comment on the development, as
members of Obama’s transition
team have been instructed
not to talk about their specific
contributions.
Native Tongues
If They’re Lost, Who Are
We?
By David Treuer
Garriott’s position on the transition
group brings the total number of
Native Americans serving on it
to seven. Indian Country Today
previously reported that John
Echohawk, Keith Harper, Robert
Anderson, Mary Smith, Mary
McNeil and Yvette Robideaux all
hold positions on the team.
Sunday, April 6, 2008; B01;
washingtonpost.com
LEECH LAKE, Minn. I am not
supposed to be alive. Native
Americans were supposed to die
off, as endangered species do, a
century ago. And so it is with great
discomfort that I am forced, in many
ways, to live and write as a ghost in
this haunted American house.
Another heartening exception is
the Blackfoot language. The tribe
dropped to a population of just
over 1,000 in 1900, but they have
grown again, and their language is
on the upswing -- largely because
of the efforts of the Piegan
Institute, based on the Blackfoot
reservation in northwest Montana,
with a mission of promoting the
tribe’s language. Once moribund
ceremonies are on the verge of
flourishing again. But for many
tribes -- who struggle to retain the
remnants of their land, life ways,
sovereignty and physical and
mental health -- what is left can’t
really be called culture, at least
not in the word’s true sense.
Continued on Page 6
Wizipan Garriott named
Obama’s First Americans
Public Liaison
By Rob Capriccioso
Story Published: Dec 15, 2008
Story Updated: Jan 2, 2009
After Daschle lost his bid for
re-election in 2004, Garriott
attended the University of Arizona
James E. Rogers College of Law
in Tucson, and obtained a law
degree there in June. In 2005,
he also helped incorporate the
He Sapa Leadership Academy, a
college preparatory school on his
reservation for students in grades
eight to 12.
WASHINGTON – Wizipan
Garriott, 28, has been appointed
First Americans Public Liaison,
a newly created position in
President-elect Barack Obama’s
transition team. The position is
aimed at honoring a nation-tonation relationship with tribes.
Amy Brundage, a spokeswoman
for the team, confirmed Garriott’s
role Dec. 10.
Garriott, a member of the Rosebud
Sioux Tribe, could not offer
NON-PROFIT ORG.
U.S. Postage
PAID
Riverside, CA.
Permit No. 131
For now, many Native American
languages still exist, but most
of them just barely, with only a
handful of surviving speakers, all
of them old. (On Jan. 21, Marie
Smith Jones, the last living fluent
speaker of Eyak, one of about
20 remaining Native Alaskan
languages, died at the age of 89.)
Linguists estimate that when
Europeans first came to this
continent, more than 300 Native
American languages were spoken
in North America Today, there
are only about 100. Within a
century, if nothing is done, only a
handful will remain, including my
language, Ojibwe.
Studio ‘08/DNC
As Daschle became involved with
Obama’s campaign, the longtime
politician ultimately recommended
Continued on Page 7
Native American Student Programs 114
University of California at Riverside
229 Costo Hall
900 University Avenue
Riverside, California 92521
Among my fellow Indians, this is
not a popular thing to say. Most of
us immediately sneer at warnings
of cultural death, calling the very
idea further proof that “The Man”
is still trying to kill us -- this time
with attitudes and arguments rather
than discrimination and guns. Any
Indian caught worrying that we
might indeed vanish can expect to
be grouped with the self-haters.
While many things go into making a
culture -- kinship, history, religion,
place -- the disappearance of our
languages suggests that our cultures,
in total, may not be here for much
longer.
Wizipan Garriott
www.nasp.ucr.edu
But perhaps I am not dead after
all, despite the coldest wishes of a
republic that has wished it so for
centuries before I was born. We
stubbornly continue to exist. There
were just over 200,000 Native
Americans alive at the turn of the
20th century; as of the last census,
we number more than 2 million.
If you discount immigration, we
are probably the fastest-growing
segment of the U.S. population. But
even as our populations are growing,
something else, I fear, is dying: our
cultures.
