Navajo mother shares stories

Introducing a Blog for Native MomsWe are Dine, or Navajo. Many concepts and philosophies in Navajo life, I was taught, are defined by the underlining theme of Hozhoo, or the Beauty Way. Navajo people strive for Hozhoo, beauty, balance or our concept of happiness. I strive for that everyday.

Also in Navajo philosophy of life, there should always be an "outlet," a way out. Literally, that is evident in the design of our Navajo wedding baskets and even in our cradleboards for babies.

To write this blog is my outlet. It is one of the ways I try to attain Hozhoo in motherhood and as a human being.

I hope to document my actions and thoughts and stories through the writing of this blog. I want to find some common ground with other mothers and define some ways that American Indian motherhood is truly unique.

Modern dance at Little Wound

Lakota Dance FeverThe Pine Ridge Reservation's Little Wound School has had a dance team since 1998. For Susan Big Crow, this marks her fourth year as the sponsor and mentor of the Lakota student group.

"The modern dance of the group offers a new activity for students," Big Crow said, "something other than volleyball, basketball and track."

The dance practices keep kids out of trouble and in a safe place, she said. Parental support in the activity has been essential to the program's success. All students are encouraged to join.

"When they get out of high school, I hope that some will seek out ballet or modern dance as an ongoing activity," Big Crow said. "The immediate benefit is actual experience of performing before an audience."

Wajju.com

Short Takes:) Wajju.com...Erdrich’s “The Reptile Garden”Question: What is the most frequently cited frustration of Native filmmakers?

Answer: Getting their films SEEN once they are made.

Happily, the distribution problem facing indie filmmakers is beginning to change, albeit in small but significant ways—and for that we have the omnipresent web to thank. Evidence are sites such as www.isuma.tv which provide a free, accessible venue for Native films. Now, I am delighted to report, there is another site similarly dedicated to featuring documentaries. Whereas www.wajju.com is not restricted to screening only Native films, much of its 73 film library does have an international Indigenous flavor with the philosophy to use "documentaries to create a better future and energize the people of society." Is this cool? Yup, it sure is....

Four Directions does animation

Legend come to lifeIn a rambling, two-story house in Vernon, a group of young animators is preserving and spreading ancient legends of the Oneida Indian people.

The Four Directions Productions animation studio has already produced its first feature, "Raccoon & Crawfish," which has won numerous awards at film festivals across the country and has even been screened in, of all places, a theater made of ice in Finland.

"I can remember my grandmother telling me this story," recalled Dale Rood, an Oneida who runs studio operations for Four Directions, owned by the Oneida Indian Nation. "My goal is to preserve the Oneida culture, the legends that have been played out from generation to generation. What better way to do that than to bring them to life through animation?"Ray Halbritter's vision:The animation studio is just part of the Oneida nation's video and audio production arm. Four Directions has produced, among other things: animated kiosks on Oneida nation history for the Children's Museum of Utica; advertising for Turning Stone Resort and Casino, Ferris Industries and other clients; a documentary on Native American dances that appeared on NBC; and videos about Saratoga and Valley Forge historical parks.

Rood credits nation leader Ray Halbritter with supporting the production group's efforts.

"For an Oneida person," said Rood, a member of the tribe's Turtle Clan, "it's really gratifying that the nation and Ray had enough foresight and a vision to utilize resources in a way that preserves our culture."How the process works:Four Directions has taken over the large house on Route 5. The kitchen has been left in place, and staff members often have lunch at the counter, and there's a foosball table in the next room. The staff has even been known to have a hot dog cookout for lunch in the middle of winter.

The animators are housed on the lower level, their offices crowded with huge computer screens and high-powered processors. Rood said Four Directions uses more computer processing power than the rest of the nation combined, including the Turning Stone resort complex.

On a digital tablet on the left side of his desk, Waller demonstrates how he created the image of Crawfish, whose googly eyes dangle above his head on antennae. As he draws a stylus across the screen, Crawfish's oversized head rotates and changes in color from pencil gray to a rusty tan.The story comes first:Long before they put stylus to screen, the animators have to come up with the story. A legend is one thing; a cohesive, 8-minute film with dialogue is another.

"You take a Native American legend and you have to make it more exciting for animation," said Legwaila, a native of Botswana who started work at Four Directions when "Raccoon & Crawfish" was about half finished. "The computer stuff is easy. It's coming up with the good story that works and makes people laugh, with that message you're trying to put out that's the hard part."

The group is working on a second feature, and while no one will say officially what the subject is, an entire wall downstairs is filled with drawings that sketch out the tale of the turtle and the beaver.Comment:  For more on the subject, see Native Videos and Cartoons.

