The Coyote's Game Blog

Native American beaders have used Charlotte cut beads for years. The fact that Charlottes are available in different sizes has led many artists to include these popular beads in their work.

Older beaders frequently mix the same size of seed and Charlotte cut beads together in one piece, which can lead to interesting effects where part of the design sparkles in the light. Today it’s more common for Native beaders to make entire pieces using only cut beads. Generally, they prefer the smaller size beads—13 through 15—resulting in a richer and more complex pattern. And, because of the cost of the beads, the price will be higher.

Some of the American Indian artists whose work is offered on Coyote’s Game use Charlotte cut beads in their beadwork. Here’s an example of a loomed hat band that mixes cut and seed beads:   

A few artists work exclusively with Charlotte cut beads. Comanche Jr. Weryackwe is one of these. A nationally recognized artist, Jr. has been creating his unique cut beadwork since 1973. Although no two pieces are alike, each includes symbols traditional to Comanche culture and history. Below are several examples of Jr.’s work:

Clicking on the picture will take you to our web site where you can find a full description of each piece and more of Jr.’s work.

Not long ago a Native American artist I know lamented that the demand for his products has dropped in recent years.   I agree with him that at present, real Indian crafts are mainly a niche market.

Some may argue that fashion trends loosely imitating traditional Native styles and patterns show interest in American Indian arts.  Or that imitation dream catchers, Kokopeli decorations and the like, offered on and off-line, indicate popularity.  I beg to differ.  Fashion is ephemeral; dream catcher and Kokopelis have become Americana, sold everywhere, like salt water taffy.  There are still genuine collectors as well as buyers who seek out work made by Native artists with tribal enrollment.  But judging by the predominant hair color of shoppers at events like the Santa Fe Indian Market, most of them are Boomers.

Young Native artists are turning out amazing work—art that transcends the “American Indian” genre and compares favorably with contemporary global art.  A new generation of young Indian crafts people are creating outstanding designs that combine traditional techniques with modern concepts.  But unless we get more non-Native people interested, the demand will not change and these talented artists will be forced to treat their art as a hobby rather than a primary or secondary source of income.  A few of these artists have succeeded in breaking through the glass ceiling and winning general recognition; they are not many.

It seems the entertainment industry often inspires fashion.  I just read an article on BBC Magazine that, in part, credited the popularity of corsets as outwear to Madonna’s 1990s Blond Ambition tour.   In the same way, the success of Billy Jack (1971) and  Dances with Wolves (1990) helped to make Indian jewelry and crafts universally popular then.

So what’s to do?  We need to spark some interest in Native arts and crafts among the younger generations.  Maybe the time is ripe for a runaway indie film made by First People.  Or for someone like Steven Spielberg to back a movie celebrating the American Indian.

Get busy, Hollywood!

Nation’s First Tribally Managed National Park Proposed

The nation’s first tribally managed national park could be created under the General Management Plan/Environmental Impact Statement for the South Unit of Badlands National Park in South Dakota, now in it's final draft.  The southern unit is located entirely within the Pine Ridge Oglala Sioux Reservation, and has been jointly managed by the National Parks Service and the Tribe for almost 40 years.

Plans for the new park, originally suggested by the Oglala Sioux Tribe, fall in with the Park’s Service future plans that include “protected sites that more fully represent our nation’s natural resources, history and cultural experiences.”

If the plan is approved by Congress, the 133,000 acre South Unit will gain a new Lakota Heritage and Education Center and a youth development program for future park rangers.  In addition, the South Unit would have programs for landscape restoration and enhanced wildlife habitat as well as reintroduction of buffalo.

According to the Department of the Interior, over one million people visited Badlands National Park in 2010, but most spent time in the North Unit.  Under this new plan, more visitors would be attracted to the tribally managed South Unit, providing jobs and income for the Pine Ridge Reservation.  For more information or to comment go to: http://www.doi.gov/news/pressreleases/Salazar-Jarvis-Announce-Proposal-to-Establish-Nations-First-Tribal-National-Park-in-Badlands.cfm

National Science Foundation and Google Collaborate on Endangered Languages Project

A new website called the Endangered Languages Project, designed to record, preserve and teach endangered languages, was launched this June.  Funded by a National Science Foundation grant and developed by Google, the project is supported by the Alliance for Linguistic Diversity, an international group of organizations and universities interested in language preservation.

