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The Los Angeles Theater Center continues its Cultural Reconstruction Series with the lively and insightful one woman show What's an Indian Woman to Do?, starring Cherokee Indian actress, DeLanna Studi. Presented by Project HOOP (Honoring Our Origins and People) and the American Indian Dance Theater, the play is the story of Belle, a half White, half Ojibwe girl who identifies with her Native American Heritage, yet is constantly "culturally upstaged" by her white friend Katrina, and ceremoniously mocked for her modern life and ideas my her traditional reservation bound Auntie, for whom she was named. The one-woman show is based on Marcie Rendon's succinctly titled poem: What's an Indian Woman to Do When White Girls Act More Indian Than Indian Women Do. The play will be presented at 8 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays and 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays from June 28 through July 14.
When the Western North Carolina Associated Communities (WNCAC) selected its first slate of officers in 1946, it also appointed a Projects Committee to study and present a list of proposals for increasing tourism in the region. The idea of an outdoor drama about the history of the Cherokee Indian, in Cherokee, NC, was an appealing one, and, almost immediately, the Projects Committee began exploring where the theatre would make its home. By the end of 1947, the committee had narrowed its list to three locations: the old Indian Ball Ground; a ravine above the Fairground; and the site of an old nursery on the mountainside. Hoping to avoid the traffic noise at the first two sites, the committee finally chose the quiet mountainside. The terrain provided a natural bowl with excellent acoustics; it was protected from the wind; and the surrounding vegetation was lush. The site orientation was such that the sun would set behind the audience, and the rising moon would provide a backdrop for the dramatic action. There was also ample space for the 2,800 seats necessary, and a primitive road already climbed the mountainside. Considering the size of the project, a minimum of earthmoving would be necessary. The creator of the Manteo Waterside Theatre, home of "The Lost Colony," was asked to be the architect, and work began in 1948. From the outset, the emphasis was on achieving harmony between the story and its setting. To help reach this goal, natural, local building materials were used to blend with the surrounding forest. For more information, please click here.
Wakonda’s Dream is about a contemporary Native American family, impacted by the historical events that occurred in Nebraska in 1879 that changed the legal status of American Indians to that of “human beings under the law” for the first time in U.S. history. The opera is the story of a mother, Delores, a father, Justin, and a son, Jason, struggling to find their place as American Indians in contemporary society. Young Jason“sees things, feels things, knows things,” which terrifies his mother. Proud of her Ponca past, Delores keeps the history of their people alive for her son. This only intensifies Jason’s ghostly connection to the long-dead Chief Standing Bear, whose legacy is revealed in a choral rendering of the famous 1879 trial. As Jason grows from childhood to manhood, Standing Bear remains his spiritual guide, while Jason’s dismissal of his Indian birthright leads to tragedy and, ultimately, redemption. For more information, please click here.
Where is Indian Country Today? The answer is, anywhere Indians are – whether that’s the North Carolina rolling hills of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians or the urban canyons of Los Angeles where 280,000 Native Americans live. What’s being written in Indian diaries today? It’s a good bet that Native Americans are writing about issues like identity, sovereignty, cultural preservation, family life, health and economic development. Those are the same issues that these programs and this web site will explore. Please come back in the future as this site develops and offers additional information about the issues, the historical context of those issues, the programs and the producers. For more information, please click here. Indian Activist and Popular Author Dies Vine Deloria Jr. was considered one of the most influential American Indians of his time, authoring more than 20 books, including the best-selling "Custer Died for Your Sins." Deloria, a retired University of Colorado professor and American Indian activist, died Sunday at age 72. "He was one of our greatest leaders," said John Echohawk, executive director of the Boulder-based Native American Rights Fund and a longtime friend of Deloria. For the full article, please click here (Adobe PDF File) A.M. Josephy Jr., 90; Chronicler of the West, Native American Saga Alvin M. Josephy Jr., journalist and historian who chronicled the saga of American Indians and the West, has died. He was 90. Josephy, who was the founding board chairman of the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, died Sunday at his home in Greenwich, Conn., of undisclosed causes. Josephy, who had long been irked that the story of the Meriwether Lewis and William Clark expedition had never been told from the viewpoint of the Indians, most recently edited an anthology, "Lewis and Clark Through Indian Eyes." The book is scheduled for publication next year by Knopf, the publishing house founded by his maternal uncle, Alfred A. Knopf. More info: http://www.indystar.com/
Yearning to be heard Native Voices, a theater initiative at the Autry center, aims to present Native American perspectives. Up next: a reworked classic. By Lynne Heffley/L.A. Times Staff Writer, March 04, 2005 Opening today, "Kino and Teresa" marks the fifth anniversary of Native Voices, the [Autry]'s resident theater initiative, designed to develop and present plays by and about Native Americans. It will be the program's largest professional production since its 2000 launch at the Autry, seeded with a $13,000 grant from the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs. For the full article, please click here to download the PDF. Tribal leader Miller, 60, shared spirit by teaching Bruce Miller nurtured Salish art and culture. They began gathering Saturday, and they will keep coming each day, more and more, from all over the country, to honor Bruce Miller, a Skokomish spiritual leader whose teaching nourished a Salish renaissance of art and culture in the Northwest and beyond. For the full article, please click here to download the PDF.
