Zuni Language and Worldview, Part VI

Native American arts daily news, presented by
amerindianarts.us

Discover the Sacred Places of the Southwest
Photography exhibition features ancient Native American dwelling places

'Siberian Dreams' at the Visual Arts Center
The Sister Cities of Eugene, Oregon and Irkutsk, Russia have undertaken an ambitious art project to explore the cultural connections between the Native Siberian and Native American peoples

Native American Powwow begins today and concludes Saturday.

Sac and Fox leader on the good and bad of Indian gaming, returning home, and dealing with the feds

Native Americans' Trail of Tears

OSU grad returns for job as Native American coordinator

Indian Country push to renew Violence Against Women Act

New curriculum brings Indian history into class

LaDuke keynote to kick off Gender Week

Cherokee to host Festival of Native Peoples

Roberts' 'dishonesty' concerns Indian country

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Stonington Gallery, Seattle: "Awakenings: A Gathering of Contemporary Coast Salish Artists"

showcases the work of 20 Native American artists from the Pacific Northwest, including cedar sculpture, glass, basketry, and metalwork by Shaun Peterson, Susan A. Point, Marvin Oliver, and others. 119 S. Jackson St., 206-405-4040. 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Mon.-Fri.; 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Sat.; noon-5 p.m. Sun.

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REMARKABLE WOMEN: Sisters to Sacajawea:

Women in Native American Life highlights the lives of 10 historic Native American women in an exhibit opening Sunday at the Mitchell Museum of the American Indian, 2600 Central Park, Evanston. Suggested donation is $5 adults, $2.50 seniors, students and children. Call (847) 475-1030; www.mitchellmuseum.org.

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Celebrate Native American Day:

nyone wishing to learn more about the strengths and sacrifices of Native Americans is invited to the Agua Caliente Cultural Museum from 1 to 5 p.m. Sept. 23 for an open house in conjunction with the state's Fourth Friday in September Native American Day. This free event will feature an exhibit of works by Native American artists, a Cahuilla cultural display, informational handouts and refreshments. As an added bonus, visitors can help the museum celebrate the culmination of its recent mural project, a joint venture with the Palm Springs Public Library. The museum is at 219 S. Palm Canyon Drive in Palm Springs. For more information, call 778-1079.

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Native American Days

10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sept. 17-18, Hanging Rock State Park, Visitor Center, Hanging Rock Road (State Road 2015), Danbury. A celebration of the many cultures and talents of Native Americans with a variety of displays and demonstrations by North Carolina Native Americans and primitive-skill specialists. Storytelling, tanning, fire-starting and flint-knapping. This event is being held in conjunction with the 31st annual Stokes Stomp. Free. 593-8480.

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Indian Heritage Festival & Powwow

noon to 5 p.m. Sept. 17, Uptown Martinsville, 65 W. Main St., Martinsville, Va. Presented by the Virginia Museum of Natural History. Features nationally known musician and performer Pura Fe at 1:30 p.m. and the Iroquois Thunderheart Drums from Pennsylvania. Native American dancing, teepees, crafts and food. Bring your lawn chairs. No pets allowed. Gates open at 11 a.m. Rain location: old Lowe’s building on U.S. 220 in Ridgeway, Va. Museum members admitted free with membership card. $5 adults, $4 seniors and children ages 12 to 18, $3 ages 3-11. (276) 666-8600 or www.vmnh.net

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Hybrid Harvest: Six Contemporary Native American Artists

Cal State Fullerton Main Art Gallery, 800 N. State College Blvd., Fullerton - "Hybrid Harvest: Six Contemporary Native American Artists" - The exhibition explores the cross-pollination of Euro-American and Native-American worlds. Sept. 6 through Oct. 7. Tue.-Fri., noon-4 p.m.; Sat., noon-2 p.m. Admission: free. (714) 278-3262. www.arts.fullerton.edu/events/

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Snohomish Co., WA The Depot Arts Center: Seventh and R Streets, Anacortes; 360-293-3663. "The Other Side of the Mountain," through Sept. Native American arts, Oct. 7 through 31.

