Comanche LEGOs based on Lone Ranger

Indian Country Today's posting about actor Gil Birmingham (below) alerted us to the existence of a Comanche Camp LEGO set. Naturally, it' based on Johnny Depp's Lone Ranger.

The Lone Ranger--Comanche CampVisit the Comanche Camp with the Lone Ranger and Tonto!

Journey to the Comanche Camp with the Lone Ranger and Tonto! Visit Red Knee in the teepee with removable canopy and campfire. Check out the weapon rack then jump in the canoe and go fishing. Watch out for the scorpions as they launch a surprise attack from the rocky outcrop with the attack function! Includes 3 minifigures with weapons: the Lone Ranger, Tonto and Red Knee.

• Includes 3 minifigures with weapons: the Lone Ranger, Tonto and Red Knee
• Features teepee, weapon rack, canoe with oar, and rocky outcrop with scorpion attack function
• Teepee features small campfire, entrance flap and removable canopy
• Weapons include 2 revolvers, tomahawk, spear and a bow with quiver
• Also includes a fish, 3 scorpions and 3 bones
• Survive the scorpion attack!
• Go fishing in the canoe!
• Remove the teepee canopy and play inside!
• Teepee measures over 6" (16cm) high, 3" (10cm) wide and 4" (12cm) deep
• Canoe measures over 4" (12cm) long and less than 1" (2cm) high and wide
• Weapon rack measures over 1" (3cm) high, and less than 1" (2cm) wide and 1" (1cm) deep
• Rocky outcrop measures over 2" (7cm) high, 3" (10cm) wide and 2" (7cm) deep

If you're wondering who Red Knee is, here's an answer:

Yes, Gil Birmingham is in 'The Lone Ranger'--Here's the LEGO that Proves ItWhen ICTMN contacted a representative for Birmingham yesterday, hoping to verify that the actor is in the film despite his omission from the IMDB listing, she replied that yes, absolutely, Gil Birmingham is in this movie. He plays a character named Red Knee.

She further informed us that Birmingham has a figure in the Lone Ranger Comanche Camp LEGO playset alongside the figures based on Tonto and the Lone Ranger as played by Depp and Hammer.Comment:  A brief discussion about this LEGO set with Kevin Gover, director of the NMAI:

Get your Johnny Crow-Head LEGOs while they last! Weapons! Canoe! Guy in buffalo hat! Scorpions! It's a totally authentic representation of Comanche culture!

Your kids will have fun learning about Indians for years! They'll want to pass these LEGOs on to their children too!How else are you going to get a Comanche canoe?

And the two-pole tipi. An engineering marvel!I presume the tipi's cone could stand on its own without any poles. It might be interesting if you actually had to build your own tipi. You know, tie four poles--the Comanche standard--together and drape the covering around them. But I imagine that's not the case.

I presume the "weapons rack" is the item on the left that looks like a headless Indian. I guess there was no room for cooking utensils, tobacco pipes, or other nonlethal aspects of Comanche culture.

I'm not sure the Comanche had or used tomahawks, which are associated primarily with eastern tribes. Moreover, the original Tonto used guns, not a tomahawk or bow and arrow. If Johnny Depp's Tonto uses a tomahawk, that's another step backward.

Comanche buffalo hunting?

I'd guess the buffalo headdress was found only on the northern plains, not the southern plains or Texas. But I can't swear that the Comanche didn't wear such headdresses. Do you know anything about that, Kevin?

P.S. This could be a big-selling item in the NMAI's gift shop. I say go for it!They mighta had buffalo headdresses. Certainly had plenty of buffaloes.A plausible chronology says the Lone Ranger donned his mask in 1874. I don't think Texas had a lot of buffalo then.

Masked Men: A Chronology of the Lone Ranger and the Green Hornet

The buffalo were on their way to near-extinction by then. But I suppose there were enough left for someone to fashion a buffalo headdress.

Comanche history--Buffalo hunting

As for the canoe, I presume it's made of genuine birch bark from a Texas birch tree.

For more on Johnny Depp, see Lone Ranger Has Comanche Adviser and Depp's Tonto: True or False?

Mohawk GIrls on APTN

Mohawk Girls series tells stories of once 'voiceless' women

'I’m making a show about my own life,' says director Tracey DeerThe director behind a TV series being shot in Kahnawake says she wants to show Canadians what it means to be a Mohawk woman.

“I’m making a show about my own life, about my sister's life, my friends', my cousins',” says director Tracey Deer.

The series, Mohawk Girls, follows four young women who are searching for love as they struggle to find their place in the world.

"I grew up on the reserve feeling invisible, voiceless, in all aspects of my life—here on the reserve, out in the bigger world. I felt really boxed in," Deer says.Comment:  For more on the Mohawk, see Thundersky the Construction Clown Artist and Native Values in Assassin's Creed 3.

Shocker: White people died!

This cartoon sums up the "war on terrorism"...our reactions to crime and violence...not to mention our attitudes toward health and welfare spending. Indeed, one could say it sums up most of America's racial history--or America's history since 1492, period. In short, dead brown people don't matter.



For more on the subject, see Dead Indians Irrelevant to Reagan and Boston Bombing Triggers Islamophobia.

Negative reviews of Jimmy P.

'Jimmy P.' (2013) Movie Review--Cannes Film Festival

A misguided effort lacking in focus and interest

By Brad BrevetThey all can't be winners, and Arnaud Desplechin's Jimmy P. would seem to have the material to make a good film, but my god, as we watch the film's title character go through two hours of therapy we begin to feel as if we are the ones locked in a mental ward, waiting for the credits to roll so we know when we can finally break out.

Set during the end of the second World War, the film is based on George Devereux's non-fiction book "Reality and Dream: Psychotherapy of a Plains Indian" and we are introduced to Jimmy Picard (Benicio Del Toro), a Native American soldier who suffered a head trauma in the war who is now troubled by an inexplicable illness that's causing painful headaches and temporary blindness. Taken to a military hospital by his sister (Misty Upham), he eventually falls under the care of Georges Devereux (Mathieu Amalric), who is given one hour a day to treat him and we are "treated" to snippets of what feels like every single one of those hours.

Del Toro plays Jimmy as if he is slow-witted, but I never got the impression we were to think of him this way. He delivers his words in short, staccato bursts as if he is eight years old and it's a maddening exercise in patience considering so much of the film is dedicated to listening to Jimmy and Georges' conversations.

When the two aren't talking the scene typically shifts to Georges' quarters where Madeleine (Gina McKee), a married friend of his, arrives and spends a considerable amount of time with him. You'd think her character would have some major bearing on the story, but for all I could tell she was there as a distraction to break up the film so it wasn't one therapy session after another. Instead it becomes one therapy session after another, broken up only by moments between Georges and Madeleine either talking about the therapy sessions or random nonsense that doesn't seem to have anything to do with the film we're watching.

GRADE: D+

Cannes Review of Jimmy P

Arnaud Desplechin stumbles with his first film in the English language

By Donald ClarkeThe film is based on the true story of a native American who, in the aftermath of the second World War, underwent analysis in Kansas to disentangle traumatic stress disorder. On the evidence of this film, the psychiatrist was an overdressed loon, prone to erratic hand gestures and at home to a French accent that would give Pepe le Pew pause to snigger. To this date we have thought Mathieu Amalric incapable of giving a bad performance. But Desplechin proves his impressive way with performers by extracting an total stinker from the gifted Frenchman. If the character is supposed to be funny, he is surely not supposed to be funny in quite this fashion.

French viewers can, at least, relax in the knowledge that one of their own is bouncing national stereotypes into the red. Benicio de Toro may have “some Indigenous American ancestry,” but he still looks and sounds like a Puerto Rican. It’s not quite like the old days when Yul Brynner or Anthony Quinn were asked to play any required nationality. It would, however, have been nice to cast a Native American actor in a Native American role.

This is not to suggest that any such minor tweaks would save the film. Amalric raves. Del Toro mumbles. Gena McKee turns up to stand around awkwardly in a tweed jacket. At the end of it all, we get no closer to understanding why these interactions should be of any interest to a modern audience. We learn nothing new about Native American culture. We learn nothing new about psychotherapy. We do learn that Desplechin would be best advised to never direct in English again, but that lesson hardly justifies two hours of unremitting tedium.Cannes Review: The Mind Heals The Soul In Meandering & Unsatisfying 'Jimmy P.'

