2008 January/February On the Wind (News)
http://www.nativepeoples.com/article/articles/272/1/2008-JanuaryFebruary-On-the-Wind-News/Page1.html
By Daniel Gibson
Published on 01/15/2008
A
herd of miniature painted ponies is set free to raise funds for Native
youth art education, and artist Daniel Ramirez (Chippewa) proves adept
at the business end of the art industry. Also, other important news in
the arts, education, the environment, business, politics, sports,
health and other realms of life in Indian Country. By Daniel Gibson.
Daniel Gibson
A
herd of miniature painted ponies is set free to raise funds for Native
youth art education, and artist Daniel Ramirez (Chippewa) proves adept
at the business end of the art industry. Also, other important news in
the arts, education, the environment, business, politics, sports,
health and other realms of life in Indian Country. By Daniel Gibson.2008 January/February On the Wind
A Painted Ponies Stampede
Ponies created by (right to left) Anita Fields, Terrence Guardipee and Catherine Black Horse, Caroline Carpio, and last but not least, Teri Greeves and Dennis Esquivel.
A “herd” of ponies has left the corral and is headed to the Heard Museum as it prepares to mark the 50th anniversary of its annual Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair & Market, March 1–2. But don’t panic—there are only four horses in this posse, and they are only two feet tall. The horses are actually marble sculptures, each one finished and decorated by a different artist or pair of artists.
On March 2 at 1 p.m., four lucky winners of a lottery will get to take home one of the ponies. Tickets for the drawing are $100, with only 1,500 being sold.
The artists were selected through a competitive process and are donating their time and effort spent personalizing the horses. The original unfinished sculptures were provided at no charge by the Trail of Painted Ponies Project, led by Rod Barker in memory of Gary Avey, the founder of Native Peoples magazine.
“We wanted to develop a very special project that would epitomize the 50-year connection between American Indian artists and the members of the Heard Museum Guild,” explains fair chair Barbara Johnson. “When you see the four completed works of art, you’ll feel the inspiration each artist felt for the horse, as well as its versatility as a ‘sculptural canvas’ for creative expression.”
The guild selected the following artists for the project: Teri Greeves (Kiowa) and her husband Dennis Esquivel (Ottawa/Chippewa), Anita Fields (Osage), Caroline Carpio (Isleta Pueblo), and Terrance Guardipee (Blackfeet) and Catherine Black Horse (Seminole/Blackfeet). Each artist has written a description of the inspiration for their horse, which will accompany its new owner home.
Funds generated by the sale of the painted ponies will further the artistic careers of Indian art students through college scholarships and other programs.
The horses will be displayed on Jan. 10 at the Heard Museum during an evening cocktail reception, backed by a jazz quartet, to honor this year’s Heard market poster artist, David Bradley (Chippewa), and the selected pony artists. Signed copies of the poster will be available, and an exhibition of photos taken during the Heard market’s five decades will be on display. For reception tickets ($25) or information, and for lottery tickets for the painted ponies, visit heardguild.org or call 602/251-0209, ext. 6414.
The Sag(e) Artist-Businessman
Daniel Ramirez (Saginaw Chippewa) is both a master artist and a
masterful businessman. This combination of talents—so often lacking in
artists of all ethnicities—has made the 54-year-old Ramirez a
refreshing success story in a field of broken dreams.
For the past five years, his 17 various note cards—produced though his commercial art endeavor, Native Expressions—has led the sale of all Native-themed note cards sold in gift shops at the National Museum of the American Indian, the Heard Museum Gift Shop and Indian casino shops coast to coast. Last year, when he attended the annual National Stationery Show in New York City, he was the only Native note card designer in the house. Recently hooked up to a major private investor, Ramirez expects to see significant growth in this field, especially his e-commerce activity, in the year ahead.
Through another company he directs, Native Studio, he is busy expanding on his already-thriving line of giclée prints and original paintings. In late October, the Saginaw Chippewa Elders Center opened in Michigan, decorated with 16 of Ramirez’s original works and 22 prints. The works are drawn from various series of imagery he has created over the past 20 years, including “Women and Community,” “Boys and Men,” “Caring for Our Elders,” “Turtles,” “Butterflies” and “Sisters.” He expects to produce a book based on the latter series in 2008.
