Native American Art News: Birthday Memorial Events for Miracle, the Sacred White Buffalo

Native American arts daily news, presented by
amerindianarts.us

In a first, Navajo primary puts woman in runoff for tribal leader

Schedule of Birthday Memorial Events for Miracle, the Sacred White Buffalo

Picuris Pueblo: Bountiful banquet

92nd annual Meskwaki Indian Powwow

Richardson appoints new district judges

Pow Wow in The Berkshires! - 'Rock, Rattle & Drum'

The Keeper of the Plains

Museums Establish Guidelines for Treatment of Sacred Objects

Native heritage, music and dance at Museum

Kempthorne, American Indian leaders meet

AMERICAN INDIAN TRADITIONS: Toxin endangering tribes' way of life

American Indian traditions come alive at heritage fest

Indian bowls, bottles taken from locked room at Southern Arkansas University

The eighth annual Thunder Mountain Native American Festival and Pow-Wow brings drumming, dancing, singing and native foods and arts to Saltsburg, Indiana County, from 10-6 p.m., August 19-20. 877-746-3426

www.newmexicocreates.org is creating a new website.

Institute of American Indian Arts Museum: "Relations: Indigenous Dialogue," group show by artists actively seeking to break stereotypes, through Sept. 30. 108 Cathedral Place, Santa Fe. Admission and hours: (505) 983-8900.

"Native American Pottery from the Pueblos" will run through Aug. 27 at the Art Museum of Greater Lafayette, Indiana, 102 S. 10th St. Gallery hours are 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. Call 742-1128.

More than 200 pieces of pueblo pottery from the San Bernardino County Museum's permanent collection will be on view for its new exhibit, "Pottery from the Pueblos," which opened July 15. Runs through November 5, 2006.

August 25-27—PowWow Native American Festival: Intertribal gathering of Native American dancers, drummers, artists, and craftspeople, Friday noon-8 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m.-9 p.m. and Sunday 10 a.m.-6 p.m., Patterson Park at Linwood and Eastern avenues, 410-675-3535, baic.org.

OCT. 5-6

Virginia Indian Symposium -- Williamsburg Hosted by Virginia's Indian tribes, the "400 Years of Survival" symposium will feature nationally known Native American speakers on topics such as sovereignty, federal recognition, health care, repatriation and education.

How to Count to 100 – Omaha

http://groups.msn.com/nativeamericanstoriesalibrary

A young man wanted to become a respected elder, a member of the white shell society. An elder told him, "You must learn to count to 100." That is simple, the young man thought.

One day a homeless, dirty, skinny old woman limped into town. Some people looked at her and hurried away. Some stared and whispered behind their hands about her.

One old man had compassion for the old woman. "Grandmother, come in, rest," he said. He put his arm around her and took her into his home. He welcomed her in, offered her water. When she had rested and had some water, he gave her soup.

He called to his wife and daughters, "Help Grandmother wash and change. Put her in that buckskin dress I beaded for the give-away. Give her those new moccasins." The wife and daughters bathed the old woman, washed her hair and braided it, dressed her in new clothes.

Then the family invited her to live with them, to join the family.

Later the young man saw the grandmother with her new family. "Is that the old homeless woman? Who did this?"

"That's one," the elder said

Reposted with Permission from Brother to Horse

http://groups.msn.com/KeeperofStories/
Reprinted from this site by permission

Who Brought The Sun (Zuni)

With great appreciation to Morning Feather for this lovely story of the sun and moon...Thank You!

"I would like to share a story I found in a book in the bottom of a trunk in the cabin my Grandfather built."

