Luci Tapahonso -- Monday

A very good Luci Tapahonso poem and biography The poet explains:

"Many of these poems and stories have a song that accompanies the work. Because these songs are in Navajo, a written version is not possible. When I read these in public, the song is also a part of the reading. This is very much a consideration as I am translating and writing--the fact that the written version must stand on its own..."

Amy McNally of the University of Minnesota, who edited the page, offers this assessment:

In the birth poems, in the humorous stories, and in the chants and prayers within Tapahonso's works, a voice emerges that both appreciates and respects traditional Navajo stories and humor. At the same time speaks a writer who will use the narratives she has heard throughout her life as a foundation for the creation of new prayers, stories, and poems that recognize the vitality of present day Navajo culture.

In class we'll read some poems linked to her page at http://www.ipl.org/div/natam/bin/browse.pl/A116 ...

Blog: Compare and contrast the two poems about drinking/drunks we read in class today with "It Has Always Been This Way." Consider the three questions. You know what they are by now, right? Post your answers as comments to this blog.



Here's a link to directory of Dine (Navajo) literature.

http://www.indigenouspeople.net/navajo.htm

HUM 221: Assignment for Friday

Read Luci Tapahonso's autobiography in "Here First" (pp. 337-51).

For background, read an overview of Dine (Navajo) culture written by Navajo Tourism (the Navajo Nation) of Window Rock, Ariz.

Also a short bio with important quotes from Tapahonso at http://www.learner.org/amerpass/unit01/authors-9.html ...

In class we'll read the poems linked to her page at http://www.ipl.org/div/natam/bin/browse.pl/A116 ...

Much of Tapahonoso's writing is about family. How much of it seems to reflect a specifically Navajo, or Dine, way of looking at the world? How much is universal?

One poem we'll look at closely is about the Long Walk to Bosque Redondo in 1864, a tragic moment in Navajo history, and how the poet's family deals with it. After reading the Wikipedia account of the Long Walk (with due *caution), we will go through "In 1864" to see what it tells us about Tapahonoso, the Dine people and perhaps Native Americans in general.

Tapahonso reads at National Book Festival http://www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/feature_wdesc.php?rec=3511 ...

________________

* Caution is always a good idea with Wikipedia, because anyone who visits a page can edit it ... edtitng in (or out) whatever they please. In general, it is self-correction because people are generally conscientious about cleaning up mistakes -- or deliberate misinformation -- when they see something that needs editing. But in another article on the Dine Nation today, I a couple of things that appeared to reflect ongoing controversy over local school board politics on the reservation. The same thing happens on Wikipedia during political controversies everywhere, and eventually everything gets sorted out. But in the meantime, caution is advised whether the politicking concerns the Navajo Nation, the upcoming North Carolina primary or next year's city council and school board elections in Springfield.

HUM 221: Lacrosse, stickball and culture

Stickball is a generic term for a Native American game that was widely played from Canada to what are now the Southeastern states. It may or may not be descended from the ancient Mexican ball games we mentioned in class at Monday, but it has some broad similarities in that players move a ball up and down a playing field toward their opponents' goal. In more or less its traditional form, Stickball survives among Cherokee and Choctaw Indians today in North Carolina and Mississippi. In the northeastern states and Canada, it has evolved into lacrosse.

A freelance writer from North Carolina (George Ellison, linked below), describes the traditional Cherokee version of the game. It's no-holds-barred. Literally:

I asked a Cherokee man standing alongside me, “What are the rules?”

“Can’t touch the ball with your hands,” he replied.

“That’s it?” I asked.

“Pretty much,” he replied.

Lacrosse is an international sport, with lots of rules and a national governing body -- similar to Major League Baseball -- for men's and women's lacrosse. But it grows out of stickball.

US Lacrosse, the governing body, has a history of Native American lacrosse on its website. Thomas Vennum Jr., author of "American Indian Lacrosse: Little Brother of War," says:

Apart from its recreational function, lacrosse traditionally played a more serious role in Indian culture. Its origins are rooted in legend, and the game continues to be used for curative purposes and surrounded with ceremony. Game equipment and players are still ritually prepared by conjurers, and team selection and victory are often considered supernaturally controlled. In the past, lacrosse also served to vent aggression, and territorial disputes between tribes were sometimes settled with a game, although not always amicably.

Vennum's short history on the US Lacross website is the best available.

