Filming A Year in Mooring

Correspondent DMarks came across Chris Eyre's latest directorial project in downtown Traverse City, Michigan. He took pictures and posted a report in his blog:

"A Year in Mooring" Movie Filming in Traverse City

He doesn't think he saw Eyre unless Eyre was the guy in the pale green jacket:



Nobody seems to know much about A Year in Mooring (2011), but apparently it's a mainstream rather than Native film.

The movie's lead actor, Josh Lucas, isn't Native but has an interesting Native connection:Birth Name
Joshua Lucas Easy Dent Maurer

Trivia
Born in Arkansas in 1971 and christened Joshua Lucas Easy Dent Maurer. His parents lived on an Native American reservation, and they named him based on things that happened there. His birth was so easy that the doctor hit his head on the bedpost and injured himself.Note:  Arkansas doesn't have any federally recognized tribes. But the reservation mentioned could be in another state. Or it could be the "reservation" of an unrecognized Arkansas tribe.

DMarks notes that screenwriter Peter Vanderwall also wrote Shadowheart, a Native-themed movie. Is this a coincidence, or are Chris Eyre and the other filmmakers seeking people with a Native connection?

For more on the subject, see Catching Up with Chris Eyre and The Best Indian Movies.

Repatriate La Brea Woman?

The skeleton that the Page Museum doesn't want you to seeFor years, the George C. Page Museum in Los Angeles has housed a 9,000-year-old set of bones that is said to be the only human remains recovered from the Rancho La Brea area, which is famous for its prehistorical tar pits. A cast of the skull was on display at the museum for a period but the museum withdrew it from exhibition about five years ago and placed it in storage along with the original bones.

Skull Now, a former volunteer at the museum has published images of a facial reconstruction of the specimen against the museum's wishes. She claims that the museum is scared that her reconstruction, in which the specimen is depicted as having Native American features, will encourage tribes to reclaim the bones for reburial.

"Obviously they're not completely happy about it," said Melissa Cooper, the former volunteer in question, when asked about going public with her work. She said that the museum won't display her images out of fear that the Chumash, a Native American tribe, will attempt to take the bones away.Comment:  It seems odd to think of giving up the only human bones ever found in the La Brea Tar Pits. But do they have any scientific value left? If researches scan them and create a 3D model of them, extract whatever DNA and protein samples they may hold, do they need the actual bones anymore?

P.S. The Page Museum is 10-12 miles from my home. I haven't been in it in years, but I pass it occasionally on the way to somewhere else.

For a related issue, see Kennewick Man, Captain Picard, and Political Correctness.

NMAI float in Macy's parade

American Indian Museum in Macy’s Thanksgiving ParadeAs you’re baking pies and basting the bird this Thanksgiving, make sure to tune into the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. The National Museum of the American Indian will be sponsoring a float this year!

Called “The Spirit of Thanksgiving,” the float is inspired by the sculpture Allies in War, Partners in Peace, by Utah-based sculptor Edward Hlavka. The nearly 20-foot bronze sculpture, on display on the museum’s fourth floor, is a depiction of the friendship between the Oneida Nation and the United States during the Revolutionary War. The piece features Polly Cooper, an Oneida Indian who helped soldiers and taught them how to prepare corn; Shenandoah, who worked and served with the colonists during the war; and George Washington—all under the symbolic tree of peace.

The Oneida Nation of New York gifted the sculpture to the museum to commemorate its opening in 2004. And, in a way, they have gifted the float as well, having lent it to the museum to use in the parade this year.Comment:  The history of this float may be a bit confusing. Last year it was an Oneida Float in Macy's Parade. This year the same float is an NMAI float because the Oneida lent it to the NMAI.

Below:  "NMAI's 'Spirit of Thanksgiving' float debuted last year at the parade, sponsored by the Oneida Nation of New York." (Photo courtesy of flickr user Ben+Sam.)

Publicity pix of Eskimo

Some promotional pix from Eskimo (1933), the Native-themed movie I covered in Eskimo Won Oscar:

Ray Mala's Photos--MGM's Oscar Winning "Eskimo"

For more on the subject, see Eskimos:  The Ultimate Aborigines and The Best Indian Movies.

Last Indian Village video game

Last Indian VillageIndian Apache tribe who are defending their last village from the invasion.

"We were here first! Defend your peoples by building armies and going to war. Would the Native Americans have done better if you were in charge?"

Game Instructions

Set up a strategy to develop agriculture, handle transactions of agribusiness, trade for guns, train the troops, and send commanders and troops to the battle against the attackers.



