Twain invented "Honest Injun"?

I checked the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) about the claim that Mark Twain invented the word "Injun." Not true. The first recorded use of "Injun" was by someone named J. Cocke in an August 1812 issue of the Salem Gazette.

But Twain's Tom Sawyer (1876) is the first recorded use of the phrase "Honest Injun." Someone named Talcott had written the words "Honest Indians" a couple of centuries earlier, but only in their literal sense. Twain may have been the first to use "Honest Injun" as an exclamation meaning, "No, really. I'm not kidding!"

Of course, being the first citation in the OED doesn't prove Twain invented the phrase. Twain may have seen or heard it somewhere the OED couldn't document. But Twain certainly gets credit for making the phrase popular.

For more on "Injun," see Calling BS on Steele's "Injun" and "Injun" as Bad as N-Word? For more on Mark Twain, see Mark Twain, Indian Hater.

Elvis received Sioux medallion

From Memphis Memories Productions:This special story was recently shared by Rockin' Ron Cade during a broadcast of the Elvis & Friends Radio Show.

On June 21,1977, Elvis was on the road for what turned out to be his final tour. On this particular date Elvis had a show in Rapid City, South Dakota. Backstage, the Mayor presented Elvis with a special award for being the first artist to perform at the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center. While I am sure Elvis appreciated the award from the Mayor, he was really touched to his heart by the presentation to him by a little girl named Monique Brave. She gave Elvis a Medallion of Life on behalf of the Sioux Indian Nation.Comment:  For more on the subject, see Elvis in Flaming Star.

Images of Indian in the Cupboard

A look at three illustrations for The Indian in the Cupboard is instructive.



First we have the original book cover. A generic Indian is in the center. He's frozen in midstride, like a mannequin, a hard and lifeless object. He's displayed like a stuffed animal, trapped in a box, literally compartmentalized.

He's surrounded by a standard set of stereotypes. A chief, a teepee, a bow and arrow, a cowboy. Both the Indian and the cowboy have their weapons ready. The cover suggests the story will be about cowboys vs. Indians, warfare on the Plains, Indians as surly savages holding up the tide of progress.

Since I haven't read the book, I can't say for the sure if the contents match the cover. But the cover strongly suggests the Indian will be a stock character, one-dimensional, as interesting as a plastic toy. If this isn't Banks's view of her creatiion, she should've insisted on different art.



Here we have the original movie poster. On the plus side, the Indian is now a living being. The stereotypes are gone. It's clear the story will be about the relationship between the boy and the Indian.

On the minus side, the boy looms over the Indian like an all-powerful god. He's limned in light like an angel with a halo. His hands glow as if he's just given birth to a miracle. As if he's created the Indian out of clay or thin air.

The Indian looks startled or scared, as if he's meeting his maker. He's helpless, powerless, literally in the boy's hands. It's a perfect representation of the great white father looking down upon his poor little Indian. The cover couldn't imply more of a paternalistic, superior-to-inferior relationship if it tried.



Finally, presumably after critiques such as this one, we have a second movie poster. The Indian is now a full-fledged character, not simply a toy or a little person. He's joined by a cowboy with equal stature. So now the story isn't just about a boy and his Indian. It's about a boy and two men and their relationships as equals.

The poster still includes an image of the boy holding the Indian, but it's less significant now. The circle conveys the idea of magic (e.g., through the looking glass) as well as the angelic glow. What light there is appears to be shining onto the boy, not from him.

Moreover, the Indian is larger than he was, making him more of an equal. The boy is more clearly gaping in wonder. Most important, the Indian is leaning forward as if to challenge the boy. No longer is he scared; rather, he's demanding to know what happened.

Conclusion

Artistically, the second image is probably the best because it's so simple and striking. The third image is probably the worst because it's too cluttered with contrasting figures and colors. If I were designing a poster, I'd use the concept of third image but redo it entirely.

But the point here isn't to make the most artistic image. It's to show how you can package the same material in different ways. The creative choices can profoundly affect how you see and interpret the results.

Thematically speaking, there's no question the third image is the best. The first two images probably shouldn't have seen the light of day. But give the creative types credit for finally getting it right.

For more on the subject, see Thoughts on Indian in the Cupboard and Litefoot Dispels Stereotypes.