Lacrosse is especially important to the Haudenosaunee, or Iroquois, people. The Iroquois Nationals are members of the Haudenosaunee nation who carry that nation's passports when they compete internationally. Their website explains that "lacrosse is a medicine sport" because the game "is a holistic process that binds communities and the nations of the Haudenosaunee together." On their website, they explain why lacrosse is more than just a game to them.

Some variants:

• Cherokee stickball is described and explained by George Ellison, who saw a stickball game at a reunion of Oklahoma and Eastern Band Cherokee.
  
• The Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians explains the evolution of Choctaw stickball ... the game, called toli in the Choctaw language,is still played today.
  
• The Flying Rats are college students who play Choctaw stickball at the University of Georgia-Athens. Their website explains how to play, the history of the game and how they got their name from a Muscogee (and Cherokee) legend about a stickball game between the birds and animals. It also has photos of games between the UGA team and a Choctaw team in Mississippi, from whom they learned the sport.

Here are some questions to blog about. Post as answers to this item.

1. What roles do stickball/lacrosse play in modern Haudenosaunee, Cherokee and Choctaw culture? Has it changed over the years?

2. How does the organized sport of lacrosse differ from tradtional stickball as played by Cherokee and Choctaw Indians? How are they the same?

3. Is lacrosse an example of cultural appropriation? Is the non-Native team at UGA? Do the Flying Rats show respect for Choctaw tradition? If so, how?

Ultimate webpage for surfers, slackers

If you get bored in class and want to surf the World Wide Web, be sure to check out this webpage. It's the ultimate page for surfers and slackers.

HUM 221: A vanished people, ball games

In Phoenix just north of Salt River and Sky Harbor International Airport, stand the ruins of an ancient Indian village, or pueblo, inhabited by a people we call the Hohokam until about 1400 A.D. Partially restored, it is now a municipal museum and archaelogical park called Pueblo Grande. We don't know what the Hohokam people called it. In fact, we don't really know who they were. Today's Pima and Tohono O'odham Indians, who may be descended from them, call them the Hohokam. The name means "used up" or "those who went before."

Read up on Pueblo Grade, the Hohokam and what we can infer about their culture. Pay special attention to their ball game and our best guesses of how it fit into the their culture. You'll have an opportunity to blog on it later.

There's an atmosphere of mystery as you visit Pueblo Grande, you can see the ruins of the platform mound, a large adobe building divided into apartment-like units, as well as the ball court, a couple of reconstructed dwellings and an irrigation ditch. The ditch still collects water, and I heard frogs when I visited several years ago.

In fact, Phoenix is located where it is because the first white settlers in the 1880s were able to use the old Hohokam irrigation canals to water their crops. The Hohokam and the Pima successfully farmed the desert for more than a thousand years.

Part of the mystery is that we have to guess at what Hohokam culture was like. The people left no written records, so we infer what we know about them from archaeology. The canals they left are a lot like the Pima's, for example, so we can infer their agriculture was similar.

Even more mysterious are the ball courts. We know they're like ceremonial ball courts in Mexico, so we infer the ball games were like those played in Mexico. But we can't be sure. In fact, what we know about the Mexican games comes from records of an Aztec game and a surviving traditional ballgame in Mexico called ulama.

Scientists have a pretty good idea how Hohokam must have played the game, though. This article in Tuscon Weekly is a good reconstruction. DesertUSA, a tourism website, has a good overview of the Hohokam people, and how the ball play might have fit into the overall culture.

n interactive webpage explaining a Hohokam village ... click on features of the map, like the houses, the platform mound or irrigation canals, to read about each. The ball court is in the lower right.

Your blog question: Read this account by an anthropologist in 1880 of the Cherokee stick ball game and its origins. It is by James Mooney, a famous ethnographer who did his research in the 1880s and 1890s. What role did athletics play in Native cultures? How does it compare to the role played by athletics in our culture today.


Last Page

Wannabes and mascots

What are the pros and cons of using Native Americans as sports team mascots? How did Florida State University handle the controversy over its use of Seminole Indians as a mascot for its teams? What compromise did they come to with the Seminole tribal government? Who wins? Who loses? Could other schools handle the controversy over American Indian team names in a similar fashion?

Does cultural appropriation have to be negative? Can it be done in a way that is respectful to a minority culture and still enriches the majority culture? If so, how?

Discuss. Post your answers as comments to this post.

Some links:

• The American Psychological Association called for an immediate end to American Indian sports mascots in 2005. They cited, among other things, the "particularly harmful effects of American Indian sports mascots on the social identity development and self-esteem of American Indian young people."
  
