Native American Art News: Transcending Time- Contemporary Native American Art

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Contemporary Native American Art Transcends Time

Denied Indian mascot, McMurry forgoes nickname

Judge: Preserve tribal religion

American Indian village thriving near Mansfield

Ethel Curry Powwow hosts mixed emotions

Teams should be allowed to keep using Indian names

Tribes gather to bless UM site

THE MID-AMERICA ALL-INDIAN CENTER

Indian leaders bless ground for planned UM American Indian center

Missing American Indian garb recovered

Fleming Museum opens Native American Gallery

Jacksonville, TN-Thousands of Native Americans are expected to converge on Parkers Crossroads City Park on Oct. 27-29 for the Cherokee Wolf Clan's first Powwow in Parkers Crossroads.

MONTCLAIR, NJ.- The Montclair Art Museum presents Jaune Quick-to See-Smith: Made in America, on view through January 15, 2007 at its Judy and Josh Weston Exhibition Gallery. Jaune Quick-to-See Smith uses humor and satire to examine myths, stereotypes, and the paradox of American Indian life in contrast to the consumerism of American society.

Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian Celebrates American Indian and Alaska Native Heritage Month

Contact: Amy Drapeau, 202-633-6614 or drapeaua@si.edu; Leonda Levchuk, 202-633-6613 or levchukl@si.edu, both of the Smithsonian Institution; Public only: 202-633-1000

WASHINGTON, Oct. 10 /U.S. Newswire/ -- To celebrate American Indian and Alaska Native Heritage Month in November, the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C., will host a variety of free public programs.

Panel Discussion: On Friday, Nov. 3, at 7 p.m. in the Rasmuson Theater, a panel discussion will be held on "Indigenous Archaeology: Respecting Objects, History and Place."

Dance Performance: The Lepquinm Gumilgit Gogoadim (Our Own Dance in Our Hearts) Dance Group from Alaska, will present heritage songs and dances from the Tsimshian culture Friday, Nov. 3 through Sunday, Nov. 5, at 10:30 a.m. and noon in the Rasmuson Theater.

Storytelling: Hope and Company, led by Ishmael Hope (Inupiaq/Tlingit) and storytellers, will share stories about Alaska Native heritage Tuesday, Nov. 7 through Thursday, Nov. 9 and Saturday, Nov. 11 and Sunday, Nov. 12, at 2 and 3:30 p.m. in the Rasmuson Theater.

Art Demonstration: David Boxley (Tsimshian) will demonstrate the art of wood carving from Friday, Nov. 10 through Sunday, Nov. 12 at 11 a.m., 1 and 3 p.m. in the Potomac Atrium.

Family Day: A Family Day program on "North Pacific Coast Weaving Traditions" will take place Saturday, Nov. 11, from 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Education Workshop on the third level. Tlingit weaver Lorene Boxley will talk about Tlingit women's weaving and participants will have an opportunity to create their own mat or basket to take home.

Performance: Tobias Vanderhoop (Aquinnah Wampanoag) will present "A Wampanoag Thanksgiving" Tuesday, Nov. 14 through Thursday, Nov. 16, at 10:30 a.m., 1 and 3 p.m. in the Rasmuson Theater. Through story, song, drumming and dance, visitors will learn how Wampanoags traditionally offered thanks before contact with non- Natives.

Film: "Stolen Spirits of Haida Gwaii" will be screened in the Rasmuson Theater Friday, Nov. 24, at 7 p.m. and Saturday, Nov. 25, at 1:30 p.m.

All programs are subject to change, for a complete schedule of public programs, visit http://www.AmericanIndian.si.edu .

PORTLAND, IN -- The artistic talents of Native Americans will be on display at Arts Place Nov. 4-Dec. 23.

The show is titled "Out of Tradition: The artwork of the tradition bearers for National Center for Great Lakes Native American Culture."

Zan Stewart American Indian artAmerican Indian humor and beauty are on display at the Montclair Art Museum this month, first with "Jaune Quick-To-See Smith: Made in America," an exhibit of 34 paintings, prints and installations by the politically active artist. A 35-year career has seen her subject matter evolve through Indian myths, McDonald's symbolism, and the funny aspects of cultural stereotyping. This show, with "American Indian Artists of the 1930s," drawn from the museum's permanent collection, will highlight the museum's commitment to Native American art Saturday through Jan. 14, Newark, NJ.

