Putting Indian Realities in Context for the Media
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Indian
Center plans give residents concern, hope
Kansas.com
- KS,USA
... going to take all of us," said John
D'Angelo, director of the city's division of arts and cultural
... I'm not hiring you because you're Indian or Native
American. ...
See all stories on this topic
Colorado
Daily
Colorado Daily - Boulder,CO,USA
...
week's activities. The idea is to give the CU community a taste of
local Native American arts and culture. The Waterbird
performance ...
Darrel
Kipp to speak at Native Nexus Conference, set for April 13 ...
Glacier Reporter - USA
...
are available at the Native Waters website, http://www.native-waters.org
... For more information on the Gathering of American Indian
Artists Arts and Crafts ...
Life's Misfortunes,
Family And Faith Behind Albuquerque Resident's ...
American Daily - Stow,OH,USA
...
I wasn't that good in fine arts, so I didn't know what
sort of ... the pueblo style homes (one of which I'd like to
have someday), the Native American and Hispanic ...
CU's
Ward Churchill Report
FrontPageMagazine.com
- Los Angeles,CA,USA
... to request the assistance of
Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences ... in fraudulent
misrepresentation by misrepresenting himself as a Native American
in order ...
The
Calendar
Santa Cruz Sentinel
- Santa Cruz,CA,USA
... read their works in an encouraging
atmosphere surrounded by visual arts. ... on local cultural
history, coastal ecology, marine biology and Native American
history ...
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WEST
VALLEY
San Jose Mercury News
- USA
... New exhibits, ``The Jazz Icons'' by
BRUNI; ``The Native American,'' paintings by Mark
Gray; figurative sculpture by Kristina Sablan ... www.saratoga.ca.us/arts.htm.
...
AT
THE LIBRARY
OregonLive.com -
Portland,OR,USA
... Highlights include music, performances,
arts and craft workshops and other ... traditional folk
music featuring Spanish, African and Native American influences.
...
maple
Fest celebrates 39 years
Franklin
County Courier - Enosburg,Vermont,USA
... This year,
all food, arts, and crafts exhibits are open Friday, 12-5 pm, Saturday,
10-5 pm, and Sunday 10 ... The Native American ritual
will open and bless the day ...
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Virginia Stroud Artist Profile
"........a viewer approaches a painting. The painting greets the viewer. The space between the painting and the viewer is where the spirit world lives. That small space separates us." -Virginia Stroud
Over the past thirty years, Virginia Stroud has established herself as a leading contemporary Native American artist and has compiled an impressive record in the process. The above quote typifies her concept of aesthetic values and the objectives she attempts to achieve in her paintings. Her objectives are and methodology is further exemplified when she states, "As an artist I touch the human chord that erases the multicultural boundaries and ask the viewer to look for the familiar and not the differences of humanity."
Continuing in the earliest traditional painting style, she does not paint the facial features, and individual identity passes into the background. Characters are recognized by their clothing and their identities are established by their roles. This is especially true of the Native American women whose " roles as caretaker, nurturer, gatherer and spiritual instructor remained the same, handed down from one generation of daughters to another." Identity is established by what is familiar to a culture, and the viewer is asked to both recognize the differences through identity and to overlook those differences, thereby enriching the spiritual world by minimizing the distance between themselves and the art.
"I paint for my people. Art is a way for our culture to survive...perhaps the only way. More than anything, I want to become an orator, to share with others the oldest of Indian traditions. I want people to look back at my work just like today we're looking back at the ledger drawings and seeing how it was then. I'm working one hundred years in front of those people and saying 'this is how we still do it...we still have our traditions.'"
Ledger art is traditionally a male American Indian pictographic art form, and historically has been characterized as such by researchers. Chronologically its stylistic development belongs to the the Proto-Modern era of the Native American Fine Arts Movement and was a major influence, through trade routes and the patronage of white art collectors, on Modern Indian Art as its elements diffused to the schools of New Mexico, Oklahoma, and the Northwest Coast. Its more explicit expression, however, yielded to the styles that developed in these schools and culminated in the early 1960's during a period of the Movement referred to as the First Generation Modernists. Only recently have the researchers of Ledger art recognized Virginia Stroud as the Native American Woman artist who, as a Second Generation Modernist and a member of the so-called "New Indian Art Movement", revitalized a traditionally male form of art expression with her pictographic images in the 1960's through the early 1980's. Influence on Stroud's stylistic achievements can be attributed to her Kiowa upbringing centered in Oklahoma, which is the major geographic center of the Southern Plains school, and her attendance at Bacone under the direction and influence of Dr. Richard West.
