Tues., Nov. 30, 2004

native american arts daily news, presented by
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Novo Nordisk Announces Annual Diabetes Scholarship Fund for Native ...
Market Wire (press release) - USA
... According to the American Diabetes Association, the prevalence ... Over 107,000 Native Americans and Alaska Natives, or ... is the only private liberal arts college in ...

Home for the Holidays II - Holiday Happenings
The Columbian - Vancouver,WA,USA
... latest full-color publication that showcases the museum's Native American basket collection ... 5 pm Royal Durst Theatre in the Vancouver School of Arts & Academics ...

FEATURE FILM AND WORLD CINEMA COMPETITIONS
Movie City News - Los Angeles,CA,USA
... A chronicle of legendary Native American poet/activist ... taking and encourage diversity in the arts. ... Company; Leadership Sponsors--American Express, Andersen ...

NEWS BRIEFS Glenview school to host hol ...
Montclarion - Montclair,CA,USA
... Santa giveaway, handmade authentic Native American crafts and ... serving the Bay Area's American Indian community ... Oakland's Cultural Arts Department has announced ...

County schools win art award
Potomac News (subscription) - Woodbridge,VA,USA
... From Potomac View and Swans Creek elementary schools' Native American stamp-blankets ... Fred Milbert, supervisor of several fine arts programs within the school ...

 This once a day Google Alert is brought to you by Google.

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Indian band seeks to regain its birthright
By David Whitney
Members of the Winnemem band of Wintu Indians from left, Arron Sisk and James Ward, both 17; Caleen Sisk-Franco, the tribe's spiritual leader; and her daughter Waimen, 12 are downcast after discovering that a memorial plaque for a local angler had been placed at the foot of Children's Rock, one of their sacred sites.
Photo

Wintu Indians
At War Against Dam, Tribe Turns to Old Ways
Peter DaSilva for The New York Times
Warriors of the Winnemem Wintu Indians performing a ceremonial dance in which the tribe had not engaged for more than a century.
Petition in Support of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe

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Indigenous Peoples Literature: Book of the Month
Anti-Indianism in Modern America: A Voice from Tatekeya's Earth
by Elizabeth Cook-Lynn
Editorial Reviews

In this powerful and essential work, Elizabeth Cook-Lynn confronts the politics and policies of genocide that continue to destroy the land, livelihood, and culture of Native Americans. Anti-Indianism in Modern America tells the other side of stories of historical massacres and modern-day hate crimes, events that are dismissed or glossed over by historians, journalists, and courts alike. Cook-Lynn exposes the colonialism that works both overtly and covertly to silence and diminish Native Americans, supported by a rhetoric of reconciliation, assimilation, and multiculturalism. Comparing anti-Indianism to anti-Semitism, she sets the American history of broken treaties, stolen lands, mass murder, cultural dispossession, and Indian hating in an international context of ethnic cleansing, "ecocide" (environmental destruction), and colonial oppression.

Cook-Lynn also discusses the role Native American studies should take in reasserting tribal literatures, traditions, and politics and shows how the discipline has been sidelined by anthropology, sociology, postcolonial studies, and ethnic studies. Asserting the importance of a "native conscience"--a knowledge of the mythologies, mores, and experiences of tribal society--among American Indian writers, she calls for the __expression in American Indian art and literature of a tribal consciousness that acts to assure a tribal-nation people of its future.

Passionate, eloquent, and uncompromising, Anti-Indianism in Modern America concludes that there are no real solutions for Indians as long as they remain colonized peoples. Native Americans must be able to tell their own stories and, most important, regain their land, the source of religion, morality, rights, and nationhood. As long as public silence accompanies the outlaw maneuvers that undermine tribal autonomy, the racist strategies that affect all Americans will continue.

It is difficult, Cook-Lynn concedes, to work toward the development of legal mechanisms against hate crimes, in Indian Country and elsewhere in the world. But it is not too late.

Other Books of Interest..... Natives and Academics: Researching and Writing About American Indians by Devon A. Mihesuah
Genocide of the Mind: New Native American Writing by Marijo Moore
Decolonizing Methodologies : Research and Indigenous Peoples by Linda Tuhiwai Smith
Killing the White Man's Indian : Reinventing Native Americans at the End of the Twentieth Century by FERGUS M. BORDEWICH
Indigenous American Women: Decolonization, Empowerment, Activism (Contemporary Indigenous Issues) by Devon A. Mihesuah
Power and Place: Indian Education in America by Vine, Jr. Deloria
Blessings
Brenda

