2006 September/October On the Wind (News)

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.