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Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Thursday, July 16, 2009
The Big Draw!
This weekend, come and capture the movements of powwow dancing with line, gesture and texture. The museum is participating in this year's The Big Draw! event -- artist Jeffrey Gibson (Mississippi Band Choctaw/Cherokee) will lead the drawing activities.
Larry Yazzie (Diné) and the Native Pride Dancers will be performing. The event is very popular - first come, first served -- and will take place this Saturday, July 18 from 11 am to 4 pm
Pictured: The Big Draw! 2008 -- photo by Stephen Lang.
Thursday, July 9, 2009
A Song for the Horse Nation
“Horse Nation” Exhibition Premieres Nov. 14 in New York City
The enduring relationship between Native people and the horse will be illustrated through vivid personal accounts and a spectacular array of objects in “A Song for the Horse Nation,” opening Saturday, Nov. 14, at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian in New York, the George Gustav Heye Center. Starting with the return of the horse to the Americas in 15th century, the exhibition traces how Native people adapted the horse into their cultural and spiritual lives and integrated it into their geographic expansion, warfare and defense.
“A Song for the Horse Nation” will present 95 works, including elaborate horse trappings, clothing and photographs and will close March 7, 2011. The exhibition will then continue at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C., from June 2011 through January 2013. Afterward, the exhibition is expected to tour nationally through the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service program (SITES).
Originally native to the American continent, horses became extinct but were reintroduced by the Spanish, and later by the French, English and Dutch—beginning with Columbus’ second voyage in 1493. Native people soon adopted the horse and became some of the world’s best horsemen. Horses were used to enhance trade, expand territory, facilitate hunting and wage war. Included in the exhibition will be a Lakota winter count (ca. 1902) by Long Soldier (Hunkpapa Lakota) that depicts when horses were first sighted by the community.
Paired with the introduction of the gun, the mounted Plains warrior was a formidable fighter, upsetting old alliances among the tribes and frustrating European advances. Young men proved their valor through the horse raid, where they captured horses from enemy camps.
Horses also became integrated in Native American cultural and spiritual life, representing the primary virtues of agility, grace and beauty. The exhibition includes a graceful dance stick (ca. 1890) by No Two Horns (Hunkpapa Lakota), created to honor his horse that died at the Battle of Big Horn.
Later, the rise of reservations, the U.S. Army’s calculated destruction of American Indian ponies and government policies that forced Native people to adopt farming eroded the day-to-day relationship of Native people and horses. Despite these changes, the horse’s place in Native culture and memory remains strong. The Crow Nation has actively maintained its horse traditions, and others, like the Nez Perce, are engaged in rebuilding their horse breeds and revitalizing their equestrian way of life. The Future Generations Ride that involves Native youth has evolved from The Big Foot Memorial Ride, held as a healing ride to honor those massacred at Wounded Knee in South Dakota.
“Even though the pinnacle of the horse lasted only a century, this exhibition details how Native people rapidly integrated the horse into their lifeways, quickly becoming among the best mounted soldiers in the world,” said Kevin Gover (Pawnee/Comanche), director of the National Museum of the American Indian.
“This exhibition, which traces the accomplishments and identity of Native people and the horse, perfectly complements our previous exhibition about Native women’s dresses, ‘Identity by Design,’” said John Haworth (Cherokee), director of the Heye Center. “We are so proud to be premiering this exhibition, which will travel the country, here in New York.”
“A Song for the Horse Nation” includes many examples of elaborate horse trappings, including a dazzling horse crupper adorned with exceptionally fine quillwork (Cree or Red River Metis, ca. 1850) and clothing adorned with images of the horse, such as a colorful Lakota baby bonnet (South Dakota or North Dakota, ca. 1900). New work has also been commissioned for the exhibition. A dazzling horse mask, with yellow, blue-gray and dark-red quillwork and trimmed with fresh-cut feathers, was created by Juanita Growing Thunder (Assiniboine/Sioux). The work is based on a 19th-century Northern Cheyenne quilled horse mask, also included in the exhibition.
“A Song for the Horse Nation” was curated by museum curator Emil Her Many Horses (Oglala Lakota). An accompanying publication edited by Her Many Horses and the scholar George P. Horse Capture (A’aninin) is available at the museum’s shops and the museum’s Web site.
The Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian in New York, the George Gustav Heye Center is located at One Bowling Green in New York City, across from Battery Park. The museum is free and open every day from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Thursdays until 8 p.m. For information, call (212) 514-3700 or visit the museum’s Web site at http://www.americanindian.si.edu/.
Image: Juanita Growing Thunder Fogarty (Assiniboine/Sioux, b. 1969), Horse mask, 2008. Porcupine quills, seed beads, brass buttons, feathers and hide. (26/7046). Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian.
Friday, June 12, 2009
Celebrate the Sun!
Don't forget -- tomorrow (Sat, June 13) get your hands-on fill of sunshine with sun stamps and these cool sun petroglyph plates. Then dance away to Estudiantinia Boliva.
Monday, June 8, 2009
Annie Pootoogook and Andrea Carlson
This Saturday June 13, two new exhibitions will be opening up the museum--two solo shows by Native women artists. Annie Pootoogook will comprise 39 drawings from the acclaimed Inuit artist. The second show will have large-scale works on paper with complex symbolism from emerging artist Andrea Carlson (Anishinaabe/European).
Andrea Carlson creates work that reflects cultural narratives and stories. Her symbols often play with the idea of monsters, or cannibals, who munch their way through a landscape filled with art and images from around the world.
Pootoogook's work chronicles contemporary Inuit life--the mundane chores of the everyday, stark interiors and still lifes as well as domestic conflict and personal discord. She was awarded the Sobey Art Prize in Canada in 2006 and included in documenta 12.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Native American school band rocks the oldies—and the ancients
“What we do is get a flatbed truck,” said Kim Cournoyer, Standing Rock High School band director. “We put a generator on there, we plug in the electric bass, and we play.”
Standing Rock High School visits the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian to perform an ancient Lakota warrior song, “The Land You Fear”
By Kara Briggs
American Indian News Service
New York—Ten years ago Kim Cournoyer answered an ad seeking a music teacher at the high school on the Standing Rock Sioux reservation in Fort Yates, N.D.
An urban Indian, Cournoyer was raised in the Chicago suburbs, far from the rural reservation of her forbears, which straddles the border of North and South Dakota. But the University of South Dakota-trained clarinetist had a dream of starting an all-Indian high school band.
On June 5 at 1 p.m., the Standing Rock High School Band will perform a free concert at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian in New York. For details, visit http://www.americanindian.com/.
The museum appearance is part of a tour on which the band will play an ancient Lakota prayer song called “The Land You Fear.” Cournoyer spent the spring transcribing it from the oral tradition and arranging it for the band.
“I believe the students need to embrace their culture, kind of like I did,” said Cournoyer, 45, who is Standing Rock Sioux, like most of her students.
Learn more about the Standing Rock High School Band by going to www.myspace.com/standingrockschoolband.
American Indian marching bands emerged in the boarding-school era, when students were trained in European musical instruments and patriotic marches. From the 1930s through the 1950s, dozens of Indian nations had their own marching bands made up of musicians trained in boarding schools. A few of these bands survive, such as the Fort Mojave Indian Tribe Band of Arizona and Nevada, which celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2006.
But today all-Indian high school bands are rare, said Georgia Wettlin-Larsen, director of the First Nations Composer Initiative. Musical education, beyond culturally-based drumming and singing, is almost nonexistent in tribal schools, she said. That makes Cournoyer’s program both distinctive and important.
“I was so excited when I first saw them,” Wettlin-Larsen said. “Native kids playing instruments. Like other high school bands, they play high school band music. Now, they are incorporating traditional Lakota music.”
The high cost of music instruction is a common barrier, but the Standing Rock Sioux community, where unemployment hovers around 70 percent, does not let that stand in the band’s way. The school district buys all the instruments, although the band lacks marching harnesses, equipment to support massive instruments such as tubas.
“We don’t have tubas, so I substitute with bass lines,” Cournoyer explained. “What we do is get a flatbed truck, we put a generator on there, we plug in the electric bass, and we play.”
“The Land You Fear” is a song that Courtney Yellow Fat, lead singer of Grammy-nominated powwow drum group Lakota Thunder, introduced to Cournoyer. Yellow Fat is also the culture and language teacher at Standing Rock Middle School.
The “Land You Fear” is old, probably from before Columbus landed in the Americas. It was recorded in the early 1900s by anthropologist Frances Densmore (1867-1957). But like most indigenous music, it had not been written down before.
“That song was meant for a warrior to go off to war and not have any fear,” Yellow Fat said. “In contemporary times, we put out a warrior who must be a well-rounded person, who must be a warrior for the people.”
