New Migrations for Redcrow
Though he is best known as an actor, activist and frank spokesman for Indian people (see July/Aug. 2005 issue), Floyd Redcrow Westerman (Dakota) continues to fly in new directions, most recently with the release of the first works in a series of bronze busts of well-known Indian leaders of the past, and his first new recording in many years—at 71 years of age!

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Actor and activist Westerman is also a talented musician and budding sculptor—his bronze bust of Sitting Bull rests behind him. right: The new Berlin Gallery at the Heard Museum in Phoenix, AZ. Photo:Kitty Leaken

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 “I guess I may never get to do a film series about all these great leaders as I’d hoped, but I’m trying to honor them with these sculptures,” Westerman says. “I want people to know that they were the defenders of this land and their people against the aggressive European-Americans, who labeled them ‘red skin savages.’ They sought to protect the soul of their people against overwhelming odds and never faltered, even though, as I’ve tried to show, there was a sadness in their eyes at the end, seeing what was coming.”

So far, he has completed busts of Sitting Bull, Chief Joseph and Geronimo, and begun another series that will reflect typical scenes in Indian life—in this case a man holding the sacred pipe.

Though he began his musical career in the 1960s—his early albums Custer Died for Your Sins and The Land Is Your Mother have just been re-released on a single 22-track CD titled Going Back—in recent years music has taken a backseat to his acting (Dances with Wolves, Renegade, The Doors, Hidalgo, etc. and numerous television roles). However, with his deep bass voice and musical sensibilities honed on Hank Williams and other country greats, his newest CD, A Tribute to Johnny Cash (Hen House Studios) is a perfect match for the artist as heard on such songs as “Ring of Fire,” “Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down,” “Busted” and “Folsom Prison Blues.”

As his friend and fellow performer Kris Kristofferson says, “I think Johnny would be especially proud of this tribute album. Not just because of his high regard for Floyd or his own lifelong identification with Native Americans, but because it is such a respectful, loving portrayal of the man’s work.” Details: Box 10464, Marina del Rey, CA 90295, 310/827-3604 or floydredcrowwesterman.com.

Moving Beyond Art Displays



The Heard Museum of Phoenix will initiate a new chapter in museum facilities on Nov. 17 when it hosts the public opening of a new space—the Berlin Gallery—created specifically for sale of fine works of art.

The attractive addition—with a central dome providing high ceilings, natural light from skylights, poured and polished brown concrete floors, state-of-the-art lighting and handsome shelving—will be used primarily for sale of paintings, prints, drawings and photography by major artists. Flanking the gallery on two sides outdoors are sculpture gardens. Audiovisual and computer infrastructure will also allow for public gatherings and presentations on various topics. In addition to storage space for the museum’s existing shop and bookstore, the $1 million addition spans 2,400 square feet.

The Berlin Gallery will open with a group show of 13 artists, but in 2007 it will launch a series of shows highlighting single artists. In addition, in the summer months, gallery manager Andrea Hanley (Navajo) expects they will mount shows with less-expensive works. “We will try to offer something for everyone,” she notes. Adds Bruce McGee, the museum’s longstanding director of sales, “This is a dream come true, in that it allows us to showcase contemporary fine art in a true gallery setting.”

left to right: Michael Kott, Robert Mirabal and Patrick Mirabal. Photo: Jaap Vanderplas

