features
Growing Native Scientists
Recognized for their outstanding skills in the arts, Native Americans
are now proving themselves adept in many science fields, as shown by
the members of the American Indian Science and Engineering Society
(AISES).
left:
Water hydrologist Dr. Karletta Chief (Navajo). will be a featured speaker at the 2007 AISES conference. Photo courtesy AISES.
AISES, founded in 1977, has more than 160 chapters on university
campuses across America nurturing Native science students. It funds an
ambitious college scholarship program, produces Native science
curricula and offers teacher training for grades K–12 in some 150
schools nationwide. Also, AISES organizes an annual science fair for
more than 500 students in grades 5–12, arranges summer internships,
supervises professional chapters for working scientists and offers
numerous other programs.
The huge AISES annual conference is attended by hundreds of major
corporations, federal agencies and universities reaching out to Native
professionals and students in the sciences. The 2007 conference will be
held in Phoenix, Nov. 1–3. Featured speakers will include astronaut
John Herrington (Chickasaw), cultural preservationist Brian Patterson
(Oneida) and former Miss Navajo and water hydrologist Dr. Karletta
Chief (Navajo). The group’s Professional of the Year awards will be
presented to civil engineer Lorena Hegdal (Inupiaq Eskimo), lead
engineer on the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System; aeronautical engineer
Gary Bishop (White Earth Ojibwe), who leads the Boeing Company’s Apache
helicopter program; electrical engineer Dr. Stanley Atcitty (Diné), who
grew up in a hogan near Medicine Hat, Utah and now directs energy
research at Sandia National Laboratories; and software engineer Tara
Astigarraga (Choctaw) with IBM. Presenting the professional awards will
be Rick Stephen (Pala Band of Mission Indians), senior vice president
of Boeing. Details: aises.org
A Canoe Crosses the Big Water
This summer a traditional Chippewa canoe from Minnesota was flown
across the Atlantic to the Russian community of Petrozavodsk as part of
an international boat-building summit. Accompanying the canoe was a
group of 10 youth from the Fond du Lac Band of Ojibwe, supervised by
Jeff Savage (Ojibwe), who helped oversee the final assembly of the
canoe.
The canoe was designed and created under the direction of Marvin Defoe
(Red Cliff Band of Ojibwe) of Wisconsin, with financial support of the
Fond du Lac tribe and the encouragement of the Duluth, Minn. Sister
Cities Commission. “I took the kids out to the ‘Anishinaabe
Wal-Mart’—the woods,” jokes the 49-year-old Defoe. “There I taught them
how to gather everything we would need, from cedar roots and birch bark
to the glue we use, which comes from sturgeons. I call these ‘ancient
technologies.’ Making these canoes expresses a way of life, and the
finished canoe is more than a physical object—it has spirit and values.”
Defoe has been building canoes since he was 14 years old; he once
paddled one he made—at age 18—down much of the Mississippi River. “I’ve
learned by trial and error and by talking with the old people, stirring
up their memories,” he says. His latest creation will remain in Russia,
where students will use it in water-monitoring projects. “It’s great.
I’m thrilled,” he says. “After all, we’re all in the same canoe.”
Thanksgiving or Day of Mourning?
American Indians have a problem with Thanksgiving. For decades, a group
of protestors organized by the United American Indians of New England
have gathered on Thanksgiving at Cole’s Hill in Plymouth, Massachusetts
to host a “National Day of Mourning.” The town of Plymouth acknowledged
the group’s sentiments by placing a bronze plaque on a rock at Cole’s
Hill in 1999, as part of a legal settlement following a physical
confrontation in November 1997.
Photo by Nicole/courtesy UAINE
The plaque reads as follows: “Since 1970, Native Americans have
gathered at noon on Cole’s Hill in Plymouth to commemorate a National
Day of Mourning on the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday. Many Native Americans
do not celebrate the arrival of the Pilgrims and other European
settlers. To them, Thanksgiving Day is a reminder of the genocide of
millions of their people, the theft of their lands, and the relentless
assault on their culture. Participants in a National Day of Mourning
honor Native ancestors and the struggles of Native peoples to survive
today. It is a day of remembrance and spiritual connection, as well as
a protest of the racism and oppression which Native Americans continue
to experience.” Details: uaine.org
A National Holiday for American Indians?
Two powerful organizations, the National Indian Gaming Association
(NIGA) and the National Congress of American Indians, have teamed up to
push for creation of a national holiday, Native American Heritage Day.
It would be observed annually on the Friday following Thanksgiving.
