Appropriations
must be fair for all
The North
Carolina State Technician - Raleigh,NC,USA
... in national
competitions or a speaker to discuss Native American Heritage
Month? ... include: school spirit, community service, club sports,
arts, engaging speakers ...
Burlington,
Ohio
Huntington Herald Dispatch
- Huntington,WV,USA
... native flute music, face
painting, weapons making and demonstrations of Native American
and buckskinner life ... Arts and crafts and concessions
will be on sale. ...
Arts
panel announces 1st members
Seattle
Times - Seattle,WA,USA
... Roxanne Husmann of Sultan,
the president of the Sultan Arts Council. . James Madison of the
Tulalip Reservation, a sculptor of Native American art.
...
ART
LISTINGS
Boise Weekly - Boise,ID,USA
...
boise state university visual arts center--Through November ...
Dog Head Stew, a print portfolio comprised of work by 24 artists celebrating
Native American culture ...
It's
Not Easy Being Green
Inc.com
- New York,NY,USA
... session, one of his employees,
a Native American woman, came ... is to head straight
for the American mainstream and ... and Performing Arts
Center, and it shows: Each ...
On
Cloud Nine
News from Washington
University in St. Louis (press release) - Saint Louis,Washington,USA
...
In November, Washington University's Performing Arts Department
in Arts & Sciences will ... with Joshua (freshman Lee
Osorio), the couple's Native American servant ...
Arts
Calendar
Berkeley Daily Planet
- Berkeley,CA,USA
... Native American Jewelers,
Marian Denipah (Tewa) and Steve LaRance (Hopi) Reception at 6:30 pm at
Gathering Tribes Gallery ... Sponsored by the Berkeley Arts
Festival ...
Stoneham
Notes
Stoneham Sun - Concord,MA,United
States
... includes African, Caribbean, Irish, Native
American and African ... of a recent survey by the American
College of ... leading other successful arts organizations,
White ...
Ghost
tales rattle around Gratz Park
Kentucky.com
- Lexington,KY,USA
... for the Living Arts and
Science Center's November classes for those as young as 18 months
old. Class topics will cover pottery, Native American crafts,
mosaics ...
This
once a day Google Alert is brought to you by Google.
Web Sites:
Indigenous People
Notices:
"Honor Your Spirit, Protect The Children"
http://www.geocities.com/honoryourspirit/home.html
Winter & Christmas 2004 - Request for Donations
If you wish to make a difference and help children and elders through the harsh winter
months in Montana, please take the time to read our
request. On behalf of reliable Northern Cheyenne contacts from Lame Deer, we are once
again collecting donations for those in need on the Northern
Cheyenne reservation.
There is a large need especially for new and good quality used warm items, as well as
toys.
The toys will be distributed during the Christmas give away but the warm clothes and
blankets will be distributed right away. During Montana
winters, the temperature can drop to 30 or 40 degrees below zero so warm winter clothing
and blankets can be lifesaving.
Our goal is to help the children, the elders, the single parent families, or families
unable to make ends meet due to the high unemployment
rate, the difficult conditions and the extreme poverty on the reservation.The children need
all the help and encouragement they can get!
List of useful donations :
- warm clothing such as knitted items for children of all ages from babies to
teenagers, and for elders
- jeans and T-shirts, all sizes
- socks, gloves, boots, hats and scarves
- blankets
- toys for Christmas
Other items that would also be appreciated: grooming supplies like toothpaste, tooth
brushes,soaps and shampoos, combs, hair brushes, hair
barrettes, rubber bands or other types of hair or pony tail holders. Last but not least :
pampers diapers or pull-ups.
Our collecting point is in Great Falls, where we can keep track of everything that is sent
and thank everyone who participates in the drive.
The boxes are then forwarded to our contacts on the reservation.
If you can, please help us with the shipment expenses which have been very hard to meet
last year, due to the large amount of boxes. HYS is a group of volunteers and we have no
other help than yours.
Even small amount of money are greatly appreciated, as well as books of stamps.
Please contact us if you are interested in arranging for a store gift certificate instead of
mailing a package.
