Fireworks ignite BYU professor's home
Universe reporter, Summer 2017
A restful night began with a peculiar smell of smoke and faint sounds of fireworks and ended with a catastrophic house fire. BYU history professor Jay Buckley turned off the nighttime news and prepared for bed. As he laid in bed he smelled an unusual odor. As he investigated the odor, he quickly realized it was smoke.
Buckley went outside his home in Orem to find a fire on his roof, starting to engulf his office upstairs. He immediately called 911. They instructed him to get out of the house.
“My first priorities were getting my wife and children out to make sure they were safe,” Buckley said.
The fire occurred on July 1 at 10:35 p.m. Buckley said fireworks are to blame for the fire that damaged the whole top floor — three bedrooms, two bathrooms and his personal office. The lower levels also received water damage from extinguishing the fire. The person responsible is still unknown.
FIRST LADY, "WE NEED YOU."
Native Voice reporter for Native American Journalists Association, July 2015
“I believe in you,” First Lady Michelle Obama said to Native youth at the first-ever White House Tribal Youth Gathering. More than one thousand youth members, representing for 230 tribes from 42 states gathered in Washington D.C.
“Your customs, your values, your discoveries are at the heart of the American story,” she said, acknowledging the mistreatment of Native Americans, “America hasn’t always treated your people and heritage with dignity and respect. Tragically it has been just the opposite.”
For instance, young children were sent to boarding school. These schools were instructed to follow the motto, “Kill the Indian to Save the Man.” According to the “Civilization Regulations” Native religions and ceremonies were considered illegal.
Finding An Inner Light While Dancing Native Traditions
Indian Country Today News Media, August 2015
I knew I was signing up for an adventure when I tried out for Living Legends, a spectacular dance group at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah that performs all over the world.
What I didn’t know was that even as I was traveling out into the world of bright stage lights and faraway places like Canada and Alaska, I would be taking an even greater journey to find my light to become the best I can be.
Living Legends is unique because it incorporates three diverse cultures—Native American, Latin American and Polynesian—into a tribute to the ancient cultures of the Americas and the Pacific Islands. With vibrant colors, ancestral stories, and a mission of sharing these three cultures, the group travels throughout the United States and the world.