Laying it on the Line in the Sands of Iraq
Nick Brokeshoulder (Hopi/Shawnee) and his dance group, the Native Star
Dance Team of New Mexico, put their lives on the line in November when
they undertook a weeklong tour of military bases in Iraq and Kuwait to
perform for troops stationed in those distant lands.
Brokeshoulder, a retired Army Sergeant First Class with more than 20
years of service as a field artilleryman, led five dancers—his son
Brent Brokeshoulder and wife Sharon Brokeshoulder (Diné), Summer Dawn
Fuson (Kiowa/ Comanche/Diné), Sky Medicine Bear (Lakota/Diné) and Keely
Etsitty (Diné)—on stops at Camp Virginia and Victory in Kuwait; and in
Iraq at Camp Adder, Liberty, Kalsu, Summerall, Anaconda and
Speicher. Twice a day, they performed a collection of Plains-style
powwow dances and met with Native and non-Native (in fact,
multinational) soldiers and officers. At the time, some 620 American
Indians were serving in Iraq.
The shows elicited quite an emotional response, especially from many
Native personnel. “It reminds me of home and the ceremonies we do
there,” noted Spc. Cassandra Morris, a signal operator maintainer from
the Muskogee Creek Reservation, Florida, following the Camp Liberty
show. Added fellow signalman Sgt. Frankie Albert, from Gallup, New
Mexico, “I love it. It’s great that they’re doing this for us.”
Explained Brokeshoulder as he began the performance, “These songs and
dances are a prayer for you and all you do.”
The group volunteered their time, with travel costs covered by the U.S.
Army/Europe. The Armed Forces Network broadcast the eight performances
as part of their observances of American Indian Heritage Month. As the
group flew home on a C-5 transport, also on board were the caskets of
four fallen soldiers. “All in all, it was quite stressful, but really
rewarding,” concludes Brokeshoulder. Details: e-mail
bearstrap1us@yahoo.com
All Her Eggs in Baskets
Possibly the most moving story to emerge from the 11th annual
Celebration of Basketry & Native Foods Festival, held at Phoenix’s
Heard Museum in December, was that of one Maine basketmaker who wields
her talent to give her grandkids an education.
Molly Parker (Passamaquoddy), president of the Maine Indian
Basketmakers Alliance, has been weaving nearly all of her 68 years. A
grandmother of 33 who just adopted her four-year-old great-grandson,
Parker rarely uses for herself the extra money that she acquires from
creating masterpieces in brown ash splints and sweetgrass. Instead,
she’s using the cash to help her 18-year-old grandson George Neptune
realize his dream of a college education.
“I helped put George through a private high school,” says Parker, who
works as a child welfare coordinator for her tribe when she’s not
weaving. Neptune, who himself began weaving at age four by picking up
discarded brown ash splints from grandma Molly’s kitchen floor, is a
freshman at Dartmouth College, where he’s planning on majoring in
theater. Parker’s baskets help finance Neptune’s books and living
expenses. He also continues making baskets, often using his
great-grandmother’s forms. “I’m making money so I can eat,” adds
Neptune, who attends college on a scholarship. He sold several baskets
at the gathering, as well as exquisite heron pins crafted from leftover
brown ash splints.
At one time, Parker’s basketry talents provided for her whole family.
“I bought myself a house with baskets!” she exclaims. “It’s just
something I’ve always done.”
—Debra Utacia Krol (Salinan/Esselen)
Writing Up a Storm
When the curtain goes up in Los Angeles’ Wells Fargo Theater at the
Autry National Center (see “Happening”) on March 1 for The Berlin
Blues, it will mark another notch in the stick of literary
accomplishments of Drew Hayden Taylor (Ojibwe). Taylor, a Canadian
resident, has 17 published books to his credit—such as the insightful
and often hilarious nonfiction title he edited called Me Funny; Funny,
You Don’t Look Like One: Observations of a Blue-Eyed Ojibway; and In a
World Created by a Drunken God. The latter was nominated in 2006 for
the Governor General’s Award for drama, Canada’s highest literary honor.