• Wikipedia has a balanced treatment of the issue. Partisans on each side of the controversy correct each other's language and thus keep each other honest.
  
• Florida State University and the Seminole Tribe of Florida have worked out a culturally sensitive approach that the Seminole tribe and Florida State fans agree on.

Some background. The issue is complex, and no compromise will make everyone happy. But Florida State has been cited as an example of one that worked fairly well.

Some observers make a distinction when American Indians choose a tribal name for their own teams. The high school in Cherokee, N.C., for example, calls its athletic teams the Braves. Yet Native American activists have protested the Atlanta Braves and, especially, the "tomahawk chop" seen at ballgames as insensitive and offensive. When the Braves played the Cleveland Indians in 1995, the activists had a field day. Closer to home, of course, the University of Illinois had its moments of controversy, too, when white students dressed up like Indians and performed what they thought was a "Native American dance" at ballgames.

Cultural appropriation: Raking in the long green on the Red Road

Among the outsiders are "plastic shamans" and "wannabes." Both terms need some definition. A shaman, in Siberia where the term originated, is a traditional healer who mediates between the spirit world and that of daily life. A traditional spirit healer made of plastic is just a contradiction in terms, right? Hence the joke behind the name. A "wannabe" is just somebody who wants to be something he is not. The "American Idol" show is full of wannabe musicians, for example, and karaoke clubs make their money off of wannabe singers.

So white people who "wannabe" Native American can go to a "plastic shaman" and try to buy the kind of spiritual "wisdom" that traditional people would fast and pray for years to attain. At least so goes the stereotype.

Has the revival of Native American religions spread too far? Some believe that's the case, as whites have expressed an interest in the Native world view and incorporated some of its features into "New Age" philosophies -- and New Age marketing ventures that take some of the trappings of Native spirituality but trivialize its spirit. Rather than feeling honored by this, many Native people feel ripped off. Sharing their unease with New Age hype, according to Wikipedia, are "adherents of traditional disciplines from cultures such as India, China, and elsewhere; a number of orthodox schools of Yoga, Tantra, Qigong, Chinese Medicine, Ayurveda and martial arts (the traditional Taijiquan families, for example), groups with histories reaching back many centuries in some cases." It is a form of cultural appropriation ...

Two newspaper stories detail the practice. In 1997 a reporter for The Navajo Times told about traditional Dine (Navajo) people who were ripped off by a fake healer, at a time when the real traditional healers are getting fewer and fewer. And another Navajo Times writer surveyed plastic shamans on the Internet. See also the survey of rip-offs and authentic practices in California's Sonoma County Free Press.

In 1993, a Declaration of War Against Exploiters of Lakota Spirituality was adopted at the Lakota Summit, an international gathering of U.S. and Canadian Lakota, Dakota and Nakota nations. It says, "for too long we have suffered the unspeakable indignity of having our most precious Lakota ceremonies and spiritual practices desecrated, mocked and abused by non-Indian "wannabes," hucksters, cultists, commercial profiteers and self-styled "New Age shamans" and their followers."

White Buffalo Calf

Please answer the questions below. Post your answers as comments to this blog post.

1. What stands out as you read the "White Buffalo Calf" legend?

2. What in your background, heritage, etc., makes you feel that way?

3. What in the story makes you feel that way?

4. Is the story real? In what way? To whom? How? What does it mean for a story to be "real?" Does it have to be scientifically accurate?

Native American religion -- some links

For an overview of Lakota culture, we'll start with the Lakota Information Page developed by Richard Two Elk. He is an Lakota educator in Denver; his page isn't slick, but often that's a good sign with websites. Especially Native American websites, for reasons we'll explore later.

A wealth of information on Lakota spirituality and religion is available here: Articles on Spiritual Heritage. Including Pipe ceremony, four directions, Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha. American Indian Culture Research Center, Blue Cloud Abbey, Marvin, S.D. There is a lot of good information available elswwhere on the AICRC website. Surf around and find something that interests you.

Dakota/Lakota Theology. Correspondences between Lakota and Christian theology. "When you study People you are touching -- not a problem -- but a Mystery. Problems are irritating, and when solved are discarded. Mysteries are fascinating, and when tested are entrancing. ... For your understanding we have used familiar catechetical terms to parallel Indian concepts in religion."

Dakota Theology on the Blue Cloud Abbey website. " Another list.

An overview of relations between Native people and Christian denominations in "Shining Through: Native Spirituality Sheds a New Light on Christianity" by Rea Howarth [from American Indian Report – December, 1999].

