Navajo filmmaker still shining at Sundance, By: Bernie Dotson, Gallup Independent, Native American Times.

Filmaker Ramona Emerson. photo credit: Kickstarter

Osiyo. Ramona Emerson a member of the Navajo Nation, has written  directed, and co-produced a wonderful film entitled Opal.  The film centers on the lives of  Navajo children, specifically a young Navajo girl (Opal) who is tough, and has a mind of her own. When she is accosted by the town bully,  Opal and her friend take steps to handle the situation. In addition to this wonderful film, Ramona and her husband Kelly Byars, a member of the  Choctaw Nation,  run their own company Reel Indian Pictures located in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Ramona received her B.A in Media Arts in 1997 from the University of New Mexico, one of the first two graduates of the program. Excerpt:

“Ramona Emerson swept into Park City, Utah, in 2010 as one of four writers and filmmakers selected to participate in the Sundance Film Festival’s Native Filmmakers Ford Foundation Fellowship Program…Opal is a short film about a young Navajo girl who takes on the town bully. When Opal is beat up by the bully, she and her friend Bunny take matters into their own hands. The importance of Opal’ goes beyond just getting my story on the screen,” Emerson explained. It is also a portrait of a tough little girl who won’t take no for an answer. It serves as a metaphor for all of the places that little girls aren’t allowed to go, the things they are forbidden to do. This is every little Navajo girl’s chance to power through diversity, to push by the people who are keeping you from what you want to do…Raised in Tohatchi and Santa Fe, where her mother attended art school, Emerson said she gravitates toward subjects she encountered as a youngster growing up around the Navajo Nation…Since everyone on the cast is under 12 years old, we had to work around schedules, during weekends and when we could get our lead actress (Magdalena Begay) into town from Flagstaff, Ariz…Emerson, 38, said she’s eager to enter Opal again at Sundance come 2013…”

Read the entire article to learn more about this wonderful, thought-provoking film. Click to see the film OPAL, and  the other films Ramona Emerson and her husband  have  produced.

Lead actress Magdalena Begay from Opal. photo credit- Reel Indian Pictures

“My hope is to create a story that reflects a very true representation of what it’s like to grow up on the Navajo Nation, but more importantly, questions the roles of women and girls both on and off the reservation.”

~Ramona Emerson~(1974-)

Tags: Navajo, Opal, Ramona Emerson

Martha Redbone charts her own distinctive course, marches to her own beat By Kara Briggs, American Indian News Service

Martha Redbone, Skintalk. photo- home page

Martha Redbone in performance at Hopestock-NMAI. photo By Craig Bailey, Perspective Photos

Osiyo, Singer Martha Redbone’s music is an intriguing blend that reflects her rich heritage. The cool R&B of her African-American father mixes well with the rhythmic sounds of the Cherokee-Shawne-Choctaw from her mother’s tribes…

Her songs first  became hits in Europe and England,  where the people weren’t aware there were “American Indians still alive” in this country.  This exceptional lady has also continuously helped the youth from the Houma Nation, and other tribes. Excerpt:

“New York—Recording artist Martha Redbone’s Native American-infused soul is all her own. Redbone is an independent artist who is as likely to include a powwow drum as she is jazz riffs in her highly danceable music. Her second album, “Skintalk,” is a sophisticated blend that is powered not by electronics but by a funk-rock band of veteran musicians…Redbone, who grew up in Brooklyn and calls herself a mixed blood, Cherokee, Shawnee and Choctaw on her mother’s side, and African American on her father’s… As a young artist rooted in Otis Redding, Earth, Wind & Fire, and the Stomp Dance songs of her mother’s tribes, Redbone already had this vision for blending musical traditions…