Garriott, whose first name means
“burden” in Lakota, graduated
from Yale University in 2003 with
a degree in American studies.
He then went on to work as an
assistant to former Sen. Tom
Daschle, D-S.D., who has been a
key player in the Obama campaign
and was recently tapped to lead
the U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services.
From the desk of the
Director
Welcome to UCR for the Fall
Quarter 2008.
In the midst of major financial
crisis, although with some budget
cuts, NASP is still standing.
Hopefully we will survive the
giant economic crisis the nation
is experiencing at this time.
Education is the key to survival;
therefore I encourage all Native
American youth to seriously
consider college as an option to
succeed in life.
NASP launched another successful
Spirit of the Tribes 5K Run/Walk
on November 15, 2008 and over
200 individuals participated.
Joshua Gonzales, NASP Program
Assistant planned, organized, and
implemented the event. The5K
Run/Walk is a good way to get
the community to come together
for a cultural and social exchange.
Michael Madrigal from the
Cahuilla blessed and sang beautiful
Bird Songs. The winners were
awarded trophies, medallions, and
gifts. The weather turned out to be
fantastic for the occasion.
NASP also co-sponsored with
the Associated Student Program
Board and the Music Department
“BLACKFIRE” at the UCR
noon time event on Wednesday,
November 25, 2008. They
performed their traditional dance
and songs, contemporary songs,
and culminated in the Mosh Pitt.
The UCR students enjoyed their
performance. Members of the
BLACKFIRE group are from
a well known Navajo family,
the Benally. Mr. Jones Benally,
the father of the family, in the
60s and 70s resided in Southern
California and was well known
as an excellent hoop dancer using
22 hoops. They have performed
globally and have been featured
on many national and international
television shows, including the
Oprah Winfrey show. The Benally
family currently live in Flagstaff,
AZ, close to their ancestral land.
It was a pleasure having them
perform here at UCR.
I am happy to say that the Native
American Student Association
(NASA) is doing quite well and
Page 2
planning for the Medicine Ways
Conference and UCR Pow Wow.
NASA plans to split the event
into two activities as follows:
conference and gathering on April
11, 2009, and Pow Wow on May
23, 2009.
Furthermore, the number of
American Indian applicants has
dropped this year; therefore we
will intensify our recruitment effort
in the coming year. Although
we have an excellent Summer
Residential Program only 30
students attended the program,
which focuses on potential
future college applicants, and not
necessarily to UCR. We encourage
you to consider higher education
and if you are a parent to urge
your children to consider college
specifically at UCR. You can
contact us at (951) 827-4143.
Sincerely,
Earl Dean Sisto, Director
Native American Student Programs
Are you an
American
Indian UCR
Alumni?
Membership is available to any
American Indian and Alaskan
Native person who has graduated
from the University of Riverside,
California, or is a former student
that has completed at least 12
quarter units before leaving
the University of Riverside,
California.
Associate Membership is
available to any person who
supports the purposes and goals
of the organization.