Those close to the band say they hope the song will become a bridge for understanding between Native people and mainstream America.
New York City composer Maurice Patrick Byers, former composer in residence at LaGuardia Arts High School, the renowned “Fame” school, likens the potential of Cournoyer’s program to what happened in the 1990s when the Soweto String Quartet began transcribing the traditional music of its members’ South African tribe and performing it on stringed instruments.
Hear the Soweto String Quartet at http://www.sowetostringquartet.co.za/
“Imagine apartheid in South Africa, and these four African musicians show up with this (indigenous) music on the string quartet,” Byers said. “Blacks and whites go crazy for it. That is the same kind of bridge-building that is necessary in the United States.”
Once the song is written, it has the potential to be published as sheet music other bands could perform. Standing Rock High School’s rendition of “The Land You Fear” promises to be dramatic. In addition to the student musicians, Cournoyer will play the cedar flute, Yellow Fat will sing, and powwow dancers will perform.
Byers said, “You could create something that sort of sounds like it, and is superficial. But that’s not her at all.”
What most concerns Cournoyer, speaking between classes late in the school year, is her students’ future.
In the 10 years since the band started—with 14 kids—nearly 100 percent of the band’s students have graduated. Some of them have used the discipline they gained in learning to play music to go to two- or four-year colleges. Most are employed, and living productive lives in the community. Yellow Fat said many are involved with their culture.
Cournoyer hopes this tour, into which she has built time to explore New York City, will broaden her students’ horizons. It is the Standing Rock Sioux teacher’s prayer that her students, as the ancient song that she transcribed says, will learn to walk with victory, instead of fear.
“I want them to know that this world is bigger than they think it is,” Cournoyer said. “And they are capable of so much more than they think they are.”
Hear Lakota Thunder by going to www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwQFmTwbQpE.
Visit the First Nations Composers Initiative at http://www.fnci.org/.
Standing Rock High School visits the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian to perform an ancient Lakota warrior song, “The Land You Fear”
By Kara Briggs
American Indian News Service
New York—Ten years ago Kim Cournoyer answered an ad seeking a music teacher at the high school on the Standing Rock Sioux reservation in Fort Yates, N.D.
An urban Indian, Cournoyer was raised in the Chicago suburbs, far from the rural reservation of her forbears, which straddles the border of North and South Dakota. But the University of South Dakota-trained clarinetist had a dream of starting an all-Indian high school band.
On June 5 at 1 p.m., the Standing Rock High School Band will perform a free concert at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian in New York. For details, visit http://www.americanindian.com/.
The museum appearance is part of a tour on which the band will play an ancient Lakota prayer song called “The Land You Fear.” Cournoyer spent the spring transcribing it from the oral tradition and arranging it for the band.
“I believe the students need to embrace their culture, kind of like I did,” said Cournoyer, 45, who is Standing Rock Sioux, like most of her students.
Learn more about the Standing Rock High School Band by going to www.myspace.com/standingrockschoolband.
American Indian marching bands emerged in the boarding-school era, when students were trained in European musical instruments and patriotic marches. From the 1930s through the 1950s, dozens of Indian nations had their own marching bands made up of musicians trained in boarding schools. A few of these bands survive, such as the Fort Mojave Indian Tribe Band of Arizona and Nevada, which celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2006.
But today all-Indian high school bands are rare, said Georgia Wettlin-Larsen, director of the First Nations Composer Initiative. Musical education, beyond culturally-based drumming and singing, is almost nonexistent in tribal schools, she said. That makes Cournoyer’s program both distinctive and important.
“I was so excited when I first saw them,” Wettlin-Larsen said. “Native kids playing instruments. Like other high school bands, they play high school band music. Now, they are incorporating traditional Lakota music.”
The high cost of music instruction is a common barrier, but the Standing Rock Sioux community, where unemployment hovers around 70 percent, does not let that stand in the band’s way. The school district buys all the instruments, although the band lacks marching harnesses, equipment to support massive instruments such as tubas.
“We don’t have tubas, so I substitute with bass lines,” Cournoyer explained. “What we do is get a flatbed truck, we put a generator on there, we plug in the electric bass, and we play.”
“The Land You Fear” is a song that Courtney Yellow Fat, lead singer of Grammy-nominated powwow drum group Lakota Thunder, introduced to Cournoyer. Yellow Fat is also the culture and language teacher at Standing Rock Middle School.