By Kevin JagernauthThe largely interior, dialogue intensive picture sometimes veers into feeling like a TV movie (not helped by Howard Shore's often overbearing, obvious score) with its static visuals, but strong turns by Del Toro and Amalric (who thankfully ditches a sea of quirks early on and settles into the part) at least keep things engaging, even if the narrative remains stuck in neutral for large chunks of the film. After the sprawling, messy but rich "A Christmas Tale," Desplechin falls short with "Jimmy P." The mind may cure the soul for Jimmy P., but Desplechin can't seem to find that quality in his own picture.The Curious Case of Benicio del Toro in ‘Jimmy P’

The film is based on a 1951 study by the French ethnopsychiatrist Georges Devereux

By Sharon WaxmanIn minute and often crushingly slow detail (at times one wonders if the entire contents of Deveraux’s notes were laid out in the screenplay), the story plumbs the depths of Picard’s relationship to his native culture and his abandonment of personal responsibilities after his war service, through his friendship with Deveraux.

[T]he movie suffers from being too light and too heavy at the same time: the stakes are rather lightweight (especially given the history of native Americans) and the treatment of those stakes ponderous.Comment:  Note that a couple of reviews singled out Del Toro's dubious performance. It sounds as though he were playing the Indian as slow and inarticulate. Like a classic stoic Indian--a Tonto type.

This is why you have Native actors play Native roles. They'll avoid stereotypes in their performance, or at least argue for avoiding stereotypes. They won't simply emulate what they've seen in other movies.

For more on the subject, see My Interview with Misty Upham and Del Toro to Play Native Veteran.

Below:  Mathieu Amalric and Benicio Del Toro in Jimmy P.

Native actresses in Cannes competition

Native American actress proud to walk Cannes red carpet

By Belinda GoldsmithNative American actress Misty Upham never dreamt she would be walking the red carpet at Cannes to showcase a film shot on her reservation.

Upham features in "Jimmy P. Psychotherapy of a Plains Indian", focused on the relationship between World War Two veteran Jimmy Picard, a Native American Blackfoot, and Georges Devereux, his psychoanalyst.

Upham said like Picard, played by Puerto Rican actor Benicio Del Toro, she is Blackfeet, the largest tribe in Montana state. She said she was a direct descendant of the last chief and grew up on the reservation where much of the movie was filmed.

"I had no dreams and no way to make a dream. I had to leave the reservation," Upham, 30, told a news conference on Saturday ahead of the premiere of the film's premiere by French director Arnaud Desplechin.

"So 18 years later ... (I am) coming a full circle to the reservation I left to fulfill my dream."

Upham says [she] and another "Jimmy P." actress, Michelle Thrush, a Cree from Canada, are the first Native American women in the official selection at Cannes, although organizers of the festival, now in its 66th year, were unable to confirm it.And:Upham, who plays the mother of Jimmy's daughter, said the film recognized the different approach needed to treat psychological illness among Native Americans.

"We believe in spirits. We believe in ghosts. We believe in shape shifting. We believe in medicine and curses. We are very spiritual people," said the actress, best known for the 2008 film "Frozen River".

"What somebody else would call delusional, to us it is normal. That is why they had to create a new way to see what is going on in our minds without confusing the spirituality."Native Actresses Michelle Thrush and Misty Upham Hit the Cannes Film FestivalUpham's star has been on the rise since at least 2008, when she appeared in the acclaimed Frozen River; she's also in the star-studded film version of August: Osage County, which will hit theaters later this year. Thrush, Cree, has herself been steadily gaining notice, particularly for her work in the rez drama Blackstone--in 2011, her work on the show earned a Gemini Award (the Canadian equivalent of an Emmy) for Best Performance by an Actress in a Continuing Leading Dramatic Role.

Thrush is at Cannes with her own story of dreams coming true. "I was interviewed the previous year on Entertainment Tonight and asked ‘Out of every actor in the world who would I want to work with? Who would be my dream to work with?'" she told the Calgary Herald. “I said Benicio Del Toro. So it was quite interesting that it happened.” Thrush admitted that her admiration for her co-star was initially an impediment. "I couldn’t seem to get my lines right,” she said. “I just couldn’t get over the fact that I’m sitting beside this person who I have such a huge amount of respect for." Eventually, Del Toro pulled her aside for a conversation that put her at ease.

This isn't Thrush's first time in a Cannes contender--she played Nobody's Girlfriend (opposite Gary Farmer, who is also in Jimmy P.) in the 1995 Palme D'Or nominee Dead Man. But Thrush didn't attend that year's festival. This time around, she's not permitting herself to miss out--she is, to put it plainly, ready to party. “People keep telling me to try and get into the yacht parties and boat parties,” she told the Calgary Herald. “I’m going to do it. I will live every single moment. I probably will not sleep for seven days straight.”Del Toro branches out with Freudian drama at Cannes

Comment:  For more on the subject, see My Interview with Misty Upham and Del Toro to Play Native Veteran.

Below:  "Director Arnaud Desplechin (2ndR) and cast members Gina McKee (R), Misty Upham (2ndL) and Michelle Thrush pose during a photocall for the film 'Jimmy P. (Psychotherapy of a Plains Indian)' at the 66th Cannes Film Festival in Cannes May 18, 2013." (Reuters/Eric Gaillard)

Positive reviews of Jimmy P.

Jimmy P. Psychotherapy of a Plains Indian

By Mark AdamsAn impressively nuanced and intriguingly un-showy drama, Arnaud Desplechin’s Jimmy P. Psychotherapy of a Plains Indian is a film of subtle understatement, resisting the temptation to engage in overly dramatic flourishes and providing a solid platform for the charismatic talents of Benicio Del Toro and Mathieu Amalric, who deliver memorably mannered performances.

The issues in their characters’ background are touched on but never exploited, with Desplechin letting the gently developing relationship drive the story rather than any obvious dramatic devices.

Between them, Del Toro and Amalric could have reduced the film to a series of showy acting moments, but Desplechin seems to have been able to harness their considerable talents (for much of its time the film is a virtual two-hander, and could work just as well as a theatre production) to bring out the strength of this relatively simple story of a World War II veteran getting psychiatric help after the end of the war.Cannes Film Review: ‘Jimmy P. (Psychotherapy of a Plains Indian)’

This demanding but highly absorbing two-hander showcases Benicio Del Toro and Mathieu Amalric at the top of their craft

By Scott FoundasThe prosaic, marquee-challenging title tells mostly all in the case of “Jimmy P. (Psychotherapy of a Plains Indian),” Arnaud Desplechin’s profoundly Freudian study of loss and healing in post-WWII America, as seen through the experience of a dynamic shrink and his prize Native American patient. Largely a two-hander for stars Benicio Del Toro and Mathieu Amalric, both working at the top of their craft, this demanding but highly absorbing closeup on the analyst/analysand relationship seems sure to earn a warmer reception than the iconoclastic French auteur’s previous foray into English-lingo period filmmaking (with 2000’s unfairly maligned “Esther Kahn”). Pic’s highly specialized subject matter, however, presents a significant sales and marketing challenge, especially for distribs still licking their wounds from last year’s similar-themed “The Master.”

Sporting one of the more unusual literary sources ever adapted into a feature film, the pic draws its inspiration from “Reality and Dream,” a book-length case study by the ethnologist and psychoanalyst Georges Devereux (played by Amalric) about his treatment of one James Picard (Del Toro), a Blackfoot Indian whom Devereux encountered at Topeka’s famed Menninger Clinic in 1948. But as adapted by Desplechin, together with co-screenwriters Julie Peyr and Kent Jones, “Jimmy P.” constantly searches for—and finds—cinematic equivalents for Devereux’s clinical language.Jimmy P., Psychotherapy of a Plains Indian: Cannes Review

By Deborah YoungPerhaps because there’s an actual case study behind the screenplay, adapted from Devereau's book Reality and Dream by Desplechin, Julie Peyr and Kent Jones, it goes off in unexpected directions as Jimmy’s sharp mind ranges over his past. Happily, breaking another tedious film cliché, he doesn’t resist his doctor in the least and analysis rolls on briskly. Yes, there’s a traumatic Oedipal moment when little Jimmy sees his recently widowed mother in bed with another man, and on another occasion he gets a thrashing after being caught playing in the hay with a little girl. Then there’s the war and the accident in which he suffered a severe head injury. But ultimately, his greatest trauma involves his own mistreatment of his mistress and the daughter she bore him. Once that guilt is peeled away, a whole other level opens up of repressed anger over the prejudice and discrimination he is subject to as a Native American–another source of his blinding headaches.

