Native performers at Seeger concert

Native musicians to play concert in New York City

Nakai, Mousaa and other Native artists will join Springsteen, Dave Matthews for Pete Seeger 90th birthday concertAmerican Indian artists R. Carlos Nakai and Victorio Roland Mousaa as well as Bruce Springsteen, Dave Matthews and more than 40 other award-winning artists are scheduled to perform May 3 at Madison Square Garden for Pete Seeger’s 90th birthday benefit concert.

The concert, officially dubbed “The Clearwater Concert: Creating the Next generation of Environmental Leaders” will also include performances by Eddie Vedder, Steve Earle, Joan Baez, John Mellencamp, Emmylou Harris, Arlo Guthrie, and Ben Harper. Other performances as part of the Native American Indian Cultural Alliance will include Tom Pacheco, Vernon Masayesva, Bill Miller, Joanne Shenandoah, Joseph Firecrow, David Amram, Tiokasin Ghosthorse and Margo Thunderbird.

Tanka Bar introduces Tanka Dog

Tanka Bar company to unveil hot dog productNative American Natural Foods, the makers of Tanka Bar, will unveil a new product next week.

The Tanka Dog is a hot dog made from buffalo and wild rice. Initially, it will only be available for food service sales, according to the Tanka Bar blog

The company, which is based on the Pine Ridge Reservation, introduced Tanka Bar, an energy bar made from buffalo meat and cranberries in 2007.

2009 NAIIA nominees

The nominees for the first North American Indigenous Image Awards are out. They're the usual mix of movie and music categories plus a few unusual choices. I'll list the film-related categories and the oddities below.

2009 North American Indigenous Image Awards Official NomineesBest Actor

Ron Harris "Moccasin Flats: Redemption"
Raoul Trujillo "Apocalypto"
Cody Lightning "Four Sheets to the Wind"
Derek Miller "133 Skyway"

Best Actress

Candace Fox "Moccasin Flats: Redemption"
Misty Upham "Frozen River"
Tonatzin Carmello "Imprint"
Jennifer Podemski "Moose TV"

Best Supporting Actor

Cowboy Smithx "Chance"
Ernie Tsosie "Mile Post 398"
Michael Spears "Imprint"
Stuart Pierre "Moccasin Flats: Redemption"
Tiio Horn "Moccasin Flats: Redemption"

Best Documentary Film

"The Hollywood Indian"
"River of Renewal"
"StarBlanket"
"The 8th Fire"
"Trail of Tears Cherokee Legacy"
"Our Spirits Don't Speak English: Indian Boarding School"

Best Feature Film

"Moccasin Flats: Redemption"
"Four Sheets to The Wind"
"Turquoise Rose"
"Rez Bomb"
"Imprint"

Best Short Film

133 Skyway
Ancestor Eyes
Good Looking
One Step Left

Best Guest Starring Role in a Television Show

Jennifer Podemski "The Border"
August Schellenberg "Grey's Anatomy"
Gregory Cruz "Saving Grace"
Gary Farmer "Easy Money"

Best Comedian of the Year

Ryan McMahon
JR Redwater
Vaugh Eaglebear
James and Ernie

Best Calendar

Runway Beauty
BT Girls
21st Century Skins Mens Calendar
Women of the Navajo

Best Magazine

National Indian Education Association "NIEA News"
Spirit Magazine
Redskin Magazine
Native Youth MagazineComment:  I guess being a few years old--as in the case of Apocalypto, Imprint, and Four Sheets to the Wind--is no bar to winning a 2009 award. Perhaps the NAIIA will limit the awards to the previous year in the future.

I have to wonder how shows like this pick their categories. Why calendars and magazines and not plays, dance routines, books, newspapers, websites, video games, fashion designs, photography, graphic art, painting, and so forth and so on?

Anyway, since the award show was supposedly April 23, the winners should be known by now. But I haven't seen any info on them.

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

Review of Tecumseh's Vision

Still a week late, here's my review of Tecumseh's Vision, the second episode of the PBS series We Shall Remain. In this part I'll concentrate on the storytelling aspects.

Although this episode is an hour and 20 minutes, or a bit longer than the first episode, it doesn't lag.

The credits say this episode was written and produced by Ric Burns and directed by Burns and Chris Eyre. So it's basically a white man's production.

A few shifts in tone and style from After the Mayflower are evident.

1) Although Burns uses recreations throughout the episode, he shoots them at a distance...through tall grasses or smoke...out of focus...or using quick cuts. Clearly, as Burns said, he doesn't want us to take these recreations too literally.