One of the website’s central features is a catalog of endangered languages complied by the University of Hawaii Manoa and Eastern Michigan University’s LINGUIST list.  The University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) will also contribute material to this project.

It’s estimated that by the end of this century between 50% and 90% of the world’s languages will disappear.  Today, in some cases, only one or a few elderly people remain who can speak and understand a particular language.

According to a UAF press release, the Endangered Languages Project will give linguists and communities on-line access to language information.  They will be able to make comments and even add to documentation on endangered languages.

For more information on the Endangered Languages Project go to:  http://www.endangeredlanguages.com/. 

Radio—a New Way to Preserve Endangered Languages

In July and August 2012 Recovering Voices Initiative, in collaboration with Cultural Survival, will hold a conference on producing radio programs in indigenous languages.  “Our Voices on the Air: Reaching New Audiences through Indigenous Radio” is funded by the Smithsonian Institution through their Recovering Voices Initiative.

Cultural Survival describes radio as an ideal tool for preserving and revitalizing languages and cultural practices that are falling into infrequent use.  The conference’s goal is to create a series of programs for national and public radio that will tell about the loss of languages and how the use of radio can revitalize them.  Participants will also be able to develop new materials for community radio programs.

This conference will bring together indigenous radio producers from throughout the Americas.

For more information on “Our Voices on the Air” go to:  http://www.culturalsurvival.org/our-voices-on-the-air  

Charlotte cut seed beads are the Cadillac of seed beads, the one cut facet making them sparkle and shimmer. Considering how popular they are, they are very hard to get in any form of consistency, and beaders who know, buy them whenever they can, and keep their sources secret.

According to Peter Francis, Jr. Charlotte cuts were first used in 1847 in France, for the garment trade. Although Peter doesn’t know the origins of the name, in a recent letter to Bead and Button magazine by Elliot Greene of New York, Elliot states the name was attributed to his daughter. Elliot Green is an importer of Czech glass beads, and one of only a small handful of importers of charlotte cut seed beads.

At the back of a dust covered storeroom, John Boraggina, curator of the Catalina Island Museum, uncovered a historical treasure and the record of a disgrace.   What he found, according to the recent Los Angeles Times article, was the archives of an early 20^th Century pseudo-scientist named Ralph Glidden.

For years Native people from the area have complained about Glidden’s excavation and sale of indigenous skeletons and artifacts from Santa Catalina and other Channel  Islands, and the circus sideshow manner in which he publicized his finds.  And yet, in his way Glidden, whose dream was to be a great scientist, discovered things thought lost in the passage of time.   

Boraggina found enough photographs and written records packed away in cardboard boxes to fill an entire gallery in the museum.   Some of the photographs document what Glidden uncovered in the thousands of Tongva Indian gravesites he plundered—skeletons surrounded by pottery, grinding stones and beadwork.

Not only is Boraggina’s find important to California history, it could help us interpret the history of human settlement in the Americas.

Until the 1970s, the first humans to set foot in the New World were thought to be the Clovis People who crossed the Bering land bridge some 13,000 years ago and made their way down the west coast, migrating south and eastward.  Their civilization is known for it’s characteristic fluted spear or knife points, called Clovis points after their initial discovery near Clovis, New Mexico.

Then Tom Dillehay from Vanderbilt University excavated a remote campsite on the southern tip of Chile in South America.  He found wood and artifacts that radiocarbon tests dated at more than 14,000 years old.   It took many years plus DNA evidence from a cave in Oregon before scientists began to accept the idea that other humans had arrived before the Clovis People.

