Thirty years before he died, President Gerald Ford skied down a slope in Vail listening to David Bowie.

It was at the end of his presidency, Dec. 27, 1976, when the vacationing Ford joined Olympic skier and Rutland native Suzy Chaffee at the Colorado resort for a few runs.

Telling the story after Ford’s death Tuesday in a telephone interview from Arizona, Chaffee said she almost didn’t get there.

Naomi Lang (Karuk), 5x National Ice Dancing Champand member of theUS Olympic Skating Team,who got a standing ovation at the 2002 Utah Olympics, turned pro this year and will ice dance with her Russian partner, Peter Tchernyshev,on an NBC Special Christmas Day around 2-4pm MT, 4-6 ET.

Naomi and Peter are fresh from performing on theinspiring Michael Bolton NBCSpecialon December 17th, where the pairwas like “liquid silver.” Stunning Naomi is the only Native American to participate in the Olympics in this Millennium, and first Native woman of ever compete in an Olympics.

On the 10th Anniversary of Native American Olympic Team Foundation, the board held an election and celebrated some “phenomenal” progress for Indian youth. As newly elected Co-Chairman, Gary Lake (Shasta Vice Chair) said, “A single tribe cannot get their youth to the Olympics, but together we can.” “Thanks to key leaders of Indian Country uniting behind the Indian Olympic Bid, these dreams for their youth are within their grasp,” according to re-elected Co-Chair, Suzy Chaffee, an Olympic skier.

No Winter Olympian with ties to the state of Washington had a more remarkable post-Olympics career than Suzanne Chaffee, a former skier and late-1960s dabbler in journalism, photography and languages at the University of Washington.

A decade ago, Stew Young was flying down the slopes of the Swiss Alps, hoping his personal best would be good enough to take him to the Olympics.

But the Corvallis-area iron worker was paying for his own training, and he was in his late 30s — an old man by world-class athlete standards. He stopped short of his dream.

Now Young, a Tulalip Tribes member, is at the forefront of a movement to get more Native Americans into the Olympics. He and others are trying to help indigenous peoples overcome what they consider obstacles to competition — from bias in sporting circles to poverty that prevents youths from receiving the early, elite training that creates the top echelon of athletes.

BOSTON, MA — A group of agitated Wampanoags disrupted the presentations at the Mayor’s Office of New Bostonians at City Hall on November 18, when descendants of the Mayflower Pilgrims and Wampanoag Chief Massasoit presented their uplifting original records and journals, in attempt to lift the cloud surrounding the history of Thanksgiving and the first 50 years of the Plymouth Plantation. The thorough cross-cultural research of the descendents revealed “a shining time when our diverse cultures had a meeting of hearts and minds and lived in harmony,” agreed Paul “Deerfoot” Weeden, a descendent of Massasoit and Orator of the Pokanoket Tribe of the Wampanoag Nation, and Connie Baxter Marlow, a descendent of Priscilla Mullins and John Alden (of “Speak for yourself John”)

BIG BEAR LAKE, Calif. — “I’m looking into starting a U.S. research center for Crystal Photography, and Big Bear Lake is one of the possibilities,” announced Dr. Masaru Emoto to the wide-eyed residents at a seminar at Northwoods Resort on Monday. After showing the microscopic crystals from frozen water in many cities (“no comment on LA and Tokyo”), as well as pristine and holy places around the world, he told them, “You should be proud of the beautiful clear crystals in your water.”

Dr Masaru Emoto (center) sharing his “key of life” crystal research at a seminar in Big Bear Lake (S.CA) with Suzy Chaffee (Olympic skier), Gina Weiss (host), and Blue Thunder (Serrano/E.Shosht: Christie Walker one) leader of the Medicine Wheel Ceremony that saved the community.
Photo credit: Christie Walker

June 4, 2005 marks the 13th National Trails Day, an annual celebration coordinated by American Hiking Society, with more than 1000 events across the U.S. “American Hiking Society warmly invites members of the American Indian Nations to join in the fun and healing of Mother Earth on National Trails Day at our magnificent National and Urban Parks,” said Ivan Levin, Trail Programs Manager of the Society.