The 54-year-old artist/businessman began his professional career about two decades ago, producing T-shirts and then baby clothing before moving into fine arts. Right after obtaining his MFA from the University of Michigan, he was hired as a cultural arts specialist for the Saginaw Chippewa Tribe’s Soaring Eagle Casino & Resort in Mount Pleasant, Michigan, to help plan and execute the facility’s Native-themed décor. He adroitly leveraged this experience into a thriving, ongoing career.
“I come from a long line of artists,” says the multi-award-winning Ramirez. “I have an image in my mind of my grandmother hustling baskets she’d made, and as a kid, I was the little shoeshine boy working next to my older brothers in Bay City, Michigan. I guess that’s where the entrepreneurial bug first bit me. But, I want more. Among other things, I want to teach other Native artists how to do it, though perhaps the best teaching is by example.” His web site, nativeexpressions.com, is expected to go “live” in December or early January.
Music Notes
On the traditional side of recent releases, we’ve received are the following: Check out The Ballad of Old Times (SOAR) from Davis Mitchell (Diné), consisting of a simple drum and solo vocals in Navajo and occasional English phrases… In a similar vein is Wahancanka: Remember Me, Grandfather from Joseph Shields (Dakota/Lakota), a collection of Lakota pipe and ceremonial songs of solo voice and drum… Kelvin Mockingbird (Navajo) has recorded a collection of excellent flute music, Sacred Fire: Meditation Songs for Native American Flute (Canyon). Unlike many flautists, he varies the pacing from slow to fast, and the tone from soft to soaring… Add the name of David Brave Heart (Lakota) to the long list of accomplished Native flute players, as heard in his recent Breath of Life (braveheartdrums.com)… Yet another fine flautist, Keith Bear (Mandan/
Hidatsa/Arikara), mixes flute songs with several long traditional stories of his people, delivered in a wonderful deep voice, on Morning Star Whispered (Makoché)… Walter Ahhaitty (Kiowa) and friends have released a collection of 21 powwow songs, Oklahoma Style (SOAR), recorded at the 35th annual Southern California Indian Center Pow Wow… Two notable new peyote music albums are Elements: Meditation Songs from the Diné (Canyon) by Louie Gonnie (Diné), and Thunder and Rain from veteran singer Verdell Primeaux (his first work in many years) and Leon Skyhorse Thomas (Skyhorse Productions, e-mail leonskyhorse@yahoo.com). Elements, sung in Navajo, is a beautiful work that resonates on a deep level; Thunder and Rain is more playful, with some lyrics in English.
shards
A group of trekkers will set out on February 11 from San Francisco to walk across the nation to Washington, D.C, arriving on July 11, to raise environmental awareness. The Longest Walk 2 will be led by American Indian Movement co-founder Dennis Banks (Leech Lake Ojibwe). A fundraiser was held in San Francisco’s storied Filmore Auditorium on Nov. 3 with musicians including Kris Kristofferson, Taj Mahal, Kitaro, Wes Studi, Martha Redbone and Charlie Hill. Details: www.longestwalk.org or 505/280-3989.
An elegant new health and wellness center recently opened on the Seneca Nation Reservation in Irving, New York. The décor is a showcase of Native American design elements and colors, framed in handsome exposed glue-laminated timber and trusses. The $6.2 million, 35,000-square-foot facility includes offices for the tribe’s children and family services department, a multipurpose atrium, exercise room and kitchen.
A fascinating study, “Walking a Mile: A First Step Toward Mutual Understanding,” was recently released by the New York City nonprofit group Public Agenda that casts light on the little-researched subject of Indians’ and non-Indians’ perceptions about one another. The research is available online at publicagenda.org/WalkingaMile.
The sports-apparel giant Nike has released a shoe designed specifically for American Indians, the Air Native N7. The development was overseen by Sam McCracken (Fort Peck Assiniboine/Sioux), manager of the company’s Native American Business program. Tribal wellness programs and schools can purchase the shoe, which has a wider and taller than average base, at wholesale prices, with the profits going to fund reservation-based sports and outdoor activities programs. Details: nike.com
Arizona State University professor and poet Simon Ortiz (Acoma Pueblo) has organized an impressive series of free lectures this winter titled The Indigenous Speakers Series. Professor, author and historian Ned Blackhawk (Western Shoshone) will speak on Jan. 28 at 7 p.m. at the Heard Museum in Phoenix on Indigenous land issues, culture and community.