Wow! New releases from Native artists continue to pour into our office, just in time for the holidays. Here are notes on some that have caught our ear. The rocking blues band Indigenous, with a change in personnel, returns with another professional dish of blazing guitar and gritty vocals by Mato Nanji, solid bass by brother Pte and drums by Michael Bland on Chasing the Sun (Vanguard Records). With most songs penned by Mato, it shows another step in his consistent maturation as an artist. Punk rockers Black Fire from the Navajo Rez have a cool new combined CD/DVD out titled Beyond Warped (immergent.com or blackfire.net) that includes some classics from the Ramones as well as their own works. Once side has 10 vocal tracks; the other features video shot on the Warped Tour, two documentaries, a music video and more music. Eagle and Hawk, a Canadian group that has garnered top music awards up north, has a fine CD out titled Life Is (Rising Sun Productions) that melds high production quality in a rock vein with a strong Native message, as in “Wild West Show.” Brulé (brulerecords.com), led by Paul LaRoche on keyboards, is increasingly highlighting the talents of his son Shane LaRoche on guitars and in production roles and his daughter Nicole LaRoche on flutes—as in Tribal Rhythm and Tatanka. Both CDs are operatic in scope, dominated by a dreamy, all-instrumental tone. The band added a new member recently, Moses Brings Plenty (Lakota), and South Dakota PBS is planning to air a special on the band in 2007. Also out is a fascinating and moving account of Paul’s discovery of his adoption roots and rejoining his lost Native family in the book Hidden Heritage (Beaver’s Pond Press) by Barbara Marshak. Robbie Bee (son of XIT founder Tom Bee), performing under the pseudonym of Santee, released Legacy (Sound of America Records) in 2005 and we missed it, but the wait was worth it. Robbie wrote, produced, engineered and played all the instruments on it—a captivating mix of flute, drums, Native drum and synthesizers, some traditional singing, and dialogue in Lakota, Comanche and Kiowa that strips away stress. Country fans will love a compilation titled Manitoba Aboriginal Artists (aboriginalmusic.ca), especially the basso profundo of Ray St. Germain on “I’m Mighty Proud I’m Metis,” J.J. Lavallee on “Honky Tonk Life,” and Rayne DeLaronde on “Damn Him For Messing With My Heart.” But the sampler also has outstanding blues (Billy Joe Green), thrash (Killah Green) ballads (J.C. Campbell), rock (C-Weed on great redo of “Spirit in the Sky”), pop (Jessie Higheagle), powwow and rap. Also out is another outstanding work of vocals (in English and Cree) and simple drum from Randy Wood, teamed up with the superb percussionist Will Clipman in My Heart and Soul (Canyon Records). Robert Mirabal has a unique collection of 12 traditional Christmas carols he’s interpreted in flute and cello on Pueblo Christmas (Star Roads Records), a rock track “Green Chile Christmas,” and a spoken track. For powwow fans comes Confederacy Style Pow-Wow Live at Post Falls (Canyon Records), composed of music from the Blackfoot people. The National Geographic Society now offers free music streams, interactive maps, 99-cent MP3 downloads and more at worldmusic.nationalgeographic.com, including many Native artists globally. 

Santa Fe Indian Market prize winners included Sarah Paul Begay (above left) and Marvin Oliver (right). “Navajo Universe”  measures an astonishing nine feet by 12 feet. Photo: Wendy McEahern/courtesy  SWAIA.

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Sarah Paul Begay (Navajo) took the coveted Best of Show Award at the 2006 Santa Fe Indian Market with a truly outstanding, monumental-scale weaving. Others taking home top prizes in their class were the following: Edison Cummings (Navajo) in jewelry, Russell Sanchez (San Ildefonso Pueblo) in pottery, Alex Jacobs (Akwesasne Mohawk) in painting/drawings/photography, Aaron Fredericks (Hopi) in wooden Pueblo carvings, Marvin Oliver (Quinalt) in sculpture, Rhonda Holy Bear (Cheyenne River Sioux) in diverse arts, Jamie Okuma (Luiseño/ Shoshone-Bannock) in bead and quill work, and Jessica Growing Thunder (Assiniboine Sioux) in the youth class. Taking the Artists’ Choice Award was Phillip John Charette (Yup’ik).

Hopi jeweler and stone sculptor Steve LaRance has been selected as a Visiting Artist to the National Museum of the American Indian for spring 2007, which will entail a research project on pre-Columbian sculpture and jewelry, and public art demonstrations and presentations. Other artists so honored in NMAI’s Native Arts Program are basketmaker Carol Douglas (Northern Arapaho), multimedia artist Clarissa Hudson (Tlingit) and sculptor Adrian Wall (Jemez Pueblo). Mona Smith (Sisseton-Wahpeton Dakota), a video/audio/media artist, was selected as the program’s Community Artist, while writer and storyteller Vianor Perez (Kuna) was picked for the Community Arts Symposium, and painter and wood carver Joseph Ives (Port Gamble S’Klallam) for the Youth Mural Project.

Debbie Robbins (Navajo) of Winslow, Arizona continues to ride among the elite of the Women’s Pro Rodeo Association, from her initial tie-down roping Rookie of the Year Award in 2002 to her current second-place standing among the all-around competitors on the tough WPRA circuit. Details: wpra.com.

Political leader (current president of the Haida Nation), carver, traditional medicinal practitioner, singer and negotiator Guujaaw (Haida) of Skidegate, British Columbia, has been honored with the sixth annual Buffett Award for Indigenous Leadership from the nonprofit group Ecotrust. Details: ecotrust.org.

Christina Burke has been selected to serve as the curator of Native American and Non-Western Art at the Philbrook Museum in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Photographer Larry McNeil (Tlingit) has received an award from the National Geographic Society’s All Roads Photography Program for his collection of photos titled Keet Hit. Details: larrymcneil.com.
The Chinle Valley Singers (see Sept./ Oct. 2006) and the Native alt-rock Red Earth (see May/June 2004) are both performing at the Sing Sing Festival, being held in March 2007 in Papua New Guinea and co-produced by Gordon Bronitsky.

