Outstanding Indian Governance Acknowledged

American Indian tribes are truly nations in themselves. With the exception of national defense, each one engages in almost the entire spectrum of activities, programs, projects and services of federal governments such as the United States. Twenty years ago, that was not the case. Many of these essential government functions were carried out by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, acting on behalf of the tribes—often in misguided or ineffective fashion. A decade ago, the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University decided to review and honor the very best of emerging tribal government programs, launching the annual Honoring Nations program.

On Oct. 21 in Phoenix, in association with the annual convening of the National Congress of American Indians, the Honoring Nations program bestowed awards on the 10 most exemplary programs and projects underway today by tribes nationwide. The winners were selected from a pool of entries submitted by the tribes. Five programs were singled out for honors and five others for high honors.

Receiving honors were Chickasaw Press, the outstanding book-publishing program of the Chickasaw Nation; the Ak-Chin Indian Community’s Community Council Task Force; the Lac du Flambeau Band’s Intercultural Leadership Initiative; Tsigo Bugeh Village, Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo’s housing project; and the Saginaw Chippewa Tribe’s Ziibiwing Center of Anishinabe Culture and Lifeways.

Taking high honors were the new nursing facility and hospice center of the Tohono O’odham Nation, which is employing some 90 skilled personnel—many of them tribal members—in the care of their own people; and the Muscogee Creek Nation’s very successful program to reintegrate into the tribe members who have been imprisoned. The Pine Hill Health Center of the Ramah Chapter of the Navajo Nation was singled out for its outstanding breast cancer screening program, while the Osage Nation was praised for its ambitious effort to create a new tribal constitution that reincorporated thousands of Osages disenrolled from the tribe by the federal government in the 1800s. Also selected was the Choctaw Nation’s Project Falvmmichi, which is breaking the circle of domestic violence by focusing on elementary-school youth being mentored by teenagers.

The evening’s powerful tales of success were aptly introduced by the Honoring Nations honorable board chairman Oren Lyons (Onondaga). Lyons noted that the world is facing many challenges and that the time for action is upon us. He closed by issuing a challenge to the crowd in his Onondaga language. "Try hard," he said. Details: www.hks.harvard.edu/hpaied

Apache Crown Dancers: Dance On

Eight junior high school students from the San Carlos Apache Reservation in eastern Arizona punched holes in the belief that teenagers aren’t interested in their heritage when they formed a dance group in 2007 to celebrate their Apache roots.

Israel Hill and Craig Jones, then eighth-graders at High Desert Middle School in Globe, first approached student advisor Cheryl Wickizer with their idea, which she quickly endorsed. The young men took it from there. Naming themselves The Crown Dancers (after the large, traditional headpieces Apaches wear when dancing), they set up a rehearsal schedule to learn and practice the complex dance steps and songs, and with guidance from elders they laboriously created their regalia.

Today the group performs several times a year in Globe, during the Apache Jii (Day) in October and on the last Sunday before Christmas at the Festival of Lights, as well as at sunrise ceremonies for Apache girls’ puberty rites. They also occasionally perform at powwows, and hope to dance at the Red Paint Pow Wow in Silver City, New Mexico on Jan. 16-18. Five teens dance, two are designated as chanters, and one, Christian Pike, drums and chants. —John Catsis

Learning By Doing

By any measure—suicide rates, high school graduation rates, substance abuse rates, income level as young adults, etc.—American Indian youth are in trouble. But, a New Mexico–based nonprofit organization, the National Indian Youth Leadership Project, is making a difference.

Rooted in the concept and practice of service learning, or learning by doing, the organization works with Native youth to instill a deep sense of responsibility to their larger tribal group and society as a whole. “It is based on the traditional teaching methods of Indian communities involving hands-on, experiential learning, often taught by elders or older peers,” explains Ramon Macias, NIYLP program and planning director. “Trust-building is also essential to what we do. Many of the youth we work with have really been hurt by people and institutions that they placed their faith in as kids.”

Projects have ranged from tree planting, school murals and creating community gardens to book drives, cross-age tutoring, diabetes education and installing screen doors for the elderly.

From their humble beginning in the early 1980s, NIYLP has grown into a stable organization that works with some 350 kids a year through in-school, after-school and weekend programs, as well as its extremely popular summer camps held on the flanks of Mount Taylor in west-central New Mexico. Here the kids camp out, traverse a ropes course that builds team skills and forges trusting relationships, go mountain biking, and present songs, dances and other cultural expressions drawn from their tribal heritage, learning from one another and making new friends. Together, they also built an open-air adobe facility for large gatherings that is shaped like a giant turtle.

