Native American Art News: Powwows evolve while preserving tradition

Native American arts daily news, presented by
amerindianarts.us

At Pow Wow, they beat the drums for education

Smithsonian museum celebrates the American Indian

Leader of American Indian Movement blasts Fiesta

Eiteljorg Museum Receives $250,000 Grant

Laguna senior retires from competition

Powwows evolve while preserving tradition

Museum director joins Oklahoma Indian Summer team

Native American woman persevered to become known the world around

Indian bowls, bottles taken from locked room at SAU

Ex-assistant seeks share of artist's estate

Wisconsin Oneida Indian nominated to head U.S. agency

Indian Fetishism: Year 515

Tony Redhouse- American Indian flutist and percussionist

Chickasaw playwright brings Te Ata's story to the stage

Center’s multidisciplinary exhibition explores what it means to be a Native America artist

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.

Grants could save Indian languages-AP

Federal grants can help keep some rarely spoken American Indian language from disappearing, tribal and Indian education officials say.

Ryan Wilson, president of the National Indian Education Association, is supporting legislation in Congress that would provide grants for "immersion schools" that would teach Indian languages. In immersion schools, students learn traditional languages and are taught other subjects in those languages as well.

Of about 500 American Indian languages that existed before European immigration to North America, only about 100 still exist, and 20 are spoken by American Indian children, Wilson said. He estimated the federal legislation to provide grants for immersion schools would cost $8 million annually. Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., is a co-sponsor.

Tex Hall, chairman of the Three Affiliated Tribes, which includes the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara, said only eight people alive are still fluent in the Mandan language.

"If we don't do this now, it will be gone," Hall said. "These speakers are passing on. When they pass, they take a wealth of knowledge with them."

Wilson said the federal government discouraged the teaching of Indian languages years ago in an attempt to force cultural assimilation, and the proposed grant program would take steps toward undoing the damage.

Hall and Wilson spoke during a summer institute on Indian education, held this week at United Tribes Technical College in Bismarck.

United Tribes President David Gipp said there is evidence that language programs can help students improve their overall academic performance

"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.

Legend of the Apache Tear – Apache

http://pr.tennessee.edu/ut2kids/rocks/apaches.html

One day; a party of Apache Indians, was ambushed by an enemy tribe. The Apaches fought bravely but were greatly outnumbered and driven to the top of a high bluff. Their arrows gone and unable to fight and unwilling to be taken captive, they leapt from the cliffs to their death. Their women were understandably grief-stricken and wept over the bodies. Their teardrops froze when they hit the ground to become the lovely stones we know today as "Apache Tears".

'Apache Tears' is also called Black Obsidian. Obsidian has great healing properties. Like other black gemstones it is used to ground scattered energies. The stone emanates truth and will show you your strengths and weaknesses. This is a powerful stone with potential for positive cleansing and transformation. Used in 'grounding' one's energies. Also helps soul reflection. The "Grief Stone". Apache Tears allow for tears to be shed, stimulating emotional spontaneity and the release of barriers that prevent you from experiencing deep sorrow. This stone is excellent for transmuting one's own negativity under stressful situations. When held up to the light it appears transparent. However, it has been noted that the grief one feels goes into the stone and can turn it opaque. Black Obsidian vibrates to the number 1. Number 1 is about courage and leadership, having strong will power and determination

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

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