Theft of Indian artifacts on the rise; American Indian Film Fest

native american arts daily news, presented by
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Catching up without letting go
Christian Science Monitor - USA
... in America, because we hold people accountable," says Mr. Chavis, himself a native American. ... made room for a daily block of intensive language-arts instruction ...

Native storyteller made 'beautiful place'
Arizona Republic - Phoenix,AZ,USA
... He also was nominated for the 2005 Governor's Arts Award. Lacapa had talked excitedly about his next project, a Native American spinoff of the Gingerbread Man ...

Idaho calendar
The Spokesman Review (subscription) - Spokane,WA,USA
... Activities include drama, dance, fine arts and crafts ... American Indian Film Fest -- sponsored by the ... Vandal Native College Tour and Dedication -- University of ...

A candid lunch discussion with Professor Pamela Jean Owens about ...
The Gateway - Omaha,NE,USA
... I work in this little crevice of Native American studies and religion, biblical studies and ... when the same string of events happened in fine arts, with Carolyn ...
See all stories on this topic

Churchill Welcomed at UC Berkeley
New York Sun (subscription) - New York,NY,USA
... Churchill might have gotten his job because he described himself as a Native American. ... In an interview, Mr. Hexter, who is Berkeley's dean of arts and sciences ...
See all stories on this topic

FBI: Theft of Indian artifacts on the rise
Tulsa Native American Times - Tulsa,OK,USA
... to come in and find so many things missing," Charla Sanderson, assistant director of arts and culture for the city of Wichita, told the Native American Times ...

Professor Not Swayed by Critics
Daily Californian - Berkeley,CA,USA
... him for allegations of plagiarism and falsely identifying himself as a Native American. ... The other panelists, including Dean of Arts and Humanities Ralph Hexter ...

Boys and Girls Clubs of Acomo Pueblo keep kids busy
Cibola County Beacon - Grants,NM,USA
... addition to video, photography and mentoring programs, daily services include arts and crafts ... to save and enhance the lives of as many Native American youths as ...

New gallery director inspired by hometown
Coalfield Progress - Norton,VA,USA
... While working in galleries in western states known for Native American and folk ... gallery to give similar opportunities to local students interested in the arts. ...

Indian art institution opens in Camp Verde
Verde Valley Online - Sedona,AZ,USA
... His roots with the Native American people are deep, and his appreciation and respect for ... in exposing the rest of the world to Navajo and Hopi arts and crafts.". ...

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

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The Quandelacy Family of Zuni carvers

Quandelacy

One of the more notable families of Zuni fetish carvers and jewelers is the Quandelacy family. Now deceased matriarch Ellen Quandelacy learned the art of carving from her father, Johnny Quam, and her style is still very much in evidence in the carvings and fetish necklaces of daughter Albenita Yunie, and Albenita's sons Brian and Jeffrey Yunie.

As Kent McManis stated in his book A Guide to Zuni Fetishes and Carvings, "Stewart Quandelacy's bears have almost become the quintessential Zuni fetish". Zuni artist Stewart Quandelacy has stated that he prefers the terms "Zuni carving" rather than "Zuni fetish." Stewart is well known for his Medicine Bear carvings, but his bent for aesthetic license lies in what he calls the "turnaround bear", his own original stylistic development which transcends traditional folk art, and raises the craft of Zuni fetish carving to a true art form. Whether realistic, or semi-abstract, the soft, free-flowing lines he obtains with the minimal amount of change to the object stone is one of the most notable attributes of his carvings.

Those same soft lines are also evident in the carvings of Faye and Sandra Quandelacy, well known for their corn maiden carvings and pendant necklaces, and sister Georgianna Quandelacy, well known for her fetish necklaces, bears with fish, and medicine bears with sunfaces.

Andres Quandelacy is well known for his small, intricate carvings of mountain lions, buffaloes, and standing bears. Andres' style is unique and readily recognizable. Better known for mountain lion carvings with the tail draped over the back, Andres has added the loop tail and the long tail in the last few years. As have the other members of the Quandelacy family, Andres has achieved international acclaim for his carvings, pendants, and fetish necklaces fashioned in the Quandelacy tradition.

