"Joy Harjo was on her way to Israel from Glenpool, Oklahoma, last week, having been invited by professors at Tel Aviv University to perform and do a reading for students. The feminist American Indian poet, writer and musician accepted the...
The Navajo Nation Band will march with President Barack Obama for his inaugural parade on January 21, 2013. The band was among 3,000 applicants for the parade. The Presidential Inaugural Committee made the final choices after whittling down the list...
"Dale Chihuly revolutionized the art of blown glass, transforming the delicate material into monumental sculptures and large-scale installations. But before he interspersed glass fronds amid the greenery of the Kew Gardens in London, before he suspended 700-pound chandeliers over Venice,...
"When the conflict between the Dakota nation and the white soldiers and settlers on the frontier of Minnesota came to an end in the fall of 1862, Gen. John Pope made clear that he intended to treat the Indians...
"A full 136 years after the last bluecoat in the Seventh Cavalry fell, the literary autopsy of the Battle of the Little Bighorn shows no sign of letting up, with fresh students drawn to the historical morgue every year....
"JEFFREY BROWN: I think a lot of people will know some of the famous paragraphs, but not the scope of the project. TIMOTHY EGAN: Right. JEFFREY BROWN: Give us a sense of how big this was and what he...
"In his 1936 essay “The Storyteller,” Walter Benjamin drew a sharp distinction between prose fiction, meaning novels and short stories, and actual storytelling, meaning spoken narratives passed from one individual to another. The essential quality of storytelling, Benjamin wrote,...
The following story was written and reported by Brandon Ecoffey, Native Sun News Staff Writer. All content © Native Sun News. One of many photos collected by the now-defunct federal Resettlement Administration, which was specifically created during the Dust Bowl...
"Like many of us in Indian country, I caught the latest Victoria’s Secret atrocity that followed closely on the heels of Gwen Stefani’s big blunder. I’d like to move the conversation away from this dominant issue of cultural misappropriation to...
Author Louise Erdrich won the National Book Award for The Round House, her look into criminal justice issues in Indian Country. Erdrich is a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians in North Dakota. Her novel is...
Victoria’s Secret apologized for putting model Karlie Kloss in an "Indian" headdress during its annual fashion show last week. Images of Kloss in the headdress generated immediate controversy among American Indians online. The company responded by saying it will not...
The National Museum of the American Indian in New York City will reopen tomorrow, more than two weeks after it closed due to Hurricane Sandy. The museum and its collection escaped damage despite extensive flooding in lower Manhattan. Operations are...
"In the summer of 1900 the American photographer Edward S. Curtis traveled from his home in Seattle to the Blackfeet Nation on the plains of northern Montana. The trip, Timothy Egan writes in a new biography, was a turning...
"The Assassin's Creed video game series has become a megahit for gaming enthusiasts. The story line follows a bloody war between Assassins and the Knights Templar, first during the Crusades and then in Renaissance Italy. The newly released Assassins...
"On Saturday November 3, Indian country celebrated a bit of a victory and was paid a not a small amount of respect from Gwen Stefani of the group No Doubt. Within a few hours of posting their latest video...
The National Museum of the American Indian in New York City remains closed in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. The museum and its collection escaped damage despite extensive flooding in lower Manhattan. Power was restored on Sunday but the facility...
"Larry McMurtry calls his "Custer" a "short life," as opposed to a full-fledged biography or history, the advantage of the short form being that "plain speaking is usually required" from the author. And it is plain speaking that McMurtry...
"Edward Curtis deserves to be remembered as the American artist who racked up the most miles. Traveling by rail, wagon and foot, he undertook a project that struck observers as ambitious and possibly insane. His goal, he said, was...
"Who has stood up for the American Indian? Frederick E. Hoxie likes to ask this of his University of Illinois students on the Urbana/Champaign campus. He hears Geronimo, Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull. And, since the 1995 Disney film,...
"LOUISE ERDRICH, author of "The Round House": I was really haunted for years by the background, the political background of this book. But I didn't want to write a political diatribe of any sort. So I waited and waited...