“Why, then, make so great ado about the Roman and the Greek, and neglect the Indian?,” wrote Henry David Thoreau in his Journal in 1857. A missing piece of what shaped this icon and American consciousness will be revealed at a weekend seminar in Aspen, Colorado June 3-5, 2005, entitled “Thoreau and the Evolution of the American Mind: The Next Step.” Thoreau scholar, Bradley P. Dean, Ph.D., will introduce highlights of Henry’s 12 “Indian Notebooks,” which he said, “includes just under 4,000 manuscript pages, probably to write a book he did not live to publish.” They reveal how Thoreau was intrigued by American Indians since his boyhood, and how this involvement influenced his philosophy

BIG BEAR LAKE, Calif. /Send2Press Newswire/ — “All We Need Is a Miracle” played on the Snow Summit Lodge’s loudspeaker when Bennie LeBeau (local Serrano-Eastern Shoshone), arrived for his ski lesson gift over the weekend. “He was treated like a homecoming hero for leading the Big Bear Medicine Wheel Ceremony on November 15th, 2004, which helped restore the magnificent lake, trees, springs, and best snow in 35 years,”.

“The fans loved us,” said Snow Wing, Ute Mountain’s Miss Indian Colorado, as the Nuggets won their 3rd exciting victory (against LA Clippers) at Friday’s 3rd Annual “Salute to the American Indians of Colorado Night” at the Pepsi Center. 45 of Colorado’s finest pow wow dancers and princesses from the Southern Ute (near Durango) and Ute Mountain (near Cortez) Nations, united with the Denver Indian community, to give mainstream Coloradoans a chance to celebrate their splendid earth-honoring heritage, according to Native American Olympic Team Foundation (NVF).

Celebrating Veysonnaz Switzerland as the Training Center for the Native American Olympic Ski Team – L to R: Tulalip speed ski champ Stew Young, Veysonnaz owner Jean Marie Fournier, Ski and Music Festival host Princess Caroline Murat, and Olympic/Freestyle ski champ Suzy Chaffee.

“Wow. That was amazing,” said representatives of both cultures at the Denver Nuggets second annual night honoring the “American Indians of Colorado” on March 22, at the Pepsi Center. Thanks also to a touching opening blessing by Lakota Robert Cross and anthem by Dee St. Cyr of the Denver Indian Center, followed by a half-time show featuring 60 of North America’s most colorfully magnificent pow wow dancers, the Nugget players found themselves fancy-dancing all over the Clippers, to a 105 to 80 victory.

As a result of a heart-melting gift to her friends, of an Indian children’s dance to launch a wiser New Year, Denise Rich, Aspen’s Grammy award-winning philanthropist, is helping the tribes get their message out to the mainstream on how to heal the Earth and prevent natural disasters, in the wake of the devastating Tsunami. NBC Today Show Host, Katie Couric, and Wendy Whitworth, executive producer of the Larry King Show, and their children were among the guests uplifted by Denver’s 7 Falls Dancers. The star was two year old Penelope Rodriquez, formerly known as “Sometimes She Dances, Sometimes She Doesn’t,” fresh from a command performance for the Lieutenant Governors of America.
*Photo Caption: (close-up of Penelope) Two year old Penelope Rodriguez (Pawnee) of Denver’s “7 Falls Dancers,” melts hearts at Denise Rich’s old fashion launch of Aspen’s New Year. Photo credit: Jeffrey Finesilver

Snow Triggers Shopping Frenzy at LA Ski Dazzle! “This is the most early snow in Southern California in 35 years,” say weather experts. The result was record-breaking, youthful crowds in a “pulsating frenzy” at LA’s Ski Dazzle Show, buying everything to go skiing and snowboarding in California and other Western resorts this magical season. “This was our best show ever,” said the euphoric producers, Judy Gray and Jim Foster, who gifted “Califonia’s First Caretakers” and the team of Red, White, Black and Yellow participants – the Black Elk Prophesy – in the Big Bear Medicine Wheel ceremony with free tickets, a booth and snow sports equipment.