Currently a writer-in-residence at the University of Michigan, where
he’s teaching a course in Canadian Native theater, Taylor expects two
more new titles to be released this year: a novel titled A Contemporary
Gothic Indian Vampire Story, and a nonfiction book about Native erotica
he’s editing called Me Sexy. Recently, a Canadian film company shot a
pilot for a possible comedy series based on his work, “a sort of
Cree/Ukrainian Brady Bunch,” he explains.
Originally from the Curve Lake First Nation in central Ontario, he has
traveled the world giving lectures and workshops. He also has written
or directed more than a dozen film and video documentaries; has written
for several television shows, including the great North of 60; spent a
year and a half working as a journalist for Canadian Broadcast
Company’s radio division; has written for Maclean’s, The Globe and
Mail, Now Magazine and various other periodicals (including this
magazine; see July./Aug. 2003 issue); and contributes a column to a few
newspapers today. Details: drewhaydentaylor.com
Opening Eyes & Hearts in South Carolina
For nine years, Dr. Will Goins has been the driving force behind the
Southeast’s longest-running Native film event, the Native American Film
& Video Festival, held annually in November in Columbia, South
Carolina.
The 2006 event was the most successful to date, relates Goins. “It’s
become a regional sensation. Through the presentation of authentic
Native stories by Native storytellers, it has informed the imagination
of filmmakers, regional Native Americans, anthropology and
communications students at the University of South Carolina, and the
general public. It entertains, opens the eyes, moves the heart; and, on
occasion, certain films help change public opinion and so affect policy
and politics.”
The latest festival, presented by the Eastern Cherokee, Southern
Iroquois and United Tribes of South Carolina, in collaboration with the
Columbia Film Society and Columbia’s Nickelodeon Theatre, included free
programs at the Columbia Museum of Art, three panel discussions, a
reception and lots of informal networking at the local pub, the
Hunter-Gatherer Brewery.
Taking home awards this round were the following films and individuals:
Teaching of the Tree People, best of festival, directed by Katie
Jennings; Morning Song Way, best dramatic feature, directed by Charles
Howard Thomas; Jeff Anderson, best actor (Morning Song Way); Glenda
Bean, audience favorite in dramatic feature (Morning Song Way);
American Red and Black: Stories of Afro-Native Identity, best student
work, directed by Alicia Wood; Indian Country Diaries: Spiral of Fire,
best documentary; Teaching of the Tree People, best short documentary.
Details: cherokeesofsouthcarolina.com/filmfestival9.html
Show Me the Money
The grandest dreams, even when coupled with determination and skill,
often remain just that—dreams—unless matched with appropriate
resources. For American Indian businesses and tribal leaders, the
historic lack of access to financial resources has time and time again
scattered dreams of launching or expanding a for-profit endeavor or
community development project. This is where the promise of the Native
American Bank shines so brightly.
Opened in October 2001 with assets of $15 million, the federally
chartered NAB has focused on providing loans to Native-owned
businesses, agricultural operations and tribal projects, as well as
serving a limited—but growing—number of small depositors.
On December 14, the company announced it was acquiring the First
National Bank of Lake City and Creede in Colorado. The move will enable
it to add branch banks and ATMs in Colorado cities and Indian
reservations, signifying a major step in its long-range plans to offer
similar services throughout the western United States. The expansion
proves that the company can do well while doing good, says president
and CEO J.D. Colbert (Chickasaw/Creek).
NAB is owned by the Native American Bancorporation, a holding company
composed of 26 tribes, tribal corporations and Alaskan Native
corporations, and is overseen by a board of directors currently chaired
by Lewis Anderson, president of Woodlands National Bank of Minnesota.
In 2006, NAB had a phenomenal growth rate of almost 40 percent, and its
current assets total more than $85 million.