In early scenes Del Toro devotes so much visible effort to acting the part that his performance is distracting, even off-putting. But as the film goes on, he becomes more natural in a complex role, leaving the viewer with the memory of a powerful and unusual mind, a man one would like to know. Amalric, who played a mental patient for Desplechin in Kings and Queen, is spectacularly likable in all his guises, except as the lover of a sophisticated married woman (Gina McKee) who comes out of nowhere and disappears in the same direction, leaving the audience to wonder what that was all about. Surely the screen time could have been put to better use sketching in some of the mysteries of this fascinating figure, a founder of ethno-anthropology.Comment:  For more on the subject, see My Interview with Misty Upham and Del Toro to Play Native Veteran.

Cherokee Nation plans wind farm

Cherokee Nation Developing Largest Tribal Wind Farm in U.S.The site of a former Indian boarding school in Kay County, Oklahoma will soon become the largest wind farm on tribal land in the United States. The Cherokee Nation has partnered with Chicago-based PNE Wind USA Inc. to develop a 90-turbine wind farm, which is estimated to generate $6 million over the next two decades. Development will start immediately on 6,000 acres of the former property of the Chilocco Indian School, which operated from 1884 to 1980.

The 153-megawatt wind farm will power homes, businesses and farms of the southwest grid region.

“The Cherokee Nation has an opportunity to be a leader among Indian nations in renewable energy,” said Cherokee Nation Deputy Speaker Chuck Hoskin, Jr. “The tribe will be able to utilize an underutilized resource. We talk a lot about protecting our environment and conserving our resources, so this is a prime opportunity to put words into action.” Comment:  For more on Cherokee business, see Cherokee Nation Signs Sikorsky Contract and Cherokee Nation in JA BizTown.

Tribes spurn Keystone XL meeting

Native American tribes challenge Obama over Keystone XL pipeline

By Benjamin BrayfieldLeaders from 11 Native American tribes from South Dakota to Oklahoma walked out of a meeting with federal officials in Rapid City on Thursday to protest the proposed Keystone XL pipeline.

They then issued a direct challenge to President Obama: Talk to us directly or not at all.

The meeting was arranged amid mounting tension in Indian Country about the pipeline, which would pump oil from Canadian tar sands to Texas refineries. Although the pipeline would not go directly through any Native American reservation, tribes in proximity to its proposed path say it will encroach on their traditional lands and that the project is fraught with environmental risks.

To help ease those concerns, representatives from the Department of State, which is deciding whether to approve the pipeline, agreed to meet with tribal leaders on Thursday morning in the Hilton Garden Inn in Rapid City.

But before the talks could begin, tribal leaders walked out, upset that the government had sent what they considered low-level officials. In a press conference held by the tribes after the walkout, leaders took turns issuing angry statements against the project and the Obama administration.

"I will only meet with President Obama," said Bryan Brewer, president of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, who added that was the only true way to conduct nation-to-nation talks.Sovereign Nations Walk Out of Meeting With U.S. State Department Unanimously Rejecting Keystone XL Pipeline

By Jacob DevaneyThe State Department, still with "egg on its face" from its statement that Keystone XL would have little impact on climate change, sunk a little lower today as the most respected elders, and chiefs of 10 sovereign nations turned their backs on State Department representatives and walked out during a meeting. The meeting, which was a failed attempt at a "nation to nation" tribal consultation concerning the Keystone XL Pipeline neglected to address any legitimate concerns being raised by First Nations Leaders (or leading scientific experts for that matter).

Climate Science Watch, The EPA and most people with common sense rebuked the State Department's initial report and today First Nations sent a very clear message to President Obama and the world concerning the future fate of their land regarding Keystone XL.Comment:  I don't know how realistic it is to expect a face-to-face meeting with President Obama. But it certainly sends a message about how seriously tribes take the pipeline.

And were the tribes surprised by the "low-level officials" who attended? Wasn't the meeting and its participants arranged in advance with everyone's consent?

So the walkout may have been more of a publicity stunt than a genuine reaction to the event. If so, it was a good one, earning the tribes some press.

For more on the Keystone XL pipeline, see Natives Keep Protesting Keystone XL Pipeline and TransCanada Sponsors Powwow, Awards.

Tribe threatens boycott over honor song

Tribal leader wants boycott of Chamberlain after school board's decision

High school's rejection of graduation song triggers calls for economic backlash

By Peter HarrimanThe Chamberlain School Board’s refusal to allow a tribal honoring song at high school graduation Sunday has sparked a call from Crow Creek Sioux Tribe Chairman Brandon Sazue for an economic boycott of the city, the withdrawal of millions of dollars of tribal funds from a bank that declined to condemn the district, and a demand for Chamberlain High School to return an eagle feather staff.

Sazue said the board’s 6-1 vote Wednesday night showed a lack of respect for tribal culture.The nitty-gritty:The school district and tribal leaders, including Sazue, clashed when the Chamberlain School Board early this month turned down a request from a group of high school seniors to allow a drum group to perform an honoring song for graduates during Sunday’s commencement. Sazue said the song is a tribe’s way of honoring all Chamberlain’s graduates, Indians and non-Indians alike.

“We want to show our respect, our humility to the good kids of Chamberlain to show together they can do many things by accomplishing graduation,” he said.

School Board President Rebecca Reimer could not be reached for comment Thursday. However, Johnson said the board’s resistance rose in part from concerns that non-Indian students who signed the petition felt they had to do so or face allegations of racial prejudice. About 30 percent of Chamberlain High School students are Native American.

District officials reached out to other school districts whose graduation events feature feathering ceremonies and honoring songs to learn their protocol. What they largely found, Johnson said, is those districts have one or the other; Chamberlain is feeling its way this year by having a feathering ceremony for the first time.Comment:  I've posted this kind of story before. Usually the Native students want to wear feathers in their caps and the schools won't let them.

This story is noteworthy because the Natives are asking for two honors, not just one. And because the tribe is threatening a boycott over the rejection.

One honor or the other seems fair to me. I'm not sure that the 30% of Native students should get to control what the other 70% experience. Maybe if there was a school-wide vote...but that hasn't happened.

And a boycott seems like overkill to me. Again, the Native students are already receiving one honor especially for them. How is the present situation not fair to everyone?

For more on how schools treat Native children, see Montesssori School Mocks Native Culture and "Squaw Bury Short Cake" Assignment.

Wes Studi supports gay marriage

3 Questions With: Wes Studi

By Enrique LimonThis Saturday, Santa Fe Performing Arts presents the American Foundation for Equal Rights and Broadway Impact’s 8, a new stage play by Academy Award-winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black. Chronicling the federal trial for California’s proposition 8, the reading features the talent of Joyce DeWitt, Ali MacGraw and Wes Studi of Dances with Wolves and Avatar fame.

Why is this play important to you?
I think it’s time that we reassess the institution of marriage and also consider the idea of equality here in the good ol’ USA and extend equal rights to all those who are in pursuit of them.

Does its theme strike a personal chord?
I really do believe that equality is something that we as citizens of the US strive for—should strive for—and I also think it’s something that’s at the heart of what makes up our Constitution. It’s about time that some of us think of a marital union as something other than just the procreation of children.Comment:  Three tribes have now legalized gay marriage. More are sure to follow.

For more on gay marriage, see Fictional Characters Make Acceptance Easier and Suquamish Tribe Legalizes Gay Marriage.

Mirabal performs with string quartet

Ethel with Robert Mirabal bring Native American sounds to SA

By Kathleen PettyNew York–based postclassical string quartet Ethel joins Grammy Award–winning Native American flutist Robert Mirabal this weekend for a show at the Carver Community Cultural Center. Violinist Kip Jones, who joined the quartet just more than a year ago, chatted with us before their trip to the Alamo City and says they’ll use music throughout the show to translate a tale to the audience. “We’re not going to tell stories in so many words, but the pieces of music we play are very descriptive and very narrative,” he says. “People can expect to have something to latch onto in every moment of the show.”

The concert won’t be a traditional string quartet performance, Jones says, nor will it be a traditional Native American performance. Instead, the blend of the two styles on one stage will bring a mix of slow, deep jams and upbeat tunes, as well as a bit of improvisation that will have the audience feeling like they’re a part of the show. “People come expecting one thing and they leave having experienced something else and it’s totally cool,” he says. “People are pleased to see how Native American flute playing can evolve into something else.”Comment:  For more on Indians and classical music, see Osage Ballet Wahzhazhe and Tate's Music Expresses Native Pride.

Jill Biden speaks at Navajo college

The White House came to the Navajo Nation today

By Ashley McElroyJill Biden, wife of Vice President Joe Biden, gave the commencement speech at the Navajo Technical College in Crownpoint, NM.