Donations should be sent to the following address:
Honor Your Spirit - Protect the Children
% Sue Buck
PO Box 901
Great Falls, MT 59403-0901 (USA)
Please contact suemontana@mcn.net for mailing information other than regular
US Mail service. (Also please include your name and address if you would like for us to
acknowledge/confirm receipt of your donations.)
If you cannot send items due to the shipping cost, you can still help by sending a
money donation. Please be assured that it will be used only for
the children and elders this winter and/or for their Christmas; even small amounts can
help them. The address for money donations is the same as above. A receipt will be sent
upon
request.
Please contact us before you send money (email addresses listed below).
The last boxes should be received in Great Falls by 12/12/04 so please contact us as
soon as possible.
The priority of our group, "Honor your Spirit - Protect the Children" is to make sure all
donations get to where they are supposed to and
recognized. It is very important to us to make sure that everything is distributed fairly and
to those in the greatest need.
Contact Info:
Sue Buck suemontana@mcn.net
& Brigitte Thimiakis thimiakischool@the.forthnet.gr
"Your help makes a huge difference for those who have never received help. Your
donations provide hope and encouragement to those who have never known these
qualities.
Your concern and solidarity can improve the lives of many children, elders, families, on
the Northern Cheyenne Reservation. There is still a lot to do but all together you can
help us make these dreams come true.
Thank you for being a part of this project and supporting it."
Respectfully,
Manuel Redwoman,
Northern Cheyenne/Lakota/Arapaho
To learn more about the HYS projects, please read our
Shipment and Group Project Status:
http://www.geocities.com/honoryourspirit/shipment1.html
Our heartfelt thanks to everyone for your support !
Acoma
[both: ak'umu]
Acoma or Ácoma , pueblo (1990 pop. 2,590), alt. c.7,000 ft (2,130 m),
Valencia co., W central N.Mex.; founded c.1100-1250. This "sky city" atop a
steep-sided sandstone mesa, 357 ft (109 m) high and hard of access, is
considered to be the oldest continuously inhabited community in the United
States. The residents, who speak a Western Keresan language (see Pueblo),
are skilled potters. Below the mesa are the cultivated fields and grazing
grounds that help support the community. Sheep, cattle, and grain are
produced.
The pueblo's location has impressed visitors from Fray Marcos de Niza (1539)
and Coronado's men (1540) to present-day tourists. Juan de Oñate was allowed
entry in 1598, but the natives soon resisted the Spanish; defeated after
severe fighting, many were later maimed. The missionary Fray Juan Ramírez
arrived in 1629. The Acoma people joined in the Pueblo revolt of 1680, were
forced to submit to Diego de Vargas in 1692, joined in the later uprising of
1696, and were subdued again in 1699. They were later Christianized; the
pueblo is dominated by the mission church of San Estevan del Rey.
Acoma
Acoma is, along with the Hopi town of Oraibi, the oldest inhabited
settlement in the United States; it was already well established when the
Spaniards first saw it in 1540. The ancient pueblo, known as the Sky City,
is spectacularly situated like a medieval fortress atop its 600-foot-high
rock, halfway between Gallup and Albuquerque in New Mexico.
In the midst of the village stands the seventeenth-century Church of San
Esteban with its wonderful polychrome altar, one of the great architectural
treasures of the Southwest.
The Acoma Pueblo conversed in Keresan, a language unique to the Southwest.
In the Keres culture of Acoma Pueblo, the cacique bore the title of Inside
Chief, signifying his power within the village. Beyond the pueblo walls,
power passed to one or more war leaders, or Outside Chiefs, who were
responsible for constructing defenses and keeping watch against invaders.
They say the earth was formed when the Great Father Uchtsiti, Lord of the
Sun, hurled a clot of his own blood into the heavens. In the soil of this
new world, he set germinating the souls of two sisters, the Corn Mothers,
who were raised to maturity by a spirit called Thought Woman. When the time
was ripe, Thought Woman gave the two sisters baskets filled with seeds and
showed them the way to the earth's surface. Corn was the first thing they
planted. They learned to cultivate and harvest it, to grind and cook it, and
to make daily offerings of cornmeal and pollen to their father, Uchtsiti.
