An ethno-historical cantata

A Native American's Last Testament:  OperaThe man was John Peabody Harrington, a linguist from the Smithsonian who spent four decades gathering notes on native languages spoken from Alaska to South America. He'd come to record the oral history of Mondragon's dying grandmother, Ascencion Solorsano de Cervantes. She was a famous herbal healer and the last known fluent speaker of Mutsun, the language of the Amah Mutsun tribe that lived near California's central coast.

Today, her grandson Joseph is 86, and he's sharing his own memories of Ascencion Solorsano with a different sort of translator: an opera singer.

Mezzo-soprano Helene Joseph-Weil is a music professor at Fresno State. She first learned about Ascencion Solorsano 20 years ago, when she saw a picture of her in the San Francisco Chronicle.

"I was so moved by it," Joseph-Weil says. "And there was something about her photo that just mesmerized me, that I suddenly said: 'I have to sing her. How can I sing her?'"

Along with award-winning composer Benjamin Boone, a fellow Fresno State professor, she is working to put Ascencion Solorsano's oral history into a piece called Ascencion. They're calling it an "ethno-historical cantata."

Stickball takes off

Tribal stickball game makes a comeback

Shinney will be the main feature at the Native Games Tournament Saturday near AshlandTeams are starting at the University of California at Davis, Portland State University, the Grand Ronde Reservation, among local Unete groups and at the Native American Student Union at Southern Oregon University, says Wahpepah—and some of them will attend this weekend's tournament.

"There's a lot of running, like soccer, but also a lot of full-body contact. Some people do get hurt. We do ask for no cleats because they can hurt. It's very cardiovascular and fun, fun, fun," says Wahpepah.

Modern American Indians are reviving key aspects of shinney's ancient meaning, says Wahpepah. In Indian heritage, games started with a purifying sweat lodge "to get rid of toxins and also things you carry psychologically," he says. Feasting follows games.

"It's just starting to catch on. It's a big hit when we bring it out at powwows. We usually end up giving the powwow committee a set of sticks," says Wahpepah, who makes them along with Basquez.

Chickasaws subsidize CD

Chickasaw works make historyThe Chickasaw Nation is underwriting classical musician Jerod Tate's first recorded works.

Tate, 39, an American Indian and classical music composer of about 16 years, just released a compact disc on Thunderbird Records. It blends classical orchestration and American Indian folklore melodies.

Tate, accompanied by the Oklahoma Youth Orchestra, performed the recorded works on his CD to an invitation-only audience at the Oklahoma History Center this month.

The full-length CD, about 60 minutes, includes a work from the "Chickasaw Garfish Dance Song,” which appears to be the only true surviving Chickasaw dance. It is traditionally associated with the green corn ceremony, in which the teeth of a garfish are used in the purification ritual connected with the summer ceremonies.Comment:  The Chickasaws also subsidized the CHICKASAW ADVENTURES comic-book series. I'd say telling their story in popular formats is a smart use of their gaming income.

No Star Trek at Nambe

Star Trek Themed Casino Phased OutThe Nambe Pueblo is no longer making plans to boldly go where no one has gone before.

Pueblo tribal leaders have tabled plans for a "Star Trek" themed casino, citing economic concerns.

Instead, the Pueblo intends to build a much smaller casino next to its new travel center north of Santa Fe.

They plan to study the larger casino project in the future.Comment:  This is probably a good idea, since Nambe is a traditional pueblo and Star Trek is about as far from traditional as you can get. A Nambe-themed casino might be less profitable, but it might be better for the tribe's culture and its long-term future.

For more on the subject, see The Facts About Indian Gaming and The Indian-Star Trek Connection.

Below:  Boldly going where no comic-book publisher has gone before: on the road to Nambe.

Native Easter celebrations

Tribes host Easter activities, celebrate springMembers of three American Indian tribes are collaborating for an Easter celebration today at Ute Mountain Recreation Center in Towaoc, Colo.

Organizers are expecting more than 100 people from the Ute Mountain Ute, Navajo and Shoshone/Cree tribes to participate in the event, which marks the beginning of spring, said Afrem Wall, a member of the Ute Mountain Ute tribe.