The “Land You Fear” is old, probably from before Columbus landed in the Americas. It was recorded in the early 1900s by anthropologist Frances Densmore (1867-1957). But like most indigenous music, it had not been written down before.
“That song was meant for a warrior to go off to war and not have any fear,” Yellow Fat said. “In contemporary times, we put out a warrior who must be a well-rounded person, who must be a warrior for the people.”
Those close to the band say they hope the song will become a bridge for understanding between Native people and mainstream America.
New York City composer Maurice Patrick Byers, former composer in residence at LaGuardia Arts High School, the renowned “Fame” school, likens the potential of Cournoyer’s program to what happened in the 1990s when the Soweto String Quartet began transcribing the traditional music of its members’ South African tribe and performing it on stringed instruments.
Hear the Soweto String Quartet at http://www.sowetostringquartet.co.za/
“Imagine apartheid in South Africa, and these four African musicians show up with this (indigenous) music on the string quartet,” Byers said. “Blacks and whites go crazy for it. That is the same kind of bridge-building that is necessary in the United States.”
Once the song is written, it has the potential to be published as sheet music other bands could perform. Standing Rock High School’s rendition of “The Land You Fear” promises to be dramatic. In addition to the student musicians, Cournoyer will play the cedar flute, Yellow Fat will sing, and powwow dancers will perform.
Byers said, “You could create something that sort of sounds like it, and is superficial. But that’s not her at all.”
What most concerns Cournoyer, speaking between classes late in the school year, is her students’ future.
In the 10 years since the band started—with 14 kids—nearly 100 percent of the band’s students have graduated. Some of them have used the discipline they gained in learning to play music to go to two- or four-year colleges. Most are employed, and living productive lives in the community. Yellow Fat said many are involved with their culture.
Cournoyer hopes this tour, into which she has built time to explore New York City, will broaden her students’ horizons. It is the Standing Rock Sioux teacher’s prayer that her students, as the ancient song that she transcribed says, will learn to walk with victory, instead of fear.
“I want them to know that this world is bigger than they think it is,” Cournoyer said. “And they are capable of so much more than they think they are.”
Hear Lakota Thunder by going to www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwQFmTwbQpE.
Visit the First Nations Composers Initiative at http://www.fnci.org/.
Friday, May 15, 2009
Children's Festival Preview
Snapped a few quick pictures of the dancers in the Rotunda, teaching local schoolkids some new moves. They'll be at the festival tomorrow and Sunday -- noon to 5 pm.
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Choker Project
Here is a preview of the choker that kids will be making this weekend at the Children's Festival.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
T Dolls
We have legions of dolls waiting to be dressed and fixed up by little hands at this weekend's Children Festival.
I asked Cody why we sometimes call them Comanche dolls. "Because a Comanche lady taught me how to make them." she explained. The bodies of the dolls are made from tea-dyed muslin, just like in the old days. Kids will get to pick out their colors and dress them up.
Monday, May 11, 2009
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Dance at the 2009 Children’s Festival May 16 and 17
Learn the rabbit dance, round dance, side step and double beat with the Tatuye Topa Dance Club and much more at this year’s Children’s Festival at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian in New York. The free family event will take place on Saturday, May 16 and Sunday, May 17 from 12 noon to 5 pm.
This year’s festival celebrates “The Art of Design” of Native nations. Young visitors will be invited to make a medallion necklace with artist Teri Greeves (Kiowa), decorate “parfleches” (replicas of Plains-style carryalls) with Kathleen Coleclough (Métis), make “Comanche” dolls with Cody Harjo (Seminole/Otoe), chokers with Angela Friedlander (Métis) and learn about tanning hides with Jeffrey Coleclough (Métis). The Tatuye Topa Dance Club, part of the Little Wound School of the Pine Ridge Reservation, will be represented by six female dancers who will also demonstrate powwow dancing styles. They will be teaching dance steps and leading dance games for young visitors.
This year’s Children’s Festival was inspired by the museum’s current exhibition, “Identity by Design: Tradition, Change and Celebration in Native Women’s Dresses,” that comprises 55 Native dresses from the Plains, Plateau and Great Basins regions. The exhibition continues through September 13, 2009.
This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. This program is made possible with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a State Agency. Additional support has been provided by the Rudin Foundation and Goldman Sachs Community TeamWorks.
