LANGUAGE Maria Hinton, who turns 100 in June, has just put the finishing touches on a spoken dictionary of her language
By Kara Briggs When Maria Hinton was born nearly 100 years ago, every Oneida family spoke the language of their ancestors. Now a great-great-grandmother, Hinton may be one of the few first language Oneida speakers left in Wisconsin, but she is determined not to be the last. Hinton recently put the finishing touches on an exhaustive recording of the Oneida dictionary. Taking five years of almost daily work, she recorded 12,000 audio files, including tens of thousands of Oneida words, and told stories she first heard in her mother tongue. She’s had a lot to celebrate in her centennial year. At 99, she was named one of the first recipients of the Prism Award from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian for her quest to save the Oneida language. “I am not completely retired,” said Hinton, of Oneida, Wis. “We need to keep doing this so the young people can learn things and then they can pass them on.” Beside her, a young woman named LeAnne Thompson listens on the phone to the questions. She repeats them in English or Oneida for Hinton, who is hard of hearing, before Hinton takes the phone back and answers in English. Thompson has been Hinton’s pupil for 22 years, starting when she was 8. By the time she reached her 20s, Thompson realized that what she had amassed was knowledge of words, not conversational language. She began visiting Hinton at her home, taking her to lunch and helping her with errands. Together they speak Oneida, the young woman who is now 30 keying on every inflection and turn of phrase her elder imparts. ... |
FOOD An American Indian-infused recipe from the popular Mitsitam Cafe Courtesy of the American Indian News Service
Cherries pair with the earth and sea in this favorite springtime recipe from Richard Hetzler, executive chef at the acclaimed Mitsitam Cafe at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. Cherry-dusted sea scallops, with roasted-garlic potato hash and cherry reduction, is an elegant dinner that can be made year round, but is never more suitable than in the sweet months between cherry blossoms and cherries ripening. Cherry-dusted sea scallops, roasted garlic and potato hash with cherry reduction, serves 4 Ingredients |
THEATER Siblings of Native and African-American ancestry struggle through a process of acceptance in “Grandchildren of the Buffalo Soldiers”
By Kara Briggs Washington, D.C.—“Grandchildren of the Buffalo Soldiers,” a play that explores racial ostracism and redemption, is being performed at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian. Playwright William S. Yellow Robe Jr. draws a story of adult siblings, descendants of an African-American Civil War cavalryman and a Native woman, who find themselves driven apart by their mixed feelings about their blended heritage. At its core, “Grandchildren of the Buffalo Soldiers” is a love story. It begins with the grandparents, who find love and leave their respective peoples to start a family together, and continues with their modern descendents, who renew their love for each other and themselves. “Whenever you hear a story about the Buffalo Soldier, it becomes that the Indian woman was raped,” said Yellow Robe, 50. “There is no conception that these people might have been in love and that they were leaping into new relationships.” ... |
ART An Ojibwe mathematician leads workshops offering a first-hand introduction to finger weaving By Kara Briggs
Dennis White, 63, an Ojibwe mathematics scholar from the Lac Courte Oreilles reservation in Northern Wisconsin, is credited with helping to revive interest in finger weaving, a 4,000-year-old art among his people. Last year White was one of four recipients of a residency from the Artist Leadership program at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian. White spent two weeks in Washington, D.C., studying the museum’s collection of finger-woven sashes and bags worn in Ojibwe culture. “Finger weaving was at one time an important and widespread art among our people in the Great Lakes, but now there are not that many people in Wisconsin and Michigan that actually do the weaving at the advanced level,” White said. He conducted two workshops, one at the museum in Washington, and the other—a three-day gathering—at the Migizi Cultural Center at the Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe Community College in late February. ... |
MUSIC Sharel Cassity, a Juilliard-trained musician who is Cherokee and Comanche, gains a following with her distinctive talent and sound By Kara Briggs
New York—Cherokee saxophone player and bandleader Sharel Cassity has a trademark lick. It sounds like the wavering falsetto that starts a powwow song. “I believe that jazz comes from the powwow drum,” said Cassity, who lives in New York. “There are elements from Africa. The harmonic consistency comes from Europe. But you don’t get that thump, that boom, boom, boom in the bass and drums without the powwow.” Jade Synstelien, the first bandleader to hire Cassity, says she brings a Native sensibility to all her work, including her new CD, “Relentless.” Cassity performed with the Tony Lujan Septet at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian earlier this month. The concert was a tribute to bebop pioneers Dizzy Gillespie and Oscar Pettiford, who was Choctaw and Cherokee. ... |
YOUTH Winners will receive a trip to the museum with their teachers and a scholarship American Indian News Service
"I am an Indian! I am Indian you hear?" My father shouted from the highest reachable point of the mountain closed to public.…he shouted to hear it himself and he shouted to make sure I was listening. He continued to cry out his arrogance and finally satisfied he sat on a rock, drank from his bottle and looked at me. "And you my daughter?" he chuckled, "who are you?" ——— 2009 essay winner Mariah Oney of Phoenix, who is Navajo and Yupik, writing about a confrontation with her alcoholic father. This year’s Young Native Writers Essay Contest invites Native American high school students to describe a crucial issue confronting their tribal community today and “explain how you hope to help your tribal community respond to this challenge and improve its future.” ... |
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