Aquileo | dailyyonder.com on PieFed.World

Aquileo | The National Park Crowd Dilemma

Mon, 14 Jul 2025 22:25:00 +0000

Aquileo | ‘21st Century Packhorse Librarian’ Brings Books to Rural Communities

Tue, 08 Jul 2025 21:51:50 +0000

Aquileo | Preserving Cherokee Language Ten Books at a Time

Wed, 09 Jul 2025 12:39:22 +0000

At the entrance to the New Kituwah Academy in Cherokee, North Carolina, a big red sign reads ‘English Stops Here.’ The school, which teaches preschool through the sixth grade, is a Cherokee language immersion program. Classes, lunch and after-school activities are conducted primarily in Cherokee, and the school’s books, maps and diagrams are full of the 85 symbols that make up the Cherokee syllabary.

Among other resources, teachers and students have access to copies of a half dozen hand-printed picture books designed and created by students at Western Carolina University (WCU). The books cover a range of topics, from Cherokee myths and legends to the riparian habitats of western North Carolina.

The partnership with WCU was initiated by Dr. Hartwell Francis, the curriculum developer for the New Kituwah Academy and an honorary member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.

“One of the things you realize when you start working with a language of a small population is that there are often no materials, or very few materials. And the materials aren’t very pretty,” Francis said in an interview with the Daily Yonder.

So Francis approached Tatiana Potts, printmaking and book arts professor at Western Carolina University. Potts, who is from Slovakia and grew up speaking multiple languages, embraced the project immediately. She sees it as an opportunity for her students to not only learn new printmaking skills, but also to build cross-cultural connections with a community only 20 miles down the road.

Aquileo | In a Small Texas Town, Pride Grows Loud and Joyful

Sun, 17 Aug 2025 22:47:28 +0000

The sound of Beyoncé’s “Texas Hold ‘Em” and the stomping of boots on hardwood echoed against the neon-bathed walls of O’Donnell’s in Lockhart’s town square. This Pride of Caldwell County dance night was one of eight events that the organization hosted over the last week of June, and with the bar packed from end to end with line dancers, onlookers singing along, and laughter, there was no shortage of celebration in this small Texas town.

Nestled in the heart of Central Texas, Caldwell County is better known as the barbecue capital of the state. But over the past few years, it’s also become home to a growing and visible LGBTQ+ community, a transformation sparked, in part, by a conversation among friends in 2021.

That year, a group gathered in Lockhart Arts and Craft, a bar just around the corner from O’Donnell’s, and laid the foundation for what would become Pride of Caldwell County, a grassroots nonprofit organization committed to building LGBTQ+ community and visibility in the region.

“Even just a few years earlier, there was so much more hesitation about starting something like this,” said Haley Fort, one of Pride of Caldwell County’s board members. “Pride did not have the same presence back then and we didn’t have stickers showing safe spaces or anything.”

Aquileo | Mobile Medical Units Help Deliver Women’s Healthcare in Rural Southeast Texas

Thu, 17 Jul 2025 19:53:23 +0000

In order to address gaps in women’s healthcare in rural parts of Southeast Texas, the Hope Women’s Resource Clinic uses a “mobile medical unit” – an RV converted into a clinic that provides various prenatal care – free of charge.

The mobile medical unit provides pregnancy testing, ultrasounds and STI testing, and treatment. It parks in Port Arthur, Silsbee, Orange, and Crystal Beach, Texas. The company has been operating for 27 years and also has a brick-and-mortar clinic building in Beaumont, Texas. They are planning to open another clinic building in Port Arthur.

“We saw the need to reach out to the community for those who can’t get here,” said Jeanette Harvey, Executive Director of Hope Clinic.

The mobile medical unit was created because while patients in Beaumont could use public transportation to access the clinic building, patients in surrounding rural areas had trouble getting to it. Harvey and her team conducted research by visiting a handful of other small towns in the area with their smaller mobile medical unit at the time to gauge community need and location convenience, and narrow it down.