The Yanomami scandal

Here's the anthropological controversy explored in the documentary Secrets of the Tribe:

The Yanomami Scandal

By David Maybury-LewisTThe Yanomami (who are also called Yanamamo, Yanomam, and Sanuma) are a remote group of some twenty to thirty thousand Indians who live in over a hundred villages scattered on both sides of the border between Venezuela and Brazil. They are famous in the anthropological literature because of a long-running debate about whether or not they are particularly violent. Napoleon Chagnon, an anthropologist who recently retired from the University of California at Santa Barbara, has studied the Venezuelan Yanomami for most of his professional life, and has argued that they are indeed violent, so much so that he subtitled his book about them "The Fierce People" and maintained the subtitle through three editions of the work. In more recent editions he has dropped the subtitle, but continues to defend the thesis that the Yanomami are fierce, warring with each other to capture women, so that their best warriors can maximize their reproductive success. Napoleon Chagnon’s sometime teacher and longtime mentor was James Neel, a distinguished human geneticist (now dead) at the University of Michigan. Neel became especially interested in studying the genetics of remote tribal populations and for that reason went with Chagnon and others to work among the Yanomami of Venezuela in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Now, in a recently published book whose advance copies and excerpts in The New Yorker have created a furor, Patrick Tierney, an investigative journalist, has accused both Neel and Chagnon of committing serious abuses against the Yanomami.And:He claims that Chagnon interfered massively with the lives of the Yanomami in all sorts of ways. He claims that the films he made about them were particularly intrusive and many of the scenes in them were staged to show off the Yanomami as both fierce and primitive. The warfare which he highlighted as characteristic of Yanomami culture resulted more often than not from their battles over the trade goods that Chagnon distributed. His behavior in the field was insensitive and often deliberately so, as when he bribed or pressured children or other susceptible Yanomami to give him information on taboo topics. In sum, Tierney indicts the harmful effects of Chagnon's activities among the Yanomami, together with his portrayal of them as warlike savages and the competition between Chagnon and other filmmakers and TV crews to bring back footage of just contacted primitives.And:The charges against Napoleon Chagnon ... are, essentially, that he has damaged the Yanomami by his activities in the field but most of all by his insistence on portraying them as primitive savages when the evidence does not clearly support his conclusions. These charges are not new. They have in fact been made repeatedly by numbers of anthropologists over the years and in a letter sent by the Brazilian Anthropological Association to the American Anthropological Association in the early 1980s. Chagnon has responded to them by suggesting that he has the scientific evidence to prove his assertions, and that his critics only attack him on ideological grounds.

Chagnon interprets his evidence to show that the Yanomami are fierce and warlike and that they fight over women. These conclusions are enthusiastically believed by many sociobiologists who know little about the Yanomami or about South American Indians but welcome Chagnon’s analysis as lending support to their theories about the nature of primitive man and of human nature. Chagnon poses as the scientist "telling it like it is," but since the way he tells it is challenged by large numbers of reputable anthropologists, including some who have also studied the Yanomami, Chagnon’s interpretation should not be accepted without question.Comment:  Why is the Chagnon controversy significant? Chagnon has suggested Indians in their "primitive" or "natural" state are incredibly violent. People have generalized from the Yanomami to all Amazon Indians or even all Indians. As this stereotypical belief filters into the public consciousness, you get results such as the Zagar and Steve commercials, End of the Spear, and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

For more on the subject, see Savage Indians and Uncivilized Indians.

Below:  Zagar, a Yanomami-style savage who eats a pet bird because he's totally ignorant of civilized customs.

Modern Indians anger museum goers

Gover addresses 'White Man's Indian' in Canby lectureGover said that Indians are damaged by allowing others to define them, which continues to this day.

"It puts us in a box," Gover said. "I'm stunned by the number of people who are angry when they come to the museum and see it is about Indians who are still here, rather than Indians who used to be. They think modern Indians aren't real Indians because we're not like we were when Columbus set foot here."

Gover uses artists as an example.

"Any Native artist using modern media for their work is criticized," Gover said. "People say, 'That's not Indian art.' Even though it's an Indian making a statement about Indians. The media the artist chooses to use becomes disqualifying. It's crazy, and it's insulting.