This technique doesn't hurt any, but I don't think it helps any either. I'd say Eyre was right to try for a more realistic look in After the Mayflower.

2) Most of the narration is done by white historians, not by Benjamin Bratt or the actors. They tend to focus on the main characters and events and not on the Indian cultures.

Between the impressionistic recreations and the white-man narrators remove us a step from knowing the Native characters intimately. But I'd still say Tecumseh's Vision seems to unfold through Native eyes. There's no obvious bias toward a Euro-American point of view.

Once again, everything looks and feels authentic to the untrained eye.

Michael Greyeyes does a fine job as Tecumseh. So does Billy Merasty as Tenskwatawa. Greyeyes should be the go-to guy every time Hollywood needs an intense Indian actor in his 30s.

A couple of times the production uses screeching hawks--once when young Tecumseh is running through the grass and once when his brother is reborn as Tenskwatawa. No more hawk cries, please.

In their joint statement to PBS, the Wampanoag leaders wrote:PBS in its support and broadcasting of this production has given credence to a radically altered interpretation of the great Shawnee Chief Tecumseh’s 1811 declaration to President James Madison’s messenger by deleting its land based implication. “We Shall Remain” implies a call for pity and does not carry the same declaration and meaning as “… AND HERE, WE SHALL REMAIN.”I don't quite understand this complaint. Are they claiming that removing the two words "and here" radically changes the meaning? Even if that were true, it's irrelevant. Tecumseh's Vision has Tecumseh saying what I presume is the whole line:The Master of Life has appointed this place for us to light our fires, and here we shall remain.Sounds like a land-based declaration to me.

Conclusion

Anyway, Tecumseh's Vision is an excellent documentary. It has the same virtues as After the Mayflower, but not its slow start. After watching this documentary, you'll understand why some people consider Tecumseh the greatest Native leader ever.

Rob's rating:  9.0 of 10.

For more on the subject, see Native Documentaries and News.

Outcome of After the Mayflower

Continuing the discussion of After the Mayflower, the first episode of PBS's We Shall Remain series:

The narrator concludes this documentary with something like, "It's hard to see how the conflict could've been avoided and outcome could've been different." No, actually, it's easy to see. If the Mohawks hadn't ambushed their fellow Indians, King Philip's confederacy might well have won the war.

We see this outcome again and again in American history. It's almost a truism. If rival Indian tribes had united against their common foe, they could've won. They almost won under Tecumseh using this strategy. Even without this strategy, they fought the US Army to a standstill in places like Florida, the Great Plains, and Arizona for years.

In King Philip's case, all it would've taken is a visionary leader to persuade other tribes to join him. Tecumseh managed to do this, and there's no reason other leaders couldn't have done it as well. As with Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin at Malta, all the Indians had to do was realize that they had a common enemy. That the Euro-Americans would betray them at every turn.

It's easy to imagine a science-fiction scenario in which this visionary leader existed. Perhaps it was an Indian youth who was accidentally cut down by a random arrow or snakebite. Many Indians who died prematurely probably could have filled the role.

In fact, sci-fi writers have imagined such a scenario. In Jake Page's Apacheria, the visionary leader was Juh the Apache. In 1812: The Rivers of War, it was Sam Houston speaking for his Cherokee brethren.

Still some colonization

Obviously, a united Indian front wouldn't have stopped the Europeans altogether. But note how the disappearance of Roanoke delayed the colonization of the Carolinas for 20 or 30 years. If the Aztecs had won over Cortés, or King Philip over the English, the Indians would've had several decades of breathing room. They would've gained some immunity to diseases, rebuilt their tribal strength, and obtained the guns and supplies they needed.

The result would have been an amalgamation of European and Indian nations in the Americas, in my opinion. No one would have considered the situation ideal, but no one would've loathed it either. It would have been a reasonable compromise between one race and another race owning and ruling the entire hemisphere.

Clearly I found After the Mayflower thought-provoking, which is a testament to its quality. It laid out how the Indians lost ground step-by-step until their cause was doomed. Most of the choices they made seemed sensible at the time, but cumulatively they were a mistake.

What New England's Indians needed was a paradigm shift in their thinking. They needed to see the Pilgrims and other "innocent" colonists as the first wave of a invading army of conquerors. A visionary leader such as Tecumseh could've provided that insight.

For more on the subject, see Was Native Defeat Inevitable? and Quality of After the Mayflower.

Teaching the two holocausts

Librarian likens Holocaust, treatment of IndiansA librarian at Ft. Washakie School is developing a curriculum that she says shows similarities between the Nazi Holocaust that killed millions of Jews others and the U.S. government's treatment of American Indians.