In 2000, Redbone released the solo album, “Home of the Brave”…The album won her the Best Debut Artist award at the Native American Music Awards and Indian Summer Music Award for Best Pop Album… Redbone’s powerful Native-infused soul delivery and social commentary won her accolades in the indie music world…Redbone’s heritage guides her life.When after a performance at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival she met Brenda Dardar-Robichaux, then the principle chief of the United Houma Nation, and heard about the tribe’s efforts to share culture with their youth. For the last four summers she has traveled to this bayou nation where she shares songs that are culturally relevant to Houma’s six to 12-year-olds. Some songs are Choctaw, some in Houma French, and others are just beautiful when sung with a hand drum… Redbone’s hybridization of soul, R&B and Native music is in the tradition of contemporary artists like Keith Secola and Bill Miller...She is constantly brainstorming how she can help not only the Houma but youth across Indian Country…It’s really important that there are people like me representing and telling our stories to the world, Redbone said.”

We encourage everyone to read the entire article about this fascinating woman!

“…there are only 12 notes in a scale, or only so far that each style of music can go before it runs out of fresh material. The only way forward is to make new hybridizations” ~Artist Quincy Jones~ (1933-)

“We-sha-cat-we-lo-ke-we-la-wapa (Shawnee) Let us always do good for the world…”~Martha Redbone~

Tags: Martha Redbone

MIT Summer Research Program Seeks Diverse Candidates, ICTMN Staff

MIT campus

Osiyo,

Dr. Sophia Cisneros, a Dr. Martin Luther King Postdoctoral Fellow at the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)  has announced that they will be accepting applications for their Summer Research Program in engineering and science fields.

“…According to, Dr. Sophia Cisneros, a Dr. Martin Luther King Postdoctoral Fellow at MIT, the program rarely receives applications from interested Native American students, and as a Native from the Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw tribes, Cisneros would like to see this change…Students who participate in this program will be better prepared and motivated to pursue advanced degrees, thereby helping to sustain a rich talent pool in critical areas of research and innovation…”

MIT students.

To learn more visit: MIT Summer Research Program

OR:  Call 617-253-4860

OR: e-mail mit-srp@mit.edu.

MIT Application Information Here

NOTE: The deadline for applications is February 3, 2012.

Kudos to Dr. Sophia Cisneros and to MIT!

“Education must provide the opportunities for self-fulfillment; it can at best provide a rich and challenging environment for the individual to explore, in his own way.”

~Noam Chomsky~(1928-)

Tags: MIT, Noam Chomsky

Navajo Craig Curley Juggles Work and Training for Olympic Marathon Trials by ICTMN Staff, Indian Country Today

Craig Curley-photo NNER

Osiyo,

Navajo Craig Curley is a long distance runner from  Kinlichee, Arizona, and he will compete in the Olympic Marathon Trials in Houston, Texas.  He hopes to be  among the first  (three men and women will be chosen) to cross the finish line in time to qualify as a representative of the United States in the marathon at the 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London, held July through August 2012.  Craig receives support from his family, friends, co-workers and from Nideiltihi Native Elite Runners (NNER), which sponsors runners in the Four Corners Region.

Excerpt:

“… NNNER “helps with the cost of travel to races, lodging and gym access,” Curley told Runners Feed. “More significantly this organization is geared toward helping the youth on the Navajo Reservation. NNER is one way I keep in touch with the my hometown and reach out to the community with my running…Even though running has the potential to send Curley to the 2012 Olympics and powerfully impact his life, at the same time, it grounds him and keeps him connected to his Native roots. As a Native American, growing up I was shown how to value life and cherish the world that surrounds me. Even though this is a small part of the Native American Tradition and Culture, the mindset can be applied to running,” Curley said in an interview for NNER’s blog. “You run to care/cherish your body and in return you get the exercise that benefits you to live a healthy lifestyle…”

Brandon Leslie (2007) photo- NNER

Alvina Begay is another hopeful. photo ICT

Read this uplifting story about this extraordinary young man, and an additional article about Alvina Begay, another Navajo competitor.  It is beautiful to see our young engaging in healthy and productive activities. Kudos to NNER for their support. We at Talking Feather wish both Craig and Alvina our best!