Contact us
American Indian Alumni
Association
Email: [email protected]
(AIAA General mailing)
University of California
American Indian Counselors/Recruiters Association
Campus Representatives
Berkeley
San Diego
Bridget Wilson
Native American Community Relations
Office of the Undergraduate Admission
110 Sproul Hall, #5800
Berkeley, CA 94720
Phone:(510) 643-7902
Fax: (510) 642-7333
[email protected]
Geneva Lofton-Fitzsimmons
American Indian Coordinator
Early Academic Outreach
Student Center Complex B
9500 Gilman Drive
La Jolla, CA 92093-0305
Phone: (760) 749-1410 Ext.5278
Fax: (760) 749-1564
Cell: (858) 775-7072
[email protected]
Ruth Hopper
Undergraduate Advisor
Native American Studies
506 Barrows Hall, #2570
Berkeley, CA 94720
Phone:(510) 642-6613
Fax: (510) 642-6456
[email protected]
Alternate Adress for:
Geneva Lofton-Fitzsimmons
Student Program Coordinator
California Native American Research for
Health (CA-NARCH)
P.O. Box 406
Pauma Valley, CA 92061
Davis
Jacquelyn Ross, Assistant Director
Native American Outreach, Undergraduate
Admission &Outreach Services
One Shields Avenue
Davis, CA 95616-8507
Phone: (530) 752-3743
FAX: (530) 752-1280
[email protected]
Michelle Villegas-Frazier, Outreach
Officer, School of Medicine
MedSci 1C, 129
One Shields Avenue
Davis, CA 95616
Phone: (530) 752-8387
FAX: (530) 754-6252
[email protected]
Irvine
Nikishna Polequaptewa, Director
American Indian Resource Program
University of California, Irvine
5171 California Ave. Suite 150
Irvine, CA 92679-2505
Phone: (949) 824-6251
Fax: (949) 824-8219
[email protected]
Los Angeles
Dwight Youpee, SAO
American Indian Studies Center, UCLA
3220 Campbell Hall, Box 951548
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1548
Phone: (310) 206-7511
Fax: (310) 206-7060
[email protected]
Merced
Ruth Rodriguez
Student Affairs Officer/Transfer
University of California, Merced
Admissions & Relations with Schools &
Colleges
550 E. Shaw Suite 105
Fresno, California 93710
[email protected]
Riverside
Earl Dean Sisto, Director
Native American Student Programs, UCR
229 Costo Hall
Riverside, CA 92521
Phone: (951) 827-4396
Fax: (951) 827-4342
[email protected]
Email: [email protected] (AIAA
Board members)
Fall Quarter 2008
San Francisco
VACANT
Santa Barbara
Cuca Acosta, Admissions Counselor
Office of Admissions, UCSB
1234 Cheadle Hall
Santa Barbara, CA 93106-2016
Phone: (805) 893-2307
FAX: (805) 893-8779
[email protected]
Santa Cruz
Vickie Unruh, Senior Evaluator
Hahn Student Services
UC Santa Cruz, 1156 High Street
Santa Cruz, CA 95064
Phone: (831) 459-4191
[email protected]
Dennis Tibbetts, Director
Native American Resource Center
Ethnic Studies Center, UCSC
1156 High Street
Santa Cruz, CA 95064
Phone:(831) 459-2881
Fax: (831) 459-4409
[email protected]
Los Almos National Laboratory
Barbara Tenorio Grimes
American Indian Education &
Employment Outreach Specialist
P.O. Box 1663
Mail Stop P366
Los Alamos, NM 87545
Office Phone: (505) 665-5121
Toll Free Phone:(888) 691-6057
Fax: (505) 667-7530
Cellular: (505) 699-0653
[email protected]
UC Office of the President
Ramona Wilson, Director
MESA Schools Program
300 Lakeside Drive 7th Floor
Oakland,CA 94612-3550
Phone:(510) 987-0221
Fax: (510) 763-4704
[email protected]
WEBSITE: www. ucaicra.org
Volume 18, #1
Thank you to our
2008
Summer Residential Program:
"Gathering of the Tribes"
Sponsors
Volume 18 #1
Fall Quarter 2008
Page 3
27th Annual Medicine Ways Conference
Kristy Orona-Ramirez, Medicine Ways
speaker, shares a beautiful song with us at the
Conference.
Medicine Ways participants mingle and enjoy
a great lunch. There were over 400 people that
participated in the conference.
Alvino Siva, Cahuilla Elder, smiles for the
camera. Alvino was our Keynote speaker for
our 27th Annual Medicine Ways Conference.
Left - Right: James Ramos (Chairman of the
San Manuel Band of Mission Indians), Will
Madrigal (Mountain Cahuilla), Bill Madrigal
(Mountain Cahuilla).
Mountain Cahuilla Bird singers, led by the
Madrigal family, sing bird songs and dance.
They really got everyone off their seat to
participate.
Left - Right: Jesus Cardenas, Will Madrigal, James
Ramos, Josh Gonzales
UCR students participate through the Question
& Answer session with Chairman James
Ramos. There was a great dialogue between
UCR students and our Medicine Ways
speakers.