Sculptures from Abraham Anghik Ruben, an Inuit artist from Canada, are featured in a new exhibit at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. "Arctic Journeys/Ancient Memories: The Sculpture of Abraham Anghik Ruben" presents 23 recent works....
"Q. In The New York Times Book Review, Maria Russo said this book represented a departure because your novels “have usually relied on a rotating cast of narrators, a kind of storytelling chorus.” There’s a fairly large cast of...
"When the Rev. Don Doll arrived on the Rosebud Sioux Reservation in South Dakota in 1962, he was an earnest 24-year-old Jesuit who had joined the order straight out of a Milwaukee High School. The world of the Rosebud...
"With “The Round House,” her 14th novel, Louise Erdrich takes us back to the North Dakota Ojibwe reservation that she has conjured and mapped in so many earlier books, and made as indelibly real as Faulkner’s Yoknapatawpha County or...
"Law is meant to put out society’s brush fires, but in Native American history it has often acted more like the wind. Louise Erdrich turns this dire reality into a powerful human story in her new novel, in which...
"Sometime in early 1896, a young Seattle photographer named Edward Sherriff Curtis, already well known for his polished studio portraits of local civic leaders and business tycoons, decided to challenge himself and photograph a very different kind of subject....
"I’m a third-generation Westerner, so the photographs of Edward S. Curtis have been as much a part of my landscape as a desert mesa or a mountain glacier. I took him for granted: those faces of Native Americans, those...
John Torres-Nez, a member of the Navajo Nation, has been named chief operating officer of the Southwestern Association for Indian Arts, the group behind the annual Santa Fe Indian Market. Torres-Nez, an artist and archaeologist, has worked at SWAIA for...
"In the jarring opening to Louise Erdrich's beautiful new novel, "The Round House," a Native American boy learns that his mother has been brutally, and mysteriously, attacked. The assault raises troubling concerns regarding hate crimes against Native American women...
"In 1988, 13-year-old Joe Coutts is thrust into adulthood after his mother, Geraldine Coutts, is sexually assaulted. His story is at the center of Louise Erdrich's latest novel, The Round House. On the difficulties of finding justice on Native...
The trailer for The Lone Ranger hit the Internet today and it features actor Johnny Depp, who plays "Tonto," speaking in broken English. "There come a time, kemosabe, when good man must wear mask," Tonto tells the Lone Ranger,...
"Why'd we let him do it, United States of America? All of a sudden (maybe this happened awhile ago), the face of "America" was no longer the face of the people who'd been there for millenia, but rather a gun-toting,...
" Midway through Louise Erdrich's new novel, "The Round House," an Ojibwa boy nearly dies trying to save his mother. A buffalo spirit speaks to him, saying "we are gone, but . . . now you understand. The round...
"An artfully balanced mystery, thriller and coming-of-age story, Louise Erdrich's "The Round House" is the gripping tale of the effects of violence on a family. Repeating characters from "The Plague of Doves," a Pulitzer finalist in 2009, "The Round...
"Any of the Western directors who had something to say created their own version of the West: Anthony Mann created a West that had room for the characters played by Jimmy Stewart and Gary Cooper; Sam Peckinpah had his own...
Jammie Thomas-Rasset, a member of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe Indians owes $220,000 to record companies for sharing copyrighted material over the Internet, the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled today. Thomas-Rasset was the first person to go on...
"Emmet Yepa, originally from New Mexico and a part of the Jemez Pueblo community, has already accomplished something many students at Lawrence dream of — he’s been a member of a band nominated for Grammy awards. During Yepa’s tenure with...
A film starring Jennifer Aniston will shoot on two reservations in New Mexico. "We're the Millers" will shoot at Kewa Pueblo and Zia Pueblo, the Associated Press reported. Filming starts later this month. Jason Sudeikis is also starring. Get the...
"An account of Indians in the U.S. Civil War has been issued in paperback—and with it comes a now-familiar sense of letdown. That’s because such books invariably leave out Native voices, relying on academic research and accounts. Clarissa Confer’s...