Robin Levin is completing the curriculum at the school on the Wind River Indian Reservation. She is a member of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum's teaching fellows program.

"A lot of our young people struggle in defining their futures," Levin said. "My theory is that if you don't have a firm grip on you cultural past, you won't have a firm grip on you cultural future."

Levin is comparing the Holocaust with the U.S. government's policy of placing Indian students in boarding schools. Students at such schools were forbidden from speaking their native languages and forced to give up their traditions.

Levin, who is Jewish, said it's important to share the story of both tragedies with American Indian students.

Gene Meier, superintendent of Ft. Washakie School, said he believes there's no doubt that boarding school movement shares similarities to the Holocaust.

"It may not have been as quick, it many not have been as in your face," Meier said, "but truly, there has been an agenda in the history of the U.S. to eradicate Native Americans."

Meier said teaching American Indian students about the Holocaust allows them to consider the issues of social injustice, protection of tribal sovereignty and how to be better human beings.

"That's where I see the connection between the Holocaust and Indians," he said.
Comment:  Why limit the connection to the boarding-school movement? Euro-Americans tried many different times and ways to eradicate Indians.

Levin may want to explore how Hitler learned about genocide from reading the Bible, US history books, and Karl May's Westerns. As well as other sources, of course.

After that she could get into the similarities between Bush's immoral invasion of Iraq and the Europeans' immoral invasion of America. Wouldn't that be controversial? <g>

Actually, I suspect Levin's curriculum will be too "radical" for the conservative people of Wyoming and their cowboy mentality. We'll see if it ever gets off the ground.

For more on the subject, see Churchill:  Manifest Destiny = Holocaust and Holocaust on Display (Or Not).

American patriots have same DNA?

In Mestizo Leaders = "Scrub Stock"? a pundit took Pat Buchanan apart for comparing Latinos to a breed of animals. But a helpful reader brought another of Buchanan's phrases to light:

This IS Your Father's Pat BuchananIt's not the "dip" into an "obscure racist phrase" (in TPM's words) that is so disturbing--it's the use of three phrases and the ideology behind them, tied together in one article, that rise to a level I've never witnessed in recent mainstream political discourse: "blood-and-soil," "scrub stock," and "(m)ost Americans remain visceral patriots. It's in their DNA."

This rises to a level that would likely, ironically, put Buchanan in prison in today's more enlightened Germany, but might have earned him an officer's commission in the SS in 1938, the year he was born.Comment:  Gee...American DNA. I would've thought the multiracial nature of America was obvious by now, but I guess not. I wonder which Americans the white Christian Buchanan could be referring to.

Let's see...Americans Indians have always been here--since well before the beginning of recorded history, at least. They've always loved their land and their people. They've always defended America with every ounce of their blood. They're extraordinarily patriotic by definition, so it can't be them.

Hmm. The WASPs who opposed, conquered, and killed the American Indian patriots can't also be patriots, can they? No, I don't think so. If they had been, they would've upheld the supremacy of the US Constitution, with its recognition of tribal sovereignty and treaties. Instead of trampling the Constitution and the concomitant Indian rights.

I guess Buchanan is pro-Indian after all. Either that or he's a big fat racist. You make the call.

For more on Buchanan's racist ignorance, see Buchanan:  Helping Indians = "Pigout" and Pat Buchanan on Jamestown.

Below:  Buchanan and his Hitler-like eugenicist position.

Arigon Starr in Red Ink

An e-mail from singer/actor/playwright Arigon Starr:For those of you who have been following my travels, I've been in beautiful Minnesota for the past three weeks. The kind folks at the Mixed Blood Theater in Minneapolis asked me to be a part of their current production, "Red Ink" which runs from April 23-May 10.

What is "Red Ink?" "Red Ink" is a compilation of plays from seven Indigenous playwrights about contemporary Native issues. Featuring new work from Diane Glancy, Tomson Highway, Drew Hayden Taylor, Darren Renville, Yvette Nolan, Rhiana Yazzie and yours truly, "Red Ink" takes on everything from gaming to reality shows to blood quantum. Additionally, there is a mix of traditional and contemporary music that adds a punch to "Red Ink."

About two years ago, Rhiana Yazzie asked me to contribute two pieces to the show....and I happily obliged. For me, it felt like being asked to sit with the big people after years hanging at the kids' table. AAAY! Seriously--those names on the list are BIG time in Native theater. My favorite part of the assignment was to write as if the audience were completely "Native." At last...a chance to not have to explain what a "49" is or why not all Indians live on reservations. AAAY! It was a honor just to be included in a project like this.Comment:  For more on the subject, see Native Plays and Other Stage Shows.