UCR students enjoy their breakfast just before
the 27th Annual Medicine Ways Conference
began.
Josie and Lori of the Sherman Indian Museum
and Nex’wetem display their beautiful
traditional baskets.
Gabe Pimental, NASA Member, poses as he
helps out during the conference. Despite his
busy schedule, he still finds time to volunteer.
Page 4
Fall Quarter 2008
Jesus, Will, & Josh honor Chairman James Ramos
with a gift of appreciation.
NASA Honors Supporting Staff
John Valdez, Alfredo Figueroa, Earl Sisto
Left - Right: Jesus, Josh, Ocelotl, Will, John, Beyaja,
Alfredo, Cinthya, Gabi, Earl
Ben Hale offers his prayers through songs
using the Native American Church instruments.
Mr. Hale spoke about how the instruments are
used to help heal.
Volume 18, #1
2008 Gathering of the Tribes Summer Residential Program
Yvonne presents a special blanket to honor the
Outstanding Male Award to Paul Donahue.
Group photo of all the 2008 Gathering of the Tribes Summer Residential Program. All
the participants and staff had a great week learning and having fun. An experience they
will never forget.
Alfonso Taboada, Computer Instructor, helps his
students understand the task at hand. The students
really enjoyed learning how to improve their
computer skills.
The students take notes as American Indian
Instructor, Chris Ynostroza, talks about the
importance of Indan history.
Above: Staff and participants gather together and dance one last round dance before it
is time to go back home. The participants learned from eachother about all the different
tribes and nations they represented. Below: Some participants stop to pose by a large
bamboo bush during their hike at the UC Riverside Botanical Gardens.
Alejandra Mendez, Writing Instructor, helps
the students express themselves on paper. The
participants learned a lot about themselves as they
wrote their personal stories.
Volume 18 #1
Fall Quarter 2008
Page 5
Continued from Front Page
If They’re Lost, Who Are
We?
Cultures change, of course.
Sometimes they change slowly, in
response to warming temperatures
or new migration patterns. At other
times, cultural changes are swift -the result of colonialism or famine
or migration or war. But at some
point (and no one is too anxious to
identify it exactly), a culture ceases
to be a culture and becomes an
ethnicity -- that is, it changes from
a life system that develops its own
terms into one that borrows, almost
completely, someone else’s.
My favorite example of this
difference was the question posed
to an Ojibwe man by the Indian
agent whose job it was to put him
down on the treaty rolls. “Who
are you?” the Ojibwe was asked,
through an interpreter. “Oshkinawe
nindaw eta,” he replied, puzzled
(“Only a young man”). The
Indian agent noted this, and the
Ojibwe man’s family still bears his
Anglicized response, Skinaway.
The man had no thoughts, really,
about himself as an Indian or as
an individual. The question -- who
are you? -- didn’t even make much
sense to him because the terms
of identity didn’t make any sense
to him; they were not his terms.
Nowadays, unlike Skinaway, many
of us have come to rely on ways
of describing ourselves that aren’t
ours to begin with.
In the United States, we Natives
now have sets of beliefs that we
articulate to ourselves, mostly in
English, about what being Indian
means. We are from such and such
a place; this and that happened
to our ancestors; we eat such and
such. Unlike the young man who
was asked who he was, we think
nowadays in English, and we forge
our identities with those thoughts.
(I am Indian because my parents
are, because I live in a certain
place, because I eat fry bread,
because I go to powwows.)
Without our own languages,
however, the markers we use
to define ourselves can become
arbitrary. One need only change the
Page 6
nouns to see the difference. Instead
of “fry bread,” insert “corned
beef,” and instead of harking back
to smallpox-infested blankets,
say “potato famine” -- and you
arrive at a completely different
ethnicity. American Indians are fast
becoming ethnic Americans like
the Irish and the Italians and the
Scandinavians, to name a few.