These lessons the Acomans would practice each day of their lives
Drought in the 1100's to the 1200's was caused, as explained by Acoma
storytellers, who say that one night the Horned Water Serpent, spirit of
rain and fertility, abruptly left his people. No amount of prayer, no charms
or dances of the rain priests, would bring him back. Unable to survive
without their snake god, the people followed his trail until it reached a
river. There they established a new home. The people of Acoma-so the elders
recounted-once followed the Salt Mother's (an elderly matriarch who gave
herself freely to anyone who sought her) trail far into the wilderness,
trekking past dry gulches and sage-purpled hills for days on end. Finally
they reached a large salt lake. "This is my home," the Salt Mother declared.
After that, all who traveled there read their fortune in the water, and if
ailing in body they were made well again.
When the column of Spanish troops came into view on a cold winter
afternoon-January 21, 1599, by European reckoning-the fighting men of Acoma
fanned out from their village to guard the edge of the mesa. As the
Spaniards drew closer, the defenders unleashed a barrage of insults, rocks,
and arrows from more than 300 feet above. Just seven weeks earlier, a party
of Spanish soldiers seeking food had been treated in a friendly manner until
their demands turned aggressive and provoked a furious reaction. When it was
over, almost all the intruders were dead, including their commander, Juan de
Zaldivar, nephew of the military govenror of New Mexico, Juan de Onate
Resolved to make an example of Acoma, Onate dispatched 70 of his best men
under the command of Vicente de Zaldivar...These were the troops approaching
the seemingly impregnable "Sky City" that January afternoon, and with them
arrived a harsh new reality. Over the next 3 days the Spaniards fought their
way to the top of the mesa, where they rolled out a fearsome new weapon-a
cannon that spewed thundrous blasts of small stones, tearing flesh and
shattering bones. The battle became a massacre. As many as 800 Acomans soon
lay dead in the rubble of their ruined city. Some 500 survivors were herded
into dismal captivity: all males over the age of 12 were condemned to 20
years' servitude; those over 25 were also sentenced to have one foot cut
off. In time, some of the Acomans managed to escape and made their way home,
there to begin the long process of rebuilding. The Sky City has been
continuously inhabited since then, and never again has it fallen to an
invader.
The Acoma 16th century pueblo-settlement still survives west of the Rio
Grande in midwest New Mexico.
From Blue Panther Keeper of Stories.
A Little Boy and His Dog, Beautiful Ears - Seneca
A MAN and his wife went into the woods to hunt. They built a house of
hemlock boughs, and lived happily. After a while a boy was born to them. The
family always had a plenty of meat, for the man was a good hunter. While he
was away in the woods looking for game, his wife was busy drying meat;
bringing bark to keep the fire; and taking care of the child. Another child
was born to them, a girl.
Everything went on well till the boy was old enough to do chores and his
mother began to send him for water. The spring was some distance from the
cabin and the child was afraid there. Whenever his mother told him to go, he
complained and tried to beg off. But when she seized him by the hair,
dragged him to the door, pushed him out and threw the bark water vessel
after him, he knew that he must pick up the vessel and go. As soon as he
brought the water, his mother washed her face, combed her hair carefully,
took her strap and hatchet and, telling him she was going for bark to burn
and he must stay with his sister, she went off somewhere.
This happened every day for a long time.
The woman began to be cruel to the boy. She didn't give him enough to eat
and neglected him in every way. She seemed to hate him.
When at last the boy told his father that he didn't have enough to eat, the
man noticed that his wife was cross and cruel to the child and be began to
think that something was wrong. One night as he and the boy were together on
one side of the fire, and his wife and little girl were sleeping on. the
other side, he questioned the child about what was done in the house while
he was off hunting. The boy told him that at such a time each day his mother
sent him to a spring where he was afraid to go; when he came with the water,
she washed and combed and then went to the woods for bark.