Biden, an educator for 30 years, spoke to the graduates about tomorrow's challenges.

"College is a place that changes lives for the better. And tribal colleges are especially unique places," Biden said.

This was the second year in a row Navajo Technical College has been named one of the top 120 community colleges in the U.S.Comment:  For more on Navajo education, see Depp Gives Back to Navajos and Navajo Skate and BMX Competition.

Dead Indians irrelevant to Reagan

Guatemala Genocide Conviction Should Prompt More Just Vision for American Continent

By Roberto Cintli RodriguezThroughout the duration of the Ríos Montt dictatorship, his regime was the bloodiest on the American continent. Why did the world permit his brutality, and why did it take more than 30 years to successfully prosecute him? His genocidal campaigns, in full view to the world, were committed in real time.

The simple answer is the actions--and inactions--of US President Ronald Reagan, the man who provided cover for every tin-pot dictator on the continent. A better answer is the preeminence of "America," with its mythological foundation and narrative. The best answer is the actions--or rather, inertia--of the citizens of the United States of America. It is we who permitted the atrocities of not simply this dictator, but all the military dictators on the continent during that bloodthirsty era.

The majority of US voters put Reagan in office, not once, but twice ... and then rewarded his imperial reign by subsequently electing his vice president, Papa Bush, into office. And then he got airports, freeways and buildings named after him.

Former Congressman Dennis Kucinich recently called for a truth and reconciliation commission to investigate how the United States got itself into Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan (plus Yemen and Somalia). That would be an important step. However, before it takes place, a commission must be created to examine the US role in Central America, primarily in the 1980s, which resulted in the deaths and disappearances of hundreds of thousands of civilians from Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Honduras. All these wars were financed by US tax dollars. All those ruthless dictators and their leading military officers were trained by the US military. Yet in Reagan-speak, the United States was simply spreading democracy (with heavy weaponry) in Central America--the same goal Bush claimed in launching the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. And from a Reagan-based perspective, the hundreds of thousands of Central American victims were little brown people whose lives were irrelevant.Comment:  Dead Indians were also irrelevant to the politicians--most of them conservatives--who also supported Central American thugs and killers. That's because these politicians are racist at the core.

Ronald Reagan and killing Indians, see Guatemalan Dictator Charged with Genocide and Reagan Aided Atrocities Against Indians.

Below:  "Ronald Reagan campaigning in the Central Coast area in the 1960s." (Photo: Fresh Conservative/flickr)

"Apache" shot Reagan during filming

A story about filming the TV series Death Valley Days, with Ronald Reagan as the host, in 1964:

Reagan accidentally shot by 'Apache' during filming

By Bill DonovanMartin Link, who was director of the Navajo museum at the time, said he remembers that quite well because Reagan made the front pages of papers all over the world because of his encounter with one Navajo during the filming of that episodes.

Reagan was an Army officer in that episode and Navajos were hired to play Apaches--something that happened quite often in those days. In the scene, Reagan's troop was supposed to be fighting the Apaches and bullets, arrows and lances were flying all over the place.

Of course, the bullets were blanks but the arrows and lances were real and the "Apaches" were told that they were to keep all of these dangerous objects away from Reagan and the other "soldiers."

Of course, something happened and Reagan was hit in the leg with either a lance or an arrow and was taken to St. Mary's Hospital to be treated, said Link. It turned out to be a minor wound and Reagan was not in any real danger of losing his life but the story got a lot of play in the media because of Reagan's popularity.Comment:  For more on Ronald Reagan and Indians, see Thoughts on Casino Jack Documentary and Guatemalan Dictator Charged with Genocide.

FSTVL website sells Plains headdresses

If you're wondering where the British students got their headdresses for their Caesarian Sunday bash, here's a possible source:

We Are FSTVL Boutique--Products



Comment:  There are probably lots of commercial sites like this on the Web. There's nothing particularly noteworthy about this one. I just find it funny how clueless this company seems to be about its cultural (mis)appropriation and stereotyping.

For more on "chiefs" stereotypes, see Stereotypical Chief on Strawberry Colada and TAI's Indian Kill Album.

Hollywood Indians in Idle No More PSA

Saginaw Grant and Other Natives in Hollywood Come Together for Idle No More PSAThis is a public service announcement made by JT Pro Imaging and overseen by actor Saginaw Grant for IdleNoMore.ca and starring Native celebrities of all ages. Those appearing in addition to Grant include Shannon Baker and Shauna Baker (the Baker Twins), Sam Bearpaw, Shayna Jackson, Crystle Lightning, Zahn McClarnon, Rick Mora, Rocky Navajo, Marisa Quinn, MC Red Cloud, DeLanna Studi, Alan Tafoya, and Shaun Taylor-Corbett.

A collection of studio portraits from the project can be seen at the JT Pro Imaging blog.Comment:  For more on Idle No More, see Canada Faces "Catastrophic Confrontation" and Canada Owes Billions for Unfulfilled Treaties.

Freedom = slavery for California's Indians

Freedom for California’s Indians

By Stacey L. SmithOn April 27, 1863, nearly five months after President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, California abolished its system of forced apprenticeship for American Indians. Under the apprenticeship provisions of the state’s Act for the Government and Protection of Indians, several thousand California Indians, mostly children, had suffered kidnapping, sale and involuntary servitude for over a decade.

Newly elected California Republicans, eager to bring California in line with the national march toward emancipation, agitated for two years in the early 1860s to repeal Indian apprenticeship. And yet those Republicans’ limited vision of Indian freedom—one in which Indians would be free to reap the fruits of their labor, but not free from the duty to labor altogether—made for an incomplete Indian Emancipation Proclamation. Although California was distant from the battlefields of the Civil War, the state endured its own struggle over freedom that paralleled that of the North and the South.

The Republican campaign to abolish Indian servitude ran up against nearly a century of coerced Indian labor in California. Under Spanish and Mexican rule, thousands of California Indians worked on missions and ranches, bound to their employment through a combination of economic necessity, captivity, physical compulsion and debt.

With the United States’ conquest of California in 1847, the discovery of gold in 1848 and the formation of a state government in 1849, new American lawmakers expanded and formalized Indian servitude to meet growing demands for labor. The 1850 Act for the Government and Protection of Indians authorized whites to hold Indian children as wards until they reached adulthood. Indian adults convicted of vagrancy or other crimes could be forced to work for whites who paid their bail.

Skyrocketing demand for farmworkers and domestic servants, combined with violence between Indians and invading whites in the northwestern part of the state, left Democrats in war-torn counties clamoring for the expansion of the 1850 Indian act. A “general system of peonage or apprenticeship” was the only way to quell Indian wars, one Democrat argued. A stint of involuntary labor would civilize Indians, establish them in “permanent and comfortable homes,” and provide white settlers with “profitable and convenient servants.” In 1860, Democrats proposed new amendments to the Act for the Government and Protection of Indians that allowed whites to bind Indian children as apprentices until they reached their mid-20s. Indian adults accused of being vagrants without steady employment, or taken as captives of war, could be apprenticed for 10-year terms. The amendments passed with little debate.

As the nation hurtled toward a war over slavery, Californians watched as their own state became a battleground over the future of human bondage. Apprenticeship laws aimed at “civilizing” the state’s Indians encouraged a robust and horrific slave trade in the northwestern counties. Frontier whites eagerly paid from $50 to $100 for Indian children to apprentice. Groups of kidnappers, dubbed “baby hunters” in the California press, supplied this market by attacking isolated Indian villages and snatching up children in the chaos of battle. Some assailants murdered Indian parents who refused to give up their children.Comment:  This article's headline is misleading. The most important part of this article isn't how the system of involuntary servitude eventually ended. It's that it existed in the first place. "Involuntary Servitude for California's Indians" would be a better title.

At the time, of course, Californians thought they were freeing Indians from a life of savagery. By helping the white man help himself, that is. Hence my title for this posting: "Freedom = slavery for California's Indians."

For more on California's missions, see Time-Traveling Mission Play and Indians Protest Carmel Mission Stamp.

Kickstarter campaign for indigenous kayaks

Qayaq Co-Op Campaigns on Kickstarter for $25K To Build High-Tech, Indigenous Boats

When Traditional Culture Meets High-Tech Construction, The People Can Qayaq Forward

By Ralph RichardsonMore than 10,000 years ago, Eskimos constructed the first kayaks from stitched seal and other animal skins by stretching them across a wood or whalebone-skeleton frame. Called skin boats, they used them to hunt on the inland lakes, rivers and coastal waters of the Arctic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, Bering Sea and North Pacific Ocean.