Tina Deschenie (Navajo) has been hired as the new editor of Tribal College Journal, the quarterly magazine based in Mancos, Colorado published by the American Indian Higher Education Consortium. In the past, she has written for Native Peoples and served as dean of continuing education at the Crownpoint Institute of Technology.

The Burke Museum of Seattle has awarded grants to four visiting Native artists and researchers to explore the museum’s extensive Northwest Coast ethnology collections and photo and paper archives. Grants were extended to weaver Lisa Telford (Haida), her apprentice Shauna Colbert (Haida), graduate student Mique’l Askren (Tsimshian/ Tlingit) and mixed-media artist Mike Dangeli (Nisga’a).

The Society of Professional Journalists has awarded Deborah Krol (Salinan/ Esselen) of Phoenix a Diversity Outreach Leadership Grant. The reporter for the Fort McDowell Yavapai News is a frequent contributor to, and book editor of, Native Peoples.

The American Association of Law Libraries recently awarded Monica Martens and David Selden at the National Indian Law Library the Public Access to Governmental Information Award. The NILL was established in 1972 to provide hard-to-find tribal law information to the pubic; it is a project of the Native American Rights Fund in Boulder, Colorado. Details: narf.org.

Gary Farmer (Cayuga), best known as an actor (Dead Man, Pow Wow Highway, Smoke Signals, DreamKeeper, A Thief of Time) and publisher (Aboriginal Voices magazine) has opened a gallery in Santa Fe, the Gary Farmer Gallery. It carries an interesting and usual selection of works by artists primarily from the Woodlands region of the Northeast.

The Arizona State Braille and Talking Book Library, funded by the Library of Congress, produces a tape-recorded version of every issue of Native Peoples, as well as many other magazines and thousands of book titles. The program is open to any U.S. resident who is blind, visually impaired or physically disabled. The free service includes a special tape player and all mailing costs. Details: 800/255-5578 or 602/255-5578.

The outpost of Native life in New York City, the American Indian Community House, has a new home. The nonprofit organization has moved to the second floor at 11 Broadway, just a quick stroll from the National Museum of the American Indian’s Heye Center. AICH will resume its gallery exhibition schedule in January.

The nonprofit group that produces the annual Santa Fe Indian Market, the Southwest Association for Indian Arts, is in the early stages of publishing a historic overview of the world’s largest American Indian art festival. It will be written by Dr. Gregory Schaaf (Cherokee) and his wife Angie Schaaf (authors of the American Indian Art Series), with an introduction by Bruce Bernstein. Two volumes will be released at the 2008 event. They are seeking submission of old photos, award lists, articles, audio tapes, films, books, etc., and information on all artists who showed at past Santa Fe Indian Markets. Details: Box 8627, Santa Fe, NM 87504-8627, 505/473-5375; e-mail Indians@nets.com.

Arizona Native News, the increasingly popular eight-minute mini-program on independent station KAZ-TV in Arizona, co-hosted by Linda White Wolf (Chickasaw/Maori), was launched in May 2005 to provide insights into Arizona’s Native cultures and the American Indian experience as a whole. She is hoping it will soon move to a half hour format.

Ed Aguilar (Santo Domingo Pueblo), renowned for his handmade silver chains in his distinctive linked-squares style, succumbed in July after a long illness.

Jack V. Anquoe (Kiowa), an accomplished powwow dancer and composer who created more than 100 ceremonial and powwow songs and recorded more than 20 albums, left this mortal plane on June 12. He was 73.

Joel Harnett, well-known philanthropist, board member of the Heard Museum and Native Peoples, one-time New York City mayoral candidate, and magazine executive (Look) and publisher (Phoenix Home & Garden), passed away in Phoenix on Aug. 11. He was 80 years old.

Grace Henderson Nez (Navajo), master weaver and teacher of Ganado, Arizona, passed on July 14, at age 93. She was proficient in styles including Klagetoh, Storm Pattern, Teec Nos Pos, Moki and especially Chief blanket patterns. Among her many honors, in 2005 she received a National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. Her work is found in many major museums and collections nationwide.

Lifelong Alaskan and longtime Gwich’in Native leader Jonathon Solomon, 74, of Fort Yukon, passed on July 13 of natural causes in Anchorage. He was among he first to work on the Alaskan Native Land Claims Settlement and was a strong advocate for the protection of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Dame Te Ata, queen of New Zealand’s Native people, the Maori, passed away Aug. 15 at age 75. She was the seventh Maori sovereign, a descendant of the royal line dating to 1858, when, as a response to Britain’s colonization, the Maori designated a monarch of their own. A resident of North Island, she was crowned queen in 1966, and as an articulate, personable representative of her people, she raised the profile and opinion of Maoris worldwide.