Summer 1998 Newsletter Vol. VI No. 2
	University Libraries Arizona State University Box 871006 Tempe, Arizona 85287-1006 Patricia.Etter@asu.edu Patricia A. Etter, Curator

Northwest coast button blanket

CONTENTS Carlisle Indian Industrial School Favorite Research Topic Labriola Center Home Page Spirits in the Sun - Canadian Indigenous Art Festival Cherokee Nation Film Festival Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair and Market At the Desert's Edge... Wins Award Native North American Firsts Recent Acquisitions

ASU student models wedding gown at Spirits in the Sun fashion show

Now there is more. Lisa Mitten, American Indian Library Association, reports the formation of a new website in the Spring 1998 issue of American Indian Libraries Newsletter. I have just completed a "virtual tour" of the old school grounds at Carlisle; read a fine segment on the school's history; taken a look at the bibliography of primary and secondary sources; and was impressed that the author of the home page, Barbara Landis, is adding lists of scholars who once attended the school. The Labriola Center will link to the page and promote its use to our students.
The site is at:

Back to Contents

Back to Contents

Spirits in the Sun, Scottsdale Center for the Arts

Spirits in the Sun - Canadian Indigenous Art Festival First Nations people brought an incredible array of arts and crafts to the Scottsdale Center for the Arts for a three-day exhibition in February. Artisans came from all over Canada, including Vancouver Island and Alert Bay, British Columbia; Winnipeg and Waywayseecappo, Manitoba; Toronto and Tyendinaga, Ontario; Yellowknife and the Hay River Reserve, Northwest Territories; and cities in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Labrador.

White tents dotted the park, where each artist displayed individual creations: masks; soapstone carvings; baskets; jewelry; paintings; sculpture; clothing; bead and feather work, and more. Two members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police added a certain elegance as they strolled through the crowd in their red-jacketed dress uniforms. Many visitors happily munched on delicate salmon burgers and native delicacies.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police

Continuous screening of the video documentary In the Hands of the Raven covered the history and contemporary state of Northwest Coast Native art. There was a continuum of activities on the outdoor center stage and attendees could listen to the Metis Fiddlers or watch Nisga's Ts'amiiks dancers. A highlight was a Fashion Show by Sacred Soul Designs, which were expertly modeled by Native American students from ASU.

Back to Contents

The collection covers some 100 linear feet of publications and official records of the Cherokee Nation. The personal papers of Cherokee leaders James Madison Bell, Stand Watie, John Rollin Ridge, and Elias C. Boudinot are also part of the collection. Inclusive dates for the collection are 1830-1907.

Back to Contents

Apache Mountain Spirit Dancer, Heard Museum

The Heard Museum sponsored its 40th annual Indian Fair on March 7 and 8, 1998, and invited over 350 of the nation's top Native American artists to show and sell their work. The fair draws some 20,000 people over the two-day period. The artists set up under the protective canopy of huge tents, where they sell cultural items, baskets, fine arts, jewelry, pottery, weaving and fabric art, wood carving and sculpture. Visitors had the opportunity to listen to music provided by the Ga:ak Akimel Waila Band, cheer on the World Champion Hoop Dance finalists, or watch a variety of dancers including the Apache Crown Dancers from the White Mountain Apache Tribe, who performed traditional Gaan dances representing the Mountain Spirits. Visitors did not go hungry and sampled a variety of specialties. A Hopi cook poured a batter of blue corn, rabbit brush ashes, and water over a hot piki stone, then folded and rolled it to produce the crunchy, paper thin PIKI.

Golden, fluffy FRY BREAD is always a winner with the folks. The Heard Museum tells us that each year, some 1,300 pounds of flour and 815 pounds of vegetable shortening are used to make the bread and that 27 pounds of honey and 32 pounds of powdered sugar are used to top it.

A popular snack is PARCHED CORN, which the Hopi cook from native corn in special sand.

POSOLE, popular among Arizona's Tohono O'odham and New Mexico's pueblos, is a spicy soup made from pork or beef and hominy and red chile pods.

HOPI STEW is made with hominy and beef. The hominy is soaked in rabbit brush ashes to cause the kernels to pop and also give the stew a distinctive flavor.

The Apache people are noted for ACORN SOUP. They cook ground acorns until the bitter flavor disappears and then combine the acorns with meat and other ingredients.

Back to Contents

The book is available from the U of A Press, Tucson, Arizona; ISBN is 0-8165-1540-9.

Back to Contents

AnCita Benally (Navajo)

The book, authored by Karen Gayton Swisher, EdD of the Haskell Institute and AnCita Benally, PhD candidate at Arizona State University, is available from Gale Research, Detroit, Michigan, ISBN 0-7876-0518-2. The book honors thousands of indigenous people from North America who have distinguished themselves through their contributions to the country and the world in numerous areas including: art; business & economics; civic leadership; culture history, education, language, law, literature, science, sport, religious life, and more. Following is a random sample of what one might expect to find:

Charles D. Curtis, ca. 1870-1936
Curtis (Kansa-Kaw/Osage) was the first and only person of Native ancestry to hold the office of vice president of the United States. He served as Herbert Hoover's vice president between 1929 and 1933. He was active politically for some forty years, having been elected to both the U. S. House and Senate (p. 53).

Ely Samuel Parker, 1828-1895
Parker (Seneca) attained the rank of brigadier general in the U. S. Army, the first Native American to do so. He served General Ulysses S. Grant as military secretary and handwrote the articles of surrender that formally ended the Civil War (p. 133).