The man decided to watch his wife. The next morning he started off to hunt,
then crept back till he came to a place where he could see his cabin. By and
by he saw the skin door open and out came his boy, head first, the water
vessel after him.
The boy, crying bitterly, picked up the vessel and started off. The father
was angry, but he waited to see what would happen next.
The boy brought the water and soon afterward the mother came out with her
strap and hatchet. She walked away and her husband followed cautiously.
The woman went down a hill and walked on till she came to a black ash tree
from which the bark could easily be stripped. There she stopped and looked
up into the tree. The man crept as near as was possible and not be seen by
his wife. After a while she hit the tree with the back of her hatchet; it
made a beautiful sound. She waited a minute, then struck the tree a second
time; again the same musical sound. The third time she struck the man saw a
bird on the top branches of the tree. When the woman struck a fourth time,
the bird flew down, and as it touched the ground it became a handsome man.
That minute the husband drew his bow and shot, instantly the man turned to a
bird, flew up and disappeared in the air.
The woman, seeing her husband, said, "Is it you?"
"It is," said the man, and now I know why you abuse our boy."
"I abuse him, and I will abuse you, too," said the woman, and she caught up
a club and struck her husband till he was helpless.
Then, leaving him on the ground, she ran home, put her children outside and
set fire to the cabin. The hemlock boughs blazed up quickly and soon the
cabin was in ashes. Then she said to her children, "You must stay here.
Everything will be all right." And taking up a handful of ashes, she threw
the ashes into the air and said, "Let there be a snowstorm, and let the snow
be as high as these trees."
When snow began to fall, the mother said to the little boy, "Here is your
dog, keep him with you and take care of your sister." Then she started off.
Snow fell fast and soon the boy and girl were covered up, but they felt as
warm and comfortable as if in a house.
After a time the father dragged himself towards home. When near he saw there
was no longer a cabin. He searched for his children and at last found them;
then he set about building a house of boughs.
When the cabin was ready he said to the boy, "You must stay here and take
care of your little sister, and of your dog, Beautiful Ears. Always give him
a plenty to eat, as much and as good as you have yourselves. When you go
out, carry your sister on your back, never put her down or leave her for a
minute. When the dog seems uneasy, you must turn around and go home. I am
going in pursuit of your mother," and he started.
In the morning when the boy woke up, he found food cooked and ready to eat.
He gave Beautiful Ears his share, then he and his sister ate.
Afterward, whenever it was time to eat, food was ready for them.
One day the boy got lonely and he said to his sister and Beautiful Ears, "We
will go out and amuse ourselves."
The boy had a bow and arrows; but he couldn't shoot, for he carried his
sister on his back. Beautiful Ears ran ahead, then ran back, and was full of
life.
The three looked around and enjoyed themselves till the dog began to whine
and tease, wanted his master to go home.
Then the boy said to his sister, "Beautiful Ears wants to go back."
A few days later they went out again, went a little farther than the first
day. When they got home, food was ready for them. The boy always gave
Beautiful Ears his share first.
The third time they went out, the dog ran after a wild turkey. The boy
followed the dog. The dog chased the turkey into a clump of bushes. The boy
couldn't get into the bushes to shoot the turkey, for his sister was
strapped to his back. He thought, "I will unstrap her just for a minute,
then we will have a nice fat turkey to eat."
He took the little girl from his back and put her down. Before he reached
the bushes she screamed and turning around the brother saw a bear take the
child up and run off.
Beautiful Ears and the boy followed the bear. For three or four days the boy
heard the dog bark as it ran on ahead but at last it was out of hearing and
he lost trace of it: couldn't follow it any longer.
Now the boy was alone. He had nothing to live for and wished to die. One
day, as he walked along without purpose, he came to the bank of a lake; he
climbed a high rock, leaped into the water and lost consciousness. On coming
to his senses he thought he was in a beautiful country and he felt happy.
But in reality a great fish had swallowed him. After a few days the fish
swam into a small stream. On the bank of that stream lived seven sisters.
They had built a cabin and made a fish dam. One morning they went to the dam
and found a very large fish.