On July 23, Senator Daniel Inouye (D-HI) introduced Senate Bill 1852 to
create such a national holiday, and a companion bill was introduced in
the House of Representatives. A national survey commissioned by NIGA
and conducted by a respected polling company recently found that 85
percent of Americans support the designation of a day honoring American
Indians.
“This day will help our effort to educate the public about the true
story of the contributions of tribal governments and individual Indian
people to the United States,” notes Ernie Stevens (Oneida), NIGA
chairman. “The Friday after Thanksgiving is a natural fit for this day
of recognition. It will require the nation to focus on the many
contributions of Indian people and help to promote an accurate story of
our history, as well as help this great nation grow away from the
common stereotypes and misinformation that plague a very proud,
productive and patriotic people.”
Adds Joe Garcia (Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo), NCAI president, “The
establishment of Native American Heritage Day will encourage public
elementary and secondary schools in the United States to enhance
understanding of Native Americans by providing classroom instruction
focusing on their achievements and contributions to the United States.
It is imperative that we educate the youth of today—Native and
non-Native—about the inner workings of tribal governance and the
influence Native people have on society.”
Calls for such a day of recognition have been heard over the years.
Early in the 20th century, Arthur C. Parker (Seneca) persuaded the Boy
Scouts of America to set aside a day for honoring Indians, and in 1915
the Congress of the American Indian and its director, Rev. Sherman
Coolidge (Arapaho), adopted a resolution calling for an Indian holiday.
Also in 1915, Red Fox James (Blackfeet) presented to the White House
endorsements he gathered from 24 state governments while riding across
the nation on horseback.
In May 1916, New York was the first state to establish an American
Indian Day, and several states now host similar observances. In 1990,
President George H.W. Bush approved a joint resolution designating
November as “National American Indian Heritage Month,” and similar
proclamations have been issued each year since 1994. But still,
America’s first peoples largely go unrecognized in their own homelands.
shards
A 15-minute documentary film about Po’pay, the man who led the Pueblo
Revolt of 1680 in New Mexico, which succeeded in driving the Spanish
out of the region for a dozen years and significantly improving
conditions between the Spanish and the Pueblo people afterward, was
recently completed by a team led by Derek Stokes and Catherine Angeles.
The film, Po’pay: A True American Hero, is expected to be screened at
the January 2008 Sundance Film Festival and will subsequently travel to
film festivals worldwide as part of a project to honor other Indigenous
leaders globally.
left: Statue of Po’pay by sculptor Cliff Fragua (Jemez Pueblo). Photo by Seth Roffman.
The Web site myspace.com/inthespiritofpopay contains
a wealth of additional information about the man, that tumultuous
period and related topics.
Priceless artifacts and other cultural materials created by the Tohono
O’odham people of southern Arizona are returning home to the new $15.2
million, state-of-the-art Tohono O’odham Nation and Cultural Center
& Museum in Topawa. The facility includes exhibition and display
galleries, artists’ studios for a residency program, archives and
repositories, and an outdoor amphitheater.
Indigenous playwrights and producers from the United States, New
Zealand, Australia and Norway gathered in London in September to attend
a series of talks and workshops and to lay plans for a major Native
drama festival titled Origins: Festival of First Nations Theatre.
Playwrights from the U.S. and Canada included David Velarde (Jicarilla
Apache), Drew Hayden Taylor (Ojibwe) and William Yellow Robe
(Assiniboine). Details: e-mail g.bronitsky@att.net
Tribes in Virginia have banded together to produce an 80-page booklet
of information on places of Native interest and Native history in the
state. The Virginia Council on Indians and partners produced the
Virginia Indian Heritage Trail project. Copies ($7) are available
through the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities at 434/924-3296 or
virginiafoundation.org.
The Democratic National Convention Committee recently deposited $2
million in the Native American Bank in Denver in support of its plans
to host the DNC convention in Denver in summer 2008. The deposit will
allow NAB to expand its business loan program to worthy Native
projects, tribes and individuals.
honoring
Among the major award winners at the August 2007 Santa Fe Indian Market
were the following: Dallin Maybee (Seneca/Northern Arapaho), Best of
Show, for a beaded and illustrated pair of ledger-style children’s
books; Philander Begay (Navajo), Artists’ Choice Award for a concho
belt; Ric Charlie (Navajo), jewelry; Rainy Naha (Hopi), pottery; W.B.
