Born on a Cree reservation in Qu'Appelle Valley, Saskatchewan, Buffy Sainte-Marie was adopted and raised in Maine and Massachusetts. She received a Ph.D. in Fine Art from the University of Massachusetts. She also holds degrees in both Oriental Philosophy and teaching, influences which form the backbone of her music, visual art and social activism.
As a college student in the early 1960s, Buffy Sainte-Marie became known as a writer of protest songs and love songs. Many of these became huge hits and classics of the era, performed by hundreds of other artists including Barbra Streisand, Elvis Presley, Chet Atkins, Janis Joplin, Roberta Flack, Neil Diamond, Tracy Chapman and The Boston Pops Orchestra.
Buffy Sainte-Marie was a graduating college senior in 1962 and hit the ground running in the early the Sixties, after the beatniks and before the hippies. All alone she toured North America's colleges, reservations and concert halls, meeting both huge acclaim and huge misperception from audiences and record companies who expected Pocahontas in fringes, and instead were both entertained and educated with their initial dose of Native American reality in the first person.
By age 24, Buffy Sainte-Marie had appeared all over Europe, Canada, Australia and Asia, receiving honors, medals and awards which continue to this day. Her song "Until It's Time for You to Go" was recorded by Elvis and Barbra and Cher, and her "Universal Soldier" became the anthem of the peace movement. For her very first album she was voted Billboard's Best New Artist.
Check out this website: http://www.creative-native.com/
Thursday, July 12, 2007
'Catching the Dreams of our Ancestors'
SAN JUAN ISLAND, Wash. - Kurt Russo said a Lummi man once told him he shook the hand of a man who shook the hand of a man who signed the Point Elliott Treaty on Jan. 22, 1855.
Like other First Peoples, the Lummi have a generational view of time. In other words, 1855 was not 152 years ago - it was only two handshakes ago.
Likewise for the Lummi presence on the San Juan Islands. Only two handshakes ago, the Lummi occupied at least 10 villages in the San Juans, including P'kweekh-eel-wuhlh on San Juan Island, believed to be the original home of the Lummi and the Songish through Sweh-tuhn, the first man.
Archaeological evidence at some of those village sites show occupation dating 5,000 years; a few artifacts, from a collection of more than 1 million pieces, are housed in a permanent exhibit at the National Park Service's American Camp visitor center.
Bill James, retired coordinator of the Lummi language program at Northwest Indian College, said in a 2005 interview that the Lummi were forced off the islands because of smallpox, treaties and the move to reservations.
There's more here: http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096415341
Like other First Peoples, the Lummi have a generational view of time. In other words, 1855 was not 152 years ago - it was only two handshakes ago.
Likewise for the Lummi presence on the San Juan Islands. Only two handshakes ago, the Lummi occupied at least 10 villages in the San Juans, including P'kweekh-eel-wuhlh on San Juan Island, believed to be the original home of the Lummi and the Songish through Sweh-tuhn, the first man.
Archaeological evidence at some of those village sites show occupation dating 5,000 years; a few artifacts, from a collection of more than 1 million pieces, are housed in a permanent exhibit at the National Park Service's American Camp visitor center.
Bill James, retired coordinator of the Lummi language program at Northwest Indian College, said in a 2005 interview that the Lummi were forced off the islands because of smallpox, treaties and the move to reservations.
There's more here: http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096415341
Tribe works to save ancestral land from fire
By: Sheila Gardner
To the casual observer, the broad flat rock covered with red slurry looks like just another piece of evidence of the efforts to extinguish the Angora fire.
Closer examination shows indentations in the rock revealing it is a grinding stone from the prehistory of the Washoe tribe's aboriginal homeland at Lake Tahoe.
This is the kind of cultural damage assessment in which Washoe tribe environmentalist Darrel Cruz specializes.
With more than 25 years experience fighting wildland fires and his training as an environmental specialist, Cruz, 47, is one of the few people in the United States who can be in front of firefighters' bulldozers as they race to build a suppression line around a raging wildfire.
His work is critical to protect archeological sites. When the devastating Angora fire broke out June 24, Cruz reported to the site.
"Within a few days of the fire, I went up as a resource adviser to protect the archeological monitoring. I was looking for any disturbance of the sites during the (fire) line construction," Cruz said.Cruz found two sites which needed attention.
Read more here: http://www.nevadaappeal.com/article/TD/20070711/NEWS/107110041/-1/REGION
To the casual observer, the broad flat rock covered with red slurry looks like just another piece of evidence of the efforts to extinguish the Angora fire.
