Thurs., Nov. 11, 2004

native american arts daily news, presented by
amerindianarts.us

"Gathering of Hearts" Art Show Planned for Tulsa
Native Times - USA
This year's "Gathering of Hearts and Native American Arts" is slated for November 19 through 21 at the Tulsa Mariott Southern Hills. ...

Novices shown `how to powwow'
Chicago Tribune (subscription) - Chicago,IL,USA
... Museum of the American Indian in Evanston, described as "the only museum in the Chicago area focusing on the history, culture and arts of Native Americans.". ...

Dawn to Dusk in the arts in Athens County
The Athens News - Athens,OH,USA
... Museum of Art collections include more than 8,000 objects from a broad range of cultures, including an assortment of Southwest Native-American arts and crafts. ...

Mark Carroll is Teacher of the Year
Shore Publishing - Madison,CT,USA
... The story takes place in the late 1700s and follows Native American and colonists children ... He teaches mainly fourth grade Language Arts and Social Studies. ...

Still Going
Richmond Times Dispatch - Richmond,VA,USA
... 31. 353-2668. "Continuum A Look at Native American Life Past and Present," through Jan. 8, at Cultural Arts Center at Glen Allen, 2880 Mountain Road. 359-8893. ...

11-11 ENTERTAINMENT LIST PART 2
The Saginaw News - Saginaw,MI,USA
... Altrusa Holiday Mart, featuring the annual juried arts and crafts show, at ... Ash Basket Demo, featuring Renee Dillard, as part of Native American Heritage Week ...

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Web Sites:
Indigenous Peoples Literature
Essay on the Zuni World View
Excerpt

In a like sense, the rock images of the Zuni lie at the periphery of the village and can stand in opposition to the peaceful center.  Their peaceful integration to the center is dependent upon a proper interpretation of context that requires an extensive knowledge of Zuni religion and myth.  In this it is representative of the dangerous.  While an image can be appreciated visually, its power to evoke proper narrative can bring danger in a deviant utterance.  Proper interpretation is the pragmatic elimination of individual expression and the proper narrative is reflective of a collective cohesion that is manifest as aesthetic appreciation, and while aesthetics and art find religion as their motive, aesthetic expression cannot be a part of religious dialogue.  As Walker noted, expressive language tends to categorize the user [91] and to the Zuni if this act has religious associations it could bring danger to the individual and lack personal accomplishment for it may subsequently bring danger to the collectivity.

[91] Walker notes that referential meaning is about the non-linguistic environment of a speaker, e.g. color-coding.  Walker, Willard. “Taxonomic Structure and the Pursuit of Meaning”.  Southwestern Journal of Anthropology.  21: 265-275, 1966b: 266.

Notices:

Precious Cargo -- Cradle Baskets and Childbirth: California Indian Traditions

In the last couple decades, it has become common to see modern parents carry babies in back packs or slings. It is thought to be good for babies to feel the body warmth and closeness of a parent. Interestingly, this was exactly the approach taken by California Indian groups for many generations. Carrying her infant in a basketry cradleboard allowed the mother to keep the baby close and respond to its needs, while at the same time continuing the cooking and collecting needed to provide the necessities of life for the family. As with many Native American artifacts, the objects of daily use became an art form, reflecting both the Indian aesthetic and the habits and belief systems of the various Indian groups. A new exhibit at the Maidu Interpretive Center in Roseville depicts and explains the many characteristics of Native practices relating to childbirth and childcare. The exhibit shows the varying cradle basket styles, some of which had pointed designs at the bottom, allowing the mother to stand the cradleboard in the ground while she tended to some brief task. Others were designed to be temporarily attached to a tree, letting the baby look around. Some cradleboards kept the infant swaddled tightly, others allowed the baby to be in a sitting position. Some were constructed with hoods to protect and give shade to the baby. Throughout California, mothers and grandmothers made model cradles for their children and grandchildren to play with. It was more than a toy, it was a model for the girl’s future role. The child might also make her own, representing her first attempt at weaving a cradle basket. The cradle design varied from group to group, so an infant was instantly placed in a device that gave it a sense of cultural identity as well as security. While the exhibit displays cradle boards from the Pomo, Chumash, Yurok, Miwok, Washoe, Mojave, and 22 other native groups, it also covers other aspects of birth and childrearing. It explains how the father also changed his lifestyle while awaiting the birth of the child, how he might entrust the child briefly to a fast runner, hoping to transfer that skill to the youngster. Child naming practices are also described in the exhibit, as are the use of ‘touchstones’ and rituals to help women achieve conception. Fertility was believed to be under the control of the supernatural, and spiritual considerations were embedded into childbirth and child raising practices. This unique exhibit, opening November 26, is called Precious Cargo: California Indian Cradle Baskets and Childbirth Traditions. It explores traditional beliefs and practices concerning childbirth and the use of cradle baskets, both historically and today, The traveling exhibit was assembled by the Marin Museum of the American Indian and will be on tour for three years. The Maidu Interpretive Center will have community activities and demonstrations related to the exhibit. The center is at 1960 Johnson Ranch Drive in Roseville. For further information, call the center at 916.774.5934 or 772-4242

