Friday, April 28, 2006

Sotheby's to auction historically significant American Indian Art, May 8, 2006

Native American arts daily news, presented by
amerindianarts.us

Gibbs Othole Blue Andean Opal bear

Native Affairs Commission prepares for transition

Emphasis placed on “financial literacy” as BIA sponsors lending conference

Indian Reservations to Get Air Ambulances

Institute of American Indian Arts: New president brings vision, passion

Fate of nickname to be decided Friday

Institute of American Indian Arts: Focus on the first year

Grassy Run breathes life into county history

A Zuni fetish will not only protect your cards but your spirit as well

An American Indian charter school plans to teach Navajo language

Sotheby's to auction historically significant American Indian Art, May 8, 2006


Park volunteers needed
Edge of the Cedars State Park Museum staff needs volunteers to assist with the Four Corners Indian Art Market May 6 and 7 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Volunteers will work four-hour shifts.
The art market is a celebration of the contemporary and traditional Native American arts and culture. Activities include Hopi and Navajo dancers and performances by singer James Bilagody and flute player Aldean Ketchum. Food, pottery, arts, crafts and jewelry are available for purchase. For more information, please call 435-678-2238.


Prayer at sunrise

Now this day, (Lukka yattone)
My sun father, (Hom yatoka tatcu)
Now that you have come out standing to your sacred place, (yam telashina kwi to' ye lhana kwai ikapa)
That from which we draw the water of life, (yam kia kwi ya na te'ona)
Life sacred meal, (hala wo tinane)
Here I give to you. (lilha tom ho te'a upa)
Your long life, (yam onaya naka)
Your old age, (yam lha shiaka)
Your waters, (yam kashima)
Your seeds, (yam towashonane)
Your riches, (yam u/tenane)
Your power, (yam sawanikia)
Your strong spirit, (yam tsemakwin tsume)
All these to me may you grant, (temlha hom to anikchiana).

To be chanted with an offering of cornmeal
Zuñi


May 19-21, Baton Rouge

ANNUAL TUNICA-BILOXI POW WOW: Chief Joseph A. Pierite Pow Wow Grounds, Hwy. 1, Marksville. American Indian singers, dancers and craftspeople will perform and display their wares. Singing and dancing competitions will be held. Featured performances by Annie Humphrey, Cannes Brulée, Hawk (flutist), and Jackie Crow (legend keeper). (318) 253-2034.


Associated Press

A proposal to develop an American Indian cultural and educational center in a vacant federal building in Wausau is moving forward.

A marketing firm is being paid $35,000 to study the idea. Supporters say the center would help improve relations between Wisconsin's tribes and non-tribal communities and attract tourists to the Wausau area.

The tribes would run the center. Organizers say the center would help preserve Indian culture and languages, feature tribal history and make tribal education more accessible.


American Indian Women's Activism in the 1960s and 1970s-Donna Hightower Langston

Complete article


Taos Art Museum: "The Stark Legacy," paintings by members of the Taos Society of Artists. Through July 23. 227 Paseo del Pueblo Norte, Taos. Admission and hours: (505) 758-2690.


THE WOMEN/Edward S. Curtis

"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."


A Bashful Courtship – Lakota

A young man lived with his grandmother. He was a good hunter and wished to marry. He knew a girl who was a good moccasin maker, but she belonged to a great family. He wondered how he could win her. One day she passed the tent on her way to get water at the river. His grandmother was at work in the teepee with a pair of old worn-out sloppy moccasins. The young man sprang to his feet. "Quick, grandmother -- let me have those old sloppy moccasins you have on your feet!" he cried. "My old moccasins, what do you want of them?" cried the astonished woman.

"Never mind! Quick! I can't stop to talk," answered the grandson as he caught up the old moccasins the old lady had doffed, and put them on. He threw a robe over his shoulders, slipped through the door, and hastened to the watering place. The girl had just arrived with her bucket. "Let me fill your bucket for you," said the young man. "Oh, no, I can do it." "Oh, let me, I can go in the mud. You surely don't want to soil your moccasins," and taking the bucket he slipped in the mud, taking care to push his sloppy old moccasins out so the girl could see them. She giggled outright.

"My, what old moccasins you have," she cried. "Yes, I have nobody to make me a new pair," he answered. "Why don't you get your grandmother to make you a new pair?" "She's old and blind and can't make them any longer. That's why I want you," he answered. "Oh, you're fooling me. You aren't speaking the truth." "Yes, I am. If you don't believe -- come with me now!" The girl looked down; so did the youth. At last he said softly: "Well, which is it? Shall I take up your bucket, or will you go with me?" And she answered, still more softly: "I guess I'll go with you!" The girl's aunt came down to the river, wondering what kept her niece so long. In the mud she found two pairs of moccasin tracks close together; at the edge of the water stood an empty keg.

As retold by Marie L. McLaughlin in "Myths and Legends of the Sioux" in 1913

From the Archives of Blue Panther Keeper of Stories
http://groups.msn.com/KeeperofStories/
Reprinted by permission


Home of NAMAPAHH First People's Radio
Host/Producer Robin Carneen
Thurs 7-8pm Sun 4-5pm PST
New group: (my photo album location)
http://spaces.msn.com/members/NativeRadio4all/


Linguists Find the Words, and Pocahontas Speaks Again
By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD


Dorothy Dunn On Primitive Art
Excerpt
Anthropologists use the term "primitive" as a general category to describe cultures which had not achieved a certain standard (define modernity). For Dunn, a primitive was not a certain type of culture, but described individuals and objects indigenous to any, every, culture. The primitive subject was that gifted individual, or "seer" whom was able to discern the primitive objects relevant to their culture. These objects were also primitives, and represented the signs, icons, or symbols of a culture. Thus, for Dunn, primitive art was the one to one relationship between the seer and the perceived set of primitive objects of their culture. Primitive was not a certain type of culture, but a certain set of variables occurring in every culture, and primitive art was an event that portrayed the values, or what was of importance in that culture. Thus, Dunn encouraged her students to carry on the tradition into the Modernist era.