The bank’s corporate headquarters are in Denver. It also operates a
retail bank in Browning, Montana, as well as three ATMs in that city,
two ATMs in East Glacier, Montana, another in Box Elder, Montana, and a
loan office in Anchorage, Alaska. Details: nabna.com.
lines
Native musicians and composers are invited to submit their biographies,
photos, music samples, Web site addresses and contact information to
the First Nations Composer Initiative Web site (fnci.org), which will
serve as a type of job forum for anyone seeking qualified Native
artists for music projects… The Bishop Museum of Honolulu, with its
incomparable Native Hawaiian and Polynesian collections, has undertaken
a $20 million renovation of its main galleries and infrastructure; it
is expected to reopen in spring 2008… Professor Ron Eglash, at the
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, has developed a Web
site (rpi.edu/~eglash/csdt.html) that reveals and explains advanced
mathematic concepts found in Navajo textile weaving (Cartesian
coordinates), Yup’ik parka designs (transformational geometry) and
other Native arts and skills (such as Arctic navigation) for students,
teachers and the general public… Maya Lin, creator of the powerful
Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., is busy working on a $22
million series of monuments called The Confluence Project in the
Pacific Northwest marking the trail of Lewis and Clark and paying
tribute to local Indian cultures… Red Nation Media, directed by
Joanelle Romero (Apache/Cheyenne), is now presenting an extensive slate
of American Indian streaming video programming—news, films, music
videos, documentaries, drama series and music specials—on its parent
Web site, rednation.com… Harvey Pratt (Cheyenne/Arapaho) may be the
only Native American forensic artist in the United States, with more
than 30 years’ experience with the Oklahoma State Bureau of
Investigation (see harveypratt.com for details)…
Sharpening Your Marketing Skills
While American Indian artists are among the finest in the world, when
it comes to marketing and promoting their work, they often fall way
short. On March 29, the Indian Arts Education Association, an arm of
the Indian Arts & Crafts Association, will present a free daylong
workshop in New Mexico addressing this gap.
“We will present a wide range of experts who will help participants
learn the basics of wholesale marketing, how to build contacts and get
your name out there,” notes IACA board president Michael “Nana Ping”
Garcia (Pascua Yaqui). A speaker from the U.S. Patent and Trademark
Office will talk about protecting one’s artistic designs, and others
will discuss negotiating wholesale contracting, working with local and
national media to promote one’s work, and other topics.
Advance attendance notification is strongly urged; participation will
be limited to 200 Native-only artists. Details: 505/265-9149
HONORING
The captivating Martha Redbone (Shawnee/ Choctaw/Blackfeet) has been
presented a prestigious Independent Music Award in the R&B category
for her funky album Skintalk. Details: martharedbone.com
In October, at the first-ever awards ceremony to honor Native-community
economic development financial institutions, the Citizen Potawatomi
Community Development Corporation of Shawnee, Oklahoma (led by Kristi
Coker) and the Four Directions Development Corporation of Orono, Maine
(led by Susan Hammond) were recognized for their outstanding work in
promoting Native-community economic development by the event hosts, the
Opportunity Finance Network and the Oweesta Corporation.
The outstanding nonprofit group the First Peoples Fund recently handed
out its 2007 Jennifer Easton Community Spirit Awards in Rapid City,
South Dakota. Receiving awards were singer and composer Sadie Buck
(Seneca) of Ohsweken, Ontario; basket artist Susan “Tweet” Burdick
(Yurok) of Salyer, California; traditional clothing artisan,
basketmaker and teacher Delia Cook (Mohawk) of Akwesasne, New York; and
birchbark canoe maker Ronald J. Paquin (Chippewa) of Sault Ste. Marie,
Michigan.
The nonprofit group Women In Film and General Motors recently included
one Native artist, Shelly Niro (Mohawk), among seven artists selected
in its grant program for notable female filmmakers across the U.S. and
Canada. Her film, The Shirt, was screened at the Venice Biennale in
2003, and it, along with It Starts With a Whisper, were screened at the
Sundance Film Festival. She is now working on a feature film, Kissed by
Lightning.
The University of Colorado at Boulder’s Center of the American West
presented its highest honor, the Wallace Stegner Award, to John
Echohawk (Pawnee) and Billy Frank, Jr. (Nisqually). Echohawk is the
executive director of the Native American Rights Fund (NARF) and one of
the nation’s most distinguished lawyers. Frank led many battles in the
1960s and ’70s to secure Native fishing rights in the Pacific Northwest
and is chairman of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission.