The Southwestern Association of Indian Arts, the group behind the popular Santa Fe Indian Market, will be looking for a new executive director. The SWAIA board voted yesterday, the day after this year's event ended, not to renew the contract...
"When one thinks of Jews and American Indians, fashion may not leap to mind as much as, say, Mel Brooks clad as a warrior chief in “Blazing Saddles.” But two new books find the exquisite and the offbeat in...
"Santa Fe summers have a rhythm of their own — a lazy Memorial Day weekend and quiet June, followed by a busy July with the opening of The Santa Fe Opera and two of our famous markets. Then, come August,...
"In 2005, photographer Aaron Huey set out to do a project on poverty in America. "I literally found Pine Ridge because it was just another poverty statistic," he recently told me. "But when I got there, I got taken...
The following story was written and reported by Karin Eagle, Native Sun News Staff Writer. All content © Native Sun News. Frank Waln Night Shield B Lakota artists score Wisconsin music awards nominations By Karin Eagle Native Sun News Staff...
"This is not your tribal ancestors' child carrier. On one side, Donald "Babe" Hemlock's "Ironworker Cradleboard" (2011) looks like the cozy abode devised by American Indians to swaddle an infant in fur-lined animal hide adorned with gut fringes. But the...
"Even though there are some 300 American Indian reservations in the United States, the media seem to get stuck on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. Readers will be pleased to know David Treuer's latest book "Rez...
Participants in the Santa Fe Indian Market in New Mexico won't face tax issues at this year's event. Last year, the city and the state claimed that hundreds of artists -- many of whom live in Indian Country -- owed...
"Catch the ‘Longmire’ episodes on Hulu or on IMDB. This recent episode is called, ‘Dog, Horses & Indians.’ It’s KHRN Cheyenne radio with DJ Ross Strong-Bow portrayed by Marcus Red Thunder. He receives a call-in from the Tribal council president...
"When the exhibit Up Where We Belong: Native Musicians In Popular Culture was conceptualized there were two main messages we wanted to convey. The first is that American Indians have been and remain significant participants in the development of contemporary...
Photo from Jerry Bruckheimer on Twitter Native American roles are far and few between in Hollywood and when they do appear, it's often non-Natives who are cast. That's the case with Johnny Depp, who is reprising the role of...
Ginny Tyler, a member of the Snoqualmie Tribe of Washington who served as Head Mousketeer and was an accomplished voice actor, died on July 13. She was 86. Tyler learned how to mimic animal sounds and change her voice...
"In the 1960s, the late Lumbee Indian singer, composer and activist Willie Lowery led a band called Plant and See — as in, plant the seed in the ground and see what comes up. The band recorded only one album,...
The third annual Living Earth Festival at the National Museum of the American Indian features a cooking competition between two Native chefs. Rob Kinneen (Tlingit) and Jack Strong (Siletz) will compete on Sunday. They will each prepare appetizers, entrees and...
The National Museum of the American Indian hosts its third annual Living Earth Festival this weekend. The event features performances by Brule, Kinnie Starr and Jack Gladstone. There's also a cooking competition between two Native chefs and a farmer's market...
"American history textbooks simply do not do our seventh president justice. Sure, in old paintings, he’s got the thick, wavy hair thing going on, and the craggy features do set off a rugged, Clint Eastwood-y vibe. But where, oh where,...
"The Daughter of the Dawn," an all-Indian silent film that was produced in 1920, is finally seeing the light of day thanks to the restoration efforts of the Oklahoma Historical Society. The cast featured tribal members from Oklahoma, including a...
"It would be a disservice to describe "Spirit of the Ojibwe: Images of Lac Courte Oreilles Elders" as simply a book. Rather, it's a multimedia cultural artifact -- filled with wonderful paintings, terrific photographs and short biographies of tribal...
"Totem pole carving - like many other aspects of culture among indigenous peoples in North America - is something that almost did not survive conquest and colonisation. Totem poles as an art form flourished in the 19th century. But when...