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National Indian Gaming Association to Host Two Evenings of Native American Music and Dance

Contact: Suzette Brewer of the National Indian Gaming Association, 202-546-7711

National Indian Gaming Association to Host Two Evenings of Native American Music and Dance

Programs Celebrate 'National American Indian Heritage Month'

In celebration of National American Indian Heritage Month, the National Indian Gaming Association (NIGA) will host two evenings of Native American music and dance on Monday, Nov. 28, and Tuesday, Nov. 29, 7:30-10 p.m., at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. The programs will take place in the Terrace Theater.

Former U.S. Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell (Northern Cheyenne) will host the programs, which will include Native performers from the Northeast, Northern Plains, Southwest and Northwest Coast regions. All proceeds will benefit the American Indian College Fund.

Tickets are $25 and are available at the Kennedy Center box office or by phone at 202-467-4600. Order online at http://www.kennedy-center.org.

The National Indian Gaming Association, headquartered in Washington, D.C., is a non-profit trade association comprised of 184 American Indian Nations and other non-voting associate members. The mission of NIGA is to advance the lives of Indian people -- economically, socially and politically. NIGA operates as a clearinghouse and educational, legislative and public policy resource for tribes, policymakers and the public on Indian gaming issues and tribal community development.

Web: http://www.indiangaming.org

http://www.usnewswire.com/

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Zuni Language and Worldview, Part VI

Zuni Pictographic Language: Pragmatics and Cross-Cultural Referentiality

The seven kiva is also representative of the center as a polemic of the inside and outside, which refers to the heart of the individual, as a center, and inner and outer space occurring in the "same place at the same time"[88] in their observance of the six directions, or the center of the pueblo as a center in relation to its periphery. Historical evidence for the physical existence of the seventh kiva is noted by Dutton where the Tiwa had a seventh kiva outside the village walls and its original association was with the scalp society or warrior cult, and the Isleta which had a seventh kiva where scalps and other dangerous things were stored[89]. These kivas were representative of a possible fringe element in opposition to the center and their contents where antithetical to the peaceful center. It was the task of men with religious knowledge (e.g. the kiva) to harness and control natural forms outside the pueblo, an area that the gods ruled, and bring them peaceably to the core. Acts of violence were reconciled and malevolent spirits transformed, for example, in a scalp dance required in the presentation of a scalp by a warrior returning from war, and was reconciliation in a paradoxical tribute to the sanctity of life[90].

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

Bunzel distinguishes between the old and new dances of the Zuni, remarking that only the new dances allow for self-expression but even then the "precision of movement belies a union of the totality"[92]. The exaltation of the religious experience lies in the manifestation of the activities and appreciation of the aesthetic quality that pervades. This compensates for the intensity that is inherent in the personal religious exaltation and subjective satisfaction indicative of the vision quests of all the plains tribes. To the Zuni, the lack of that feeling is the descriptive cohesion of the collective unity[93].

Because verbal and ostensive definition is related to the present, utterances and showings do not refer or display contextual implications. It is for this reason that contemporary Western logic and anthropological analysis has failed in distinguishing Zuni concepts of being from concepts of becoming[94]. Newman comments that the Zuni language has no specific term for the copula, that function being filled by the term teya, which means "be" or "to live in a place"[95]; te- meaning terrestrial containment and location (both space and time)[96], and ya a collectivity. Thus, when a Zuni asks you "How you have been living these many days?" (Ko'na to' tewanan ateyaye), it is asked in the present tense and imperative (-ye), for if you have been living according to observances (teshkwi), then the necessary answer, which may be provided, is Ketsanishi (happily). Zuni logic dictates that the present state necessarily affirms all that has proceeded, much in the same sense that if a prayed for event transpires, then the prayer or ritual was properly performed, akin to Western logic's 'affirming the consequence'[97].

