global impact.

Thank you for all you do to bring change for healthy, sustainable, peaceful communities worldwide. It’s now my pleasure to hand the conference back to its leader, Prosper Waukon.

Thank you. I look forward to working with you in the future.

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PROGRAM SCHEDULE

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 25 Evening Session • Dalby Hall: 7:30 pm to 9:00 pm OPENING INVOCATION Warner Earth Spiritual Elder, Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska, member of the Hocak Elders Council, Inc. WELCOMING REMARKS President Bill Clinton Special videotaped message for the Conference Joe A. Garcia President, National Congress of American Indians Prosper Waukon A hereditary leader–Thunderbird Clan, Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska John Hagelin, Ph.D. President, David Lynch Foundation SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 26 Morning Session • Dalby Hall: 9:30 am to 12:15 pm EDUCATION Improving academic achievement and promoting health and reducing stress Issues Robert Cook President, National Indian Education Association Lucille Echohawk Strategic analyst, Casey Family Program Kathy Campbell Education Specialist, Bureau of Indian Education Solutions Patricia Dunn Co-director, Quiet Time Program, Winnebago Public School John Boncheff Co-director, Quiet Time Program, Winnebago Public School John Blackhawk Chairman, Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska, School Board Chairman of the Winnebago Tribe Sandy Nidich, Ph.D. Education Project Researcher, MUM Research Institute Break HEALTH Preventing and treating diabetes and cardiovascular disease Issues Marietta Martin Program Development of Health and Human Services, Tohono O’odham Nation Lucille Echohawk Strategic analyst, Casey Family Program Cathy Wilson Director, Healthy Heart Project, Tohono O’odham Nation Sheri Moore CEO, Winnebago Treaty Hospital Solutions Sudah Shaheb, M.D. International specialist in endocrinology and metabolism; diabetes educator with Indian Health Services in affiliation with the Tribal Health Services in Winnebago Ahmed Mohammed, M.D. Chief Medical Officer, Winnebago Indian Hospital, Indian Health Services Cathleen Wilson Director, Healthy Heart Project, Tohono O’odham Nation Pat Medina Tribal Health Services Director, Winnebago Tribe Carolyn King, Ph.D. Diabetes Project Researcher, Maharishi University of Management Research Institute Afternoon Session • Dalby Hall: 1:30 pm to 5:30 pm ENERGY Promoting energy self-sufficiency Issues Donald “Bucky” Pilcher Coordinator, Wind Energy Initiative, Winnebago Reservation

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Solutions Tom Factor President, GVP, Inc.; Director, American Indian Energy Initiatives, David Lynch Foundation Ted Weisman President, Beta Corporation AGRICULTURE Creating food and economic self-sufficiency Issues Carl Jorgensen CEO and President, Purely Organics Inc. Steve McLaskey Director, Maharishi University of Management Organic Farm Steve Nichols Executive Vice President, Soil Technologies Solutions Warner Earth Spiritual Elder, Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska; Coordinator, Organic Greenhouse Initiative, Winnebago Reservation Morgan Earth Ho-Chunk Elders Advisory Council Vern Smith Tribal Council Member, Winnebago Tribe Break CULTURE Promoting cultural preservation and restoration Issues Juanita Homer Director, Behavioral Services, Tohono O’odham Nation Joe Garcia President, National Congress of American Indians Solutions Warner Earth Spiritual Elder, Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska; Coordinator Donald “Bucky” Pilcher Formal Tribal Chair, Sac and Fox Nation, Kansas; Coordinator, Wind Energy Initiative, Winnebago Reservation Morgan Earth Ho-Chunk Elders Advisory Council Ed Logan Ho-Chunk Elders Advisory Council Betty Earth Ho-Chunk Elders Advisory Council Tekahnawiiaks Policy Analyst, Mohawk Council of Akwesasne Evening Session • Golden Dome: 8:00 pm to 10:00 pm DEGREE AWARDS Maharishi University of Management Awarding the Degree of Doctor of Natural Law Honoris Causa STOLCEL WASNEC First Nation Straits Salish People of the Saanich Peninsula, British Columbia, Canada EVENING CELEBRATION “Cultural Preservation” Enjoy the traditional performances of song and dance by members of the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 27 Morning Session • Dalby Hall: 9:30 am to 11:30 am TAKING ACTION Implementation and funding initiatives Conference speakers host breakout workshops and funding sessions for the Education, Health, Energy, Agriculture, and Cultural Preservation and Restoration initiatives GREEN UNIVERSITY CAMPUS TOUR Tour the Center for Brain, Consciousness, and Cognition, Sustainable Living Center, NIH-funded Institute of Natural Medicine and Prevention, and the campus community where all new classrooms, administrative offices, and housing are being designed and built to be green, sustainable, and in harmony with natural law CLOSING BLESSING Warner Earth Spiritual Elder, Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska, member of the Hocak Elders Council, Inc. Lunch and departure