Dinos take back seat in Turok

"Turok":  Son of Stone, Great-Grandson of the ComicTurok and Andar flee through the cavern until, approaching its far end, they are half-blinded by strange, winkling sunlight. Abruptly the two men emerge into a new landscape populated by prehistoric beasts and men, apparently unconnected to the world they have known.

What's remarkable about this sequence is not its freshness, as Turok freely appropriates its many Jurassic vistas from a certain Spielberg film covering similar material. It's that the drama preceding it has succeeded in drawing in the viewer to the point of forgetting the film's main selling point: the Turok property. Turok, the Indian warrior, doing battle with dinosaurs in a strange Lost Land. Turok, the comic book character, who sold thousands of issues from 1956 to the early 1980s. Turok: Dinosaur Hunter, the video game pitting a first-person shooter against oncoming saurian (and bionisaurian) adversaries. Yet the first fifteen minutes of this film, detailing Turok's expulsion from his Native American tribe and subsequent refusal to aid his brother, the chief, when the tribe comes under assault, provide a drama compelling enough to make the dinosaurs take a back seat.

Which is not to say that they don't matter. Lotto, the Korean animators responsible for Turok's lush and detailed visual style, have taken obvious care with visual references. The animals in Turok, from pteranodons to monkeys to the handsome man-eater Carnotaurus sastrei, have been rendered with meticulous care. The landscapes they populate are similarly beautifully realistic, lit in sun-dappled shafts and bordered by vicious grey crags. The DVD extra materials include a featurette on Turok's genesis and development, which describes the team's production schedule as frantic and brief; in the look and feel, the rush doesn't show.Comment:  We're seeing some wildly divergent views on the new Turok movie. I guess my opinion will be the deciding one.

Transit agency bars Karuk ad

Oregon ACLU files free speech suit against TriMetA decision by the city transit agency to reject an advertisement about saving Klamath River salmon has drawn a free speech lawsuit from the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of conservation groups and a Northern California Indian tribe.

The proposed ad rejected by TriMet shows three salmon blocked by an underwater wall of electrical outlets and says: "Salmon shouldn't run up your electric bill. They should run up the Klamath River."

The ACLU claims TriMet violated the federal and state constitutions by rejecting an ad it says is too political.

"TriMet's job is to transport riders, not to override free speech protections," said Dave Fidanque, executive director of the ACLU's Oregon chapter.The alleged reason for barring the ad:Mary Fetsch, the transit agency's spokeswoman, said the type of advertising accepted by TriMet is "focused on selling goods and services."

The ACLU said the TriMet committee that rejected the ad wrote did the transit agency did not want its buses or property "to become a public forum for the dissemination, debate, and/or discussion of public issues."Comment:  Would the agency also bar a power company ad that said something like, "Electricity is good for the environment"? I doubt it.

Many government decisions favor businesses over consumers, communities, or the environment. This is an example of that.

Wings of America saves lives

Running From DespairHunt, a high school junior and a resident of the Navajo Nation, was on a short training run for the national cross-country championships being held Saturday in San Diego. Her team, Wings of America, has risen to prominence with an unlikely collection of athletes. It is a group of American Indians from reservations around the country, and a Wings team has won a boys or a girls national title 20 times since first attending a championship meet in 1988.

“You say Wings of America to anyone in the running community—it’s synonymous with the best Native American runners,” said Eric Heins, the cross-country and distance coach at Northern Arizona University, a program that has benefited from having Wings runners in recent years.

American Indians have especially high rates of youth suicide, Type 2 diabetes and deaths attributed to alcoholism, and extreme poverty is pervasive on many reservations. Wings of America, a 20-year-old nonprofit organization based here, has embraced the challenge.

“The hardest part is getting people to understand, to make the case how important it is,” said Anne Wheelock Gonzales, the organization’s former executive director who now serves as a consultant. “One time someone said, ‘Well, it’s not like you’re saving lives.’ And I said: ‘Excuse me, we are saving lives. That’s exactly what this does.’ ”

Apology would be inspiring

Next President Could Lift Hopes With Indian ApologyWith the presumptive Republican presidential nominee having expressed support for an Indian apology in recent years, the chances the next president would support such an apology seem increasingly likely.

The idea of a president standing before the entire world and acknowledging this country's mistreatment of its first inhabitants is inspiring.

If that were to happen, it would change this hollow apology now being considered into something more. Something likely to elicit hope within even the most cynical of us.

And while it still would ring hollow without immediate action toward real reform, it could light a fire.