Today, kayaking is one of the fastest growing sports in North America, with nearly 8 million active participants in the U.S. alone, up from 3.5 million just 10 years ago, according to the National Sporting Goods Association.

With its rising popularity, David Michael Karabelnikoff (Aleut/Athabaskan) noticed kayaking equipment was primarily being mass-produced. So, in August 2012, Karabelnikoff established Qayaq Co-Op with co-founders Julian Jacobes and Martin Leonard III.

The Co-Op’s mission is twofold, Karabelnikoff explains: To inspire a movement in Southeast Alaska to revitalize canoe building and paddling, while encouraging youth to learn science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), and to produce top quality kayaks that elite athletes would seek for their own use on the water. While the nonprofit embraces traditional Native craftsmanship, it also updates the kayaks, canoes, and skin boats with digital manufacturing and fabrication technology.Comment:  For more on Inuit business, see Nunavut Resources Corporation Seeks Financing.

Blackstone coming to US?

Canada's 'Blackstone' Drama Eyes U.S. Sale

By Etan VlessingIt turns out a U.S. sale of a drama based around the exploits of a reservation crime family is near at hand.

“We are in active discussions with a cable network,” says Ritch Colbert, a principal of PPI Releasing, the Los Angeles-based distributor that started shopping Blackstone stateside after a third season got the drama to 23 episodes.

Colbert adds that the cult drama about a fictional Blackstone First Nation reserve rife with political corruption and economic inequality will hit home with Americans struggling financially and disillusioned with their ruling class.

“This is as good as TV gets. It covers every aspect of modern U.S. culture in glaring details, whether corruption, teenage pregnancy, domestic violence,” Colbert said.Comment:  For more on Blackstone, see Negative Stereotypes in Blackstone and Blackstone Actresses Nominated for Gemini Awards.

AP poll on Redskins is flawed

A recent AP poll claimed 79% of Americans don't want to change the "Redskins" team name. I reported on the poll and briefly questioned it, as I usually do with such polls. Now here's an analysis of its flaws:

Fighting Racist Stereotypes in Sports One Poll at a Time

By Suzan Shown HarjoThe Associated Press and GfK Roper Public Affairs & Corporate Communications conducted 1,004 telephone interviews in English or Spanish from April 11 to 15, framing the question this way: “Some people say that the Washington Redskins should change its team name because it is offensive to native American Indians. Others say the name is not intended to be offensive, and should not be changed. What about you: Should the Redskins change their team name, or not?” 11 percent said change the name; 8 percent don’t know; and 2 percent, no response.

AP reported that the 79 percent who want no name change is a “10 percentage point drop from the last national poll on the subject, conducted in 1992 by The Washington Post and ABC News just before the team won its most recent Super Bowl.” (Eighty-nine percent wanted no change and 7 percent wanted change.)

The AP-GfK poll is a good example of why racism should never be put up to a popular vote, because racism will win every time. (Imagine a poll about the N-word in the 1960s.) Not that everyone polled is racist. Some probably answered out of ignorance or failure to appreciate that the topic is nuanced. Some may even have been surprised to hear that Native Peoples are still around.

The question itself is a product of racial bias. The AP, which keeps the style book for most of journalism, does not capitalize the N in Native, Native American or, as in the question above, “native American Indians,” while it does cap the R-word. One is a designation for nearly 600 Native American Peoples, but is lowercased in AP style, while the other is the name of a private sports club and is always capped.

Notice, too, that AP personalizes the R-word—“Should the Redskins change their team name, or not?”—when its is properly used in the first sentence. However, Native Peoples are not personalized or humanized—simply “native American Indians,” when people and/or nations would be respectful and accurate.

Then, there is the set-up, which weights the question on the side of the offenders and even makes an excuse for them, as if intent lessens the impact of the offense. It simply is not up to the offending class to define the nature of the offense or to say what offends the offended.Comment:  Let's go through the poll's possible flaws:

Someone said the sample size of 1,004 respondents is too small. I don't know about that. I think samples of that size are usually valid.

The phrase "native American Indians" is weird, but I don't know if it would affect the outcome. The lower-cased "native" shouldn't matter since the pollsters interviewed people by phone, not in writing.

Personalizing the issue--"Should the Redskins change their team name?"--is a potential problem. When you treat the Redskins as a "they," it reminds people of the players. You're basically asking people to judge athletes who may be their idols or heroes or role models.

The "they" formulation clearly favors the Redskins' position. If you referred to the team as an "it"--a football franchise or a multimillion-dollar corporation--the response might be different.

Another problem is the final choice: "Should the Redskins change their team name, or not?" What about a response such as, "I think the name is offensive, but not enough for the team to change it"? Or, "I think the name is offensive, but I don't think the team should have to go through the expense and hassle"?

In other words, asking whether "Redskins" is offensive and asking whether the team should change the name are different questions. Mixing them together only confuses the results. The "don't change" total may include people who find the name offensive as well as people who don't.

The Redskins' intent

The biggest issue is the question itself. Let's break it down into its two parts:

On the anti-Redskins side, the name isn't just offensive to Natives. It's offensive to non-Natives who dislike ethnic slurs. And there are people like me--Native and non-Native alike--who aren't offended emotionally, but think it's wrong intellectually.

Moreover, dictionaries define it as vulgar, and a long print history confirms that it's a slur. So the issue isn't just what people feel subjectively. It's what the word means objectively, according to the evidence.

It's like asking, "Nixon lied about Watergate. Does that offend you?" The issue isn't how someone felt about Nixon's lies, it's whether he broke the law. Polling people on how they felt about Nixon's crimes would ignore the larger issue.

So whether "Redskins" offends Natives or not is only part of the problem. The word is problematical for several reasons not mentioned. The poll shortchanges the anti-Redskins position.

On the pro-Redskins side, Harjo has identified the key issue. The "not intended to be offensive" clause contradicts and minimizes the Natives' concerns. It basically says:

"Some Indians think 'Redskins' is offensive, but the team didn't intend to offend them, so the Indians are wrong. How do you feel about Indians claiming the name is harmful even though there's no intent to harm? Should we let them have their way based on something they seem to be making up?"

As I've said many times, the intent underlying a racist action is irrelevant. Nineteenth-century Americans didn't think they were harming the Indians or Africans they lifted out of savagery. Minstrel-show performers didn't think they were helping to oppress Negroes.

Would you include these factors in a poll on those subjects? E.g., "Slave-owners genuinely thought a Christian slave was better off than a wild heathen headhunter. Should we allow slavery under those circumstances?"

A final note: I believe the last item mentioned always lingers in people's mind. Ideally, you'd put the pro-Redskins argument first half the time and last the other half. If the pro-Redskins argument was always last, that alone gave it an advantage.

So the question as written was biased. Here's how the poll could've worded the question instead. Leave the question of changing the name, which would be a messy and disruptive process, out for now. Just ask whether the name is good or bad:The Washington football team says "Redskins" is a source of pride and tradition. Native Americans and their supporters say "Redskins" is an ethnic slur comparable to the N-word. Which of these is closer to your position?Some Indians okay with slur

But it's true that many Indians don't seem to mind the "Redskins" name. As shown here:

Woody: American Indians in Va. have no problem with “Redskins”

I especially like the "We have more important things to worry about" argument. Who says caring about "Redskins" means you have to stop worrying about poverty, crime, or healthcare? Saying you object is a simple "yes or no" question that takes only a second to answer. Explaining why you don't have time to worry about it takes more time than just saying, "Yes, it's offensive."

These people seem to be answering a question that wasn't asked. Is the "Redskins" name a high priority with you? A: No. Regardless of whether it's a high priority or not, are you aware that it's an ethnic slur? Does it bother you to be considered a "dirty redskin"? Would you change the name if you could? A: Who knows?

I wouldn't be surprised if this thinking applies to a lot of the AP respondents. They may have been answering the implied question, "Is changing the 'Redskins' name worth a big fuss?" And not the actual question, which is more like, "Should we change the name whether it's a 'big fuss' or not?"

For more on the Washington Redskins, see Snyder: We'll Never Change "Redskins" and "Inuit Chief" Supports Washington Redskins.

Maya pyramid bulldozed in Belize

Bulldozers destroy Mayan pyramid in BelizeA construction company has essentially destroyed one of Belize's largest Mayan pyramids with backhoes and bulldozers to extract crushed rock for a road-building project, authorities announced on Monday.