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B U I L D I N G H E A LT H Y, S U S TA I N A B L E A M E R I C A N I N D I A N C O M M U N I T I E S

EDUCATION AN INVITATION

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he Hocak Elders Council, Inc., warmly invites leaders of American Indian tribes and First Nation people throughout the world; custodians of land, language, cultural, and spiritual traditions; foundations and philanthropists; and health care specialists, organic farmers, and renewable energy experts to partner together to implement this practical, proven five-point program to build healthy, sustainable American Indian communities.

The following pages present, in brief, the fundamental principles, programs, and initial achievements of this program in several tribes. For a more comprehensive report, please write the American Indian Initiatives-David Lynch Foundation, Post Office Box 738, Winnebago, NE 68071, email Intiatives@ DavidLynchFoundation.org, or call 866-962-0108.

Challenges: The American Indian population has drop-out rates that are the highest of any group in the United States. It is estimated that up to 50% of American Indian students do not finish high school. The social problems of alcoholism, family break-ups, poverty on reservations, discrimination in nonreservation schools, and stress cause a high rate of absenteeism and eventual withdrawal from school. This perpetuates a cycle of hopelessness, despair and poverty among American Indians.

The Hocak Elders Council, Inc. arranged for the Transcendental Mediation program to be introduced into the Winnebago Public School system in 2006. The David Lynch Foundation has provided funding for these projects for over three years. 259 students in grades six through twelve and 58 adults have learned the technique since then. Data provided by the school has shown significant differences between the students who learned to meditate and the control group of non-meditating students.

When the meditating students first enrolled in the meditation course, they scored more poorly on the Nebraska State tests for reading and mathematics than control group. Since learning to meditate the meditating group has shown dramatic increases in their reading and mathematics comprehension.

The students have increased test scores on state standardized tests by 29%. In addition, the meditating students who performed poorer on these tests, now score higher than the control group on the standardized tests.

The meditating students also average 25% less absenteeism than the control group of non-meditators.

There has also been a dramatic increase in graduation rates at the Winnebago school. The school has had a 30% increase in graduation since the program has been implemented in Winnebago. A neighboring American Indian school has shown no increase in graduation during the same period.

In addition, projects with two other tribes have shown that meditating American Indian students have much better self-esteem and fewer negative incidents when they begin meditating. A high school on the Ogala Sioux reservation at Pine Ridge showed a 23% increase in self-esteem and positive behavior over a two-year period. The students also showed a marked decrease in anxiety and depression during the study.

The Passamaquoddy Tribe of Maine reported a 28% decrease in disciplinary incidents during the first year that the Transcendental Meditation technique was introduced into their high school.

It has now been shown that this meditation can have a dramatic impact wherever it is introduced in Indian Country. Based on these results, there have been many inquiries from other tribes about the possibility of implementing the Quiet Time program that is sponsored by the David Lynch Foundation.

Project Goal: To insure the future enlightenment of Indian Country by creating a new generation of American Indian youth who are graduates who are free of the debilitating effects of depression, anxiety, and low self-esteem.

Project Needs: At least five million dollars a year is needed to bring this program to twenty more schools in Indian Country. This would result in thousands of students gaining these benefits and being productive adults and parents.

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HEALTH

Challenges: Diabetes, heart disease, substance abuse, and alcoholism affect an extraordinary percentage of the American Indian population. American Indians have the highest rate of diabetes of any population in the U.S. They are 250% more likely to suffer from diabetes than any other subgroup in the U.S. Some tribes report that 70% of their population is either pre-diabetic or diabetic.

The Hocak Elders Council, Inc. invited researchers from the Maharishi University of Management Research Institute to work with them in designing and conducting a study that will record changes in health patterns among diabetics in the Winnebago Community. The Council requested the research study after a number of the elders who began practicing the Transcendental Meditation technique noticed extraordinary benefits. Their blood glucose levels entered the target range and stabilized. Both adults and children who began the technique noticed that their symptoms decreased. Those who were being treated with insulin noticed a drop in their need for it. The Elders also noticed normalization of their high blood pressure and found that their mental and physical well-being improved.