Although American Indian traditions typically don't observe Judeo-Christian holidays, many tribes commemorate the changing of the seasons.

"Easter comes at the beginning of spring," Wall said. "Other cultures celebrate Easter as the time when Jesus rose from the dead. In our culture, we celebrate when spring is coming."Comment:  In some tribes, Rabbit is the trickster figure. A rabbit also symbolizes Easter. Coincidence?

Silver Navajo Rubik's Cube

Cody Sanderson Is Awarded Best Of Show At 50th Annual Heard Museum In an intense and exciting competition, the coveted Best of Show ribbon for “Outside the Cube,” a working artistic interpretation of a Rubik’s Cube crafted in silver, was awarded to Cody Sanderson, Navajo, at the 50th Annual Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair & Market Juried Competition. Other examples of Sanderson’s work can be seen in the exhibition Young Jewelers: Forging a Future, currently showing at Heard Museum Phoenix.

"I was a teenage mascot"

Update:  Stereotype fight inspires exhibitWhen he pinpoints the start of his nearly 40-year fight against the stereotyping of Native Americans, Richie Plass points to an experience from high school.

Plass, a member of the Menominee, Stockbridge-Munsee tribe, was asked to be the Indian mascot for his Shawano Senior High School in Wisconsin.

"I was a teenage mascot," said Plass, who did it for a while, but later realized he was horrified by the experience and the racial stereotyping.

The experience convinced him to fight racial stereotyping of all kinds, the former senior class president said.

Plass brings Bittersweet Winds, his exhibit on Native American stereotyping, to the State Museum Saturday as part of the Seventh Annual Algonquian Peoples Seminar sponsored by the Native American Institute of the Hudson River Valley. The exhibit is open to members of the public not attending the seminar, according to the museum.

"It's a traveling exhibit on Native American imagery. I call it the good, the bad and the ugly of how our images are used and continued to be used not only with sports teams and with marketing," Plass said.

The 160 items in the exhibit include photographs, documents and marketing items. Native Americans are depicted as team mascots, comic caricatures and blood-thirsty savages.

Plass said his goal isn't to argue but to educate others about the impact of racial stereotyping.Comment:  Note that Plass wasn't immediately horrified by the thought of being a mascot. He may have believed it was an "honor" at first. After he thought about it, he realized it demeaned and trivialized his Indian identity.

I know the woman who worked with Plass to create this exhibit. In fact, I sent her a few hundred of my stereotype images. I haven't seen the exhibit, since it's back east, but I believe it uses some of my images.

So I'm doing the same thing as Plass, an Indian educator. And I couldn't agree more with his stated goal.

My goal isn't to argue with the actual stereotypers, though I'll do it if necessary. It isn't to persuade the Mel Gibsons, Dick Wolfs, or Larry McMurtrys of the world. It's to "educate others about the impact of racial stereotyping." Period.

Below:  What you might see if you attended the show: team mascots, comic caricatures, and blood-thirsty savages.

Happy birthday, Captain Kirk

While looking up something else, I happened to notice today is William Shatner's and James T. Kirk's birthday:

William Shatner, b. March 22, 1931, in Montreal, Quebec.

James T. Kirk, b. March 22, 2233, in Riverside, Iowa.

Only 225 years to go till Kirk's birth. ;-)

Coincidentally, I'm reading Crucible: Kirk--The Star to Every Wandering by David R. George III now. It's not that good; George is using the Nexus to do a confusing time-loop plot. Kirk-present and Kirk-past skip through their mutual history, meeting each other and reliving their experiences. It's exactly the kind of plot that I feared someone would attempt (and fail) when Star Trek: Generations introduced the Nexus.

But George wrote one thing worth noting. Something almost no other author has said: that Miramanee was one of the great loves of Kirk's life. Kudos for that.

Also coincidentally, I'm reading Voyages of the Imagination: The Star Trek Fiction Companion by Jeff Ayers. It's not that good either. I was hoping Ayers would do a mini-review of each novel, noting its strengths and weaknesses. Instead he's provided only a brief blurb--less information than you could find on the book's back cover. And interviewed the writers about how they got into Trek. It's mildly interesting, but not that helpful.