"Honor Your Spirit, Protect The Children"
Winter & Christmas 2004 - Request for Donations
http://www.geocities.com/honoryourspirit/home.html

If you wish to make a difference and help children and elders through the harsh winter months in Montana, please take the time to read our request. On behalf of reliable Northern Cheyenne contacts from Lame Deer, we are once again collecting donations for those in need on the Northern Cheyenne reservation.
There is a large need especially for new and good quality used warm items, as well as toys.
List of useful donations :
- warm clothing such as knitted items for children of all ages from babies to teenagers, and for elders - jeans and T-shirts, all sizes - socks, gloves, boots, hats and scarves - blankets - toys for Christmas
Donations should be sent to the following address:
Honor Your Spirit - Protect the Children
% Sue Buck
PO Box 901
Great Falls, MT 59403-0901 (USA)
Please contact suemontana@mcn.net for mailing information other than regular US Mail service. (Also please include your name and address if you would like for us to acknowledge/confirm receipt of your donations.)
The toys will be distributed during the Christmas give away but the warm clothes and blankets will be distributed right away. During Montana winters, the temperature can drop to 30 or 40 degrees below zero so warm winter clothing and blankets can be lifesaving.
Our goal is to help the children, the elders, the single parent families, or families unable to make ends meet due to the high unemployment rate, the difficult conditions and the extreme poverty on the reservation.The children need all the help and encouragement they can get!
Other items that would also be appreciated: grooming supplies like toothpaste, tooth brushes,soaps and shampoos, combs, hair brushes, hair barrettes, rubber bands or other types of hair or pony tail holders. Last but not least : pampers diapers or pull-ups.
Thank you for being a part of this project and supporting it."
Respectfully,
Manuel Redwoman,
Northern Cheyenne/Lakota/Arapaho
Our heartfelt thanks to everyone for your support !

Haidu Language Project
Did you know that before Christopher Columbus arrived in the new world, the "Indians" in North America spoke over 300 indigenous languages? Today, roughly 20 of these languages have speakers of all ages. Unfortunately, the Haida language of Kasaan, Alaska is not among them.
Currently, only seven Kasaan Haidas speak the Kasaan Haida dialect with varying degrees of fluency--all elders over the age of 75. I know this because my dad grew up in Kasaan, 25 miles from my birthplace of Ketchikan, Alaska. We belong to the Haida tribe. This summer, I urged the Kasaan Haida Heritage Foundation (KHHF) to allow me to utilize the foundation's nonprofit status to seek funding and conduct projects that preserve our elders' knowledge.
In September, we created the position of Media Specialist in which I intend to raise money and interview our elders, especially in regards to the Haida language. I will produce, direct, and coordinate a video documentary to raise awareness and archive the language. I plan to make the results available in digital formats on the KHHF website.
If given the chance, I believe people would rally to this cause. We need to get the word out. So, I call on friends like you to get the ball rolling and join "The Grassroots Founders Campaign" Grassroots because the idea is to reach out to many individuals on a personal level; Founders because you will underwrite the beginning of our preservation effort.
Donations received from now until December 31, 2004 will earn the donor a Grassroots Founder designation. I ask for a relatively small gift of 25 to 100 dollars. Donor's names will appear in the KHHF newsletter and donations will be eligible for a tax deduction for this year. Grassroots Founders get special on-screen mention in the documentary.
Please send checks (payable to "KHHF") to:
Kasaan Haida Heritage Foundation
600 University Street, Suite 3010
Seattle, WA 98101-1129
Write in the memo area on your check or include a note designating funds for "Media Specialist/Projects".
Very importantly, SPREAD THE WORD. Please pass this on to 5 to 10 friends, or more. You will multiply your donation exponentially and play a vital role in preserving the Haida language for future generations. We appreciate anything you can do to help us preserve our language and heritage.
Sincerely,
Frederick Olsen, Jr.
For more information, email me or go to
http://kavilco.com/pages/
aboutkhhf.html
KHHF is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization (EIN 92-0169568).