Research indicates that the elevated rate of diabetes and other chronic health disorders in the American Indian population is due in part to excessive stress. Both chronic stress and extreme stress are common in reservation communities. Because stress is such an important factor contributing to the high rates of diabetes and complications such as hypertension and cardiovascular disease, stress reduction with the Transcendental Meditation program is expected to improve physical and mental health in the American Indian community. In studies on other populations, this program has proven effective both at lowering the stress level and at reducing the negative effects of stress, including chronic diseases.

We are pleased that the David Lynch Foundation has provided the funds to conduct a small pilot study of the effects of the Transcendental Meditation technique in the Winnebago tribe. Initially, we will teach the technique to 20 diabetic patients. Other funding opportunities are being sought to increase the size of the study and to include family members of the diabetic patients. Our larger goal is first to enroll 400 Winnebago Tribal members in the study and then to expand the project to at least four American Indian Tribes. If the results are as clearly beneficial as the Winnebago Elders observed in their own lives, then this program will become a routine part of government-supported health care for American Indians.

Project Goal: To improve overall health and reduce diabetes, heart disease, and substance abuse through prevention-based, natural medicine.

Project Description: A family-based study of the Transcendental Meditation technique for reducing the symptoms and complications of diabetes Project Budget: $2 million for the Winnebago study. The Indian Health Services, through the Winnebago Treaty Hospital, will contribute $560,000.00 of in-kind services.

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RENEWABLE ENERGY

Project Goal: To create a large-scale commercially viable wind energy center in Indian country and create a model for wind development among the 556 federally recognized and 253 state recognized tribes in the U.S.

Project Description: In conjunction with resources provided by the David Lynch Foundation, The Hocak Elders Council, Inc. plans to implement a community wind turbine to provide energy for the town of Winnebago and a 200 megawatt wind farm to provide economic self-sufficiency for the Tribe.

The community turbine will provide energy directly into the distribution system for the town of Winnebago. The wind farm will sell wholesale energy and green tags to local utilities and to the market.

Problem/Solutions: The residential cost of electricity in the remote rural areas of the Indian nations is a necessity and a hardship. The ability to earn income is limited in a rural community. However, the remote rural nature is an advantage for wind energy.

Opportunity: Plentiful wind and solar energy resources are found on reservation locations. Indian Nations can fulfill their local energy needs and earn significant annual income through the development of renewable energy resources. The key to unlocking their benefits for the Tribes is in the knowledge of the most economic and realizable means of implementation in the context of the unique requirements of reservation land.

Development tasks include: project design, wind analysis, environmental studies, construction studies, electrical engineering, interconnection agreements, financial modeling, power purchase agreements, land easement acquisition, and permitting to meet tribal county, state, and federal requirements.

Implementation tasks include: construction, operation and maintenance of a community turbine and utility-scale wind farm.

On the Winnebago Reservation, the Hocak Elders Council proposes to create a unity of purpose by managing the development and implementation of the project and determining tribal program allocations of profits in cooperation with the Ho-Chunk Tribal Council. The plan will integrate available funding from foundations, federal government grants, loans, tax-credits, and partnerships with private industry.

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ORGANIC AGRICULTURE

Challenges: Indian Country faces significant health challenges in the areas of diabetes, obesity, and hypertension. A major cause of these problems has been the lack of proper nutrition.

For decades, with government agencies mandating their diets, American Indians have had to abandon their traditional eating habits, eat foods unhealthy for their physiologies, and lose touch with the knowledge of their indigenous and traditional foods, which were based on local organic agriculture.

In addition, today many tribes have incomes below the poverty level, and very few businesses are run by tribal members or bring income into the American Indian Communities.

Solutions: The American Indian TM Organic Agriculture Initiative seeks to improve diet and nutrition in American Indian Communities and to create a sustainable economic base that utilizes the nourishment found in the earth. The American Indian tradition is based on maintaining harmony with the elements of nature. Organic agriculture is, therefore, fundamental to the American Indian tradition.

The first agricultural initiative is now under way on five acres of land in Winnebago. Two ninetysix-foot by thirty-foot greenhouses have been erected, with plans for up to eight greenhouses on the property. These greenhouses will provide the basis for a proper diet for all members of the tribe. The organic vegetables grown there will also be helpful in conjunction with the related diabetes research project by improving the diet of those with health issues.

This agricultural initiative has three parts: 1. To provide fresh organic vegetables to the various institutions on reservations, such as the public schools and shelters, the senior centers, and the health facilities. Most tribes have a policy to buy from their own businesses whenever possible. Thus there will be two outcomes from this part of the plan.

First, fresh organic vegetables will be provided to the children of the tribe, to those who are undergoing health treatments, and to the elderly. Second, the sale of these foods will create a firm financial basis for the entire operation.