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Bibliography of the Zuni Language

The Zuni, or Shiwi language, is now generally considered a language isolate. The Encyclopedia Britannica categorizes it as a Penutian language, and Bertha Dutton once posed the hypothetical that according to the Swadesh list, "If the Zuni language is a member of the Penutian language family, then it is a distant relative of the Tanoan languages (Tewi). The Penutian hypothesis was advanced by Alfred Kroeber and Roland B. Dixon, and later refined by Edward Sapir, and was an attempt to reduce the number of unrelated language families in a culturally diverse area that was centered in California's central coast. While this theory was plausible for some of the languages, the problem of verification of this theory was that to find any evidence of any cognates between the California languages and Zuni, one would possibly have to trace the languages' lineage by as much as 3000-5000 years or more.

Listed below is a bibliography of books and articles concerned with the Zuni language. Some of these items deal with syntax and semantics, as does Zuni Curtis D. Cook's article. Others, such as Ruth Bunzel's Pueblo Pottery and Jane M. Young's book on Rock Art, may seem out of place on this list, but are important in the study of pragmatics and the Zuni World View as it corresponds with the Zuni language. The Zuni worldview may properly be considered as a study in orthology. The form and function of design images and pictographic rock art images and their interpretation according to Zuni mythology or cosmology sufficed as a form of communication prior to the appearance of a written language.

The Zuni Enigma, by Nancy Yaw Davis offers a comparative of cognates between the Zuni language and another language isolate; the Japanese language. While speculative, it demonstrates a likeness between the Zuni and Japanese languages that is more compelling than that of the Penutian Hypothesis. The article by Dell Hymes offers information on California languages where one can form a comparative of certain Zuni words to the languages of California, e.g. Wintu, Maidu, Miwok, and may have relevance to studies of the Pueblo Peoples, the Pecos Classification, Hohokam. The importance of the books on and by Frank Hamilton Cushing goes without saying. He was the first anthropologist to undertake studies by means of the method of participant observation, and was a member of the Priesthood of the Bow. Of special interest in regard to the Zuni language is his correspondences edited by Jesse Green, and their relevance to the Zuni language as it reflects their world view.

Any suggested additions to this list can be submitted to zunifetish@prophetsrock.com and are welcome.

Bunzel, Ruth L. The Pueblo Potter: A Study of Creative Imagination in Primitive Art. New York: Dover, 1929

Bunzel, Ruth L. Introduction to Zuni Ceremonialism. Intro. by Nancy Pareto. University of New Mexico Press, 1992.

Bunzel, Ruth L. Zuni Texts. Publications of the American Ethnological Society, 15. New York: G.E. Steckert & Co., 1933.

Cook, Curtis D. "Nucleus and Margin of Zuni Clause Types." Linguistics. 13: 5-37, 1975.

Davis, Nancy Yaw. The Zuni Enigma. Norton, 2000.

Dutton, Bertha P. American Indians of the Southwest. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1983.

Green, Jesse, ed. Zuni: Selected Writings of Frank Hamilton Cushing. Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press, 1979.

Green, Jesse. Cushing at Zuni: The Correspondence and Journals of Frank Hamilton Cushing, 1879-1884. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1990.

Hickerson, Nancy P. "Two Studies of Color: Implications for Cross-Cultural Comparability of Semantic Categories". In Linguistics and Anthropology: In honor of C.F. Voegelin. Pp. 317-330. Ed. By M. Dale Kinkade, Kenneth Hale, and Oswald Werner. The Peter De Ridder Press, 1975.

Hieb, Louis A. "Meaning and Mismeaning: Toward an Understanding of the Ritual Clowns". New Perspectives on the Pueblos. Ed. by Alfonso Ortiz. Pp. 163-195. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1972.

Hymes, Dell H. "Some Penutian Elements and the Penutian Hypothesis". Southwestern Journal of Anthropology. 13:69-87, 1957.

Miner, Kenneth L. "Noun Stripping and Loose Incorporation in Zuni". International Journal of American Linguistics. 52: 242-254, 1986.

Newman, Stanley. "Vocabulary Levels: Zuni Sacred and Slang Usage."Southwestern Journal of Anthropology. 11: 345-354, 1955.

Newman, Stanley. Zuni Dictionary. Indiana University Research Center Publication Six. Bloomington: Indiana University, 1958.

Newman, Stanley. "The Zuni Verb 'To Be'"Foundations of Language, Supplemental Series. Vol. 1. Ed. by John W. Verhaar., The Humanities Press, 1967.

Stout, Carol. "Problems of a Chomskyan Analysis of Zuni Transitivity". International Journal of American Linguistics. 39: 207-223, 1973.

Walker, Willard. "Inflection and Taxonomic Structure in Zuni". International Journal of American Linguistics. 32(3): 217-227, 1966.

Walker Willard. "Toward a Sound Pattern of the Zuni". International Journal of American Linguistics. 38(4): 240-259, 1968.

