Fall 1999 Newsletter

Vol. VII No. 3

Labriola National American Indian 

Data Center

Patricia.Etter@asu.edu

Patricia A. Etter, Curator

Welcome, Students!

The Labriola Center, located on the second level of Hayden Library, invites you to study in the Center, watch videos dealing with a variety of Native American topics, listen to language and oral history tapes, search for material on Native American web sites, read books covering a wide range of topics, or locate information on the American Indian Multi-media Encyclopedia on CD-ROM.

Librarians in the Center are there to help students find material in a number of disciplines such as History, Anthropology, Ethnic Studies, Social Studies, Justice Studies, English, Literature, Education, and more.

            The Center provides material dealing with Native North American tribes in Alaska, Canada, and the United States.  The collection includes current and historic information on tribal government, culture history, religion and world view, social life and customs, tribal history, and biographical information on thousands of individuals. 

Hours are from 1 to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, or by appointment (call 480 965-6490).  For more information on our services, please access the Labriola Website at:

  http://www.asu.edu/lib/archives/labriola.htm

Chill Out with the Inuit!  Summer Exhibit Honors the Nunavut Nation

April 1, 1999 was the first day of Nunavut, the new territory of northern Canada. Nunavut, “Our land” in the  language of the Inuit, is a two-million-square kilometer area   located in the Canadian arctic regions above Hudson’s Bay.  By gaining Nunavut, the Inuit have control over this territory, much the same as if a native tribe were to receive statehood in the United States.  A landmark day for Canada and First Nations, the residents have won the right of self government. 

In addition to books, and artifacts,  the exhibit features numerous masks.  The Inuit, whose name means “the people” believe that spirits and human characteristics exist in all aspects of nature--especially in the animals that supply them with food, clothing and shelter. For this reason, many of the ceremonial masks represent animal spirits. Ask to see the video, In the Footsteps of the Inuit.

Native American Languages Subject Guide Now Available

A guide to language resources in the Labriola Center is now available.  It is useful for developing language and vocabulary skills in numerous Native languages from Alabama to Zuni.  It lists bibliographies; bilingual education materials; workbooks; dictionaries and grammars; English as a Second Language; guides and handbooks; linguistics; sign language; bibles and hymnals; and hundreds of language tapes.

A hard copy is available on request.  The guide can also be accessed on the Labriola Website.

American Indian Studies at ASU Lists Fall Program

The American Indian Studies Program is a multi-disciplinary degree program that emphasizes the political and cultural history of the various American Indian peoples of the United States. The following classes are offered during the fall semester.

  CORE COURSES

AIS 294 -- Research Methods.  Instructor: James Riding In

AIS 394 -- Native Governmental Decision Making.  Instructor: Bo Colbert

CROSS-LISTINGS

AUS 194 -- Introduction to American Indian Justice Studies.  Instructor: Roy Janish

AIS 294 -- Introduction to Ethnic Studies.  Instructor: Staff, Chicano/Chicana Studies

AIS 394 -- American Indian History to 1900.  Instructor: Robert Trennert

AIS 394 -- American Indian History since 1900.  Instructor: Scott White

AIS 394 -- South American Indian Religions.  Instructor: T. Swanson

AIS 394 -- History of Native American Religious Traditions.  Instructor: K. Morrison

AIS 394 -- Indians of the Southwest.  Instructor: J. Martin

AIS 394 -- American Indian Jurisdiction and Contemporary Issues.  Instructor: Sergio Maldonado

AIS 394 -- North American Indians.  Instructor: D. Bahr

AIS 494 -- Native Images.  Instructor: G. Lynn Nelson

AIS 494 -- Navajo Language/Culture I.  Instructor: A. Yazzie

AIS494 -- Western American Literature.  Instructor: K. Sands

AIS 494 -- Women and Literature/Native American.  Instructor: L. Tohe

AIS 494 -- Literature of the Encounter. Instructor: S. Stevens

Indian Education Courses at ASU

IED 433/598 -- Counseling the Indian

Student.  Instructor: D. T. Bruised Head

IED 500/494 -- Administration & Management of Indian Education Programs.  Instructor: Bo Colbert

IED 544/494B -- Role of Tribal, State & Federal Government in Indian Education.  Instructor: P. Hibbeler

IED498/598 -- Yaqui History & Culture.  Instructor: O. Trujillo.