"It's like saying it isn't legitimate unless it is the same way you were doing things in 1492," he said. "They wouldn't ask it of anyone else. They wouldn't say, 'You can't be a White man unless you're wearing knickers and tails. It's unique to Indians."

Being defined by others extends to sports mascots, where Indians are "honored" for their bravery.

"Why don't they honor us for being smart, creative, for all kinds of different things?" Gover asks. "Why choose the one? It tells us that you're stereotyping. You can't be Indian unless you're brave, whatever that means. It's ridiculous. It's just a tiny part of what Indians were and are."Comment:  The most interesting point here is the first one: how attendees get mad when the NMAI doesn't fulfill their expectations of stereotypical Indians. I suspect this anger plays a larger role than we realize.

For instance, when you tell people their Indian mascots are stereotypical, what do they do? Do they actually think about it, do some historical research, try to justify the stereotypes somehow? No, they lash out. They tell you they're "honoring" Indians, that you're being too "sensitive," that it's just "harmless fun."

In other words, they don't engage in the actual issues. They turn an intellectual question into an emotional one. "We love our mascot! We've had it forever! You're not taking it away from us!"

Essentially they're reacting like little children when you tell them they can't have a toy or a pet. The typical spoiled brat doesn't take it calmly; he screams and throws a tantrum. Whatever "reason" the whiner comes up with is illogical and insufficient. It amounts to nothing more than "I want it!"

For more on the subject, see Team Names and Mascots.

Below:  Kevin Gover, an example of a modern Indian who angers non-Indians.

Art examples in Currents

Examples of the art on display in Currents: Native American Forces in Contemporary Art at the University of Northern Colorado Galleries:

American Indian art shows its many facets

Exhibition at UNC dispels notion of a monolithic culture

By Kyle MacMillanNo piece more directly and succinctly speaks to the evolving identities of today's American Indians and the cultural pre-conceptions that surround them than "Tsu Heidei Shugaxtutaan," a sly video work by Nicholas Galanin of Sitka, Alaska.

In the first part, a dancer in street clothes in some nondescript room realizes an undulating contemporary solo to traditional Indian chant and drumming.

In the second part, a dancer in traditional ceremonial garb complete with a bird mask performs before a backdrop with classic Northwest Coast Indian designs. But confounding expectations, the music is a techno track.

The technical quality of the piece might be less than desirable, but the point is clear: There is no monolithic American Indian culture. Like every other group, Indians are highly diverse and ever-changing.

Other highlights:

"My Balls, My Beads," urethane foam, rope, oil and spray paint. Brooklyn artist Jeffrey Gibson offers an updated take on a centuries-old component of Indian art: beads. He has strung 13 multicolored balls, each about 18 inches across, on a rope that stretches down from the ceiling and onto the floor, creating an eye-grabbing installation.

"Staff: Custodian," cast bronze. Blankets, which had an important place especially in the history of nomadic tribes, run through the work of Marie Watt of Portland, Ore. This spindly, 4-inch-square totem, which reaches nearly 10 feet in height, consists of dozens of carefully folded sections of blankets that have been stacked and then cast in bronze.

Burial-ground joke on Tonight Show

On the final episode of The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien (airdate: 1/22/10), Conan offered a list of things that might happen to his studio when he was gone. The last item on the list was:Studio will be air-lifted to a location with better luck, like on top of a Native-American burial groundImplying that Indian burial grounds are cursed isn't cool, Coco. It's a common but unjustified stereotype.

With O'Brien's seven-month run over, we can sum up his record. By my count he told ten jokes involving Natives, or about nine more than anyone else. In addition, Robin Williams told one joke involving Natives. And Conan discussed scalping and smudging without mentioning their connection to Indians.

O'Brien came across as a typical Hollywood-style liberal: sincerely thinking about Indians, but incredibly naive about them. Some of his jokes were good, some (like this one) were lame. But again, I give him credit for trying.

For more on the subject, see TV Shows Featuring Indians.

Cherokee school chooses "Tommy Tomahawk"

Stilwell High School’s Indian mascot causes stir

By Christina Good VoiceA high school in eastern Cherokee Nation unveiled its new Indian mascot on Jan. 12, bringing with it more than just school spirit as many alumni and area residents have voiced opposition to it.