Along with this new theory of human migration came evidence that some of these early people traveled south in small boats, following the west coast of the Americas.  They often settled on coastal islands, including those off the shore of California such as the Channel Islands and Santa Catalina Island.

That’s why the evidence found in the Catalina Island Museum is so important—it may influence the ongoing debate about how and where the first humans came to the Americas.

Information on the Catalina Island Museum discovery from the Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/

Information on changing migrations theories in the Americas from Nature Magazine http://www.nature.com/news/ancient-migration-coming-to-america-1.10562

Tsimshian Revives the Art of Totem Carving

Tsimshian David Boxley and his son, also named David, are reviving the art of totem pole carving.

When Boxley decided to resurrect this ancient skill he discovered that no one was left in his tribe who could teach him.  He visited museums to study existing totem poles, the materials, paints and carving techniques used.

In an interview with BBC, Boxley said that totem poles stood outside Tsimshian homes, not as religious symbols, but as declarations of a family’s lineage, a statement of a man’s tribe, clan and ancestors.

Although the original lands of the Tsimshian people were in British Columbia, today Boxley and his family live in Alaska.  He is currently working on a 22 foot totem pole for the Smithsonian Institution.

Coeur d'Alene Tribe Establishes Unique History Museum

Efforts of a few dedicated Native people have transformed what began as a traveling exhibit into a permanent museum display.   Sacred Encounters: Father De Smet and the Indians of the Rocky Mountain West, explores contact between Jesuits and the Native Coeur d’Alene during the 19th Century. The story is told from the Native American as well as the European point of view.

For information on visiting Sacred Encounters at Old Mission State Park, Cataldo, Idaho, see the Idaho Parks Dept. website at http://parksandrecreation.idaho.gov/parks/oldmission.aspx.

Genetically Pure Buffalo Return to the Great Plains

This March, 61 genetically pure wild bison have returned to a tiny portion of their ancestral lands on the Fort Peck and Fort Belknap Reservations in Montana, thanks to the efforts of Defenders of Wildlife, the Assiniboine, Sioux and Gros Ventre Tribes, Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer and others.  The buffalo had been living in quarantine near Yellowstone National Park, because ranchers feared that their herds might contract disease from the wild buffalo.

Buffalo have been part of the traditional life of many Native American tribes—not only those on the Great Plains for whom the bison was sacred, but for many tribes having  lands that border the Great Plains.

There is still opposition from some Montana farmers and ranchers.  According to a recent article on Fox News, they believe a growing bison population on Montana threatens their interests.  Montana already has bison herds that have been cross bred with cattle for the market.

These bison are different—because they’re genetically pure they are a symbol of Native tradition and power.  For more information on this story visit the Defenders of Wildlife website http://www.defenders.org/.

The world has lost a very special person.  Michael Chosa, elder of the Lac due Flambeau Ojibwa people, healer, Indian rights activist, passed away on April 18 of this year.

Born on February 23, 1936, Mike came from a large and close family.  This diverse and fascinating man early became involved in Indian rights work.    In 1973 he and his older sister Betty Jack testified before the US Senate Committee hearings on Indian Child Welfare.  Subsequently, he wrote historical overviews on Indian history in support of his testimony.  He was a member of AIM.  Mike and Betty were featured in a documentary on Native Americans called The Divided Trail.  Produced by Jerry Aronson, The Divided Trail was named documentary film of the year for 1978 and was nominated for an Academy Award.

Despite his continued work for Indian rights, Mike, a fluent Ojibwa speaker, found time to pass on his knowledge of the Ojibwa language and culture to others in his tribe, to teach and practice the harvesting and use of traditional foods.  Mike loved to weave the red willow dream catchers traditional to the Ojibwa people.  Whenever he had spare time, Mike would get out his willow branches and artificial sinew and make dream catchers. 

Mike’s deep family ties led him to support his sister Betty when she adopted her three great-grandchildren, one of whom was born with Down’s syndrome.

I never had the honor of meeting Mike Chosa in person.  But during phone conversations with Mike in which he talked about gathering wild rice, about healing and Ojibwa culture, the power of his personality came across the hundreds of miles between us.