Native America's Got Talent

Okla. fancy dancer, family gets shot on NBC's 'America's Got Talent'

Written by Judy LambertSapulpans Mike Pahsetopah, his wife, Lisa, and their 6-year-old daughter, Heaven, are headed for a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, in just a couple of weeks.

Not knowing they had been nominated by the Oklahoma Arts Council to star on NBC’s America’s Got Talent, they received a phone call from the casting director of the show with NBC asking them to come to Houston, Texas, for the initial auditions in May.

Mike is a well-known Native American dancer and performer and World Champion Fancy Dancer who, over his life time, has performed at governors’ conventions, for dignitaries, the military, movie stars and thousands of others across the nation, as well as around the world. He started dancing when he was younger than his daughter and has danced in movies and television commercials. He began training on stage as soon as he graduated from high school and has experience in directing and choreography.

Brazilian cast in Whispers Like Thunder

‘Whispers’ gains new voices“This is a quintessential Native American story of courage and perseverance, but unfortunately, it is also a story that is largely forgotten. We want to bring this amazing narrative to life for a new generation of Americans, and we want to do so authentically, utilizing Native American talent wherever possible every step of the way,” Harper said of the project.

In addition to his producing chores, along with partners Simone Sheffield and Valerie Hoffman, Kingsley will portray Charles Curtis, the only Native American to serve as vice president of the United States. Daniela Lavender is also on board to portray Ida Conley.

“We are honored to be working with Sir Ben Kingsley and thrilled to be a part of a team that is so strongly committed to the Native American experience and vision,” Huey said.You gotta love how this article innocently reports the casting of someone named Daniela Lavender as the Wyandot sister Ida Conley. Here are some details the article left out--from September 2007:

Sir Ben Kingsley makes Brazilian ex-waitress half his age his 4th wifeThe actor Ben Kingsley has secretly married a Brazilian former waitress half his age. The 63-year-old Oscar winner is said to have made bit-part actress Daniela Barbosa de Carneiro, 34, his fourth wife.

The father of four met Miss Barbosa over two years ago in Hollywood. Many expressed doubts as to whether the relationship between Sir Ben--who enjoys pottering in the garden and reading--and the "bombshell" would last.And:Sir Ben's marriage to the former Miss Barbosa is just the latest episode in the colourful soap opera that is his private life.

To date, the script includes: three failed marriages, four children by two different wives, a long-term live-in lover who was replaced by wife No 3 (also nearly half his age), whom he then jettisoned after discovering her embracing her lover in a photograph on the internet in 2005.

The question is, will it be fourth time lucky?

Miss Barbosa arrived in Britain as a penniless student who couldn't speak a word of English more than a decade ago. She worked as a waitress and model for a bridal shop in Camden, North London, while she pursued her ambition of becoming an actress.And:"Daniela was very confident and very ballsy. She knew exactly what she wanted--and that was to be a Hollywood actress."

Was it a coincidence that her latest fiance; just happens to be one of Britain's most respected and famous actors, with a weakness for pretty and considerably younger women?

Certainly, it comes as no surprise to learn that Sir Ben's latest project is launching a production company with Miss Barbosa.

"Hopefully, we can finance and put together and produce our own films and material that I love, and stories that I think would be beautiful to tell. 'We' is myself and my fiance Daniela," he told a U.S. journalist earlier this year.

For the ambitious Miss Barbosa, whose career highlights include an episode of Casualty, playing a maid in Sacha Baron Cohen's Ali G In Da House, and the role as a woman who turns down her boyfriend's proposal of marriage in Emotional Backgammon--which was described by one critic as an "awful misfire"--the patronage of Sir Ben must be very welcome indeed.Comment:  Let's see what we have here.

Daniela Lavender is the skirt-chasing Ben Kingsley's fourth wife. She's a Brazilian waitress who wants to be a Hollywood actress. Although she may have a few drops of Native blood, she looks part black and part white. She's had a few minor roles in minor British productions--nothing that would qualify her to play a lead role in a Native-themed movie set in Kansas.

Kingsley has formed a production company to make movies such as Whispers Like Thunder to give himself and his actress-wannabe wife jobs. Casting themselves as Charles Curtis and Ida Conley has nothing to do with honoring Natives or hiring the best person for the job. It's all about nepotism and keep Kingsley's boy-toy happy so she won't divorce him.