2. To distribute free produce to all members of the tribe who cannot or do not purchase produce at this time. This again will help provide fresh organic food to all tribe members, thereby improving the health and diet of everyone in the tribe.

3. To devote several greenhouses to traditional Indian vegetables and herbs. The knowledge of these traditional plants is still in the possession of elders throughout Indian Country. Under the direction of the elders of each tribe, the most traditional of the nourishing and healing plants will once again be available to each tribe. In addition, there will be a market throughout America for such plants and herbal remedies. These will be distributed only through the elders of each tribe.

Project Goal: To begin with organic greenhouses for every tribe and then to expand to large organic agricultural businesses on large open acreage. Indian Country should become the provider of the continent’s most natural and most ancient vegetables and herbs and should take the role of providing organic produce for all of the continent. The goal is that each tribe should have a large organic agriculture project.

Project Needs: At least $5 million will be needed to invest in the purchase of land and construction of the greenhouses to begin the project. Each operation will be guided by the elders of each respective tribe. A business plan will be tailored to each tribe that will create a model of self-sufficiency and repayment of any investment.

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AMERICAN INDIAN CULTURAL PRESERVATION AND RESTORATION

“In the history of Indian peoples, parenting was not left to chance.

Through well-defined customs, values, and practices, which were handed from

generation to generation…children, were taught the rights way to do things, how to get along with others, and how to have self-control. Different tribes did this in different ways, but each tribe had very positive values about children that helped keep the group strong…The spiritual beliefs of many tribes helped protect children and are good indicators of just how important children were.

“Before the Europeans came to this country, parenting ways were handed down from generation to generation. These ways were defined by traditions, customs, beliefs, and teachings that go so far back we know little of their origins. …however, European influences changed much of that. Boarding schools interrupted the normal cycle of the child learning…children learned institutional living and learned to be ashamed. These children missed the opportunity to learn Indian parenting, especially when sent to boarding school at the age of three to five until they were eighteen to twenty and without any contact with their extended families.

“Through relocation to urban areas and other government policies the extended family support was sometimes lost. Stories were lost and traditional training and Indian education were replaced by formal education…as Indian people suffered more and more defeat by state and government agencies. Parents were often left stripped of their life ways to pass on. Today, Indian parenting is made harder because of the historical experiences of our Indian nations.”

— “Positive Indian Parenting – Honoring Our Children by Honoring Our Traditions” A Model Indian Parent Training Manual, National Indian Child Welfare Association, Portland Oregon, 1986 – Parry Center for Children

What tribal culture we have left we must preserve. Some of our Indian nations have preserved a lot of their culture while other nations have only remnants of their tribal culture intact. By exploring what we have culturally preserved we began to culturally restore our tribal nation. American Indian Cultural Preservation and Cultural Restoration can be achieved simultaneously. The elders of our Indian nations are destined to be the unifying force that will be instrumental in achieving both.

Each year before elections on our reservations, boards of directors, Indian programs, and in our urban Indian communities our politicians promote the importance of our children and elders. “Our children are our future and our elders are the cultural teachers of our children. Both are held in the highest esteem.” Yet, year after year, we confront the same issues and problems in our communities and

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our youth move farther away from an understanding of our value culture. What programs and attempts are instituted does not truly affect a shift back to healthy cultural values that historically have sustained us and nourished us as a people.

So, what does Transcendental Meditation have to do with American Indian Cultural Preservation and Cultural Restoration? It is an opening that can help us remember and re-establish our own memory as a spiritual people, the key to preservation and restoration.

A group of elders from the Winnebago Indian Reservation in Nebraska decided to take matters into their own hands without any community support or financial assistance from the tribal coffers. They wanted to support a new program for our children at the public school called Transcendental Meditation ™. The school had recently received a scholarship from the David Lynch Foundation to teach the technique and the elders were supporting it in the community. The elders learned the TM technique and discovered that the daily practice of TM had significant impact on their stress levels. The reduction of stress began having a positive impact on their health, specifically their diabetes. The children’s behavior changes. Their grades improved and the absenteeism dropped.

One of the first things the elders discovered about practicing Transcendental Meditation was that it was not new to them. American Indians have been meditating for eons though their cultural traditions.

What was even more amazing to them was the fact that they started remembering more and more of the cultural traditions they thought they had forgotten.