The head of the Belize Institute of Archaeology, Jaime Awe, said the destruction at the Nohmul complex in northern Belize was detected late last week. The ceremonial center dates back at least 2,300 years and is the most important site in northern Belize, near the border with Mexico.

"It's a feeling of Incredible disbelief because of the ignorance and the insensitivity ... they were using this for road fill," Awe said. "It's like being punched in the stomach, it's just so horrendous."

Nohmul sat in the middle of a privately owned sugar cane field, and lacked the even stone sides frequently seen in reconstructed or better-preserved pyramids. But Awe said the builders could not possibly have mistaken the pyramid mound, which is about 100 feet tall, for a natural hill because the ruins were well-known and the landscape there is naturally flat.

"These guys knew that this was an ancient structure. It's just bloody laziness," Awe said.

Photos from the scene showed backhoes clawing away at the pyramid's sloping sides, leaving an isolated core of limestone cobbles at the center, with what appears to be a narrow Mayan chamber dangling above one clawed-out section.

"Just to realize that the ancient Maya acquired all this building material to erect these buildings, using nothing more than stone tools and quarried the stone, and carried this material on their heads, using tump lines," said Awe. "To think that today we have modern equipment, that you can go and excavate in a quarry anywhere, but that this company would completely disregard that and completely destroyed this building. Why can't these people just go and quarry somewhere that has no cultural significance? It's mind-boggling."

Belizean police said they are conducting an investigation and criminal charges are possible. The Nohmul complex sits on private land, but Belizean law says that any pre-Hispanic ruins are under government protection.

The Belize community-action group Citizens Organized for Liberty Through Action called the destruction of the archaeological site "an obscene example of disrespect for the environment and history."
Builders bulldoze one of largest Mayan pyramids in Belize

Comment:  For more on the Maya, see Rios Montt Found Guilty of Genocide and Maya Era Ends Without Incident.

Below:  "A backhoe claws away at the sloping sides of the Nohmul complex in northern Belize on Friday."

Changing "Redskins" wouldn't cost anything

How Much Would It Cost Dan Snyder To Rebrand The Redskins?

By Travis Waldron In the case of mascots that utilize Native American imagery, though, reshaping the brand identity may actually be good for business, according to research from sports marketing experts at Emory University. Emory’s Mike Lewis and Manish Tripathi studied the economics of college teams that dropped Native American imagery—either team names or actual mascots—and found that the negative effects are muted, limited to only a one- or two-year time frame. After that, the costs subside—and may even turn into benefits:In terms of financial impact, the model results suggest that school’s experience a very short (1 or 2 years) negative impact and then quickly recover. The results also suggest that in the long-term the shift away from a Native American mascot yields positive financial returns. As a follow up, we used the brand equity measures created here as a dependent variable and regressed this value against the previously defined variables related to the school’s use of a Native American mascot. In this analysis we found NO significant effects. The key implication is that switching away from a Native American mascot has no long-term negative effect on brand equity.Comment:  For more on the Washington Redskins, see AP Poll on Redskins Is Flawed and Snyder: We'll Never Change "Redskins."

Stereotypical chief on Strawberry Colada

A product with a stereotypical Plains chief image just appeared in my Facebook feed. It's been around for a couple of years. Here's the story:

AriZona Makes a Splash with Strawberry ColadaAriZona Beverages USA LLC kicks it up a notch with the newest addition to their virgin cocktail line, Strawberry Colada. Joining AriZona’s ever-popular Piña Colada, the Strawberry Colada is designed to provide you with a little taste of paradise no matter where you are.

Strawberry Colada is made with a blend of all natural strawberry puree and an authentic coconut cream from renowned producer of cream of coconut Coco Lopez. The goodness doesn’t stop there; the alcohol-free cocktail is fortified with antioxidant Vitamin C, so the cocktail blend is perfect for taking a quick break in the midst of a stress-filled day. It can be enjoyed plain, mixed with your favorite alcohol or as the main ingredient in a refreshing tropical smoothie.

The AriZona Strawberry Colada is available in a vibrant red 20-ounce PET bottle resembling the color of ripe strawberries. It comes with a suggested retail price of $1.00 and the virgin cocktail contains 90 calories per 8-ounce serving.Comment:  So it's an alcohol-free "cocktail," but the company still uses an alcohol-related name. Hmm.

Using a Plains chief is especially wrong considering the Arizona (or "AriZona") brand name. How about using an Arizona Indian, or no Indian?

Also, what's up with his startled, uncertain look? Don't you know that stereotypical chiefs are supposed to be stoic?

For more on "chiefs" stereotypes, see Debauched "Indians" on Caesarian Sunday and TAI's Indian Kill Album.

Muscogee Creek codetalker medal

Muscogee Creek Tribe Code Talkers Medal Designs Reviewed

By Michael ZielinskiThe Commission of Fine Arts (CFA) and Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee (CCAC) recently reviewed design alternatives for a Congressional Gold Medal to be issued honoring the Code Talkers of the Muscogee Creek Nation.

Under the Navajo Code Talkers Congressional Gold Medal Act passed in 2000, the Congressional Gold Medal was awarded to Navajo Code Talkers for their contributions during World War II. Under the Code Talkers Recognition Act of 2008, additional tribes will be recognized for their contributions during World War I and World War II. As of late January 2013, an updated list of Native American Code Talkers who served in the armed forces during both wars has grown to include 32 different tribes. So far, the CFA and CCAC have reviewed design alternatives for medals honoring 12 of these tribes.Comment:  I gather the Treasury hasn't decided on a design yet. The article shows the alternatives for the obverse and reverse sides.

Two groups voted on these designs. The groups recommended a different design for each side. I'd go with the CCAC's choices--the ones described as getting the highest vote totals. They're shown below.

For more on the subject, see Codetalker Congressional Gold Medals.

Goshutes open for-profit clinic

Utah Indian tribe breaks into the health care business

Health » Goshutes open tribal clinic in downtown Salt Lake City, the first outside a reservation in Utah.

By Kirsten StewartA group of doctors is working with the Confederated Tribes of the Goshute to open a family health clinic in downtown Salt Lake City.

Sacred Circle Health Care will be the first tribe-owned clinic located outside a reservation in Utah, say its founders. But that’s not all that sets it apart.

The clinic is designed to be a moneymaker for the tribe—with the profits used to improve tribal members’ access to health care no matter where they reside.

"Any money made by the Goshutes has to go to health care," said John Lopez, a retired dentist and the clinic’s manager. "I don’t know what their vision is, but I would love to see them have an upgraded clinic, get dental care and provide nutritional counseling for diabetes on the reservation."Comment:  For more on Native healthcare, see Mental Health Services Needed and American Idol Funds Ho-Chunk Mobile Clinic.

Below:  "David Hadley, a dentist from Vernal, left, and John Lopez, a retired dentist, will work in a new clinic scheduled to open next week. Designed to make money for the Goshute Tribe, it is the first such clinic in Utah located off a reservation. It will be open to the general public, not just tribal members." (Francisco Kjolseth/The Salt Lake Tribune)

Lone Ranger had Comanche adviser

Disney is trying to spin Johnny Depp's redface performance as Tonto before the Lone Ranger movie debuts. Here's the latest attempt:

Disney's Tonto Offensive To Some In Upcoming 'Lone Ranger' Film

By Felicia FonsecaWhat has most people scratching their heads is the black crow that appears to hover over Depp's head, and the black stripes that run vertically down his painted face. The inspiration came from a painting by artist Kirby Sattler, who said his work isn't specific to one tribe but is modeled after nomadic Plains tribes of the 19th century.

Depp took the image to the film's Comanche adviser, William "Two-Raven" Voelker, to ask if it was far-fetched. His answer: It's not.

"There are a lot of people out there screaming who are not Comanche, as in this story Tonto is supposed to be," Voelker said. "They know nothing of bird culture. When we wear or use those feathers, we're calling on the energy of the entire bird."

Depp's elaborate costumes–as seen in "Pirates of the Caribbean," "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" and "Edward Scissorhands"–are nothing new. Voelker said he never would have agreed to be a consultant on the movie had he not been assured the production team would be sensitive to American Indian culture and committed to at least some historical accuracy.

The teepees used in the movies, for example, have four poles to reflect the way the Comanche built them, not three more commonly seen in movies and that trace back to Cheyenne and Sioux tribes. The production also visited Oklahoma to hear the Comanche language being spoken and worked with Voelker and others to give Depp Comanche lines in the movie.Comment:  News flash! Comanche adviser says Depp's costume, based on a white man's painting of a fantasy Indian, represents Comanche culture. What a lucky break!