Essay on the Zuni World View
Excerpt(Complete article is available in PDF)
In Signs from the Ancestors, a study of Zuni cultural symbolism and perceptions in rock art, M. Jane Young cites the "dialectics of the beautiful and the dangerous" noted by Barbara Tedlock and states that "Tedlock posits an underlying aesthetic framework that informs cosmology, whereas I posit an underlying cosmological principle that informs aesthetics". From the perspective of this paper and its conclusions it would appear that Young is perhaps partially correct in her ascertainment although the confluence of the two principles makes it difficult to discern logical priority in either the beautiful (tso’ya) or the dangerous (attanni), for the multireferential finds manifestation of beauty in the "aesthetic of accumulation, an elaborate redundancy of symbolism in Zuni sacred and secular environments" and informs cosmological principles of the preconditions of the rational, while aesthetic license premises pragmatics where proper interpretation of context ensures that rational thought of the "perspective-taker" attains objectivity as a "personal accomplishment" in the success of "reciprocal public intentions". This is because the principle of the “base metaphor” cited by Young is inclusive of a body of conceptual presuppositions which include the notion of an interrelatedness of all things, which is seen here as a cosmological precept akin to notions of identity and individuation, and the notion of a predetermined harmony as indicative of the aesthetic. Young notes that the “very generality of the metaphor lends its ambiguity--an ambiguity quite characteristic of the Zuni view of the world. Zuni ritual symbols, whether expressed verbally or visually, are frequently multivalent or multireferential, standing for both themselves and something else at the same time; yet all of the meanings are bound together, so that the Zunis say, as do the Mescalero Apache: "They’re all the same thing".


Bibliography of the Zuni Language
Excerpt
The Zuni, or Shiwi language, is now generally considered a language isolate. The Encyclopedia Britannica categorizes it as a Penutian language, and Bertha Dutton once posed the hypothetical that according to the Swadesh list, "If the Zuni language is a member of the Penutian language family, then it is a distant relative of the Tanoan languages (Tewi)." The Penutian hypothesis was advanced by Alfred Kroeber and Roland B. Dixon, and later refined by Edward Sapir, and was an attempt to reduce the number of unrelated language families in a culturally diverse area that was centered in California's central coast. While this theory was plausible for some of the languages, the problem of verification of this theory was that to find any evidence of any cognates between the California languages and Zuni, one would possibly have to trace the languages' lineage by as much as 3000-5000 years or more.


Indian Ledger Art-Resources and Information
Excerpt
Ledger art is traditionally a male American Indian pictographic art form, and historically has been characterized as such by researchers. Chronologically its stylistic development belongs to the Proto-Modern era of the Native American Fine Arts Movement and was a major influence, through trade routes and the patronage of white art collectors, on Modern Indian Art as its elements diffused to the schools of New Mexico, Oklahoma, and the Northwest Coast. Its more explicit expression, however, yielded to the styles that developed in these schools and culminated in the early 1960's during a period of the Movement referred to as the First Generation Modernists. Only recently have the researchers of Ledger art recognized Virginia Stroud as the Native American Woman artist who, as a Second Generation Modernist and a member of the so-called "New Indian Art Movement", revitalized a traditionally male form of art expression with her pictographic images in the late 1960's to the early 1980's. Influence on Stroud's stylistic achievements can be attributed to her Kiowa upbringing centered in Oklahoma, which is the major geographic center of the Southern Plains school, and her attendance at Bacone under the direction and influence of Dr. Richard West.


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


W. Tussinger has written his first novel which was released in December, 2004. The title of the book is THE FOURTH WORLD.
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.
THE FOURTH WORLD


Click here, Stewart Quandelacy, Blue Peruvian Opal Medicine Bear

"Communing with Bears"

By Sara Wright

Communing with Bears is the story of a joyful encounter between one woman and a black bear.


Andres Quandelacy, Blue Peruvian Opal Bear with Fish

Web Sites:
Native American Links Page
Indigenous Peoples Literature
Native Voice
Wisdom of the Old People
By David Whitney
Hero, Hawk, and Open Hand
Hero, Hawk, and Open Hand, The Book
Early tribal artifacts put in spotlight at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History
National Association of Tribal Historic Preservation
Inuit film to tell story of last great shaman
Petition in Support of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe
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

Andres Quandelacy, Bisbee Cobolt Azurite Buffalo
Buffalo Field Campaign
PO Box 957
West Yellowstone, MT 59758
(406) 646-0070
bfc-media@wildrockies.org

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.

Comments: Post a Comment
0 comments

Thursday, April 20, 2006

American Indian storyteller to visit schools

Native American arts daily news, presented by
amerindianarts.us

Gibbs Othole Blue Andean Opal bear

Locally financed film draws audience to discuss American Indian land issues

Educators: Tests should be culturally relevant to Indian students

American Indian tours South Dakota to make U.S. House bid formal

Tribal leaders urged to speak up

American Indian storyteller to visit schools

Gaming association donates to groups that help youths


Zuni Festival -- 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday-Sunday, Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site gift shop, 30 Ramey St., Collinsville. Opening Zuni blessing Saturday morning. Tony Eriacho talks on buying authentic Indian arts and crafts. Features inlay jewelry makers, Kachina doll maker, fetish carver, miniature pottery made from natural clay, contemporary carvings by Todd Westika, more


Summer Camp for Minority Students with Hearing Loss at RIT

Deaf and hard-of-hearing African-American, Latino American, or Native American students who are entering 7th, 8th, or 9th grade can attend Steps to Success, a career exploration mini-camp August 4 – 6 at Rochester Institute of Technology.

Through hands-on experiences and information sessions, students can explore career options through hands-on activities—using computers, working with robots, doing science experiments in labs, and more. They also can make new friends to share experiences with as they finish high school and make decisions about what to do after graduation.

The cost is $50, and limited scholarships are available based on financial need. Experienced counselors and instructors use both English and sign language. The camp is certified by the New York State Health Department.

To apply online , go to www.rit.edu/NTID/StepsToSuccessNR For more information, call 585-475-6723 (voice/TTY) or send e-mail to StepToSuccess@ntid.rit.edu. The application deadline is May 31.


Complete article , "State's volcanoes remain active subjects of study"

Joe Aragon, a member of Acoma Pueblo who teaches science and math at Laguna-Acoma High School and appears in the documentary, said his people have long passed down a story of what happened to make those lava flows near his home.