After 25 years of negotiation, the United Nations finally adopted the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples on Sept. 13. There were 143 votes in favor of this important document, four against it (the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand) and 11 abstentions. “This day will be remembered as (a great day) for the Indigenous peoples of the world,” said Vicki Tauli-Corpuz, the chair of the U.N.’s Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.
In late October, devastating wildfires swept through large portions of southern California. Particularly hard hit was the La Jolla Reservation. About 98 percent of the reservation, some 8,679 acres, burned, and 55 structures were lost, including the home of internationally renowned performance artist James Luna (Luiseno) and curator Joanna Bigfeather (Cherokee). To donate to recovery efforts, go online to the After-the-Fires Fund 2007 at sdfoundation.org/fires2007, call 619/235-2300, or write to the San Diego Foundation, 2508 Historic Decatur Road, Suite 200, San Diego, CA 92106.
A terrific source of information on Native artists and upcoming exhibitions throughout Canada run by the Aboriginal Curatorial Collective can be found at aboriginalcuratorial
collective.org.
honoring
Q’orianka
Kilcher (Quechua/Huachipaeri) (left), the actress who portrayed Pocahontas in
The New World (see Jan./Feb. 2006 issue), has been awarded the Brower
Youth Award, the nation’s highest environmental award for youth, for
her efforts to protect the Amazon rainforest and its Native peoples
from reckless oil development.
Longhouse Media’s Native Lens Program, a nonprofit program that teaches Native youth how to make films and tell stories that reflect their culture, as well as teaching general life skills, is one of seven groups in Seattle to receive an annual Mayor’s Art Award from Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels. Details: longhousemedia.org
Kevin Gover (Pawnee) has assumed the role of director of the National Museum of the American Indian, which has major museum facilities in Washington, D.C. and New York City. A lawyer, he also served as director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs from 1997 to 2000 and on the faculty of Arizona State University.
Ryan Huna Smith (Chemehuevi/Navajo), best known as a creative illustrator and painter, is the new director of the Smoki Museum of American Indian Art and Culture in Prescott, Arizona.
Red Rooms
(Theytus Books) by Cherie Dimaline (Ojibwe/Metis) was named Fiction
Book of the Year at the Anskohk Aboriginal Literature Festival in
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.
In October, Robert G. Martin (Cherokee) became the new president of the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe. He is married to the poet Luci Tapahonso (Navajo).
The prestigious Buffett Award for Indigenous Leadership for 2007, presented by Ecotrust of Portland, Oregon, has been bestowed on Roberta Conner (Umatilla/Cayuse/Nez Perce) for her role as director of the Tamastslikt Cultural Institute and general leadership roles among her tribe as a speaker, author and curator.
Bruce Bernstein, a senior scholar at the National Museum of the American Indian and former director of the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture in Santa Fe, has been hired as the new executive director of the Southwestern Association for Indian Arts, which produces the annual Santa Fe Indian Market. He has written several articles over the years for Native Peoples.
Jennifer Kreisberg (Tuscarora), one of the members of the trio Ulali (see May/June 2002 issue), has received a Genie Award (the Canadian Oscar) for her song “Have Hope,” which also took the Song of the Year award at the recent Native American Music Awards and was designated a Critic’s Pick selection by the New York Times. It will be included on her upcoming solo album, Wah Thye Yeh Rak. The song is also found on the soundtrack to the film Unnatural & Accidental.
Julia Parker (Kashia Pomo) of California has been awarded a National Heritage Fellowship for lifetime achievement by the National Endowment for the Arts, one of the nation’s highest artistic awards. For several decades she demonstrated weaving at Yosemite National Park.
Sandra Laronde (Anishinaabe), artistic director of the Canada-based dance troupe Red Sky
(see Sept./Oct. 2005 issue), has been invited to attend the first
Indigenous Cultural Summit in Taiwan to meet with the island nation’s
Native arts community.
Minnesota resident Winona LaDuke (Ojibwe), political and environmental activist, author (see Sept./Oct. 2001 issue) and speaker, has been inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls, New York, joining 217 other women previously honored.
Among those taking awards at the 32nd annual American Indian Film Festival in San Francisco in November were the following: Best Film: Imprint; Best Director: Sterlin Harjo for Four Sheets to the Wind; Best Actor: Cody Lightning in Four Sheets to the Wind; Best Actress: Tonatzin Carmelo in Imprint; Best Supporting Actor: Ernie Tsosie in Milepost 398; Best Supporting Actress: Carla-Rae-Holland in Imprint; Best Documentary: Our Land, Our Life; Best Short Documentary: Dream Makers; Best Animated Short: Raccoon & Crawfish (see Sept./Oct. 2007 issue).