Young, M. Jane. Signs from the Ancestors: Zuni Cultural Symbolism and Perceptions in Rock Art. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1988.

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From: "ghwelker" <ghwelker3@comcast.net>
Subject: Taino Indian Culture / Caciques, Nobles, and their Regalia

Taino Indian Culture

Taíno Indians, a subgroup of the Arawakan Indians (a group of American Indians in northeastern South America), inhabited the Greater Antilles (comprising Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola [Haiti and the Dominican Republic], and Puerto Rico) in the Caribbean Sea at the time when Christopher Columbus' arrived to the New World.

The Taíno culture impressed both the Spanish (who observed it) and modern sociologists. The Arawakan achievements included construction of ceremonial ball parks whose boundaries were marked by upright stone dolmens, development of a universal language, and creation of a complicated religious cosmology. There was a hierarchy of deities who inhabited the sky; Yocahu was the supreme Creator. Another god, Jurakán, was perpetually angry and ruled the power of the hurricane. Other mythological figures were the gods Zemi and Maboya. The zemis, a god of both sexes, were represented by icons in the form of human and animal figures, and collars made of wood, stone, bones, and human remains. Taíno Indians believed that being in the good graces of their zemis protected them from disease, hurricanes, or disaster in war. They therefore served cassava (manioc) bread as well as beverages and tobacco to their zemis as propitiatory offerings. Maboyas, on the other hand, was a nocturnal deity who destroyed the crops and was feared by all the natives, to the extent that elaborate sacrifices were offered to placate him.

Myths and traditions were perpetuated through ceremonial dances (areytos), drumbeats, oral traditions, and a ceremonial ball game played between opposing teams (of 10 to 30 players per team) with a rubber ball; winning this game was thought to bring a good harvest and strong, healthy children.

The Taíno Indians lived in theocratic kingdoms and had a hierarchically arranged chiefs or caciques. The Taínos were divided in three social classes: the naborias (work class), the nitaínos or sub-chiefs and noblemen which includes the bohiques or priests and medicine men and the caciques or chiefs, each village or yucayeque had one.

At the time Juan Ponce de León took possession of the Island, there were about twenty villages or yucayeques, Cacique Agüeybana, was chief of the Taínos. He lived at Guánica, the largest Indian village in the island, on the Guayanilla River. The rank of each cacique apparently was established along democratic lines; his importance in the tribe being determined by the size of his clan, rather than its war-making strength. There was no aristocracy of lineage, nor were their titles other than those given to individuals to distinguish their services to the clan.

Their complexion were bronze-colored, average stature, dark, flowing, coarse hair, and large and slightly oblique dark eyes. Men generally went naked or wore a breech cloth, called nagua, single women walked around naked and married women an apron to over their genitals, made of cotton or palm fibers. The length of which was a sign of rank. Both sexes painted themselves on special occasions; they wore earrings, nose rings, and necklaces, which were sometimes made of gold. Taíno crafts were few; some pottery and baskets were made, and stone, marble and wood were worked skillfully.

Skilled at agriculture and hunting, then Taínos were also good sailors, fishermen, canoe makers, and navigators. Their main crops were cassava, garlic, potatoes, yautías, mamey, guava, and anón. They had no calendar or writing system, and could count only up to twenty, using their hands and feet. Their personal possessions consisted of wooden stools with four legs and carved backs, hammocks made of cotton cloth or string for sleeping, clay and wooden bowls for mixing and serving food, calabashes or gourds for drinking water and bailing out boats, and their most prized possessions, large dugout canoes, for transportation, fishing, and water sports.

Caciques lived in rectangular huts, called caneyes, located in the center of the village facing the batey. The naborias lived in round huts, called bohios. The construction of both types of building was the same: wooden frames, topped by straw, with earthen floor, and scant interior furnishing. But the buildings were strong enough to resist hurricanes. Its believed that Taino settlements ranged from single families to groups of 3,000 people.

About 100 years before the Spanish invasion, the Taínos were challenged by an invading South American tribe - the Caribs [Glos.]. Fierce, warlike, sadistic, and adept at using poison-tipped arrows, they raided Taíno settlements for slaves (especially females) and bodies for the completion of their rites of cannibalism. Some ethnologists argue that the preeminence of the Taínos, shaken by the attacks of the Caribs, was already jeopardized by the time of the Spanish occupation. In fact, it was Caribs who fought the most effectively against the Europeans, their behavior probably led the Europeans to unfairly attribute warlike tendencies to all of the island's tribes. A dynamic tension between the Taínos and the Caribs certainly existed when the Christopher Columbus landed on Puerto Rico.