“…the teaching of the Tradition is there for youngsters to develop a sentimental connection to the natural world in hopes that the youngsters will learn to respect/value all the gifts of the world.” ~ Craig Curley-Navajo Nation (2012-)~

Tags: 2012 Olympic Marathon, Navajo, NNER

Navajo Nation confronts HIV and AIDS , By Stephen Ceasar, Los Angeles Times

Navajo Elsie Smith and her granddaughters. Photo:Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times / December 11, 2011

Osiyo,

It is sad to think that in the year 2012, there are people who do not know about HIV or AIDS, yet this is true. It appears that in the Navajo community these diseases are on the rise in comparison to other tribes where the number of AIDS and HIV cases are  either remaining the same or better still showing signs of  declining. As always, the main solution is to “educate” all people.  Here is an excerpt from the article about how some people are coping and some trying to help others with this crisis in Gallup, New Mexico:

“Infections are rising within the tribe at a time when they are holding steady or declining in other groups across the country. Poor education is partly to blame, with some tribal members learning about HIV and AIDS only upon diagnosis.— Five years ago, the man Elsie Smith loved told her calmly from his hospital bed that it was time for him to go. He died with a hushed goodbye and a squeeze of her hand. Smith herself had been feeling ill for a while. Her bones ached and she vomited often. She soon mourned him from her own hospital bed. A doctor explained to the Navajo woman that her lover had died of AIDS. It was important that they check her blood, he said. She agreed.Two days later, the doctor told her that she had HIV. Her tired mind became flustered with questions, but she asked only one. ”What is HIV?”

See video slides and post for this article- Navajo infecting Navajo, by Mare Martin

Smith learned of her diagnosis at the Indian Medical Center in Gallup, where Western medicine and traditional healing converge to treat members of the Navajo Nation and where a ceremonial hogan — or sacred structure — sits on hospital grounds…It is where Jerry Archuleta and Emerson Scott, partners who are both HIV-positive, go for their monthly checkup…Most of the infections are occurring in the Navajo Nation, a vast expanse in the Four Corners region where poverty, poor education, alcohol abuse and the hardships of reservation life cultivate an environment in which the virus can spread…Like Smith, some Navajo learn of HIV and AIDS upon diagnosis. Others believe it’s a white man’s disease. Doctors, meanwhile, must explain the virus and disease in round-about ways because, in traditional Navajo culture, to speak of death is to bring it about…The Indian Medical Center and its clinics scattered across the reservation log about 35 new cases a year. But that’s about three times the number recorded a decade ago..Signs of trouble emerged in 2001, when about half a dozen patients trickled into the Indian Medical Center with severe fevers, rashes and headaches… Dr. Jonathan Iralu, the hospital’s infectious disease specialist, called for HIV tests. HIV was rare among Navajo then. The first documented case surfaced in 1987… Emerson Scott sometimes stands outside the Gallup city library to hand out condoms and pamphlets to encourage people to get tested for the virus he’s lived with for 13 years…

They are among the small number of Indians trying to warn Navajos about the dangers of AIDS… “People just don’t want to change here. They are so stuck in their ways,” said Jerry Archuleta, Scott’s partner. Both volunteer with the Navajo AIDS Network and work with several support groups for HIV and AIDS patients…”

To gain insight and knowledge, Talking Feather encourages everyone to read the complete article.

“…Maintaining harmony is the driving force in Navajo life, a concept captured in hozho, a complicated word that can be translated as harmony, balance but also beauty…” ~excerpt from article ~

Tags: AIDS, HIV, Navajo Nation

Phillip Charette And MR. ELIVE Release New Music Album…PRWeb

Albmn cover for Phillip Charette and Mr. Elive

Osiyo,

Phillip “Aarnaquq” Charette is both a member of the Alaskan Native Yup’ik Nation, and of  French Canadian descent. He holds degrees from the University of Alaska Fairbanks and Harvard University in Education, Native Studies, and Administration. He is especially known for his traditional Yup’ik masks, for which he has won a number of awards.