Aquileo | America’s Dark Skies: Some rural communities are dedicated to preserving the grandeur of the night sky. Where can you find these places?

Thu, 04 Sep 2025 18:39:53 +0000

Aquileo | Reclaiming Local Future Through the Trades

Thu, 23 Oct 2025 21:25:58 +0000

In rural communities across the country, stacked challenges like housing costs, childcare gaps, and limited transit keep people on the sidelines of employment. And the trades feel it deeply.

Industry analysts estimate the U.S. construction sector alone faces a gap of roughly half a million workers. But Cassidy Riley of Coalfield Development in West Virginia said, “Compounding barriers do not mean that rural places need pity. We do need resources, effort, and solidarity.”

That requires developing programs and pipelines that help people see a future for themselves in vital industries. “When you empower people to overcome barriers, the sky becomes the limit,” Riley said. Her organization is “rebuilding the Appalachian economy from the ground up,” with initiatives ranging from real estate development to creative placemaking and advanced energy opportunities.

Aquileo | ‘We Have to Tell These Stories:’ The Architects of Queer History in Rural Missouri

Sun, 07 Dec 2025 16:24:43 +0000

October was LGBTQ History month thanks to a history teacher from rural Missouri. Rodney Wilson made history in 1994 when he came out as gay to his St. Louis high school classroom, not far from where he grew up in rural Potosi, Missouri.

Wilson didn’t plan on coming out to his students that day. But while explaining the pink triangles used to forcibly identify queer people in concentration camps during the Holocaust, he felt compelled to tell his students that had he lived there at that time, he might have been marked with one too.

Wilson’s coming out sparked backlash in Missouri and across the country. But Wilson remained firm in his efforts to humanize himself and his community, going on to establish a nationally recognized month commemorating LGBTQ+ history.

He was not alone then, nor is he now. Across the state, queer Missourians–teachers, historians, journalists, and ordinary people–have fought for decades to document and preserve the stories of their peers, elders, and ancestors that would otherwise be erased or unheard. The people continuing the fight are speaking up about why it matters more than ever.

Aquileo | The Northern Cheyenne Tribe Reclaims Sovereignty Through Solar Energy and Buffalo Restoration

Sun, 01 Feb 2026 15:36:10 +0000

Aquileo | Two Liberation Movements, Intertwined | The Daily Yonder

Tue, 10 Mar 2026 17:01:30 +0000

The vision of Lucille Contreras (Lipan Apache), CEO & founder of the Texas Tribal Buffalo Project, is to revive and reconnect all the tribes of Texas through a regenerative herd of American bison, or Iyane’e. Contreras learned to care for bison on the Pine Ridge reservation, then purchased 77 acres in rural Gonzalez County, Texas, in 2020 with a new farmer-rancher loan from the USDA. The herd of 34 bison has grown from the initial eight acquired in 2021.

The “Land Back” movement seeks to restore a people to sacred stewardship of their ancestral lands, and successes like the one in Texas are happening across the country. The work of the NDN Collective, a South Dakota-based international Indigenous organization, is just another example.

Nick Tilsen (Oglala Lakota), the founder of NDN Collective, explains that a Land Back ethic doesn’t mean going back in time, but moving forward with all people to create a just and equitable world.

Contreras and Tilsen have found common cause as members of the Black Liberation-Indigenous Sovereignty Collective, co-founded by Trevor Smith (a Black man) and Savannah Romero (an Indigenous woman and citizen of the Eastern Shoshone Tribe). According to Romero, most Land Back successes in their member organizations are in rural areas of Indian Country or near reservation communities.

The BLIS Collective serves as a hub to connect leaders in the Land Back movement with those seeking reparations, or healing and restoration, for African American people injured because of their group identity. By promoting a braided narrative of justice for both Black and Indigenous people, BLIS includes dozens of member organizations who work to articulate the intrinsic tie between Land Back and reparations.

Aquileo | I Tried to Identify the Gayest Small Towns, but the Data Fell Apart

Fri, 12 Jun 2026 17:29:07 +0000