Stroud has experienced a transitional phase in her stylistic development which progressed from the traditional earthy pictorial images of the early eighties to a more brilliant color schema which focuses on the roles of women and children in Native American culture, centering on the preservation of a lifestyle across generations. This transitional phase strongly coincides with the chronological division of the Second Generation Modernists stage of the Native American Fine Arts Movement, and the Post-modern or Contemporary stage. However one wishes to define this Post-modern stage, Stroud's contemporary work displays a bold sense of color and combining elements of the prior generations of Modernists. This later stage of Stroud's development has also produced works that are associated with Cherokee traditions and may be attributed to her Cherokee ancestory, but probably more importantly can be explained by a regional demand on her creativity by art patrons. There has also been experimentation during this phase with themes that are purely Southwestern, a phenomena indicative of art demand in the Post-modern era.
Of Cherokee and Creek descent, Virginia was born March 13, 1951 in Madera, California. She was educated in public schools in California and Oklahoma, and graduated from Muskogee Central High School in 1969. Virginia attended Bacone Junior College from 1969-1970 and the University of Oklahoma, 1971-73, summer 1975, and 1976-77, majoring in elementary education and art.
In May, 1970, she became the youngest Native American artist to receive first place honors in the Woodlands division of the 25th Annual American Indian Artists Exhibition at Philbrook Art Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma. In 1972, she won the Heritage Award at the Five Civilized Tribes Museum in Muskogee, Oklahoma. In 1975, Virginia again won a first place award at the 30th American Indian National Exhibition at the Philbrook Art Center, and spent the next year as an artist in residence for the city of Norman, Oklahoma. In 1978 her pictographic work Enemy Treasures won the award for graphics at the Heard Museum, and in 1982 was selected Artist of the Year by the Indian Arts and Crafts Association for "High Point". Her most recent honors include the Woody Crumbo memorial award, Best of Show, Best Painting, and Best in the Traditional category at the 1992 Indian Market in Sante Fe.
Virginia attributes a major influence in her art to the early encouragement of the late Dr. Richard West of Oklahoma, who schooled her in the history of ledger art and termed her knack for color combinations as innate, resembling that of Picasso, and to Native American artist Joann Hill as an inspiration. Stroud also cites art restorator Amad Moghbel as an major influence by introducing her to gouache techniques with rag paper and hand ground pigments. While Virginia is of Creek and Cherokee descent, she categorizes her art as more relevant to the plains tribes and her Kiowa upbringing.
A large collection of Virginia's artwork was recently (2003) included in the Smithsonian's archives of living artists and the Fred Jones, Jr. Museum of Art at the University of Oklahoma. Her work has appeared on the cover of Oklahoma Today, Southwest Art, and in the first issue of Four Winds magazine. Her work was also illustrated in Indianische Kunst im 20 Jahrhundert, a German publication and in Beyond Tradition, Contemporary Indian Art and Its Evolution by Jerry and Lois Jacka, 1988.
Virginia has been honored in the past as Miss Cherokee Tribal Princess, 1969-70, Miss National Congress of American Indians, 1970-71, Miss Indian America, 1971, served on the Board of Directors of the Indian Arts and Crafts Association, and spent 1999 as a candidate for Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation. In 1988 she began creating her painted furniture, and she has, in the past few years, authored, co-authored, and illustrated four books for children as well as extending her prolific talents to dollmaking. Her book, Doesn't Fall Off His Horse, was recognized as NCSS-CBC Notable Children's Trade Book in the Field of Social Studies, IRA-CBC Children's Choice, and received the IRA Distinguished Book Award. Stroud's current projects include designing baby blankets and a baby journal for the American Indian College Fund.
Copyright 1998-2005, Chet Staley, Amerindian Arts
From: ghwelker3@comcast.net
Subject: Putting Indian Realities in Context for the Media
Putting Indian Realities in Context for the Media
By Anthony R. Pico
Indian Country Today
The unexamined portrayal of American Indians and this country's history needs to be debunked and exposed because the self-serving rationalizations of the past are still robbing generations of American Indians of our lives and future.