The story starts with an unkind spirit who killed people and took their property because he was an expert gambler, Aragon said.

Twin warrior spirits decided to fight him by learning his gambling tricks and using them against him, Aragon continued.

"He gambled away all of his power to hurt the people," Aragon said. "In the end he lost his eyes, and lost the right to do what he was doing."

However, the unkind spirit was still mad, so he boiled pine sap to throw at the people of Acoma Pueblo, Aragon said.

"But because he was blind, he spilled it," forming the lava flows, Aragon said.

Acoma, Zuni, Navajo and other tribes all consider those lava flows sacred. They are dotted with ruins of shrines, Aragon said.


May 19-21, Baton Rouge

ANNUAL TUNICA-BILOXI POW WOW: Chief Joseph A. Pierite Pow Wow Grounds, Hwy. 1, Marksville. American Indian singers, dancers and craftspeople will perform and display their wares. Singing and dancing competitions will be held. Featured performances by Annie Humphrey, Cannes Brulée, Hawk (flutist), and Jackie Crow (legend keeper). (318) 253-2034.


Associated Press

A proposal to develop an American Indian cultural and educational center in a vacant federal building in Wausau is moving forward.

A marketing firm is being paid $35,000 to study the idea. Supporters say the center would help improve relations between Wisconsin's tribes and non-tribal communities and attract tourists to the Wausau area.

The tribes would run the center. Organizers say the center would help preserve Indian culture and languages, feature tribal history and make tribal education more accessible.


From the Free New Mexican

Zuni Pueblo junior wins recitation contest

Santa Fe Indian School student Fantasia Lonjose, a junior from Zuni Pueblo, won the inaugural New Mexico state finals in the Poetry Out Loud: National Recitation contest on Saturday.

She received $200 and a chaperoned trip to Washington, D.C., to represent New Mexico in the national finals May 16. Santa Fe Indian School received a $500 stipend to purchase poetry books for the school library.

The event is sponsored by New Mexico Arts, a division of the state Department of Cultural Affairs. Poetry Out Loud is a new national program of the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation.

Lonjose recited "The Pow-wow at the End of the World" by Sherman Alexie.

The runner-up was Jade McLellan, a senior at Capital High School in Santa Fe who recited "The Owl and the Pussycat" by Edward Lear. McLellan received $100 and Capital High School got a $200 stipend to purchase poetry books for the school library.


American Indian Women's Activism in the 1960s and 1970s-Donna Hightower Langston

Complete article


Taos Art Museum: "The Stark Legacy," paintings by members of the Taos Society of Artists. Through July 23. 227 Paseo del Pueblo Norte, Taos. Admission and hours: (505) 758-2690.


THE WOMEN/Edward S. Curtis

"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."


Grandfather Thunder - Lenapé

Muxumsa Pethakowe, our Grandfather the Thunder, was father of the first people, and the Moon was the first mother. But Maxa'xâk, the evil horned serpent, destroyed the Water Keeper Spirit and loosed the waters upon the Earth and the first people were no more. Since then, the Thunderers, Pethakowe'jàk, have always been on the lookout for Maxa'xâk and other such evil water monsters, and when one appears, the Thunderers shoot their crooked, fiery lightening arrows at them, hoping to avenge the deaths of the first people and to make sure that none of the evil shall ever disturb the harmony upon the Earth or cause harm to our Lenape'wàk.

Long ago, there was a time when Grandfather Thunder was forgotten among our people, unlike Grandmother Moon who has always been remembered and honored by us. He became bitter and despondent over our neglect and forgetfulness of him, and in his anger he came from his home in the west, calling out in a voice theat shook the heavens and the Earth. Hidden in clouds, he crossed right over the homes and villages of our people. In his fury he shot lightening arrows at the Earth, killing people, burning houses and shattering trees, and the clouds cried their tears of sorrow upon the Earth. Luckily, he never stayed in one place too long, and usually was seen travelling towards the east.

At first he would come alone, but after a while his many children came with him, and they frequently brought fear into the hearts of our Lenapé people. Some would come from a cave under the falls know today as Niagara and others came from the mountains where they often made their homes.

At the sight of dark clouds and lightening, and at the sound of the thunder, being the roar of the wings of the Thunderers and the shaking of their rattles filled with bones, which shook the sky, our people became most fearful. Nanapush finally saw that we, his grandchildren, were in distress and so he came to help us saying, "You have hurt and insulted your Grandfather Thunder through a lack of respect and thought for him. Grandfathers need to be remembered and honored too, for they also, like grandmothers, have shared in the gift of life and in helping their grandchildren into the future. So, when you first hear Grandfather Thunder in the spring, telling you that winter has ended and that life is again coming to the Earth, burn tobacco and greet your grandfather with prayers. Whenever you hear his voice, do this and you will gain his protection and lightening will not strike you. Grandfather Thunder has charge of the rains that water the Earth and make your crops grow. With the proper respect, he will be thankful, bringing blessings to you, and protect you from the horned snakes and water monsters, and he will come to bring you warnings!"

From that time to this our Grandfather Thunder and our Lenapé people have always been close. We listened to our wise Grandfather Nanapush, and we have always shown respect to Old Thunder and love him dearly, and we always give thanks for his many gifts to all land and life upon Mother Earth.

From: The Grandfathers Speak, by: Hìtakonanu'laxk

Used by permission

Reposted with Permission from Brother to Horse

From the Archives of Blue Panther Keeper of Stories
http://groups.msn.com/KeeperofStories/
Reprinted by permission


Home of NAMAPAHH First People's Radio
Host/Producer Robin Carneen
Thurs 7-8pm Sun 4-5pm PST
New group: (my photo album location)
http://spaces.msn.com/members/NativeRadio4all/


Linguists Find the Words, and Pocahontas Speaks Again
By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD


Dorothy Dunn On Primitive Art
Excerpt
Anthropologists use the term "primitive" as a general category to describe cultures which had not achieved a certain standard (define modernity). For Dunn, a primitive was not a certain type of culture, but described individuals and objects indigenous to any, every, culture. The primitive subject was that gifted individual, or "seer" whom was able to discern the primitive objects relevant to their culture. These objects were also primitives, and represented the signs, icons, or symbols of a culture. Thus, for Dunn, primitive art was the one to one relationship between the seer and the perceived set of primitive objects of their culture. Primitive was not a certain type of culture, but a certain set of variables occurring in every culture, and primitive art was an event that portrayed the values, or what was of importance in that culture. Thus, Dunn encouraged her students to carry on the tradition into the Modernist era.