This phenomenon has been approached in analysis[98] and has shown some merit in assuming syllogistic (validity) to be universal and propositional logic (truth) to be culturally sensitive, but appears to have failed in constructing cross-cultural identifiers in assuming that "meaning" structures both validity and truth[99]. For instance, in cases where "kind of" was absent as a semantic universal[100] the probability of idealizing physics would render ineffective any notion of an ideal (syntactic) language cross-culturally. The very nature of semantics is the inherent improbability of idealizing physics. From a Zuni standpoint, the idealization of physics is not improbable, for ritual presupposes that in aRb, R is necessary, and relieves the perspective-taker of substantiating rationality ontologically.

Cushing’s writings are rich with examples of how the Zuni concept of being must conform to the context of form, function, and a pragmatic interpretation of context through ceremony. In a narrative on pottery making he describes how vessels come to be made beings[101]. "The clay which served for their wares was seldom taken from the native quarries without propitiatory offerings" and the transition of the dormant potency of the raw material was by means of coaxing the “treasured source” which is the source of life that accompanies, protects, and preserves whatever it is contained within[102]. Through the finishing and decorating of the vessels "no laughing, music, whistling or any other unnecessary noises are indulged in, and conversation was carried on in faint whispers or by signs; for it was feared that the "voice" would enter the vessels, and that when the latter were fired, would escape with a loud noise” thereby shattering the vessel. It is imperative that the “noise made by the pot when struck or when simmering on the fire is supposed to be the voice of its associated being”[103]. It is imperative that the voice of the pot be its true voice and not the voice of a deviant utterance.

Form and function serve to instill meaning to design images. Cushing also describes the making of a canteen, which is formed in the shape of a female mammary gland. It is named me'hetonne, according to both shape and function, where me'hana is the word for a human mammary gland, and ettonne is a word for fetish or ceremonial object. The design images receive their specificity, which is to insure that vessel is always providing the milk of the desert (water), by the context, or function of the canteen. It is an ettonne because it contains the "treasured source"[104

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If you can, plan to be there Sept. 10 or 11; you will be in for a treat. The animal park is having a special Native American Arts Festival featuring the expert storytelling of John Three Hawks, who will share tales of the local animals, plants and terrain and will truly inspire his listeners. After hearing his lively narratives, you can stroll around the facility and enjoy the wildlife from a new perspective.

American Indian songs, dances and food will also be available, as well as beautiful and unusual crafts. It's the perfect opportunity to ask questions of gifted artisans.

For more information, call Friends of the Moonridge Zoo at (909) 878-4200.

Additional American Indian artisans who are interested in participating are welcome to display wares free of charge.

Moonridge Zoo at P.O. Box 2557, Big Bear City, CA 92314

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Adobe Gallery: older original paintings by Tony Abeyta, Emil Bistram, E.A. Burbank, Fremont Ellis, R.C. Gorman, Patrick Swazo Hines, and Fritz Scholder,cq all through Sept. 3; acrylic paintings and aquatint etchings by Helen Hardin, through Oct. 16. 221 Canyon Road, Santa Fe. (505) 955-0550.

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USAO to host young writers workshop Aspiring young writers and filmmakers from across Oklahoma are invited to participate in a workshop Sept. 15-16 at the University of Science and Arts in Chickasha. The workshop is hosted by the Woodcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers, with support from USAO.

The free, two-day workshop is geared toward Native American students but participants do not need to be Native American or become members of Woodcraft Circle.

Participants are also awarded with membership in the Woodcraft Circle, a national organization of Native American writers and storytellers.

For more information, contact Dr. Lee Hester, director of American Indian Studies, at 405-574-1289 or fachesterl@usao.edu, or Jay Goombi, Woodcraft regional director, at 405-574-1264or jgoombi@usao.edu.

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Northeastern Native American Fine Arts Show. A new exhibit at the Mashantucket Pequot Museum features an array of art, which runs through Sept. 5 at the museum's gallery, shows off the artistic skills of American Indians from the Northeast. Thirty-four artists with connections to tribes of the Northeast were chosen for the show, which includes sculpture, carvings, oils, acrylic and mixed media.