In those days, as we have seen, neither the Sun nor the Moon shone upon the earth. No one succeeded in doing anything because no one could see in the dark- only the owl was able to light its way with its eyes. The coyote grew thin, for although he went hunting every day, he never managed to catch any rabbits, and in the end had to make do with an occasional grasshopper to soothe the pangs of hunger for a while. Then he would sit dejectedly in front of his den, looking round with hungry eyes. Suddenly he heard the swish of mighty wings. The eagle had come to pay him a visit. The coyote bent his back and bowed, saying: 'Ah, what an unexpected honor! Welcome, brother. I wish I could offer you something, but I haven’t so much as a gnawed bone. I am quite famished myself and can hardly walk any more. You, I am sure, are much better off. How I wish I could go hunting with y u!' The eagle looked the coyote up and down, thinking. 'He looks like a scarecrow, nothing but skin and bone.' 'Well, we can always try,' he said. 'But you must help me. 'Oh, yes, yes, anything you say!' cried the coyote, embracing the eagle with his emaciated paws and almost choking him for joy. The next day they set out hunting together. The eagle circled high up in the air and as soon as he sighted his prey, he plunged headlong to the ground. The coyote did not catch anything, nor did he try to - he was quite satisfied with sharing the eagle's ooty. 'I have no need of such a worthless assistant!' exclaimed the eagle. 'You don't even bother to bury the bones - you simply leave them scattered on the ground.' 'How can I help it? It's so dark I can't see the tip of my nose,' protested the coyote. 'What we need is some light.' 'True enough,' agreed the eagle. 'I've heard that far away to the west two big lights are hidden; one is called the Sun and the other the Moon. Let's go there and we are sure to find them.' They soon started on their journey. They walked and walked (or rather, the coyote did, for the eagle flew in the air) until they came to a wide river. The eagle waved its wings and flew across, settling on the opposite bank. The coyote remained standing i decisively in front of the muddy water, feeling little inclination to jump in. Nevertheless, he did. His head bobbed up and down on the surface, his eyes bulging as he paddled with all four paws at once. As soon as he felt the firm ground beneath him again he cried angrily: 'I almost drowned and you sit here as if nothing had happened. Why didn't you carry me across?' 'Why don't you grow feathers? You could have flown across like me if you had feathers.' And the eagle ruffled his plumage with loving care. 'Idiot!' the coyote spluttered with rage. 'I'd like to see what you would have done in my place!' But he knew it would not be wise to annoy the eagle, so he stopped complaining, and they set off once more. The country round them gradually changed in character, the outlines of isolated hills and cliffs becoming more and more distinct. They were approaching the light. All of a sudden the eagle changed course, circling lower and lower. The coyote quickly ran u a low hillock which hindered his view and saw, in a large clearing below, a number of strange creatures jumping about and dancing and singing. They were all so hideously painted that his hairs stood on end with horror. 'Quiet!' the eagle, who had landed next to the coyote, warned him. 'These are katchinas, evil spirits.' 'W-w-won't they h-h-hurt us?' stammered the coyote, his teeth chattering with fear. 'There's no need to be afraid - they don't know we're here. You see those two chests over there?' The eagle pointed into the midst of the yelling dancers. Every now and again one of them would open the lid of one the chests, whereupon a brilliant shaft of light illuminated the. 'What's that?' the coyote asked. 'In one of the chests they have hidden the Sun, in the other, the Moon,' explained the eagle. 'And do you really think we will manage to...?' 'We must wait until the katchinas go to sleep. Only you must stop shivering like this all the time.' The coyote hid his head between his paws, so afraid was he of the evil spirits. The dance came to an end at last - overcome with fatigue, the katchinas dropped off one by one, and soon they were all snoring so loudly that the rocks reverberated with the noise. This was the moment the two animals were waiting for: the eagle pounced on the chests, dropping down like an arrow, and, seizing them in his claws, vanished in the clouds. The coyote ran for all he was worth, sweeping the ground with his tail. He did not dare to look round until he was over the first hill; there was no one pursuing them, the katchinas slept like logs and had no idea what had happened. 'I wonder what the Sun looks like?' said the coyote to himself. 'And the Moon? That must be particularly beautiful. I really ought to take a peep at them.' He lifted his head and called out to the eagle: 'Aren't you tired yet, brother?' But the eagle only laughed and called back from his height: 'That's nothing I can easily carry them the rest of the way.' 'Oh, but surely it is not fitting for the eagle, the animal chieftain, to be carrying loads.' 'Never mind. I do not stand on ceremony.' 'Oh, but what would the others say if they saw you toiling hard like this? In the end they'll blame me for it, that's what they'll do,' the coyote persisted. He begged and pleaded, inventing all sorts of things to make the eagle let him carry the chests s that he could satisfy his curiosity. 'All right, then,' said the eagle finally, setting the "chests down on the ground. 'But you must be very careful with them.' And he again soared up into the air. When the eagle had come to rest on top of the nearest mountain, the coyote could no longer restrain himself and slowly lifted the lid of the large chest. 'Oh, how marvelous!' he exclaimed. 'What warmth, what golden radiance! I must warm my hands a little.' And he stuck his paws inside the chest. 'Ouch! I'm burned!' he cried suddenly, throwing the lid open in his confusion. Before he could do anything about it, the Sun had jumped out, whoosh! and in one leap had reached the sky. The coyote implored it to come back, clasping his scorched paws together, but the Sun mounted higher and higher and paid no heed to his entreaties. 'I must send the Moon to fetch the Sun back,' it occurred to him. He therefore opened the lid of the second chest. But the Moon was as merciless as the Sun had been before it. It climbed up to the sky and hid in the Sun's shadow. The coyote paced up and down by the empty chests, fearfully looking out for the eagle. The big bird arrived soon and scolded him: 'Now look what you've done! Instead of eternal light, there will be night and day succeeding each other all the time, only because you let the Sun get away.' The coyote hung his head guiltily. 'I'm sorry, I didn't realize. . .' he said meekly. 'But at least the katchinas can't take the Sun back either.' There's something in that, when you come to think of it,' admitted the eagle. 'Anyway you'd better keep the whole thing to yourself, for no one would be likely to believe you.' And, waving his wings in farewell, the eagle made for the mountains. The coyote ran off to his home in the prairie, whistling merrily and looking round to the right and to the left as never before. You see, at that moment the first day had just been born in the Indian country.