The task of breaking American Indian stereotypes, dispelling myths and putting tribal issues into context falls on the media, the public's primary source of information. If the press doesn't understand us, the public will never get past the stereotypical ignorance that has plagued Indians from the day the first European arrived.
Tribal leaders have an obligation to do what they can to educate both the public and the media. No less than the future of American democracy is at stake, along with a rare chance to alter generations of failed relations between Indians and non-Indians.
Culture, History Ignored
The media can help free non-Indians of the residual ethnocentricity and racism buried in the dark recesses of history and myth. They also can help free America's original people from the lethal grip of despair and generational cycle of dysfunction that result from being viewed as disposable icons, defined to fit the designs of others.
The perception of American Indians is framed not by the thousands of years we lived on the North American continent, but by our short, largely confrontational relationship with European immigrants. Our culture and long history in this country has been ignored. Instead, we have been characterized by conflicting and changing public attitudes ranging from "the only good Indian is a dead Indian" to the romanticized "noble savage," keepers of the lost innocence of the Garden of Eden.
In the past, we were treated as obstacles to Manifest Destiny, anachronisms with no place in the emerging country. That belief led to exploitation, war, genocide and exile from our ancestral land and culture. The view of indigenous people as expendable and obsolete remains in the nation's conscience.
The victors not only get the spoils of war, but they get to write the history. The unexamined portrayal of American Indians and this country's history needs to be debunked and exposed because the self-serving rationalizations of the past are still robbing generations of American Indians of our lives and future. It also dishonors America's ethical claim as a culturally diverse democracy.
Elders told me some time ago that they wanted me to be chairman. In doing so, they charged me with finding an economic base for our tribe so we could become self-reliant and once again control our destiny. They sought the means to generate income for our government and jobs for our people.
A Matter of Survival
My people wanted to meet our governmental responsibilities to our community and land, as our ancestors had done. They wanted to finally exercise the retained sovereignty promised us in treaties, the U.S. Constitution and legal precedent.
Governments cannot function without funds. And a strong government and resources are necessary to instill Native pride and secure a share in the American dream. The elders knew that our people must have an investment and voice in our future.
It was also a matter of survival.
Viejas elders wanted our tribe to stand on its own two feet, free of the federal government's crippling policies that kept us in perpetual poverty and dependency. They saw the social and cultural dysfunction and hopelessness that resulted from being at the mercy and political whims of states and the federal government.
Between dependency on other governments and benign neglect, Indian people were not just starving from a cultural and economic standpoint - we were also slowly committing social suicide.
We were poor. And we were hungry: not just for resources to feed our families, but for justice.
My mission to find an economic base didn't challenge me as much as the realization that part of my job description as chairman would be to interact with the media. Indians don't like to talk to the media; it's a trust issue that goes back more years than I can count. Whoever speaks to the media usually takes political heat from the tribe. And then I discovered the idea of context.
Most people criticized because of a quoted remark in a newspaper or magazine give the same excuse: "I was quoted out of context." I decided the idea of context was something I should keep in mind for future reference.
Sovereignty Is an Evolving Process
Context is important in the media.
Gaming and our newfound government revenues gives us a real chance to once again exercise our sovereignty. Yet my heart worries that for every inch we give, others will take a mile and more. Such has been the lessons of our past, a tortured history that is difficult for American Indians to forget.
Our success creates conflicts with other governments and competition in the marketplace. Our success upsets the status quo, whether political or economic. We are forced to play politics to protect our interests. This, too, is new to us. As those in the press know better than anyone, politics on the national and state level is at best a minefield, where even the most experienced players get tripped up.
So, to put things into context, sovereignty at this point in time is an evolving process. It's a learning experience for Indians and non-Indians alike. All previous federal policies that attempted to exterminate, assimilate, coerce or patronize Indians failed. Even the best-intentioned policies of providing for Indians failed. We do best, like all people, when we are the caretakers of our own destiny.
Harvard University research has shown that Indians have the solutions to the endemic problems of poverty that federal oversight was never able to resolve. Strong Indian governments - governments that take their self-rule seriously and responsibly - produce the most functional and long-lasting economic development.