UC Riverside (with sponsorship from the Ford Foundation, the University of California Humanities Research Institute, and the UCR Center for Ideas and Society) hosted a 3 day event exploring American Indian dance as a vibrant, active, socio-cultural historical practice. Jacqueline Shea Murphy (UCR Dept. of Dance) and Michelle H. Raheja (Dept. of English) organized three jam-packed days of performances and panel discussions. Performances ran the gamut from an Ohlone California Bear Dance (led by Toney Serta and Steve Cesenas) to a hip-hop fusion from San Francisco’s Earth Dance Theater. Others included Kalani Queypo (in a contemporary Anishnabe piece choreographed by Rulan Tangen for Earth Dance Theater), Wichozani Dance Theater (Plains Indian troupe led by Vincent Whipple), and Michelle Olson from Canada (in a multimedia piece “An Evening in Paris” about the life of Molly Spotted Elk in the ‘20s and ‘30s, choreographed by Muriel Miguel). The culmination of the performance series was the Dance Showcase on Thursday night, at the Sherman Indian High School in Riverside. The large audience of mostly high school students saw a remarkable array of performance styles, executed with technical and creative authority. Performers included: The Sherman
Apache Dancers (traditional) Not surprisingly, the teenagers went wild over the hip-hop troupe and, also not surprisingly, they were at a loss when the half-naked male ballet dancer performed—but they paid attention. A compelling moment was when Daystar’s body-mic failed to work, making her words hard to hear in the large space; people leaned forward in their seats to hear her. Panel discussions included (with certain key issues highlighted): Inventing/Improvising Traditions (What is “traditional”? What are the cultural politics of stretching “tradition” into newer forms?) First Person/First People: Dance as Autobiography (How does dance function as “autobiography” for individuals, families, tribes? How has it changed from earlier times to now?) Dance as Prayer/Dance
as Document (How does dance relate to the struggle for religious
freedom? How are dances connected to specific lands, and what are
the effects of removal from that land? How has the powwow circuit
affected local, non-Plains traditions of dance? How does staged
dance relate to ceremonial dance?)
Peformed at the IAIA Cool Side of Hell Theater Friday, April 30, 2004, 7:30pm Panel discussions after the April 30, 2004 performance by renowned repatriation activits: Susan Shown Harjo, Cheyenne/Muscogee: Annette Arkeketa, Otoe-Missoura/Muscogee and Jimmy Arterberry, Comanche At the James A. Little Theater (Located at the NM School of Deaf Campus), 1060 Cerillos Road, Santa Fe, NM.
Accessible to the handicapped (please call for special needs). Made possible with funding and in-kind support from United Indians of All Tribes Foundation, Seattle Office of Arts and Culture, Seattle Department of Human Services, Muckleshoot Indian Tribe Charity Fund, Tulalip Tribes Charitable Fund, the Seattle Indian Health Board, and the American Indian Women's Service League For more information, call 206-323-1868.
Official Press Release, click here Conference Information & Brochure, click here
Attendees
to the Project HOOP, 2nd National Networking Conference |
What's an Indian Woman to Do?
Unto These Hills
Wakonda’s Dream
Indian Country Diaries
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UCLA American Indian Studies Center
3220 Campbell Hall, Box 951548
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1548
310.825.7315 • 310.206.7060