This year’s festival celebrates “The Art of Design” of Native nations. Young visitors will be invited to make a medallion necklace with artist Teri Greeves (Kiowa), decorate “parfleches” (replicas of Plains-style carryalls) with Kathleen Coleclough (Métis), make “Comanche” dolls with Cody Harjo (Seminole/Otoe), chokers with Angela Friedlander (Métis) and learn about tanning hides with Jeffrey Coleclough (Métis). The Tatuye Topa Dance Club, part of the Little Wound School of the Pine Ridge Reservation, will be represented by six female dancers who will also demonstrate powwow dancing styles. They will be teaching dance steps and leading dance games for young visitors.
This year’s Children’s Festival was inspired by the museum’s current exhibition, “Identity by Design: Tradition, Change and Celebration in Native Women’s Dresses,” that comprises 55 Native dresses from the Plains, Plateau and Great Basins regions. The exhibition continues through September 13, 2009.
This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. This program is made possible with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a State Agency. Additional support has been provided by the Rudin Foundation and Goldman Sachs Community TeamWorks.
Museum of Arts and Design Event
Leading art historians will discuss the controversial career of Fritz Scholder (Luiseño, 1937-2005) on Saturday, May 9 at 2 p.m. at the Museum of Arts and Design. Scholder, the subject of a two-city exhibition at the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian, was best known for his revolutionary paintings of American Indians.
The discussion is a collaboration between the National Museum of the American Indian and the Museum of Arts and Design. Museum admission to the event only, which will be followed by a book signing of the recent publication "Fritz Scholder: Indian/Not Indian," is free.
Participants will include Robert Hobbs, Virginia Commonwealth University; Robert Houle, artist and curator; Truman T. Lowe, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Jolene Rickard, Cornell University; Aleta Ringlero, Arizona State University; Katy Siegel, Hunter College; and Paul Chaat Smith, National Museum of the American Indian. The discussion will be moderated by Lowery Stokes Sims, Museum of Arts and Design.
The Museum of Arts and Design is located at 2 Columbus Circle in New York City and can be reached at (212) 299-7703 and at madmuseum.org. It is open from Wednesday-Sunday from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m, Thursdays from 11:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m, and is closed on Mondays, Tuesdays and major holidays.
The discussion is a collaboration between the National Museum of the American Indian and the Museum of Arts and Design. Museum admission to the event only, which will be followed by a book signing of the recent publication "Fritz Scholder: Indian/Not Indian," is free.
Participants will include Robert Hobbs, Virginia Commonwealth University; Robert Houle, artist and curator; Truman T. Lowe, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Jolene Rickard, Cornell University; Aleta Ringlero, Arizona State University; Katy Siegel, Hunter College; and Paul Chaat Smith, National Museum of the American Indian. The discussion will be moderated by Lowery Stokes Sims, Museum of Arts and Design.
The Museum of Arts and Design is located at 2 Columbus Circle in New York City and can be reached at (212) 299-7703 and at madmuseum.org. It is open from Wednesday-Sunday from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m, Thursdays from 11:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m, and is closed on Mondays, Tuesdays and major holidays.
Friday, April 24, 2009
More Way of the Wampum Preview Pics
Courtesy of our own Stephen Lang, here are some more preview pics for the big day on Saturday, Apr. 25.
Featured are contemporary wampum artists. Above artist Elizabeth James-Perry (Aquinnah Wampanoag) and some wampum belts by Ken Maracle(Cayuga).
Swapping Knowledge About Wampum
Wampum shows its continuing power to draw people together with the program "Waters That Are Never Still: The Way of the Wampum."
By Kara Briggs
American Indian News Service
Wampum beads made by Indian nations of the Northeastern United States will be the featured in a program at the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian in New York. "Waters That Are Never Still: The Way of the Wampum" will open to the public on April 25.
Wampum—tiny, beautiful ground-down shell beads—for centuries wielded an intrinsic power far beyond its size and scale. Sacred to the Native peoples of the Northeastern United States, wampum was essential in many of life's most profound exchanges, such as negotiating marriages and paying tribute to other powerful nations.
Created from the purple growth ring of quahog clam shells and the inner whirl of whelk shells, these beads—less than an inch long and about an eighth of an inch thick—traveled along the Hudson River trade routes from the Atlantic Ocean hundreds of miles west to the Great Lakes and beyond with the beaver trade.
