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Suzan Shown Harjo

Suzan Shown Harjo, who is Cheyenne and Hodulgee Muscogee, has long been an advocate for Native American rights.

Before she petitioned the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to cancel the federal trademark registrations for the Washington Redskins, she had already successfully stopped other sports teams from using names and mascots demeaning to Native American cultures.

She worked with Native American activist groups to get the University of Oklahoma to retire its mascot "Little Red" in 1970. Soon after, and with pressure from Harjo and these groups, Dartmouth University retired the "Indian" as its unofficial mascot. In the mid-1990s, Harjo persuaded the Kentucky Department of Education and schools to change all the school names and mascots that were Native American stereotypes.

In the 1960s, Harjo co-produced Seeing Red, the United States' first Native American news program, at New York radio station WBAI. There, she met her husband, Frank Harjo, with whom she reported on New York's vibrant Native American community. Her involvement in the local art scene is what initially sparked her interest in work advocating for the repatriation of sacred Native cultural objects held by museums. In 1974, Harjo began working as a legislative liaison representing Native American rights in addition to serving as the news director of the American Indian Press Association.

Under President Jimmy Carter, Harjo served as a congressional liaison for Indian affairs and supported Native American positions in the formation of federal policy. In this role, she worked toward the passage of the American Indian Religious Freedom Act of 1978, which was intended to protect the traditional religious and cultural practices of Native Americans, Alaskans and Hawaiians.

She helped found the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian and served as a founding trustee in the 1990s. Harjo was also the guest curator and general editor for a 2014 exhibition and book at the museum about treaties between the United States and Native American nations. Currently, Harjo serves as the president of the Morning Star Institute, a national Native American advocacy organization.

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Rep. Patsy Mink, D-Hawaii, talks with reporters on Capitol Hill in 1997. Joe Marquette/AP hide caption

itoggle caption Joe Marquette/AP

Rep. Patsy Mink, D-Hawaii, talks with reporters on Capitol Hill in 1997.

Joe Marquette/AP

Patsy Mink

Patsy Mink (nee Takemoto) was born in 1927 to Mitama Tateyama and Suematsu Takemoto, second-generation Japanese-Americans living in Maui, Hawaii. Her grandparents had immigrated to the United States at the turn of the 20th century in search of opportunity and found work in Hawaii's sugar cane plantations. Her family's pursuit of the American dream butted up against intense xenophobia in the years following the 1941 bombing of Pearl Harbor, and those experiences deeply affected her ideas of what it meant to be an American.

Maui's racially stratified plantation economy would come to inform Mink's own politics for the rest of her life. Early in her career, Mink aligned herself with Hawaii's Democratic minority in opposition to the historically Republican establishment.

Long before she became a lawmaker, Mink planned to practice medicine. According to the Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives, she was rejected from the 20 medical schools that she applied to on the basis of her gender. Undeterred in her resolve to make a difference, Mink worked a number of menial jobs before an employer recommended that she apply to law school.

Mink believed that the University of Chicago Law School admitted her in 1948 because a clerical error misidentified her as a foreign student. After graduating with her J.D. in 1951, Mink still found virtually no career prospects open to her as a female, Japanese-American lawyer.

She moved back to Hawaii with her husband and daughter. With a loan from her father, Mink founded her own practice, where she specialized in criminal and family law. In addition to being the first Japanese-American female lawyer in the state and teaching at the University of Hawaii law school, Mink became involved in politics there.

Mink would eventually win a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, and she became a prominent Asian-American voice in the early days of the civil rights movement, joining the NAACP in the 1960s. In 1972 she threw her hat into the ring and became the first Asian-American to run for the United States presidency, campaigning on an anti-war platform.

Though Mink did not ultimately secure the Democratic Party's nomination, she cemented her legacy as a legislator that same year when she co-sponsored Title IX of of the United States Education Amendments. Title IX forever changed the way institutions of higher education welcomed women.

Two years later, she introduced the Women's Educational Equity Act, which was signed into law by President Gerald Ford and outlines federal protections against gender discrimination of women in schools. After Mink returned to Congress in 1990, she co-sponsored a bill intended to combat gender bias in grade school, and in 1995 she organized and led the Democratic Women's Caucus.