Stilwell High School administration came under fire by CN citizens and employees after a front-page photo in the Jan. 13 issue of the Stilwell newspaper, the Stilwell Democrat Journal, showed the new Indian mascot at a pep assembly.

The photo showed the mascot with a large head, long black hair in braids and exaggerated American Indian facial features such as a scowl, large nose and bushy eyebrows. The mascot is dressed in a fake buckskin shirt and leggings.

Mary Alice Fletcher, Stilwell Public Schools superintendent, said she fielded calls from several people, most of whom were CN employees, complaining they were offended by the mascot. But she said the students, faculty and administration didn’t intend to offend anyone with the mascot.

“It was done strictly to create school spirit because they’re proud of their Indian heritage,” Fletcher said. “Primarily, it was something the kids got after and promoted. Even our Indian heritage club was part of (the) promotion of that and donated funds for that.”

She said more than 70 percent of Stilwell High School’s student population is Indian, and a majority of those are Cherokee. The school has always been known as the Indians, but it’s never had a mascot.Comment: The only thing stupider than non-Indians choosing a ugly cartoon savage for a mascot is Indians choosing it. This proves that Indian high-school students can be as naive and ignorant as anyone else.

Tommy Tomahawk? That must be the least original mascot name ever. What's the story here, Stilwell? Was Sammy Spearchucker taken? How about Kenny Cowboy-Killer? Did you consider Hal the Human Sacrificer?

Sheesh.

I usually don't criticize Indian schools when they choose a name such as "Savages" or "Redskins." If they want to try to reappropriate a word, that's their right. But when they choose a cartoon mascot that insults all Indians, they're fair game.

Any Stilwell supporters out there? Feel free to write in and explain why you chose such a stupid, stereotypical mascot. Also feel free to include pictures of yourselves. I'd love to see if you look as grotesque as the big-nosed barbarian pictured below.

For more on the subject, see Team Names and Mascots.

Below: "Me dumb Injun named Tommy Tomahawk. Am too primitive to speak'um good English. Me no have'um wheel, metal, writing, guns, cars, computers. No laugh'um at me or me scalp'um you! Ugh!!" (Photo by Tommy Tomahawk Facebook Group)



No doubt Stilwell got its mascot outfit from one of the many costume companies across the country. Here are some more costumed clowns similar to the Stilwell savage. In fact, the second one may be the same mascot.



"Me angry! Kill'um palefaces! Grrr!"



Finally, another mascot named Tommy Tomahawk--because it's such a clichéd name:

Thoughts on Indian in the Cupboard

A brief look at the movie based on the book of the same name:

The Indian in the CupboardBased on the popular children's book by Lynne Reid Banks, this fantasy concerns a young boy who discovers that his toys are developing lives of their own--which presents him with unexpected responsibilities. Omri (Hal Scardino), a young boy growing up in Brooklyn, receives an odd variety of presents for his birthday: a wooden cabinet from his older brother, a set of antique keys from his mother Jane (Linsday Crouse), and a tiny plastic model of an Indian from his best friend Patrick (Rishi Bhat). Putting them all together, Omri locks the Indian inside the cabinet, only to be awoken by a strange sound in the middle of the night. Omri opens the cabinet to discover that the tiny Indian has come to life; it seems that he's called Little Bear (Litefoot), and he claims to have learned English from settlers in 1761. Omri hides this remarkable discovery from his mother but shares it with Patrick; as an experiment, Patrick locks a toy cowboy into the cupboard, and soon Little Bear has a companion, Boone (David Keith), though predictably, the cowboy and the Indian don't get along well at first. Omri comes to the realizations that his living and breathing playthings are also people with lives of their own, and he begins to wonder how much control he should really have over their lives.Comment:  The book may have other problems, but the movie's "problems" are mostly conceptual or thematic. The Indian is an old-fashioned "brave" from the 1750s. He's a toy who comes to life only through supernatural intervention. As a "primitive" man, he initially finds the modern world mystifying and scary.

Most of all, he's a tiny, powerless plaything whose fate a giant white boy controls. It's a great metaphor for the historic paternalism of Anglos toward Indians.

One could find a few specifics to complain about also. The Indian is half-naked, though he comes from a place with a summery climate. His name "Little Bear" is blatantly symbolic: Yes, he's little, but he's still a bear of a man.