When the Spanish settlers first came in 1508, since there is no reliable documentation, anthropologists estimate their numbers to have been between 20,000 and 50,000, but maltreatment, disease, flight, and unsuccessful rebellion had diminished their number to 4,000 by 1515; in 1544 a bishop counted only 60, but these too were soon lost.

At their arrival the Spaniards expected the Taino Indians to acknowledge the sovereignty of the king of Spain by payment of gold tribute, to work and supply provisions of food and to observe Christian ways. The Taínos rebelled most notably in 1511, when several caciques (Indian leaders) conspired to oust the Spaniards. They were joined in this uprising by their traditional enemies, the Caribs. Their weapons, however, were no match against Spanish horses and firearms and the revolt was soon ended brutally by the Spanish forces of Governor Juan Ponce de León.

In order to understand Puerto Rico's prehistoric era, it is important to know that the Taínos, far more than the Caribs, contributed greatly to the everyday life and language that evolved during the Spanish occupation. Taíno place names are still used for such towns as Utuado, Mayagüez, Caguas, and Humacao, among others.

Many Taíno implements and techniques were copied directly by the Europeans, including the bohío (straw hut) and the hamaca (hammock), the musical instrument known as the maracas, and the method of making cassava bread. Many Taino words persist in the Puerto Rican vocabulary of today. Names of plants, trees and fruits includes: maní, leren, ají, yuca, mamey, pajuil, pitajaya, cupey, tabonuco and ceiba. Names of fish, animals and birds includes: mucaro, guaraguao, iguana, cobo, carey, jicotea, guabina, manati, buruquena and juey. As well as other objects and instruments: güiro, bohío, batey, caney, hamaca, nasa, petate, coy, barbacoa, batea, cabuya, casabe and canoa. Other words were passed not only into Spanish, but also into English, such as huracan (hurricane) and hamaca (hammock). Also, many Taíno superstitions and legends were adopted and adapted by the Spanish and still influence the Puerto Rican imagination.

Caciques, Nobles, and their Regalia

Caciques

Duho

Image of duho

Image of Amulet

Taíno society was divided into two classes - nobles (nitaínos) and commoners (naborias) - governed by a hierarchy of greater and lesser chiefs known as caciques, who were advised by high-ranking nobles and shamans (medicine men). The cacicazgos controlled by caciques were confederations of communities with populations that ranged from several hundred to thousands of people. As Taíno society developed from A.D. 1200 to 1500, powerful caciques united these chiefdoms into political states. At the time of the conquest, Hispaniola was under the control of five important caciques. Puerto Rico was governed by approximately twenty. Although male caciques ruled Taíno society, they inherited the right to rule from female relatives, some of whom were cacicas (chiefs) themselves. Women also played a significant role in Taíno culture as artists. Sixteenth-century accounts report that they wove costumes and hammocks, made ceramic vessels for food preparation and feasting, and commissioned and owned duhos, the ceremonial seats used by caciques, nobles, and shamans. Duhos were often carved in human or animal form and had elaborately incised designs. Prestige and power were intimately linked to the ownership and use of these seats; sculptures of zemies (spirits and ancestors) were sometimes placed beside caciques on separate duhos, suggesting that many chiefs owned at least two.

Duhos carved in wood or stone were highly polished and embellished with incrustations of gold, shell, and bone that have rarely survived. About one hundred duhos are known today; most were discovered in caves, where they were either buried with the deceased or hidden from the Spanish. They were carved with high backs or low backs, including some that are flat seats. Such distinctions may indicate relative degrees of status among the ancient Taíno because the Spanish saw caciques using only high-backed duhos. Other members of the nobility and shamans probably used low-backed duhos. Those with carved human figures may have represented ancestors of caciques in the case of high-backed duhos, and shamanic spirit-helpers in the case of low-backed examples modeled as fierce anthropomorphic creatures.

amulet Caciques and nitaínos were further distinguished by their clothing, jewelry, and other accessories. They wore garments of the finest woven cotton and beaded belts with geometric designs. For important occasions they donned capes made from the colorful plumage of tropical birds: parrots, toucans, herons, and eagles. They also wore beautifully worked shell jewelry - including necklaces and pectoral ornaments - and amulets made from gold, semiprecious stones, shell, and bone.