Spirituality, hucksters and "wannabes"

HUM 221: We'll discuss this in class Monday, and you'll want to follow up by reading the linked documents.

We will only touch on a deeply controversial topic, the extent to which Native American spiritual practices have been revived in recent decades and the extent to which they have been "commodified" or commercialized by outsiders.

Among the outsiders are "plastic shamans" and "wannabes." Both terms need some definition. A shaman, in Siberia where the term originated, is a traditional healer who mediates between the spirit world and that of daily life. A traditional spirit healer made of plastic is just a contradiction in terms, right? Hence the joke behind the name. A "wannabe" is just somebody who wants to be something he is not. The "American Idol" show is full of wannabe musicians, for example, and karaoke clubs make their money off of wannabe singers. So white people who "wannabe" Native American can go to a "plastic shaman" and try to buy the kind of spiritual "wisdom" that traditional people would fast and pray for years to attain. At least so goes the stereotype.

And there are plenty of websites all over the Internet to confirm the stereotype, although some of the New Age practitioners on the sites I've looked at do appear to be sincere in wanting to help people.

An explanation of why the pipe ceremony is the "basis of Lakota spirituality" by Ben Black Bear Jr. See also the explanation of Prayer with the Sacred Pipe and the comments on the pipe ceremony by Nicholas Flying By. Our descriptions of the pipe ceremony come largely from a Lakota elder named Nicholas Black Elk who described the old ways to a white writer during the 1930s. An account of Black Elk's conversion to Christianity and his activities as a Jesuit catechist (a sort of lay minister) is available on oLive Leaf, a Canadian website that also has a comparison between burning incense and sweetgrass.

The sun dance is a revival of an ancient Native American religious ceremony, once outlawed but legalized during the 1970s. Sun dances are held every year on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota. (You'll notice, by the way, I'm not linking to any clips on YouTube. Most Native religious dances are not to be photographed.) The tribal government has some "Dos and Don'ts regarding the behavior and attitudes of all people who are uniformed about one of our customs."

Has the revival of Native American religions spread too far? Some believe that's the case, as whites have expressed an interest in the Native world view and incorporated some of its features into "New Age" philosophies -- and New Age marketing ventures that take some of the trappings of Native spirituality but trivialize its spirit. Rather than feeling honored by this, many Native people feel ripped off. Sharing their unease with New Age hype, according to Wikipedia, are "adherents of traditional disciplines from cultures such as India, China, and elsewhere; a number of orthodox schools of Yoga, Tantra, Qigong, Chinese Medicine, Ayurveda and martial arts (the traditional Taijiquan families, for example), groups with histories reaching back many centuries in some cases."

In 1993, a Declaration of War Against Exploiters of Lakota Spirituality was adopted at the Lakota Summit, an international gathering of U.S. and Canadian Lakota, Dakota and Nakota nations. It says, "for too long we have suffered the unspeakable indignity of having our most precious Lakota ceremonies and spiritual practices desecrated, mocked and abused by non-Indian "wannabes," hucksters, cultists, commercial profiteers and self-styled "New Age shamans" and their followers."

Rachmaninoff’s “All-night Vigil” May 3

At Blessed Sacrament parish at 7 p.m. Saturday, May 3. Choral music written in three- to eight-part harmony, one of the master works of Russian Orthodox liturgical music. Notice excerpted from State Journal-Register arts calendar for April 3:

SPRINGFIELD CHORAL SOCIETY

“Russian Summers” – Sergei Rachmaninoff’s “All-night Vigil”

Where: Blessed Sacrament Church, 1725 S. Walnut St.

When: May 3, 7 p.m.

Tickets: $10

Where: St. Joseph’s Church, 700 E. Spruce St., Chatham

When: May 4, 7 p.m.

Tickets: $10

And this from this month's bulletin of Holy Family Catholic Parish in Lincoln:

Springfield Choral Society, under the direction of
Maion van der Loo, will present “Russian Summers”,
Sergei Rachmaninoff's “All Night Vigil” on Saturday,
May 3, at 7 pm at Blessed Sacrament Catholic
Church in Springfield and Sunday, May 4 at St.
Joseph’s Catholic Church in Chatham. Tickets are
$10 (valid for either venue). Tickets can be
purchased from choral members Greg Coughlin or
Ruth Freesmeier.
This concert gives our parishioners the opportunity to
attend a quality performance of religious music at a
low cost. Springfield Choral Society is a group of 60
members dedicated to providing only the finest music.

