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Peterson Zah Honored by ASU |
Following a procession of more than two-dozen tribal leaders from around the nation, Zah’s mother, Mae, draped him with a hand-woven leadership blanket. “My mother always stressed the importance of education,” he said, and as a result, he has made education a priority throughout his career. Zah earned his bachelor’s degree from ASU in 1963. |
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The University hosted a luncheon following the ceremony to further honor Peterson Zah. The Labriola Center mounted an exhibit at the site, which contained childhood and family photographs of Dr. Zah, as well as professional photographs covering his time as director of DNA and as the leader of the Navajo Nation. |
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Currently serving as Advisor for American Indian Affairs to ASU President, Michael Crow, Zah has helped double the university’s American Indian student population from 672 to 1237, and increased the retention rate from 43 percent to 78 percent, among the highest retention rate of any major university in the country.
Zah was elected first president of the new Navajo Nation in 1990, and before that as Chairman of the Navajo Tribal Council.
Before entering politics, Zah worked as a field coordinator for VISTA Indian Training Center and later, became executive director of DNA-People’s Legal Services, a non-profit legal services program to Navajo, Hopi, and Apache people. |
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The Labriola Center holds the Peterson Zah Collection, which contains professional papers and correspondence, newspaper articles, photographs, audiovisual material, and artifacts. The bulk of the material dates from 1982 to 1990 and consists of papers from Zah's campaign for Chairman of the Navajo Tribal Council, and later President of the Navajo Nation. These are arranged in five series: Professional Papers; Scrapbooks and Newspaper Articles; Audio Visual; and Artifacts and Memorabilia. The full text of the finding guide can be accessed at Arizona Archives Online by using the key word search, “Peterson Zah.”
Labriola Center Hosts Curators’ Meeting October 13, 2005
The Western History Association (WHA) will be held at the Marriott Camelback Inn, Scottsdale, Arizona, from October 14 through October 16. For information on the conference, see: http://www.unm.edu/~wha/
Prior to the conference, on October 13, 9:00 a.m. the Center is hosting an informal get-together for curators of American Indian collections from the Bancroft, Huntington , and Beinecke libraries; Universities of New Mexico, Utah, Arizona, Wyoming, and Cincinnati; Prints and Photographs, Library of Congress; National Archives, Laguna Niguel; the Heard Museum; the Navajo Nation Museum and Archives; St. Louis Mercantile; and Arizona Historical Society, Tucson.
On exhibit, will be the photographs and papers of Rosemary Apple Blossom Lonewolf, potter and clay artist from Santa Clara, New Mexico. Lonewolf will be present to talk about her works and later join us at the Heard Museum to discuss her newest project, “Indigenous Evolution.” Ms. Lonewolf and Tony Jojola, glass artist from Isleta, New Mexico, have collaborated to create a spectacular art fence, 30 feet long by 8 feet high, which, graces the entrance to the newest Heard Museum exhibit, HOME. |
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The Heard Museum Journal (August - November 2005) notes that this fence brings together tradition and innovation in the form of color and light. One can perceive the reference to organic fences that Native people have created from adobe and ocotillo and saguaro ribs. At one end the fence features posts that are predominately clay and transitions to posts that are predominately glass. The creators note that this represents continuity of art in the lives of Native people. It is also a symbol of barriers and stereotypes that isolate and divide cultures. “Its presence,” notes Lonewolf, will remind visitors to “leave preconceptions behind and enter a world where indigenous people blend the past with the present and firmly establish a limitless future.” |
Meet Melanie Toledo
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Ms. Melanie Toledo (Navajo) from Low Mountain, Arizona, of the Táchii’níí clan, born of the Tánéészahníí clan, a graduate student here at ASU, is currently working in the Labriola Center , where she provides reference assistance to our students, processes materials for our collections, and at the same time, is learning all she can about library work and procedures. |
She attended Phoenix public schools before attending ASU West, where she earned a degree in History, with a minor in Ethnic Studies. Ms. Toledo is enrolled in the School of Information and Library Science (SIRLS) at the University of Arizona, and plans to graduate in May 2006, with her Master’s degree in Information and Library Science.
She is a member of the inaugural Knowledge River Program, which was designed especially for Native American and Hispanic students; her emphasis is in special collections and archives.
Josiah N. Moore Memorial Scholarship
Thanks to Mary Hubbell-Ansera, Undergraduate Admissions for alerting us to this scholarship. Sponsored by the ASU Native American Alumni Chapter, the Josiah N. Moore Memorial Scholarship is made possible by an endowment created by the family of Josiah N. Moore, ASU professor and former Chairman of the Tohono O’odham Nation. |
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This was the first scholarship offered at Arizona State University to honor Native students and the first offered by the American Indian Alumni Association at the university. It was created to assist with the educational needs of American Indian students at ASU; the amount offered is $1,000 per academic year.
Application information can be found at Alumni Forms
Labriola Newsletter’s Electronic Version
The Labriola Center has been publishing Spring, Summer, and Fall newsletters since 1993, and is mailed to some 900 individuals and organizations in both the United States and Canada. The Center also adds an illustrated version of the newsletter to its web site.