And that fire could, finally, give form and substance to this promise of change.Comment:  So a congressional apology would be worthless but a presidential apology would be inspiring? I don't see a big difference in the two kinds of apologies.

In any case, I lean toward apologies being worthless, not inspiring--unless they're backed by actions. I'd say things like Indian gaming have done more to "heal" Indians than apologies ever would.

For more on the subject, see Apology Is Meaningless and Apologies Aren't Enough.

Tribes meet at Mt. Rushmore

Mount Rushmore summit seeks healing, tribal storiesNative American elders from throughout South Dakota will gather at Mount Rushmore National Memorial Thursday, Feb. 21, to help reshape interpretive programs about the history and cultures of plains tribes.

Mount Rushmore Superintendent Gerard Baker, a Hidatsa-Mandan from the Fort Berthold Reservation in North Dakota, scheduled the two-day tribal elders' summit to seek guidance on improving Native American interpretive programs at the memorial. Baker began an outreach to tribal people in South Dakota soon after he took over as superintendent three years ago. He and his staff traveled to reservations across the state, an effort that eventually led to the Thursday, Feb. 21, summit.

"This is the first summit ever for Native American tribes from South Dakota at Mount Rushmore," Baker said Wednesday. "This is basically a listening session for us. We hope they give us some idea on what stories we need to tell about the tribes, how we're interpreting and not interpreting, what we're saying and not saying."

More Kosovos to come

The Kosovo precedent

Calling it a 'special case' won't stop others from trying to follow its independence example.Is this a precedent, as some fear and others hope? Of course. Russian-backed leaders in South Ossetia and Trans-Dniester are muttering about following the example of the American-backed Kosovars. Basque and Catalan separatists are taking note, and the Spanish government has reacted against the declaration of independence with startling sharpness. Kosovo is the top story on the website of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization, which has 69 members, from Abkhazia to Zanzibar.

"Kosovo is a special case," says its declaration of independence, going on to insist (hear the advisor's whisper again) that it is not a precedent. But the 68 other members of UNPO are special cases too. Kosovo's declaration of dependent independence is the least-worst way forward, but don't let us pretend that it's not a precedent. Both statements are true: Kosovo is unique, and there will be more Kosovos.

Warpath kills for X-Force

A look at the Apache superhero Warpath in the new X-FORCE comic.

X-Force #1: Angels and Demons: Part 1 of 6Overview

There are lines that the X-Men have sworn never to cross. But after the shocking events of “Messiah Complex,” Cyclops realizes that some enemies need to be dealt with permanently… and the X-Men can never know about it. Enter WOLVERINE, WARPATH, X-23 and WOLFSBANE...X-FORCE.Sunday Slugfest:  X-Force #1Paul Brian McCoy:  1 Bullet

What we've got here is an X-team designed to do the dirty work that The X-Men can't publicly take credit for. By this I mean kill people. Lots of people. That's the whole point of this book. There are religious fanatics out there who are killing mutants, so Cyclops decides to sanction a team to go out and kill the religious fanatics. Wolverine is on point, and X-23 is along for the ride. They're both experienced killers, although X-23 has apparently been trying to reform. So much for that. Warpath, who began entirely motivated by seeking vengeance, but had been making headway developing into a real character, is back swearing to kill everyone involved in killing his buddy, Caliban.

All in all, there's practically nothing in this book that I like. The characterizations, the dialogue, the plot, the costume design, the layouts, nothing. Well, the backgrounds are good. Other than that, it's just awful.

Awful. The worst Marvel book I've read in years.The Religious Affiliation of Comic Book Character:  James Proudstar, Warpath of X-ForceNovaya Havoc
08-29-2006, 04:58 PM

Warpath

No matter what we do to lessen the hoooorrribly stereotypical outfit (X-Force), Warpath always has to bust out with the leather fringe and feathers. Even now, he's back to using knives. 1950s Western, thy name is Warpath.

And again with the code-names: Warpath. Hmm. Seems like a gentle and loving soul. Compare it with other codenames: Iceman, Polaris, Dazzler, Longshot, Psylocke, Cypher. Innocuous names that either describe a person's powers, or at least don't invoke a feeling of DOOM.

Evil, angry, knife-brandishing Warpath. Such an angry man. But contrast this with Moonstar/Mirage/Dani/Whatever-she-goes-by-now who's power was to emote with animals. More gender bias at its best along a stereotypical strata.Comment:  When you need a ruthless killer, who ya gonna call? An Indian, of course.

Silver Fox in Wolverine movie

Will there be an Indian in the upcoming Wolverine movie? Well, maybe.