The following story was written and reported by David Arredondo, Native Sun News Summer Journalism Intern. All content © Native Sun News. PINE RIDGE, SOUTH DAKOTA –– “First off, say peace to Pine Ridge/Shame at all the damage that the...
"Let’s get the elephant-in-the-room question out of the way... I know you as a friend, a brunch and Bingo buddy (soon), but to a great many people you are the leader of the wolf pack in the Twilight movie series....
"One might think these majestic images of massive icebergs were the work of a master landscape photographer. They are not. They’re the work of an insightful portraitist who is able to capture the distinct nuances of the individual personalities that...
The following story was written and reported by David Arredondo, Native Sun News Summer Journalism Intern. All content © Native Sun News. “Mahpiya Lutu Print – Red Cloud”: A striking portrayal of Oglala Lakota Itancan (Chief) Red Cloud (1822-1909) by...
The following story was written and reported by David Arredondo, Native Sun News Summer Journalism Intern. All content © Native Sun News. “WINTER CAMP IN THE BLACK HILLS”: A small encampment scene mesmerizes in this 2012 piece by celebrated Oglala...
"American Indian reservations account for 2.3 percent of the country’s land. Indian gambling revenues are $14 billion annually, and male life expectancy among Indians is 64 years. Acoma Pueblo has been continuously occupied since the 12th century. The Cherokee...
"Readers familiar with Joy Harjo's poetry, or, better, who have experienced her live performances, will recognize a familiar cadence and overarching mythic quality in the voice she creates for her newest work, "Crazy Brave." In a memoir steeped in...
The Coeur d'Alene Tribe of Idaho is keeping the legacy of famed jazz singer Mildred Rinker Bailey alive. The tribe passed a resolution in honor of Bailey, whose Indian heritage was often ignored during the 1920s and 1930s. "She...
"In 1909, Julius Meyer, a Prussian-born retailer of American Indian crafts, a former spokesman for several tribes, and an important member of the Jewish community in Omaha, Neb., was found dead in the city's Hanscom Park, with one bullet...
The following story was written and reported by David Arredondo, Native Sun News Summer Journalism Intern. All content © Native Sun News. Yankton Dakota Lyle Miller Sr.’s “The Taking of Honor” piece was featured in Cowboys & Indians magazine and...
"It's a little hard to describe “Te Ata (Bearer of the Dawn),” a play about the world-famous Chickasaw storyteller who was born in 1895 and died in 1995. But whether you call it a memory play, a musical, a ceremony,...
Mitsitam Native Foods Cafe at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C., won a top restaurant award. Mitsitam received the Casual Restaurant of the Year from the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington. Mitsitam means "Let's Eat" in...
"Native American comedian Charlie Hill says he's living the American dream. Actually, make that the "indigenous dream," which he prefers to call it. In many ways, Hill's comedy is about how native people weren't even allowed to have an American...
Mitsitam Native Foods Cafe at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C., is in the running for a restaurant award. Mitsitam is competing for Casual Restaurant of the Year from the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington. It's...
"The past casts a sharp shadow here, wherever you look. You see it on mountaintop plateaus, where the ruins of ancient pyramidal staircases and capital-I-shaped ball fields hint at mysterious rituals that disappeared over a millennium ago. You see it...
"Multi-talented Arigon Starr has been a creative force in Indian country for years, primarily as a musician. She has released four albums; her first, Meet the Diva, won a Nammy Award for Best Independent Recording, and her most recent, The...
"The exhibit “A Song for the Horse Nation,” at the museum through Jan. 7, showcases tangible evidence of the animal’s influence on native society. Here, curator Emil Her Many Horses highlights pieces from the exhibit.." Get the Story: Closer...
"She is backstage at the Sydney Opera House. She is going to perform. A young woman, a photographer, takes her picture. She wears a cloak made from possum pelts stitched together, each individual square adorned with images that contain countless...
A well-known Cochiti Pueblo artist who was involved in a shooting incident in New Mexico was acting in self-defense, his attorney said. Mateo Romero, 45, feared he was about to be robbed by a homeless man, the attorney said. Like...
