Native American Art News: Native American Divas

Midwest SOARRING has acquired a herd of seven bison, a symbol of endurance. The foundation is looking for a new place to keep the herd, preferably in Illinois.

The First United Methodist Church of La Grange serves as a venue for many of Midwest SOARRING's smaller events, like recent presentations on spirituality and the culture of the native people of Alaska.

One of the biggest upcoming events is a performance of "Spirit of the People" by the Waswagoning Dance Theater March 24 at Dominican University in River Forest.

Two other major events are the third annual Honor the Eagle Powwow May 19 and 20 at Starved Rock State Park in Utica and the 12th annual Harvest Powwow Sept. 29 and 30 in Naperville.

The work of six American Indian artists will be displayed March 2-15 at E. Max vonIsser Gallery of Art in the Student Resource Center of Elgin Community College, as part of Women’s History Month.

The exhibit, titled “Native Women Artists: Creating Contemporary Life Journals” features works by Lisa Bernal, Julia Brown Wolf, Frances Hagemann, Nora Moore Lloyd, Norma Robertson and Sharon Okee-Chee Skolnick. The women work in a variety of mediums – photography, drawing and beadwork. It is open 7:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. weekdays and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays. An artist reception, open to the public, will be 5 to 8 p.m. March 8 in the gallery.

American Indian Journalism Institute accepting applications for summer 2007. The Freedom Forum is accepting applications until March 31 for the seventh American Indian Journalism Institute, the premier journalism training and summer internship program for Native American college students, June 3-22, 2007.

Students attend AIJI for free and receive other financial assistance. Applications are welcome from any Native American college student hoping to become a journalist. In its first six years, 143 students completed the program. Instructions and application forms are available from Janine Harris at jharris@freedomforum.org or 605/677-5424.

Spokane artist George Flett, well kown for his depictions of ledger art, anouncing forthcoming book "The Ledger Art of George Flett"

Jaune Quick-To-See Smith, Contemporary Native American Paintings. Feb. 10-April 8. Muscarelle Museum of Art, Williamsburg.

American Indian bags as works of art

The exhibit, “Heritage of Design: American Indian and First Nation Treasures from the Maryhill Museum,” will run until June 10 and will feature hand-woven artifacts from tribes in the Plateau region of the Northwest, which includes British Columbia, Washington, Idaho, Montana and Oregon.

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

Di-S-Qau-Ni (chestnut bread) - Cherokee

Cut chestnuts into small bits, then blend with whatever beans you prefer. Use whatever seasonings you wish, wild ramps, onions, (optional: a touch of sassafras), sweet grass or whatever. Cook the same as you would any other beans until done.

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Reprinted by permission

Daughter of the Sun – Cherokee

Many Indian legends depict the sun as a male being who impregnates mortal women. The Cherokees are one of three tribes who view the sun as female, as has been said already. In this classic tale with an Orpheus theme, the sun is an old woman with a grown daughter and human emotions.

The sun lived on the other side of the sky vault, but her daughter lived in the middle of the sky, directly above the earth. Every day as the sun was climbing along the sky arch to the west, she used to stop at her daughter's house for dinner. Now, the sun hated the people of this earth, because they never looked straight at her without squinting. She said to her brother, the moon, "My grandchildren are ugly; they screw up their faces whenever they see me."

But the moon said, "I like my younger brothers; I think they're handsome." This was because they always smiled pleasantly at his mild glow in the night sky. The sun was jealous of the moon's popularity and decided to kill the people.

Every day when she got near her daughter's house, she sent down such a sultry heat that fever broke out and people died by the hundreds. When everyone had lost some friend and it seemed as if no one would be spared, the humans went for help to the Little Men. These men, who were friendly spirits, said that the only way the people could save themselves was to kill the sun. The Little Men made medicine to change two humans into snakes -- the spreading adder and the copperhead -- who could hide near the daughter's door and bite the old sun.

The snakes went up to the sky and lay in wait until the sun arrived for dinner. But when the spreading adder was about to spring, her bright light blinded him and he could only spit out yellow slime, as he does to this day when he tries to bite. The sun called him a nasty thing and went into the house, and the copperhead was so discouraged that he crawled off without trying to do anything.

The people, still dying from the terrible heat, went a second time to the Little Men for help. Again the Little Men made medicine and changed one man into the great Uktena, the water monster, and another into a rattlesnake. As before, the serpents had instructions to kill the old sun when she stopped at her daughter's house. Uktena was large and fierce, with horns on his head, and everyone thought he would be sure to succeed. But the rattlesnake was so eager that he raced ahead and coiled up just outside the house. When the sun's daughter opened the door to look for her mother, he struck and she fell dead in the doorway.

Forgetting to wait for the old sun, he went back to the people, and Uktena was so angry at the rattlesnake's stupidity that he went back too. Since then we pray to the rattlesnake and don't kill him, because he wishes people well and never tries to bite if we don't disturb him. But Uktena grew angrier and more dangerous all the time. He became so venomous that if he even looked at a man, the man's whole family would die.

Eventually the people held a council and decided that he was just too dangerous, so they sent him to Galun'lati, the end of the world, where he still is.

When the sun found her daughter dead, she shut herself up in the house and grieved. Now the people were no longer dying from the heat, but they lived in darkness. Once more they sought help from the Little Men, who said that in order to coax the sun out, they must bring her daughter back from Tsusgina'i. This is the ghost country, which lies in Usunhi'yi, the Darkening Land in the west.

The people chose seven men to make the journey. The Little Men told the seven to take a box, and told each man to carry a sourwood rod a handbreadth long. When they got to Tsusgina'i, the Little Men explained, they would find all the ghosts at a dance. They should stand outside the circle, and when the sun's daughter danced past them, they must strike her with the rods and she would fall to the ground. Then they could put her in the box and bring her back to her mother. But they must not open the box, even a crack, until they arrived home.

The seven men took the rods and the box and traveled west for seven days until they came to the Darkening Land. There they found a great crowd of ghosts having a dance, just as if they were alive. The sun's daughter was in the outside circle. As she danced past them, one of the seven men struck her with his rod. As she swung around a second time, another touched her with his rod, and then another and another, until at the seventh round she fell out of the ring. The men put her into the box and closed the lid, and the other ghosts never seemed to notice what had happened.

The seven took up the box and started home toward the east. In a while the girl came to life again and begged to be let out, but the party went on without answering. Soon she called again and said she was hungry, but they did not reply. When at last the group was very near home, the daughter of the sun cried out that she was smothering and begged them to raise the lid just a little. Now they were afraid that she was really dying, so they barely cracked the lid to give her air. There was a fluttering sound, and something flew past them into the bushes. Then they heard a redbird cry, "Kwish! Kwish! Kwish!" Shutting the lid, they went on again. But when they arrived at the settlements and opened the box, it was empty. So we know that the redbird is the daughter of the sun. And if the party had kept the box closed, as the Little Men told them to, they could have brought her home safely, and today we would be able to recover our friends from the Ghost Country. Because the seven opened the box, however, we can never bring back people who die.

The sun had been hopeful when the party had started off for the Darkening Land, but when they came back without her daughter, she wept until her tears caused a great flood. Fearing that the world would be drowned, the people held another council and decided to send their handsomest young men and women to amuse the sun and stop her crying. This group danced before her and sang their best songs, but for a long time she kept her face bowed and paid no attention. At last when the drummer suddenly changed the song, she looked up and was so pleased at the sight of the beautiful young people that she forgot her grief and smiled.

From Myths of the Cherokee, James Mooney, 1900

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Reprinted 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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