The success of our businesses depends on our sovereignty and how well we exercise it. And educating people about sovereignty is important because our future will be determined in the court of public opinion.
Our ancestors demand better of us. They were survivors who paid a great price that we might one day have the means to once again prevail as a people. We owe them the opportunity they never had: to prove that we are capable and viable governments, ready and willing to contribute to this land we share and love.
If we fail to grasp this opportunity to exercise our sovereignty, we forfeit the future of our children and their rightful place in America.
Constitutional scholar Felix Cohen once said, "Like the miners' canary, the Indian marks the shift from fresh air to poison gas in our political atmosphere and our treatment of Indians ... reflects the rise and fall in our democratic faith."
Indeed, the integrity of America and democracy is once again being tested. And the test will be to see if this great experiment in freedom and equal opportunity finally applies to American Indians.
Anthony R. Pico Chairman of the Viejas Band of Kumeyaay Indians.
From: "ghwelker" ghwelker3@comcast.net
Subject: Zuni Creation Cycle: Birth of the Old Ones
In time these two gave birth to twelve children. No, they were neither man-children nor woman-children! For look now! The first was a woman in fulness of contour, but a man in stature and muscle. From the mingling of too much seed in one kind comes the two-fold one kind, 'hláhmon , being man and woman combined—even as from a kernel of corn with two hearts ripens an ear that is neither one kind nor the other, but both! Yet not all ill was this first child, because she was bon of love—even though insane!—before her parents were changed; thus she did not share their distortions. Not so with her brothers; they resembled males but like boys, for the fruit of sex was not in them! For the fruit of mere lust comes to nothing, even as Corn, self-sown out of season, does not ripens. For their parents7 being changed to hideousness, lived together witlessly and consorted idly or in passion not quickened of favor to the eye or the heart. And see! like to their father were his later children, but varied as his moods; for then, as now, what the mother looked most on while withholding them, according to its shape they were formed as clay by the thought of the potter; wherefore we cherished our matrons and do not reveal to them the evil dramas or the slaughtered nor hamstrung game lest their children be weakly or go maimed. Thus they were strapping louts, but earth-colored and marked with the welts of their father. They were silly yet wise as the gods and high priests; for as simpletons and the crazed speak from the things seen in the instant, uttering both wise words and prophecy, so the spoke, and became the attendants and fosterers, and also the sages and interpreters, of the ancient of dance-dramas or the K&aicrc;'kâ.
They are named not with the names of men but with names of mismeaning, for there is Pékwina, Priest-speaker of the Sun. He is meditative even in the liveliest part of day, after the fashion of his father when shamed, saying little and then as irrelevantly as a child or dotard.
Then there is Pí'hlan Shíwani (Bow Priest-warrior). He is so cowardly that he dodges behind ladders, thinking them trees no doubt, and lags after all the others whenever he is frightened, even at a fluttering leaf or a crippled spider, and looks in every direction but the straight one whenever danger threatens!
There is Éshotsi (the Bat) who can see better in the sunlight than any of them but would maim himself in a shadow and will avoid a hole in the ground as a woman would a dark place, even were it no bigger than a beetle burrow.
Also there is Muíyapona (Wearer of the Eyelets of Invisibility). He has horns like the catfish and is knobbed like a bludgeon-squash. But he never by any chance disappears, even when he hides his head behind a ladder rung or turkey quill, yet thinks himself quite out of sight. And he sports with his face as though it were as smooth as a clam-shell's.
There is Pótsoki (tbe Pouter), who does little but laugh and look bland, for he can not grin; and his younger brother, Ná'häshi (Aged Buck), who is the biggest of them all, and what with having grieved and nearly rubbed his eyes out (when his younger brother was captured and carried off by the K'yámak'ya-kwe or Snail Kâ'kâ of the South), looks as ancient as a horned toad; yet he is as frisky as a fawn and giggles like a girl; indeed, and bawls as lustily as a small boy playing games.
The next brother, Ítseposa (the Glum or Aggrieved), mourned also for his nearest brother who was stolen by the Kâ'kâ, too, until his eyes were utterly dry and his chin chapped to protrusion; but nevertheless he is lively and cheerful and ever as ready as the most complaisant of beings.
