My fellow Rutland Vermont skier, Senator Jim Jeffords, passed on at age 80 in August, but his contributions live on. While chairman of the Environmental Committee, partnered with his confidant Jeff Munger (Iroquois) and seven other Native leaders, we helped reduce U.S. dental mercury by 48 percent. In 2013 this helped inspire 105 nations to sign a Global Mercury Treaty “to protect the environment by agreeing to phase down dental amalgam.”

As an Olympic skier, I want to thank all those who prayed for the joy and safety of everyone at Russia’s surprisingly “awesome” games. Joining with the Olympic families, were Christian Scientists, Native Americans, Aetherius Society, Monks of Moscow and so many more to help preserve this greatest force for Peace, Understanding, Healing, and Unity for over 1,000 years in Ancient times, and 100 years in Modern times.

To further help heal and unite America, on February 26, New Mexico’s Sipapu ski area announced that it is joining Pajarito Mt and Ski Santa Fe in offering landmark affordable skiing and snowboarding opportunities to the tribes of New Mexico and Arizona.

The Olympics has been the greatest force for Peace, Understanding, Healing, and Unity for over 1000 years in Ancient times and 100 years in Modern times. Given that Olympic heroes have inspired countless youth to be happily healthy, productive, brilliant and generous, we hope you will take a moment to join this world prayer for “The Joy and Safety of the Sochi Olympics,” heartened by how it has worked for the last five Olympics.

On January 4, Pajarito Mountain Ski Area, nestled near New Mexico’s Bandelier Canyon Cliff Dwellings going back 11,000 years, magnanimously launched an unprecedented snowsports outreach for the tribal youth of New Mexico and Arizona. It was thanks so much to ski instructor David Vosburgh, also director of the Native Nations Sports Ambassadors program, working with our Native American Olympic Team Foundation (NAOTF.org), and local tribal leaders.

After launching in early January the most generous Native snowsports outreach in history, inviting tribal youth of New Mexico and Arizona to ski in their Los Alamos Mountain, Pajarito Mt temporarily had to close for lack of enough snow. So Santa Fe Ski Area’s GM Benny Abruzzo heroically agreed to provide Pajarito and these tribal youth a safety net on January 24, 2014.

After Mexico became No. 1 in obesity and diabetes in June, their new President Pena Nieto surprisingly recommended as a solution the no-carb herbal sweetener stevia discovered by the South American tribes. And while soda lovers criticized Mayor Bloomberg’s campaign to reduce the size of sodas, most fit Americans and Mexicans cheered on their bold interventions.—eNewsChannels – ran inUSA Today

On this 4th of July, wouldn’t it be a dream come true for the U.S. and many World Citizens if President Thomas Jefferson, the author of our Declaration of independence and Bill of Rights, came back at this pivotal time to coach us on getting our Grand Experiment in Democracy back on course?

This May or June, we have another priceless opportunity to beat the drums of peace and friendship when our countries need it most, by hosting some Iranian female skiers who have followed, including 24-year-old Olympic racer Marjan Kalhor, at California’s Mammoth Mountain. Read more…

Photo: Suzy skiing with Iran’s Queen on goodwill mission with Olympian Billy Kidd (Abenaki)

Southern Ute Indian royalty, Little Miss Southern Ute Alternate, Yllana Chanelle Howe, 7, right center, Junior Miss Southern Ute, Izabella “Oewichichi” Howe, 10, center, and their mother, Marquetta Howe, left, help lead the crowd in a Southern Ute snow dance Saturday at the base of the Vista bahn chair lift in Vail Village. Yllana’s Ute name is “Nanacivchi” meaning butterfly while Izabella’s Ute name is “Oewichichi” meaning Yellow Bird.

The National Ski Areas Association’s NRDC study said that Colorado and Utah would be losing its snow by the end of the century unless there is an intervention – the East likely earlier. Fortunately, a consensus of the UN’s 192 countries in 2012 identified the key to regenerating Earth: a combination of science/green energy and Ancient Wisdom, especially through the tribes.

New Jersey Senator Frank Lautenberg(D), a phenomenal champion of American Children and Nature, passed on last week at 89. At his NY funeral he was deeply honored by half the Senate on both sides of the aisle, plus NJ Governor Chris Christie (R), Hillary Clinton and Vice President Biden for hiss passion and foresight in saving millions of Americans through his No Smoking law, raising the drinking age to 21, and fighting for women’s rights and gun control. Here is why Congress should make his honoring mean something by signing into law the most important Act of his life, the Chemical Safety Improvement Act (S.1009).

