Photo: This is a station at the Navajo Nation Chinle Chapter where logs from national forests are chopped into firewood for tribal families to heat their homes in the winter. (Courtesy National Forest Foundation)
Audio available by 12pm ET
The U.S. Forest Service is spending another $20 million to remove flammable underbrush and logs from forests.
Some of the funding will be used to turn that chopped timber into firewood for Indigenous families to heat their homes.
The Mountain West News Bureau’s Kaleb Roedel has more.
The National Forest Foundation’s Wood for Life project is similar to a food bank. But instead of food, it delivers firewood to tribal families – at no cost.
The nonprofit is receiving $250.000 to remove logs from forests in Idaho, Colorado, and Wyoming.
That will produce firewood for half-a-dozen tribes – Shoshone Bannock, Shoshone Paiute, Eastern Shoshone, Northern Arapaho, Ute Mountain Ute, and Navajo Nation.
Rosanna Jumbo-Fitch is the Navajo Nation Chinle Chapter president.
She says thousands of families in her community receive wood through the project.
“It’s a huge benefit, because it’s used for warming the home, cooking, and everyday needs. And our biggest population that we serve is our elderly population, those that are 65 and older.”
Nationwide, in counties with a high percentage of tribes, roughly one-third of households rely on firewood to heat their homes. That’s according to Census Bureau data.
(Photo: Rhonda McBride)
Long before there was a designated day to give thanks, there was a time when expressing gratitude was a form of deep spirituality.
Rhonda McBride from our flagship station KNBA looks at the word for “thank you” in three different Alaska Native languages, starting with Yup’ik, or Yugtun.
For Ossie Kairaiuak, Quyana is a word with deeper layers of meaning – one with roots to a culture of sharing food gathered from the land and the sea.
Ossie grew up near Bethel, Alaska in Chefornak, where he absorbed the true meaning of “quyana”.
“As I got older, I was able to help my father more. And I watched him butcher seals that my brothers caught. And then he would hand me the choice parts. which are the shoulders of the seal, and he would say, ‘Here. Gives these to these elders’.”
As Ossie carried the seal meat to his elders, he remembers how full his hands were.
“I gently use my feet to knock on their door, and the would open it up and they would say, ‘Oh, my. Thank you so much. Thank you so much.’”
“Gunalchéesh.”
X’unei Lance Twitchell (Lingít) has dedicated his life to spreading knowledge about the languages and cultures of Southeast Alaska, where he teaches Lingít at the University of Alaska Southeast.
“Some of our elders like the late Kingeesti, David Katzeek, used to talk about the power of this phrase, and how much emphasis and love you could put into it, sometimes by dragging out that last syllable, gunalchéesh.
Kay Wallis is Gwich’in, a traditional healer who believes “mahsi’ choo” carries great spiritual energy.
“It isn’t just a casual thank you. It’s mahsi’ choo. It means so much to me. Your kindness.”
She says her people’s long history has shown that gratitude helps to heal from sickness and trauma, and also, survive hard times.
“When I talk about my elders, most of them have passed. But they all remember hunger. They remember the starvation period. And then when somebody would just share a bone with them, a moose bone, a caribou bone, or a piece of fish, mahsi’ choo.”
Wallis says most of us today have never known such hardship and the importance of sharing what little you may have to give.
“Mahsi’ choo. You’re keeping me alive. You’re keeping my family alive. Thank you from my heart.”
She says the word, mahsi’ choo, comes from a time when gratitude was a way of life.
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