K`yä'lutsi (the Suckling) and Tsa'hläshi (Old-youth), the youngest, are the most wilfully important of the nine, always advising others and strutting like a young priest in his first dance, or like the youthful warrior made too aged-thinking and self-notioned with early honoring.
And while the father stands dazed, with his head bowed and his hands clasped before him or like broken bows hanging by his sides, these children romp and play (as he and his sister did when turned childish), and are just like idiots or dotards and crones turned young again, inconstant as laughter7, startled to new thought by every flitting thing around them; but in the presence of the Kâ'kâ of old, they are grave but uncouth. And they are the oracles of all ancient sayings of deep meanings; for this reason they are called the Kâ'yemashi (Husbandmen of the Kâ'kâ or sacred drama-dance); and they are spoken of even by the Fathers of the people as the Á'hläshi Tséwashi (Sages of the Ancients). And they are most precious in the sight of the beings and men! But for their birth and the manner of their birth, it is said that all had been different; for from it many things came to be as they are both for men and gods and even the souls of the dead!
From: "Lisa" Subject: [Tradition_OF_The_Redroad] Oglala Com April News
Greetings,
The count down is on.. We have 11 weeks until the day of the event.
We have an original oil painted by Leonard up on the auction block on
Yahoo Auction.
It may be seen here:
It may be seen at
Please spread this letter widely to all mailing list. As always
this auction piece as well as our own auction page goes directly for
the cost of this event and the Peltier Scholarship.
If this item is out of your range check out our
auction site
There are two pages now
opened.
Things have been kicking in, as we are extemely busy trying to get the plans finalized, But finalization always depends on the funds. Our auctions raise about 90% of all the funds generated to carry this event through. Please if you win an item, get payment to me as soon as possible or leave the line of communitication open. I will have some items including more of Buddy's beadwork,along with his daughter's too. To them I want to send my sincere thanks to him and his family, they have faced some major crisis' and I get a letter saying he has more bead work to come..
If you haven't seen the concert page recently, it has been update and more names have been added. Still waiting on some more confirmations. Looks like all of Peltier's legal time will be there, support groups from Germany, France, Belgium, Canada. Free Speech TV may be back this year, so I ask everyone to bring a banner or poster with you if possible. A sign with your support group or Free Peltier along with your city or country, so that support from all over the world may be seen.
Some events leading up to the 26th may be announced soon. We are down to the last couple of months so things will be flying. It also looks like we will have a larger crowd this year so we are in desperate need of kitchen volunteers, food servers, cleaner- uppers.
You may contact me at oglala_commemoration@yahoo.com
Thats all for now.
Lisa
www.oglalacommemoration.com
From: bfc-media
To: Stop the Slaughter
Subject: Update from the Field 4/7/05
Buffalo Field Campaign (BFC)
News from the Field
View Buffalo Video Footage Shot Yesterday by BFC Volunteers: http://www.buffalofieldcampaign.org
Make a secure online donation to BFC today: http://www.buffalofieldcampaign.org/pcshop2/bazaar.html
* Update from the Field The beauty of sunrise at Horse Butte is difficult to convey. Vibrant hues of violet and red paint cloud-whisps on the eastern sky. The snow-covered peaks to the west are lit in warm pink, as if from within. Roman and I stood on the Butte yesterday at dawn, shifting our gaze from the painted sky to the mists rising above the Madison Valley. Groups of buffalo dotted the Butte's south-facing slopes. Mixed herds of pregnant females and their young grazed fresh green grass, groups of yearlings and calves kicked up their legs in play, and small herds of bulls moved slowly along the hillside. In all we counted more than 200 buffalo in the day's first light. We enjoyed the beauty of the buffalo and the breaking day, even as we braced ourselves for what would come. Unfortunately the livestock industry runs Montana and buffalo are tolerated nowhere in the state. Shortly after 8am two snowmobiles sped swiftly along the road at the base of the Butte, far below. They were driven by agents of the Montana Department of Livestock (DOL), scouting the area for buffalo. The DOL has no tolerance for buffalo in Montana, even on the Butte, National Forest land owned by all Americans. We positioned ourselves to document the hazing operation, out of view of the agents. At ten o'clock three horse-mounted agents arrived along with four on snowmobile. They headed out along the lower road and cut up the Butte, behind the great herds of buffalo. I filmed as the operation began, the agents shouting, "Haw! Haw! Git up! Git up!" disrupting the grazing buffalo and starting them down the hill. Soon the scattered herds were congregated in a large