But if you overlook the paternalistic setup, there's a lot to like. Little Bear reaches for his weapons first, but it quickly becomes clear he's a thoughtful man of peace. He teaches Omri (and the audience) a bit about the Iroquois; for instance, that they live in longhouses, not tipis. Omri brings "white" toys to life too, so it's hard to see The Indian in the Cupboard as a statement about Indians.

Most important, Little Bear ends up imparting simple but valuable lessons. Lessons along the lines of "humans aren't toys" and "it's dangerous to play with things you don't understand." Even at his small size, he begins as a naive pupil but eventually becomes a moral guide or teacher.

Overall, I'd put The Indian in the Cupboard in roughly the same category as Disney's Pocahontas. If you can't get past the cartoonish premise, you probably won't like either film. But if you can, you'll find The Indian in the Cupboard an enjoyable family film with a decent take on Indians. Rob's rating: 8.0 of 10.

For more on the subject, see Litefoot Dispels Stereotypes and The Best Indian Movies.

Secrets of the Tribe at Sundance

Documentary directed by Brazilian to be shown at Sundance"Secrets of the Tribe," a documentary directed by Brazilian Jose Padilha and produced by BBC, will be shown on Friday at the ongoing Sundance Film Festival in Utah, the United States.

The film, which beat hundreds of competitors on its way to Sundance, investigates a controversial study of the Indians of the Yanomami tribes in the Amazon Basin conducted by French anthropologists in the 1960s and 1970s.

"It's the first movie I do outside Brazil, and it involves an issue that I had not treated yet and has always interested me: the philosophy of science," Padilha told Brazilian newspaper Gazeta do Povo in a recent interview.

According to him, the documentary discusses anthropology from a critic point of view, analyzing the research, debates and scandals that involved and keep on involving the ethnography of Yanomami Indians of Venezuela.

A review posted on the Sundance website said the director "brilliantly employs two provocative strategies to raise unsettling questions about the boundaries of cultural encounters."Sundance Review:  'Secrets of the Tribe'

By Daniel FienbergThe title of the HBO Films documentary "Secrets of the Tribe" is a bit of a trick.

The feature, premiering as part of Sundance's World Cinema Documentary Competition, is set against the backdrop of the popular field of Yanomami Indian studies, but that isn't the tribe in question. No, Jose Padilha's doc is actually focused on the intellectual tribe of anthropologists and academics who have built their careers and expanded their livelihoods by studying, exploiting and possibly even harming the Yanomami.

Napoleon Chagnon, one of the doc's central figures, called his then-groundbreaking study "Yanomamo: The Fierce People," but as somebody who grew up in a family of academics, I can vouch for the fierceness of professors and researchers as well. Even those uninitiated in the publish-or-perish world or in the jungle of the tenure system won't have much doubt on its brutality after watching "Secrets of the Tribe."

But "Secrets of the Tribe" isn't just about a group of eggheads calling each other names (though there's a lot of that), it's an often provocative interrogation of how all ambitious people impact the world around them and how difficult (or impossible) it is to be a mere observer.Comment:  For more on the subject, see Native Documentaries and News.

White men reenact Illinois Indians

Links to history:  Local men portray Native Americans

By Dave FopayAs he talked in his Charleston home one recent morning, the short hair on most of Baumgartner’s head, except for a long braid in the back, gave a hint of the Mohawk he got and to which he now frequently returns. He’s spent 28 years portraying a Native American during presentations and re-enactments.

His encounter with the long gun settlers, actually other re-enactors portraying a militia at Lincoln Log Cabin State Historic Site, was an example of “the tail end of the time we portray,” he said. Most natives were “pushed out of Illinois” by the mid-1800s era that the historic site uses for its programs, he explained.

“History is written by the winners,” Gary Fuller said.

Joining his longtime friend and fellow re-enactor Baumgartner to talk about what they do and why, the Kansas resident said many people have no idea how Native Americans who lived in Illinois looked and live, often thinking of Chief Illiniwek.

“It’s showing the history of who was here,” Fuller said. “We fight stereotypes all the time.”And:Baumgartner and Fuller most often portray members of the Kaskaskia tribe, re-enacting the eastern woodland culture on the “cusp” of the woods and plains, as Baumgartner described it.