Basically, Whispers Like Thunder sounds like a vanity project for Kingsley and Lavender. But Harper and Huey are "strongly committed to the Native American experience and vision"? How, by casting non-Natives to play Native characters? By spurning filmmakers who try to tell genuine Native stories with genuine Native actors, directors, and writers?

Native producer caves in

So far we haven't heard of a single Native involved in this production except Harper the co-producer. And Harper is already fibbing to us. When he said they'd use "Native American talent wherever possible every step of the way," that wasn't true, was it? It's possible right now to recast Charles Curtis and Ida Conley with talented Native actors, but Harper isn't doing it.

Instead, he's letting a role that should go to a strong Native actress go to Kingsley's Brazilian waitress-wife instead. If that isn't a slap in the face of the Native acting community, what is? Why stop with the Conley sisters, Harper? Maybe you can get DeNiro to play Sitting Bull and Pacino to play Geronimo in your next "respectful" production.

If it were me, I would've said, "Having Native actresses play the three Conley sisters is non-negotiable, Sir Ben. You agree to that or we walk and take our credibility and connections with us. You'll never get the support of Indian country without us."

Instead, Harper and Huey seem to be kowtowing to the great white father. They must want to be Hollywood producers badly--more than I ever would. I don't know if they've sold out yet, but they seem to be heading in that direction.

In short, Whispers Like Thunder has the makings of a disaster. It'll be lucky if it achieves middle-of-the-road mediocrity. The chances of its being a great Native-themed movie are diminishing by the second. I'd advise any tribe thinking of investing in it to steer clear instead.

For more on the subject, see Whispers Like Thunder Seeks Funding and Producers Set for Wyandot Film.

Below:  The two "Native" leads...so far.

Mestizo leaders = "scrub stock"?

Conservative "thinker" Pat Buchanan proves once again how racist he is:

Buchanan:  Nicaraguan Leader Is "Scrub Stock"[E]very now and then, the centrality to Buchanan's worldview of racial difference rises to the surface. In addition to his frequent MSNBC appearances, where he plays a mostly well-mannered, if hardline, conservative, Buchanan also writes a column for the far-right web magazine, Human Events. And that's where he gets himself into trouble.

His most recent effort, "The Rooted and The Rootless," takes as its premise the notion that there's a "blood-and-soil, family-and-faith, God-and-country kind of nation" that's competing with a minority represented by the "rootless" Obama and his "aides with advanced degrees from elite colleges who react just like him."

Already, we're in National Socialist territory here, but let's leave that aside (with Buchanan, once you start down this path, it can be hard to stop...). What jumped out at us was Buchanan's contention that the "blood-and-soil" part of America...

does not comprehend how the president could sit in Trinidad and listen to the scrub stock of the hemisphere trash our country--and say nothing.The posting explains that "scrub stock" means "inferior breed."[L]et's look again at who Buchanan is calling "the scrub stock of the hemisphere" who "trashed our country" at the recent meeting Obama attended in Trinidad. The leader who most prominently did so was Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega, who, aside from being a left-wing former Sandinista, is, like many Latin-Americans, mestizo--meaning he's part Amerindian and part white.

Buchanan may also have had in mind Hugo Chavez, the leader of Venezuela, who was on relatively good behavior in Trinidad, but who has frequently "trashed America" and whose handshake with Obama in Trinidad was blown up by the right into an example of the president kowtowing to America's antagonists. Chavez, of course, is also mestizo.

That's not incidental. The leftist social and political movements of Latin America--against which Buchanan has been fulminating since at least the Reagan era--have traditionally been led by mestizos, and many have been defined in part through their efforts to mobilize non-whites against the often European-descended conservative elite power structure.

With that context, the notion that Buchanan used "scrub stock" to refer simply to ineffective or morally bankrupt leaders, with no racial connotation, becomes, frankly, implausible.

So what does all this amount to? Buchanan referred--not in a heated moment while speaking, but in print--to the mixed-race leader of a foreign country with a phrase that's used to denote an animal or person of inferior stock. There's really no getting around that.No doubt Buchanan also meant to include Evo Morales, who is not merely a part-Indian mestizo but a true Indian.

For more on Buchanan's racist ignorance, see Buchanan:  Helping Indians = "Pigout" and Pat Buchanan on Jamestown.

The conservative hypocrisy on the phony "handshake with Chavez" issue may surpass the conservative hypocrisy on the phony "tax increase" issue--if that's possible. Here's a clue, dopes: Not only did George W. Bush shake hands with the leader of Communist China, he held hands with and kissed the tyrannical, terrorist-supporting leaders of Saudi Arabia. Even worse, Donald Rumsfeld shook hands with Hitler-of-the-day Saddam Hussein. Yet you witless idiots didn't utter one word of protest about these handshakes.