MR.ELIVE is a producer and musician from the northwest, working with new styles of music and many different artists.

These two gifted artists have gotten together to create a beautiful music album which combines traditional ancient Native Alaskan verse with Authentic Hip-Hop beat.

Phillip John "Aarnaquq" Charette

Excerpt:“This is the first official album from Native American artist Phillip “Aarnaquq” Charette and producer, performer MR.ELIVE. Traditional Yup’ik Alaskan verse over authentic hip-hop beats creates a new sound that is already being played in native dance venues as early copies have found their way north to Alaska and are also now requested in dance clubs throughout the Northwest. The album’s title, hard to pronounce, is in traditional Yup’ik and loosely translates to ‘we are flying’. Seven songs in all – this first album sets the bar where it will be hard for others to mimic without paying homage to these two pioneers of a ancient but new style… Phillip is internationally renowned for his contemporary expression of traditional Yup’ik masks. Phillip’s work has been shown at the Smithsonian, Eiteljorg, Bishop, Hallie Ford, Washington State History, and Heard Museums…”

For more information, media interviews or to review or purchase the album visit: http://www.mrelive.com

Read the article, and enjoy the new sound!

‘We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of the dream.Wandering by lone sea breakers, and sitting by desolate streams. World losers and world forsakers, for whom the pale moon gleams. Yet we are movers and the shakers of the world forever it seems”

~ Arhtur O’Shanessey ~(1844-1881)

Tags: MR.ELIVE, Phillip "Aarnaquq" Charette, Yup'ik

After Miracle, American Indian Woman…for Sainthood, by Kie Relyea, Eagle-Tribune-McClatchy Newspapers

Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha-photo- Catholic org.

Osiyo, A wonderful  event has occurred over the Christmas holiday. The  Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha, who was a member of the Mohawk-Alogonquain Nation will be the first American Indian to be canonized. For  many American Indian Catholics, Blessed Kateri’s canonization was a cause for celebration. Excerpt:

“BELLINGHAM, Wash. — Pope Benedict XVI has decreed that a Washington state boy’s recovery from the flesh-eating bacteria that nearly killed him in 2006 is a miracle that can be attributed to Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha’s help, making possible the canonization of the first American Indian saint in the Catholic Church. Monsignor Paul A. Lenz, the vice postulator for the cause of Blessed Kateri, confirmed on Monday, Dec. 19, the link to Jake Finkbonner.

Doctors who treated Jake, as well as a committee of doctors at the Vatican, came to the same conclusion…They didn’t think any of their medical expertise was the cure…They thought every night he was going to die. As Jake lay near death, the Rev. Tim Sauer, a longtime family friend, advised his mom and dad, Elsa and Donny Finkbonner, to pray to Blessed Kateri, who is the patroness for American Indians, for her intercession. That is akin to asking Blessed Kateri to pray to God to perform a miracle on Jake’s behalf. The boy is of Lummi descent.

The Vatican decided Jake’s recovery was a miracle that is beyond the explanation of medicine and that could be attributed to the intercession on his behalf by Blessed Kateri, who was born in 1656…Known as the Lily of the Mohawks, she was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1980, becoming the first American Indian to be so honored.”

A Must read article! It provides us with Inspiration and most importantly Hope for the New Year.

Painting of The Blessed Kateri photo: The Tamastslikt Cultural Institute

Biography  for The  Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha can be read here.