What is Indian Education Today? 

What Will it Look Like in the Future?

Karen Gayton Swisher (Standing Rock Sioux), formerly Director of the Center for Indian Education at ASU and now Dean of Instruction at Haskell Indian Nations University, has co-edited Next Steps: Research and Practice to Advance Indian Education, with John W. Tippeconic III.  Tippeconic (Comanche) is currently Professor of Education at Pennsylvania State University, where he directs the American Indian Leadership Program.

The editors approached eleven Native scholars with two questions: “What is Indian Education today?” and, “What will it look like in the future?” The resulting essays discuss past and present foundations of Indian education, give thought to curriculum issues, touch on the college and university experience, and sum up with recommended steps for the future.

The book explores two major themes.  The first, concerns education for tribal self-determination; the second turns to an approach that builds on the strengths of Native languages and culture and basic resilience of Indigenous peoples. It is available from the ERIC Clearinghouse on Rural Education and Small Schools, PO Box 1348, Charleston, WV 25 325-1348 ($24.00, 342 pp, ISBN 1-880785-21-8).

Searching for Your Roots

We frequently hear from someone who is anxious to trace their family history.  The Labriola Center is preparing a handout, which will ultimately be added to its Website.  In the meantime, the following resources should help get started on a family genealogy.  These will tell how to obtain a CDIB card (Certificate of Degree of Indian Blood); how and where to obtain  tribal membership; how and where to research the Dawes Rolls; and Internet sites to assist the search.

How to Trace Your Native American Heritage:  Find your Place in the Circle of Life.  Video recording, Greg     Howard, Narrator (Dallas, TX: Rich-Heap Films, 1998).

            Native American Genealogical Sourcebook, Paula K. Byers, Editor (New York: Gale Research Inc., 1995).

            A Student’s Guide to Native American Genealogy, E. Barrie Kavasch (Phoenix, AZ: Oryx Press, 1996).

Arizona Forum on Tribal Museums, Archives, and Libraries

The Forum, sponsored by the Arizona Department of Library, Archives, and Public Records, met on August 16 and 17 at the Apache Gold Casino and Resort on the San Carlos Apache Reservation.  Some seventy individuals from both tribal and non-tribal institutions gathered to begin developing and strengthening collaborative relationships.

The goals for the forum were: to promote understanding and awareness of tribal libraries, museums, and archives; to initiate discussion for sustained communications and collaborative programming between tribal and non-tribal libraries, archives, and museums; and to create a network of support for individuals working in libraries, museums, and archives. 

The keynote speaker, Jennifer Brathvode (Sisseton Wahpeton Sioux), representing the Prints and Photos Division of the Library of Congress, presented Changing Perspectives: The Past and Future of Native American Images.  She provided examples of the various images painters produced before photography; looked at  early photographers, who made studio portraits with artificial backgrounds; noted that the Geological Survey teams provided the most authentic representations; and finally, talked about the independent frontier photographers.  Current collection focus is on Native photographers such as Navajo Monty Roessel.

There were also a number of panel discussions followed by break-out sessions. Evaluations suggested that the panel, “Issues of Access and Cultural Sensitivity: A Tribal Perspective” was most useful to the attendees.

Where Will You Be When the Sun Comes up on the New Millennium?

Tucson, Arizona, might be the place to go.  The New Millennium First People World Fair and Pow-wow, “Thunder in the Desert” will take place at the Rillito Raceway Park between December 31, 1999 and January 9, 2000.

Over 100 tribal nations from North America are expected and will share their cultural experiences through song, dance, craft, food, and cultural displays. 

For more information and reservations, contact the Creation Women’s Circle Charitable Trust, P.O. Box 27626, Tucson, Arizona 85726, or 520/ 622-4900.