Among the featured artists at the recent Pueblo Grande Indian Market in
Phoenix was the jeweler Sonwai (Hopi), Verma Nequatewa. Nequatewa is
the niece of famed artist Charles Loloma, and has obviously absorbed
much of his talent.
A big winner at the 8th annual Canadian Aboriginal Music Awards was the
Northern Cree Singers, who took prizes for the best hand drum album
(Slide & Sway) and the best contemporary powwow album
(Nikamo-Sing!), both on Canyon Records.
Acoma Pueblo’s historic village Sky City atop a 370-foot sandstone mesa
in western New Mexico has been designated the country’s 28th National
Trust Historic Site. It will allow the pueblo to access funds for
technical preservation services and marketing.
Among the many Native-made films selected for screening at the 2007
Sundance Film Festival in January were the following: Four Sheets to
the Wind, directed and written by Sterling Harjo (Creek/Seminole); Miss
Navajo, directed by Billy Luther (Navajo/Hopi/Laguna Pueblo);
Conversion, directed by Nanobah Becker (Diné); and Move Me, directed by
Jonathan Pulley (Laguna Pueblo). Also attending the festival were the
four newest Sundance/ Ford Foundation fellows, who screened works in
progress: Ginew Benton (Ojibwe/Cree), Julianna Brannum (Comanche),
Melissa Henry (Diné) and Nathan Young (Pawnee/ Kiowa/Delaware).
Southern California Indian Center’s InterTribal Entertainment has
picked two winners in its first annual “Creative Spirit”
Script-to-Screen competition. Chosen were He Can’t Be Taught by
Clementine Bordeaux (Sioux) from Pine Ridge, South Dakota, and Pow Wow
Dreams by Princess Lucaj (Gwich’in) from Hermosa Beach, California.
Both writers were paired with a professional mentor, cast and crew, and
the films were shot, edited and screened in a crash one-week program.
Details: e-mail jameslujan@nativefilm.com
Classification winners at the first annual Cherokee Art Market in Tulsa
included the following: Daniel HorseChief in oil/encaustic painting,
Gwen Coleman Lester in water-based painting, Charles Pratt in
sculpture, Dorothy Brave Eagle in bead and quillwork (Jackie Larsen
Bread took second and third in this class), Ben Harjo in
drawings/graphics/prints, Ramona Lossie in traditional baskets, Kelly
Church in contemporary baskets, Ron Tanyan in traditional pottery, Jane
Osti in contemporary pottery, Cathy Moomaw in textiles, Dennis Esquivel
in diverse art forms (for an end table) and Clarence Lee in jewelry.
SHARDS
Artist Monte Yellow Bird, Sr. (Arikara/ Hidatsa), better known as Black
Pinto Horse, is one busy man! Just recently, the artist was a featured
speaker at a special event honoring Native American Month in Fargo,
North Dakota; he saw his donated life-size painted buffalo replica sold
to raise funds for a nonprofit organization; he participated in several
major art exhibitions in the upper Plains and in Scottsdale, Arizona;
he worked with teachers at a Fargo elementary school in their
continuing education program; and he conducted an interview on Prairie
Public Radio—while continuing his oil and mixed-media painting career.
Details: blackpintohorsefinearts.com
The book The Wind Is My Mother by Marcellus “Bear Heart” Williams
(Muskogee Creek) was recently published in Hebrew by an Israeli
publishing firm. It is the fourteenth foreign language into which the
book has been translated—a remarkable achievement for the 88-year-old
author. His second book, The Bear Is My Father, was recently completed.
It too is expected to be released in a Hebrew version.
The Seminole Tribe of Florida has purchased the Hard Rock business
family, which includes 124 Hard Rock Cafés, five hotels and several
Hard Rock Live concert venues, as well as the world’s largest
collection of rock ’n’ roll memorabilia. The collection features some
70,000 pieces, including guitars once played by Jimi Hendrix and Eric
Clapton, a pair of Elton John high heels and a Madonna bustier. The
$965 million deal was concluded on Jan. 8. “It is an opportunity for
the Seminole Tribe to diversify its business operations and help a very
successful company achieve even greater growth,” said Mitchell Cypress,
tribal council chairman. Details: seminolerocks.com
Laguna Pueblo/Metis author Paula Gunn Allen (see Nov./Dec. 2005 issue)
is facing hard times. In October, her home and car burned in an
accidental fire and she was hospitalized for two weeks for smoke
inhalation, which triggered a coma for six days. This was preceded by
apparently successful radiation treatment for lung cancer. Donations
are being sent to The Paula Gunn Allen Fund, Account #0129540739, Bank
of America, 228 North Main St., Fort Bragg, CA 95437. Be sure to
include “The” in any checks sent.