The timing is strange: We find
our cultures most imperiled just
as some (though certainly not
most) Indian communities are
experiencing a kind of economic
rebirth from casino money. Not
only do we have some wealth -the Seminoles of Florida own the
Hard Rock Café franchise, and the
Mashantucket Pequots own and
operate probably the largest casino
in the world -- we also have the
basis of some political clout. In
Great Plains states with dwindling
populations such as North and
South Dakota, Indians (who are
not fleeing to the cities like rural
non-Indians) have become a huge
voting bloc that can sometimes
determine the outcomes of state
Senate and House races. Because
Indians vote Democratic at a rate
of about 90 percent, the power
of Indian tribes is unsettling to
many Republicans. In 2006,
Republican Doug Lindgren ran for
a seat in the Minnesota House of
Representatives on what can only
be called an “anti-treaty” platform
that called into question the
validity of northern Minnesota’s
Red Lake Indian Reservation
and its treaty rights. Lindgren
hoped to use deep-seated antiIndian sentiment to consolidate
his base. He lost. But our growing
wealth and power has in no way
guaranteed our survival.
Curiously, it is in the field of
“story” that the most ringing
claims are made for the continued
health and vibrancy of American
Indian cultures and lives. But it’s
not clear why so many Indian
critics and novelists suggest that
stories, even great ones, in English
by writers whose only language
is English are somehow “Indian
stories” that store the kernels of
culture -- not unlike those fabulous
Continued on Page 9
William Madrigal (Mt. Cahuilla)
Bird singing and dancing at the
Gathering of Indigenous Nations.
Mountain Cahuilla Bird Singers
led by Bill Madrigal represent well
at the Gathering of Indigenous
Nations.
The Humaya dancers and singers
get ready to share a little bit of
their culture and traditions.
Danza Ketzalitztli members dance
the permission dance before they
begin each significant dance.
The Plateros, Father and Son,
Murphy and Levi platero jam as
they perform at Medicine Ways
2008.
Danzantes dance in unison as
they express themselves through
movement.
Levi Platero, lead singer and
guitarist of The Plateros, a Navajo
blues/rock band.
Michelle Ramos of Danza
Ketzaliztli lights the sacred
medicine, copal.
Volume 18, #1
Fall Quarter 2008
Continued from Front Page
Wizipan Garriott
Garriott to become a part of the
effort.
Daschle’s recommendation was
helpful, as Garriott ended up
joining the Obama campaign for
president as a Native American
outreach coordinator in Sept. 2007.
In June, he was officially hired as
the campaign’s First Americans
vote director. His chief objective
was collaborating with tribes and
Native groups, trying to get out
the Native vote in many states,
including New Mexico, Wisconsin,
Montana and Michigan.
“For us, the campaign has
always been about community
empowerment,” Garriott told ICT
in late-September.
“We’ve tried to put as many
resources as possible into Indian
communities so we can help our
own people organize and empower
themselves. That’s what this is all
about.”
He also predicted in the interview
that Indian participation in the
election would help sway the vote
in close swing states.
Garriott is the son of Elizabeth
Little Elk, who works for the
Rosebud Sioux Tribe in the child
and family services arena, and
Charlie Garriott, a teacher at Todd
County High School, located on
the reservation in Mission, S.D.
While in college, Garriott served as
a peer counselor to younger Native
students. Amid controversy over
whether there should be ethnic
counselors and cultural houses
at the institution, he made it be
known that he felt such networks
are beneficial, especially for
reservation youth.
In a December 2002 issue of The
Yale Herald, Garriott noted that
the majority of reservation youth
hail from economically depressed
areas, which can make it especially
difficult for Indian students to
adjust to mainstream colleges, both
academically and culturally.
Volume 18 #1
At Yale, Garriott also worked as
vice-president of Night Shield
Entertainment, a music-focused
company founded by one of his
Native friends, Gabriel Night
Shield. Garriott assisted with
promotion and helped with efforts
on distribution, talent evaluation
and music selection.
INDIAN TIME
Upon learning of Garriott’s new
appointment, Night Shield said he
and many other tribal members
were “really proud of what Wizi
has accomplished.”
www.kucr.org
“We were joking about it the
other day – maybe in about 20
years we’ll be voting for Wizi as
president,” said Night Shield, who
attended high school at St. Francis
Indian School with Garriott in
South Dakota. Human Services.