They formally organized under the Hocak Elders Council, Inc. and began talking about Hocak values of the past and present. They agreed that the one Hocak value that was most important to operate under was GISAK. Members must adhere to and practice due diligence to the value of “GISAK.” GISAK is Respect for all things, our Hocak Culture and Traditions, our Clan System, our Tribal Community, and one another. The personal and group practice of GISAK requires uncompromising Honesty, individual and tribal Integrity, individual and group Courtesy, Compassion, Humility, and respectful individual and community Leadership. By practicing GISAK “the good of the whole tribe outweighs the desires of the individual” becomes a principle for group decision-making.

The Hocak Elders Council, Inc. began remembering the significant role that the elder councils of the past played in our tribal structure. They had no official or legal authority within the tribe itself but when they spoke about an issue that affected the whole tribe the governing body listened. The elder councils would listen to the issues that the clans and sub-clans brought before them and would decide if the issue was an individual clan issue or one that affected the entire tribe. The elder councils were comprised of individuals from various backgrounds who contributed to the community without expectation of personal gain or influence.

By re-establishing an Elder Council with a foundation of spiritual practice and incorporating these practices into the fabric of our community at all levels, with advisors and projects that focus on a resurgence of GISAK , everything we do will bring us back to the basic and sacred values of our culture.

The practice of meditation, the use of language, tradition, ceremony, and an understanding of our clan system of shared responsibility will restore a sense of personal and collective identity that will honor our history while it builds our future.

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CONFERENCE CO-HOSTS Prosper Waukon

A hereditary leader—Thunderbird Clan, Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska

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rosper Waukon is an accomplished businessman, youth development specialist, and organizational strategist who comes from a long line of Hocak hereditary leaders from the Thunderbird Clan. As a single father, he supported his family and put himself through college while working three jobs and graduated with a degree in Business Administration from the University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minnesota.

Prosper was hired by Honeywell, Inc., and with his considerable management and negotiating skills, he rose quickly through the ranks to assume the role of principal advisor/negotiator for Honeywell in a Black Hills land dispute between the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, the Cowboy and Indian Alliance, Honeywell, and the state of South Dakota. Prosper was successful in negotiating a win-win situation for all parties concerned. He later returned to the University of St. Thomas to work on his MBA graduate studies.

After Honeywell, Prosper ran his own award-winning business in some of the most economically deprived and troubled neighborhoods of the inner city, where he trained and employed the hardest-to-hire neighborhood residents and gang members.

Prosper’s return to live on the reservation with the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska where he grew up connected him more deeply with his tribe’s traditional knowledge and values—and with his life’s calling: to bring forward the indigenous perspectives of our multi-dimensional universe. Prosper serves as a guide through intersections of modern times and past generations, the empirical and the intuitive worlds, the seen and unseen worlds, and the Sacred and the Profane.

John H agelin, Ph.D.

President, David Lynch Foundation for Consciousness-Based Education and World Peace

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r. Hagelin is a world-renowned, Harvard-trained quantum physicist, educator, author, and science and public policy expert. As Director of the Institute of Science, Technology and Public Policy, Dr. Hagelin has successfully headed a nationwide effort to identify, scientifically verify and promote cost-effective solutions to critical social problems in the fields of crime, health care, education, economy, energy and the environment.

In addition, Dr. Hagelin has spent much of the past quarter century leading a scientific investigation into the foundations of human consciousness.

In his seminal book, Manual for a Perfect Government, Dr. Hagelin shows how, through educational programs that develop human consciousness, and that bring individual and collective consciousness into harmony with Natural Law, it is possible to profoundly enhance governmental achievements and to solve intractable social problems.

As President of the Global Union of Scientists for Peace, Dr. Hagelin directs an organization of leading scientists dedicated to “reducing the threat of nuclear proliferation and nuclear war, and promoting the use of safe, scientifically proven technologies to ensure national security and global peace.”

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KEYNOTE SPEAKERS Joe Garcia

President, National Congress of American Indians (NCAI)

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he National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) is the largest national Indian organization, representing over 250 member Tribal Nations from throughout the United States. Actively involved in NCAI since 1995, Joe Garcia served two two-year terms as the 1st Vice President of NCAI prior to being elected President in November of 2005. Joe just completed his third term (Jan. 2005–Dec. 2006) as Governor of Ohkay Owingeh (San Juan Pueblo), located in northern New Mexico. After his term as Governor, he was elected Chairman of the All Indian Pueblo Council (AIPC), an organization formed in 1598 that serves the 19 Pueblos of New Mexico. He will serve as Chairman for four years (2007–2011).