Brother to Horse
http://groups.msn.com/nativeamericanstoriesalibrary

Articles by Chet Staley, Amerindian Arts

Note on Zuni substance

Concept of the Sublime

Dorothy Dunn On Primitive Art
(Excerpt)Quoting Alice Corbin Henderson, Dunn states that in an Indian society, art is "possessed in common" and "totally lacking in individualistic concept." Thus, objectivity is enjoined with intentionality as personal accomplishment without a reference to the individual. This would satisfy a pedagogic sense of rationality in that in an Indian society "the surest way to make a prayer effective is to symbolize the matter prayed for" (Bandelier). If the prayer (the art of rhetoric) was effective, then it was handed down from generation to generation and its success justified its rationality.

Essay on the Zuni World View

Bibliography of the Zuni Language

Indian Ledger Art-Resources and Information

Books of Interest

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

THE FOURTH WORLD
W. Tussinger has written his first novel which was released in December, 2004.
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.
To Order this book

THE WOMEN/Edward S. Curtis
by Christopher Cardozo; foreword by Louise Erdrich (Bulfinch Press, $35) — Cardozo, who lives in Minneapolis, is the world's foremost expert on, and collector of, photos of American Indians taken by turn-of-the-century photographer Edward S. Curtis. Cardozo went through 1,000 photos to find the 100 sepia-toned images in this book, which show the daily lives of American Indian women at a time when most were already on reservations. Minneapolis novelist and poet Erdrich discusses women's work in her foreword: " … although Edward Curtis believed that he was documenting a vanishing culture, it is in these humble arts that the strength of Native culture lives on."
To Order this book

Literature on Native America

An Overview of Pacific Northwest Native Indian Art
Free downloadable e-book

American Indian Women's Activism in the 1960s and 1970s
by Donna Hightower Langston
Complete article

Linguists Find the Words, and Pocahontas Speaks Again
By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD

Hero, Hawk, and Open Hand, The Book
Early tribal artifacts put in spotlight at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History

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

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.

Web Sites:

Native American Links Page
Indigenous Peoples Literature
Native Voice
Wisdom of the Old People
By David Whitney

National Association of Tribal Historic Preservation
Inuit film to tell story of last great shaman
My Two Beads Worth: Indigenous News Online
Northern California Indian Development Council
Native Village
Smudge Ceremony

To subscribe to Native Village weekly email reminders, please send your email address to:
NativeVillage500@aol.com
NATIVE VILLAGE YOUTH AND EDUCATION NEWS is a free newsletter which informs and celebrates in the education, values, traditions, and accomplishments of the Americas' First Peoples.
Member: Native American Journalists Association

Buffalo Field Campaign
PO Box 957
West Yellowstone, MT 59758
(406) 646-0070
bfc-media@wildrockies.org