After Daschle lost his bid for
re-election in 2004, Garriott
attended the University of Arizona
James E. Rogers College of Law
in Tucson, and obtained a law
degree there in June. In 2005,
he also helped incorporate the
He Sapa Leadership Academy, a
college preparatory school on his
reservation for students in grades
eight to 12.
As Daschle became involved with
Obama’s campaign, the longtime
politician ultimately recommended
Garriott to become a part of the
effort.
Daschle’s recommendation was
helpful, as Garriott ended up
joining the Obama campaign for
president as a Native American
outreach coordinator in Sept. 2007.
In June, he was officially hired as
the campaign’s First Americans
vote director. His chief objective
was collaborating with tribes and
Native groups, trying to get out
the Native vote in many states,
including New Mexico, Wisconsin,
Montana and Michigan.
“For us, the campaign has
always been about community
empowerment,” Garriott told ICT
in late-September.
Radio Program on
KUCR, 88.3 FM
Listen Live Online
Every Thursday
5:30pm-6:30pm
AMERICAN
INDIAN
*MUSIC*
*NEWS*
*INTERVIEWS*
academically and culturally.
At Yale, Garriott also worked as
vice-president of Night Shield
Entertainment, a music-focused
company founded by one of his
Native friends, Gabriel Night
Shield. Garriott assisted with
promotion and helped with efforts
on distribution, talent evaluation
and music selection.
Upon learning of Garriott’s new
appointment, Night Shield said he
and many other tribal members
were “really proud of what Wizi
has accomplished.”
“We were joking about it the
other day – maybe in about 20
years we’ll be voting for Wizi as
president,” said Night Shield, who
attended high school at St. Francis
Indian School with Garriott in
South Dakota.
Article from Indian Country Today,
http://www.indiancountrytoday.
com/politics/36045919.html
*DISCUSSIONS*
themselves. That’s what this is all
about.”
He also predicted in the interview
that Indian participation in the
election would help sway the vote
in close swing states.
Garriott is the son of Elizabeth
Little Elk, who works for the
Rosebud Sioux Tribe in the child
and family services arena, and
Charlie Garriott, a teacher at Todd
County High School, located on
the reservation in Mission, S.D.
While in college, Garriott served as
a peer counselor to younger Native
students. Amid controversy over
whether there should be ethnic
counselors and cultural houses
at the institution, he made it be
known that he felt such networks
are beneficial, especially for
reservation youth.
In a December 2002 issue of The
Yale Herald, Garriott noted that
the majority of reservation youth
hail from economically depressed
areas, which can make it especially
difficult for Indian students to
adjust to mainstream colleges, both
“We’ve tried to put as many
resources as possible into Indian
communities so we can help our
own people organize and empower
Fall Quarter 2008
2009
UCR
Gathering of the
Tribes
Summer
Residential
Program
June 22-29
(Tentative Dates)
Field Trips
Classes
Workshops
Sports
Fun!!!
For More Info. Contact
(951) 827-4143
[email protected]
Page 7
Thank you to our
2008
3rd Annual
Spirit of the Tribes 5K
Sponsors
TM
Page 8
Fall Quarter 2008
Volume 18, #1
Continued from Page 6
If They’re Lost, Who Are
We?
caves in the Southwest where
explorers found seeds thousands of
years old that grew when planted.
One Indian critic recently rather
self-servingly suggested that
“English is an Indian language.”
He’s wrong. English is not a Native
American language; for most of us,
it is our only language -- through
no fault of our own, owing to a
federal policy aimed at wiping
out Native American languages.
Cultural eradication is a process,
and it was precisely through
the attempt to stamp out Native
American languages that the U.S.
government tried to stamp out
Native American cultures. To claim
that English is a Native language is
to continue that process.
an Indian holds a copy of N.