If there's ever been bigger hypocrites than today's right-wing Republicans, it's hard to imagine them.

Below:  Members of the Stupid Conservatives Hall of Fame.

King Philip's War in After the Mayflower

Continuing the discussion of After the Mayflower, the first episode of PBS's We Shall Remain series:

Massasoit died in the 1660s and his 24-year-old son, Philip, became chief. Philip rejected the English attempts to convert him and placed a moratorium on land sales. But it was almost too late. At this point, the English no longer considered the Indians partners and equals. The Indians had become second-class citizens in their own land.

Even their language change to reflect this. Previously, the word they used for "my land" meant, "I am physically the land, and the land is me." But eventually they began using a word in which "I" and "the land" were two separate entities.

According to After the Mayflower, the Indians complained about the loss of their "sovereign" rights. I don't know if anyone literally used that word or if it was a writer's invention. But it suggests the reality that we often forget or ignore. Indian tribes were separate and distinct nations long before America was "settled" and the US Constitution recognized this fact.

Philip realized the Indians must make a stand or they would be overrun. So the Wampanoags and the Narragansetts, their old enemies, launched King Philip's War. They burn something like 25 towns and killed 2,000 colonists. The war spread to Connecticut and eastern New York. The Indians were winning.

This is fascinating if you think about it. Remember, it was 50-plus years after the first English incursions. Diseases had decimated the Indian population. The English had guns while the Indians, unless they bought them, didn't. Yet the Indians were winning.

The English considered the Christian Indians in the praying towns akin to a "fifth column." In one case, they marched hundreds of their fellow Christians to Deer Island in Boston Harbor and left them there without food or shelter to die. I wonder what Jesus would've said about that.

Anyway, Philip's forces were winning...until the Mohawks, long-time English allies, mounted a surprise attack. This doomed Philip's confederacy. Many of the defeated Indians, including Philip's nine-year-old son, were loaded onto boats, shipped to the West Indies or Europe, and sold into slavery. Again, a sterling example of Christian charity.

Philip was dismembered and his body parts strewn among the colonies. His head was put on a pike and left there for 20 years. Message: This is how the conquerors will deal with rebellion and treason.

For more on the subject, see Praying Towns in After the Mayflower and Quality of After the Mayflower.

Below:  "Philip, King of Mount Hope, 1772, by Paul Revere. Revere designed this pygmy like image to make King Philip look repulsive."

Spacey making Abramoff movie

Exclusive:  Abramoff Gets Hollywood Prison Visit; Kevin Spacey Starring As 'Casino Jack'My sources tell me that 2-time Academy Award winner Kevin Spacey and film director George Hickenlooper (Factory Girl, Hearts of Darkness) are right now visiting Washington DC lobbyist Jack Abramoff in Cumberland Federal Prison. Abramoff, of course, was responsible for one of the biggest political scandal to hit the nation's capital since Watergate, and is the subject of a screenplay Casino Jack starring Spacey and directed by Hickenlooper and written by Norm Snider (Dead Ringers) and produced by Bill Marks, George Vitetzakis and exec-produced by Donald Zuckerman and Richard Rionda of Hannibal Pictures. ... The story is described to me as a modern day GoodFellas set in Washington DC that plays like a thriller involving Karl Rove and others in former President George W. Bush's inner circle. Cameras will roll later next month.

I'm told that Kevin Spacey is set to star as Jack Abramoff, Hayden Christensen will play Abramoff's closest associate Mike Scanlon, Spencer Garrett (Public Enemies) will portray Majority Leader Tom DeLay, and Arrested Development star David Cross will be Abramoff crony Adam Kidan. The production is also in talks with Tea Leoni as Abramoff's wife.Comment:  My question is who will play the casino-owning Indians whom Abramoff scammed. Wes Studi, Graham Greene, Gordon Tootoosis, and Gil Birmingham...call your agents!

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

Tribute to Cash's Bitter Tears

Tribute to Johnny Cash

Michael Bucher and Joanne Shenandoah release ‘Bitter Tears--Sacred Ground’Michael Bucher and Joanne Shenandoah, in conjunction with Hondo Mesa Records have recently released “Bitter Tears--Sacred Ground,” a tribute to the 1964 album “Bitter tears: Ballads of the American Indian” by legendary country artist Johnny Cash.