Mink served in the House until her death in September 2002.

Edward Roybal was known for his advocacy on the issue of creating services for the aging U.S. population as well as championing civil rights. The USC Edward R. Roybal Institute on Aging hide caption

itoggle caption The USC Edward R. Roybal Institute on Aging

Edward Roybal

Edward Roybal was a groundbreaking politician who became a role model for a generation of Latino elected officials. He served as the founding chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and was one of first Hispanic lawmakers to hold national office in the 20th century. In the 1970s, Roybal also co-founded the National Association of Latino Elected Leaders and Appointed Officials to help more Latinos carry out successful bids for public office.

Roybal began his political career in 1949, serving on the Los Angeles City Council, an experience he recounted in an interview with the Los Angeles Times. At his first meeting, Roybal balked when a colleague introduced him as "our new Mexican-speaking councilman, representing the Mexican people in his district." Discarding his prepared remarks, Roybal responded by explaining that he was not Mexican but Mexican-American and did not speak "Mexican" but Spanish.

During his time on the council, Roybal worked with local political organizations to launch voter registration drives and efforts to stop police brutality. Roybal left the council for the halls of the U.S. House of Representatives in 1962, where he would serve for the next 30 years. As a representative from Los Angeles, Roybal supported measures that restored cuts to senior citizens' health care programs, funded AIDS research in the early 1980s and created bilingual education programs.

Roybal's congressional career wasn't always smooth. In 1978, he was targeted by the House Ethics Committee for failing to report a political contribution. He received a reprimand after several House colleagues and Latino leaders from around the country came to his defense.

Roybal ended his career in Congress in 1993. Within California's political circles, he became known as "The Old Man," whose endorsement could play a decisive role for political victories. His daughter, Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard, began serving in Congress in 1993 and currently represents California's 40th District.

Roybal was awarded the Presidential Citizens Medal in 2001 by then-President Clinton. He died in 2005, at age 89.

Muslims call it the Noble Sanctuary. Jews call it the Temple Mount. On the contested hilltop that has been the focus of so much of the unrest in Jerusalem, Muslims who see themselves as "defenders" of the sanctuary raise their voices in a call to God whenever Jewish visitors enter.

These mourabitoun (men) and mourabiat (women) have gained attention during the recent weeks. Last Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said they should be outlawed. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas responded a few days later with the proclamation "We are all mourabitoun." In the same speech, he accused Netanyahu of fanning the flames of a religious war.

During visiting hours for non-Muslims one day this week, all was quiet on the broad plaza for a while. Israeli police in riot gear lounged at the entrance. Boys played soccer in a grove of olive trees.

Muslim men and women sat in shady spots between the gilded Dome of the Rock shrine dominating the sanctuary and the more modest Al-Aqsa mosque at one end.

Then a man wearing a Jewish skullcap arrived. As soon as the Muslim groups spotted him, they called out Allahu Akbar – Arabic for "God is great."

During visiting hours for non-Muslims, Israeli police patrol the holy site, which sits on a Jerusalem hilltop. Emily Harris/NPR hide caption

itoggle caption Emily Harris/NPR

Zaina Ahmer has gone there daily for more than a decade. She teaches classes about the sanctuary and acts as a guide.

"Our purpose is to educate," she says, "not to create chaos. But when we are provoked, we call attention to wrongdoing. The Jewish people who claim to come as tourists really want to take over. When we call out 'Allahu Akbar,' we are rejecting their presence here."

Things can quickly escalate from cries of "God is great." Police say they have been attacked with chairs, rocks and fireworks. Muslims say they have been hit by Israeli forces, injured by sound bombs, arrested and banned from entering. A video [http://youtu.be/VIqgJE6-zgc ] one woman "defender" posted on YouTube shows police chasing and surrounding her after she got up close to a Jewish visitor, calling out "Allahu Akbar."

Israeli police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld says the mourabitoun aim to disrupt.