Scott Momaday’s groundbreaking
novel “House Made of Dawn,”
which won the Pulitzer Prize in
1969, or Louise Erdrich’s widely
popular “Love Medicine,” they
hold it gingerly, as though carrying
the ashes of a recently deceased
grandparent.
Our cultures and our languages
-- as unique, identifiable and
particular entities -- are linked
to our sovereignty. If we allow
our own wishful thinking and
complacency to finish what George
Armstrong Custer began, we
will lose what we’ve managed to
retain: our languages, land, laws,
institutions, ceremonies and,
finally, ourselves. And to claim
that Indian cultures can continue
without Indian languages only
hastens our end, even if it makes us
feel better about ourselves.
President Bush signed a bill Oct.
10 that transferred the Riverside
and San Diego County land
from the U.S. Bureau of Land
Management, becoming Public
Law No. 110-383.
The land must be used for the
protection, preservation and
maintenance of archaeological,
cultural and wildlife resources.
The building of roads is prohibited
except for maintenance, according
to the bill (H.R. 2963),which
was refined after environmental
concerns of the local community,
said Fredrick Hill, press secretary
for Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Vista. Issa
introduced the bill in July 2007.
Concerns centered on potential
additional casinos in a region that
already has several.
“[The city of Temecula] had
concerns initially but supported it
after the language was improved.
In the end it was a good deal for
residents and Native Americans,”
Hill said.
More often than not, English was
forced on us, not chosen by us.
Naturally, one can (and millions
do) construct a cultural identity
out of whatever is at hand, and
no Indian should feel bad (though
many of us do) about speaking
English. But I don’t kid myself
that my writing reflects my culture
-- or can save it. My novels are
exercises in art, not cultural
revitalization or anthropology.
And if novels published by
large publishing conglomerates,
marketed to a general readership
that doesn’t know the first thing
about our lives, written in English
by university-educated writers who
by and large live far away from
their tribal communities, don’t
speak their tribal languages and
probably earn two or three times as
much as the rest of their people are
our best defense against the threat
of cultural death, we are in worse
shape than I thought.
Cultural death matters because
if the culture dies, we will have
lost the chance not only to live
on our own terms (something
for which our ancestors fought
long and hard) but also to live
in our own terms. That Native
American cultures are imperiled is
not just important to Indians. It is
important to everyone, or should
be. Because when we lose cultures,
we lose American plurality -- the
productive and lovely discomfort
that true difference brings.
Tribe given land for
preserve
By Eva Thomas, Indian Country
Today correspondent
Perhaps we protect and even
beatify stories because we have
no real presence in film or popular
music, because we have no standup comics with their own TV
shows, because not one of us is a
host on “The View,” because there
is no Indian Oprah and no Indian
Denzel and no Indian on “Lost.”
Stories are all we’ve got. So when
By Victor Morales, Indian Country
Today correspondent
Story Published: Nov 25, 2008
Story Published: Nov 7, 2008
LOS ANGELES – Aspiring
American Indian actors, writers,
directors and producers gathered
at the Autry National Center Sept.
18 to attend an industry event,
“Careers in Focus: American
Indians in Entertainment.”
Volume 18 #1
[email protected]
David Treuer is Ojibwe from
Leech Lake Reservation in
northern Minnesota and a translator
of Ojibwe texts. His most recent
novel is “The Translation of Dr.
Apelles: A Love Story.”
Story Updated: Nov 7, 2008
TEMECULA, Calif. – The
Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians
will add nearly 1,200 acres of real
estate to its reservation.
The land transfer does not include
about 12 acres that includes power
transmission lines and other
infrastructure.
The BLM considered the land
dispensable while requiring
maintenance, Hill said.
Article from Indian Country Today,
http://www.indiancountrytoday.
com/national/southwest/34084994.
html
Breaking into the Business
‘Careers in Focus’ connects
aspiring entertainers, industry
professionals
Story Updated: Nov 21, 2008
Fall Quarter 2008
The evening included a panel
discussion featuring top film and
television professionals.