Kids from other programs across America attend the NIYLP summer camp, where the adult supervisors also learn from one another and take home to their communities lessons and working methods that they have shared with one another. “We are working with a lot of state agencies and with projects outside New Mexico to establish a national presence, and to deepen our relationships with these other parties,” says Macias.

One such effort involves working with the Roots & Shoots program created by animal activist and primate protector Jane Goodall. Through a grant provided by the Healing Winds Foundation, the project will help instill in kids a sense of the vital relationships between animals, people and the environment.

NIYLP was founded by McClellan Hall (Cherokee), who serves as executive director today. A large source of its funding comes from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and the Atlantic Philanthropies Foundation of New York. Details: 505/722-9176 or www.niylp.org.

Lines

The government of Japan has formally recognized the Ainu people of its northern islands as an Indigenous people with their own distinct language, religion and culture … Roy Hamilton (Cherokee), historian and genealogist, has received an Oklahoma Governor’s Art Award for his community service in the arts and cultural affairs of the state … The Shoshone Nation broke ground in October near the Idaho-Utah border on a 100-megawatt geothermal power station that could power 70,000 homes; it is the first of five planned … Kellogg Park in La Jolla Shores, north of San Diego, California, is home to a new pathway with embedded images of fish and other wildlife found in La Jolla Shores Underwater Park and Marine Reserve. Dubbed “The Map,” the 64-foot-long pathway promotes conservation of indigenous ocean species. The Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation was a major donor for the project … Russ Tallchief (Osage) is the new director of art and exhibitions at the American Indian Cultural Center & Museum of Oklahoma City, leaving his position with the Jacobson House (he’ll continue to write the Galleries department for Native Peoples) … Dr. Duane King, who directed the iconic Southwest Museum in Los Angeles for many years, is the new director of the prestigious Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa, Oklahoma … Dr. Anselm G. Davis, Jr. (Diné/Choctaw) has been appointed executive director of the White House Initiative on Tribal Colleges and Universities … Archbishop Charles Chaput (Prairie Band Potawatomi), the first American Indian archbishop, recently released a book titled Render Unto Caesar: Serving the Nation by Living Our Catholic Beliefs in Political Life (Doubleday).

Shards

With the blessing of tribal leaders, Matt Light, the all-pro tackle of the New England Patriots, has taken under his wing four Northern Cheyenne teens—Lloyd Lone Elk, Rusty James, Lenray Two Two and Daniel Booker—for the past two years, sponsoring a three-week summer camp for them and four non-Native teens from Rhode Island. The teens learn fly-fishing, ride bareback, participate in sweats, drum, sing, play football (of course!) and share life experiences. He also takes the teens to an NFL game each year in Massachusetts. “I think it’s important for young people to realize that we should all do our part to learn from each other,” explains Light. Details: www.mattlightfoundation.org.

The National Museum of the American Indian has launched a new multimedia Web site, Indigenous Geography/Geografía Indígena, to provide visitors with a thorough understanding of environmental and geographic conditions as they affect the cultures of various Native peoples. The photos, sound clips, essays and geographic data present profiles of Native communities in Arizona (the Hopi), Hawaii, Alaska, Mexico’s Yucatán region, Chile’s Patagonia region and Canada’s Atlantic coast. All information is provided in Spanish and English. Go to www.indigenousgeography.si.edu.

Painter and art administrator Joe Baker (Delaware) of Phoenix, Arizona has provided design motifs for a new line of textiles and upholstered furniture produced by Le Décor Français. Based on Delaware art motifs, the XU Collection (meaning “I will” in Lenape) was rolled out in the company’s New York City showroom in October. Collaborating with Baker on the abstract floral and leaf patterns was Hadrien Coumans of Le Décor Français.

Canada-based architect Douglas Cardinal (Blackfeet/Métis) (see Sept./Oct. 2006 issue) has been chosen as the lead architect for the $100 million Discovery Park of America in Union City, Tennessee, which will include fine art and natural history museums, conference and convention centers, a botanical garden, and a Pioneer Village spread across a 50-acre site. The grand opening will be held in early 2010.

Thornton Media, Inc., developer of the acclaimed “Phraselator” language translation device for American Indian idioms, recently released the first 3D interactive video game that teaches Native languages. RezWorld uses voice-recognition technology to place the user in the game as a character, among a group of characters that speak only Native languages. The CD-ROM system is said to be adaptable to any Indigenous language. The company is owned and directed by Don Thornton (Cherokee). Details: www.ndnlanguage.com.

In November, CoLours TV began weekly airings of NorthWest Indian News, a half-hour program that focuses on regional topics, on the Dish Network, select cable systems and online at www.colourstv.org. The program was launched in 2003 and is produced by the Tulalip Tribes Communications Department in Bellingham, Washington.