group at the base of the hill. The agents went after this group with a vengeance, revving their engines and barking at the herd. Suddenly the herd broke, and like water from a broken dam, buffalo poured off the Butte. Braced against a rock I filmed them as they sprinted along the bluffs of the Madison River, away from their birthing grounds. When the last buffalo had passed from eyesight Roman and I took to our feet and headed down the hill. Weaving our way between sagebrush we sprinted down the steep slopes, reaching the bottom just as the operation disappeared to the east. We were relieved to find 35 buffalo on the eastern flanks of the Butte, inside a bald-eagle sanctuary off-limits to the agents. The rest of the herd wasn't so lucky. They were run relentlessly for more than five miles to Yellowstone National Park, on the other side of Highway 191. Because the Butte is their birthing ground, where they need to be at this time of year, the buffalo turned around and headed back almost immediately. Why the DOL insists on chasing them so relentlessly is a great mystery. There are never, at any time of year, cattle on any of the public lands on Horse Butte. By repeatedly pushing the buffalo across the highway, the agents are interrupting the natural migration and endangering the public and the buffalo in the process. Instead of crossing the highway twice, the buffalo are forced to cross dozens of times. Already this year seven have been hit by trucks as a result. While Roman and I documented the haze, our fellow volunteers, on patrol at Duck Creek, watched livestock agents handling and harassing 24 buffalo in the Duck Creek trap. Captured on Tuesday, the buffalo were being tested for antibodies to brucellosis. As I type the update this morning eight buffalo, stuffed in a livestock trailer, are on their way to the slaughterhouse. Three buffalo calves will be shipped to a quarantine facility where they will be held for up to four years, victims of a science experiment that will erode the wildness that makes them unique. Spring is our busiest time. With more than ten volunteers in the field during all daylight hours and our media coordinators working 12 hour days to share the plight of the buffalo with the world, we are extremely busy. The Buffalo Field Campaign is a volunteer-driven organization and we rely on contributions from people like you to keep our volunteers well-fed, housed, and equipped to document every action taken against the buffalo and to build a movement to protect the buffalo forever. If you care about the buffalo and want to ensure our continued presence in the field, please make a donation today. Five and ten dollar donations are our bread and butter, so if you can, please send a tax-deductible donation. We are a grassroots group and every penny goes directly to the front-lines defense of the buffalo. If you can't afford to make a financial contribution, you can help in other ways. Below you will find information on writing public comments in opposition to the quarantine facility and letters you can write to Montana's governor, urging him to provide habitat for buffalo in Montana. Together we are making great strides for the buffalo, please take action today!
--
Buffalo Field Campaign
PO Box 957
West Yellowstone, MT 59758
(406) 646-0070
bfc-media@wildrockies.org
http://www.buffalofieldcampaign.org
From: George Lessard media@web.net Subject: NAJA seeking applicants for student journalism training
[Note: Native American Journalists Association programs such as this one are generally also open to First Nations journalists from outside of the US.]
Date: Wed, 6 Apr 2005 14:50:43 -0600 (MDT)
From: NAJA-Email Alerts naja@naja.com
Organization: NAJA-Email Alerts
List-Archive:
http://www.naja.com/cgi-bin/mojo/mojo.cgi?f=archive&l=naja
The Native American Journalists Association is seeking applicants for student journalism training programs being held at NAJA’s 21st annual convention in Lincoln, Nebr.
Project Phoenix, being held Aug. 6-11, 2005, will accept 15 high school students into a weeklong journalism-training program. This exciting program is being held at the College of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Participating students will get the chance to learn from working professionals in the industry and have an opportunity to be published in one issue of a student newspaper, Rising Voices.
NAJA Student Projects, being held Aug. 8-14, 2005 is seeking forty-five qualified applicants for the weeklong journalism-training program. This program is similar to Project Phoenix but is geared toward college students and includes radio, television and online training. Participating students will learn basic journalism skills and reporting techniques from working professionals who are employed at newspapers, radio and television organizations across the United States. Students selected for the newspaper project produce three issues of a student newspaper called, Native Voice
For additional information about these exciting programs, including
applications for each program, please visit the NAJA website at
http://www.naja.com and click on the convention banner at the top of
the home page.