Edna Gordon (Seneca) has won a Best Books 2007 Award from USA Book News for her nonfiction and poetry work Voice of the Hawk Elder, edited by Harvey Arden (available at haveyouthought.com).
Ponies created by (right to left) Anita Fields, Terrence Guardipee and Catherine Black Horse, Caroline Carpio, and last but not least, Teri Greeves and Dennis Esquivel.
A “herd” of ponies has left the corral and is headed to the Heard Museum as it prepares to mark the 50th anniversary of its annual Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair & Market, March 1–2. But don’t panic—there are only four horses in this posse, and they are only two feet tall. The horses are actually marble sculptures, each one finished and decorated by a different artist or pair of artists.
On March 2 at 1 p.m., four lucky winners of a lottery will get to take home one of the ponies. Tickets for the drawing are $100, with only 1,500 being sold.
The artists were selected through a competitive process and are donating their time and effort spent personalizing the horses. The original unfinished sculptures were provided at no charge by the Trail of Painted Ponies Project, led by Rod Barker in memory of Gary Avey, the founder of Native Peoples magazine.
“We wanted to develop a very special project that would epitomize the 50-year connection between American Indian artists and the members of the Heard Museum Guild,” explains fair chair Barbara Johnson. “When you see the four completed works of art, you’ll feel the inspiration each artist felt for the horse, as well as its versatility as a ‘sculptural canvas’ for creative expression.”
The guild selected the following artists for the project: Teri Greeves (Kiowa) and her husband Dennis Esquivel (Ottawa/Chippewa), Anita Fields (Osage), Caroline Carpio (Isleta Pueblo), and Terrance Guardipee (Blackfeet) and Catherine Black Horse (Seminole/Blackfeet). Each artist has written a description of the inspiration for their horse, which will accompany its new owner home.
Funds generated by the sale of the painted ponies will further the artistic careers of Indian art students through college scholarships and other programs.
The horses will be displayed on Jan. 10 at the Heard Museum during an evening cocktail reception, backed by a jazz quartet, to honor this year’s Heard market poster artist, David Bradley (Chippewa), and the selected pony artists. Signed copies of the poster will be available, and an exhibition of photos taken during the Heard market’s five decades will be on display. For reception tickets ($25) or information, and for lottery tickets for the painted ponies, visit heardguild.org or call 602/251-0209, ext. 6414.
The Sag(e) Artist-Businessman
Daniel Ramirez (Saginaw Chippewa) is both a master artist and a
masterful businessman. This combination of talents—so often lacking in
artists of all ethnicities—has made the 54-year-old Ramirez a
refreshing success story in a field of broken dreams.For the past five years, his 17 various note cards—produced though his commercial art endeavor, Native Expressions—has led the sale of all Native-themed note cards sold in gift shops at the National Museum of the American Indian, the Heard Museum Gift Shop and Indian casino shops coast to coast. Last year, when he attended the annual National Stationery Show in New York City, he was the only Native note card designer in the house. Recently hooked up to a major private investor, Ramirez expects to see significant growth in this field, especially his e-commerce activity, in the year ahead.
Through another company he directs, Native Studio, he is busy expanding on his already-thriving line of giclée prints and original paintings. In late October, the Saginaw Chippewa Elders Center opened in Michigan, decorated with 16 of Ramirez’s original works and 22 prints. The works are drawn from various series of imagery he has created over the past 20 years, including “Women and Community,” “Boys and Men,” “Caring for Our Elders,” “Turtles,” “Butterflies” and “Sisters.” He expects to produce a book based on the latter series in 2008.
The 54-year-old artist/businessman began his professional career about two decades ago, producing T-shirts and then baby clothing before moving into fine arts. Right after obtaining his MFA from the University of Michigan, he was hired as a cultural arts specialist for the Saginaw Chippewa Tribe’s Soaring Eagle Casino & Resort in Mount Pleasant, Michigan, to help plan and execute the facility’s Native-themed décor. He adroitly leveraged this experience into a thriving, ongoing career.