Fuller showed a deer skin robe he made with images that show a story, one of several pieces he or Baumgartner made themselves. They have arrowheads, tools, pottery, weapons and more items than they say they can count.Comment:  On the one hand, it's good these reenactors are dispelling the usual Plains Indians stereotypes. The stereotypes reinforced by the University of Illinois's Chief Illiniwek, that is. Amazing that Chief supporters have the gall to claim their dancing clown is educational.

On the other hand, I wonder how authentic their portrayals are. Even if they're authentic, white men portraying Indians isn't a great idea. It encourages people to think that anyone can be an Indian. That being Indian is just a matter of having the right clothing and accouterments.

For more on the subject, see Team Names and Mascots and Indian Wannabes

Variety reviews Nuummioq

Nuummioq
(Greenland)

By Todd McCarthyPurportedly the first locally produced feature film ever made in Greenland, "Nuummioq" is an engagingly low-key and increasingly contemplative look at a man's journey across land and water to new-found self-awareness. Never less than a pleasure to behold thanks to the stunning landscapes and nimble handheld lensing, the mischievously humorous picture maintains an unemphatic but steady grip on its protag's largely unarticulated emotional awakening. Unassuming, sympathetic effort will gain automatic entree to fests around the world based on the novelty of its origins alone and has a sliver of commercial potential in specialized Euro and North American markets.

That the film has turned out well at all perhaps rates as a mild surprise, not only because of the lack of filmmaking infrastructure in the sparsely populated nation (which is still largely administered by Denmark), but also because of its fractured production history; original director Otto Rosing reportedly became severely depressed and departed the production immediately after principal photography was finished in the summer of 2008, whereupon screenwriter Torben Bech assumed co-director status and oversaw editing and post-production with producer Mikisoq H. Lynge.

As it is, the pic is marked by a fleet editing style that skips from moment to moment while still allowing the story's meditative aspects to take hold, although some patchwork is visible via the abundant layering of moody pop tunes, many of them in English. Importantly, however, the storytelling maintains its throughline and slowly develops heft despite the relative ordinariness of most of the action.Comment:  For more on the subject, see Preview of Nuummioq and The Best Indian Movies.

Sasquatch exhibit in Washington museum

Exhibit explores history of sasquatch

By Jeffrey P. Mayor“Giants in the Mountains: The Search for Sasquatch” does not attempt to prove or disprove the existence of sasquatch, but instead looks at how and why the story is so ingrained in the cultural fabric of the Northwest.

The story of sasquatch certainly goes far beyond the 1987 movie “Harry and the Hendersons” or recent beef jerky TV commercials. It has been told for centuries among Northwest Indian tribes.

That mix of ancient mythology and modern commercialism is the focal point of a sasquatch exhibit that opened Saturday at the Washington State History Museum.And:The exhibit is built around about 40 significant items, including casts of alleged footprints, ancient stone carving and Indian masks.

One of the key artifacts is a prehistoric stone head borrowed from the Maryhill Museum of Art. The carving was found in the Columbia Basin in the 1890s and is believed to date from 1,500 B.C. to 500 A.D., Perkins said.

“When you see them, they resemble gorillas. There have been at least four of these stone heads,” Perkins said.Comment:  For more on the subject, see Origin of Sasquatch and Bigfoot and Native Things That Go Bump in the Night.

Indian casino joke on Tonight Show

On the penultimate episode of The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien (airdate: 1/21/10), Conan was talking with comedian Robin Williams. The subject was what to do with the sound stage after O'Brien leaves the show. Williams came up with the following:You know what you can open up here is a really nice Indian casino. You can get tribal status. What's your tribe?

What is the name of your tribe? "I'm not a ho."To be fair, O'Brien had done a bit a few days earlier about how he resembled a "ho" (prostitute) because NBC was screwing him. I think Williams was riffing on that bit.

Still, it wasn't a particularly funny or sensitive joke. And it was incorrect in its presumption that it's easy to get "tribal status" and open a casino anywhere.

I've been giving O'Brien and his staff credit for mentioning Indians, but we can't credit him for Williams's line. It was an odd thing to say, since nobody had mentioned Indians or casinos, the stage doesn't resemble a casino, and Indian casinos aren't in the news. Maybe Williams performed at a casino recently.

For more on the subject, see The 2009 TV Season So Far and The Facts About Indian Gaming.