Huston Joins Wolverine!

And is there word on Silver Fox?[T]hen there's the report that the role of Silver Fox has gone to neither Maggie Q nor Michelle Monaghan but Lynn Collins, a Texan actress who you might but probably won't remember as Mark Ruffalo's fiancee in 13 Going on 30. Or as Portia in the Al Pacino Merchant of Venice, or in multiple roles in The Number 23. Since Silver Fox is Native American (or rather Canadian) in the comics, Collins doesn't exactly look the part in the pictures we've seen, but perhaps she will by the time they're done--or possibly the character's backstory will be changed.

So good news on Huston, who's somewhat closer to Cox in type than Hall was. But what do y'all think about the Blob as a potential baddie, and Collins as a potential Silver Fox?Silver Fox's backstory:Silver Fox is a lover of Wolverine who first appeared in Wolverine vol.2 #10, where she is raped and apparently killed by Sabretooth. She is later revealed to be alive and a member of "Team X," the best covert ops team the CIA had to offer, and is one of a few female victims of the Weapon X project. Fox betrays Team X and becomes a member of HYDRA, a subversive terrorist organization. She is later, finally, killed by Sabretooth under the control of the telepathic Psi-Borg, and Wolverine buries her body outside the cabin they once lived in together.

According to most accounts, Silver Fox lived with him in Canada at the dawn of the 20th century. She, a Native Canadian Blackfoot, and he, a frontiersman, enjoyed many happy times together. Sabretooth killed her on Logan's birthday, ostensibly when she rejected his advances.Comment:  Blue eyes...pert nose...full lips...yep, Silver Fox is your typical Indian princess/white-man fantasy figure.

Maybe they'll change Silver Fox's backstory, or maybe Collins will be the umpteenth non-Indian to play a stereotypical Indian woman as sex object.

Flutie supports racist mascot

Who Cares:  Honor or insult?Some of these schools have also been challenged by those who find their nicknames and mascots offensive. Barnstable High School teams are known as the Red Raiders and the two feathers that are part of the team’s logo makes it apparent that the Red refers to American Indians. While “Red Raiders” is not a phrase that one would call complimentary, Barnstable addressed concerns raised over a decade ago, when it changed its icon from a war-painted caricature to respectful portrait and added the words: pride, honor, respect to the logo.

But making a name change, as some are asking Nauset to do, is another matter. And resistance is often strong. Last year Natick High School agreed to drop the name “Redmen” and replace it with one that wasn’t racially offensive. A committee came up with a new name but, since it was done without public input, it opened the door, once more. Doug Flutie, one of Natick High’s most celebrated alumni, weighed in on the issue, coming out in support of the retaining the name “Redmen.” Flutie was quoted in The Boston Globe as blaming “one squeaky wheel” for the change and advising, “people should stop walking on eggshells.” He wasn’t alone. A petition signed by 1,800 Natick voters called for a town vote as to whether or not to keep the name and the school’s headdress-wearing Indian symbol.Comment:  See my comments at the end of the article.

Below:  Another "redmen" mascot--this one for the Kinston Indians.

Obama uses Hopi prophecy

An interesting footnote to Obama's professed Indian blood and interest in Indian issues:

Captive to History’s CapriceMaybe we are the ones we’ve been waiting for. Or maybe we are not.

Perhaps when Barack Obama uses that trippy line, he is just giving false Hopi, since the saying, which he picked up from Maria Shriver’s New Age-y L.A. endorsement speech, is credited to Hopi Indians.

The passionate palaver about Hillary versus Barry rages on, with each side certain it is right about our fate if we end up with a President Obama or another President Clinton.An excerpt from the prophecy in question:

Hopi Elders' Prophecy
Oraibi, Arizona, June 8, 2000The time of the lone wolf is over. Gather yourselves!

Banish the word struggle from your attitude and your vocabulary.

All that we do now must be done in a sacred manner and in celebration.

We are the ones we've been waiting for.

Drummers vie to be Idols

Local drum group could be first 'Powwow Idols'Ladies and gentlemen, start your computers.

With your help, a Rapid City drum group could become the first Powwow Idols.

Standing Horse is one of two finalists in the competition sponsored by DrumHop Productions, a production company that specializes in powwow music.

Standing Horse and Wind Eagle Singers of Keshena, Wis., are the last ones standing out of 14 drum groups from throughout the country that entered the contest. The winners will receive a recording contract, along with the honor of being host drum at the 2008 Red Earth Festival powwow in Oklahoma in June. They'll also entertain on an upcoming "Powwow Cruise."