Comment:  This online game is a bad mishmash of stereotypes.

The game takes place somewhere on the East Coast, with the arrival of the first Europeans. But the initial screen shows a camp of tipis. And if you go to the Belugerin Studios site, where the game originated, you'll find it described as an Apache village.

The main characters--visible on the "Select Your Language" screen and the image below it--are:

Wambleeska, a Plains chief in a superhero-style action outfit with a giant axe. According to a website, "Wambleeska" is a Siouan expression meaning "white eagle."

Kachada, a buckskinned elder with flowing white hair and a war club on a horse. According to a website, "Wambleeska" is the Hopi word for "white man."

An Apache-style warrior wearing a headband and shooting a bow.

A half-naked warrior covered in scary warpaint with a sword (?) and knife.

Aiyanna, a sexy Indian babe with feathers and a flower in her hair. She's wearing a two-piece outfit that bares her midriff and bearing a rifle. According to a website, "Aiyana" is a Native American name meaning "eternal blossom."

So far there's nothing authentic about this game. But it's not all bad. After selecting your language, you get a pro-Indian narrative about how the evil Europeans came to plunder the land. The "last Indian village" looks like a classic Algonquian village such as the one below:



And if you scroll around the Indians' territory, you can see one Indian engaged in farming and another engaged in iron mining (!). Which implies these Indians have a reasonably complex culture; they aren't just mindless savages dancing around a fire.

Only trouble is that the game's village has a tipi in the middle of the houses. And beyond the village itself, there's a palisade around the territory with skulls above the gates. Skulls appear in a couple other screens too--because Indians are all about horror and death, presumably.

Finally, the game's main screen uses a buxom picture of Aiyanna as the game's guide. Even more than before, it's clear this character is a pure sex object--a non-Indian's exotic fantasy of an Indian maiden.

I didn't bother playing the game to see how many more stereotypes I could find. The comments on the game site describe it as slow and boring. If anyone wants to play it and send me a report, feel free.

The fact that Indonesian is offered as a language suggests Belugerin Studios developed this game in Indonesia. This gives us a good idea of what people think about Indians in general. Namely, that there's one continent-wide Indian culture consisting of chiefs, warriors, maidens, horses, tipis, weapons, and skulls. This continent-wide culture was dominated by the Apache and the Sioux, who apparently were the southern and northern of the people. Nice.

For more on the subject, see Video Games Featuring Indians.

Why Thanksgiving pageants are wrong

No Playing Indian at Thanksgiving

By Nicki HeskinYoung children take school lessons as truth. If kids make a construction paper vest and headdress and are told they are dressing as Native Americans, they believe us. If kids are told that relations between Native Americans and colonists were friendly and cooperative (without the rest of the story), they believe us. While we as adults may understand these costumes or stories are incomplete or representative, kids do not. I'm not saying we should be creating authentic clothing or re-enacting bloody wars. My point is that since we can't and don't, then we shouldn't continue teaching the myth as truth.

As a result of all this, in my opinion, dressing as and "playing Indian" in school, certainly as a school sanctioned (taught!) activity is inappropriate. Not only is there no *one* native culture that can be emulated, but there is simply no other curriculum that allows or permits this sort of behavior. Would we ever send Kindergartners to school dressed as black field hands to learn about slavery? And if we did, would we do it with construction paper hats and clothing? Would we ever dress kids up as German Nazis (in lederhosen?) and Jews (in prayer shawls and curls?) to learn about the Holocaust? And if we did, would we call parents who objected "oversensitive?" Would we then stage a dinner party with these kids dressed as Germans and Jews set before World War II as an example of how these two groups once ate and lived together so nicely, and ignoring what happened next? It's absurd to even suggest it.Heskin's conclusion:I'm not sure I'm ready for my Kindergartner to learn about genocide in school, and the story is somewhat disingenuous and incomplete without it, so my vote is to wait a bit. Instead early education should and focus on the *current* meanings and cultural celebration of Thanksgiving--family, community, giving and gratitude--with the historical aspect removed.Comment:  As you may recall, there was a big controversy over a Thanksgiving pageant in Claremont, California, last year. Check it out to see the anti-Indian scorn and hatred behind these pageants.

Don't think an innocuous Thanksgiving pageant involves scorn and hatred? Here's what a lot of Americans are thinking about Indians:We know our people conquered your people. We weakened them with disease and alcohol, broke the treaties we signed with them, and forced them into barren lands little better than concentration camps. When they tried to fight back, we hunted and killed them like animals.