Cash’s album has long been a subject of controversy by mainstream media because of its graphic portrayals of the hardships faced by Indians. The album was removed from stores soon after its release, but has since remained popular in Indian country.

Cash, who believed he was of Cherokee descent, created the album in response to Native musician Peter Lafarge’s poem “As Long as the Grass Shall Grow,” based on the forcible relocation of the Seneca Nation after the construction of the Kinzua Dam in the 60s.

The controversy surrounding the album, the attention paid to struggles of American Indians and an admiration for Cash is what prompted Shenandoah and Bucher to create “Bitter Tears--Sacred Ground.”Comment:  For more on the subject, see Interview with Johnny Cash and Cash DVD Highlights Indians.

Native influence on classical music

Pianist Orgel explores Native American influenceWas there actually a Native American influence on classical music?

Shelburne pianist Paul Orgel explored just that question in a solo recital titled "American Suite," Sunday at Saint Michael's College's McCarthy Arts Center, part of the school's Humanities Program Concert Series. And if Orgel's excellent recital was any indication, it indeed had some influence.

Orgel's programming was quite imaginative. He used Antonin Dvorak's "American Suite" as a base, interjecting works by later composers between the five movements of the suite. This proved ingenious as it may well have been the Czech Dvorak (1841-1904) that first created an "American" sound. Indeed, he was invited to the United States to help American composers develop an indigenous sound. Dvorak implored the Americans to utilize their own native sounds-–particularly Native American and African American.Comment:  For more on the subject, see Mixing Classical and Indigenous Music.

Alexie's next adult novel

Sherman Alexie

InterviewYour next adult novel, Fire with Fire, recently sold to Little, Brown and is slated to be published in the Fall of 2010. What stage is it at now?

It was sold with about half of it done. It’s going to be about 600 pages. It’s a mystery…I’m trying to write the great big American Native American novel. It’s huge…it’s apocalyptic, about everything. I’m trying to write the book about everything in the Indian world. It’s big. I’m trying to make a huge statement. Indian writers, we write small. Small worlds, because we grew up tribal. As soon as you see an Indian writer writing big, you know they’re not Indian. So here’s my chance to prove that an Indian can write big. Extend the vision. I’m trying to be epic. It’s about Thomas Builds-the-Fire and Victor from Smoke Signals on another road trip to solve a murder mystery. It starts on the rez and it ends up in Seattle. It’s incredibly violent.Comment:  For more on the subject, see All About Sherman Alexie.

William Means on education

From Wounded Knee to Comm Ave

William Means will lead a tree blessing and speak todayWhat is the most important issue facing American Indians today?

Treaty rights. Article 6 of the U.S. Constitution states that treaty law shall be supreme. Treaties are not signed between cities and states. They are signed between nations. That is why Indians have a special legal and political relationship with the U.S. government that no other minority has. People need to understand that Indian people are a nation within a nation. People get the idea that we’re getting something for nothing, when in fact we gave America everything we had. Through these treaties we ceded millions and millions of acres for the meager services we now get on reservations. We have had to overcome a tremendous amount of stereotypes and racist and biased education just to let people know that we do indeed have legal standing in this country and that our cultures are alive and well.

What can individuals do to improve conditions for indigenous cultures?

Education is the most important thing. You have to understand the indigenous people who live or who once inhabited the area where you live. You have to know their history. And you have to become active in your community. This activism can take many forms. Join the Sierra Club. Work against industries polluting our Earth. Make your relatives and friends aware of environmental challenges threatening humanity.
Comment:  William Means, brother of activist Russell Means, notes the link between sovereignty and treaty rights and battling racism and stereotyping. You can't understand what Indians are unless you understand what they aren't.

Thus, fighting mascots and other stereotypes is far from a waste of time. In fact, it's critical to achieving an honest understanding of Indian issues.

To reiterate, "Education is the most important thing." Thanks, William, that's just what I'm doing by working at PECHANGA.net, writing for Indian Country Today, and posting here. I trust you approve.

For more on the subject, see The Worst Native Problem.

Water Braiding conference held

Black Mesa Trust hosts Water Braiding conferenceBridging contemporary western science and indigenous wisdom was the topic of a conference that was sponsored by Black Mesa Trust, The Center for Sustainable Environments at Northern Arizona University, Grand Canyon Trust and the Museum of Northern Arizona this past week at the Woodlands Radisson Hotel and Conference Center.