The exhibition highlights a beautifully worked shell necklace with a bat ornament, a skull pendant, and a richly detailed pectoral that may depict the hurricane god. An array of amulets illustrates the variety and refinement of these small but important personal ornaments that were sometimes combined into necklaces. Taíno amulets exhibit distinct forms - emaciated figures with skeletal faces, human figures in crouching positions, pairs of twins, and animals such as frogs, crocodiles, and bats. Although their meanings remain unknown, they were probably stylized portraits of caciques or nobles and spirits from the otherworld.

Caciques carried boldly carved scepters and daggers of polished stones as symbols of their authority. These accessories are based upon the celt - an ovoid stone axe - common to many pre-Columbian cultures from the earliest times onward. Celts were often hafted into wooden shafts to become axes. Although normally utilitarian tools made from crude stones, celts owned by rulers and nobles were made of jade and other greenstones or polished dark stones, and decorated with carved designs. The greenstone celt, ax scepters, and daggers in the exhibition are elaborate versions of tools used by the Taíno.

Caciques were polygamous, and formed political alliances by marrying women from other cacicazgos. Spanish chronicles attest to the caciques' power over almost every aspect of Taíno society. They controlled the collection and distribution of food and trade goods; they organized community festivals known as areytos; and they decided when to go to war. In addition, caciques functioned as spiritual leaders who contacted the supernatural through hallucinogenic trances.

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ghwelker"
Via Mary Ann;

http://www.merrynjose.com/artman/publish/article_326.shtml

Women & Spirituality

Grandmothers Unite
By Rachel Lehmann-Haupt
Jan 14, 2005

Statement of the International Council of the Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers

By Reviewer, Ema
Jan 4, 2005

We are thirteen indigenous grandmothers who came together for the first time from October 11 through October 17, 2004, in Phoenicia, New York. We gathered from the four directions in the land of the people of the Iroquois Confederacy. We come here from the Amazon rainforest, the Arctic circle of North America, the great forest of the American northwest, the vast plains of North America, the highlands of central America, the Black Hills of South Dakota, the mountains of Oaxaca, the desert of the American southwest, the mountains of Tibet and from the rainforest of Central Africa.

Affirming our relations with traditional medicine peoples and communities throughout the world, we have been brought together by a common vision to form a new global alliance.

We are the International Council of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers. We have united as one. Ours is an alliance of prayer, education and healing for our Mother Earth, all Her inhabitants, all the children and for the next seven generations to come.

We are deeply concerned with the unprecedented destruction of our Mother Earth, the contamination of our air, waters and soil, the atrocities of war, the global scourge of poverty, the threat of nuclear weapons and waste, the prevailing culture of materialism, the epidemics which threaten the health of the Earth's peoples, the exploitation of indigenous medicines, and with the destruction of indigenous ways of life.

We, the International Council of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers, believe that our ancestral ways of prayer, peacemaking and healing are vitally needed today. We come together to nurture, educate and train our children. We come together to uphold the practice of our ceremonies and affirm the right too use our plant medicines free of legal restriction. We come together to protect the lands where our peoples live and upon which our cultures depend, to safeguard the collective heritage of traditional medicines, and to defend the earth Herself. We believe that the teachings of our ancestors will light our way through an uncertain future.

We join with all those who honor the Creators, and to all who work and pray for our children, for world peace, and for the healing of our Mother Earth.

For all our relations,

Margaret Behan- Cheyenne- Arapaho
Rita Pikta Blumenstein-Yupik
Julieta Casimiro- Mazatec
Kusali Devi- Newari
Flordemayo- Mayan
Maria Alice Campos Freire- Brazil
Tsering Dolma Gyalthong-Tibetan
Beatrice Holy Dance Long Visitor- Lakota
Rita Holy Dance Long Visitor-Lakota
Agnes Pigrim- Takelma Siletz
Mona Palocca- Hopi/ Havasupai
Clara Shinobu Iura-Brazil

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From: dorindamoreno
Subject: Re: Indian murals at EPA building to undergo review

From: Carol
To: magu4u@hotmail.com

gilbert lujan wrote:

A good step forward

magu
Magulandia Studio "D"
558 west Second street
Pomona, 91766, Aztlan
909-629-8240

Indian murals at EPA building to undergo review Thursday, March 17, 2005

A handful of government murals that depict Indian people in an unfavorable light will undergo a review...