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Sept. 4-Nov. 13: "By Native Hands: Native American Basketry," Forsyth Center Galleries, Memorial Student Center, Texas A&M. 9 a.m.-8 p.m. Monday through Friday and noon-6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

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October 30. Native American Fall Festival-Lenape Village. Churchville Nature Center. Churchville, PA. 215-357-4005. www.churchvillenaturecenter.org.

Museum of Indian Arts and Culture:"Beauty Within," historical objects from the collection, through Oct. 23; "IconoClash," symbols of American Indian culture, through Jan. 15; "The Pottery of Santa Ana Pueblo," through Feb. 19. 708 Camino Lejo, Santa Fe. Admission and hours: (505) 476-1250.

Plains Art Museum: "Between Two Cultures: The Art of Star Wallowing Bull," opens Sept. 24; "Contemporary Native American Artists - Reflections After Lewis and Clark," opens July 21, (701) 232-3821.

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AEQ Book Review of Making Dictionaries: Preserving Indigenous Languages of the Americas .
Frawley, William, Kenneth C. Hill, and Pamela Munro, eds. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002. 450 pp. ISBN 0520229967, $34.95.
© 2004 American Anthropological Association Book Review of Making Dictionaries: Preserving Indigenous Languages of the Americas .
Reviewed for the Anthropology & Education Quarterly by Catherine S. Fowler
University of Nevada
csfowler@unr.nevada.edu
To Order this book

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W. Tussinger has written his first novel which was released in December, 2004. The title of the book is THE FOURTH WORLD.
W. Tussinger is a member of the Wyandotte Nation of Oklahoma and has lived on several reservations including the Yuroks of Northern California and the Yakamas of Washington State where he attended college.
THE FOURTH WORLD

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Duck Sings For Her Children - Cochiti

At Whirlpool Place (Koashka) there lived a duck with lots of little ducklings. She told her children to go to the river and have a bath. She said, "I will sit on the bank and sing for you." They got to the river. The mother sat on the bank, and she started to sing (unintelligible words). She said, "When this song ends, jump in all together." At the last word of her song, the ducklings jumped in and went under the water and came up again far off. They swam around and came back to their mother. She sang her song again and each time they ducked and swam and came back to her.

Coyote heard Mother Duck singing. He said, "What a pretty song you sing to your children. I must go and get mine too. I have as many children as you have. I will get them. Why don't your children get drowned in all that water?" Mother Duck answered, "It is because they have a great power that they don't get drowned. If your children have a great power like mine they won't drown either."

Coyote went off to get her children. She brought them all to the river bank and asked Mother Duck where they were to start. She said, "They must start from this bank when you sing the song for them." Old Coyote said, "How shall I sing the song? When you sing it, you call your children by name, but when I sing it must I call my children by name?" Duck said, "That is right." Coyote started to sing, but the little coyotes were afraid of the water and wouldn't go near the river. They all bunched together on the bank. Mother Duck started to sing for the little coyotes. She said, "When I get to the end, jump into the water." She got to the end but the coyotes all ran off home as fast as they could. Some of them Coyote caught and threw into the river. So she drowned half of them and all the ducks flew up away from Coyote. She started to cry for her children. She cried and cried until she died.

Tales of the Cochiti Indians by Ruth Benedict, Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin No. 98 [1932]

From Blue Panther Keeper of Stories. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Native_Village
http://groups.msn.com/KeeperofStories

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"Communing with Bears"

By Sara Wright

Communing with Bears is the story of a joyful encounter between one woman and a black bear.

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Web Sites:
Native American Links Page
Indigenous Peoples Literature
Native Voice
Wisdom of the Old People
By David Whitney
Hero, Hawk, and Open Hand
Hero, Hawk, and Open Hand, The Book
Early tribal artifacts put in spotlight
"Hero, Hawk, and Open Hand" is scheduled to be shown at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History from early July to late September.
National Association of Tribal Historic Preservation
Inuit film to tell story of last great shaman
Petition in Support of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe
My Two Beads Worth: Indigenous News Online
Northern California Indian Development Council
Native Village
Smudge Ceremony

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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].