“I come from a long line of artists,” says the multi-award-winning Ramirez. “I have an image in my mind of my grandmother hustling baskets she’d made, and as a kid, I was the little shoeshine boy working next to my older brothers in Bay City, Michigan. I guess that’s where the entrepreneurial bug first bit me. But, I want more. Among other things, I want to teach other Native artists how to do it, though perhaps the best teaching is by example.” His web site, nativeexpressions.com, is expected to go “live” in December or early January.
Music Notes
On the traditional side of recent releases, we’ve received are the following: Check out The Ballad of Old Times (SOAR) from Davis Mitchell (Diné), consisting of a simple drum and solo vocals in Navajo and occasional English phrases… In a similar vein is Wahancanka: Remember Me, Grandfather from Joseph Shields (Dakota/Lakota), a collection of Lakota pipe and ceremonial songs of solo voice and drum… Kelvin Mockingbird (Navajo) has recorded a collection of excellent flute music, Sacred Fire: Meditation Songs for Native American Flute (Canyon). Unlike many flautists, he varies the pacing from slow to fast, and the tone from soft to soaring… Add the name of David Brave Heart (Lakota) to the long list of accomplished Native flute players, as heard in his recent Breath of Life (braveheartdrums.com)… Yet another fine flautist, Keith Bear (Mandan/
Hidatsa/Arikara), mixes flute songs with several long traditional stories of his people, delivered in a wonderful deep voice, on Morning Star Whispered (Makoché)… Walter Ahhaitty (Kiowa) and friends have released a collection of 21 powwow songs, Oklahoma Style (SOAR), recorded at the 35th annual Southern California Indian Center Pow Wow… Two notable new peyote music albums are Elements: Meditation Songs from the Diné (Canyon) by Louie Gonnie (Diné), and Thunder and Rain from veteran singer Verdell Primeaux (his first work in many years) and Leon Skyhorse Thomas (Skyhorse Productions, e-mail leonskyhorse@yahoo.com). Elements, sung in Navajo, is a beautiful work that resonates on a deep level; Thunder and Rain is more playful, with some lyrics in English.
shards
A group of trekkers will set out on February 11 from San Francisco to walk across the nation to Washington, D.C, arriving on July 11, to raise environmental awareness. The Longest Walk 2 will be led by American Indian Movement co-founder Dennis Banks (Leech Lake Ojibwe). A fundraiser was held in San Francisco’s storied Filmore Auditorium on Nov. 3 with musicians including Kris Kristofferson, Taj Mahal, Kitaro, Wes Studi, Martha Redbone and Charlie Hill. Details: www.longestwalk.org or 505/280-3989.
An elegant new health and wellness center recently opened on the Seneca Nation Reservation in Irving, New York. The décor is a showcase of Native American design elements and colors, framed in handsome exposed glue-laminated timber and trusses. The $6.2 million, 35,000-square-foot facility includes offices for the tribe’s children and family services department, a multipurpose atrium, exercise room and kitchen.
A fascinating study, “Walking a Mile: A First Step Toward Mutual Understanding,” was recently released by the New York City nonprofit group Public Agenda that casts light on the little-researched subject of Indians’ and non-Indians’ perceptions about one another. The research is available online at publicagenda.org/WalkingaMile.
The sports-apparel giant Nike has released a shoe designed specifically for American Indians, the Air Native N7. The development was overseen by Sam McCracken (Fort Peck Assiniboine/Sioux), manager of the company’s Native American Business program. Tribal wellness programs and schools can purchase the shoe, which has a wider and taller than average base, at wholesale prices, with the profits going to fund reservation-based sports and outdoor activities programs. Details: nike.com
Arizona State University professor and poet Simon Ortiz (Acoma Pueblo) has organized an impressive series of free lectures this winter titled The Indigenous Speakers Series. Professor, author and historian Ned Blackhawk (Western Shoshone) will speak on Jan. 28 at 7 p.m. at the Heard Museum in Phoenix on Indigenous land issues, culture and community.
After 25 years of negotiation, the United Nations finally adopted the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples on Sept. 13. There were 143 votes in favor of this important document, four against it (the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand) and 11 abstentions. “This day will be remembered as (a great day) for the Indigenous peoples of the world,” said Vicki Tauli-Corpuz, the chair of the U.N.’s Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.
