2006 September/October On the Wind (News)

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Film Clips

The tragic and true story of the removal of the Cherokee people

from their homelands in the Southeast to Oklahoma is chronicled in a

new 115-minute, high-definition DVD documentary titled The Trail of

Tears: Cherokee Legacy. The noteworthy film is narrated by James Earl

Jones and Wes Studi (Cherokee), the latter speaking in Cherokee with

English subtitles. Other voices include James Garner, Crystal Gayle,

John Buttrum and Virginia Governor Douglas Wilder. It was produced by

Cherokee citizen Steven R. Heape and directed by Chip Richie, and was

endorsed by both the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma and the Eastern Band

of Cherokee in North Carolina. Details: www.richheape.com or

888/600-2922

Despite its somber tone, we are impressed with the film Mr. Barrington,

starring Eric Schweig (Inuit) as the male lead character, Samuel. Shot

on a shoestring budget of $500,000, it has surprisingly good production

values (camera, sound, sets, etc.) and fine acting as it follows the

descent into madness of the character Lila, played by the film's

screenwriter and co-producer, Jennifer Nichole Porter. Purchase copies

are available at www.amazon.com and similar outlets, or signed copies

at www.honeytreefilms.com. Schweig also starred this summer in Lifetime

Television's Not Like Everyone Else.

A film garnering excellent audience response is the documentary Mohawk

Girls, directed by Tracey Deer (Mohawk), which focuses on the lives of

three teenage girls from the Kahnawake Reserve just outside of

Montréal. Deeply emotional yet unsentimental, it reveals the hope,

heartache, despair and promise of growing up Native at the beginning of

the 21st century. Copies are available for purchase by calling

514/272-8241. The film's production company, Rezolution Pictures, is

now working on Moose TV, a comedy series for Showcase Television,

starring Adam Beach (Anishinaabe), Nathaniel Arcand (Cree) and Jennifer

Podemski (Saulteaux). It will begin airing in early 2007.

Released in 2005, the award-winning 60-minute documentary Oil on Ice

deftly explores the pristine lands and teeming critters of the Arctic

National Wildlife Refuge, the proposed oil development there, the

rights of the refuge's Native inhabitants, global warming and

alternative energy concepts. It's narrated by Peter Coyote. Available

nationwide at major rental stores. Details: www.oilonice.org

More Native film news: Funny Farm, shot in the United States, Canada

and Britain, and starring Russell Means (Oglala Sioux) and Gary Farmer

(Cayuga), among others, is nearing completion… Comanche Moon, a CBS

television series prequel to Lonesome Dove with a substantial Native

cast, including Zach McClaron (Standing Rock Sioux), was shot outside

of Santa Fe this spring. It is scheduled to air in November… Look for

Charmaine Jackson-John (Navajo) playing the older Eva Longoria

character in the new Jessica Simpson flick, Employee of the Month… The

popular feature film, Greasewood Flat, starring Irene Bedard

(Inupiat/Cree), is now available on DVD, including many extras; see

www.greasewoodflatmovie.com… The title of the feature film The World's

Fastest Indian is a bit deceptive, as it refers to a brand of

motorcycle, but the delightful movie does include a significant Native

role—the wonderful Saginaw Grant (Sac & Fox/Iowa/ Otoe-Missouria)

playing Jake, who befriends Burt Munro (Anthony Hopkins) while he is on

the road.

A Universal Translator

Can technology save endangered Native languages? While no product can

make such a claim, a handheld machine that can translate spoken English

words and phrases into almost any language promises to help stem the

erosion of Indian idioms. The Phraselator P2, developed by the same

governmental body—DARPA—that launched the Internet and GPS technology,

is being marketed by Thornton Media, Inc. of Banning, California, owned

and operated by Don Thornton (Cherokee).

It is being warmly embraced in Indian Country, with units already at

work among some 30 tribes. Since early 2005, dozens of Native speakers

have begun recording their languages onto the high-tech machines.

"After I played with it, I cried. This will help save our language,"

says Jane Dumas, a Kumeyaay elder from California, while Terry Brockie,

a Gros Ventre language teacher in Montana, notes, "I have been waiting

for such a tool all my life." Says Carlene Bear Chief of Siksika Nation

Indian School of Alberta, Canada, "Like our tradition, it orally

teaches people who want to learn the language." It can also record

stories, prayers and songs.

Thornton acknowledges the irony. "My mother was part of that boarding

school era where Indian kids were made to be ashamed to be Indian," he

says. "Now we're using U.S. government technology to help revitalize

the Native languages that were decimated during that era." Details: www.ndnlanguage.com

Hair Stylist to the Stars

He's had make-up thrown at him, endured screaming fits by Faye Dunaway

and stars of her stature, and been the confidant to scores of the rich

and famous. But Darrell Redleaf (Sioux/Mandan/Hidatsa), beauty

consultant, make-up artist and hair stylist to the stars, navigates

those minefields with a sense of humor and humility.