In response to a reader survey several years ago, we leaned that readers preferred to have the hard copy in hand and rarely, if ever, consulted the web version.
Now, it is easier for readers to have both if they choose, and it is easily available any time, especially if one wants to see the photographs and illustrations that Joyce Martin adds to it. Simply connect to the ASU catalog at www.asu.edu/lib and type in Labriola Newsletter, or the call number, E75.N48, connect to the electronic version with a single click. Our catalogers informed us that the University of California, Berkeley, was the first institution to create the online catalog record!
Miss Indian ASU Charms Miss Arizona Pageant Judges
The Labriola Center hosted a “Sneaker Tour” on June 29, 2005, for the Miss Arizona Pageant Judges. These tours are a way to introduce community leaders to the university that serves them and offers unique opportunities for the guests to see ASU up close and in action.
The Center invited Hope Seweyestewa, the current Miss Indian ASU, and a freshman in the Nursing program, to meet and talk with the judges. Hope is from Hopi and of the Bear, Badger, and Butterfly clans. The visitors bombarded her with questions about her culture and her studies at ASU, all of which she answered gracefully. The judges invited her to be their guest at the Miss Arizona Pageant that evening. Hope tells us that it was a great experience and she had a wonderful time.
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Hope wears her crown of hand-worked silver and holding her special shawl. Miss Indian ASU Pageant is held during American Indian Culture week in April, and the winner crowned during the final Pow Wow. Any full time American Indian ASU student is eligible to enter; there is no age limit or restrictions as to marital status. This is not a beauty pageant. There is a performance component, however, which can be traditional (playing a Native instrument), or contemporary (playing a modern instrument). Individuals must have a 2.0 average or better, write an essay, be well informed on current events, and have excellent communication skills. Both Miss Indian ASU and her runner-up are expected to complete at least 20 hours of community service and be available for appearances both on and off campus. Thanks to Shannon Pete, School of Social Work for this history. |
Labriola Center Offers New Research Tools
The Center continually tries to keep up with the educational mission of the University and the American Indian Studies Program by having the best and most current tools available. Every day, something new turns up. In addition to online tools, publishers continue offering an enormous number of new titles in the form of books, video recordings, CD-ROM, and
and microfilm publications. The subject matter covers every topic imaginable.
Since students are wanting the “Native Voice,” we are always on the lookout for autobiographical material. A recent purchase is the American Indian Oral History [microform] : The Duke Collection, 55 volumes, 310 microfiche, (FICHE 4x6 20490) and Duke Indian Oral History catalog cards, MICRO FILM LAB 10009, 8 reels. The program was sponsored by the American Indian Institute, University of Oklahoma with the assistance of the Western History Association.
The collection contains over 600 interviews of Native people living in Oklahoma and represent 30 tribes. Interviews were carried out between 1967 and 1972. Numerous subjects are covered such as traditional storytelling; acculturation and culture change; warfare and warpath stories; death and mourning practices; Indian-White relations; material culture, arts and crafts; foods; and kinship behavior, to name just a few.
Record Number of Classes Utilize Labriola Collections
Following is a brief list of some of the classes referencing Labriola materials: American Indian History, Pre- and Post-1900; Proseminar, Shaping Native American Art in the Southwest; American Indian Language and Cultures; American Indian Rights and American Indian Movement; Native American Women’s literature; Indigenous Poetry, American Indian Sovereignty and the Courts; American Indians in Cinema, Arts, and Media; Construction 101; School of Planning and Landscape Architecture; Theatre, various research seminars; History of American Indian Studies; and American Indian Education. |
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Generous Donors Give Research Material
- Author, Carolyn Niethammer, has donated her research notes collected for her autobiography of Navajo, Annie Wauneka: I’ll Go and Do More (University of Nebraska Press, 2001). A version for young people is forthcoming. Included in the collection are interview transcripts, letters, speeches, material on the Presidential Medal of Honor, and more.
- Robert Ramsey visited the Labriola Center with copies of his fine book, An Oasis Remembered: An Indian Agency, Sacaton, Arizona. He also donated the photographs that take us back to the 1920s, and a village where Pima cotton was developed, and when the Gila River watered a then-oasis of date palms and orchards at the government research center.
- Dr. Paul Rathbone of ASU Theatre Department, is helping develop the Center’s collection of Native Theatre, and recently donated issues of the journal he edits, The Native Playwright’s Newsletter.
The Center is grateful to the Institute for Tribal Government at Portland University, for Great Tribal Leaders of Modern Times, which includes 18 video recordings of Native American and Alaskan Native leaders who have worked to preserve tribal self-determination and governance, treaty rights, and Indian tribes’ constitutionally protected status as inherent sovereign governments. The collection includes 18 video recordings of these leaders. Some are:
- Ron Allen (Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe)
- Edward T. Begay (Navajo Nation)
- John Echohawk (Pawnee Tribe of Oklahoma)
- Jane Fawcett (Ambassador of the Mohegan Tribe)
- Billy Frank, Jr. (Nisqually Tribe)
- La Donna Harris (Comanche Nation of Oklahoma)
- Kathryn Harrison (Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde)
- Oren Lyons (Onondaga Nation of the Iroquois)
- Mike Williams (Yupiaq Eskimo)