They pulled it up on to the bank and the eldest sister said, "We will cut it
open."
"Wait," said the second sister, "till we boil water to cook it in. We will
cut it open carefully; such a large fish must have a lot of spawn."
When everything was ready, the sisters opened the fish. But in place of
spawn they found a beautiful boy. They forgot the fish. They washed the boy,
cared for him, and rejoiced that such a gift had come to their door. They
said., "We will take good care of this boy. Maybe he will become a great
hunter and get meat for us when we are old."
The sisters and their "son," as they called the boy, lived happily together.
He soon surprised them by killing large game and by becoming a good hunter,
but when they found that while hunting he wandered a long distance from home
they were frightened and told him to keep near the house and never go toward
the West.
One day the boy said to himself, "I wonder what there is off there where the
sun goes down. I'll go and see."
He hadn't gone far when he came to a clearing and saw a cabin.
Everything was quiet. He crept up cautiously and peeping in saw an old man
sitting with his head bent down to his breast.
That minute the old man called out, "Well, Nephew, you have come."
The boy knew that be was discovered and he answered, "Yes, I have come. I
thought I would see what you were doing."
"Well, come in and wait till I get my head up."
The old man picked up a big wooden pin that lay at his side, and taking a
mallet drove the pin down his spinal column. Up came his head, and he said,
"I have a rule that when a nephew comes I will play a game with him and
bet--"
"What do you bet?"
"I bet my head against his."
"Very well," said the boy.
The old man swept the ashes from the fireplace and made it smooth. Then he
shook a bowl that had stones in it, and said, "The one who turns the stones
all of a color will be the winner. You must throw first."
"No," said the boy, "if you want to play the game you must play first."
At last the old man consented. He shook the bowl; six stones flew out of the
smoke-hole, turned to birds and flew off out of hearing.
After a while the boy heard the birds again and soon six stones fell through
the smoke-hole into the bowl. The old man bent over and stirred the stones,
repeating, "Let them be white! Let them be white!" but he couldn't get them
all of one color.
The boy shook the bowl and, as before, six stones went out of the
smoke-hole, turned to birds and flew off. The old man began to shake the
dish and say, "I wish this, I wish that." When the stones came back to the
bowl the boy stirred them and they all turned of one color.
When the old man saw that he had lost the game he wanted to play again.
"Oh no said the boy, "that isn't your rule."
"Let me smoke once more,"
The boy cut off the old man's head, set fire to the cabin and went home.
After a few days the boy thought he would go again toward the West. He
passed the old man's place, came to another opening and saw another cabin.
Around the cabin the ground was as smooth as a playground. The boy walked up
quietly and peeping into the cabin saw an old man sitting there.
That minute the old man called out, "Is that you, Nephew? Come in. I have
been waiting for you."
The boy went in.
"I have a way of passing time," said the old man. "I play a game."
'What is your game?"
"Ball."
"I like that," said the boy.
"I bet my head against my nephew's head."
"Very well," said the boy.
They went to the middle of the opening, at one end of which there were two
stakes. They threw the balls; the uncle was the best thrower, but the nephew
was the best runner. When he was far ahead, the old man threw a horn after
him and the horn stuck in the sole of his foot. He had to sit down and pull
it out. While he was sitting there the old man passed him. The boy spat on
his hand, rubbed the spittle into his foot and it was healed. He threw the
horn. It hit the old man's foot and he had to sit down and pull it out. The
ball rolled on and went between the stakes. At the next throw the result was
the same. The old man lost the game.
He wanted to play again, but the boy said, "No, it isn't the rule."
He cut off the old man's head, burned the cabin and went home.
A third time the boy went toward the West, and farther than before. He
passed the first and second clearing and coming to a third one saw a great
pond covered with thick ice, and near the pond a cabin. He crept up to the
cabin and peeping in saw an old man. The old man called out, "Well, Nephew,
I am glad to see you. Come in."
The boy went in and said, "I thought I would look in and see you. Now I will
go."