The inaugural New Mexico Bowl football game, played in Albuquerque in
December, featured undoubtedly the most unusual trophy ever presented
in a college game: a handmade clay pot created by Zia Pueblo artists
Marcellus and Elizabeth Medina. The pot—featuring the iconic Zia sun
symbol and images of football players, a deer, mountain lion, buffalo
and eagle—was presented to the San Jose State team, which defeated the
University of New Mexico 20-12.
PASSAGES
Journalist Pat Calliotte, 64, of Hayward, Wisconsin, who served for
many years as the associate editor of the newspapers News From Indian
Country and Akiing, passed away on Nov. 17 from complications related
to emphysema. She began her career editing the Lac Courte Oreilles
Journal.
onghi (Aleut/Inuit), 59, died of cancer at his home in
Sausalito, California on Dec. 11. In 1991, he joined the Smithsonian’s
National Museum of the American Indian as director of external affairs
and development, and oversaw the successful campaign to raise the first
$35 million to $40 million to build and open the new museum in
Washington, D.C. Notes Rick West, the museum’s founding director, “He
was a remarkable man, with a personality that was gracious and drew
people in. He was raising money for a building we didn’t even have
designs for!”
Harry Fonseca (Nisenan Maidu/Hawaiian/Portuguese—see May/June/July 1998
issue cover), the much-loved and talented painter, passed away on Dec.
28 at the VA Hospital in Albuquerque. Born in 1946, he first made a
splash with his series of witty works in the early 1980s using a
comical Coyote (Trickster) character as his foil, but he also explored
Maidu legends, California’s bloody history of gold mining, and abstract
aesthetics in his work. Among many honors, in 2005 he was awarded a
fellowship by the Eiteljorg Museum in Indianapolis. His work was widely
collected and exhibited.
Renowned Tlingit bead artist Emma Frances Marks, 93, passed away on
Sept. 18 at her family home on Douglas Island, Alaska. Her stunning
traditional clothing was collected by many leading institutions and
worn by the likes of Desmond Tutu. Mother of 16 children, she was
presented the Alaska Governor’s Award in 1989.
John Sotsisowah Mohawk (Seneca), 61, the highly respected scholar,
author, editor, speaker, educator and role model, passed away on Dec.
10 at his home in Buffalo, New York. The associate professor of
American studies at the University of Buffalo was also an ardent
defender of the natural world and loved to garden. Among his more than
20 books is the recent title Utopian Legends: A History of Conquest and
Oppression in the Western World. He was a founding member of the
Seventh Generation Fund and the Indian Law Resource Center, and sat on
many other boards as well.
Sculptor Elizabeth Nah-Glee-Eh-Bah Abeyta Rohrscheib, 51, passed away on Dec. 17 after a prolonged illness. Daughter
of Navajo artist Narciso Abeyta, who studied under Dorothy Dunn at the
Santa Fe Indian School, and Sylvia Ann Shipley Abeyta, Elizabeth was a
prize-winning sculptor who attended the Institute of American Indian
Arts. Her work is in many leading private and public collections. She
was best known for her contemporary clay sculpture, her graceful Navajo
women and her “naughty” koshares. Among her surviving relatives is her
brother, artist Tony Abeyta.
Arthur Welmas (Cabazon Band of Mission Indians), 77, passed away from
complications of diabetes on Dec. 17 in California. As tribal chairman,
Welmas oversaw the legal case before the U.S. Supreme Court that opened
the door in 1987 for high-stakes gambling on Indian reservations, a
move that transformed life for members of his and many other tribes.
Prior to that, as he once said, “We didn’t have spit.” He spent four
years in the Marines and four in the Air Force, including service in
the Korean War.