Essay on the Zuni World View
Excerpt(Complete article is available in PDF)
In Signs from the Ancestors, a study of Zuni cultural symbolism and perceptions in rock art, M. Jane Young cites the "dialectics of the beautiful and the dangerous" noted by Barbara Tedlock and states that "Tedlock posits an underlying aesthetic framework that informs cosmology, whereas I posit an underlying cosmological principle that informs aesthetics". From the perspective of this paper and its conclusions it would appear that Young is perhaps partially correct in her ascertainment although the confluence of the two principles makes it difficult to discern logical priority in either the beautiful (tso’ya) or the dangerous (attanni), for the multireferential finds manifestation of beauty in the "aesthetic of accumulation, an elaborate redundancy of symbolism in Zuni sacred and secular environments" and informs cosmological principles of the preconditions of the rational, while aesthetic license premises pragmatics where proper interpretation of context ensures that rational thought of the "perspective-taker" attains objectivity as a "personal accomplishment" in the success of "reciprocal public intentions". This is because the principle of the “base metaphor” cited by Young is inclusive of a body of conceptual presuppositions which include the notion of an interrelatedness of all things, which is seen here as a cosmological precept akin to notions of identity and individuation, and the notion of a predetermined harmony as indicative of the aesthetic. Young notes that the “very generality of the metaphor lends its ambiguity--an ambiguity quite characteristic of the Zuni view of the world. Zuni ritual symbols, whether expressed verbally or visually, are frequently multivalent or multireferential, standing for both themselves and something else at the same time; yet all of the meanings are bound together, so that the Zunis say, as do the Mescalero Apache: "They’re all the same thing".


Bibliography of the Zuni Language
Excerpt
The Zuni, or Shiwi language, is now generally considered a language isolate. The Encyclopedia Britannica categorizes it as a Penutian language, and Bertha Dutton once posed the hypothetical that according to the Swadesh list, "If the Zuni language is a member of the Penutian language family, then it is a distant relative of the Tanoan languages (Tewi)." The Penutian hypothesis was advanced by Alfred Kroeber and Roland B. Dixon, and later refined by Edward Sapir, and was an attempt to reduce the number of unrelated language families in a culturally diverse area that was centered in California's central coast. While this theory was plausible for some of the languages, the problem of verification of this theory was that to find any evidence of any cognates between the California languages and Zuni, one would possibly have to trace the languages' lineage by as much as 3000-5000 years or more.


Indian Ledger Art-Resources and Information
Excerpt
Ledger art is traditionally a male American Indian pictographic art form, and historically has been characterized as such by researchers. Chronologically its stylistic development belongs to the Proto-Modern era of the Native American Fine Arts Movement and was a major influence, through trade routes and the patronage of white art collectors, on Modern Indian Art as its elements diffused to the schools of New Mexico, Oklahoma, and the Northwest Coast. Its more explicit expression, however, yielded to the styles that developed in these schools and culminated in the early 1960's during a period of the Movement referred to as the First Generation Modernists. Only recently have the researchers of Ledger art recognized Virginia Stroud as the Native American Woman artist who, as a Second Generation Modernist and a member of the so-called "New Indian Art Movement", revitalized a traditionally male form of art expression with her pictographic images in the late 1960's to the early 1980's. Influence on Stroud's stylistic achievements can be attributed to her Kiowa upbringing centered in Oklahoma, which is the major geographic center of the Southern Plains school, and her attendance at Bacone under the direction and influence of Dr. Richard West.


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


W. Tussinger has written his first novel which was released in December, 2004. The title of the book is THE FOURTH WORLD.
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.
THE FOURTH WORLD


Click here, Stewart Quandelacy, Blue Peruvian Opal Medicine Bear

"Communing with Bears"

By Sara Wright

Communing with Bears is the story of a joyful encounter between one woman and a black bear.


Andres Quandelacy, Blue Peruvian Opal Bear with Fish

Web Sites:
Native American Links Page
Indigenous Peoples Literature
Native Voice
Wisdom of the Old People
By David Whitney
Hero, Hawk, and Open Hand
Hero, Hawk, and Open Hand, The Book
Early tribal artifacts put in spotlight at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History
National Association of Tribal Historic Preservation
Inuit film to tell story of last great shaman
Petition in Support of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe
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

Andres Quandelacy, Bisbee Cobolt Azurite Buffalo
Buffalo Field Campaign
PO Box 957
West Yellowstone, MT 59758
(406) 646-0070
bfc-media@wildrockies.org

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.

Comments: Post a Comment
0 comments

Saturday, April 15, 2006

Annual First Americans in the Arts awards held

Native American arts daily news, presented by
amerindianarts.us

Gibbs Othole Blue Andean Opal bear

Simi Valley exhibit looks at American Indian culture

Adoption: A 30-year-old law to protect Native Americans puts adopted children...

Oberlin rethinks high school's Indian nickname

Mural raises eyebrows with look at Ohlone plight

For master carver, cuts run deep

Native American Film Series filling week with entertainment and enlightment

American Indian group seeks space

Conference examines Indian Country construction

Group revives idea of an American Indian embassy in Washington

American Indian Film Festival set at BCC

New Website Provides Link to American Indian Nations - SNOW-RIDERS.ORG Bolsters Indian Chances for Vancouver Olympics!

Annual First Americans in the Arts awards held

Legislature's move could force Idaho to address murals of Indian lynching

American Indian Leaders Meet, Devise Plan To Prevent Federal Health Funding Cut

Ortega headlining American Indian Art & Music Festival

American Indian medicine bags still hold sacred places in many hearts

Group Puts Up Money For American Indian Embassy

American Indian Mormons in crisis of spiritual identity

Indian culture celebrated to drum's beat


Summer Camp for Minority Students with Hearing Loss at RIT

Deaf and hard-of-hearing African-American, Latino American, or Native American students who are entering 7th, 8th, or 9th grade can attend Steps to Success, a career exploration mini-camp August 4 – 6 at Rochester Institute of Technology.