Regards,
NAJA
From: George Lessard media@web.net
Subject: Inuit film to tell story of last great shaman
Inuit film to tell story of last great shaman
IGLOOLIK - The makers of the award-winning film, Atanarjuat, The Fast Runner, kicked off production Monday on their second full-length feature.
From: ghwelker3@comcast.net
Subject: Smudge Ceremony
Smudging is a ceremony for cleansing that has been used in many traditions throughout history. Widely varying cultures and religions from all over the Earth have discovered power in working with the smoke from burning herbs and incense. Smell is the sense that connects us to a deep, instinctual part of the brain. Certain scents have the power to change our energies and trigger emotions. Beyond that, the Native American smudging ceremony adds a dimension of ritual and respect for all the many diverse parts of Creation.
The purpose of smudging is to cleanse yourself, your objects and/or a place. It can be done before other ceremonies or by itself. According to what we have been taught, certain plants have entered into a sacred agreement with us two-leggeds: in exchange for our respectful treatment of them, they will give up their lives so that we can have their purifying smoke to cleanse with and to pray with, so that we might stay in balance and keep our walk sacred. This means we are to pick the plants with honor, asking permission and giving thanks, taking only what we need and not damaging the plant.
http://members.aol.com/danceottr4/smudge.html
This page explains it very well: (using sage, cedar, sweetgrass
http://www.asunam.com/smudge_ceremony.html
Our Native elders have taught us that before a person can be healed or heal another, one must be cleansed of any bad feelings, negative thoughts, bad spirits or negative energy - cleansed both physically and spiritually. This helps the healing to come through in a clear way, without being distorted or sidetracked by negative "stuff" in either the healer or the client. The elders say that all ceremonies, tribal or private, must be entered into with a good heart so that we can pray, sing, and walk in a sacred manner, and be helped by the spirits to enter the sacred realm.
Native people throughout the world use herbs to accomplish this. One common ceremony is to burn certain herbs, take the smoke in one's hands and rub or brush it over the body. Today this is commonly called "smudging." In Western North America the three plants most frequently used in smudging are sage, cedar, and sweetgrass.
Smudging
To do a smudging ceremony, burn the clippings of these herbs (dried), rub your hands in the smoke, and then gather the smoke and bring it into your body, or - rub it onto yourself; especially onto any area you feel needs spiritual healing. Keep praying all the while that the unseen powers of the plant will cleanse your spirit. Sometimes, one person will smudge another, or a group of people, using hands - or more often a feather - to lightly brush the smoke over the other person(s). We were taught to look for dark spots in a person's spirit-body. As one California Indian woman told us, she "sees" a person's spirit-body glowing around them, and where there are "dark or foggy parts," she brushes the smoke into these "holes in their spirit-body." This helps to heal the spirit and to "close up" these holes.
Recently we did a "light" house cleansing for a friend. We use the term "light", for this is a relatively simple ceremony as opposed to some that are more lengthy and complicated. Our friend had some serious emotional and relationship problems, and he felt they had left a heavy and dark atmosphere. First, we prayed together to the Creator and to the spirits for help. We then, burned sage, purified ourselves, and took the sage to all the corners, closets, and rooms of the house. We pushed the smoke with our hands to cleanse every bit of space - lingering over dark or cold spots that "felt" uncomfortable.
We used sage first in order to drive out the bad influences. Then we purified ourselves with cedar and, then repeated the cleansing process throughout the house with that. Then sweetgrass was used in the same manner to bring in good influences. All the time we prayed for help in this cleansing. Finally, we took a candle over the whole house and pushed its light into every corner. The People of the Pacific Northwest Coast taught this "lighting-up" of a house to us. We've been doing this type of house cleansing for ten years, and it never fails to "clear the air."
One more note about smudging. It is very popular among many novices to use abalone shells in smudging. There are many Native elders who are pleased to see so many new folds smudging themselves, but - some are concerned that abalone shells are being used when burning the herbs. On the Pacific Northwest Coast, for example, some holy men have said that abalone shells represent Grandmother Ocean, and that they should be used in ceremonies with water, not burning.