"Oh, no; I have a rule. When a nephew comes to see me, I play a game with
him. We run a race on the ice and the one who gets to the goal last loses
his head. No matter how you get there, only get there first."
When the boy was ready to start he took an oak ball from a nearby tree and
said, "Let a high wind come!" He got into the oak ball, a high wind rose,
and in a flash he was over the ice. The old man was scarcely half way.
The boy took a white flint stone out of his pouch, threw it toward the
middle of the pond and said, "Let this stone melt the ice and boil the
water."
In an instant the old man was sinking in boiling water. He cried for mercy,
but the boy didn't listen.
The water disappeared; dry land was left where the pond had been. The old
man, now a great stone, was in the middle of the space where the pond had
been. The boy burned the cabin and went home.
One day a runner came to the home of the seven sisters and said, "The chief
has sent me to notify you of the marriage of a certain girl. He wants
everyone to come to the gathering."
The sisters knew that the boy had magic power and they were careful of him.
When he said, "I want to go to the gathering," they said that bad people
would be there and all sorts of games would be played.
He said, "You were afraid to have me go toward the West. I have been there
and I have destroyed the dice man, the ball man, and the ice-pond man. Now I
am going to this gathering. My mother, father, sister, and my dog, Beautiful
Ears, are there."
At last the sisters told him he could go and told him where to find a
grandmother who would tell him what to do.
The boy started and after going some distance came to a wide trail and began
to meet many people. When night came they all camped together. The next day
they went on.
The sisters had said to the boy, "There will be one woman in the crowd, who
will seem to have power over all the others. Don't notice her."
He soon saw her, but remembering their words, looked at her and went on.
At last he came to the place where his grandmother lived. He said,
"Grandmother, I have come."
"Poor Grandson," said she, "I have little to give you. I am alone and poor."
"Don't mind that," said the boy; "we will soon have a plenty to eat."
He brought in game till the old woman cried, she was so glad. And she
hurried around, like a girl, to prepare the food.
She said, "There is a great gathering at the long house; the chief's
daughter is to marry a second time, but first she will destroy her husband,
her daughter, and a dog they call Beautiful Ears. She had a son, but no one
knows where he is. Her husband is tied up at one end of the long house and
every person who goes in must strike him with a burning brand. His tears are
wampum beads.
"Her daughter is hanging over the fire and slowly roasting. The dog is at
one end of the fire, and every person who passes him gives him a kick. His
hair is singed off and he is dying."
The boy was very angry. When night came he said to his grandmother, "I am
going to the gathering. The seven sisters said that you would tell me what
to do. The man they are torturing is my father; the little girl is my
sister."
"I know everything," said the old woman, "and I will help you. I have a pair
of moccasins that you must put on when you get to the long house. Stand by
the fire and when your mother calls out, 'Burn him!' stick one foot in the
fire. The moccasins are made of a woman's flesh and I have power over them."
When the boy came to where the people were, he made himself very small,
played around with the children, and went into the long house with them. His
mother was sitting on a high seat in the middle of the room where she could
be seen by everyone.
As she gave the order, "Burn him!" the boy stuck his foot into the fire,
That instant the woman screamed with pain. She felt that a firebrand was
burning her flesh. The boy ran out, but when it was about time for the woman
to give the order again he was near the fire, and as she was beginning to
say, "Burn him!" he put his foot in the fire. That instant she screamed with
pain. He tormented her in this way till she died from fright and pain.
The boy led his father and sister out of the house and the dog followed.
Then he said, "Let this house become red hot flint!"
Right away the long house was in flames. Some of the people in the house had
magic power; their heads burst and their spirits flew through the smoke-hole
and off in the air in the form of owls and other birds. The boy spat on his
hands, rubbed his father, sister and dog and they were as well as ever. Then
he said, "Now we will go home."
He thanked his grandmother for her help, and they started for the sister's
cabin. When they came near, the seven sisters ran to meet them. And they all
lived happily together ever after.
Seneca Indian Myths by Jeremiah Curtin 1922
[Told by Mrs. Logan]
From Blue Panther Keeper of Stories.