Through hands-on experiences and information sessions, students can explore career options through hands-on activities—using computers, working with robots, doing science experiments in labs, and more. They also can make new friends to share experiences with as they finish high school and make decisions about what to do after graduation.

The cost is $50, and limited scholarships are available based on financial need. Experienced counselors and instructors use both English and sign language. The camp is certified by the New York State Health Department.

To apply online , go to www.rit.edu/NTID/StepsToSuccessNR For more information, call 585-475-6723 (voice/TTY) or send e-mail to StepToSuccess@ntid.rit.edu. The application deadline is May 31.


Complete article , "State's volcanoes remain active subjects of study"

Joe Aragon, a member of Acoma Pueblo who teaches science and math at Laguna-Acoma High School and appears in the documentary, said his people have long passed down a story of what happened to make those lava flows near his home.

The story starts with an unkind spirit who killed people and took their property because he was an expert gambler, Aragon said.

Twin warrior spirits decided to fight him by learning his gambling tricks and using them against him, Aragon continued.

"He gambled away all of his power to hurt the people," Aragon said. "In the end he lost his eyes, and lost the right to do what he was doing."

However, the unkind spirit was still mad, so he boiled pine sap to throw at the people of Acoma Pueblo, Aragon said.

"But because he was blind, he spilled it," forming the lava flows, Aragon said.

Acoma, Zuni, Navajo and other tribes all consider those lava flows sacred. They are dotted with ruins of shrines, Aragon said.


May 19-21, Baton Rouge

ANNUAL TUNICA-BILOXI POW WOW: Chief Joseph A. Pierite Pow Wow Grounds, Hwy. 1, Marksville. American Indian singers, dancers and craftspeople will perform and display their wares. Singing and dancing competitions will be held. Featured performances by Annie Humphrey, Cannes Brulée, Hawk (flutist), and Jackie Crow (legend keeper). (318) 253-2034.


Associated Press

A proposal to develop an American Indian cultural and educational center in a vacant federal building in Wausau is moving forward.

A marketing firm is being paid $35,000 to study the idea. Supporters say the center would help improve relations between Wisconsin's tribes and non-tribal communities and attract tourists to the Wausau area.

The tribes would run the center. Organizers say the center would help preserve Indian culture and languages, feature tribal history and make tribal education more accessible.


From the Free New Mexican

Zuni Pueblo junior wins recitation contest

Santa Fe Indian School student Fantasia Lonjose, a junior from Zuni Pueblo, won the inaugural New Mexico state finals in the Poetry Out Loud: National Recitation contest on Saturday.

She received $200 and a chaperoned trip to Washington, D.C., to represent New Mexico in the national finals May 16. Santa Fe Indian School received a $500 stipend to purchase poetry books for the school library.

The event is sponsored by New Mexico Arts, a division of the state Department of Cultural Affairs. Poetry Out Loud is a new national program of the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation.

Lonjose recited "The Pow-wow at the End of the World" by Sherman Alexie.

The runner-up was Jade McLellan, a senior at Capital High School in Santa Fe who recited "The Owl and the Pussycat" by Edward Lear. McLellan received $100 and Capital High School got a $200 stipend to purchase poetry books for the school library.


American Indian Women's Activism in the 1960s and 1970s-Donna Hightower Langston

Complete article


Taos Art Museum: "The Stark Legacy," paintings by members of the Taos Society of Artists. Through July 23. 227 Paseo del Pueblo Norte, Taos. Admission and hours: (505) 758-2690.


THE WOMEN/Edward S. Curtis

"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."


Gopher's Revenge - Klamath

Young Gopher and his little sister Cottontail were orphans. They had no father to teach them where to find the tenderest grass and sweetest roots, and no mother to teach them how to dig a dry, snug burrow. But they lived with their Grandmother Brush Rabbit, who was old and wise and had the answers to many questions. And so they learned these things, and many more.

But the first question little Gopher asked was, "Where is my father, Grandmother?"

And Cottontail, his sister, asked, "Where is my mother. Grandmother?"

"Ask me again when you are grown," said their grandmother with a shake of her head and a sigh.

So when summer's green leaves turned yellow in autumn, little Gopher asked once again, "Where is my father. Grandmother?"

And Cottontail, his sister, asked again, "Where is my mother. Grandmother?"

And once again their Grandmother Brush Rabbit shook her head and sighed. "Ask me again when you are grown."

So it went as each season passed, and always their grandmother gave the same answer. "Ask me again when you are grown."

When a year had passed and at last they were grown. Gopher asked once more, "Oh, Grandmother, where is my father?"

And Cottontail asked as before, "Oh, Grandmother, where is my mother?"

"Your father was killed when you were kits," said the old Brush Rabbit, "And your mother with him."

Gopher sat up straight. "Who killed them?" asked he.

Grandmother Brush Rabbit shivered. "The great Hagfish who lives in the river that flows by the hill," said she. "The Hagfish stung them dead with her dreadful sting. And of all the folk who went to find them, none came back again."

Gopher said nothing, but when he went out to dig roots, he went instead to a secret place he knew. There, a hole in the hillside led to a tunnel that led to the place where the river ran by the hill. At the tunnel's end he looked down and spied, sleeping in the shallow water in the shadows, the horrible Hagfish. Her eyes bulged out, her scales were hairy, and her teeth were shiny and sharp. The sting in her tail was long like a whip. Gopher looked and looked, and then turned home again.

"Teach me to make arrows, my Grandmother,' said he.

"I will," said Grandmother Brush Rabbit, but her heart was heavy. She knew what he hoped to do, and feared he too would never come home.

She showed him how to use an arrow flaker to shape arrowheads from stone, and how best to feather a shaft. Six times Gopher chipped away flakes from obsidian until what was left was an arrowhead. Then he trimmed and feathered six shafts. And when he had finished and gone, old Grandmother Brush Rabbit watched the river path and worried.