But we don't like to think about that. We prefer a guilt-free version of history in which the Europeans and Indians were friends. You invited us into your homes and made us feel welcome. We worked together to found this country of ours and celebrated it with a great feast.

That's our story now and we don't want to hear any other. Don't you dare contradict our national myth or we'll get angry. We let you live in our country and gave you casinos, but don't put on airs and think you're equal to us. This is a white Christian nation now and you're still heathen savages.If you don't believe it, try protesting a myth-making Thanksgiving pageant as Michelle Raheja did. Let us know what happens. I'm guessing you'll experience the same scorn and hatred she did.

For more on the subject, see Kids Reenact First Thanksgiving.

Kegedonce Press publishes Natives

Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm:  Our voices are marginalized

By Mark Anthony RoloFor nearly a decade Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm has remained fiercely committed to publishing the works of Indigenous poets and fiction writers.

As the founder and managing editor of Kegedonce Press, Kateri has to be an aggressive advocate for broadening the literary landscape in order to promote the work of her writers.

That is the way Kegedonce has had to do business from day one. Publishing has been a financial and cultural struggle for Kateri’s company to earn a decent share of the market because she believes the mainstream publishing industry continues to marginalize the voices of Indigenous writers as “fringe” or “niche.”How she got started:In many ways the decision to create a small press that would be exclusively devoted to publishing Native writers of North America was based on the dismissive perceptions and practices by the industry. In 1993 Kateri, who is a mixed blood Anishnaabe, was inspired to invest in a publishing venture while attending an Indigenous arts conference in Ottawa, Canada.

As a poet and activist for Indigenous rights, Kateri found a diverse group of Native writers who were eager to tell their own stories, but feared rejection from mainstream publishers they believed would not understand or “get” their interior worlds. She also found many talented writers who gave up on submitting their work to mainstream publishers because they did not feel non-Native editors believed they could make a decent profit selling their work.

With a few thousand dollars in the bank, Kateri wanted to do more than publish books that would sit on shelves or coffee tables. Her decision to create Kegedonce was intensely fueled by the desire to support and build Indigenous communities by giving voice to an oppressed population.The kind of work she favors:A strong sense of one’s cultural understanding that is either traditional, modern, urban or rural is the start of literary appeal for Kateri. “I’m also drawn to innovative works that kick at the boundaries of what Aboriginal or Indigenous literature and publishing are expected to be–that’s why we’ve published a number of firsts, such as the first Aboriginal fantasy trilogy and the Indigenous erotica anthology.”

One of only three publishers of Indigenous writing in North America, Kegedonce is the only publisher that makes poetry a high priority. Besides being a poet, Kateri believes that many young Native writers get into writing through poetry. Publishing can be considered daring given the number of mainstream publishers that have stopped printing the literary form.

The decision to publish work considered to be offbeat, surreal and loaded with plays of tribal mythology might be seem like a reason why it is very difficult to get support from potential funders.Comment:  For information on another Native press, see Chickasaw Press Recognized. For more on Native literature in general, see The Best Indian Books.

Below:  Fight the power, Kateri!

Twilight reflects sick society

Correspondent Melvin Martin (Lakota) comments on the whole Twilight phenomenon:As a long-time, completely dyed-in-the wool horror movie fan, I find the "Twilight" saga to be at best a major insult to all true fans of the genre.

To mindlessly merge a classic horror theme, vampirism, with the vacuous, sickeningly sweet, pink-polka-dotted, cream-puff stuff of romance novels is nothing short of total cinematic blasphemy.

"Twilight" is not only phenomenally popular among the quivering, shivering pre-teen and teen set, but legions of older gals (30- to 60-year olds) are enthralled to no end also.

This is indeed an extremely sad commentary on the quality of life these days as millions of adult American women are so deprived of romance and love that they even line up hours in advance of this movie's showings and often sleep outside like homeless waifs--all to get less than a minnow's mouthful of what they crave so damned badly.

"Twilight" is no more than a snake oil-based salve for a sick society.Comment:  I think Melvin Martin has a point here. Twilight isn't just about escaping into a fictional world for a few hours. The whole premise is based on escapism. Become a vampire...isolate yourself from real people...don't get involved in political or social issues. Flee into an eternal dreamland of passion and romance where you don't have to think or act.

In other words, it's like a fictional version of alcohol or a drug. You take a hit of Twilight so you don't have to deal with real life. Daydreaming about half-naked hunks becomes the only high you need.