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CASTING CALL for NATIVE AMERICANS
For background extras and featured extras
CASTING CALL FOR TNT/DREAMWORKS "INTO THE WEST" STARRING MICHAEL SPEARS, GRAHAM GREENE, RUSSELL MEANS, IRENE BEDARD, DAVE BALDEAGLE
a 3 movie series filming outside Santa Fe from Jan 10-Feb 20; and elsewhere in NM from March-May this series follows 2 multi- generational American and Native American families, IN THE LATE 1800's, with each telling the dramatic stories of the development of the West from their distinct points of view.
CASTING IN ALBUQUERQUE
SUN DEC 5 10:30 am - 4:00 pm
SHERATON OLD TOWN
800 Rio Grande Blvd. NW Potters Room
CASTING IN SANTA FE
SAT DEC 11 10:30 am- 4:00 pm
RADISSON 750 N. St. Francis Dr.
WE NEED THE FOLLOWING:
MALE BAREBACK RIDERS - age 18-50
Female Horseback Riders - all ages
Male Horseback Riders - all ages
Men & Women - all ages
Families - ALL AGES infant to 80's
Men & Women Elders
(**LONG HAIR IS PREFERED for all)
NO APPOINTMENT NECESSARY/ PHOTOS WELCOME
PLEASE LOOK FOR OUR ADS & RADIO FOR LATER CASTING
If anyone has questions, please call or email me directly at tasinabanks@mindspring.com / 505-280-3989.
Please spread the word to your friends and families who might be interested in being in a movie. We are seeking Anglos, Irish- Americans, African-Americans and Chinese people as well.
Thank you.
-- Tashina Banks Moore
505-280-3989
tasinabanks@mindspring.com

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Navajo artist Teddy Draper Workshops
Chinle, Arizona (Canyon DeChelly)- Seminars and workshops have limited capacity and usually require enrollment months in advance.

Workshop information for 2005

March 15-19, instructor Elmer Yazzie, "cut yucca brush" watercolor technique.

May 16-20, instructor Teddy Draper, Jr., pastel techniques, insights into art, culture, and connecting to nature.

June 7-11, Indian Jewelry Basics (class limited to 4 students).

June 7-11, instructor Teddy Draper, Jr., pastel techniques, insights into art, culture, and connecting to nature.

Contact Teddy Draper at
dechelly2000@yahoo.com

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Web Sites:
Indigenous Peoples Literature


Literacy in Indigenous Communities by L. David van Broekhuizen, Ph.D. (2000)
HTML Format (70K)
PDF Format(117K)
Literacy in first languages in indigenous communities is a complex topic that generates lively discussion. This research synthesis explores the notions of national, mother-tongue, multiple, and biliteracies. It presents important information pertaining to threatened languages, language shift, and language loss. Examples of culturally relevant uses of literacy in indigenous communities and issues related to first-language literacy instruction are also provided.

Essay on the Zuni World View
Excerpt (Complete article is available in PDF)

The duties of the Bow Society, and latter the Tribal Council, was enforcement as a secular institution despite religious evaluations.  It would not do to punish or fend witchcraft through religious rite and ceremony, for to do so the canonical rite would paradoxically expose itself to the dangerous simply by reference to it, and would be akin to ‘fighting fire with fire’, a very undesirable prospect to the Zuni.  Thus, attanni is negated by observance ( teshkwi) and violations are reflections upon the individual, and dealt with by secular enforcement, which collectively, may include gossip, criticism, and public ridicule [111].

The underlying dialectic of the beautiful and the dangerous is evident in distinct dialogues, even in the absence of aesthetic expression, for attanni is proper to secular dialogue and is pertinent to religious dialogue only in the sense of observance where ‘if you have been living rightly, then attanni is not an issue’ ( Ko’na to’ tewanan ateyaye ).  Non-verbal expression is not meaningless nor is a deviant utterance meaningless where the objective is the immersion of the subject into the social structure in order to eliminate causes of behavior conducive to the anti-structure of a social hierarchy where the collective consciousness of the people is to “pray to become one” [112].

[111] Op. cit. Dutton, 1983: 13.

[112] Eggan, Fred and T.N. Pandey.  “Zuni History, 1855-1970”.  Handbook of North American Indians, Southwest.  Vol.9.  Ed. By Alfonso Ortiz.  Pp. 474-481.  Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1979.

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Notices:

"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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Brave Man Gambles - Winnebago
There was a village there and in it lived a rich man with his wife and little boy. And the man died. That woman's very fine boy grew older, but he could not work. Then the mother's brother worked there. They took care of chickens. And he gambled. Again chickens and pigs [he drove] towards the players, and he gambled. Again he arrived back at the lodge, and there at the lodge he slumped down. And Brave Man (or Warrior) [said], "Hure, we'll eat." Four times the others did not do it with Brave Man and he became angry and knocked them down. The fourth time then [he said], "Huré-e!" and sat down and played cards. Brave Man was being cheated. He had five coins left. He went to the other village. There again Brave Man stayed with the evil ones. Again he was whipped badly. Now Brave Man went home. He did not do the mission that he (Earthmaker) gave him. Before he became a ghost, the woman he crossed over to would touch him. And so Old Woman made a ghost. Having set out a large loaf of bread and two plovers there, she cracked (the skull of) Brave Man with her hands. He cried out. She sent him off as a ghost. He slumped down in the seat. And so then the woman took it. And they had an old man for Chief of Entering the Earth (Mâkewehûka). Then Brave Man was very quiet. If the bad spirits came again, he, Brave Man, the son of Earthmaker, would come again too. Therefore, he said that the coat of the Black Robes (Christians) should not be ended, they say. The Son of God was to have a religious movement. The son would preach, they say. Still at this time he was made the spirit that is over the United States. And thus what I tell ends.
Narrated by Frank Ewing, translated by Richard L. Dieterle from Paul Radin, Notebooks, Winnebago III, #19, Freeman Number 3899 [1254] (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1909?) Story 19c (1), 4-8.

From Blue Panther Keeper of Stories