Museum of New Mexico/Museum of Indian Arts & Culture
Current and Online Exhibitions

Zuni Ontology-Plurality and Substance

The term "substance" in Western metaphysics is commonly used to indicate the permanence of a substratum, whether extended or non-extended, which underlies and constitutes reality. Its extension is manifest in the appearances of the physical world, and its non-extension may refer to its coming to be and passing out of existence, i.e. the concept of change. Other terms which may be intimated in a discussion of substance may include but not be limited to "matter", "time", "space", "being", "cause and effect", etc. This synopsis of substance may seem to be overly generalized (actually, it is), but is intended here simply to illustrate a dichotomy in Western thought which is not intrinsically appropriate to the study of the Native Americans, except perhaps by contrast, and more particularly to the study of Native American languages, which have no means of expressing the distinction between, for lack of better terms, "spiritual" and "non-spiritual" matter

In the Zuni language, the noun /a means "stone" or "rock" (the "/" represents a glottal stop). As a transitive verb, /a refers to "being depressions in rocks", but as Newman noted, /a belongs to a class of verbs "which are statics referring to the existence of an entity or quality" and "English translation fails to demonstrate convincingly that a verb of this type is transitive". Thus, "being depressions in rocks" could be translated as "a depression is", or "there is a depression", or "it has a depression". This may predispose one to interpret an apparent confusion of the substantive and predicative (Cushing noted this in Zuni Fetishes). As an intransitive verb the meaning of /a is a demonstrative "be prone", or "be laying", indicating location, and belongs to the same class of verbs denoting static entities where the direct object of the verb becomes indefinitized.

The term /a has also been translated as "stone" when it appears as a prefix in the transitive verb -po/ya, a term which means "to cover". In Zuni Ceremonialism Bunzel translates /a -po/yanne as "stone cover" (meaning "sky"), a term which Newman translates as simply "sky". The suffix -nne means singularity.

This same term was translated by Cushing as a verb meaning "all covering" in reference to Apoyan Tatcu, which means "Father Sky". Cushing's intention was "all-covering Father". This later use is in accord with the presence of /a in the form of the inflectional prefix /a.w-, a verbal pronominal prefix for a plural absolutive, where .w- is dropped when appearing before a consonant. This use of inflection is also correct in referring to nominal particles indicating kinship terms, names of animals, demonstratives, numbers, and indefinites, and the presense of /a in this use is that of a word, not a syllable. /A -po/yanne would not be a particle, whereas /a -po/yan tatcu would be.

However, this use of inflection in a particle is in contrast to the translation of such particles as A pila shiwani, which means "bow priests". The correct inflection of pi/la is pi/la we/, but in the compound of the particle the inflection is denoted by the prefix /a which is a word meaning plurality of an indefinite number. As Miner notes, this is a rare use and the inflection is generally affixed to the head term, as in tehli-ya-ka /a-shiwani (night priests), or tehli-ya-ka /a-tatcu (night father, notice the convergence of plurality and singularity, i.e. there is but one night father and he exhausts a class).

One might interpret Bunzel's translation as being influenced by her considerable contact with Zuni folklore, and Cushing's translation due to his membership with the /A -pi/la shiwani and considerable knowledge of Zuni mythology. Bunzel had criticized Cushing's translations as "metaphysical glossing", but the accuracy of that claim in regard to /A pi/la shiwani remains unseen. It should be noted that Bunzel's translation of /a te-ona in Zuni Ceremonialism as "beings" is tantamount to translating it as "all (/a) those whom are (ona) terrestrial (te)", and was intended to exhaust the class, just as Cushing's translation of /A po/yan Tatcu was intended to exhaust the class (there can be only one father sky). It should also be noted that Cushing may have confounded (or compounded) his usage of the plural absolutive with the separate, derivational use of /a which pluralizes particles referring to persons (/a hoi).

In conclusion, the common usage and multi-referentiality of the word /a lends ambiquity to the interpretation of many words and may possibly represent preconceptions which semantically transcend any dichotomy of spiritual and non-spiritual matter.