YouTube Video: courtesy of the Jesuit Community of Auriesville, NY

To learn more, See the video narrated by Father John Paret, SJ, Father Victor Hoagland, CP, and Eleonora Centrone. (click on photo)

“I am not my own; I have given myself to Jesus. He must be my only love…With the work of my hands I shall always earn what is necessary and what is left over I’ll give to my relatives and to the poor… If I should become sick and unable to work, then I shall be like the Lord on the cross. He will have mercy on me and help me, I am sure.”  ~The  Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha~

To all of our readers, (and those yet to join us) please be safe, and may you have a Happy and Prosperous New Year…alihelisdi itse udetiyvsadisvi

Tags: Pope Benedict XVI, The Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha

American Indian Christmas, by Floyd Looks for Buffalo Hand

Floyd Looks for Buffalo Hand-photo:Manataka American Indian Council

Floyd Looks for Buffalo Hand is a member of the Oglala Sioux, and a spiritual leader, and an artist. He has also written a book entitled, Learning Journey on the Red Road. In addition, he has written one of the best essays about American Indians and the Christmas celebration that we have ever read. Here is an excerpt from his essay:

Painting by Floyd Looks for Buffalo Hand

“Traditional American Indians are raised to respect the Christian Star and the birth of the first Indian Spiritual Leader… His name was Jesus. He was a Hebrew, a Red Man. He received his education from the wilderness. ..
“Everyday is our Christmas. Every meal is our Christmas. At every meal we take a little portion of the food we are eating, and we offer it to the spirit world on behalf of the four legged, and the winged, and the two legged. We pray–not the way most Christians pray– but we thank the Grandfathers, the Spirit, and the Guardian Angel… The life-ways of Roving Angels are actually the way Indian People live. They hold out their hands and help the sick and the needy. They feed and clothe the poor…

Everyday is Christmas in Indian Country. Daily living is centered around the spirit of giving and walking the Red Road. Walking the Red Road means making everything you do a spiritual act. If your neighbor, John Running Deer, needs a potato masher; and you have one that you are not using, you offer him yours in the spirit of giving. It doesn’t matter if it is Christmas or not.”

Please read this wonderful and informative piece in its entirety.

We wish to thank all of our readers, especially those who sent encouraging comments, and valuable information.

Our hope is that in return, we  have  pointed the way to new insights, and information about Natives, their lives, and the people involved with them.

Art by Floyd Looks for Buffalo Hand

Talking Feather wishes you: A Blessed Holiday, and A Prosperous New Year!

Tags: Floyd Looks for Buffalo Hand, Indian Christmas, Oglala Sioux

Domestic Violence: Rulings Could Stem Epidemic On American Indian Reservations,  By Dave Kolpack, Huffington Post

Osiyo,

Epidemic: noun. a widespread occurrence of an infectious disease in a community…New Oxford American Dictionary.

Domestic violence is an “epidemic” especially in the sense that children who grow up in violent families, learn (become infected with) this negative behavior. There are people, both Indians and non-Indians, women and men, who are trying to make it harder for abusers to escape punishment, as this article points out:

Sophia Renville Brown, a domestic abuse survivor who manages a women’s shelter on the Sisseton-Wahpeton reservation.-photo Huffington Post

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“On the day after Christmas last year, a drunken Roman Cavanaugh Jr. beat up his 11- and 12-year-old sons, punching both in the face. The older boy was hit so hard he couldn’t speak for a full day because his jaw was swollen shut.At the time, Cavanaugh was a free man on North Dakota’s Spirit Lake Indian Reservation, even though he had three convictions in tribal court for domestic violence. Had he been charged for those crimes off the reservation, he probably would have been in prison.

Despite a well-known epidemic of domestic violence on American Indian reservations, federal authorities have long been stymied in their pursuit of abusive parents and spouses. That may change if recent rulings in Cavanaugh’s case and a similar matter are upheld, allowing U.S attorneys to act instead of watching abuse convictions pile up at the tribal level. That’s a change, advocates say, that could save lives… An American Indian woman born in the United States has a 1-in-3 chance of being sexually assaulted in her lifetime, compared with 1-in-5 for the country as a whole…And on some reservations, women are murdered at a rate more than 10 times the national average, a federal study of death certificates showed.