Joe was born and raised in Ohkay Owingeh and continues to serve his community in traditional, educational, tribal government, and economic development efforts. Joe and his wife Oneva have three children, Melissa, Nathan, and MorningStar; four granddaughters, Kaelynn Garcia, I-Rey Garcia, Marcela Garcia, and Imperia Bark; and one grandson, Emiliano Garcia.

Joe is an electrical engineer by profession, with an Electrical Engineering degree from the University of New Mexico. In June 2003, he retired from Los Alamos National Laboratory after 25 years of service, at which time he started his own firm, MistyLake Consulting Services. He has taught numerous courses on computers, electronics, lasers, and math at Northern New Mexico Community College since 1979. His professional training also includes Black Belt Certification for the renowned Six Sigma Quality Improvement process.

Joe has been recognized for his service to his tribe as well as to the State of New Mexico. In 1995 he was awarded the New Mexico Distinguished Public Service Award, and in 1998 he received the Luminaries Award from the New Mexico Community Foundation.

On January 1, 2007, Joe swore in Governor Bill Richardson as Governor of New Mexico.

Robert Cook

President of the National Indian Education Association (NIEA)

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obert Cook is an enrolled member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe (Oglala Lakota) and works as the Cultural Affairs/Education Outreach Specialist at Crazy Horse Memorial. Robert is married to Daphne Richards-Cook (Oglala), and together they have two sons, Lamont and Caleb. Both boys are Indian Head Start graduates and attend public school in Rapid City, South Dakota. Lamont, a ninth grader, and Caleb, a fourth grader, both play violin and are active in the school orchestra program. Robert’s wife, Daphne, serves on the Rapid City School District School Board and is the first American Indian ever elected to serve on the school board level in Rapid City.

Robert attended Brigham Young University and graduated from Black Hills State University in South Dakota with a degree in Secondary Education. He is proud to be a tribal college graduate and received his master’s degree in Education Administration from Oglala Lakota College. Robert has eighteen years of teaching and administrative experience in American Indian education.

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Robert has been the recipient of many education awards and honors that include Little Wound School Educator of the Year in 1998 and 1999, Lower Brule Teacher of the Year 2000–2001, South Dakota’s Milken National Educator in 2005, Crazy Horse Memorial Foundation Teacher of the Year 2006, and NIEA’s Teacher of the Year 2006. In 2008 he was named one of Black Hills State University’s 125 Most Accomplished Alumni.

Robert is proud to serve on several organizations that include the Technical Review Panel of the National Indian Education Study, the South Dakota Indian Education Advisory Council, the Rapid City School District PAC, the South Dakota Charter School Advocacy Group, and the Stern Foundation Board of Directors. He is also a Kiwanis member and his son’s Little League baseball coach.

Robert’s educational and professional goals include a Doctorate in Education and to continue to work or serve professionally in some level of American Indian education and advocacy.

Lucille Echohawk

Strategic Advisor for Indian Child Welfare Programs Casey Family Programs

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ucille Echohawk is Strategic Advisor for Indian Child Welfare Programs, Casey Family Programs, the nation’s largest operating foundation entirely focused on foster care. Lucille is a member of the Pawnee Tribe. She earned a B.A. degree at Brigham Young University and a M.Ed. at Loyola University of Chicago. Lucille is a founder and former Board Chair of Native Americans in Philanthropy, an affinity group to the Council on Foundations. She is also a founder and former Board Chair of the Denver Indian Family Resource Center, where she and her family established the Jewel LittleSoldier EchoHawk Memorial Endowment Fund in remembrance of her daughter, whom Lucille adopted from the public child welfare system when Jewel was seven years old. Lucille currently serves on the executive committee for the Child Welfare League of America’s Board of Directors.

She also serves on the American Humane Association’s Board of Directors and its children’s advisory committee.

Lucille participated in the Leadership Denver Class of 1986, served as President of the Leadership Denver Association in 1991–1992, and received the LDA Outstanding Alumnus Award in 1994. She has received numerous other awards, including the 1999 Martin Luther King Social Responsibility Award in Denver, the Ambassador Award from Casey Family Programs in 2002, the Pioneer Woman of Color Award in 2004 from the National Organization of Black Elected Leaders, the Louis T. Delgado Distinguished Grantmaker Award from Native Americans in Philanthropy in 2007, and the Founders Alumni Award from Erikson Institute for Early Education in 2007.

Lucille was an Honors Graduate of Farmington High School, Farmington, New Mexico, in 1961.

She received honorable mention in graduating from Brigham Young University’s College of Education in 1965. In 2009 Lucille was honored by Farmington High School and her name included on its Wall of Honor.