"At age 48 I have no regrets," says the former resident of the Fort

Berthold Reservation near Stanley, North Dakota. When he was eight

years old, his family relocated to Phoenix. After graduating from

Arizona State University with a degree in art and design, Redleaf

discovered that beauty was his destiny. "My mother went to beauty

school, opened her own salon and I helped out. It was fun, not like

punching a clock," he says with a laugh. And thus, his career was born.

In 1987 he moved to Los Angeles, where he's styled Helen Hunt, Cameron

Diaz, Claire Danes and Gwyneth Paltrow while developing his own beauty

line. But no matter how successful he has become or well known he is,

Redleaf remains humbled by his own former alcohol dependency and is

committed to staying on the right path.

"We are about finding balance," he says of all Native Americans. "We

must walk in beauty, in balance with nature and ourselves." He is

represented by True Beauty Artists of Los Angeles. Details:

www.darrellredleaf.com

—Naomi Serviss

Living Shields on the Plains

The winter winds on the Pine Ridge Reservation of South Dakota are

notoriously punishing on both body and pocketbook for Lakota residents,

but a project by the Fort Collins, Colorado–based nonprofit group

Trees, Water & People is blocking these chilly currents.

In May, under the direction of local coordinator Henry Red Cloud

(Lakota), the group sponsored its fourth annual tree-planting session

on Pine Ridge, this time at Oglala. Over time, the windbreaks will

shield homes from the biting northern winter winds and provide cooling

shade in summer. The group is also busy installing supplemental solar

heating systems for Lakota families.

"We are trying to improve the often difficult living conditions at Pine

Ridge, and build hope—one family at a time," notes Richard Fox, the

group's director. Details: www.treeswaterpeople.org

Honoring

In June, the Southwestern Association for Indian Arts in Santa Fe

honored a handful of people for their lifetime achievements in the

arts: the late popular painter R.C. Gorman (Navajo); the outstanding

photographer Lee Marmon (Laguna Pueblo); the remarkable potter Grace

Medicine Flower (Santa Clara/Pojoaque Pueblo), who pioneered sgraffito

decoration; and beader and quillwork artist Joyce Growing Thunder

Fogarty (Assiniboine Sioux). Taking the group's annual youth award were

Paris Larson Bread (Blackfeet/ Navajo/ Apache) for drawings; Thomas

Lovato (Santo Domingo Pueblo) for paintings and drawings, often of

wildlife; and Krystal Schultz (Navajo) for weavings.

Composer, pianist, conductor and philanthropist John Kim Bell (Mohawk)

has been presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award from Canada's

Royal Conservatory of Music. Among other achievements, Bell founded and

continues to direct the annual National Aboriginal Achievement Awards

of Canada.

Shane Hendren (Navajo), known primarily for his outstanding jewelry,

has been chosen by the Sycuan Tribe to complete all the ornamental

ironwork for its $52 million renovation of the historic US Grant hotel

in downtown San Diego, which was built in 1910. It will be operated by

Starwood Hotels upon its reopening this November.

Kevin Pourier (Oglala Lakota) of Scenic, South Dakota, the amazing

inlaid-buffalo-horn artist (see July/Aug. 2005 issue), has been

selected as a Bush Foundation Artist Fellow from among hundreds of

applicants for a substantial cash award. Other Natives so honored were

quilter Viola Colombe (Modoc) of Mission, South Dakota, and ledger

artist Dwayne Wilcox (Oglala Lakota) of Rapid City.

A two-part public television series exploring contemporary issues

facing Indians in both urban and rural settings, Indian Country

Diaries, was selected for a major award at the 39th annual WorldFest

Houston, a huge event screening more than 4,500 entries this year from

33 nations. Details: www.indiancountrydiaries.org

A finely detailed, dynamic wood katsina carving by Alexander Youvella

Sr. (Hopi) won the Best of Show award at the recent first annual

Albuquerque Indian Art Market.