Of course, you could say this about any fanatical set of fans. But at least Star Trek and Star Wars fans tend to be advocates for science and space exploration. What do Twilight fans stand for...anything?

For more on the subject, see Melvin Martin Reviews New Moon and Quileute Werewolves in Twilight.

Below:  "We Quileute werewolves just like to fight and hunt. Don't look to our Indian culture for environmental stewardship, a sustainable economy, and other solutions to the world's problems."

The Red Road hits the airwaves

A posting from Arigon Starr on Facebook:

The Red Road Hits The Airwaves!Hey y'all:

I'm so excited to let folks know that my one-woman stage play "The Red Road" has been adapted for radio. The folks at the Native Radio Theater and Native Voices at the Autry brought together a fantastic crew including live sound effects artist Tony Palermo and award-winning BBC director/producer Dirk Maggs to the Nebraska Education Television Studios back in July 2009. Under the kind guidance of directors Randy Reinholz and Dirk Maggs, lovely Jean Bruce Scott, my pals at NAPT (Shirley Sneve, Eric Martin, George Lee, John Gregg), plus the amazing Wacky Productions' CEO/Producer Janet Miner--"The Red Road" is now a radio play! Woot-woot-yeah!

The show has already aired on KUNM-FM in Albuquerque/Santa Fe and on KRGS-FM in Claremore/Tulsa. More airdates are being added and I'll make sure you know about them as I get them.Comment:  For more on the subject, see The Red Road on the Radio.

Below:  "Backstage at the NET in Lincoln. I had to get Desmond Tsinajinnie's voice just right....AAAY!"

Rocky Boy payday loan company

Rocky Boy online company seen as economic development tool

By Tim LeedsThe Chippewa Cree Tribe of Rocky Boy’s Indian Reservation has started a new business in an effort to stimulate economic development. Dan Belcourt, attorney for the tribe, said during a conference call with the Havre Daily News Oct. 22 that last spring it entered the world of Internet loans with PDL Ventures, an online payday loan company. In the online loan process, people can fill out an application via the Internet, which includes supplying their bank account information. If approved, often in 24 hours or less, the loan is deposited in the bank account and the repayment—usually with a hefty fee—is withdrawn by the loan company on the applicant’s next pay day.

What the Tribe says it didn’t know was that other online companies already were operating with the abbreviation of pay day loan in their name. Several PDL Ventures are offering online loans and some of them don’t have the best record in customer service. Numerous complaints have been filed that have led to 119 complaints eventually being attributed to the Rocky Boy business by the Better Business Bureau. Neil Rosette, the tribe's executive administrative officer, said during a conference call Oct. 23 that he believes most of the complaints were filed against businesses other than the Tribe’s—especially since their business has only been in operation for about six months, and some of the complaints were filed more than a year ago. Rosette said the Tribe will work to resolve any problems in customer service and is assigning a full-time position the responsibility of answering those complaints.Comment:  A payday loan company doesn't sound like the best way to spur economic development. But it's a legitimate business, I guess.

Kids reenact first Thanksgiving

Kids Reenact The First Thanksgiving With Smallpox Blankets And Whiskey (VIDEO)How did the Pilgrims celebrate the first Thanksgiving? According to these adorable young history buffs, with blankets covered in smallpox. While it may appear that these kids are simply playing dress-up, their reenactment is pretty true-to-life, and includes hilarious depictions of The Pequot and King Philip's War. At the end, the Pilgrims give parting gifts to their Native American friends: whiskey, keys to a pickup truck, and of course, more smallpox.

Comment:  The smallpox-blanket incident didn't happen during the first Thanksgiving in 1621. If it happened at all, it happened during the 1760s. But there's only one letter suggesting the possibility, and no evidence it ever happened.

For more on the subject, see Thanksgiving in After the Mayflower.

Why New Moon's werewolves go shirtless

“Twilight: New Moon” stars and filmmakers talk shirtless scenes“I wish I could take credit for the moments of Jacob pulling off his shirt and Edward pulling off his shirt. They are in the book and it seemed unwise to leave them out,” said screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg at the recent “New Moon” press day at the Four Seasons Hotel, referring to Stephenie Meyer’s best-selling second “Twilight” novel, “New Moon.”

“That would be a cut that you would regret,” added director Chris Weitz. “I like to say it’s all essentially economics. You see, the Quileutes don’t have very high average income and they can’t afford the T-shirts they would need, given the amount of times they turn into wolves on short notice and their clothes burst. So, really, they’d have to go to Walmart every 10 minutes. They just go around in shorts for that reason.”