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K atherine Campbell

Education Specialist, Special Education Programs Division of Performance and Accountability, Bureau of Indian Education

B U I L D I N G H E A LT H Y, S U S TA I N A B L E A M E R I C A N I N D I A N C O M M U N I T I E S

Ted Weissman

President of Beta Corporation

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ed Weissman is President of Beta Corporation. Ted has provided a full range of wind farm development and permitting from conception through construction on 14 utility-scale wind farms to date in North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, Colorado, Oklahoma, and Kansas including land acquisition, township and county permitting, Federal Aviation Administration negotiations, and utility relations, along with coordination of environmental permit services and civil engineering

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atherine Campbell (Waste’ Winyan) works as an Education Specialist for Special Education Programs in the Division of Performance and Accountability in the Bureau of Indian Education.

Katherine’s current duties include coordinating Bureau-wide quarterly reports for the U.S. Department of Education, overseeing Special Education parent surveys and providing technical assistance to the field. She is also a Ph.D. candidate in Educational Leadership at the Pennsylvania State University and plans to graduate in December 2009.

As a former administrator at the Winnebago Public School, Katherine worked to bring the Transcendental Meditation technique to her students as an avenue to counter bullying and abate behaviors that escalate into violence. She is of the Winnebago, Pomo and Meskwaki Tribes and enrolled in the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska.

Tom Factor

President, GVP, Inc. Director, American Indian Energy Initiatives, David Lynch Foundation

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om Factor has authored 22 wind farms with 1,700 wind turbines currently in operation producing 2,700 megawatts of wind energy sufficient to meet the needs of over 2 million people. Has sited 10,000 megawatts of wind energy projects in 15 states, and sited the first large utility-scale wind farms constructed in 4 states.

Tom performs siting, meteorological analysis, wind farm mapping, wind farm design, and permitting services. He has published research on wind resource assessment, wind resource mapping, wind grid integration and impacts, and wind hybrid technologies with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Iowa Department of Natural Resources, and Iowa Energy Center.

Tom currently works exclusively for NextEra Energy Resources, and serves as the Director of the David Lynch Foundation American Indian Energy Initiatives.

Note: NextEra Energy Resources, Inc., funds all phases of development, construction, operation and maintenance of wind farms. The firm currently owns 65 wind farms with 8,200 wind turbines in operation. Next Era is a subsidiary of FPL Group (FPL), an A-rated utility publicly traded on the NYSE.

STOCEL

Tribal Leader of the WSANEC First Nation of the Saanich Peninsula, British Columbia, Canada

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TOLCEL is the traditional name given to John Elliott, a descendent of the hereditary Chiefs of the WSANEC First Nation near Victoria, British Columbia, on the west coast of Canada. Thirty years ago the Saanich Indian School Board hired 18 fluent Elder speakers to make written and audio recordings of the SENCOTEN language. STOLCEL’s father, PENAC, a WSANEC Elder, developed an alphabet for the SENCOTEN language, which he taught to STOLCEL and his sister COSINIYE and the newly hired resource people for the language program at the LAU,WELNEW Tribal School. This was the beginning of STOLCEL’s life-long commitment to the revival and preservation of traditional languages.

Today, STOLCEL is Chair of the Sub-Committee on Language for the First Nations’ Education Council for British Columbia; Chair of the Saanich Native Heritage Society; and a Member of the Board of Governors for the First People’s Cultural Foundation.

STOLCEL is also Co-Founder of the world’s first web-based Aboriginal language archive, called FirstVoices. (www.FirstVoices.com) This website records endangered languages and provides Indigenous people with easy access to their mother tongue over the Internet. The website’s tools and services are designed to support Aboriginal people engaged in language archiving, teaching, and culture revitalization. More than 60 traditional communities are participating in this initiative.

STOLCEL holds First Nations’ Language Certification from the British Columbia College of Teachers. He has taught in all grades and is now teaching Grades 7-10 at the LAU,WELNEW Tribal School as well as SENCOTEN for adults at the University of Victoria.

STOLCEL is being honored with of the degree of Doctor of Natural Law Honoris Causa by Maharishi University of Management for his work as co-founder of FirstVoices; for revitalizing the mother tongue of the WSANEC First Nation; and for his work in bringing out the connection between traditional language and the underlying field of Nature that upholds every culture in peace and progress.

In STOLCEL’s words: “There is never time enough time in the day for all the work that has to be done. Our languages are the key to ancient knowledge. Inside each language is the pattern of how to live in harmony with the earth and all the living things. More today, than ever, this knowledge is needed. Each time another language dies forever, our ancient connections to all life, our knowledge of the plants the animals, the trees and our mother earth is lost.”