We know enough Native elders in the Northwest, the Plains, and California who don't use abalone shells - but instead clay or stone bowls - that we don't personally feel comfortable using a shell.
In any case, smudging is a ceremony that must be done with care. We are entering into a relationship with the unseen powers of these plants, and with the spirits of the ceremony. As with all good relationships, there has to be respect and honor if the relationship is to work.
From: George Lessard
What is the National Association of Tribal Historic Preservation
Officers (NATHPO)?
http://www.nathpo.org/
Founded in 1998, the Association is a national non-profit membership
organization of Tribal government officials who implement federal and
tribal preservation laws. NATHPO's overarching purpose is to support
the preservation, maintenance and revitalization of the cutlure and
traditions
of Native peoples of the United States. This is accomplished most
importantly through the support of Tribal Historic Preservation
Programs as acknowledgded by the National Park Service.
Tribal Historic Preservation Officers (THPOs) have the
responsibilities of State Historic Preservation Officers on tribal
lands and advise and work with federal agencies on the management of
tribal historic properties. THPOs also preserve and rejuvenate the
unique cultural traditions and practices of their tribal communities.
NATHPO activities include monitoring the U.S. Congress,
Administration, and state activities on issues that affect all
Tribes and monitoring the effectiveness of federally mandated
compliance reviews and identification, evaluation, and management of
tribal historic properties. Examples of
completed and ongoing projects: "Tribal Tourism Toolkit for the
Lewis and Clark Bicentennial and Other Tribal Opportunities (2002),"
and "Many Nations Media Project - News from the Lewis & Clark Trail
(2002-5)," and "Treaty Research Project for Continental U.S.
(2001)." NATHPO also offers training and technical assistance on
federal historic preservation laws.
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. Copyright 2004-2005, Chet Staley, Amerindian Arts
From: Glenn Welker
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
*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
www.americanindian.si.edu
(webpage in development-email announcement to staff when complete)
Navajo artist Teddy Draper Workshops
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.
Web Sites: Literacy in Indigenous Communities by L. David van Broekhuizen, Ph.D. (2000) Essay on the Zuni World View Coyote and the Friendly Dogs - Yaqui
A COYOTE who was very hungry was walking about the outskirts of a
field. He
was discovered by a few dogs who were taking care of the crops. With
the
dogs were some little quail. This was in the time when animals talked
like
people and all of them understood one another.
The dogs talked to the coyote in such a way as not to frighten him,
saying,
"Brother, come along with us. It looks as if you are quite hungry."
"Poor little coyote," said the quail, with voices which showed their
pity.
"It is obvious that you are very hungry."
The coyote, thinking that they were going to give him something to eat,
went
with them. He walked along surrounded with dogs, for there were many
dogs,
and the quail followed behind him singing:
'ama mele wo'i
wo'i taka 'ama mele.
Thus the little quail sang to the coyote. But he did not like it, this
song.
"Why do you sing this 'ama mele wo'i?" the coyote asked,
"Oh, don't worry about that," said the dogs, "that is just a song." But
the
words of the song meant, "For the last time you are a coyote." This
they
sang because they were taking him off to kill him.
Before they arrived at the houses the dogs set up a great noise and
barking.
Men came out of the houses, but the coyote couldn't run because he was
surrounded by dogs. The men took him off to where they lit a great
fire, and
into it they threw the poor coyote. Here ends the story
Told by Ambrosio A. Castro
YAQUI MYTHS AND LEGENDS
Ruth Warner Giddings
Reposted with Permission from Dream's Archives
From Blue Panther Keeper of Stories
http://groups.msn.com/KeeperofStories Coyote and the Stars - Hopi
From Blue Panther Keeper of Stories
http://groups.msn.com/KeeperofStories
Subject: US National Association of Tribal Historic Preservation
Officers (NATHPO)
Subject: National Powwow
Chinle, Arizona (Canyon DeChelly)-
Seminars and workshops have limited capacity and usually require enrollment months in advance.
dechelly2000@yahoo.com
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
Native Village
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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.
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].
http://www.smartgroups.com/groups/keeper_of_stories_3
http://www.smartgroups.com/groups/keeper_of_stories_3
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