Jacob and his fellow werewolves are all part of the Quileute Indian tribe. Some tribe members have the genetic ability to transform to wolves with lightning-quick speed, shredding their clothes in the process. They also have a body temperature of 108.9 degrees, so clothes aren’t a priority despite the chilly weather in Forks, Wash.Comment:  Weitz's explanation is phony and disingenuous. Here's why:

1) Why doesn't the Wolf Pack worry about their pants as well as their shirts? Going by Weitz's reasoning, they should walk around naked to avoid ripping anything.

2) T-shirts are perhaps the cheapest form of clothing ever. They're much less expensive than pants--even shorts--which have stitching, pockets, buttons, and zippers. A cost-conscious werewolf would wear a t-shirt and no pants, not the other way around.

And what about their shoes, which are even more expensive than pants? We see Jacob and Paul exploding their sneakers in the trailer. Is the Quileute tribe getting free shoes from Nike, or is Weitz's explanation a crock?

3) Clark Kent manages to remove an entire suit before flying to the rescue as Superman. Most superheroes take a few seconds to change into their costumes. Why don't the werewolves take a couple seconds to remove their t-shirts rather than destroy them?

4) Werewolves have a high body temperature? They're also 6'7" or thereabouts. If you're concerned about making them less beast-like and more human, you can change their temperatures as well as their heights.

Incidentally, one website says wolves have a body temperature of 100.4-102.2 degrees Fahrenheit. Why did Stephenie Meyer give her werewolves a much higher temperature? Because then she could portray them as hot-blooded (literally)...half-naked...savage!

The real reason

Weitz might as well tell us the real reason. The Twilight people are selling hot young men and women engaging in illicit relationships. This is enhanced when the hunky guys go shirtless. Man up, Chris, and admit you're make softcore entertainment for teenage girls and gay men.

Summarizing and translating Weitz's claims: "Indians are too poor to afford shirts. Indians are too animal-like to need shirts. Because of these two unrelated excuses, we'll darken their skins and film them half-naked just like we did 100 years ago. That way, they'll look more like the savages audiences expect."

For more on the subject, see Wolf Pack Shows Savage Side and Quileute Werewolves in Twilight.

Are fierce Native werewolves okay?

Indians have "nothing human except the shape," Washington wrote: "...the gradual extension of our settlements will as certainly cause the savage, as the wolf, to retire; both being beasts of prey, tho' they differ in shape."

Francis Jennings, Empire of Fortune, 62; Richard Drinnon, Facing West, 65, citing a Washington letter of 1783Someone asked what's wrong with portraying Indians as "fierce" if they're locked in an age-old battle with mortal enemies. E.g., the werewolves fighting the vampires in the Twilight saga. Answer: I don't care what the context is, "fierce" is one-dimensional by definition. Nobody is fierce and nothing else--except maybe the indigenous savages in any old Western or Indiana Jones-type movie. These subhuman creatures are fierce precisely because, well, they're subhuman creatures.

Really, you can get away with portraying aliens (e.g., War of the Worlds, Alien, Predator), animals (e.g., The Birds, Willard, Arachnophobia), or machines (e.g., Terminator, Berserker, the original Battlestar Galactica's Cylons) as fierce, unrelenting fighters and killers. But human beings? No. If Jake La Motta (Raging Bull), the Punisher, or Hannibal Lecter has more than one side, everybody does.

Does "fierce" define a warrior?

If you think warriors are defined by their ferocity, look at any good war movie about American soldiers. Sure, the soldiers are fierce when they have to fight. But they also exhibit a range of other traits: curiosity, generosity, eagerness, skepticism, anger, cowardice. Especially strong are the emotions of doubt and fear, because--in case you haven't heard--war is hell. Real soldiers don't want to fight fiercely because they could get shot or blown to pieces.

Maybe traditional Indians looked forward to fighting and killing, though I wouldn't bet on it. The whole idea of "counting coup" was to prove one's bravery without killing one's foe. I.e., by using skill, not savage ferocity.

In any case, modern people generally don't look forward to fighting and killing. That includes modern Indians such as Twilight's werewolves. Any movie that portrays Indians as primarily fierce is stereotypical.

For more on the subject, see Are Good Native Werewolves Okay? and Quileute Werewolves in Twilight.

Below:  The first Indians encountered by the English in the 1600s and Indians encountered in the movies today. Two eras of Indians as predatory, wolfish savages.