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B U I L D I N G H E A LT H Y, S U S TA I N A B L E A M E R I C A N I N D I A N C O M M U N I T I E S

ABOUT THE CONFERENCE SITE

ABOUT THE DAVID LYNCH FOUNDATION

small lakes.

reducing Transcendental Meditation technique.

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aharishi University of Management is the only accredited university in America offering Consciousness-Based education. It is located in Fairfield, Iowa, in the southeast corner of the state — 60 miles west of the Mississippi River and 60 miles south of Iowa City in the center of the U.S. The campus is set on 270 acres surrounded by wooded areas, fields, and two

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he David Lynch Foundation has funded Phase I of the Sustainable American Indian Community Initiative on the Winnebago Reservation in Nebraska. The Foundation also has provided close to $10 million in scholarship and research grants for over 100,000 at-risk youth in the US, Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa to learn the scientifically proven, stress-

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Sustainability quest

Tribes to gather for conference of meditation and renewal

By Rob Capriccioso TODAY STAFF FAIRFIELD, Iowa – Organizers are preparing for a unique gathering of tribal elders, leaders and members to focus on building sustainable communities through meditation, renewable energy, organic agriculture and cultural preservation.

The event, billed as the “International Conference on Building Healthy, Sustainable American Indian Communities,” is largely being put together by the Hocak Elders Council, the Ho-Chunk Elders Advisory Council, the David Lynch Foundation and members of the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska.

It will be held at the Maharishi University of Management in Fairfield, Iowa Sept. 25 – 27. Planners expect hundreds of participants to attend.

“We are very excited to be able to help offer this one-of-a-kind experience,” said Bob Roth, vice president of the David Lynch Foundation, which focuses on spreading scientifically-proven stress-reduction transcendental meditation techniques to at-risk youth.

The meditation techniques focus on regular, quiet reflection times aimed at reducing stress and its harmful health impacts.

Studies have shown the methods to have health benefits, such as curbing behavioral disorders in youth and reducing the need for insulin in those with Type 2 diabetes.

Planners with the foundation are using the conference as a platform to highlight their commitment for the past three years to a project called the “Model American Indian Community Initiative” on the Winnebago Reservation.

The project strives to help at-risk youth relieve stress through meditation. It has achieved some promising results which conference organizers are eager to share.

John Boncheff, an event organizer who co-directs the Winnebago project, said Indian youth in the program are not only doing better in school, they are absent less and have a better chance of graduating.

Esteemed Indian leaders have taken note. Joe A. Garcia, president of the National Congress of American Indians; Robert Cook, president of National Indian Education Association; Lucille Echohawk, a strategic planner for Casey Family Programs; and Kevin Skenandore, acting director of the Bureau of Indian Education are scheduled to attend and present at the sustainability gathering.

The Pine Ridge Reservation in South

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Dakota and the Passamaquoddy Tribe of Maine have started similar projects, hoping for equally positive results. Planners said many more tribal leaders have requested information.

Roth said it has been an honor to see more tribes get involved and for Native Americans to teach each other the benefits of healthy meditation and its similarity to some traditional spiritual beliefs.

Prosper Waukon, a leader with the Hocak Elders Council and a citizen of the Winnebago Tribe, said the project has also attracted keen interest from his tribe’s elders.

In 2007, Waukon said several older tribal members took a trip to Maharishi University to learn about transcendental meditation, which the institution strongly promotes. Many were suffering from debilitating side effects of diabetes and wanted to understand ways to meditate to improve their well-being.

Some of the elders have since been able to dramatically better their health outcomes, and some rely much less on diabetes medications, Waukon said.

“Many elders found there was something missing with medication alone.

Using meditation to relieve stress ended up helping them connect with traditional ways. It has been a win-win situation.”

Information about the elder diabetes program will also be highlighted at the conference.

Waukon said the event won’t just be about promoting sustainability through meditation. It will also feature sessions on organic farming, wind and solar energy development and cultural preservation.

“These are areas of sustainability that all connect to each other,” he said, adding that experts in the various fields will be in attendance.

Boncheff would like the conference to raise awareness of the Winnebago project’s success and to see what can be done to take it to the next level. He is hopeful that at least seven more tribes launch similar sustainability projects by next year.

For people who can’t afford to attend the conference, it will be Web cast online.

Registration information and more details are also available online.

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C ON TAC T U S American Indian Initiatives David Lynch Foundation Post Office Box 738, Winnebago, NE 68071 AmericanIndianSustainableConference.org

Intiatives@DavidLynchFoundation.org 866-962-0108