"A reluctant new coach faces the challenge of leading a team of unhappy youths to a championship. On the way, setbacks are encountered and eventually overcome, and everyone, from the coach to the star to the last guy on the...
"Movies featuring Native American heroes apparently are required to have their main characters hook up with their animal spirits and/or reconnect with their heritage before they can actually accomplish heroic actions. Even Val Kilmer's mixed-race FBI agent in 1992's “Thunderheart”...
A well-known Cochiti Pueblo artist was involved in a shooting incident in New Mexico last week but may not face charges. Mateo Romero, 45, discharged a firearm at a gas station in Santa Fe last Friday. The bullet ricocheted off...
Actor Johnny Depp, who is reprising the role of Tonto in the film version of The Lone Ranger, has been adopted into a family from the Comanche Nation. At a private ceremony in Albuquerque, New Mexico, last week, Depp was...
A youth dance group from the Sagkeeng First Nation in Manitoba are the first winners of Canada's Got Talent. Brothers Dallas and Brandon Courchene and Vincent O’Laney of Sagkeeng's Finest combined traditional Native dancing with modern steps. Their unique style...
“Crooked Arrows” Producers: J. Todd Harris and Mitchell Peck Co-producers: Neal Powless (Onondaga) and Ernest Stevens III (Oneida) Director: Steve Rash Writers: Tod Baird and Brad Riddell Crooked Arrows marks a new venture in filmmaking, one in which Native...
"Accomplished novelist David Treuer turns to nonfiction in his latest book, which combines elements of his own life on "the rez" with a historical look at North American Indian life over the past several hundred years. Since "most people...
"Up and down California, the art of weaving Native American baskets isn’t just alive and well. It’s thriving. Tribal elders and others are handing down the skills they learned from the previous generations to the next. In other cases, individuals...
The following story was written and reported by Kate Saltzstein, Native Sun News Correspondent. All content © Native Sun News. Luana Ross ALBUQUERQUE, NEW MEXICO –– Stories passed down through families and tribes help young people find their way, said...
"Q: Your story in this week’s issue, “Nero,” is about a seven-year-old girl who visits her grandparents and gets to know their obsessive guard dog. You mentioned to me that the piece started out as a memoir. How did it...
"Ojibwe historian and award-winning author Anton Treuer offers a balanced, frank and enlightening look inside Indian culture, shattering stereotypes that swing between romanticism (embodied in fictions like "The Last of the Mohicans" and "Dances With Wolves") and racism (seen in...
"There's no language gene. There's no innate language organ or module in the human brain dedicated to the production of grammatical language. There are no meaningful human universals when it comes to how people construct sentences to communicate with...
"Shoshana and Nathan Philips are from the Omaha tribe in northeastern Nebraska, where Shoshana served as a healer and educator. She was diagnosed with cancer five years ago and moved with her husband and two children to Michigan for treatment....
"The Lone Ranger" will shoot on Laguna Pueblo in New Mexico. The tribe hopes the filming will draw attention to reservations in the state. "There's been a great opportunity for the state of New Mexico for the film industry to...
Photo from Jerry Bruckheimer on Twitter "Johnny Depp is no stranger to unfamiliar faces — but what exactly is the origin of his black-and-white painted warrior in The Lone Ranger? The actor has a penchant for disappearing beneath heavy...
Levon Helm, the singer and drummer for The Band, a group formed with Mohawk singer/songwriter Robbie Robertson, died on Thursday. He was 71. Helm was part Chickasaw on his father's side, The New York Times reported. After being a part...
Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin (R) formally requested an audit of funds provided to the American Indian Cultural Center and Museum. The $170 million museum is half complete. The state needs another $80 million to finish the project by 2014. State...
"It began as a beautiful Sunday afternoon, I was sitting at my computer when reports started to come in that something was up. One post after another came in to my Facebook, mostly from artists bemoaning the loss of some...