"Crush! Kill! Destroy! We're Indians/robots/aliens!"

Melvin Martin reviews New Moon

Correspondent Melvin Martin (Lakota) reviews New Moon, the latest Twilight installment:It's a totally nonsensical, flat-lined chick flick that is infinitely worse than even that all-time stupid travesty "Serendipity," in that at least well within that wreck of a movie there was a tangible amount of soul to be felt.

But, on the plus side for the movie's producers, the "Sex in the City"-plasticized, pseudo-studly, abnormally pumped-up, and just obscenely fake physicality of the two male leads is setting hearts aflame from Fire Island to Castro Street--a prime demographic for the "Twilight" series.

This unintentionally hilarious homo-erotic subtext was not lost upon the hostage male members of the audience as whenever the copious amounts of so-called "beefcake" flashed on-screen there was a very noticeable rise in the loudness of the boos, hoots and yells that emanated from all of the "regular guys" who were forced to accompany their starry-eyed dates to this wholly laughable waste of time and money.

That this film absolutely, criminally sucks is a grand understatement due to the slow, slow over-all sequencing of the key scenes, the gruesomely boring nature of the three main characters, and the weakly structured plot, that hardly qualifies as a plot at all.

Movies like this should come with a strongly worded caveat, something like: let the theater-goer beware.

I don't know if it was the god-awful effects of watching what was essentially a teen-oriented remake of the Three Stooges caught up in one of their bizarre love triangles, with a psycho-killer Shemp setting things up for a third installment--or the large-sized sack of stale popcorn that I wolfed down out of sheer boredom--but upon exiting the movie house I cut the longest, loudest fart of my life.Comment:  From what I've heard, Melvin Martin comes from a macho environment and is rather macho himself. Interesting to see that he has no use for this female-oriented movie, even though it features Indians as fierce werewolves.

True, the characters play at being tough and macho, but they're clearly pretty boys pretending to be warriors. Apparently that isn't enough to persuade a real Indian activist.

For more on the subject, see Capsule Reviews of New Moon and LA Times Reviews New Moon.

IndiVisible responds to Freedmen issue

Maybe Your Great-Grandmother Really Was Cherokee

A new exhibit at the National Museum of the American Indian traces black-Native American relations from the 1500s to the present.

By Kenneth J. CooperOverall, African-Native American relations are cast in positive terms, a perspective that feels right. It’s certainly the view of most black folks, based on all those family stories, true or not. The Cherokees of today are out of step with the tolerant, humanist traditions of Native Americans who historically “adopted” people of other races and treated them as equals.

The exhibit traces the contacts between African Americans and Native Americans from the 1500s to the present, leading to the interracial unions that produced “Black Indians.” Some big-name people with that mixed heritage pop up: Crispus Attucks, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Jimi Hendrix and John Hope Franklin.

On a broader scale, so much mixing of red and black occurred that the bloodlines of some tribes became racially “indivisible.” They include the Lumbee of North Carolina, the casino-owning Mashantucket Pequot of Connecticut, the Mashpee Wampanoag of Massachusetts, the Seminole of Florida and then Oklahoma. “Most Native peoples on the Atlantic seaboard,” the curators conclude, “have African-American and white ancestry.”

A visitor gets a clear sense that the leaders of the National Museum of the American Indian, which collaborated with the Museum of African American History and Culture, wanted to put the conflict over the tribal rights of Cherokee Freedmen into a broader perspective.Comment:  For recent news on the Freedmen issue, see Glover Supports Freedmen, Cherokee PR or Propaganda, and Obama Opposes Punishing Cherokees. For more on the IndiVisible exhibit, see Preview of IndiVisible and IndiVisible at the NMAI.

Indians commemorate Alcatraz anniversary

Indians return to Alcatraz 40 years later

By John KingThe Park Service was not involved in organizing the morning-long ceremony to commemorate a 19-month event that remains a keystone in the turbulence of the late 1960s and early '70s. Nor was the ceremony linked to other events related to the anniversary, including an academic conference in Berkeley held last Friday and plans to project a movie about the occupation onto Coit Tower on Thanksgiving.

But where the government 40 years ago was the enemy--and in June 1971 removed the last of the occupiers--the Park Service Saturday provided free ferry rides for the participants. Once on shore, rangers loaded folding tables onto a pickup truck along with refreshments brought to the island by the organizers.

Later, while the 50 or so participating in the ceremony chanted and prayed, rangers walked back and forth behind them bringing out folding chairs.

