Amerindian Arts Native American News & Information: Duane Slick, Jacobson House, Chumash legacy, Kevin Locke

Maria Martinez and Julian , website for biographies, geneology, signatures. Kevin Locke, internationally renowned Lakota hoop Dancer and flutist, brings his stunning performance to Bismarck State College Friday, Dec. 7.

Work by local artist Dejean Jawrunner and Linda Lomahaftewa will be on exhibit at the Harwood Museum of Art/Millicent Rogers Museum in Taos, NM, Sept 28 to Dec. 30.

A Kiowa's Odyssey: A sketchbook from Fort Marion, images by Etahdleuh Doanmoe, an American Indian who more than 125 years ago was taken from his home in Oklahoma and imprisoned in an Army fort in Florida along with 71 other Indians. The Trout Gallery, Dickinson College, Carlisle, PA. Runs until early 2008.

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

Recent Books of Interest

''Canyon Gardens: The Ancient Pueblo Landscapes of the American Southwest (University of New Mexico Press: 2006). Editors V.B. Price and Baker H. Morrow have assembled 15 essays on the millennium-old Puebloan landscape.

"Being Lakota", Book by Larissa Petrillo

"American Indian Nations: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow", Book by George Horse Capture

How Turtle's Back Was Cracked - Haudenosaunee

This is what the old people told me when I was a child, about the days when the people and the animals still spoke the same language.

Now, in those days Possum and Turtle were best friends. Many people thought it odd that two such very different creatures would be so close, but Possum and Turtle knew they had a lot in common. Neither of them liked to go anywhere in a hurry, and they both loved persimmons.

Here is how they shared persimmons together.

Possum would climb a persimmon tree, wrap his strong tail around a limb, and hang. Turtle would come and stand as the foot of the tree, and Possum would swing up and pick a persimmon for himself and eat it. Then he would swing up and pick another one, and Turtle would open his mouth as wide as it would go. Possum would take careful aim and drop the persimmon into Turtles mouth. They could do this for hours.

They were sharing persimmons in this way one day when a wolf came along. The wolf watched the two friends for a while and he saw a way to play what he thought was a pretty funny joke and get a free lunch at the same time.

He went and stood behind Turtle, and when Possum dropped a persimmon, the wolf leaped into the air and snatched it before it could land in Turtle's mouth. When Turtle opened his mouth, he closed his eyes, so he did not see the wolf, all he knew was that he saw Possum drop the persimmon, but it didn't land in his mouth. And after he saw many, many persimmons dropped that he did not eat, Turtle began to get angry. Possum, up in the tree saw the wolf and realized what was happening.

Now if you have a best friend, and you're trying to make a present to him, and someone comes along and steals it, it can make you angry. And that's how it was with Possum. He decided to fix that wolf.

He looked all around the tree and found the biggest, ripest persimmon he could find. Then instead of just dropping the persimmon down to Turtle, he threw it with all the strength he had, and the greedy wolf leaped into the air with his mouth wide open. The persimmon flew down his throat and stuck there, and he choked to death. Possum thought no more about it. He went back to eating persimmons.

When Turtle opened his eyes and saw the dead wolf, he realized where his persimmons had gone. And the more he thought about how the wolf had stolen his food, the angrier he became.

He began to scold the wolf saying, "You were a very greedy wolf! You got what you deserved!"

Then he said "Possum and I sure showed you! You wont be stealing any more persimmons."

And then, "That was a very brave thing for me to do!"

And finally he convinced himself that he alone, Turtle the Mighty Hunter, had slain the greedy wolf.

Now it is a custom for a hunter to take what is called a tribute from an animal he has killed. In this way he captures a piece from the animal's spirit, which then belongs to him.

Turtle decided he had the right to take a tribute from the dead wolf, so he cut off the wolf's ears. He took them home and fixed them onto two long wooden sticks and made wolf-ear spoons.

In the old days it was another custom to offer a visitor food to eat the very first thing. And there was a special dish that was usually kept cooking at all times just to offer a guest; this was a kind of thick corn soup.

Turtle took his wolf-ear spoons and went visiting.

First Turtle visited all his friends, then he began visiting people he had met once or twice, and then he began to visit people he had not even been introduced to, just so they would offer him a bowl of corn soup, and he could pull out his wolf-ear spoons and eat with them.

Pretty soon everyone was talking about what a mighty hunter Turtle must be if he ate corn soup with wolf-ear spoons. It wasn't long before word got back to the rest of the wolves, and they were angry. This was a terrible insult, for such an insignificant creature as Turtle to be eating corn soup with wolf-ear spoons.

The wolves are so much faster than turtles, and they had no trouble catching Turtle. But then, in the manner of wolves everywhere, they began to argue over what to do with him. Turtle listened, and decided that the only thing he could do would be to keep his wits about him and be ready for any chance that he saw.

Finally one wolf said, "I know what we'll do with you Turtle. We'll build a roaring fire, throw you in it, and burn you alive."

Turtle thought very quickly and said, "Oh please do; I'd love it. You see these big strong feet? I could stamp out every spark of your fire before I even got warm."

Well the wolves didn't like that and so they argued some more. Finally one of the wolves said, "I have a idea! Turtle, we'll build that roaring fire, then we'll put a clay pot of water on the fire, throw you in, boil you, and make turtle soup!"

Turtle thought very quickly and said, "Oh, please do. I'd love it. You see these big strong feet? I could stamp your pot to pieces before the water could get warm!"

The wolves didn't like that either. They argued and argued and finally one wolf said, "Well then, Turtle, I know what we'll do with you. We'll carry you down to the deepest part of the river and throw you in, then we'll stand on the bank and watch you drown!"

Turtle thought very quickly and said, "Oh, no, not the river! Anything but the river!"

Well as soon as the wolves heard that, they carried Turtle down to the riverbank and they threw him into the water as hard and as far as they could, which should have been fine; turtles live in the river.

But Turtle didn't land in the water the way he thought he would. The wolves threw him so hard and so far, he went spinning end over end as e fell and landed on his back on a rock in the middle of the river, and then he bounced into the water.

As Turtle swam to the other side of the river, he felt something very strange happening: he could feel his back shifting and moving. When he crawled out of the water and looked over his shoulder, he saw that his beautiful shiny shell had been cracked into a dozen pieces.

Now Turtle was in truth not a mighty hunter, but he was a very good doctor. He knew many medicine secrets. He knew the healing plants and how to prepare them. When he had gathered all the plants he need, he went about the business of doctoring himself, singing, "Gu`daye`wu, Gu`daye`wu (GUNH-dah-YAY-wunh) - I have sewn myself together, I have sewn myself together."

And over the time that has passed from that day to this, Turtle's shell has grown strong again. But if you look closely, you can still see the lines where Turtle's back was cracked, and you will never see another turtle eating corn soup from wolf-ear spoons.

Blue Panther Keeper of Stories

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

Po'pay, Leader of the First American Revolution, Clear Light Publishing, 2006, new book by Herman Agoyo (Ohkay Owingeh)

Zuni fetish updates from Amerindian Arts

Complete update at Prophet's Rock, numerous carvers
Todd Westika, 10-20-2007, bears and buffaloes
Andres Quandelacy, 10-20-2007, Zuni fetish necklaces

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 "Making Dictionaries: Preserving Indigenous Languages of the Americas"

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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Amerindian Arts Native American News & Information

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Duane Slick, Jacobson House, Chumash legacy, Kevin Locke

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