The All-Night Vigil, also (incorrectly) known as Rachmaninov's Vespers, is the composer's setting of a Russian Orthodox liturgy sung on the eve of Pascha (Easter) and other festival days. The all-night vigil service combines Vespers with two other monastic services and normally lasts two or three hours, but not all night! Wikipedia, which is this case is reliable, says:

The vigil has been set to music most famously by Sergei Rachmaninoff, whose setting of selections from the service is one of his most admired works. Other musical settings include those by Chesnokov, Grechaninov, Ippolitov-Ivanov and Alexander Kastalsky. It is most often celebrated using a variety of traditional or simplified chant melodies based on the Octoechos [a traditional system of Eastern Orthodox chant] or other sources.

Also this:

It is written for a four-part choir, complete with basso profondo. However, in many parts there is three, five, six, or eight-part harmony; at one point in the seventh movement, the choir is divided into eleven parts. Movements 4 and 9 each contain a brief tenor solo, while movements 2 and 5 feature lengthy solos for alto and tenor, respectively. The fifth movement Nunc dimittis (Nyne otpushchayeshi) has gained notoriety for its ending, in which the low basses must negotiate a descending scale that ends with a low B flat (the third B flat below middle C). When Rachmaninoff initially played this passage through to Kastalsky and Danilin in preparation for the first performance, Rachmaninoff recalled that:
'Danilin shook his head, saying, "Now where on earth are we to find such basses? They are as rare as asparagus at Christmas!" Nevertheless, he did find them. I knew the voices of my countrymen..."'

Psalmodikon at Bishop Hill

Inscription on psalmodikon in the museum at Bishop Hill State Historic Site: m. Peter Hellund, Galva, ca. 1870.

Also in display case: old leather-bound catechism: Dr. Mårten Luthers Lille Catechis, med Förklaring af Doct. Ol. Swebilier, Linköping, 2838.

Background and links. The psalmodikon was a monochord, or one-string instrument, developed in 19th-century Scandinavia for small, rural parishes to help keep the congregation on pitch. It flourished in Norway and Sweden, and was also used in Finland, Estonia and other countries with a lot of Lutheran churches -- including the Upper Midwest. Wikipedia has a brief profile of the psalmodikon (also spelled psalmodicon or, in Norwegian, salmodikon). And in 1998 News of Norway, a publication of the royal Norwegian embassy in the U.S., had a feature story on Beatrice Hole, a Norwegian-American woman who revived the instrument in Minnesota. The Nordic-American Psalmodikonforbundet, which she established, has a newsletter and other information at www.psalmodikon.com.

HUM 221: Ghost Dance, Wounded Knee

A good case can be made that the worst day in American history was Dec. 29, 1890, when troops of the 7th U.S. Cavalry killed between 150 and 300 Lakota men, women and children in what has come to be called the Wounded Knee Massacre on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. The American Culture Studies Program at Bowling Green State University has a good, unbiased historical overview of Wounded Knee ... it's a good starting point ... read it and find out more about the massacre and the lasting effect it has had on the American people. The Wounded Knee Museum has pictures and a sound file of a Lakota survivor. The Cankpe Opi webside has a wealth of information, some of it harsh, from a Native American point of view.

An important demonstration sometimes known as Wounded Knee II took place in the spring of 1973, as the town of Wounded Knee was occupied by protestors from the American Indian Movement and essentially besieged by federal agents for 71 days. Russell Means, one of the demonstrators, has this first-person account of the seige from Feb. 27 to May 8, 1973.


In class, pair up in groups of two, three or four, and surf the internet to see what you can find about the Ghost Dance religion, the Wounded Knee massacre of 1890 and the way it is remembered today. Post answers to these questions, and be ready to discuss them in class.

1. How would you characterize the Ghost Dances? Were they peaceful? In what way were they religious? In what way were they hostile to whites? How much of a threat, with the benefit of historical hindsight, do you think they posed to the army and to white settlers?

2. How did things get out of hand on the Pine Ridge reservation before Wounded Knee? Who was at fault? Whites? Indians? The army? Political appointees? Everybody? Nobody? How could the conflict have been avoided?

3. Looking at the websites that commemorate Wounded Knee, how many have an angry tone? How many a tone of sadness? Or a combination of both? What steps are being taken to use Wounded Knee as a constructive lesson for the future?

4. What can we, as college students (and an instructor) in Illinois more than a hundred years later, learn from Wounded Knee?