The event was organized by Nila Northsun, whose father was one of the occupation's initial leaders, and Lorenzo Baca, an "artist-activist" from the Central Valley.Comment:  Lorenzo Baca was an early supporter of PEACE PARTY. He was also the center of this controversy: Native Enters Off-Limits Roundhouse.

For more on the anniversary, see Alcatraz Changed Course of History? and 40th Anniversary of Alcatraz Occupation.

Below:  "Lorenzo Baca (center) leads a procession of Indians and supporters to the ceremony." (Photo: Paul Chinn/The Chronicle)

$25K award for Shin-chi's Canoe

Residential school story wins $25K kids' book awardShin-chi's Canoe, a picture book about a little boy leaving home for a residential school, has won the $25,000 TD Canadian Children's Literature Award.

It was one of four children's books awarded prizes Thursday night at the Children's Book Centre in Toronto.

Shin-chi's Canoe, written by Nicola I. Campbell of Vancouver and illustrated by Kim LaFave of Roberts Creek, B.C., is one of the first picture books to explore the story of the impact of Canada's residential schools on children.

The six-year-old boy Shin-Chi leaves home with his older sister Shi-shi-etko, who explains to him that it will be many months before he is allowed to go home. The book captures the emotions of the two children as they miss family and the natural environment where they grew up.Comment:  For more on the subject, see The Best Indian Books.

Below:  "Shin-chi's Canoe is written by Nicola I. Campbell and illustrated by Kim LaFave." (Groundwood Books)

Three awards for The Only Good Indian

'Only Good Indian' sweeps awardsA film by a University of Kansas faculty member has won three top awards at the 34th annual American Indian Film Festival in San Francisco.

Kevin Willmott, associate professor of film and media studies, won best director on Saturday for his latest film, "The Only Good Indian." The film also received awards recognizing the performances of Wes Studi, best actor, and Winter Fox Frank, best supporting actor.Comment:  For more on the subject, see The Only Good Indian Interviews and The Only Good Indian = History Lesson.

King Lear as The Last of the Mohicans

King Lear“How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is to have a thankless child!”

This manga version of King Lear is set during the era of The Last of the Mohicans--circa 1759, during a crucial era of invasion and displacement along the American frontier. Lear is a venerated Mohican (Iroquois) chieftain, entering his final days. His elder daughters Regan and Goneril–-the evil pairing–-are more westernised in their looks. Lear’s youngest daughter, Cordelia, with her Native American appearance, is the lone traditionalist who cleaves to the old ways.

In this unique interpretation of Shakespeare’s tragic tale, a mighty mountaintop snowstorm for the signature setpiece makes for a dramatic backdrop where savage torture and plentiful scalpings provide and update Shakespeare’s bloody action.

"A book that's uncategorisable. King Lear is done as The Last of the Mohicans in the style of Japanese manga. The publisher has been criticised for playing it safe with its adaptations of the classics. This one is by no means safe and all the better for it."

Roger Sabin, The Observer (August 2009)
"Ilya's unique vision stands as an alternative take on the original story, shaking up the established reading of the play and asking readers to rethink their ideas about the characters and their situation. A sense of doom is created simply by casting Lear as a Native American pitted against the encroaching forces of the western world, and this in turn makes the ending yet more inevitable and tragic....This gripping adaptation brings to the table a totally unique way of looking at this classic story, and is well worth a look."

Amanda Young, NEO Magazine (July 2009)Comment:  This sounds like a great idea in theory. But the execution is at least somewhat stereotypical.

Start with the "savage torture and plentiful scalpings." These might have been part of Mohican culture--or they might not have been. Even if they happened, you'd have to pair them with the cultural and religious context to paint a full picture.



King Lear with a blood-red face and blue hair? This doesn't look like any Indian I've ever seen. Except a stereotypical Indian mascot, of course.



A typical Indian princess in a sexy buckskin outfit. Note the tiny nose, the lack of cheekbones, the scallops over the breasts, and the slit on the left side. This is a non-Indian's fantasy of an Indian sex object, not a real Indian woman.



What the heck is this dancing figure at left? A wolf's head, raccoon eyes, deer antlers, bear skin, and beaver tale?! I'll go out on a limb and guess that neither the Mohicans nor anyone else had such a ceremonial figure. It looks like a pure invention to make the Indians look more savage and superstitious.

Also, how does the raccoon-wolf mask lose the antlers and the round mask gain the antlers in panel five? Oops.