We’ll miss you, Mike, but you have joined the ranks of those whose dedication to freedom and justice made this world a better place.

Thanks to Mike’s nephew Clifford Siegfried for use of the photo of Mike Chosa.

One of the best known Native American crafts is dream catchers.  Dream catchers come in all shapes, sizes and materials; because of their popularity, they’re made by many different tribes.

Many believe that the dream catcher started with the Chippewa or Ojibwa people. The legend told is that a young Ojibwa mother, carrying her baby in a cradleboard, went into the woods to gather some berries, leaving her child in the shade while she worked.   Returning to the baby, she was horrified to find a spider weaving its web across the cradleboard, and killed the spider.

But when she got home, her grandmother explained to her that the spider had been trying to protect the sleeping baby, and that she must do something to honor the spider.  The grandmother instructed her on how to create a web something like the spider’s using red willow and sinew, leaving a hole for the good dreams to pass through while the bad dreams were caught in the web.

Betty Jack is one of the last Ojibwa elders in Wisconsin to make traditional dream catchers.  She starts by collecting red willow ranches, first making an offering and thanking the willow for its gift.  Then she shapes the branches and weaves a traditional web using artificial sinew.  A feather to attract dreams is attached, along with a small pouch of Ojibwa “tobacco”.

 Betty’s dream catchers are not mobiles or colorful toys to hang on your rear view mirror.  No claims are made to magical healing powers and no guarantees are offered—they are made, as they were in the past, to help you help yourself.

Buy traditional Ojibwa dream catchers at  http://www.coyotesgame.com/nadream3.html.

The media furor over Urban Outfitter’s inappropriate and illegal use of the word “Navajo” for a line of fake Native clothing and accessories has died down, but some basic issues remain.  Urban Outfitters has removed the word Navajo from their tags, although it doesn’t appear they’ve apologized to Sasha Houston Brown or to the Dine' People.

So why?

Because two big name fashion designers visited Santa Fe last year and, inspired by the Southwestern style fashions sold there at high end boutiques, released new lines of Native inspired clothing that are all the rage among the beautiful folk.  And their ideas have influenced other well known fashion designers.  If you don’t believe me, check out the New York Times Fashion and Style page for March 16 of this year.

 This isn’t the first time Native American designs have been borrowed by the fashion world and it won’t be the last.  But I feel that two important issues are being overlooked.

Why was the legal violation not taken seriously?  If a clothing firm decided to market a new line of ladies clothing, including underwear, and appropriated the name of any other minority group in the United States (and I’m not going to give an example so that I won’t offend anyone), the screams would be heard all the way to the White House.  Here, there was no outrage from the ACLU, no legal challenge--except from the Navajo Department of Justice.   

The second thing that’s being ignored is the Native people themselves.   Why are they not being taken seriously?  Today's young Indian people are highly educated, they hold important positions outside the reservations; more, they are trained and recognized artists.  I find myself wondering why some of these fashion big shots didn’t approach talented Native clothing designers and either hire them or produce clothing inspired by their work?

Could the reason be that the First People are still the most ignored minority in American society today?

Most people are aware of the Indian Arts and Crafts Act of 1990.  It was designed to be a “truth in marketing” law to prevent non-American Indian made products from being advertised as Native American. 

One researcher estimated that of the over $1 billion dollars worth of American Indian hand crafts and arts sold in the U.S. half of it—50%--was imitations mostly made abroad.  This includes baskets, pottery, rugs, silver and beadwork; pretty much the entire spectrum of Native American crafts.  That’s a staggering figure.

In 2006 90% of the Native American people living in the Southwest depended on arts and crafts as either their main or secondary source of income.  When you add Native people living in other parts of the country, it’s easy to see the need for this law.

Under the Arts and Crafts Act an Indian is defined as a person enrolled in a federally recognized tribe, a state recognized tribe, or an Alaska Native.  A person certified by a recognized Indian tribe as a non-member Indian artisan may also sell their work as Indian made.

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