The noteworthy University of Oklahoma Native American Studies Program has passed its 15th anniversary and 100th graduate. The interdisciplinary bachelor’s degree program draws its courses from a number of departments and colleges across the University of Oklahoma campus, allowing students to explore many approaches to the study of Native American tribes and their cultures: anthropological, historical, artistic, philosophical and political. The university also offers a master’s degree in Native American Studies. Details: www.ou.edu/cas/nas/index.html.

Passages

Jimmy Carl Black (of Cheyenne ancestry), the former drummer in Frank Zappa’s avant-garde band Mothers of Invention, died on Nov. 1, at 70 years of age. Black led a colorful life, working as a backup musician for strippers when Zappa found him, and later working in a doughnut shop and as a house painter.

Legendary Indian trader and gallery owner Jon Bonnell, whose family ran the White Hogan in Scottsdale, Arizona for more than 50 years, passed away in October. He helped develop the careers of many important Indian jewelers, including Kenneth Begay.

Yma Sumac (Inca), who possessed an amazing four-octave range singing voice that garnered her worldwide acclaim, best-selling albums and packed performances for decades in her adopted home of New York City, passed away Nov. 1 at the age of 86. She was descended, through her mother, from Atahualpa, the last Inca emperor.

Honoring

Native American Music Awards (Nammys) were handed out to a slew of artists at the 10th annual gathering at the Seneca Niagara Hotel & Casino in New York in October. Among those receiving kudos were Jim Boyd (Colville Tribe) (see Nov./Dec. 2005 issue) as Artist of the Year; the band Blackfire (Diné) (see May/June 2004 issue) for Record of the Year, Star Nayea (see May/June 2003 issue), Songwriter of the Year; Native Roots (see May/June 2003 issue), Best Group; Nicole, Best Female Artist; Edmund Bull (Cree) as Best Male Artist; Cheryl Bear (Nadleh Whut’en) of Canada as Debut Artist of the Year; Injunity as Best New Group; Tracy Bone (Ojibwe) for Best Country Recording; Jimmy Wolf (Mohawk) (see Sept./Oct. 2001 issue), Best Blues Recording; The Crow Girls for Best Folk Recording; Fara Palmer (Cree/Saulteaux) for Best Pop Recording; and Jan Michael Looking Wolf (Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde) for Best Flute Recording.

Comic book illustrator Hai-Na-Nu Saulque (Paiute) of California was selected as a top 10 finalist in a comic book contest recently sponsored by Platinum Studios for his character Hank Houston. Details: www.hankhouston.com.

The New England Foundation for the Arts has a new grant program, the National Native Artist Exchange Fund, designed to cover the cost of travel for Native artists involved in collaborative projects. Kelly Church (Grand Traverse Band) of Michigan is the recipient of its first grant, to advance her outstanding black ash basket weaving. The foundation also recently bestowed a grant from its American Masterpieces: Dance program on Kevin Locke (Lakota) to choreograph and produce a series of eight-person dance routines in Pittsburgh based on traditional American Indian dance. Details: 617/951-0010 or www.nefa.org.

Robert Mirabal (Taos Pueblo) has been selected to play Tony Luhan in Lifetime Network’s production of Georgia O’Keeffe, based on the life of the famous Southwest artist. Joan Allen and Jeremy Irons (Stieglitz) also will star. It will air in the summer of 2009.

Wizipan Garriot (Rosebud Sioux) played a significant role in the presidential campaign of Barack Obama. The 28-year-old student, a Yale undergraduate now finishing up a law degree, served as Obama’s Native American outreach coordinator, helping to shape his Native policies and platform. Obama has pledged to host an Indian summit at the White House in 2009.

Other Natives faring well in the recent elections included Kevin Killer and Ed Iron Cloud III (both Oglala Sioux) in the South Dakota House of Representatives, Barbara McIllvanie Smith (Sac & Fox) in the Pennsylvania House, and Denise Juneau (Three Affiliated Tribes) of Montana, who became the first Indian elected to a statewide office in Montana (superintendent of public education). Todd Gloria (Tlingit/Haida) took a San Diego City Council seat.

Patsy Phillips (Cherokee) has assumed the role of executive director of the Museum of the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe. She comes to the position after serving at all eight of the Harvard University museums, and eight years with the National Museum of the American Indian, where she led American Indian artists to the Venice Biennale.

Cassandra Manuelito-Kerkvliet (Navajo) is now serving as president of Antioch University in Seattle, making her the only American Indian college president outside of the tribal college system. In the past, she has served as a student counselor, a school administrator and president of Diné College.

VerlieAnn Leimomi Kapule Malina-Wright (Native Hawaiian), a teacher, principal, cultural advocate and activist, has received the National Education Association’s Leo Reano Memorial Award for her four decades of work in Hawaiian language immersion programs and cultural education.