But Gopher left the path and went by the tunnel as he had done before. At the far end he looked out from the hole in the hill to spy the horrible Hagfish below. Then he put an arrow to his bowstring and shot. He shot again. And again and again until all of his arrows were gone, stuck in the ugly Hagfish. She roared and wriggled, tossed and thrashed, and lashed the stones in the stream with her terrible sting. At last she died. And when Gopher went down to the river's rim he saw a sight both sad and grim, for the stream was as full of bones as of stones. At home, his sister Cottontail and Grandmother Brush Rabbit were weeping by the cookfire when Gopher appeared.

"Gopher!" they cried, and ran to meet him.

"Grandmother," said Gopher. "I have been to the river that runs by the hill, and killed the old Hagfish who lived there." And he told of the river as full of bones as of stones.

The news went out that the terrible Hagfish was dead, and when the animal people heard, they came from near and far to give Gopher gifts. They brought shells and beads and feathers and seeds, and everything good to eat. And everyone danced and was glad.

And everyone still is glad, for it is thanks to Gopher that there is no Hagfish in the World today.

Back in the Beforetime: Tales of the California Indians [the Klamath River region in the north to the inland desert mountains and the southern coastlands] Retold by Jane Louise Curry, 1987

From the Archives of Blue Panther Keeper of Stories
http://groups.msn.com/KeeperofStories/
Reprinted by permission


Home of NAMAPAHH First People's Radio
Host/Producer Robin Carneen
Thurs 7-8pm Sun 4-5pm PST
New group: (my photo album location)
http://spaces.msn.com/members/NativeRadio4all/


Linguists Find the Words, and Pocahontas Speaks Again
By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD


Dorothy Dunn On Primitive Art
Excerpt
Anthropologists use the term "primitive" as a general category to describe cultures which had not achieved a certain standard (define modernity). For Dunn, a primitive was not a certain type of culture, but described individuals and objects indigenous to any, every, culture. The primitive subject was that gifted individual, or "seer" whom was able to discern the primitive objects relevant to their culture. These objects were also primitives, and represented the signs, icons, or symbols of a culture. Thus, for Dunn, primitive art was the one to one relationship between the seer and the perceived set of primitive objects of their culture. Primitive was not a certain type of culture, but a certain set of variables occurring in every culture, and primitive art was an event that portrayed the values, or what was of importance in that culture. Thus, Dunn encouraged her students to carry on the tradition into the Modernist era.


Essay on the Zuni World View
Excerpt(Complete article is available in PDF)
In Signs from the Ancestors, a study of Zuni cultural symbolism and perceptions in rock art, M. Jane Young cites the "dialectics of the beautiful and the dangerous" noted by Barbara Tedlock and states that "Tedlock posits an underlying aesthetic framework that informs cosmology, whereas I posit an underlying cosmological principle that informs aesthetics". From the perspective of this paper and its conclusions it would appear that Young is perhaps partially correct in her ascertainment although the confluence of the two principles makes it difficult to discern logical priority in either the beautiful (tso’ya) or the dangerous (attanni), for the multireferential finds manifestation of beauty in the "aesthetic of accumulation, an elaborate redundancy of symbolism in Zuni sacred and secular environments" and informs cosmological principles of the preconditions of the rational, while aesthetic license premises pragmatics where proper interpretation of context ensures that rational thought of the "perspective-taker" attains objectivity as a "personal accomplishment" in the success of "reciprocal public intentions". This is because the principle of the “base metaphor” cited by Young is inclusive of a body of conceptual presuppositions which include the notion of an interrelatedness of all things, which is seen here as a cosmological precept akin to notions of identity and individuation, and the notion of a predetermined harmony as indicative of the aesthetic. Young notes that the “very generality of the metaphor lends its ambiguity--an ambiguity quite characteristic of the Zuni view of the world. Zuni ritual symbols, whether expressed verbally or visually, are frequently multivalent or multireferential, standing for both themselves and something else at the same time; yet all of the meanings are bound together, so that the Zunis say, as do the Mescalero Apache: "They’re all the same thing".


Bibliography of the Zuni Language
Excerpt
The Zuni, or Shiwi language, is now generally considered a language isolate. The Encyclopedia Britannica categorizes it as a Penutian language, and Bertha Dutton once posed the hypothetical that according to the Swadesh list, "If the Zuni language is a member of the Penutian language family, then it is a distant relative of the Tanoan languages (Tewi)." The Penutian hypothesis was advanced by Alfred Kroeber and Roland B. Dixon, and later refined by Edward Sapir, and was an attempt to reduce the number of unrelated language families in a culturally diverse area that was centered in California's central coast. While this theory was plausible for some of the languages, the problem of verification of this theory was that to find any evidence of any cognates between the California languages and Zuni, one would possibly have to trace the languages' lineage by as much as 3000-5000 years or more.


Indian Ledger Art-Resources and Information
Excerpt
Ledger art is traditionally a male American Indian pictographic art form, and historically has been characterized as such by researchers. Chronologically its stylistic development belongs to the Proto-Modern era of the Native American Fine Arts Movement and was a major influence, through trade routes and the patronage of white art collectors, on Modern Indian Art as its elements diffused to the schools of New Mexico, Oklahoma, and the Northwest Coast. Its more explicit expression, however, yielded to the styles that developed in these schools and culminated in the early 1960's during a period of the Movement referred to as the First Generation Modernists. Only recently have the researchers of Ledger art recognized Virginia Stroud as the Native American Woman artist who, as a Second Generation Modernist and a member of the so-called "New Indian Art Movement", revitalized a traditionally male form of art expression with her pictographic images in the late 1960's to the early 1980's. Influence on Stroud's stylistic achievements can be attributed to her Kiowa upbringing centered in Oklahoma, which is the major geographic center of the Southern Plains school, and her attendance at Bacone under the direction and influence of Dr. Richard West.


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


W. Tussinger has written his first novel which was released in December, 2004. The title of the book is THE FOURTH WORLD.
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.
THE FOURTH WORLD


Click here, Stewart Quandelacy, Blue Peruvian Opal Medicine Bear

"Communing with Bears"

By Sara Wright

Communing with Bears is the story of a joyful encounter between one woman and a black bear.