For the last two hundred million years up until 1970, our ‘home’ looked like this beautiful blue planet from Apollo 17 with three satellites orbiting it. Today, earth is shrouded with about 1,100 satellites, most for cell phone companies, and a half a million pieces of trashed ones, and most dangerous of all, some dumped nuclear waste. Together they are blocking the critical sunlight that Man and Nature need to happily thrive.

In a recent op-ed, Suzy Chaffee, 1968 ski racing Olympian and co-founder of the Native American Olympic Team Foundation, suggests holistic approaches to reduce gun violence

What if we had the power to reduce the roots of violence by 50% – including one in three women raped world-wide – through a simple diet shift and planting fruit trees in schools? Thanks to UN’s One Billion Rising, women joined with enlightened men, world leaders and stars, like Ann Hathaway and Jane Fonda, together joyfully stood up for females as never before, creating and enforcing laws, sharing solutions, and dancing into a New Era this Valentine’s Day.

People around the world have recently mourned the passing of Whitney, Amy Winehouse, and First Lady Betty Ford, exemplified by the touching New Years Tributes and Grammy Salute to Whitney. With the help of doctors Drew, Phil and Gupte these (celestial) shooting stars left us with priceless lessons to prevent or recover from alcoholism. And I believe they are happy to see that their passing is uncovering solutions that could save millions of children and their families from heartache

Some good must come of this,” has been the cry after one of the worst mass killings in U.S. history at Newtown’s Sandy Hook Elementary School. Little has been done after a decade of school massacres. “We have 15 times more gun violence than any other country, and we must learn from them,” said CNN’s Fareed Zakaria. Therefore, I believe we need a holistic approach that includes the best solutions from other countries

From Antarctica to Iran to New Zealand, Billy Kidd has literally skied the world. Since 1970, the Olympic silver medalist and world champion racer has not only been Steamboat’s director of skiing, he has been America’s premier spokesman on behalf of his sport. With his vast experience, he is uniquely positioned to consider what the next 50 years of skiing might bring.

The World’s Youth say we need emergency action to create a “Future We Want.” Hurricane Sandy helped the doubting Toms recognize that the greatest threat to our National Security and humanity is Climate Change. And leaders now believe that frustrated young people are not kidding when they say they want Climate Justice!

PHOTO CAPTION: (L) 12 year old Xiuh (Shoe) Martinez, (center in white shirt/yellow shovel), and his Earth Guardian Kids demonstrating in Boulder how to reforest Colorado after its wildfire and save a billion trees worldwide. Photos: Tamara Rose Roske.

Lisa Montoya: RIO+20 Earth Summit’s media “phenom,” Boulder’s Xiuh (Shoe) Martinez at October’s Denver Climate Change rally praising President Obama for his renewable energy policies that create the future the youth want, including snowsports.

October’s launch of the UN’s Girl Empowerment Initiative, and revelation that three Native American women represented the U.S. and their Indian Nations at London’s Olympics, are creating ripples of hope and prosperity for depressed Nations in the U.S. and around the world.

PHOTO Caption: “I will always love this team,” said “phenom” goalie (far right) Tumua Anae (Native Hawaiian) of her Gold Medal U.S. Olympic Water Polo Team in London. Credit: Jeff Cable.

Olympic skier Suzy “Chapstick” Chaffee, who led the 1977 Title IX March in DC at the request of the PE Teachers of America, celebrating this team effort with her Olympic mom Stevia. Photos courtesy Naotf.org.

On my dream trip to Crete after honoring the Greeks for the “Best Olympics Ever,” and the World Tribes for their gifts to the roots of Olympic sports (www.nativevoices.org), I visited the ruins of the Minoan Palace of Knossos. Often depicted by their bull-leaping gymnasts, the Minoans were the heavy-weight champions of the most advanced, joyful, male-female balanced, peaceful ancient civilizations. Then visiting Iraklion’s Archeological Museum, I saw the official Greek Olympic Exhibit that held a missing piece of the Olympic origin puzzle, off the press radar screen.

Some remarkable breakthroughs just happened to protect the Arctic Circle, its wildlife, and earth-honoring way of life of tens of millions of Arctic Aboriginals of Alaska, Canada, Greenland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland and Russia who have subsisted by fishing and hunting for eons. / photo credit: © Quackersna… | Dreamstime.