"A bare-chested Johnny Depp welcomed gift-bearing visitors from the Navajo Nation while filming The Lone Ranger in the remote Monument Valley on Thursday. Dressed as Tonto, the actor shared the good will visit with Navajo president Ben Shelly and vice...
"For an American, a visit to a national park in another country can be disorienting. Where are the Winnebagos? The air-conditioned visitor center? The paved roads? If you venture off the main highway in search of a park that...
Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin (R) agreed to an audit of funds provided to the American Indian Cultural Center and Museum in response to complaints from Republican lawmakers. Fallin has previously said she wants to finish work on the facility, which...
"My name is Julia Keefe, and I am a student at the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida, studying vocal jazz performance. I am also a member of the Nez Perce Indian Tribe....
"That is one reason that the Natural History Museum of Utah, which opened last fall in a new $102 million, 17-acre home in the foothills of the Wasatch Mountain Range, has such a powerful impact. Here, at Salt Lake City’s...
"Recently, the New York Times reported on the Oglala Sioux tribe’s federal lawsuit against liquor dealers in Whiteclay, Nebraska, a town standing a few hundred yards from the boundaries of the Pine Ridge reservation and the South Dakota state...
The American Indian Cultural Center and Museum in Oklahoma could get a $9 million boost from Oklahoma City. The city council will consider a resolution to provide funds to finish the museum. The money is contingent on the state providing...
"There's a wince-worthy moment -- one of many in "My Mother Is Now Earth," Mark Anthony Rolo's beautiful, sorrow-laced memoir -- in which a cat that he and his siblings have taken in vanishes into the snowy woods behind...
"Year after year, he packed his camera and supplies—everything he’d need for months—and traveled by foot and by horse deep into the Indian territories. At the beginning of the 20th century, Edward S. Curtis worked in the belief that he...
"Every so often, fashion gets interested in Native American prints and styles. Is there a way for the industry to do it right? Everything's cyclical. It doesn't hurt us per se. The more awareness there is out there, the more...
The Coeur d'Alene Tribe of Idaho wants famed singer Mildred Rinker Bailey inducted into the Jazz at Lincoln Center Hall of Fame in New York City. Bailey, whose mother was a tribal member, grew up on the reservation. When...
The South Dakota Symphony Orchestra has received three grants totaling $177,500 for its Lakota Music Project. The effort brings together classical musicians with the New Porcupine Singers, a Lakota drum group. The groups toured three reservations and two communities during...
Photo from Jerry Bruckheimer on Twitter "The Lone Ranger” – the tale of the masked outlaw fighter of the Old West and his trusty Indian companion, Tonto – started out as a radio serial, became a TV and comic...
"On Labor Day 1930, an 85-year-old man named Robert Boyd shuffled across a wooden stage toward a microphone on the rolling plains of western Minnesota, 16 miles northeast of Fort Ridgely. Thousands of folks had driven up gravel roads...
"Thursday kicks off a year-long focus on aboriginal architecture for the local architecture group M.A.D.E. Chipewyan architect Alfred Waugh will speak on how aboriginal culture influences design at the Art Gallery of Alberta at 7 p.m. Well-known aboriginal architect Douglas...
"Raising the John T. Williams memorial totem pole was part celebration and part hard work. Volunteers carried the pole from Pier 57 on the waterfront, where it was carved, to its new permanent home near the Space Needle. John T....
Mariah Watchman, a member of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation in Oregon, is competing to be America's Next Top Model. Watchman, who grew up on the reservation, is proud to be the first enrolled tribal member on...
"Edited by Qwo-Li Driskill, Deborah Miranda, Daniel Heath Justice and Lisa Tatonetti, Sovereign Erotics: A Collection of Two-Spirit Literature (University of Arizona Press, 2011)is a landmark book—the first Native gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer, two-spirit (GLBTQ2) prose and poetry anthology...
"From classic Western movies and earlier books, the story is familiar. More than 350 Northern Cheyennes fled a reservation in present-day Oklahoma traveling north toward their homeland in Montana, dodging Army cavalry patrols but raiding farms and killing settlers...