Denver, CO (PRWEB via SportsFeatures) November 8, 2004 — “Denver’s launch of the ‘Salute to America’s First Caretakers’ at Colorado’s SnowSports Expo just might be another reversal of Manifest Destiny,” beamed Olympic skier Suzy Chaffee at the Convention Center event on November 6. Two years ago, the New York Times wrote that the “Indian-led return of the buffalo to the Great Plains is resurrecting their ghost towns… and reversing Manifest Destiny.”

Sacramento’s Salute to California’s First Caretakers at their Ski and Snowboard Show last weekend, launched the state’s inclusion into the national welcoming of the tribes back to over 1/4 million acres of their beloved ancestral mountains at 100 U.S. ski areas this season.

Over a hundred people: Olympians, tribal people, spectators, and press from around the world, gathered near the steps of the Zappeion, a modern Olympic birth site, on Sunday, to celebrate the Greeks’ hosting of the acclaimed “Best Games Ever.” Greek Minister of Tourism Dimitris Avramopoulos and Christina Chanopoulou, of the European Organization of Strategic Planning, gave the gathering their enthusiastic blessings, and were thrilled with the sentiments “that the Greek Olympics turned out as the visionaries planned!”

We humbly ask you to pass on this prayer to your teammates, friends, colleagues and loved ones, so that we may create a circle of loving energy around Greece and planet Earth throughout the Olympics… to protect, heal, lift humanity, and celebrate Who We Are!

Akima “Rick” Castaneda, a unity leader of the Coastal Band of the Chumash, was honored by Olympic Skier Suzy “Chapstick” Chaffee on April 18, in Santa Barbara for being a founder of Earth Day. Earth lovers and dancers, singers, drummers from other tribes and cultures joined Akima in a spirited opening prayer to the Four Directions at the Sunken Gardens of the court house.

The Ute Indian Tribe, Colorado Olympians and Aspen community will join to celebrate the closing of an abundant snow season this Saturday, April 10th at 3 PM at the Gondola Plaza at the base of Aspen Mountain. The event is co-hosted by Native American Olympic Team Foundation (NVF), co-founded by Olympic skier Suzy Chaffee, and Integrative Sustainable Solutions (ISS), founded by UN Eco Award winner Joanie Klar.

Telluride, Co. – The Ute drum again echoed thru the Telluride Mountains as a blizzard swirled around the splendid Ute Mountain Manning dancers during a press conference and “Gratitude Ceremony” on March 27. “It looks like our golf season has been postponed,” said the ecstatic Pete Woods, Telluride Ski and Golf Company’s marketing director at the gathering on the deck of the Inn at Lost Creek in the Mountain Village.

“It’s wonderful seeing the Native Community opening the Birkebeiner Event,” said Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle, as 30 splendid Lac Courte Oreille youth danced, drummed, chanted and whirled down Hayward’s Main Street on February 19th. They were a highlight of the Opening Ceremonies of the largest cross-country ski race in North America.

The stunning royalty in beaded crowns, representing the Woodland Tribes, then presented the Governor with a birchbark basket filled with Wisconsin’s yummiest tribal-made products – wild rice, wild rice pancake mix, maple syrup and sausages, plus a Boys and Girls Club Tee-shirt, thanks to Becky Taylor.

While celebrating the Greeks for their greatest gift to peace, joy and health, in history – The Olympic Games… and the French for reviving the Olympics in 1896, Olympians from seven countries honored Native Americans at Athens for inventing the roots of 10 Olympics Sports, at the site of the first Modern Games. A group of about 75 Olympians and their families and spectators there also hailed the contributions of other tribal peoples around the world.

Chaffee honoring speedski champ Stew Young, as well as MVP’s of the Salt Lake Native American Olympic Opening Ceremonies, Forest Cuch and Larry Blackhair (N. Utes), and Olympic ice dancing star Naomi Lang (Karuk), at NAOTF’s Olympic press conference and reception that inspired the world story: “Indians End Games End Game on High Note.”