The fascinating subject of the wampum trade will be explored in a program at the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian in New York on Saturday, April 25. "Waters That Are Never Still: The Way of the Wampum" is a hands-on program in recognition of the 2009 Hudson-Fulton-Champlain Quadricentennial, the 400th anniversary of Hudson and Champlain's voyages along the river and lake now bearing their names.
The museum program will feature artists and historians from Indian nations, which continue to use wampum in their art and sacred practices. Among the participants are Perry Ground, Onondaga; David Martine, Shinnecock and Apache; Yvonne Thomas, Seneca; Ken Maracle, Cayuga; Allen Hazard, Narragansett; and Jonathan and Elizabeth Perry, Aquinnah Wampanoag.
Wampum has been made for centuries by the Indian nations in New England and New York using quartz drills. Production increased exponentially with the introduction of European tools such as metal drill bits, said Martine, director of the Shinnecock Nation Cultural Center and Museum in Southampton, N.Y. The value of the beads to Indian nations even prompted the Europeans to get involved in their production.
"The Dutch realized there is a natural resource that the Native people desire, so why ship things across the ocean," said Ground, who teaches in the Native American Resource Center of the Rochester (N.Y.) City School District. "Why not set up a factory, pick them up off the beach and trade for beaver furs?"
It's hard to imagine the economic muscle of trade goods such as wampum or beaver pelts in 1700s New York. "We look at lists, like you could trade 100 beaver pelts for cows or a house," Ground said. "The beaver pelt wasn't as valuable to a Native person as wampum beads, which they could get by the hundreds and hundreds for beaver pelts."
Wampum continued to be used by the nations even after the beaver were depleted and the large-scale production of wampum ended. Many people from wampum-making cultures found themselves in need of other kinds of work by the 1800s, said Martine. The Shinnecock, for example, who had been whalers, joined the commercial whaling industry.
Although the practice of wampum-making diminished, its use continues today. In contrast to the more modern rainbow of glass beads used by Indian nations in other parts of North America, Native people from the Northeast use white and black or purple wampum almost as a signature design.
"It has warmth to it because the shell work has a rich quality to it," Martine said. "The color is rich and the feeling is rich. Real wampum is still rare and valuable." Each bead is worth $5 to $6.
Ground believes it is important for Native Americans to continue to use wampum. Among the Haudenosaunee, each of the 50 chiefs in the Grand Council has a string of wampum that shows their position. "As one chief passes away and another is put in that position, that wampum is passed to that person," Ground said. "It is still an emblem of their authority."
By Kara Briggs
American Indian News Service
Wampum beads made by Indian nations of the Northeastern United States will be the featured in a program at the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian in New York. "Waters That Are Never Still: The Way of the Wampum" will open to the public on April 25.
Wampum—tiny, beautiful ground-down shell beads—for centuries wielded an intrinsic power far beyond its size and scale. Sacred to the Native peoples of the Northeastern United States, wampum was essential in many of life's most profound exchanges, such as negotiating marriages and paying tribute to other powerful nations.
Created from the purple growth ring of quahog clam shells and the inner whirl of whelk shells, these beads—less than an inch long and about an eighth of an inch thick—traveled along the Hudson River trade routes from the Atlantic Ocean hundreds of miles west to the Great Lakes and beyond with the beaver trade.
The fascinating subject of the wampum trade will be explored in a program at the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian in New York on Saturday, April 25. "Waters That Are Never Still: The Way of the Wampum" is a hands-on program in recognition of the 2009 Hudson-Fulton-Champlain Quadricentennial, the 400th anniversary of Hudson and Champlain's voyages along the river and lake now bearing their names.
The museum program will feature artists and historians from Indian nations, which continue to use wampum in their art and sacred practices. Among the participants are Perry Ground, Onondaga; David Martine, Shinnecock and Apache; Yvonne Thomas, Seneca; Ken Maracle, Cayuga; Allen Hazard, Narragansett; and Jonathan and Elizabeth Perry, Aquinnah Wampanoag.
Wampum has been made for centuries by the Indian nations in New England and New York using quartz drills. Production increased exponentially with the introduction of European tools such as metal drill bits, said Martine, director of the Shinnecock Nation Cultural Center and Museum in Southampton, N.Y. The value of the beads to Indian nations even prompted the Europeans to get involved in their production.