"In the first decades of the 20th century, a local movement in Santa Fe helped launch the modern school of Native American painting and paved the way toward its recognition in the national art market. The movement started simply with...
The Fort Mojave Tribal Band will be featured in a new documentary called Sousa on the Rez: Marching to the Beat of a Different Drum. Members of the Fort Mojave Tribe started the band in 1906. It is one of...
"Stories about life on Native American reservations often focus on the hardships — alcoholism, drugs, violence and poverty. In Rez Life: An Indian's Journey Through Reservation Life, Ojibwe writer David Treuer strives to capture stories about the beauty of...
"Applied to a book, the word "important" can glaze the eyes. An "important" book sounds like an earnest, educational one you should read, when you get to it, someday, maybe. "Rez Life" is important in the word's best sense...
Michael Kirk, an Isleta Pueblo / Navajo Nation jeweler from New Mexico, has found fame in a far-away place: Japan. Kirk was featured in a Japanese travel magazine 14 years ago. Now, about 95 percent of his pieces are sent...
"If you’re especially enamored of, say, the beaded wool Klukwan Chilkat octopus bag displayed at the National Museum of the American Indian, you may want to visit it again before 2014. By that date — the museum’s 10th anniversary —...
The Department of the Interior Fiscal Year 2013 Budget proposes to transfer the Indian Arts and Crafts Board to the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The IACB is currently part of the Office of the Secretary at the Interior Department. The...
The Heard Museum in Phoenix, Arizona, hosted the 22nd annual World Championship Hoop Dance Contest over the weekend. After staying out of the competition for a few years, Dallas Arcand, pictured above, returned to the ring. The Cree man...
"In 2011, the Grammys terminated the “Native American Music Album” award. QUESTION: How many Grammy-winning projects did Native Americans produce? SOLUTION: 1.5 XIT + 1/2 MIL + 1/3 MAT = ? (This must be the same math the BIA uses.)...
The Fort Mojave Tribe authorized the shooting of an independent film on the reservation. Actor Jason Momoa, who appeared as Conan in Conan the Barbarian, plays a tribal member who returns to the reservation after a six-year absence. He personally...
Two experienced fundraisers have been enlisted to help complete the American Indian Cultural Center and Museum in Oklahoma. The $200 million facility in Oklahoma City needs $80 million. Blake Wade and Lee Allan Smith, who helped promote the 2007 state...
"If you ever have the bounty of standing on the rim and looking down into the astounding beauty of the sacred Navajo landscape of Canyon de Chelly, you might possibly have a sudden urge to stay longer than you’d...
"Who wouldn’t want to save the whales? Maybe an oilman, more interested in drilling rights than in wildlife. Or Inupiat Eskimos, whose close relationship to whales includes hunting them. Or the governor of Alaska, uneager to risk human lives to...
"Two of the most thrilling shows you are likely to see this year, both devoted to Native American art, are showing concurrently in New England. Both are filled with astounding and beautiful things. Both have been mounted at institutions that,...
"A trade group and a Native Corporation are teamed up to promote a program that attracts movie and television productions to Alaska. The Alaska Film Group and Nana Regional Corporation owned Piksik LLC are pushing the state to extend its...
David Slagger, a member of the Houlton Band of Maliseets, hopes to propose a bill to protect authentic Indian arts and crafts. Slagger is his tribe's first representative in the Maine Legislature. He says people are trying to pass off...
Actor Lou Diamond Phillips, who has claimed Cherokee ancestry, has been cast as the Indian best friend in the TV series based on the Sheriff Walt Longmire book series. Phillips will play Henry Standing Bear, the best friend of...
"Upon the opening of the "A Song for the Horse Nation" exhibition at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian in Washington last October 29, I did a book review for the Native News Network of the accompanying book...
"Michelle Sparck of Bethel was a high school freshman when the rescue of three gray whales near Barrow became a worldwide spectacle. Now her home state, not to mention several friends, are appearing in the Hollywood retelling of that story....