It's astonishing if you think about it. Kirby Sattler didn't know he was painting an authentic Comanche years ago. And Depp didn't know he was basing Tonto on an authentic Comanche when he chose the painting as his source.

And yet, both Sattler and Depp got it exactly right, according to the movie's Comanche adviser. Whose paycheck and reputation aren't at all dependent on his unbiased and professional opinion of the multimillion-dollar movie.

What are the odds that both Sattler and Depp would choose the one look out of a thousand that happens to represent the Comanche? It's almost literally a million-to-one shot.

Indeed, I'd say it qualifies as a miracle. Does Pope Francis know about this?!

</sarcasm>

When I originally wrote about Depp's costume, I looked up traditional Comanche beliefs to see if there was anything about crow- or raven-heads. I didn't find any mention of birds. So I look forward to learning more about the Comanche bird culture.

Saying Tonto exemplifies "Comanche bird culture" doesn't address whether the costume is authentic or not. It's a classic non-answer answer.

It's like asking Dan Snyder, "Do you understand that many Indians consider 'Redskins' offensive?" And his answering, "We consider it a symbol of pride."

Who is William Voelker?

Some info on this Comanche adviser:

Comanche repository seeks funds for preservation

By Dana AttocknieThe Comanche Nation Ethno Ornithological Initiative is the nesting place for more than 70 eagles and other birds of cultural importance to Native Americans. But like many Native programs today, it’s looking for more operating funds.

The Sia Essential Species Repository is searching for funds to keep alive its mission of Comanche “preservation through cultural understanding of the eagle in history, science and spirit.”

“All of it is focused on the avian side of our history, the bird cultures,” Sia Founder and Director William Voelker said. “Although eagles are of primary importance, we address our relationship historically with all avian species.”

Sia, the Comanche word for feather, took flight in 1999 when the CNEOI was incorporated under the Comanche Nation as a tribal program.

Although Sia does not rehabilitate birds, it accepts birds that have been rehabilitated and provides a home for them if they can’t be released into the wild.

“We have eagles here from five continents. We feel a strong responsibility to assist with endangered eagles worldwide,” Voelker saidAnd from SIA's own website, we learn Voelker is on the board of directors:Wahathuweeka William Voelker:

Proud member of the Ohnononuh band of the Numunuh (Comanche). Co-founded Sia in 1999 based on three decades of research and experience with native eagles and raptors of historic cultural significance to the Numunuh. Mr. Voelker is the first Native American to hold federal permits for the care and propagation of Bald and Golden Eagles and the only individual to have successfully produced offspring of both species in captivity via artificial insemination. Three hundred native eagles, most of which were released to the wild, have been hatched in captivity since 1975, one of which was the world's first Bald Eagle produced via artificial insemination in 1982. Expertise involves more than 20 eagle species from five continents as well as the ethno-ornithology of the indigenous cultures of each non-native species of eagle. Mr. Voelker also serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors for the Comanche Nation NAGPRA & Historic Preservation Programs.Guess who else is on the board of directors? LaDonna Harris, the woman who adopted Johnny Depp. That's a conveniently close-knit group of people.

Oddly, there are no mentions of Voelker's "Two-Raven" nickname anywhere. Indeed, there are no mentions whatsoever of ravens or crows. Just eagles and other raptors.

Sia has archives containing 24,000 pages of historical documents related to the Comanche, plus historical photos. Surely Voelker and Harris could share some information about the Comanche practice of wearing birds on their heads. No?

Skeptical about Voelker

The Voelker quote led to a discussion on Facebook:Hmmmm crows on an Indian's head "not too far fetched." Well what is far fetched is Voelker saying it isn't. Sounds to me if they would have asked Voelker if it was too far fetched to believe monkeys will fly out of Depp's butt--he'd say "It's not."Most Indians hold the eagle in high regard. That's not a Comanche-specific trait. And I don't see how it justifies a crow (not an eagle) on Johnny's head.

Sounds to me like Voelker's answer is a little shifty. Like, "We love birds, but I'm not gonna tell you which one. If you infer that it's a crow rather than an eagle, that's your problem. I didn't explicitly lie."

The tipis and a few Comanche words may be accurate, but the costume, the broken English, and the use of the woodlands Wendigo are probably inaccurate. That's like a C-/D+ in terms of accuracy. It's not something to "crow" about...get it?

Sounds to me like they brought in Voelker in the middle and told him they were going to be sensitive and authentic. Instead, they should've brought him in in the beginning and asked him if what they planned was okay.

What's he gonna say after they've sunk $100 million or whatever into the production already? "No, it's all wrong. You have to start over." I might say that, but most people wouldn't.

P.S. Maybe William Voelker became William "Two-Pirate" Voelker when he learned Depp was making the movie. And when he saw the costume, he became William "Two-Raven" Voelker.

If Disney wants to hire Voelker again, he'll change his name to "Two-Mouse" (Mickey and Minnie).

In short, color some of us skeptical about this Comanche adviser and his advice. When he documents the role of ravens and crows--not eagles--in Comanche culture, then we can start taking him seriously.

For more on Johnny Depp, see Depp's Tonto: True or False? and Hammer Says Indians Love Depp.

Below:  Bill Voelker.

Snyder: We'll never change "Redskins"

Why ‘NEVER’ Abandoning ‘Redskins’ As His Team’s Name Might Soon Cost Dan Snyder A Lot Of Money

By Travis WaldronGrosso’s non-binding resolution is the least of the Redskins’ worries. The big threat to the team and its owner, Dan Snyder, is the federal Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, which in February heard a case petitioning it to classify the word “Redskin” as a derogatory slur: as such, it wouldn’t be eligible for trademark protection. But even if it loses that case, the team will “NEVER” change its name, Snyder told the USA Today on Thursday:“We will never change the name of the team,” Snyder told USA TODAY Sports this week. “As a lifelong Redskins fan, and I think that the Redskins fans understand the great tradition and what it’s all about and what it means, so we feel pretty fortunate to be just working on next season.”

What if his football team loses an ongoing federal trademark lawsuit? Would he consider changing it then?

“We’ll never change the name,” he said. “It’s that simple. NEVER—you can use caps.”The trademark case won’t be resolved anytime soon—probably not until next year, and it will likely see appeals after that. The board stripped the Redskins of their trademark in 1999, only to have the decision overturned on a technicality (that petitioners waited too long to file their claim) in 2003. But the basic case is pretty strong: “Redskins” is plainly derogatory, a racial marker that various dictionaries define as “offensive” and a “term of disparagement,” and petitioners have this time structured the case in a manner that should avoid the timing technicality. Native Americans and activists have fought its use for years, with one, Clem Iron Wing, reportedly telling a school board in Wichita, Kansas—where a high school uses the nickname—that the “only way ‘redskin’ was ever used towards my people and myself was in a derogatory manner.” Pay close enough attention to the debate, and you’ll notice that no one—not even Snyder—defends the term on the grounds that it isn’t racist or derogatory. Instead, they argue that the team should keep it because it’s “tradition” and because 79 percent of Americans support it.Comment:  For more on the Washington Redskins, see "Inuit Chief" Supports Washington Redskins and Cooperstown Changes "Redskins" to "Hawkeyes".

Catalina huckster looted Tongva graves

Catalina exhibit illuminates a dark episode in island's past

'The Strange and Mysterious Case of Dr. Glidden' tells the story of a man who created public entertainment from native inhabitants' bones.

By Louis SahagunThe Catalina Island Museum has opened a window into a dark period of life on the island with an exhibition devoted to a pseudoscientist who looted Native American graves for profit eight decades ago.

"The Strange and Mysterious Case of Dr. Glidden," which opened over the weekend, examines the life and times of Ralph Glidden, a hucksterish entrepreneur who in the 1920s and '30s excavated bones and relics from Tongva Indian burial grounds for sale and trade. He also presided over an "Indian museum" literally made of bones and situated on a hill overlooking Avalon harbor.

News articles from the 1920s written by Glidden's publicist describe his "Indian museum" as a "unique and weirdly spectacular institution," with shoulder-blade cornices and windows edged with toe, ankle, wrist and finger bones. Leg and arm bones served as brackets for shelves lined with skulls. Ceiling panels were decorated with human vertebra and rosettes of shoulder blades.

The Catalina Island Museum's look back at Glidden is rooted in a discovery last year. Curator John Boraggina chanced upon boxes of Glidden's journals, ledgers, letters and photographs while searching a musty backroom for items for an exhibit of the World War II era.Comment:  For more on looting, see Petroglyph Theft Is "Worse Act of Vandalism" and Kincaid Mounds Vandalized.