"The Dutch realized there is a natural resource that the Native people desire, so why ship things across the ocean," said Ground, who teaches in the Native American Resource Center of the Rochester (N.Y.) City School District. "Why not set up a factory, pick them up off the beach and trade for beaver furs?"
It's hard to imagine the economic muscle of trade goods such as wampum or beaver pelts in 1700s New York. "We look at lists, like you could trade 100 beaver pelts for cows or a house," Ground said. "The beaver pelt wasn't as valuable to a Native person as wampum beads, which they could get by the hundreds and hundreds for beaver pelts."
Wampum continued to be used by the nations even after the beaver were depleted and the large-scale production of wampum ended. Many people from wampum-making cultures found themselves in need of other kinds of work by the 1800s, said Martine. The Shinnecock, for example, who had been whalers, joined the commercial whaling industry.
Although the practice of wampum-making diminished, its use continues today. In contrast to the more modern rainbow of glass beads used by Indian nations in other parts of North America, Native people from the Northeast use white and black or purple wampum almost as a signature design.
"It has warmth to it because the shell work has a rich quality to it," Martine said. "The color is rich and the feeling is rich. Real wampum is still rare and valuable." Each bead is worth $5 to $6.
Ground believes it is important for Native Americans to continue to use wampum. Among the Haudenosaunee, each of the 50 chiefs in the Grand Council has a string of wampum that shows their position. "As one chief passes away and another is put in that position, that wampum is passed to that person," Ground said. "It is still an emblem of their authority."
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Way of the Wampum Preview
Lucky schoolgroups got a preview of our upcoming "Way of the Wampum" Family Day today, which will take place this coming Saturday, April 25 from 1 to 4 pm.
Perry Ground (Onondaga), one of several invited guests, spoke about the trade of wampum up what is now known as the Hudson River throughout different communities. Other guests included David Martine (Shinnecock), Allen Hazard (Narragansett), Ken Maracle (Cayuga), Yvonne Thomas (Seneca), Elizabeth James-Perry (Aquinnah Wampanoag/Eastern Band Cherokee) and Jonathan Perry (Aquinnah Wampanoag).
Our Resource Center staff was also hosting hands-on activities in the Rotunda. Students were invited to try weaving a wampum belt themselves. Justin is demonstrating how holes were drilled into the shells.
For more info on Saturday's program, click here.
This program is funded by a grant from the Nathan Cummings Foundation, with the support and encouragement of Andrew Lee and with the support of the Hudson River Improvement Fund. The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation provided funding for this project from the Environmental Protection Fund through the Hudson River Estuary Program.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Native Sounds Downtown
Mark your calendars for our new concert season. The first will feature legendary playwright and author Tomson Highway (Cree) in a cabaret performance of his songs on Sunday, May 3 at 2 pm. The afternoon will feature songs from his musical plays “The Incredible Adventures of Mary Jane Mosquito” and “Rose.” The presentation, and museum admission, is free.
Mr. Highway will also be appearing at the NMAI on the National Mall on May 1 and 2.
Then, on Friday, June 5 at 1 pm, the Standing Rock Community High School Band will rock the cobblestones on Bowling Green with their renditions of “Iron Man,” “Crazy Train,” “Imagine,” and other rock classics. They also will be performing a Lakota song recorded by Smithsonian ethnologist Francis Densmore, “The Many Lands You Fear.”
Check out their new MySpace page and listen in! The June concert will wrap their tour which includes St. Paul and Chicago.
Check out their new MySpace page and listen in! The June concert will wrap their tour which includes St. Paul and Chicago.
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Teri Greeves
Teri Greeves (Kiowa) is an amazing artist and we’re so delighted that she’s coming to New York again to be a part of our Children’s Festival on Sat., May 16 and Sun., May 17. Her work is in museum collections around the world, including the NMAI in Washington, DC. Here are some examples of her dazzling works.
Teri will be working hands-on with the kids to help them make their own beaded medallions. Stay tuned for more details.
Top image is a detail from Teri's Indian Couture: A Book of Dance and Dress. Sneaker image is Mother and Daughter Tennis Shoes. Photos courtesy the artist.
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Indigenous Language
Great article on indigenous language (that mentions our recent film fest):
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7964016.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7964016.stm
Friday, April 3, 2009
Welcome to Yáapee
Yáapee is a Lenape (Delaware) word for "down by the river." And that's where we are, at the start of Broadway, steps away from waterside. This is the blog of the National Museum of the American Indian in New York, the George Gustav Heye Center.
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