"In the mid to late 18th century, missionary schools were opened on Native American reservations in the U.S. The goal was to convert young people to Christianity and immerse them in Western culture. Native languages and culture were discouraged. Over...
Chris Eyre, a member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes, will lead the film department at the Santa Fe University of Art and Design in New Mexico. Eyre is best known for his directing Smoke Signals. His latest film, Hideaway,...
"Finally, the little Indian tribe turned into werewolves by the blockbuster Twilight series is basking in a more positive spotlight, thanks to the Smithsonian. A new exhibition sorts out truth from fiction in the important roles wolves play among the...
"The paradigm-shifting "Shapeshifting: Transformations in Native American Art," at the Peabody Essex Museum, begins with a rude surprise: The first wall text that visitors encounter is a parental warning—breaking the mold of customarily child-friendly displays of totem poles and headdresses....
"It’s too bad reality television didn’t come along about a century earlier than it did. There might never have been a Battle of the Little Bighorn because George A. Custer would have channeled his energy into competing on “Dancing With...
"Starting in the late 19th century, tens of thousands of Native American children were taken from their reservations to Indian Boarding Schools. The goal was to assimilate Native Americans by replacing their traditional ways with those of the majority of...
The Regina Anti-Gang Services (RAGS) in Regina, Saskatchewan, is offering former members of Native gangs a new way to spread their message. Rob Hurley, who use to be a part of the Native Syndicate gang, has started recording hip-hop songs...
"The Peabody Essex Museum chose an appropriate weekend to open "Shapeshifting," its latest exhibit of Native American art that includes works from its own collection and other sources. For on this weekend we celebrate the birthday of the great civil...
"I have been introduced to an interesting composer named George Quincy. He was born in Oklahoma and is proud of his Choctaw heritage. Having received two degrees from, and having taught at, The Juilliard School, he garnered wide experience in...
"On Jan. 14, Testament vocalist Chuck Billy will be appearing at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Albuquerque, N.M. to celebrate becoming the first Native American entertainer to be permanently featured in one of the famed establishment's memorabilia displays....
"According to a new documentary on George Armstrong Custer, some of the seeds of the tragedy that occurred at the Battle of the Little Big Horn actually began eight years earlier. That’s when Custer took part in the Battle of...
"As an adopted child raised by a Mexican mother and a Jewish father, Marc Yaffee found out in his 20s that he’s of Navajo, Mexican and Irish descent. Now, he makes his living as a stand-up comedian who focuses...
"Adam Beach has plenty of things to be happy about these days. He got to work with Harrison Ford and Daniel Craig in last summer's blockbuster "Cowboys & Aliens." He enjoyed a stint as a popular guest star on "Combat...
YouTube: Navajo Times Daily News Update for January 10, 2012 with reporter Alastair Lee Bitsoi Sorry, movie fans. Johnny Depp probably wasn't hanging out on the Navajo Nation over the weekend, although Facebook and The Navajo Times were inundated...
After gaining some attention from the Twilight series of books and movies, the Quileute Tribe of Washington is hoping to educate a wider audience about its culture. The tribe collaborated with the Seattle Arts Museum on the first-ever exhibit on...
David Boxley, a Tsimshian carver from Alaska, created a totem pole for the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. Boxley, who grew up in Metlakatla, and his son put the finishing touches on the 22-foot-long, 2,500-pound pole...
"“When it shows up, it looks like a log. It’s a very daunting feeling. It rolls in, and you think, ‘Oh my god. What have I decided to do?’” David Boxley, Jr., an artist and member of the Tsimshian...
"CBC's winter season is about to start and they asked me to come in and chat with some of their stars. Adam Beach is a familiar face on both sides of the border, with am impressive resume ranging from North...
A journalist is nearing completion of a documentary that focuses on the importance of the horse to the Nez Perce Tribe of Idaho. Janet Kern has been working on Horse Tribe for at least a decade, The Epoch Times reported....
"Short stories and poems in the voice of the regular Joe Indian are a compelling representation of what it means to be a Native today. But don’t confuse this for a “deep” book, says Gyasi Ross, author of “Don’t Know...
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