Closer examination shows indentations in the rock revealing it is a grinding stone from the prehistory of the Washoe tribe's aboriginal homeland at Lake Tahoe.
This is the kind of cultural damage assessment in which Washoe tribe environmentalist Darrel Cruz specializes.
With more than 25 years experience fighting wildland fires and his training as an environmental specialist, Cruz, 47, is one of the few people in the United States who can be in front of firefighters' bulldozers as they race to build a suppression line around a raging wildfire.
His work is critical to protect archeological sites. When the devastating Angora fire broke out June 24, Cruz reported to the site.
"Within a few days of the fire, I went up as a resource adviser to protect the archeological monitoring. I was looking for any disturbance of the sites during the (fire) line construction," Cruz said.Cruz found two sites which needed attention.
Read more here: http://www.nevadaappeal.com/article/TD/20070711/NEWS/107110041/-1/REGION
Let Cherokees decide who's Cherokee
By Heather Williams - Cherokee citizen and Indian freedmen descendant
Opinion -
I'M PROUD TO BE a Cherokee citizen who is also descended from black slaves, and the Cherokee Nation I know is one of the most diverse, welcoming societies on Earth. Yet today, my tribe stands accused of racism and is the target of legislation introduced by Rep. Diane Watson (D-Los Angeles) aimed at cutting off our federal funding because we amended our tribal constitution to affirm that, in order to be a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, you must prove by-blood descent from Cherokee Indians.
Can a tribe be both inclusive and have a by-blood requirement? My experience proves that it can, and I believe that Indians deserve the right to preserve our heritage through a direct connection to our ancestors.
The constitutional amendment is a recent chapter of a long history. In 1906, a census called the Dawes Roll was created, listing by-blood Indians along with non-Indian residents of Cherokee Territory. Some of those residents were former Cherokee slaves or their descendants, known as freedmen, and an 1866 treaty with the U.S. government called for them to have "rights of native Cherokees." Watson refers to that treaty as the basis for her contention that all freedmen should be tribal members.
But of course that treaty was controversial. It came after the infamous Trail of Tears and at the end of the Civil War, which ushered in half a century of fierce U.S. government efforts to destroy Cherokee (and other tribes') sovereignty and land claims. Ultimately, the only "rights of native Cherokees" left to speak of were the right of individuals to a private land allotment and a cash payment from the U.S. government — which non-Indian freedmen and Cherokees alike received when the U.S. dissolved our territory and made Oklahoma a state.
Then, for a long time, there was no functioning Cherokee government. It wasn't until 1975 that Cherokees were able to revitalize their nation and lay claim to self-governance. The Cherokee constitution was written then, and its intent was that Cherokee citizens should be Indians who could trace their lineage to at least one by-blood Indian listed on the Dawes Roll.
Read the full piece here: http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-williams10jul10,0,3074789.story
Opinion -
I'M PROUD TO BE a Cherokee citizen who is also descended from black slaves, and the Cherokee Nation I know is one of the most diverse, welcoming societies on Earth. Yet today, my tribe stands accused of racism and is the target of legislation introduced by Rep. Diane Watson (D-Los Angeles) aimed at cutting off our federal funding because we amended our tribal constitution to affirm that, in order to be a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, you must prove by-blood descent from Cherokee Indians.
Can a tribe be both inclusive and have a by-blood requirement? My experience proves that it can, and I believe that Indians deserve the right to preserve our heritage through a direct connection to our ancestors.
The constitutional amendment is a recent chapter of a long history. In 1906, a census called the Dawes Roll was created, listing by-blood Indians along with non-Indian residents of Cherokee Territory. Some of those residents were former Cherokee slaves or their descendants, known as freedmen, and an 1866 treaty with the U.S. government called for them to have "rights of native Cherokees." Watson refers to that treaty as the basis for her contention that all freedmen should be tribal members.
But of course that treaty was controversial. It came after the infamous Trail of Tears and at the end of the Civil War, which ushered in half a century of fierce U.S. government efforts to destroy Cherokee (and other tribes') sovereignty and land claims. Ultimately, the only "rights of native Cherokees" left to speak of were the right of individuals to a private land allotment and a cash payment from the U.S. government — which non-Indian freedmen and Cherokees alike received when the U.S. dissolved our territory and made Oklahoma a state.
Then, for a long time, there was no functioning Cherokee government. It wasn't until 1975 that Cherokees were able to revitalize their nation and lay claim to self-governance. The Cherokee constitution was written then, and its intent was that Cherokee citizens should be Indians who could trace their lineage to at least one by-blood Indian listed on the Dawes Roll.
Read the full piece here: http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-williams10jul10,0,3074789.story
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