Andres Quandelacy, Blue Peruvian Opal Bear with Fish

Web Sites:
Native American Links Page
Indigenous Peoples Literature
Native Voice
Wisdom of the Old People
By David Whitney
Hero, Hawk, and Open Hand
Hero, Hawk, and Open Hand, The Book
Early tribal artifacts put in spotlight at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History
National Association of Tribal Historic Preservation
Inuit film to tell story of last great shaman
Petition in Support of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe
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

Andres Quandelacy, Bisbee Cobolt Azurite Buffalo
Buffalo Field Campaign
PO Box 957
West Yellowstone, MT 59758
(406) 646-0070
bfc-media@wildrockies.org

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.

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Sunday, April 02, 2006

Zuni Pueblo junior wins recitation contest

Native American arts daily news, presented by
amerindianarts.us

Gibbs Othole Blue Andean Opal bear

American Indian relics to rest at Rock Bridge park

Oklahoma lawmaker seeks to save Southern Plains Indian Museum

High Desert Museum plans downtown gallery

American Indian movies screened at film festival

SHARING HISTORY: Time-Out Week, Wacipi celebrate Indian culture

Arkansas lawmakers oppose Fort Smith Indian casino

16th annual Powwow April 8

In Pa., urban Indian life is vanishing fast

CU Workshops To Address American Indian Probate Reform Act In Ignacio And Denver

Native American Student Assoc. to host powwow

State slow to improve Indian education


May 19-21, Baton Rouge

ANNUAL TUNICA-BILOXI POW WOW: Chief Joseph A. Pierite Pow Wow Grounds, Hwy. 1, Marksville. American Indian singers, dancers and craftspeople will perform and display their wares. Singing and dancing competitions will be held. Featured performances by Annie Humphrey, Cannes Brulée, Hawk (flutist), and Jackie Crow (legend keeper). (318) 253-2034.


Associated Press

A proposal to develop an American Indian cultural and educational center in a vacant federal building in Wausau is moving forward.

A marketing firm is being paid $35,000 to study the idea. Supporters say the center would help improve relations between Wisconsin's tribes and non-tribal communities and attract tourists to the Wausau area.

The tribes would run the center. Organizers say the center would help preserve Indian culture and languages, feature tribal history and make tribal education more accessible.


From the Free New Mexican

Zuni Pueblo junior wins recitation contest

Santa Fe Indian School student Fantasia Lonjose, a junior from Zuni Pueblo, won the inaugural New Mexico state finals in the Poetry Out Loud: National Recitation contest on Saturday.

She received $200 and a chaperoned trip to Washington, D.C., to represent New Mexico in the national finals May 16. Santa Fe Indian School received a $500 stipend to purchase poetry books for the school library.

The event is sponsored by New Mexico Arts, a division of the state Department of Cultural Affairs. Poetry Out Loud is a new national program of the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation.

Lonjose recited "The Pow-wow at the End of the World" by Sherman Alexie.

The runner-up was Jade McLellan, a senior at Capital High School in Santa Fe who recited "The Owl and the Pussycat" by Edward Lear. McLellan received $100 and Capital High School got a $200 stipend to purchase poetry books for the school library.


MSU American Indian Council Pow Wow set April 14-15

Bozeman - The 31st annual Montana State University American Indian Council Pow Wow is scheduled April 14 and 15 in MSU's Brick Breeden Fieldhouse.

The pow wow is one of the largest in Montana and offers free admission to all.

The pow wow begins at 6 p.m. Friday, April 14, in the Brick Breeden Fieldhouse with the grand entry. There will also be grand entries at noon and 6 p.m. Saturday, April 15. A free buffalo chili dinner will be served at 4:30 p.m. April 15.

Throughout all sessions booths offering the crafts of traditional artists and artisans are open around the edge of the dance arena. All pow wow events are free and open to all.

For more information on the pow wow, contact Jim Burns (406) 994-4880 or e-mail him at jburns@montana.edu, or call the Center for Native American Studies, (406) 994-3881.


Job Title: Director of Institutional Advancement

Company: Institute of American Indian Arts

Web Site: http://www.iaia.edu

Location: Santa Fe, NM

Posted: March 22, 2006


American Indian Women's Activism in the 1960s and 1970s-Donna Hightower Langston

Complete article


Taos Art Museum: "The Stark Legacy," paintings by members of the Taos Society of Artists. Through July 23. 227 Paseo del Pueblo Norte, Taos. Admission and hours: (505) 758-2690.


"Expeditions of Spirit," an exhibit of 20 of Lorenzo Clayton's large-scale mixed media assemblages and works on paper, will open Saturday at the Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian, 1 Bowling Green, New York, N.Y. Clayton's exhibit investigates religious and philosophic world views through complex installations and multi-layered works on paper.

Six of his "mythistoryquest" installations, which examine parallel traditions in indigenous and Christian religions, will be on view together for the first time. Also included will be works from the Come Across series, which express Clayton's rediscovery and embrace of his Navajo identity.

This is the final installation of the "New Tribe: New York" series focusing on New York-based Native American artists.

The show is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. (Thursdays to 8 p.m.), through April 9. Admission is free. Call (212) 514-3700 or visit ww.americanindian.si.edu for more information.


THE WOMEN/Edward S. Curtis

"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."


Fire is a Spy - Choctaw

The word for the Great Spirit, Hashtali, means "noon day sun." It was believed the sun holds the power of life and death over people. There is a legend that says Hashtali and Fire are friends. In fact, it was believed that they are always in touch with one another. Fire tells the sun about everything it hears and sees on Earth, especially when it learns of wrong-doing. The people knew that if they did anything naughty near a fire, Hashtali would know of it before they could take even one step. Choctaw children were always very good around a fire

From Blue Panther Keeper of Stories.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Native_Village


Fire - Alabama

Bears formerly owned the Fire and they always took it about with them. One time they set it on the ground and went on farther eating acorns. The Fire nearly went out and called aloud. It was almost extinguished. "Feed me," it said. Then some human beings saw it. They got a stick toward the north and laid it down upon it. They got another stick toward the west and laid it down upon it. They got a stick at the south and laid it down there. They got another at the east and laid it down and the Fire blazed up. When the bears came to get their Fire, it said, "I don't know you any more." They did not get it back and so it belongs to human beings

From Blue Panther Keeper of Stories.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Native_Village

Fire had come to the Six Nations – Haudenosaunee

Often, around the fire in the long house of the Haudenosaunee , during the Moon of the Long Nights, this tale is told.