Chief Dragging Canoe – Cherokee

"Whole Indian Nations have melted away like snowballs in the sun before the white man's advance. They leave scarcely a name of our people except those wrongly recorded by their destroyers. Where are the Delaware's? They have been reduced to a mere shadow of their former greatness. We had hoped that the white men would not be willing to travel beyond the mountains. Now that hope is gone. They have passed the mountains, and have settled upon Tsalagi (Cherokee) land. They wish to have that usurpation sanctioned by treaty. When that is gained, the same encroaching spirit will lead them upon other land of the Tsalagi (Cherokees). New cessions will be asked. Finally the whole country, which the Tsalagi (Cherokees) and their fathers have so long occupied, will be demanded, and the remnant of the Ani Yvwiya, The Real People, once so great and formidable, will be compelled to seek refuge in some distant wilderness. There they will be permitted to stay only a short while, until they again behold the advancing banners of the same greedy host. Not being able to point out any further retreat for the miserable Tsalagi (Cherokees), the extinction of the whole race will be proclaimed. Should we not therefore run all risks, and incur all consequences, rather than to submit to further loss of our country? Such treaties may be alright for men who are too old to hunt or fight. As for me, I have my young warriors about me. We will hold our land."

Chief Dragging Canoe, Chickamauga Tsalagi (Cherokee)

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

Chickadee Makes a Shoo'-mesh Bow - Okanogan

Chickadee wanted to cross the river where Elk had his trail. Elk crossed the river at the same place each sun. Chickadee waited for him there. When Elk came, Chickadee said: "Ste-eel'-tza, my grandfather. Take me across on your back."

Now, Elk was not Chickadee's grandfather, but Chickadee wanted to please Elk and gain his favor. Elk agreed to carry the little boy across the river. He took Chickadee on his back and waded into the water. With his flint knife, Chickadee began to cut the back of Elk's neck. "Zsf-skaka'-na, what are you doing?" asked Elk.

And Chickadee answered: "Grandfather, I am only scratching your neck."

Elk went on. Soon he thought that Chickadee was scratching too hard, and again he asked what the boy was doing.

"Grandfather, I am only scratching your neck," said Chickadee, but all the time he was cutting, cutting with his flint knife. Just as Elk reached the shore, Chickadee made a last cut and Elk fell dead with a broken neck. Chickadee was glad. He wanted one of Elk's ribs for a bow.

Such a bow would have strong shoo'-mesh. He skinned Elk with his knife. As he finished taking off the hide, Mother Wolf walked up. She had hidden her two children close by in their cradle that was hung on a tree. Mother Wolf looked greedily at the elk meat."Go and get your little cousins," she said. "I left them on a tree by the trail."

Chickadee knew that she wanted to steal the meat, but he did not let on that he knew. He ran along the trail and found the children, but he did not take them to their mother. He carried them in the opposite direction, running far with them. Then he hurried back to Mother Wolf. "I could not find your babies," he said.

"Why, they are on a tree close by the trail," said Mother Wolf, who thought that Chickadee could not find them. "Look again for them," and Chickadee ran to where he had left the children and carried them still farther away. He hurried back to Mother Wolf.

"No, I cannot find your babies," he said. Mother Wolf sent him once more. As soon as he was gone she started cutting the elk meat into small pieces. By the time Chickadee returned, the meat was all cut up. Chickadee did not have the children, of course, so Mother Wolf finally had to go for them.

"Do not eat any of the meat until I come back," she told Chickadee. "Wait, and we will eat together," and she started down the trail. It took her a long time to find her children.

Chickadee began to carry the meat away as soon as Mother Wolf was out of sight. He took it to a high cliff, to a ledge halfway up the wall of the cliff. He made several trips, and he finished carrying all the meat there just before Mother Wolf returned with her children. She followed Chickadee's tracks to the foot of the cliff, and then she looked up and saw him sitting on the ledge and roasting the meat over a fire.

"Zsf-skaka'-na, throw down a mouthful of meat for your little cousins," said Mother Wolf. "Open their mouths. I will throw down a mouthful to each," answered Chickadee.

Taken from Coyote Tales by Humishuma, Colville-Okanogan for Mourning Dove [Christine Quintasket], 1933

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

Articles by 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

Navajo Spaceships

Classic Hopi And Zuni Kachina Figures

MESA VERDE NATIONAL PARK: THE FIRST 100 YEARS

Fine Indian Jewelry: The Millicent Rogers Museum Collection

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

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