Rios Montt found guilty of genocide

Guatemalan Ex-Dictator Found Guilty of Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity

By Tim JohnsonA three-judge panel Friday convicted former Guatemalan dictator Efrain Rios Montt of genocide, saying his military regime used “extreme terror” in an effort to wipe out a Mayan minority ethnic group in the early 1980s.

In a packed courtroom in Guatemala City, Judge Yassmin Barrios said investigators had proven that the regime led by Rios Montt, who is 86, used starvation, mass homicide, dislocation, rape and aerial bombardment as tactics to exterminate the Ixil minority, which it believed to harbor leftist guerrillas.

Barrios gave Rios Montt a 50-year jail term for genocide and an additional 30 years for crimes against humanity.

When Barrios read the sentence, cheers erupted in the courtroom, a sign of the high emotions surrounding the trial, which deeply divided Guatemala and drew attention in other Latin American nations with a history of military dictatorships.

The conviction marked the first time a former Guatemalan military strongman known for “scorched earth” tactics to eradicate leftist guerrillas had been found guilty of genocide and ordered to prison.

“The accused, Jose Efrain Rios Montt, had full knowledge of all that was occurring and did nothing to stop it,” Barrios said.Efrain Rios Montt, Former Guatemalan Dictator, Convicted Of Genocide

By Sonia Perez DiazA Guatemalan court convicted former dictator Efrain Rios Montt on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity on Friday, sentencing him to 80 years in prison, the first such sentence ever handed down against a former Latin American leader.

It was the state's first official acknowledgment that genocide occurred during the bloody, 36-year civil war, something the current president, retired Gen. Otto Perez Molina, has denied.

"He knew about everything that was going on and he did not stop it, despite having the power to stop it from being carried out," said Presiding Judge Yassmin Barrios. "Rios Montt is guilty of genocide."

The 86-year-old former general laughed, talked to his lawyers and listened to the procedures through headphones. When the guilty verdict was announced, the crowded courtroom erupted in cheers. Some women who lost relatives in the massacres wept.

"Judge, Judge! Restore order!" Rios Montt shouted as cameramen and photographers swarmed him after the verdict was announced.

A three-judge tribunal issued the verdict after the nearly two-month trial in which dozens of victims testified about mass rapes and the killings of women and children and other atrocities.Putting ex-dictator behind bars pleases many in Guatemala, but fears remain he could go free

By Associated PressFormer Guatemalan dictator Efrain Rios Montt spent his first full day as a convict Saturday in a 16-by-13 foot cell with a small bed, bathroom and window, after receiving a landmark 80-year sentence for genocide and crime against humanity.

It was a steep fall for the now-86-year-old former strongman who ruled Guatemala from March 1982 to August 1983, during the height of a brutal civil war that killed 200,000 people, mainly Indians.

A tribunal on Friday ruled that Rios Montt knew about the slaughter of at least 1,771 Ixil Maya in Guatemala’s western highlands and didn’t stop it, handing down the first genocide conviction ever given to a Latin American strongman in his own country.

The former general was transferred to prison later that evening.

“He is not comfortable, but as a good soldier he is used to this,” said Rios Montt’s lawyer, Francisco Palomo, who is expected to seek to have the ex-general transferred to a hospital or to have his sentence be served under house arrest.

Matamoros prison, where Rios Montt is now behind bars, is located on a military base in Guatemala City where the former general spent time as a young cadet. It was built to house high-profile inmates who could be unsafe in normal prisons.Comment:  For more on Rios Montt, see Guatemalan Strongman Charged with Genocide and Reagan Aided Atrocities Against Indians.

Holocaust museum at Wounded Knee?

Native Sun News: Wounded Knee descendants speak out

Many see museum at Wounded Knee as positive thing

By Brandon EcoffeyMargo Iron Hawk, a Mnicoujou elder who is also a descendant of Wounded Knee, supports the erection of a memorial at Wounded Knee.

“It would be good to have a memorial, for our youth to be proud of. To tell why our ancestors died and how we survived. We can see it in our youth; they need to be given something to be proud of and shown where they come from,” she said.

Support for a possible memorial, although not unanimous, has significant backing from Lakota people throughout reservations in South Dakota. Craig Dillon, Oglala Sioux tribal councilman, recently told the British Publication The Guardian that he was in favor of a museum and a place where vendors could sell what they produce.

Retired owner of Native Sun News, Tim Giago (Oglala Lakota), has recently proposed an idea to build a Native American Holocaust Museum at Wounded Knee where an accurate depiction of the plight of Native people could be told, and tribal members on social media have expressed support for a monument to those who have passed away there, if it is done in a respectful way. Joe Brings Plenty feels that it could be a chance for the Mnicoujou to show the world what really happened at Wounded Knee.

“I would support a memorial park erected at the location, with walkways and monuments showing where the teepees and events occurred. There needs to be more information available to educate the public. The American public at this point has been misled by naming this a battle; it was never a battle. It was a massacre that ended tragically with many innocent lives taken and changed forever. The historical trauma our relatives, as well as ourselves, have faced in the past years is fatal to our Nation’s health. A memorial park would assist in retelling a history and honorable struggle of our nations will to live. This would give us an opportunity to honor our relatives in a good way, to remember them and allow them to be remembered in the way we know they deserved to be remembered, with the greatness they lived and passed on through the traditional culture we continue to practice today” he said.Holocaust Museum of the Indigenous People should be built at Wounded KneeWounded Knee may have been the final chapter on this holocaust of indigenous people. It is only right that the Oglala Lakota build a Holocaust Museum of the Indigenous People right here on the grounds where the massacre of the Lakota took place on Dec. 29, 1890.

The museum could house the history of the millions who died from the tip of South America to the top of North America. Every indigenous tribe has its stories of the death and destruction that was visited upon their people. A museum of this nature would draw visitors from around the world and it would inform and educate the masses as to the true history of the Natives of this Hemisphere. But more than that, the museum would serve as a stark reminder that the hands of the invaders were not clean, but they were the hands of a people who tried in vain to destroy a culture and a people.

Whether that destruction came in the form of forced religions or in the quest for gold, indigenous people died in its wake. There are hundreds of stories to be told and hundreds of photos and artifacts to substantiate the holocaust of the Native people. It should be a priority venture for the Oglala Sioux Tribe and there should be many wealthy people and the United States government itself that would contribute money and the expertise to make the Holocaust Museum of the Indigenous People a reality.

It is time to stop talking about the genocide foisted upon us and to do something about it. This idea is one that is achievable. We now need the Lakota people of vision to cease upon it and make it happen. It is time to tell the true history of the invasion of the Americas and about the millions of deaths that ensued.

And the Lakota People should be the leaders in this endeavor because for all intent and purposes, the holocaust of the indigenous people ended on the Sacred Grounds at Wounded Knee.Comment:  There is, or was, a Wounded Knee Museum already. I'm not sure how the proposed museum would be different. I guess it might focus more on the centuries of conquest and genocide.

For more on the subject, see Pine Ridge Needs Tourism and Fire Totals Wounded Knee Museum.

2013 NAMMY winners

A chronology of this year's NAMMY award show along with a partial list of winners.

2013 Native American Music Awards

By Sherrill FulghumActor Kevin Costner hosted a program called "500 Nations" that documented the many Native nations that inhabit North America. On May 10 the Native American Music Awards honoured Native musicians from many of those Nations for their contributions to the world of music.

The NAMAs held their 14th annual Awards gala at the Seneca Niagara Events Center in Niagara Falls, New York. This marked the sixth consecutive year that the Seneca Nation hosted the event.

Set to be held last November, the NAMA's were delayed after Hurricane Sandy destroyed the NAMA headquarters in New York City.

The sold out event was hosted by Canadian comedian Don Kelly.14th Annual Native American Music Awards WinnersARTIST OF THE YEAR
Tony Duncan
Earth Warrior

GROUP OF THE YEAR
Tuwa
Big City Indians

BEST POP RECORDING
Stay With Me Baby
Jana Mashonee

RECORD OF THE YEAR
Shi Keyah Songs For The People
Radmilla Cody

SONG/SINGLE OF THE YEAR
Hear My Cry
Frank Waln & Cody Blackbird

LIVING LEGEND
Nelly Furtado

HALL OF FAME
Russell MeansComment:  Go to either article for a complete list of the winners.

For more on the NAMMYs, see 2013 NAMMY Nominations and Russell Means Honored for "Rap-ajo."