But it does make one worthwhile point: Paramount Studios reviews every novel and demands changes if it deems the plots or characters incompatible with Trek. Nothing in the books is unacceptable to Paramount, which owns the Trek license. The content isn't part of the "canon," but it's not contrary to the canon, either.

In other words, the books are potential canon fodder. If they explain something, Paramount's attitude seems to be, "That sounds reasonable to us. It could well be part of the canon someday. If a film or TV show confirms it, it's in."

In fact, many Star Trek "facts" were established in the books first and confirmed on-screen later. For example, Kirk's middle name (Tiberius), Kirk's birthplace (Iowa), and Sulu's first name (Hikaru). Everyone "knows" Kirk's middle name is Tiberius, but it wasn't canonized until Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.

So the books are source material for Trek. That's more than enough justification for studying them. Whatever they tell us about Miramanee, Kirk, and the Preservers, for instance, just may come true someday.

Helping homeowners, not Indians

One group is part of mainstream society, the other isn't. One group gets bailed out, the other doesn't.

Calls grow for U.S. to bail out homeowners, prevent foreclosures

Proposals gain traction in Congress as the housing crisis roils the economy.From Wall Street to Capitol Hill, calls are growing for the government to get into the mortgage business as the only way out of the housing crisis roiling the economy and the financial markets.

Proposals to shore up tottering home loans with taxpayer money are gaining traction in Congress and moving to the forefront of presidential politics.And:Democratic contender Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton cited that action this week in calling for a new initiative to provide $30 billion to help homeowners.

"If we can extend a $30-billion lifeline to avoid a crisis for Wall Street banks, we should extend at least $30 billion in immediate assistance to at-risk communities and families facing foreclosure," Clinton's campaign said in a statement.Comment:  A slight modification of Clinton's statement:

"If we can extend a $30-billion lifeline to avoid a crisis for Wall Street banks, or give away $30 billion in tax cuts to the rich, or throw away $30 billion every three months in Iraq, then we should extend at least $30 billion in immediate assistance to at-risk Indian communities and families whether they're facing foreclosure or some other financial hardship."

This news item suggests why I laugh whenever conservatives complain that Indians get welfare or the reservation system is a "failed experiment in socialism" (James Watt). If non-Indians are suffering economic hardship, they expect and demand the same kind of "handouts." And politicians rush to help them.

There's no difference between bailing out struggling non-Indians and struggling Indians. Oh, wait...there's one difference. We actually owe Indians government support because of the treaties they signed. We don't owe welfare-seeking non-Indians anything. Not legally, anyway.

For more on the subject, see The Myth of American Self-Reliance.

US violates international law

US government blasted for extensive racial discriminationWhile the presidential campaign has brought the issue of race and racism in America into the discussion in the mainstream media, the U.S. government has come under vigorous criticism in the international arena for its discriminatory treatment of American Indians, blacks, Latinos, Arabs and other racial minorities, and for its "insufficient will" to take action against the high incidence of sexual violence against indigenous women.

In a report published in early March, the Geneva-based U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination said the United States is failing to meet its obligations and international standards on racial equality.

The CERD is responsible for monitoring global compliance with the 1969 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, an international treaty that the U.S. ratified.

The CERD report found "stark racial disparities" in the criminal justice system and "wide racial disparities" in the areas of human rights violations, environmental racism, health care, housing and education.Comment:  As Jefferson said, "The price of freedom is eternal vigilance." This is as a good a reason as any for why I monitor and criticize racism and stereotyping. We must remain vigilant about the evils in our society so we can free ourselves of their effects.

Below:  An idea of what environmental racism looks like.

Navajo spelling bee champ

Repeat champ

Tsaile eighth-grader wins Navajo Nation spell-off for second yearNatasha Begay, an eighth grader at Tsaile Public School, is the Navajo Nation spelling bee champion. Jack Martin, background, a seventh grader at Hilltop Christian School, is the runner-up. The spelling bee was held at the museum on March 13.How Begay won:Martin finally missed his word in round 23, "langosta," which means "lobster" in several Mediterranean languages. He spelled it with an "a" in place of the "o."