Mohawks sue NY Post

Tribe Sues Paper Over Casino EditorialsAn American Indian tribe that is seeking to build a casino in upstate New York is suing the New York Post for $60 million because of two editorials the newspaper published that accused the tribe of being a "criminal enterprise" with "an extended history of often-violent criminality."

In a February 21, 2007, editorial, "The Gov's Gambling Goof," the Post chronicled the efforts of the St. Regis Mohawk Tribal Council to build a casino on the site of the former Monticello Raceway in the Catskills. The Post editorial accused the council of being involved in a $687 million contraband smuggling ring, importing illegal immigrants from China, and engaging in shoot-outs with the New York State Police.

The council is suing the Post for two counts of libel.

Native kids want condoms

Aboriginal youth start condom petitionA petition to install condom vending machines in junior and senior high schools has been launched by an aboriginal youth group on P.E.I.

Members of the group believe young people would be more likely to use condoms and avoid HIV/AIDs, hepatitis C and other sexually transmitted diseases if they could obtain condoms at school.

Japanese interned with Indians

Celebrating a shared history

Indians laud WWII Japanese American internees who developed their landIn a now familiar tale, 120,000 Japanese Americans were removed from the West Coast and relocated to internment camps after Japan's 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor and the subsequent U.S. entry into World War II. But in a little known piece of that history, the U.S. government sent nearly 20,000 of them to three camps on a Colorado River Indian Tribe reservation at Poston with an explicit plan to use Japanese Americans--most of them Californians skilled in farming--to help develop tribal lands for later Indian use.

Under the plan, the Japanese Americans helped clear lands and build irrigation systems, started farms and built schools from handmade adobe bricks. Their work in developing a reservation that previously had no electricity, running water or modern homes--many families lived in mud huts--laid the foundation for the tribe to jump-start its standard of living and thrive financially, said Michael Tsosie, director of the tribal museum.

Now, 66 years ago today after then-President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066 authorizing the relocation, the two peoples are deepening their shared bonds.

Last week, Native Americans and two dozen former Japanese American internees gathered in Poston to memorialize their experiences and view a new documentary about it, "Passing Poston," by New York filmmakers Joe Fox and James Nubile. They also discussed plans to restore some of the barracks, seek national historical landmark status for the site and build a museum about their shared history.Comment:  For more on the subject, see America's Concentration Camps.

Older than America to premiere

Cree Indian Director Georgina Lightning's feature film debut OLDER THAN AMERICA to premiere in competition at the 2008 South by Southwest Film Festival“Older Than America,” starring Golden Globe nominee Adam Beach, Bradley Cooper, Tantoo Cardinal, Georgina Lightning and Wes Studi has been selected as one of eight feature films to compete at the 2008 South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin, Texas (March 7-15, 2008).

“Older Than America” synopsis: A woman’s haunting visions reveal a Catholic priest’s sinister plot to silence her mother from speaking the truth about atrocities that occurred at a Native Indian boarding school. A supernatural thriller with cultural content, “Older Than America” speaks to the lasting impact of the cultural genocide that occurred at such schools throughout the United States and Canada.

Director Georgina Lightning says, “’Older Than America’ is dedicated to my father, George De Jong, who, after years of battling the demons of his boarding school experience, committed suicide. As a means of making sense of the tragedy, I was compelled to learn more about my father’s boarding school experiences and then bring those stories to the screen. But ‘Older Than America’ is not just an indictment of the past. The title refers to who we were as a nation before mandatory assimilation transformed our identity. And it refers to the history and traditions that will empower us to heal and move on.”Comment:  For more on Native-themed movies, see The Best Indian Movies.

Native reports for MTV

Reporting from Indian country

Begay gives Native youth perspective for MTV projectArmed with a mobile video camera on Super Tuesday, Christine Begay was out and about, interviewing students at the University of New Mexico and voters at polling places, and posting the live videos almost instantly to MTV's "Choose or Lose '08" Web site.

Begay, 23, is a member of MTV's "Street Team '08," a group of 51 citizen journalists--one from every state and the District of Columbia--who were specially recruited through an extensive nationwide search to cover the 2008 elections from a youth perspective, utilizing mobile technology.

The Street Team members were plied with the latest equipment--mobile video cameras, laptops, editing software and cell phones--and charged with uncovering the untold political stories that matter most to young people in their respective states. Each member is to file weekly multi-media reports--short form videos, blogs, animation, photos and podcasts--that are distributed via www.Think.MTV.com and to more than 1,800 sites in the Associated Press Online Video Network.