In late October, devastating wildfires swept through large portions of southern California. Particularly hard hit was the La Jolla Reservation. About 98 percent of the reservation, some 8,679 acres, burned, and 55 structures were lost, including the home of internationally renowned performance artist James Luna (Luiseno) and curator Joanna Bigfeather (Cherokee). To donate to recovery efforts, go online to the After-the-Fires Fund 2007 at sdfoundation.org/fires2007, call 619/235-2300, or write to the San Diego Foundation, 2508 Historic Decatur Road, Suite 200, San Diego, CA 92106.
A terrific source of information on Native artists and upcoming exhibitions throughout Canada run by the Aboriginal Curatorial Collective can be found at aboriginalcuratorial
collective.org.
honoring
Q’orianka
Kilcher (Quechua/Huachipaeri) (left), the actress who portrayed Pocahontas in
The New World (see Jan./Feb. 2006 issue), has been awarded the Brower
Youth Award, the nation’s highest environmental award for youth, for
her efforts to protect the Amazon rainforest and its Native peoples
from reckless oil development.Longhouse Media’s Native Lens Program, a nonprofit program that teaches Native youth how to make films and tell stories that reflect their culture, as well as teaching general life skills, is one of seven groups in Seattle to receive an annual Mayor’s Art Award from Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels. Details: longhousemedia.org
Kevin Gover (Pawnee) has assumed the role of director of the National Museum of the American Indian, which has major museum facilities in Washington, D.C. and New York City. A lawyer, he also served as director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs from 1997 to 2000 and on the faculty of Arizona State University.
Ryan Huna Smith (Chemehuevi/Navajo), best known as a creative illustrator and painter, is the new director of the Smoki Museum of American Indian Art and Culture in Prescott, Arizona.
Red Rooms
(Theytus Books) by Cherie Dimaline (Ojibwe/Metis) was named Fiction
Book of the Year at the Anskohk Aboriginal Literature Festival in
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.In October, Robert G. Martin (Cherokee) became the new president of the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe. He is married to the poet Luci Tapahonso (Navajo).
The prestigious Buffett Award for Indigenous Leadership for 2007, presented by Ecotrust of Portland, Oregon, has been bestowed on Roberta Conner (Umatilla/Cayuse/Nez Perce) for her role as director of the Tamastslikt Cultural Institute and general leadership roles among her tribe as a speaker, author and curator.
Bruce Bernstein, a senior scholar at the National Museum of the American Indian and former director of the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture in Santa Fe, has been hired as the new executive director of the Southwestern Association for Indian Arts, which produces the annual Santa Fe Indian Market. He has written several articles over the years for Native Peoples.
Jennifer Kreisberg (Tuscarora), one of the members of the trio Ulali (see May/June 2002 issue), has received a Genie Award (the Canadian Oscar) for her song “Have Hope,” which also took the Song of the Year award at the recent Native American Music Awards and was designated a Critic’s Pick selection by the New York Times. It will be included on her upcoming solo album, Wah Thye Yeh Rak. The song is also found on the soundtrack to the film Unnatural & Accidental.
Julia Parker (Kashia Pomo) of California has been awarded a National Heritage Fellowship for lifetime achievement by the National Endowment for the Arts, one of the nation’s highest artistic awards. For several decades she demonstrated weaving at Yosemite National Park.
Sandra Laronde (Anishinaabe), artistic director of the Canada-based dance troupe Red Sky
(see Sept./Oct. 2005 issue), has been invited to attend the first
Indigenous Cultural Summit in Taiwan to meet with the island nation’s
Native arts community.Minnesota resident Winona LaDuke (Ojibwe), political and environmental activist, author (see Sept./Oct. 2001 issue) and speaker, has been inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls, New York, joining 217 other women previously honored.
Among those taking awards at the 32nd annual American Indian Film Festival in San Francisco in November were the following: Best Film: Imprint; Best Director: Sterlin Harjo for Four Sheets to the Wind; Best Actor: Cody Lightning in Four Sheets to the Wind; Best Actress: Tonatzin Carmelo in Imprint; Best Supporting Actor: Ernie Tsosie in Milepost 398; Best Supporting Actress: Carla-Rae-Holland in Imprint; Best Documentary: Our Land, Our Life; Best Short Documentary: Dream Makers; Best Animated Short: Raccoon & Crawfish (see Sept./Oct. 2007 issue).
Edna Gordon (Seneca) has won a Best Books 2007 Award from USA Book News for her nonfiction and poetry work Voice of the Hawk Elder, edited by Harvey Arden (available at haveyouthought.com).