NDN News September 16
Kerchee
By ROD WALTON
c. Tulsa World
9/15/00
To Charley Cherokee Sacks, the Cherokee language is a spiritual one, a sound
and a love. Sacks teaches the language to students at Muskogee's Bacone
College, which is offering Cherokee again after a 20-year absence.
MUSKOGEE -- Just as any word spoken in French sounds romantic -- "grenouille"
means "frog" after all -- so do most words of the Cherokee language sound
spiritual.
O-se-yo, do-di-da-go-huh. Hello, goodbye.
To Charley Cherokee Sacks, his native language is spiritual and more. It's a
sound, a love, an almost-lost way of life.
"I believe the creator God gives the world sounds. . . . The sounds are how
we speak," Sacks said. "The wind speaks as it whistles. The trees speak as
the wind blows through them.
"It's a spiritual thing," he decided. "It's a gift that should not be lost."
The Cherokee language is a gift Sacks is returning every weekday during the
fall semester at Bacone College. For the first time in 20 years, Oklahoma's
oldest school is offering a class in the language.
"We're all excited over here about this class and being able to add to the
Cherokee language," Bacone spokesman Mike Carrels said.
The new class is part of Bacone's overall explosion. The college has 718
students enrolled this fall -- compared to 328 for the same time last year.
Lack of interest prevented Sacks from teaching Cherokee at the college
earlier. Instead, he went to churches, private homes and public schools to
spread the words of his native tongue.
The opportunity at Bacone thrills the 63-year-old minister and former boxer.
"Out of 365 tribes nationwide, one-third have forgotten their language; they
don't talk it anymore," Sacks said. "What is happening now is they are
getting rewarded with college credits for learning something that belongs to
them. That's a wonderful thing."
Sacks spent his early years speaking little else but Cherokee. His father,
Nelson Sacks, and mother, Ollie Marie, raised their family by cutting timber
into railroad ties in the Iron Post community near Locust Grove. The young
Charley Sacks learned the old ways and always kept them close at heart.
"Everyone thinks the way they grew up was the greatest way," he said. "I feel
the same way."
A speedy puncher who began boxing at 12 and later spent 13 years as a pro in
every division from featherweight to heavyweight -- "I got out of shape a
little there," he admitted -- Sacks also became a minister serving tribal
United Methodist churches. But one of his heart's desires was to hand down
his linguistic legacy for a new generation.
And so he teaches from doe-dah-wahn-nuh (Monday) to joe-nee-gee-lowst
(Friday). Sacks begins using phonics to teach Cherokee, concentrating on the
sounds of words before he delves into the syllabary developed by Sequoyah
more than 160 years ago.
Sequoyah's alphabet culled the Cherokee language down to 86 syllabaries -- or
sounds. The Cherokee words used in this Tulsa World story are all spelled
phonetically, just as Sacks has taught them at first.
At one point, Sack asked his class to pronounce the Cherokee variations of
one, two, three. "Sah-woo, tahl, joe," they answered.
"You already know everything, huh?" Sacks joked.
Student Wendy Scott has not only learned a great deal already, but also she
is regaining a piece of her past. Scott spoke only Cherokee before going to
public school, yet slowly she lost her grasp of the language of her elders.
Her sole remaining elder is 94 and is living out the rest of his life in a
Tahlequah nursing home. Scott has made him one last promise.
"My goal is to carry on a conversation with him before he passes on," she
said.
One of her college-age children is now interested in taking the class. Her
19-year-old nephew, Brandon, is among Sack's current students.
Sacks is a main reason why students want to revisit their oral heritage,
Scott noted.
"He makes it real easy to learn," she said. "You write it the way you say it."
Eventually, things will get slightly more complicated as they start picking
up true spellings. Phonetics will do for now, since the main thing is gaining
a love of the language.
Sacks certainly has it.
"It's a spiritual thing," he said for a second time.
It's a sound thing, too. The sound of their past.
- - - - - -
Senator Releases Letters Detailing 1864 Indian Massacre
BY MATT KELLEY
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
September 15, 2000
WASHINGTON -- Nearly 136 years after Colorado Militia troops ambushed and
massacred more than 150 American Indians on the banks of Sand Creek, a
senator related to a survivor of the attack is sponsoring a plan to create a
memorial at the site.
At a hearing on the proposal Thursday, Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell read
from two recently discovered letters written by soldiers who objected to the
1864 atrocity. One, by Capt. Silas Soule, detailed the gruesome scene where
troops slaughtered Cheyenne and Arapaho women, children and elderly men.
"It was hard to see little children on their knees have their brains beat
out by men professing to be civilized," wrote Soule, who was murdered in
Denver shortly after testifying at a congressional inquiry.
Campbell, a Northern Cheyenne whose great-grandfather's second wife
survived the attack, said the descriptions brought tears to his eyes. The
Colorado Republican is backing a bill to create a national historic site on
more than 12,000 acres of "killing fields" on the plains of southeastern
Colorado.
"Can you imagine cutting open a pregnant woman and taking out the baby
and then scalping the baby? " Campbell said. "It's the worst atrocity I've
ever heard of."