Under These Same Stars

‘Under These Same Stars’ is a true homegrown film

By Brent StewartBased on a true story from 1773, "Under These Same Stars--The Céladon Affair," was filmed in the spring in the historic homes of Cahokia, Kaskaskia, Ste. Genevieve, Mo., and at other rural locations across Southern Illinois. It's a little-known historical event that was quite a controversy in its day.

"Under These Same Stars" is the story of Céladon, a mixed-race hunter who falls in love with a Native American slave woman but can't get her to run away into the wilderness with him. Céladon convinces another slave girl, who was the favorite of British soldiers, to run away with him. The girl ends up dead under mysterious circumstances, which causes something of an international incident between the French and British colonists of the area.

The incident was documented by historian Carl Ekberg, in his book, "Stealing Indian Women," on which the movie is based.Love, Murder, Slavery in Colonial Ste. Gen! Film Screening at Historical Museum

By Aimee LevittThe film is based on Stealing Indian Women: Native Slavery in the Illinois Country, a scholarly work by Carl J. Ekberg, a professor emeritus at Illinois State University who has devoted most of his academic career to studying the "Creole Corridor" in the colonial-era Mississippi Valley.And:About 25 years ago in a Ste. Genevieve courthouse, Ekberg stumbled upon a pile of legal documents concerning the investigation into the death of a Native American slave woman. The chief suspect was a métis, or mixed-race, hunter named Céledon. Ekberg remembers a passing interest at the time, but he didn't decide to write about the case until a few years ago when he discovered duplicates of the same documents in Seville, Spain. (Between 1763 and 1800, the Louisiana Territory was actually part of Spain.)Comment:  Checking out the official website, it's not clear if Under These Same Stars has any Native actors or input. The source book is Stealing Indian Women, but the Indian slave seems to be a minor character in this story.

For more on the subject, see The Best Indian Movies.



"Allie Stevens as Lissette Morgan, the native British slave."

Infinity of Nations at NMAI

National Museum of the American Indian in New York to Inaugurate a Permanent, Hemispheric Survey of Native American ArtA spectacular, permanent exhibition of 700 works of Native art from throughout North, Central and South America will open Saturday, Oct. 23, at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian in New York, the George Gustav Heye Center. Organized by geographic regions, “Infinity of Nations: Art and History in the Collections of the National Museum of the American Indian” will demonstrate the breadth of the museum’s renowned collection and highlight the historic importance of many of these iconic objects.

Five years in the making, “Infinity of Nations” will establish the museum as an educational cornerstone for the city, providing an expansive overview of Native America. The exhibition will also provide the foundation for eight seasons of public programs, each celebrating a different region and revealing the richness and diversity of indigenous nations.

Chosen to illustrate the geographic and chronological scope of the museum’s collections, the objects have been meticulously conserved and will be displayed in custom casework by the acclaimed Laborotorio Museotecnio Goppion of Milan, Italy.

“Infinity of Nations” will open with a display of headdresses, signifying the sovereignty of Native nations, including a magnificent Kayapó krok-krok-ti, a macaw-and-heron-feather ceremonial headdress. Focal-point objects, representing each region, will include an Apsáalooke (Crow) robe illustrated with warriors’ exploits; a detailed Mayan limestone bas relief depicting a ball player; an elaborately beaded Inuit tuilli, or woman’s inner parka, made for the mother of a newborn baby; a Mapuche kultrung, or hand drum, that depicts the cosmos; a carved and painted chief’s headdress depicting a killer whale with a raven emerging from its back, created and worn by Willie Seaweed (Kwakwaka’wakw); an anthropomorphic Shipibo joni chomo, or water vessel from Peru; a Chumash basket decorated with a Spanish-coin motif; an ancient mortar from Pueblo Bonito in Chaco Canyon, N.M.; a gourd carved with a detailed picture of the Battle of Arica by Mariano Flores Kananga (Quechua); and an early Anishinaabe man’s outfit complete with headdress, leggings, shirt, sash and jewelry. The exhibition will conclude with works by Native artists such as Allan Houser (Warm Springs Chiricahua Apache) and Rick Bartow (Mad River Wiyot).Comment:  For more on the NMAI, see Digital Fire Pit at NMAI and NMAI:  5 Years in 4 Minutes.