"We're talking about groups that get organized, walk around the Temple Mount, and try and disrupt the visits by shouting or screaming," Rosenfeld says. "There have even been cases where women have thrown stones at individuals and VIPs who have been walking on the Temple Mount."

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Police have started to crack down. This week, Elham Ibrahim waited two hours with a group of women before police would let them in.

"I come as much as I could, you know. I send my son off to school, then I come here," Ibrahim says. "When I don't come here, I'm missing something. Something is really missing."

She takes religious classes at the mosque and adds to the Muslim presence during tourist hours. But she doesn't yell at visiting Jews, she says.

"They have video cameras, they're taking videos of whoever's saying 'Allahu Akbar.' I have a family, with kids, you know and I wouldn't want to be taken. I wouldn't want to be arrested."

Jews debate among themselves whether they should visit the site. Many believe it is too sacred to set foot on. Others say it's too sensitive politically. Israel bans Jewish prayer at the site, a policy that more than one-third of Jewish Israelis want lifted, according to a recent poll.

Muslim Akram Shurafa says Jews who want to pray there are intruders. He doesn't believe their motivations are solely spiritual.

"We do not consider this aggression religious," he says, referring to increased visits by Jewish believers to the site. "We see it as aggression from extreme Jews who want to claim the sanctuary and take it for their own.

"This is explosive," he says.

Both Israel and Jordan, the official custodian of the site, promised after a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry Thursday to take concrete steps to calm tensions around the contested holy site. Israel is also considering measures like adding electronic security to the gates Muslims enter. That is unlikely to please at least some of those who consider themselves the mosque's "defenders."

Temple Mount

Palestinians

Arab-Israeli conflict

Jerusalem

Israel

What do you get when you mix big-deal comedians with real-life calamities? Sounds like a joke, but Steve Carell and Jon Stewart are answering that question this week in their movies Foxcatcher and Rosewater. And it turns out, seriousness suits them.

In fact, you'll likely do a double-take when you first see Carell's John Dupont in Foxcatcher. Maybe when you first hear him, too. He's the black sheep of the wealthy gunpowder-magnate family circa 1988, and he's all but unrecognizable behind a putty nose and a flat vocal affect that makes words and phrases emerge from him in what sound like burps.

Talking to an Olympic wrestler he's hoping to impress, Carell's Dupont is pasty, heavy, awkward, and when he flashes what he apparently intends as a pleasant smile, it's downright disquieting.

Mark Schultz, the gold medalist he's inviting to train at a facility he's built on his Pennsylvania estate, is played by Channing Tatum with a leaden affect and the wounded look of puppy who's been kicked too often. Mark is the younger of two Olympic medalists in his family. His brother Dave, played with more grace and verve by Mark Ruffalo, has prospered since his Olympic win. Mark, who won later, stalled out quicker, and now, to escape his brother's shadow, he signs on with Dupont, who showers him with money, sparring partners, cocaine, and inspirational speeches that sound increasingly unhinged.

"I am leading men," says Dupont. "I am giving them a dream and I am giving America hope."

A more astute man might realize his patron is ... well, maybe nuts, but Tatum's Mark isn't the sharpest tool in the shed, and just gets himself, and later his brother, in deeper.

Director Bennett Miller is no stranger to sports or personal eccentricity in his films, having directed both Moneyball and the Truman Capote biopic Capote. In Foxcatcher, Miller uses three superb performances to take us deep into a privileged world where the choreographed struggle of wrestling mixes toxically with the psychological struggles of familial disappointment. The film does not — or maybe cannot — explain the inexplicable: the acts of a mentally ill man. But it can make the plight of those in that man's orbit profoundly anguishing.

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Rosewater has the sense of urgency and nuanced take on media that you'd expect from first time writer-director Jon Stewart. Laith Al-Majali / Open Road Films hide caption

itoggle caption Laith Al-Majali / Open Road Films

Rosewater has the sense of urgency and nuanced take on media that you'd expect from first time writer-director Jon Stewart.