The National Park Service supports Campbell's proposal to create the Sand
Creek historic site, which would help protect the area from artifact poachers
and allow Cheyenne and Arapaho tribal members to create a burial ground there
for the remains of victims. Rancher Bill Dawson, on whose land much of the
killing ground lies, and other area landowners are willing to sell their
property to create the memorial.
Campbell said he guessed the bill had a "50-50" chance of passing
Congress before lawmakers adjourn for the year, which is scheduled for early
October.
Steve Brady, president of the Northern Cheyenne Sand Creek Descendants,
said the site would commemorate "the unspeakable horrors of ethnic
cleansing."
The massacre began at dawn Nov. 29, 1864, when nearly 1,000 men under the
command of Col. John Chivington surrounded hundreds of Indians camped on the
banks of the creek. Soule and other witnesses said Chivington wanted to kill
Indians and did not care that this group was peaceful and had been promised
by other U.S. troops that they would be left alone if they flew an American
flag.
The troops opened fire on the mostly unarmed Indians with guns and
howitzers, then chased down many who tried to flee. The soldiers mutilated
the bodies, taking away scalps, ears, fingers and genitals as trophies.
Those involved were never punished.
- - - - - -
Protesters to picket conference
Some Kickapoos allege 'wrongdoing' at tribe's Horton casino
By Mike Belt
c. Lawrence Journal
September 15, 2000
Thelma Simon, left, and James Cisneros, Kickapoo tribe members, prepare
posters to protest at the "American Indian Leaders: Red Power and Tribal
Politics" this weekend in Lawrence. Some members of the Kickapoo Tribe in
Kansas and individuals supporting the issue want to bring attention to
allegations of a number of improprieties they say have been occurring for
several years within the tribe and its gaming operations at the Golden Eagle
Casino near Horton.
American Indian leaders at a conference today at Kansas University will be
greeted by protesters.
Leaders of the protest, members of the Kansas Kickapoo Tribe, want to bring
attention to their allegations of improprieties within the tribe and its
gaming operations at the Golden Eagle Casino near Horton.
"We feel like if there is going to be a conference, our tribe should be the
focal point," said James Cisneros of Holton, who served on the Kansas
Kickapoo Tribal Gaming Commission and the Kickapoo Tribal Council before
being forced out.
The conference, which runs through Saturday, is billed as "American Indian
Leaders: Red Power and Tribal Politics."
It is being conducted through the KU Continuing Education Program in
conjunction with Haskell Indian Nations University. Indian gaming is among
the topics to be discussed.
Cisneros and two other protest organizers, Steve Cadue of Lawrence, former
chairman of the tribal council, and Thelma Simon of Horton, have lawsuits
against the tribal council. They claim they were illegally removed from the
council about a year ago by the other four members.
The lawsuits are pending in Kickapoo Tribal District Court.
Cisneros has a second lawsuit alleging the tribal council illegally removed
him from the gaming commission. No hearings have been conducted since the
case was filed more than a year ago, he said.
Cisneros claims the state of Kansas is not enforcing the gaming compact it
has with the Kickapoos.
But Tracy Diel, director of the Kansas Gaming Commission, said he has not
received any requests for an investigation nor has anyone presented evidence
of any wrongdoing on the part of the Kickapoos.
Members of the Kickapoo Tribal Council could not be reached for comment
Thursday.
- - - - - -
EXHIBITION EXPLORES CHANGING REALITIES OF
NATIVE AMERICAN LIFE DURING THE 20TH CENTURY
by Russ Tall Chief
Public Affairs Specialist
Special to The Indian News -
The Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian will survey the
profound changing realities of Native American life that occurred during the
20th century in the United States in an exhibition titled "who stole the tee
pee?" The exhibition will be on view Oct. 1 through Jan. 21, 2001 at the
museum's George Gustav Heye Center in lower Manhattan. Admission is free.
"who stole the tee pee?"--a question posed by artist George Littlechild
(Plains Cree)--is another way of asking, "What happened to our traditions?"
During the past 100 years, missionaries, soldiers, teachers, government
officials, and social reformers stripped Native peoples of much of the
lifeways their ancestors had cultivated for thousands of years. Did they
steal the tee pee? Or did they create a situation in which some Indians were
more than willing to give it up?
A collaboration with Atlatl, Inc., a non-profit arts organization based in
Phoenix, Ariz., the exhibition features the works of 35 contemporary Native
artists examining the impact of those changes-social, political, cultural,
and personal. The artists reflect on history in order to understand what
their ancestors experienced during the period of forced-assimilation,
boarding school education and relocation to distant cities. The artists
reflect on their modern day situations, which are sometimes affected by those
same forces of change, and often influenced by an entirely new set of
circumstances. Historical photographs and earlier works from the museum's
collection provide a context for the roots of artistic changes embedded in
reservation life since 1900.
