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Post by Diane Merkel on Jun 28, 2008 10:52:50 GMT -5
Here's an excerpt from a nice mini-bio of Curtis: During those 30 years (twice the time he had originally planned for the project), Curtis visited more than 80 tribes, from the Apache to the Zuñi, and earned the personal support of the president, Theodore Roosevelt. He worked 15-hour days for months at a time, spent more than $1.5 million of his benefactor JP Morgan's money, was shot at four times, disowned by his brother, divorced by his wife, and went bankrupt. On returning from one prolonged trip into Eskimo territory he was thrown into jail for failure to make alimony payments.
Yet Curtis was indefatigable: no amount of adversity could sap his passion for documenting the traditions of a people who didn't always want to be documented. "I have grown so used to having people yell at me to keep out, and then punctuate their remarks with mud, rock and clubs," he once said, "that I pay but little attention to them if I can only succeed in getting my picture before something hits me." Article: www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2008/06/21/bacurtis21.xml
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Post by Diane Merkel on Jun 19, 2008 14:35:27 GMT -5
Excerpts about this University of Wyoming project: Amy Crowell and Ronda Norlock use the same word to describe the Northern Arapaho language: Beautiful.
What they and others at the University of Wyoming are doing to help rejuvenate the language is equally as beautiful.
# # # While the project was "labor intensive," Norlock says it was an honor to participate and to help revive the language.
"Their language is just beautiful," she says. "It's almost like a song when you hear it, even if you can't understand it. And it's even more beautiful once you learn it, because behind each word is a story."
The DVD and workbook will be used for instruction in the UW Northern Arapaho language class and available for download on various Web sites, including the Northern Arapaho Tribal site www.northernarapaho.com and the Wind River Tribal College site www.wrtribalcollege.com. Article: www.uwyo.edu/news/showrelease.asp?id=24102
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Post by Diane Merkel on Jun 19, 2008 0:28:47 GMT -5
Now I see the difference. I should have noticed they are similar but not the same.
You're a great detective!
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Post by Diane Merkel on Jun 19, 2008 0:24:53 GMT -5
Joe and his son made a nice video, showing such lost arts. I haven't looked at it in ages, but I remember being impressed by it.
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Post by Diane Merkel on Jun 17, 2008 20:30:11 GMT -5
When I first looked at the photo of the inside of your bag, I thought it said 1866. It's 1846, isn't it? You've got an original. Everything fits -- the quality of the work, the year, Niagara Falls -- got to be! Congratulations!
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Post by Diane Merkel on Jun 17, 2008 18:27:06 GMT -5
The bow, a finely crafted but almost indiscrete object, functional, but without vivid ornamentation, served to enable that way of life. With its fluid double-curved design, its beauty was vested in its power. As a tool essential in pre-reservation life, a Lakota bow needed the capacity and strength to allow hunters to bring buffalo back to the waiting encampment of families. The bow provided a means of nourishing the people. As Diane Crow Dog, an elder from Rosebud explains, the bow was a blessing, not a weapon, a survival kit, a caretaker, which helped sustain and maintain life for generations. In Lakota accounts of creation, the bow was given to the people when they were led by the wolf from the subterranean cavern into this world where survival required knowledge of how to hunt–and also an ability to defend the people.
A hunting tool and a weapon of war, the bow could sustain life and also take it away. Black Elk, an Oglala from Pine Ridge, spoke of this in the account of his life that he related to John Neihardt. At the age of nine, he was given a vision where at one point the first Grandfather of the westerly direction put a bowl of water in one hand and a bow in the other, the one the power to make live, the other the power to take life away. Article: www.sfmission.org/museum/exhibits/bowsandarrows/signatures.html
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Post by Diane Merkel on Jun 17, 2008 18:13:06 GMT -5
Wow! That makes it all the more dear, doesn't it?
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Post by Diane Merkel on Jun 17, 2008 18:08:47 GMT -5
Here is an excerpt from an excellent article about a group that is trying to save languages from all parts of the country: In the Lakota language, a single word expresses the awe and connectedness with nature that some feel looking at the Northern Lights. In Euchee, the language makes no distinction between humans and other animals, though it does differentiate between Euchee people and non-Euchee.
And the Koasati language of Louisiana provides no word for good-bye, since time is seen as more cyclical than linear. To end a conversation, you would say something like, "This was good." Article: www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2008/06/16/20080616native-languages06216-ON.html
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Post by Diane Merkel on Jun 17, 2008 0:20:38 GMT -5
Happy B-Day, jinlian!
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Post by Diane Merkel on Jun 17, 2008 0:17:23 GMT -5
Sorry, Gary. The boards come with a set of censored words. I've fixed it so that his nickname can be used.
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Post by Diane Merkel on Jun 15, 2008 22:29:19 GMT -5
The portrait above was painted by David Humphreys Miller and is owned by Brent, who asked that I post it along with this information: This is an earlier work of his of "Chief Iron Tail" Dewey Beard, Last Survivor of the Battle of Little Bighorn, Survivor of Wounded Knee, and also the Indian that sat for engraving of the "Indian Head Nickel" along with two others. I hope all will appreciate what is going to be lost if we don't keep the collection together. Mr. Beard was the adoptive Father of David Humphreys Miller. He and his wife Alice came to David and Jan's wedding. Their Alice and Mr. Beard presented David and Jan a Wedding Blanket that Alice made for their wedding. They wrapped it around them and told them that this is how the Indian gets married. David was also adopted by "Black Elk." Ben Black Elk, Black Elk's son, introduced David to his friends as his twin brother even though Black Elk was much older than David. These are the stories that need to be saved and told. His paintings will pass them along to future generations.
For more information about Brent's efforts to keep this important collection together, see the David Humphreys Miller thread in Independent Research board of the Little Bighorn forum: lbha.proboards12.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=research&thread=2404&page=1.
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Post by Diane Merkel on Jun 15, 2008 22:17:23 GMT -5
The portrait above was painted by David Humphreys Miller and is owned by Brent, who asked that I post it along with this information: This is "Bird Horse," cousin of White Swan, one of Custer's Scouts at the Little Bighorn. David painted this portrait of Bird Horse when interviewing him for his book Custers Fall: The Indian Side of the Story.
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Post by Diane Merkel on Jun 15, 2008 10:25:56 GMT -5
It's nice to see you hear, Crawman!
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Post by Diane Merkel on Jun 13, 2008 16:00:40 GMT -5
Parfleche is a hide -usually buffalo’s hide- dried by being stretched on a frame after the hair has been removed. Plains Indian headwomen, particularly from the Cheyenne tribe, use parfleche flat bags like the ones in the image to store and carry sacred medicines. The bags are about 40 x 35 cm. (15.7 x 13.7 in.). They are decorated with complex geometric motifs and symbols designed by the headwoman and executed by skillful women artists. Source: www.muchieastobjects.com/2008/06/90-parfleche-flat-bag.html
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Post by Diane Merkel on Jun 13, 2008 15:07:02 GMT -5
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