Coming to Los Angeles to pursue
a career in the movie business is
hard for anyone, but it is especially
trying for Native people because
of the types of roles currently or
historically created by Hollywood,
including an apparent lack of
contemporary roles and limited
opportunities. The people who
attended the event hope this
situation will change.
The “Careers in Focus” event was
co-sponsored by the Screen Actors
Guild President’s National Task
Force on American Indians and
the American Indian Center for
Television and Film.
The task force was established
in January 2007 to promote and
safeguard the interests and rights
of American Indian performers.
The task force believes that a
heightened awareness of and
commitment to fair employment
practices on the part of industry
decision makers will lead to an
expanded use of the American
Indian Performer in features,
television, commercials and other
multimedia.
Actress DeLanna Studi, Cherokee,
is part of the task force and helped
organize the event. “Over the last
year, we have organized a few
casting mixers for our Native
actors,” she said. “For this event,
we extended an invitation to the
Writers Guild of America, the
Directors Guild of America and
the Producers Guild of America.
We wanted to showcase all of our
Native talent at this event.”
The American Indian National
Center for Television and Film is
a resource center for American
Indian talent in front of and behind
the cameras. A partnership among
the Institute of American Indian
Arts, Alaska Native Culture and
Arts Development and the nation’s
major broadcasters – ABC, CBS,
FOX and NBC – the center serves
as a bridge between the American
Indian community and the
Continued on Last Page
Page 9
Continued From Page 9
Breaking into the Business
entertainment industry.Jane
Myers, Comanche, is the center’s
executive director. She was
instrumental in planning the
evening’s events. “Our goals for
this event were really twofold,”
she said. “One was to gather the
Native American entertainment
community: there are so many
of us spread throughout the city
and the event provides a place to
network. Another goal was to show
the industry just how many Native
artists are in this town.”The task
force and the American Indian
National Center share the same
mission: to increase employment
opportunities and promote more
accurate representations of
contemporary American Indian
communities.
At “Careers in Focus,” a panel
of industry representatives from
the four major networks shared
some practices and strategies
for increasing the visibility and
employment of American Indian
actors, writers, directors and
producers.
The panel assembled included
Native actor Adam Beach; writer
and writing instructor Geoff
Harris; Veena Sud, executive
producer/writer/director; Kim
Williams, casting director, FOX;
Marc Hirschfeld, executive VP of
casting, NBC; and Fern Orenstein,
VP of casting, CBS.
The panel was moderated by CBS
national news correspondent Hattie
Kaufman, Nez Perce. Advice was
given to a newly arrived actress on
how to get an agent, audition dos
and don’ts were discussed and tips
to writers seeking representation
were given.
“Tell a universal story, and
everyone can relate,” was some
advice from Harris, who conducted
the 2007 and 2008 summer TV and
film writing workshops at IAIA.
Sud, who currently writes for and
produces the CBS series “Cold
Case,” told the audience, “Hone
your craft – you have to write
every day.”
The casting representatives
reminded the actors, “Don’t rely
solely on your agent. Remember
your agent gets 10 percent – you
have gotta do 90 percent of the
work. You must always be pushing
yourself and your own career.”
Beach talked about his experiences
and struggles in Hollywood – his
success gave hope to the room full
of Native artists who seek a career
in this industry.
The panel discussion ended and
the crowd moved to an outdoor
patio area for food and drinks, to
mix and mingle: in other words,
network.
November 1, 2008
928-349-8243
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Sante Fe Springs, CA
November 1-2, 2008
“It is really up to us,” Myers
said. “We have the talent and the
capabilities to change the images
of Natives in Hollywood. We have
writers who can write it, producers
and directors who can bring a
project to life, and actors who can
act in it. It is a very exciting time.”
Article from Indian Country Today,
http://www.indiancountrytoday.
com/national/southwest/34894429.
html
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Studi said, “We had an amazing
turnout. We had over 200 people in
attendance tonight. We wanted an
elegant and professional event so
the industry can see us as modernday people and employable talent.”
November 8, 2008
Chinle, AZ
Native American
As Hirschfeld said, “The Native
community needs to mobilize,
create a critical mass and work
together.”
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