"It is vitally important to explore the history of Native cultures in order
to understand contemporary Native realities," says W. Richard West, director
of the National Museum of the American Indian. "Through this collaboration
with Atlatl, 'who stole the tee pee?' emerges as one of the most insightful
and comprehensive surveys of the changing expressions in 20th century Native
art from the United States. Presently, as Native Peoples strive to maintain
their cultural identities--and in many cases reclaim or resuscitate their
cultural identities--the National Museum of the American Indian serves as an
important source of reference and celebration of the past, present and future
of American Indians."
The first section of the exhibition--"Changing Reservation
Realities"--explores the varying, often contradicting perspectives on
reservation life. For many, the reservation was a desolate place of strange
schools, new religions, and oppressive racism. But for some it was a
cultural oasis where Native People could express themselves on their own
terms. Art was one of the primary ways in which old ideas and new realities
could be expressed. However, cultural contradictions created provocative
ironies, such as Lakota Sioux making and decorating pouches for their ration
cards, as illustrated by objects from the museum's collection. These meal
tickets that were pacifying and crippling their skills as hunters and farmers
became a new means of survival.
"School Bells and Haircuts: Re-educating the Indian" explores the
traditional steps missionaries and government officials took to "humanize"
and "civilize" young Native People in communities and boarding schools. The
first step was to cut the children's hair, illustrated in a photo by
Cherokee/Creek artist Tom Fields, and replace their traditional clothing with
European-style dress, which Yanktonai Lakota artist Oscar Howe illustrates in
a 1949 watercolor of Native college students in their "ballroom best." The
next step was to teach them to think in English about wealth, private
property, and individuality. The final step was to teach Native children to
salute the flag that many of their ancestors had fought against.
Boarding schools, such as the Carlisle Indian School in Carlisle,
Pa.--pictured in a museum photo from the late 1800s--removed the Native
children from their homes, which distanced them from traditional role models.
They were punished for speaking tribal languages and expressing Native
thoughts. Some were abused and molested. Thus, many turned to alcohol to
numb their senses. When these young people returned home, they could no
longer communicate with their parents. However, boarding schools nurtured
the arts in order to help Natives earn a living. And after growing up away
from home, many young people came to prefer the new lifestyle.
After 1920, with tourism on the rise in Indian Country, entrepreneurs and the
federal government saw an opportunity to transform America's romantic notions
of the West into a cash crop for Natives. The arts became a new tool of
salvation. But in order to sell to the visiting Easterners, artists needed
to conform artworks to their tastes. Artists began implementing traditional
imagery into non-Native works, such as dishes, cigar containers, and
pincushions. Later, artists began creating variations on traditional themes,
which can be seen molded in the ceramics of Virgil Ortiz (Cochiti Pueblo) and
Roxanne Swentzell (Santa Clara Pueblo).
The section in the exhibition titled "Tolerating Tourists: Commodification of
Culture" illuminates how Native art began to cater to economic demand, often
leading Native Peoples to express themselves in degrading ways, as shown in
the museum's photo of Navajo dancers entertaining a tourist train in 1963.
Cultural authenticity was often sacrificed to please stereotypical notions
held by the tourists.
The final section of the exhibition, "Beyond Smoke in Mirrors: Native
American Self-Images," provides a context in which contemporary Native
artists may offer a view of themselves. The works are not simply
self-portraits because they offer a kind of self-analysis that is a look
beyond the "smoke" of racial stereotypes and into a mirror that reflects
truths about the artists' lives. Each artist who happens to be Native
American experiences the world differently, and the works in this section
reflect those diverse realities.
In conjunction with the exhibition, the museum will present three new public
programs this November at the Heye Center. The events are FREE; no tickets
or reservations are required.
Thursday, Nov. 2
Shaping Identities
6:30 p.m. - Auditorium
A slide history and discussion, presented by Barbara Landis, Carlisle Indian
School historian, and Carolyn Cook Rittenhouse (Cheyenne River Sioux), will
focus on Indian boarding schools such as Carlisle.
Wednesday, Nov. 8
Mario Martinez Speaks
10 a.m. - 12:30 p.m., 2nd floor gallery/pause area
Former National Museum of the American Indian artist fellow Mario Martinez
(Pascua Yaqui) is a painter whose work is featured in the new exhibit, "who
stole the tee pee?" Martinez will discuss his 5-foot-square painting, titled
"Flowers," in this informal session.
Background on the National Museum of the American Indian
Congress established the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian
in 1989. The legislation (P.L. 101-185) authorized three facilities: George
Gustav Heye Center, a permanent exhibition and public program facility that
opened in New York City in 1994; Cultural Resources Center, a newly-completed
research facility in Suitland, Md., which will house the museum's collection;
National Museum on the National Mall, scheduled to open in 2003. (The
groundbreaking ceremony was held Sept. 28, 1999.)
As part of the legislation establishing the museum, Congress directed the
museum to raise one-third of the initially estimated construction costs from
nonfederal sources. For information on becoming a Charter Member, call (800)
242-NMAI.
The Heye Center is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and on Thursdays until
8 p.m. Admission is free. The museum's home page is at www.si.edu/nmai.
Rick
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Relativity applies to physics, not ethics.
-- Albert Einstein