A number of internationally acclaimed scientists, teachers and artists including water science pioneer Dr. Masaru Emoto, painter/environmental space artist Lowry Burgess of Carnegie Mellon University and artist Michael Kabotie of the Hopi Tribe gathered with Black Mesa Trust Board members, over 200 adult participants and 20 young Hopi and Navajo student interns during a four day conference that began at the Hopi Reservation and ended at Lake Mary.And:The idea of "braiding" is to allow dialogue and explorations on the two systems of knowing and their unique approaches to nature, actions and teachings of water.

Like a black and white Hopi weaving, its own character and endurance, the weaver braids two strands into one, which yields a stronger, more beautiful and responsive solution to today's challenges.

With Black Mesa Trust's mission of safeguarding, preserving and honoring the land and waters of the Black Mesa region, the "braiding" conference taught each of its attendees a new way of seeing and doing, of describing, understanding and most importantly of acting with global responsibility to protect Mother Earth.Comment:  If the attendees learned "a new way of seeing and doing"--the value of different perspectives--I'd say the conference was useful. Even if it used Masaru Emoto's pseudo-science to get people to think. But if the attendees learned to take Emoto seriously, then I'd say the conference was counterproductive. We need less pseudo-science in the world, not more.

Below:  "Over 18 international panelists were featured at the recent Black Mesa Trust sponsored water braiding conference held last week in Flagstaff. The four-day conference started at the Hopi Reservation and ended at Lake Mary." (Photo by Rosanda Suetopka Thayer/NHO)

Yeagley goes ape over Obama

Normally David Yeagley the Indian apple couches his pro-white arguments in decent language. But as I should've guessed, the election of Barack Obama sent him over the edge. Now he's making his racism clear for everyone to see.

Composer Brent Michael Davids gives us some of Yeagley's recent rants:

Yeagley still trying to change his brown eyes blueYEAGLEY—“The long arms of the American political ‘ape’ have reached the Orient. Communist-based racism...This is a sure formula for the dissolution of nations... you will have supreme sexual desire for the Negro, and you will render complete cooperation with his every desire. You will be his slave... his reign is endorsed by the alien black African Communist in Washington... This is true racism” (Jan 2009).

YEAGLEY—“regarding blackness of Hussein & Co. is of course an unspeakable insult and denigration... deeply sinister and racist... doting over a cute little company of chimpanzees who seem so wonderfully human... Hussein’s utter lack of qualification... only show the most denigrating, humiliating, racist attitude the world has ever seen” (Jan 2009).Yeagley so mad he sees white!YEAGLEY—“I despise the ideas and purposes of B Hussein O, and will work against him in every legal way... Hussein is a fluke and a fake... the ignorant and misinformed public was basically "willingly" raped by this pretender? ... He is a profound enemy of the country” (Dec 2008).

YEAGLEY—“How could America elect a foreign black Communist? How could the majority of the population be so deceived? How could the nation commit treason against itself? ... Americans voted for an African black to assuage their pity for the miserable race” (Nov 2008).Comment:  For more on Obama and racism, see The 2008 Presidential Campaign.

Below:  Someone who agrees with Yeagley that Obama is a monkey.

Praying towns in After the Mayflower

Continuing the discussion of After the Mayflower, the first episode of PBS's We Shall Remain series:

The English made one serious attempt to convert the heathens to Christianity. In 1651, John Eliot established a "praying town" in Natick, Massachusetts. Several other "praying towns" were set up subsequently. The English would guarantee the Indians' safety if they gave up their old ways, assimilated, and became Christians.

These are the same Indians whom the "Natick Redmen" supposedly honor with their nickname and mascot. So the "tame" Indians who submitted to brainwashing and spiritual death are good enough to "honor." And the "wild" heathen Indians aren't.

I'd be impressed if Redmen supporters said they were honoring King Philip for fighting their pseudo-Christian ancestors. But that's not what they're saying. They're "honoring" the Indians who proved the white man's superiority by adopting his ways. Some honor.

The Indians couldn't just proclaim their belief in the Christian God--like most Christians do. They had to relate their conversion experiences and convince the English that they were sincere. One Indian was quoted as saying something like, "I'm angry with myself. I loathe myself for praying to many gods."

Is this the first recorded case of Euro-Americans inducing feelings of depression and self-hatred in Indians? Could be. No wonder Indians eventually turned to such palliatives as substance abuse and suicide.

So even back then, the cultural assault was clear. The English intentionally tried to destroy the Indians physically, mentally, and spiritually. If you don't know the United Nations' definition of genocide, this fits it like a glove.

For more on the subject, see Pequot Massacre in After the Mayflower and Quality of After the Mayflower.

Below:  He died so that Indians could die and join him, or something. (Sorry, I'm a little unclear on how killing Indians fits in with Christian theology.)