The interior version of King Lear--an elder in a headband--and the warriors in the other panels look decent. So the work seems only partly stereotypical. People should read it with that in mind.

For more on the subject, see King Lear with Eskimos and Comic Books Featuring Indians.

Native aspects of New Moon

Correspondent DMarks has seen New Moon and gives us the lowdown on the movie's Natve aspects:There's probably nothing that can be said about it that you haven't already covered extensively.

Just a few things to add:

The only outright racial thing I saw (aside from any issues of young Native men being half-naked savages, connected to animals, etc.--well-covered in your other posts) was when Bella made a comment to Jacob about spending time with the palefaces. I do not remember the exact sentence the word was in.

I didn't think the "Wolf Pack" came across in a fakey bronze tone like I would have suspected from the publicity photo. However, they did stand around in all weather with just ragged cut-off pants. But unlike the Hulk's pants, their pants explode into shreds when they wolf out.

Yes, but did New Moon show them changing from wolves into (naked) humans? I'm sure the girls would've loved that. <g>

The bronzed skin may look worse in the publicity photo because the photo is unnaturally dark. In the wan light of the Pacific Northwest, it may look washed out and almost natural.

Being impervious to the weather is a corollary of being a savage, of course. Half-naked Indians rarely if ever shiver from the cold.

Let's recall that in the books, Jacob is 6'7" and the other werewolves are almost as tall. In other words, they're that much closer to being man-monsters. By making them normal height, the movies have downplayed the books' stereotypes.

Jacob Black had a tattoo that seemed to be designed in what I would understand to be an authentic Northwestern US Native style. Such artwork also appeared on the refrigerator in a home at the La Push rez. This brief appearance of something authentic-looking is in line with the "Thunderbird and Whale" with its Native proprietor, which appeared in the first movie. It's a touch of authenticity made for the movies, and not for the books.

There was nothing distinctive about the La Push rez. It was just a regular place with a few normal-looking homes. No casino, no abject poverty. The stereotypes of Tonto-speak and layabout drunken Indians in dysfunctional families seem to be long in the past, but the "special connection to animals" and the shirtless savage warrior ideas abide.

Of course, New Moon could've done more to show modern Quileute life and culture, but I understand that wasn't the movie's focus. What it did show--the tattoo and the normal rez--sounds good.

For more on Twilight's depiction of rez life, see Stephenie Meyer's Use of Quileute Characters.

The non-authentic Quileute legends were only briefly touched upon by having flashbacks to scenes from the first movie. While the next movie, Eclipse, may compound the errors of the wrong legends, New Moon did not really dig the hole deeper.

Additional points gleaned from the news:  Most mainstream reviews have said the wolf effects weren't impressive. In the trailer, the wolves look like decent CGI creations, but nothing more. I doubt anyone will mistake them for real wolves.

For more on that subject, see How Animators Tackled Werewolf Transformations in New Moon.

On the bad side: Jacob is "not helped any by the cheap wig he wears for half the movie," according to the McClatchy Newspapers' review. It's as if it took the filmmakers that long to realize how phony the hair looked.

The Wolf Pack's primary scene shows them fighting among themselves. Paul (Alex Meraz) gets angry and turns into a wolf to attack Bella, and Jacob (Taylor Lautner) does the same to defend her. In other words, Indians are like beasts who can barely control themselves. They're far from the great tribal leaders who fought their battles with words and ideas, not arrows or claws.

On the good side: Jacob speaks a few words of genuine Quileute, according to 10 Things You Need to Know About Taylor Lautner:In New Moon, Jacob speaks Spanish to Bella, and even some Quileute, the language of the American Indian tribe he belongs to. He says, ‘I did speak a little bit of Quileute, when I was leaning in to kiss Bella in the kitchen, and I’m not gonna tell you what I said. I’ll leave that to you to figure out. But it was really cool. There’s only, like, four people left in the world who actually speak Quileute, so I was able to talk to one of these ladies. It was really interesting.’In short, New Moon is about what I expected. I'm still waiting to hear about a scene where the Indians solve a problem with brains, not brawn. You know, by outfoxing an opponent rather than outfighting him? Because traits such as stealth, tracking skills, strength, and ferocity are all part of the savage warrior stereotype.

For more on the subject, see Capsule Reviews of New Moon and Media Doesn't Know Quileutes Are Real. For more on Twilight in general, see Quileute Werewolves in Twilight.

Below:  "I'm a civilized Indian with a long history of religion, culture, and art. No, really!"