"I knew it in my mind, but it sounds like an 'a' when you pronounce it," he said.

Begay won the bee by spelling "bravura."

"I don't know what that means," she said. "I just know how to spell it."

Bikers terrorize Barona's 'hood

Residents upset over noise from motorcycle track

Complaints to tribe have gone nowhereAnd for several homeowners in San Diego Country Estates, those are problems they've been unable to deal with.

A motorcycle track on the Barona Indian Reservation behind their backyard fences has created so much noise and dust that they say they simply can't enjoy their properties.

Complaints to the Barona tribe have gone nowhere.

“You can hear it in the house,” said Paul Freitas, who lives nearby and has joined an ad hoc committee of residents who are asking the tribe to move the track to another spot on the reservation.

“We feel like we're being terrorized in our own homes,” Freitas said.

Hopi puppet shows

Three Mesa Productions to perform in HopiThe puppet shows are about old Hopi fables and use the Hopi language. Robledo created Three Mesa Productions, along with Adrienne Talaswaima, after they attended a leadership program through the Hopi Foundation.

The two puppet shows last about 40 minutes combined. The first is Iisaw Niqu Yongosohahoya, which means Coyote and the Little Turtle. The second is Tawa Callers, which means Sun Callers. In between the two shows, there will be a sing along and crowd interaction.

Bingo casino for Wampanoags?

House halts casino pushThe Massachusetts House overwhelmingly rejected Gov. Deval Patrick's casino plan Thursday night, handing House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi a resounding but expected victory.

The House voted 108 to 46 to form a commission to study the impact and social costs of casinos, with a report due at the end of December.

Gambling supporters said the study commission was a parliamentary ruse to prevent a direct vote on the casino bill and to block amendments that would have strengthened Gov. Patrick's bill. They doubted anything would come of the commission.Even if Massachusetts votes against casinos, it won't necessarily stop the Mashpee Wampanoags:Rep. Thomas Calter, D-Kingston, whose district includes a proposed Mashpee Wampanoag Indian casino in Middleboro, warned the defeat would give the recently recognized tribe a monopoly on gambling, with no state or local taxation and regulation.

Rep. Calter said the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe "will be dancing in the streets."

"They will be saying, yes, our sovereignty today is worth more than it was yesterday, because those people up on Beacon Hill are not going to take advantage of the natural demand that is in the state," he said.

The tribe and its deep-pocketed investors have threatened to open a Class II "bingo slots" casino in Middleboro if the state does not strike a deal for a full Indian casino. A Class II facility would not need state approval, and the tribe would not have to share revenue with the state.

Rep. Daniel Bosley, a North Adams Democrat who led the fight against the casino bill, told lawmakers a Mashpee Wampanoag casino is not inevitable.

He predicted the tribe would have difficulty winning federal approval to get land in trust in Middleboro, which other legislators disputed.

Even if the tribe tried to open a Class II "bingo slots" casino--under the argument that the state already allows traditional bingo games--Rep. Bosley doubted they would find financial backers. He said Class II bingo slots games are slower and less lucrative than the Class III slots at Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun.

"Since there are alternatives here, we think it is going to be hard for them to find financing to put up this kind of a parlor if it ever gets to that point," Rep. Bosley said. "All of these different barriers diminish the chance for this to be inevitable."

Rep. Bosley said the state could also elect to repeal the bingo law.Comment:  Here's how you stop Vegas-style Indian casinos with slot machines and table games. You don't legalize them for tribes or anyone else.

If you don't want "bingo slots" casinos in your state, there's a simple solution for that too. Don't legalize bingo.

Therefore, it's ridiculous to criticize a tribe for having a "monopoly" on gaming. They have a monopoly only if the people of a state allow it.

Another article says, "The latest plans for the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe’s proposed casino include a 15-to-18 story hotel adjacent to a 3-4 story casino." That seems ambitious for a second-tier casino in a small town. If I were an investor, I wouldn't bet my money on its happening.

For more on the subject, see The Facts About Indian Gaming.

P.S. The Massachusetts situation has been a big story on PECHANGA.net the last few months. As someone who has to post every gaming article coming out of the state, I hope the story dies down for a while. ;-)

Genghis Khan, Vikings, and the Maya

A new book says we should blame weather rather than warfare for the collapse of Amerindian civilizations.