Rigoberta Menchu
Menchu (K'iche' Maya) was the first Native American to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. She was nominated for her work among the indigenous people of Guatemala and her involvement in the people's fight for human rights (P. 200).

The Jicarilla Apache Tribe became the first Indian tribe to offer tax-exempt municipal bonds to institutional investors and issued revenue bonds worth $30.2 million (p. 19).

The Maya were the first to invent the concept of zero about 300 B.C.E., and put it to practical use before any other civilization in the world. It would be another thousand years before the concept became widely used in Europe.

Peter Jones, 1802-1856
Jones (Ojibwa) was Canada's first fully ordained minister, becoming a Methodist minister in 1833. In addition he and his brother, John, provided the first translation of the Bible into Ojibwa. He is further honored by appearing in the earliest known photograph of a North American Indian (p. 163).

John Rollin Ridge, 1827-1867
Ridge (Cherokee) was the founding editor of the Sacramento Daily Bee and the first American Indian to edit a non-Indian newspaper (p.112). He is also noted for writing the first novel by a Native American (p. 101).

Hattie Kauffman
Kauffman (Nez Percé) was the first Indian reporter to appear on national television and makes frequent appearances on CBS This Morning (p. 125).

Maria Tallchief, 1925-
Tallchief (Osage) was the first Native American and the first American to dance with the Paris Opera. She was also the first American to receive the title of prima ballerina (p. 144).

Annie Dodge Wauneka, 1910-1998
Wauneka (Navajo) was the first woman elected to the Navajo Tribal Council. She was given numerous awards for her work among her people as a public health advocate. In 1963, she became the first Native American to receive the presidential medal of freedom.

William 'Billy' Mills, 1938-
Mills (Oglala Lakota Sioux) was the first American Indian and the first American to win a medal in an Olympic distance race. He won his gold medal for the 10,000 meter race at the 1964 Olympic games (p. 220).

Back to Contents

Wild Plants and Native Peoples of the Four Corners, by William W. Dunmire and Gail D. Tierney (Museum of New Mexico Press, 1997), ISBN 0-89013-319-0.

Reading Beyond Words: Contexts for Native History, edited by Jennifer S. H. Brown and Elizabeth Vibert (Broadview Press, 1996), ISBN 1-55111-070-9. The book presents some of the best new efforts to strengthen and deepen understanding and interpretation of Native North American history and Native European encounters over 500 years.

Indians and Indian Agents: Origins of the Reservation System in California, by George Hanwood Phillips (University of Oklahoma Press, 1997), ISBN 0-8061-2904-2.

Pottery by American Indian Women: The Legacy of Generations by Susan Peterson (National Museum of Women in the Arts, 1997), ISBN 0-7892-0353-7.

Canada's First Nations: A History of Founding Peoples from Earliest Times by Olive Patricia Dickason (University of Oklahoma Press, 1992), ISBN 0-8061-2438-5.

Brave New People: The European Invention of the American Indian, by John F. Moffitt & Santiago Sebastian (University of New Mexico Press, 1996), ISBN 0-8263-1639-5.

Fundraising Manual for Native Americans, by Hilary Henri Tun-atz and Phyllis A. Meiners (CRC Publishing, 1996), ISBN 0-9633694.

Hopi Quilting: Stitched Traditions from an Ancient Community, by Carolyn O'Bagy Davis (Sanpete Publications, 1997), ISBN 0-935092-3.3

Roots of Survival: Native American Storytelling and the Sacred, by Joseph Bruchac (Fulcrum Publishing, 1996), ISBN 1-55591-145-5.

Sovereign Nations or Reservations? An Economic History of American Indians, by Terry L. Anderson (Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy, 1995), ISBN 0-036488-81-6

Sadie Brower Neakok, An Iñupiaq Woman, by Margaret B. Blackman (University of Washington Press, 1989), ISBN 0-295-96813-3.

Surviving in Two Worlds: Contemporary Native American Voices, by Lois Crozier-Hogle & Darryl Babe Wilson (University of Texas Press, 1997), ISBN 0-292-74694-6. Here is an anthology containing some 26 interviews with native people.

The Red Man: An Illustrated Magazine, 1909-1917, was published by the U. S. Indian School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. It featured articles on Indian education and activities in the various Indian schools across the nation. (Library of Congress microfilm, L110163).

The Native American, devoted to Indian education, 1900-1931, was published by the pupils of the Phoenix Indian School in Arizona (Library of Congress microfilm, L110167).

The Indian's Friend, 1888-1940, was the organ of the Women's National Indian Association (WNIA), which was organized in 1879 to seek basic changes in U. S. Indian policies (Library of Congress microfilm, L110164).

Native American Art and the New York Avant-Garde, by W. Jackson Rushing (University of Texas Press, 1995), ISBN 0-292-75547-3.

Back to Contents

Students working in the Labriola Center

Students are invited to study in the Center, watch videos dealing with a variety of Native American topics, listen to language tapes, search for material on various Native American Web sites, or find information on the American Indian Multi-media Encyclopedia on CD-ROM. The Labriola Center provides research materials and assistance to students from a variety of disciplines: History; Anthropology; Justice Studies; English; Architecture; Education; Social Studies, and more.

Our hours are from 1 to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Labriola National American Indian Data Center
Arizona State University Libraries
Department of Archives and Manuscripts
Last updated: June 17th, 1998
Send questions or comments to archives@mainex1.asu.edu