Indian murals at EPA

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From: Glenn Welker
Subject: National Powwow

National Museum of the American Indian

National Powwow

Actual Location MCI Center, 601 F Street NW, Washington D.C. 20004

Event Dates August 12, 13, 14, 2005

Event Hours Fri - 10am to10pm; Sat - 10am to 10pm; Sun - 10am to 8pm

Admission Fee(s) Adult: $12

Senior 65 yrs & older /Child - 4 to 11 years: $10

Special Members Price: $10

Group Rate (25 or more):$10/person

Three day pass: $30

Educational Comp. "Origins and Evolutions of the Powwow" (more information to follow as this is currently being developed)

Type of Event Contest Powwow

Prize Purse $100,000

Invited Drums "All Drums Invited"

*Vendors*

Fees $600 (10'x10' space)

$800 food vendors - TBD (not sure if we will be able to accommodate food vendors because of MCI Center restrictions)

*Vendor applications will be ready for distribution within the next couple of weeks. We will allow ample time, approx. 2 months for vendors to apply. Justin Giles will be the point of contact for vendors and he is currently taking names and info and will send application forms when ready.

*General Contact*

Number 877-830-3224 or 301-238-3023

nmainationalpowwow@si.edu

www.americanindian.si.edu (webpage in development-email announcement to staff when complete)

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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

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:
Native American Links Page
Indigenous Peoples Literature
Wisdom of the Old People
Native American Summer Camp Info
Indian band seeks to regain its birthright
By David Whitney
Hero, Hawk, and Open Hand
Early tribal artifacts put in spotlight
"Hero, Hawk, and Open Hand" is scheduled to be shown at The St. Louis Art Museum from March 4 to May 30, 2005, and at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History from early July to late September.
Wintu Indians
At War Against Dam, Tribe Turns to Old Ways
Petition in Support of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe
My Two Beads Worth: Indigenous News Online
Northern California Indian Development Council
IndigenousNewsNetwork
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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)
Cushing also cited an incidence where he showed a pole that accompanies a theodolite to an old Zuni man and asked him what he thought the name of it was. In response the old man inquired as to the use of the item. After briefly describing the implementation of the device the old man provided a rather lengthy sentence-word that Cushing translated as "heights of the world progressively measuring stick". The next day Cushing took the pole to the extreme corner of the pueblo and began "to flourish it around" until a middle-aged man relented to curiosity and asked what it was. Cushing then provided the Zuni name he had learned the day before and the man promptly requested, "Can they actually tell how far up and down journeying the world is?" [105].

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Coyote and the Money Tree - Apache / Chiricahua

Coyote was walking [along] a road. He sat down under a tree that was standing by the road. There he sat for some time.

Then he put several [silver] dollars upon the tree that was standing there. (11.3) Then two white men came along the road driving a pack [train]. There, under a tree that was standing by the side of the road, he sat. They drove the pack [train] to him. The white men spoke thus to him: "Why are you sitting in this lonely place?" they said to him.

"Well," he said. "I sit guarding this tree that stands here." he said. "Money grows on this tree. For that reason, it is valuable to me." he said.

The white men spoke thus to him: "We will buy it from you." they said to him.

Then he spoke thus: "No, it is worth a great deal." he said to them.

Then the white men spoke thus to him: "We will give you both these horses with their burdens and all of these pack [animals] that we are driving if you will give us that tree." they said to him. "But shake the tree; let's see if money will fall." they said to him.

Then Coyote spoke thus to them: "Yes, I'll shake the tree." And then he shook the tree. Some of the money he had put upon it fell down.

Then they gave him all of that with which they had been traveling.

Then Coyote spoke thus to them: "When I have driven [the pack train] across that big mountain that lies at that place yonder, then you shake the tree. Then pick up the money that has fallen off." he said to them.

And now he began to drive [the pack train] away from them. He drove it across [the mountain] as he had said.

Then the white men got up. They shook the tree for a long time. Nothing fell down. In a pitiable state, they stood about under the tree that was standing there. They became angry. They started to go after [Coyote].

But he had long ago driven [the pack train] far away. He had driven it to a camp of many Coyotes. He had distributed all of it among them.

Now those white men were coming to that place. That Coyote who had done so to them met them first. They asked him: "You haven't seen over here someone who was driving a pack [train]?" they said to him.

Coyote spoke thus to them: "I was walking over here a while ago but I saw no one. [I don't know] where they went." he said to them.

Chiricahua and Mescalero Apache Texts,1938, Harry Hoijer, principal author.

Ethnological Notes by Morris Opler.

Told by Sam Kenoi

From Blue Panther Keeper of Stories

http://groups.msn.com/KeeperofStories
http://www.smartgroups.com/groups/keeper_of_stories_3