Climate Change?  Been There, Done ThatLonger summers and milder winters in Europe, especially stable from 1100 to 1300, allowed Norse explorers to range as far as Greenland and Labrador. At the same time a population boom in the rest of Europe led to radical deforestation, as trees were cleared to create farmland. By the end of the Medieval Warm Period half the forests that covered four-fifths of Western and Central Europe in A.D. 500 had disappeared.

Across vast swaths of the globe, however, severe, persistent droughts lasted not just for years but for generations. The Sierras of modern-day California experienced the severest droughts of the past 4,000 to 7,000 years. Acorn trees died, and along with them peoples largely dependent on acorns for food. Although data remain sketchy, it seems probable that extended droughts dried up pastureland on the Central Asian steppe, propelling the armies of Genghis Khan westward.

In the southern Yucatan arid conditions proved too much for the elaborate reservoirs, called “water mountains,” that the Maya used to irrigate their fields. Mr. Fagan permits himself an ominous aside: “The analogies to modern-day California, with its aqueducts for water-hungry Los Angeles, or to cities such as Tucson, Ariz., with its shrinking aquifers and falling water table, are irresistible.”The implications for modern society:The causes of the Medieval Warm Period remain unclear, and there is debate over what the actual temperatures were. Mr. Fagan draws one unambiguous conclusion from the evidence, however, in a final chapter on the present-day implications of the great warming of a thousand years ago. Drought is the great enemy, “the silent and insidious killer associated with global warming,” he writes.

Population density has placed enormous pressure on increasingly scarce water resources. As a result modern droughts, brought on by El Niño events, have taken an enormous toll in lives and wreaked measureless economic devastation. Prepare for worse.

“Judging from the arid cycles of a thousand years ago, the droughts of a warmer future will become more prolonged and harsher,” Mr. Fagan writes. “Even without greenhouse gases, the effects of prolonged droughts would be far more catastrophic today than they were even a century ago.”

For a spark of hope Mr. Fagan offers the example of Chimor, a kingdom in coastal Peru tormented by El Niño flooding and severe droughts throughout the Medieval Warm Period. The Chimu people thrived nonetheless by diversifying their food supply and protecting their scarce water resources. In a historically arid region with uncertain food supplies, they successfully tapped their centuries of experience with irrigation, soil conservation and water management. Look no further for a global-warming role model.Comment:  So a single climatological phenomenon may have been responsible for the rise of Genghis Khan, the Viking exploration of America, and the fall of the Maya, "Anasazi," and Khmer civilizations? Fascinating.

This tends to contradict the theories that say the Maya and Anasazi civilizations collapsed because of warfare. It's possible the droughts aggravated or even caused tensions that wouldn't have been fatal otherwise.

The Great Warming suggests the need for a more multicultural perspective. We need to learn from cultures such as the Chimu and Hopi about living within our means and conserving our resources. We should be imposing the actual costs of land development, water and energy usage, and environmental pollution so they don't overwhelm the ecosphere and lead to the collapse of our civilization.

For more on the subject, see Ecological Indian Talk.

"Honoring" Natick's losers

Supporters of the Natick "Redmen" say they're honoring Indians, of course. Here's the historical reality they're actually "honoring":

Editorial:  To honor Indians, pick a new nameThe back-and-forth over the nickname has prompted many in town to get acquainted with Natick's own Indian heritage. Natick was founded by Indians, as the first of John Eliot's villages for "Praying Indians" who had converted to Christianity.

Natick's Indians played a large role in the events leading up to King Philip's War, the bloody conflict that cemented the domination of English colonials over the Indian tribes of New England. The Praying Indians were allies of the English, and the scouting by some Natick Indians played a direct role in the defeat of Philip, the sachem who led the revolt.