Below:  The Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian at the George Gustav Heye Center in New York.

Litefoot dispels stereotypes

Off ‘the Rez’

By Cheryl HatchWhen Cherokee rapper Litefoot was asked to read the script for the 1995 movie “The Indian in the Cupboard,” he resisted. “That’s a crazy title.”

After he read it, he accepted the role of Little Bear. “Little Bear had tattoos and was half bald.”

He walked up to a teepee and didn’t know what it was. When the child offered him a horse, Little Bear said “We don’t ride horses. We walk,” said Litefoot, explaining that the representations of the Indian were historically accurate. “They go against mainstream media stereotypes of Native American people.”

As an actor and rapper, Litefoot uses the same media—movies, music and marketing—that perpetuate negative stereotypes to challenge and dispel them.

“I have control over what gets presented to the public.”Comment:  I haven't read the Indian in the Cupboard books, but I saw the movie. I liked it. I think Litefoot achieved his goal of dispelling stereotypes and creating a realistic Indian character.

For more on the subject, see Litefoot's Native Green Energy and The Best Indian Movies.

Making Naturally Native

Hollywood Film Distribution for Natives.  It Could Happen

By Roscoe Pond1998. I was called into my talent agent's office to talk about auditioning for an Independent feature film called "Naturally Native." The producers were looking for a native male with long hair to play the husband. My agent had the screenplay and when I got to her office, she threw it into the trash. I never auditioned for that production.

The Pequot Indian Nation put up an estimated $700,000 dollars to produce "Naturally Native." Valerie Red-Horse was the director and she was also a co-star in the film. It was touted as the first "all native female production ever made in Hollywood." Red-Horse brought the film to festivals, Indian reservations and to Europe. She even created a line of hair products named after the film. It screened at Paramount studios in front of the Hollywood community. It never found a U.S. distributor and went straight to home video. The film won several First Americans in the Arts Awards, but received mixed to bad reviews. Native filmmakers were passing around a "Naturally Native" home video tape. Their response was total laughter. Several native actors who were in the film had claimed they weren't and distanced themselves from it.Comment:  I haven't seen this movie but I hear it's...not good.

For more on Naturally Native, visit the official website. For more on movies in general, see The Best Indian Movies.

Making Black Cloud

Hollywood Film Distribution for Natives.  It Could Happen

By Roscoe Pond2002. Child star Rick Schroder had written a screenplay called "Black Cloud." A co-worker of mine got a hold of it. Schroder reportedly wanted natives to read it and respond. I read as far as page thirty and could not continue. It was stereotypical and overly cliché. I wrote a small note to Schroder that I don't think he ever received.

Preview "Black Cloud" videos were submitted to Indian Centers in the southwest and in Southern California. That's how I saw the film. Schroder had received a reported $1 million dollars from several Casino tribes to produce the film. "Black Cloud" premiered in Arizona to a lot of fanfare and the film sold primarily on the name of Schroder as its' director. He won numerous film festival awards, but "Black Cloud" was critically panned and was a financial disaster. It never got a wide release in theaters and went straight to DVD.Comment:  Black Cloud had a lot of problems, but it was mildly entertaining. Rob's rating: 7.0 of 10.

For more on the subject, see My Take on Black Cloud and The Best Indian Movies.

"Commodity Comedy Show"

Tsosie and friends leave 'em laughing

By Bernie DotsonThrough his Native American-themed comedy, Tsosie, who grew up in Chinle, Ariz., on the Navajo Nation Indian Reservation, shares anecdotes of his personal life, relying on situations and circumstances to make people laugh.

That approach took center stage on a recent Saturday at the downtown Gallup El Morro Theatre, as Tsosie, Natasha Kaye Johnson, Tatanka Means and Drew Lacapa headlined Gallup's first ever "Commodity Comedy Show," a nonstop two hour series of acting and comedy sketches.

"This is, basically, what I do, who I am," informed Tsosie. "A lot of what I do is based on things that I've gone through in my life."

About 250 people turned out for the show, the final leg of a 60-day tour that included stops in Albuquerque and Window Rock, Ariz., the capital of the Navajo Nation. The show is named after the superstar talent part and parcel of its production.Comment:  For more on the subject, see Native Plays and Other Stage Shows.