ASU Publishes New Apache Dictionary

Dorothy Bray, a retired college teacher, collaborated with the White Mountain Apache Tribe to produce the 485-page Western Apache-English Dictionary (Bilingual Press, Arizona State University, 1998).

Bray tells us that the dictionary is intended primarily for Apaches who are learning to read and write their own language, and it should receive wide use.  For example, a 1981 survey showed that the Apache language was used in the home by 98.8% of the adults and that almost half of the children (44%) were socialized only in Apache, and that the majority of Apaches used the language to some extent.  Use of the language among the children has declined since that time.

The 10,500-word dictionary is the first published since 1972 for the White Mountain Apache, who live on the Fort Apache Indian Reservation in east-central Arizona and the San Carlos Apache Reservation east of Phoenix.  It includes the tribes’ varied  dialects.

The Labriola Center receives a number of phone calls from people asking for a particular word in a Native language.   We will not do it. Instead, we try and refer the patron to a Native speaker.  There is very good reason for this, since it is often difficult to make a word-for-word translation from another language.

Bray provided a good example of this during an interview with the Arizona Republic (May 27, 1999). She noted that it sometimes takes a half dozen Apache words to say one English word. In addition, speech patterns may differ from English.  As a result, one could get into an embarrassing situation not only by using a wrong term but by pronouncing it incorrectly.

American Indian Oral History Collection on Audio Cassette

The Labriola Center has recently purchased a number of oral history interviews, which were conducted by the American Indian Research Project at the University of South Dakota starting in 1967.  These offer a broad account of the experience of being a Native American from recollections of 19th-century Indian-white relations and indigenous Indian culture to the experience of today’s young Indians struggling to survive in White America without sacrificing ethnic identity.  (Call # E77.A45x)

Some are:

1. SUNDANCE: Origin and history of the Sundance, Roger Stops, Crow Tribe; and goals of the modern Sundance, Joe Medicine Crow.

2. BUFFALO HUNT: Techniques of the hunt as described to the informant, Joe Ten Bear, by his grandfather.

3. KINSHIP: The Crow Clan system and its

functions are described along with a description of a recent adoption ceremony by informant, Joe Medicine Crow.

4.KINSHIP: The Chippewa Clan system is described by Paul Buffalo, Leech Lake Chippewa.

4. LITTLE BIG HORN: An account of the battle as told to interviewee, Robert Yellowtail, by Brave Bear, a Cheyenne participant in the battle.

5.  BIA: Ban Reifel, Oglala Sioux, and Ramon Roubideaux, Rosebud Sioux discuss the Indian Reorganization Act.

6. INDIAN STUDENTS: Merri Pat Cuney, Oglala Sioux, describes her plans to work with Indian prisoners.

7. LIFE IN 1900: Louise Hiett, Cheyenne River Sioux, reminiscences about her childhood at the turn of the century.

8. RELIGION: A number of interviewees discuss traditional Indian religions and the Native American Church.

9. RELIGION: Yuwipi Ceremony and Ghost Dance are discussed by Wayne Seth Big Crow, Sioux and Carl Iron Shell, Sioux.

10. SWEAT LODGE: Charles Kills Enemy, Rosebud Sioux and Moses Big Crow talk about the similarities between a sweat lodge and a Christian church.

11. LEGEND OF SWEET MEDICINE: John Stands-in-Timber relates the tale of the prophet who appeared before the Cheyenne in pre-European times.

12.  TRADITIONAL FOOD: Interviewees discuss gathering and preparation of traditional food. 

13. SOCIAL CUSTOMS: interviewees discuss traditional Indian values and the changes wrought in modern life.

14. CRAZY HORSE, STRUCK BY THE REE:  The lives of the two leaders are contrasted.

15. MINNESOTA UPRISING OF 1862: Interviewees discuss all aspects of the event.

16. PROBLEMS OF THE URBAN INDIAN:  George Sun, Winnebago, talks about problems facing Indians living in Sioux City.

17. INDIAN SCHOOLS: A woman born in 1892, and her daughter, relate their experiences in Indian boarding schools.