Three Arrows was a boy of the Mohawk tribe. Although he had not yet seen fourteen winters he was already known among the Iroquois for his skill and daring. His arrows sped true to their mark. His name was given him when with three bone-tipped arrows he brought down three flying wild geese from the same flock. He could travel in the forest as softly as the south wind and he was a skillful hunter, but he never killed a bird or animal unless his clan needed food. He was well-versed in woodcraft, fleet of foot, and a clever wrestler. His people said, 'Soon he will be a chief like his father.'

The sun shone strong in the heart of Three Arrows, because soon he would have to meet the test of strength and endurance through which the boys of his clan attained manhood. He had no fear of the outcome of the dream fast which was so soon to take. (to fast means to go without food or water)

Three Arrow's father was a great chief and a good man, and the boy's life had been patterned after that of his father.

When the grass was knee-high, Three Arrows left his village with his father. They climbed to a sacred place in the mountains. They found a narrow cave at the back of a little plateau. Here Three Arrows decided to live for his few days of prayer and vigil. He was not permitted to eat anything during the days and nights of his dream fast. He had no weapons, and his only clothing was a breechcloth and moccasins. His father left the boy with the promise that he would visit him each day that the ceremony lasted, at dawn.

Three Arrows prayed to the Great Spirit. He begged that his clan spirit would soon appear in a dream and tell him what his guardian animal or bird was to be. When he knew this, he would adopt that bird or animal as his special guardian for the rest of his life. When the dream came he would be free to return to his people, his dream fast successfully achieved.

For five suns Three Arrows spent his days and nights on the rocky plateau, only climbing down to the little spring for water after each sunset. His heart was filled with a dark cloud because that morning his father had sadly warned him that the next day, the sixth sun, he must return to his village even if no dream had come to him in the night. This meant returning to his people in disgrace without the chance of taking another dream fast.

That night Tree Arrows, weak from hunger and weary from ceaseless watch, cried out to the Great Mystery. 'O Great Spirit, have pity on him who stands humbly before Thee. Let his clan spirit or a sign from beyond the thunderbird come to him before tomorrow's sunrise, if it be Thy will.'

As he prayed, the wind suddenly veered from east too north. This cheered Three Arrows because the wind was now the wind of the great bear, and the bear was the totem of his clan. When he entered the cavern he smelled for the first time the unmistakable odor of a bear. This was strong medicine.

He crouched at the opening of the cave, too excited to lie down although his tire body craved rest. As he gazed out into the night he heard the rumble of thunder, saw the lightning flash, and felt the fierce breath of the wind from the north. Suddenly a vision came to him, and a gigantic bear stood beside him in the cave. Then Three Arrows heard it say, 'Listen well, Mohawk. Your clan spirit has heard your prayer. Tonight you will learn a great mystery which will bring help and gladness to all your people.'

A terrible clash of thunder brought the dazed boy to his feet as the bear disappeared. He looked from the cave just as a streak of lightning flashed across the sky in the form of a blazing arrow. Was this the sign from the thunderbird ?

Suddenly the air was filled with a fearful sound. A shrill shrieking came from the ledge just above the cave. It sounded as though mountain lions fought in the storm; yet Three Arrows felt no fear as he climbed toward the ledge. As his keen eyes grew accustomed to the dim light he saw that the force of the wind was causing two young balsam trees to rub violently against each other. The strange noise was caused by friction, and as he listened and watched fear filled his heart, for, from where the two trees rubbed together a flash of lightning show smoke. Fascinated, he watched until flickers of flames followed the smoke.

Three Arrows had never seen fire of any kind at close range nor had any of his people. He scrambled down to the cave and covered his eyes in dread of this strange magic. Then he smelt bear again and he thought of his vision, his clan spirit, the bear, and its message. This was the mystery which he was to reveal to his people. The blazing arrow in the sky was to be his totem, and his new name - Blazing Arrow.

At daybreak, Blazing Arrow climbed onto the ledge and broke two dried sticks from what remained of one of the balsams. He rubbed them violently together, but nothing happened. 'The magic is too powerful for me,' he thought.

Then a picture of his clan and village formed in his mind, and he patiently rubbed the hot sticks together again. His will power took the place of his tired muscles. Soon a little wisp of smoke greeted his renewed efforts, then came a bright spark on one of the stick. Blazing Arrow waved it as he had seen the fiery arrow wave in the night sky. A resinous blister on the stick glowed, then flamed.

Fire had come to the Six Nations!

From Blue Panther Keeper of Stories.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Native_Village


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


W. Tussinger has written his first novel which was released in December, 2004. The title of the book is THE FOURTH WORLD.
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.
THE FOURTH WORLD


Click here, Stewart Quandelacy, Blue Peruvian Opal Medicine Bear

"Communing with Bears"

By Sara Wright

Communing with Bears is the story of a joyful encounter between one woman and a black bear.


Andres Quandelacy, Blue Peruvian Opal Bear with Fish

Web Sites:
Native American Links Page
Indigenous Peoples Literature
Native Voice
Wisdom of the Old People
By David Whitney
Hero, Hawk, and Open Hand
Hero, Hawk, and Open Hand, The Book
Early tribal artifacts put in spotlight at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History
National Association of Tribal Historic Preservation
Inuit film to tell story of last great shaman
Petition in Support of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe
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

Andres Quandelacy, Bisbee Cobolt Azurite Buffalo
Buffalo Field Campaign
PO Box 957
West Yellowstone, MT 59758
(406) 646-0070
bfc-media@wildrockies.org

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.

Essay on the Zuni World View
Excerpt(Complete article is available in PDF)
Cushing also cited an incidence where he showed a pole that accompanies a theodolite to an old Zuni man and asked him what he thought the name of it was. In response the old man inquired as to the use of the item. After briefly describing the implementation of the device the old man provided a rather lengthy sentence-word that Cushing translated as "heights of the world progressively measuring stick". The next day Cushing took the pole to the extreme corner of the pueblo and began "to flourish it around" until a middle-aged man relented to curiosity and asked what it was. Cushing then provided the Zuni name he had learned the day before and the man promptly requested, "Can they actually tell how far up and down journeying the world is?" [105].

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