Sophia Renville Brown, a domestic abuse survivor who manages a women’s shelter on the Sisseton-Wahpeton reservation in the Dakotas, said she suspects those numbers are too low. Most cases of domestic violence go unreported because women are too ashamed to come forward, said Brown, whose shelter – which holds up to 15 women and children – is routinely full…Violence starts out small and gets bigger…” Read this article, and share your thoughts.

Kudos to Ms. Brown for her courage, strength, and willingness to help others. Also to Shirley Montoya (Navajo) Program coordinator for Women of the Healing Circle Drop-In Center, in Shiprock.  Another  well known advocate for women and children of domestic violence is Radmilla Cody (Navajo).

“I release you, my beautiful and terrible fear…You were my beloved
and hated twin, but now, I don’t know you as myself. I release you with all the
pain I would know at the death of my children… I am not afraid to be angry.
I am not afraid to rejoice…I am not afraid to be hated. I am not afraid to be loved, to be loved, to be loved, fear.

I take myself back, fear. You are not my shadow any longer.
I won’t take you in my hands.You can’t live in my eye, my ears, my voice
my belly, or in my heart my heart, my heart my heart
But come here, fear I am alive and you are so afraid…of dying.”

By: Joy Harjo (1951- member of the Muskogee Tribe) poem Fear

from She Had Some Horses

You are NOT alone…

Osiyo,

Two uplifting stories, both concerning the welfare of our Native children.

First Lady and Children with Museum director Kevin Gove. (Photo by Nedra Darling - DOI)

The first article discusses how First Lady Michelle Obama (Let’s Move!) and the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) are helping Native children learn healthy lifestyles. Here’s an excerpt:

How “Three Sisters” and Michelle Obama are Helping Indian Country, by Kevin Gover (Pawnee), Director NMAI

“Good food is the key component to good health. Traditional Native diets were replete with both wild and cultivated fruits and vegetables and lean meats…Throughout the United States, our young people too often eat poorly and exercise little. Fast food, junk food, and lack of exercise are producing historic rates of childhood obesity in the United States. To combat this problem, First Lady Michele Obama is heading a program called “Let’s Move!”…Mrs. Obama has established an element of the program directed to Native children specifically. Let’s Move! In Indian Country has four main goals: to create a healthy start on life, develop healthy learning, increase physical activity, and improve access to affordable, healthy and traditional foods. Last week Mrs. Obama hosted an event at the White House to kick off the Indian Country program. About two dozen Native kids from the D.C. area came to the White House to help Mrs. Obama harvest the early crops from the White House garden and to plant the garden’s summer crops. The White House has been consulting with the NMAI about traditional Native foods, and I was invited to participate in the harvest and planting.”

The second inspiring story comes from Cherokee country in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, and discusses the wonderful new book for children Coyote and the Turtle’s Dream,  by Terri Lofton.  This  is another  very clever way to teach children about healthy ways of living. Here’s an excerpt:

Book " Coyote and The Turtle's Dream" by Terri Lofton

Children’s Book Teaches About Native American Diabetes, by the Staff of CherokeePhoenix

“The Center for Disease Control and the Division of Diabetes Translation Prevention announced the availability of a new novel that engages children ages 10-13 in learning how a healthy lifestyle can help prevent Type II diabetes.  Coyote and the Turtle’s Dream is the first in a series of three books in American Indian and Alaska Native communities. The books were developed by the CDC, in collaboration with the Tribal Leaders Diabetes Committee and the Indian Health Service in response to the rapid rate of diabetes among Native Americans and the need for diabetes prevention for children. ..While reading the book, children will be led by the animals into an adventure, embedded with messages about healthy eating and physical activity, in which they foil the plans of a fossil poacher on their reservation. Prior to publication, Native youth and tribal leaders reviewed the book and their comments are also featured on the book cover and inside pages.”