But as Philip's men destroyed settlements west of Boston, the English turned on the Praying Indians. They were imprisoned in Natick in 1675 and sent off to Deer Island in chains, where hundreds died. Things didn't get better after the war. They were cheated out of their lands, some sold into slavery and some murdered. One account notes the summary execution in 1676 of an Indian named Captain Tom on the spot where Jordan's Furniture now stands.But supporters aren't totally oblivious to real Indians:To their credit, the group pushing to bring back Redmen has embraced this cause, promising to donate any excess funds raised for their campaign toward efforts to erect a statue.Comment:  A statue? Built only with excess funds--if there are any? Can you say "face-saving sop to political correctness"? "Meaningless gesture"? "Drop in the bucket"?

No, supporters aren't totally oblivious to real Indians. They may be 99.9% oblivious, but you can't say they're totally oblivious. One of them may have thought about a real Indian once.

What Redmen supporters are really doing is puffing up themselves by puffing up the people they defeated. "See how great those Indians were? We're just like them, except better. We're even greater warriors than the Indians because we triumphed over them."

When Natick restores the Praying Indians' stolen land or pays reparations to them, then I'll believe they care about Indians. Until then, no.

For more on the subject, see Smashing People:  The "Honor" of Being an Athlete. Also see my comments at the end of the original article.

Below:  More "redmen" mascots.

Desperately needing dialogue

More thoughts on what columnist Nicholas Kristof calls the best political speech since 1960:

Obama and Race[T]he furor over the Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s inflammatory sermons shows that Mr. Obama erred in an earlier speech—the 2004 speech to the Democratic National Convention that catapulted him to fame.

In that speech, Mr. Obama declared that “there is not a black America and a white America... . There’s the United States of America.” That’s a beautiful aspiration, and we’re making progress toward it. But this last week has underscored that we’re not nearly there yet.

The outrage over sermons by Mr. Wright demonstrates how desperately we as a nation need the dialogue about race that Mr. Obama tried to start with his speech on Tuesday.The gulf between black and white America:Right after the O.J. Simpson murder trial, a CBS News poll found that 6 out of 10 whites thought that the jury had reached the wrong verdict, while 9 out of 10 blacks believed it had decided correctly. Many African-Americans even believe that the crack cocaine epidemic was a deliberate conspiracy by the United States government to destroy black neighborhoods.

Much of the time, blacks have a pretty good sense of what whites think, but whites are oblivious to common black perspectives.

What’s happening, I think, is that the Obama campaign has led many white Americans to listen in for the first time to some of the black conversation—and they are thunderstruck.Comment:  As usual, this analysis applies to other minorities as well. In particular, it applies to Indians. As we've seen, most whites have little or no idea Indians still exist, much less what they're thinking.

For more on the subject of America's racism, see Highlights of the US Report to the UN on Racism.

Below:  Other things that aren't on the minds of self-satisfied Americans: melting ice caps, concentration camps, and rampant commercialism. Not to mention broken treaties, underfunded social services, and assaults on tribal sovereignty.

Pala motocross track

Expectations flying high for new motocross track

Project on reservation includes restaurant, RV park[A]s tracks have closed down because of development pressures and rising insurance costs, riders have parked their bikes or resigned themselves to long drives to Riverside County or the desert.

That may change this summer with the opening of the Pala Raceway, which could become the country's most diverse track.

“It's going to rekindle that industry, the motocross industry in San Diego,” said Johnson, who was in on the initial planning for the project on the reservation north of Escondido, but is not part of it now.Comment:  Motocross seems like a typically Western pastime. Feel your manhood (engine) between your legs as you dominate (demolish) the ground beneath you.

Motocross and off-road biking basically destroy whatever land they take place on. I guess it's better to limit them to an Indian reservation than let them proceed unfettered.

Richardson endorses Obama

The Democrat who was the most pro-Indian candidate by far has endorsed Barack Obama.

Obama wins Bill Richardson's endorsementNew Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, the nation's only Latino governor, is endorsing Sen. Barack Obama for president, calling him a "once-in-a-lifetime leader" who can unite the nation and restore America's international leadership.

The governor's endorsement comes as Obama leads among delegates selected at primaries and caucuses but with national public opinion polling showing Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton pulling ahead amid controversy over statements by his longtime pastor.Comment:  Here's hoping Obama learns something from Richardson, because Richardson knows Indian country.

Jury sends stereotypical message

Jury convicts man because drunk Indians get "wild or violent"