Franklin (Navajo), painting/drawing/ photography; Kevin Sekakuku (Hopi),
wooden Pueblo figurative carvings; Anthony Begay (Navajo), sculpture;
Melissa Darden (Chitimacha), textiles/basketry; Jamie Okuma (Shoshone
Bannock/Luiseño), diverse art forms; Chris Youngblood Cutler (Santa
Clara Pueblo), youth award, for a work of pottery; Gloria Kahe
(Navajo), Helen Naha Memorial Award, for a work of pottery; and America
Meredith (Cherokee), IAIA Distinguished Alumni Award, for a portrait.
above: Santa Fe Indian Market Best of Show winner Dallin Maybee (Seneca/Northern Arapaho). Photo by Tony Bonanno/Courtesy SWAIA. below:
Potter Tammy Garcia (Santa Clara Pueblo). Photo courtesy Blue Rain Gallery.
Work by the talented and prolific Tammy Garcia (Santa Clara Pueblo)
will be featured in a fall 2008 exhibition at the National Museum of
Women in the Arts. Garcia will be one of the youngest artists, and it’s
believed the only Native artist, ever so honored. She and glass phenom
Preston Singletary (Tlingit) will present their second collaborative
show at Blue Rain Gallery, Santa Fe, in spring 2008.
The premier museum in Oceania, the Bishop Museum of Honolulu, has
selected Timothy E. Johns as its new president, director and CEO.
Founded in 1889, the museum has embarked on a $21 million renovation of
its famed Hawaiian Hall complex and other ambitious projects.
For the first time in 131 years, the prestigious American Library
Association has elected a Native American as its president: Loriene Roy
(Minnesota Chippewa Tribe). The 64,000-member ALA has a huge influence
on what books get read in America, and supports literacy programs
across the country.
Throat singers Lois Suluk Locke and Maria Illungiayok from Arviat,
Nunavut, Canada performed in August at the Festival of World Cultures
in Dublin, Ireland.
The National Museum of the American Indian teamed up with the U.S.
Department of Education/Office of Indian Education to host its second
annual Native American Student Art Competition, “Education: A Gift
Without Boundaries.” Nearly 1,400 works were entered into judging, with
winning art displayed at NMAI. Taking first place in grades 6–8 was
Deidra Lee (Diné) from New Mexico; in grades 9–10, the winner was
Dalton Fazekas (Choctaw) from Oklahoma; and in grades 11–12, Michael
Curley (Zuni Pueblo) from New Mexico took the honors. Winning work can
be seen at indianeducation.org.
Joey Garcia (Santa Clara Pueblo) was selected as one of 40 high school
players for the annual All-American Baseball Game last summer, which
was broadcast live on FOX Sports.
Mary Beth Jiron (Isleta Pueblo) has designed a blanket woven by
Pendleton Woolen Mills as a fund-raising item for the American Indian
College Fund’s scholarship program. A student at the Institute of
American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, Jiron hopes to open a gallery in her
own pueblo in the future. Details: pendleton-usa.com
Pro golfer Notah Begay III (Navajo) was named by the magazine Golf Inc.
as one of its Developmental Newsmakers of the Year. His firm, NB3
Consulting, was selected last fall to build an 18-hole golf course for
the Eastern Band of Cherokees in North Carolina. He is also launching a
program to teach golf to young Cherokees.
Julio Cusurichi Palacios, a Peruvian Indian, has been awarded the
highly regarded Goldman Environmental Prize for his persistence in
fighting for creation and protection of a reserve for Peruvian Indian
peoples. Oil drilling and timber cutters harvesting big-leaf mahogany
are ravaging his homelands.
passages
Ramon Roubideaux (Rosebud Sioux), the first Native attorney to practice
law in South Dakota, passed away on July 10 in Tucson. Roubideaux
defended American Indian Movement activists Dennis Banks and Russell
Means following the Wounded Knee occupation in 1973. After serving in
World War II in northern Italy, he obtained his law degree from George
Washington University in 1950, becoming the first Indian to reach
this pinnacle.
Shelleigh Poorbear-Blackelk (Lakota) was murdered in Muskogee, Oklahoma
in late August. The oldest adopted daughter of Lisa Tiger, a well-known
AIDS activist, and Diego Romero, a respected potter, left behind a
10-month-old daughter. To help care for the baby, the family has
established the Shelleigh Poorbear-Blackelk Memorial Fund at
Wells Fargo Bank (account number 9967798118).
Clifford Patrick Many Guns (Siksika Blackfeet) passed away on Aug. 12
in the Canadian province of Alberta. A rodeo star, 1960 Golden Glove
boxing champion and a hockey player, Many Guns went on to coach several
generations of Siksika youth in these sports, and organized tribal
rodeos for some 43 years. He served with the Siksika Nation Tribal
Police Service, on the tribal council for 18 years and on the housing
board. He was well known for his warm and outgoing personality.