Laith Al-Majali / Open Road Films

You might expect anguish from Rosewater, a film drawn by Jon Stewart from BBC journalist Maziar Bahari's book about surviving solitary confinement in an Iranian prison. But while the film can be unnerving as it details the dangers of reporting on opposition demonstrators after Iran's elections, it's also steeped in the sort of humor you'd expect from Stewart, who both wrote and directed the movie. In fact, Stewart's connection with the story was more than moderately intimate: A Daily Show interview done by the real Bahari was used against him in jail. Stewart has actor Gael Garcia Bernal re-enact it with Jason Jones.

Funny to American ears, the sketch, in which Jones claims to be a spy, becomes less funny when Bahari's thrown in prison four days after it airs, and has to defend himself to an interrogator as "just a journalist."

The interrogator — an excellent Kim Bodnia — calls up the interview on his computer.

"Can you tell me," he wonders, "why 'just-a-journalist' would meet up with an American spy?"

Bahari, laughing, tells him it's a comedy show, that Jones is a comedian pretending to be a spy, but that doesn't even blunt the line of questioning.

"So can you tell me why an American pretending to be a spy has chosen to interview you?"

Jon Stewart took several months off from Comedy Central to make this movie last year, and painful as that sabbatical may have been for fans, it turns out to have been worthwhile. Rosewater (the title references the cologne by which the usually blindfolded Bahari recognizes the interrogator) has an urgency that's all about the storytelling smarts of its first-time writer-director. It's also got first-rate acting, the nuance about media manipulation you'd expect from Stewart, and even cinematic grace notes, as when Bernal, in a burst of antic feeling after months of isolation, dances in his cell, remembering a Leonard Cohen song his sister played for him as a child.

Rosewater — and Foxcatcher, too — could doubtless have been anchored by other talents. Their stories needn't have reached us, tears-of-a-clown-style, through Jon Stewart and Steve Carell. But the involvement of those comics proves a remarkable blessing, at least partly because it connects us to their sense of discovery.

What could be more astonishing, after all, than being moved by those we look to for laughter.

With gas and oil prices plunging, among those benefiting are airlines. With fuel prices down, profits are up, but that doesn't mean you'll be able to find cheap airfares, especially over the holidays.

The airline industry is predicting more people will take to the skies over Thanksgiving than any year since the start of the recession.

The weather in Chicago is not quite frightful yet, but the snow and cold is coming; so warm weather destinations for the holidays sound appealing.

Those are the kinds of inquiries travel agent Giselle Sanchez of Mena Travel is fielding. After a few very slow years during the recession, Sanchez says business is really picking up.

"We are seeing a lot of families wanting to take trips and planning their trips, so we do see more people wanting to travel now," Sanchez says. "Is it back to where it was before? Not yet, but I think it's getting there."

But that means planes are packed tight, and because demand is rising, fares are up, especially over the two weeks when schools are out over the Christmas and New Year's holidays.

Thanksgiving weekend fares are higher than last year, too, especially if you want to fly on the Wednesday before and Sunday after Thanksgiving.

“ So far this year, airlines have earned more than $2 billion more than at this time last year — but that doesn't mean passengers can expect air fares to drop anytime soon.

The airline industry is expecting 24.6 million passengers on planes around Thanksgiving, up 1.5 percent over last year. And a whopping 2.6 million of those travelers will fly on that Sunday.

"Sunday is not only expected to be the busiest day of the period, but if last year's an indication, it should be the busiest day of the entire calendar year," said John Heimlich, chief economist for the industry group Airlines for America.

In a conference call with reporters this past week, Heimlich noted that dropping fuel prices are pushing up profits. So far this year, airlines have earned more than $2 billion more than at this time last year.

But he says that doesn't mean we can expect air fares to drop anytime soon.

"The first priority is to make sure you have strong financial health, can pay down your bills and invest in the future and weather the next recession," Heimlich said.

Back at Mena Travel in Chicago, Giselle Sanchez is looking to find a bargain around Christmas.

"See all these zeroes? When you see zeros in all inventory, that means it's a pretty full flight," she says.

Sanchez says she can still find some low fares, even around Thanksgiving — if you fly on certain days.

But with the convenient flights packed, to get the deals, you might need to take some extra days off.

Thanksgiving

Travel

Holidays