Winners at the eighth annual Native American Music Awards held in June

at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida,

included the following: Keith Secola, Artist of the Year (for Native

Americana); Pura Fe, Best Female Artist (for Follow Your Heart's

Desire); Wade Fernandez, Best Male Artist (for Song of the Black Wolf);

AIRO, Group of the Year (for Tatanka); Jana, Record of the Year (for

Flash of a Firefly); Jim Boyd, Songwriter of the Year (for Them Old

Guitars); and Bill Miller, Best Song (for "Sacred Ground"). Other

winners were Brulé for Best Compilation, Silverbird for Debut Artist,

Rita Coolidge for Best Jazz/Blues, Joseph Fire Crow for Best Flautist,

Arvel Bird for Best Instrumental, Douglas Bluefeather for Best New Age,

Eagle & Hawk for Best Pop/Rock, Black Eagle for Best Powwow, Lakota

Thunder for Best Traditional, R. Carlos Nakai for Best World Music, and

Buggin Malone for Best Rap/Hip-Hop.

The National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C., has

selected Nora Naranjo-Morse (Santa Clara Pueblo) to create a monumental

sculpture titled "Always Becoming" for its gardens. Four tipi-like

forms will be clad in dirt, sand, clay, wood and moss that will weather

over time.

A beaded bandolier bag, "A Whisper From the Mounds" by Martha Berry

(Cherokee), won the People's Choice award at the 2006 Art Under the

Oaks festival of the Five Civilized Tribes Museum in Muskogee, Oklahoma.

Dr. Jill Hoffman, who has more than a decade of experience with museums

specializing in Southwestern and Native American art and culture, has

been selected as the new executive director of the Millicent Rogers

Museum in Taos, New Mexico.

Readers of the 250,000-circulation Journeys magazine recently named the

Mashantucket Pequot Museum as their favorite museum in Connecticut. The

museum opened in 1998.

Amanda Cobb (Chickasaw) has been selected as the new editor of American Indian Quarterly.

Shards

A major new addition to the National Museum of the American Indian in

lower Manhattan, the Diker Pavilion for Native Arts and Cultures, opens

to the public on Sept. 23. The inaugural exhibition, Beauty Surrounds

Us, will fill the 6,000-square-foot exhibition space with 77

extraordinary objects illustrating Native American dance, music, games

and family life drawn from the museum's outstanding permanent

collection. The striking $5 million expansion includes windows running

60 feet along one wall and has been designed to host more frequent

dance, music and storytelling programs.

Indian golfers can now proudly display their heritage on the links with

a custom-beaded golf bag created by Freida Battise (Alabama-Coushatta)

of Phoenix. Beading since 1990, Battise spent seven months creating her

first beaded golf bag, which includes illustrated head covers, an image

of a "cart girl" on horseback with a travois of refreshments, a tipi

"clubhouse," a caddy carrying clubs in a quiver and an eagle staff hole

flag. She will display the bag at the 2006 Santa Fe Indian Market.

Details: 480/242-6278

The importance of the independent radio station KILI on the Pine Ridge

Reservation in South Dakota was made perfectly clear in April when a

lightning strike damaged its transmission antenna and "The Voice of the

Lakota Nation" went off the air for several months. The unusual

station—with its eclectic playlist, Lakota-speaking DJs and community

announcements—repaired its tower with volunteer donations and a federal

grant, but its deteriorating building, erected in 1981, now also needs

attention. Details and streaming audio at www.kiliradio.org

In June, Q'orianka Kilcher, star of the recent film The New World, led

a media team to document the environmental and social devastation being

wreaked upon the Native residents of the Peruvian rainforest by

international oil companies. The companies have been releasing an

average of 850,000 gallons a day of toxic wastewater containing

cyanide, lead, arsenic and mercury into the local ecosystems. Details:

www.amazonwatch.org

Cassandra Manuelito-Kerkvliet (Navajo), who was selected to serve as

the new president of the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe,

has declined the job offer. Rich Tobin will continue to serve as the

interim president.

Playwright David Velarde (Jicarilla Apache) is participating in the

International Indigenous Playwrights Forum being held in Edinburgh,

Scotland in August.

passages

Geraldine DeCoteau Harvey (Chippewa/Oneida), a pioneer in Indian

education, passed away at age 90 on June 14. Her first teaching job was

at Chilocco Indian School in Oklahoma, followed by work at BIA schools

in South Dakota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Montana and New Mexico. She retired

in Taos, New Mexico, after 32 years of teaching. She is the mother of

famed flamenco dancer Maria Benitez.

Ron Froman (Peoria), the first chairman of the National American Indian

Housing Council, passed away on May 28 at age 65. Among the many other

important positions he held over the years were chief of the Peoria

Tribe of Oklahoma, business director of the athletic department of

Oklahoma State University and executive director of the Creek Housing

Authority.

Stephen Tiger (Miccosukee), a member of the well-known Native rock band

Tiger Tiger, passed away on June 26 in his Florida home. He was 57. In

the 1960s and 70s, he toured the world playing in bands including Sun

Country, the Bangles and Tiger Tiger, which he formed with his brother

Lee. The band's newest album, Native to This Country, was just released.