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Arapaho - Arapaho Notes

An important Plains tribe of the great Algonquian family, closely associated with the Cheyenne for at least a century past. They call themselves Iñunaina, about equivalent to 'our people.' The name by which they are commonly known is of uncertain derivation, but it may possibly be, as Dunbar suggests, from the Pawnee tirapihu or larapihu, 'trader.' By the Sioux and Cheyenne they are called " Blue-sky men " or "Cloud men," the reason for which is unknown. According to the tradition of the Arapaho they were once a sedentary, agricultural people, living far to the northeast of their more recent habitat, apparently about the Red River Valley of northern Minnesota. From this point they moved southwest across the Missouri, apparently about the same time that the Cheyenne (q. v.) moved out from Minnesota, although the date of the formation of the permanent alliance between the two tribes is uncertain. The Atsina (q. v.), afterward associated with the Siksika, appear to have separated from the parent tribe and moved off toward the north after their emergence into the plains. The division into Northern and Southern Arapaho is largely geographic, originating within the last century, and made permanent by the placing of the two bands on different reservations. The Northern Arapaho, in Wyoming, are considered the nucleus or mother tribe and retain the sacred tribal articles, viz, a tubular pipe, one ear of corn, and a turtle figurine, all of stone. Since they crossed the Missouri the drift of the Arapaho, as of the Cheyenne and Sioux, has been west and south, the Northern Arapaho making lodges on the edge of the mountains about the head of the North Platte, while the Southern Arapaho continued down toward the Arkansas. About the year 1840 they made peace with the Sioux, Kiowa, and Comanche, but were always at war with the Shoshoni, Ute, and Pawnee until they were confined upon reservations, while generally maintaining a friendly attitude toward the whites. By the treaty of Medicine Lodge in 1867 the southern Arapaho, together with the Southern Cheyenne, were placed upon a reservation in Oklahoma, which was thrown open to white settlement in 1892, the Indians at the same time receiving allotments in severalty, with the rights of American citizenship. The Northern Arapaho were assigned to their present reservation on Wind River in Wyoming in 1876, after having made peace with their hereditary enemies, the Shoshoni, living upon the same reservation. The Atsina division, usually regarded as a distinct tribe, is associated with the Assiniboin on Ft Belknap reservation in Montana. They numbered, respectively, 889, 859, and 535 in 1904, a total of 2,283, as against a total of 2,038 ten years earlier. As a people the Arapaho are brave, but kindly and accommodating, and much given to ceremonial observances. The annual sun dance is their greatest tribal ceremony, and they were active propagators of the ghost-dance religion (q. v.) a few years ago. In arts and home life, until within a few years past, they were a typical plains tribe. They bury their dead in the ground, unlike the Cheyenne and Sioux, who deposit them upon scaffolds or on the surface of the ground in boxes. They have the military organization common to most of the Plains tribes (see Military societies), and have no trace of the clan system.
Handbook of American Indians (1906) ~ Frederick W. Hodge
From Blue Panther Keeper of Stories

Arapaho Chiefs and Leaders Little Raven Little Raven (Hósa, 'Young Crow'). An Arapaho chief.He was first signer, for the Southern Arapaho, of the treaty of Fort Wise, Colo., Feb. 18, 1861. At a later period he took part with the allied Arapaho and Cheyenne in the war along the Kansas border, but joined in the treaty of Medicine Lodge, Kansas, in 1867, by which these tribes agreed to go on a reservation, after which treaty all his effort was consistently directed toward keeping his people at peace with the Government and leading then to civilization. Through his influence the body of the Arapaho remained at peace with the whites when their allies, the Cheyenne and Kiowa, went on the warpath in 1874-75. Little Raven died at Cantonment, Okla., in the winter of 1889, after having maintained for 20 years a reputation as the leader of the progressive element. He was succeeded by Nawat, 'Left-hand'. Nawat ('Left-hand' ). The principal chief of the Southern Arapaho since the death of Little Raven (q. v.) in 1889. He was born about 1840, and because noted as a warrior and buffalo hunter, taking active part in the western border wars until the treaty of Medicine Lodge in 1867, since which time his people, as a tribe, have remained at peace with the whites. In 1890 he took the lead in signing the allotment agreement opening the reservation to white settlement, notwithstanding the Cheyenne, in open council, had threatened death to anyone who signed. He several times visited Washington in the interest of his tribe. Having become blind, he has recently resigned his authority to a younger man.
From Blue Panther Keeper of Stories