"We Are Aware, Are You?" — Welcoming Students From the Suquamish Tribe

Vincent, a high school student from the Suquamish Tribe of Washington state, performs a traditional song in the Rasmuson Theater at the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C., March 14, 2013 (Photo by Leonda Levchuk, NMAI)

Long before the first European stepped ashore in 1792, the Suquamish had called the Puget Sound home for nearly 10,000 years. Thanks to the region’s abundance of salmon, cod, clams, geoducks, oysters and waterfowl, the tribe had cultivated a meaningful relationship with and reliance upon the region’s waterways. In fact, the word Squamish means “People of the Clear Salt Water” in the Southern Lushootseed language. (Incidentally, the region's largest city is named after Suquamish leader Chief Sealth, or Seattle, who tried to protect his people and their land through early alliances and treaties with European settlers.)

Though Port Madison Indian Reservation—where roughly half of the tribe’s 1,050 enrolled members live today—represents a fraction of the territory their ancestors once called home, the Suquamish have managed to retain the fishing traditions that once defined their forebears’ way of life. But a new threat to the tribe’s culture has emerged, according to We Are Aware/ Are You?, a short documentary that was screened yesterday at the D.C. museum.

As the film explains, industrial pollution from nearby Seattle—home to corporate giants like Starbucks, Amazon and, until recently, Boeing—has led to ocean acidification, which occurs when carbon dioxide from the atmosphere is absorbed into the ocean, raising pH levels and damaging young marine life.

The film’s message was underscored by the presence and passion of its creators: Vincent Chargualaf, Tyleeander Purser, Shaylene Sky Jefferson and Crystal Boure, four high school students from the Suquamish tribe who had traveled from Washington state to Washington, D.C. to raise awareness about ocean acidification and its devastating impact on the fishing culture and economy that has sustained their families for hundreds of generations.

 

“My father taught me how to fish, his father taught him. It’s a rite of passage. And it makes me sad to think that my children or my children’s children may not get to experience that," said Tyleeander, whose European and Native American roots includes fishermen on both sides of his family. “With lack of salmon comes unhappy Northwest Indians,” he joked.

But the students were quick to point out that ocean acidification isn't confined to the Northwest. “It doesn’t affect only our tribe,” Shaylene said to the audience. “It affects the global economy.”

  From left: Shaylene, Crystal, Vincent, Tyleeander, a group of four high school students from the Suquamish Tribe of Washington state, ponder questions about their community at the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C., March 14, 2013 (Photo by Leonda Levchuk, NMAI)

Before screening their film at the museum, the tribe’s young delegates presented their documentary at the 4th National Student Summit on the Ocean and Coasts, a conference sponsored by the Coastal America Partnership that brings together dozens of students and educators from across the U.S., Canada and Mexico to promote stewardship of the world’s water resources.

Following a performance of traditional Suquamish song and a screening of their film in the museum's Rasmuson Theater, the students took questions from the public. When asked what prompted their interest in environmental advocacy, Vincent piped up on behalf of his classmates: “I got this one,” he said with a smile, before explaining that a group of older students at their high school had paved the way, having attended the summit several years ago. And though he and his fellow classmates were “volun-told” to attend this year’s conference, they’ve since become passionate about the cause.

“About four or five months ago, we didn’t have any idea about ocean acidification," Vincent admitted. "But the more I learn, the more scared I get. I think I speak for all of us when I say this issue has invigorated my spirit.” Crystal agreed. “The more I learn, the more interested I become.”

“There are no words to explain how frightening it is to hear that we might lose a huge part of our culture within our own generation,” Vincent said.

“It’s almost like losing our treaty rights,” Shaylene added. “What our ancestors fought so hard for.”

“I think we will have sea life to harvest in the next generation,” said Paul Williams, the tribe’s shellfish biologist, who had traveled across the country with his community’s young ambassadors. “The question is what will it be, and will we like to eat it. Will we have to figure out a way to eat jellyfish?”

Pine Ridge Students Team Up to Create Public Art

January Tobacco applies grout to Red Cloud mosaic. Photo by Keevin Lewis, NMAI

In December, Angela Babby, an Oglala Lakota artist who works in glass mosaics, visited our museum in Washington, D.C., to research our collection of objects related to the Oglala, Sicangu, and Sans Arc Lakota Sioux tribes. And just as these beautiful, decades-old objects taught Angela about traditional Native American techniques and materials, Angela decided to share her research, talent and time with young, budding artists from the Pine Ridge, Cheyenne River, and Rosebud reservations for a public art project at the Red Cloud High School in Pine Ridge, South Dakota. The project, titled The Red Clouds, is a collaboration with high school youth to create glass-mosaic designs around the image of Chief Red Cloud.

Two high school students, January Tobacco and Kristian Big Crow, came after school to receive information and instruction from Ms. Babby in design, glass-cutting, mosaic, and picture-framing techniques. The students designed individual patterns around Chief Red Cloud, set the grout, framed their mosaics, and then etched their signatures and the date into their work in a project that took inspiration from the art of Andy Warhol.

Leah Maltbie, an art teacher at Red Cloud who was present at all of the classes, was amazed by the process and excited to try it herself in the future. The supplies to start a glass-mosaic art program at the school were left behind, along with the makings for three more artworks in The Red Clouds project, to be made by students who couldn't be there for every session of the workshop. The finished glass-mosaic pieces are scheduled to be installed in a public location at Red Cloud High School in the coming months.

Kristian Big Crow signing his finished art work. Photo by Keevin Lewis, NMAI

There is currently a collaborative push between Red Cloud High School and the Heritage Center, an art museum located on the same campus, to create educational programs on the Pine Ridge Reservation. Angela's intention with this project was to add her name to the long list of individuals committed to helping to enhance the opportunities available to the students at the school who are working very hard to improve their lives.

Tobacco, Big Crow, and Babby with finished art work. Photo by Keevin Lewis, NMAI

The mosaic class allowed the students to learn new techniques, work with new materials, and meet a professional artist. The goal of the project was to give the students more tools with which to find their own unique ways to express themselves and honor their heritage in the future.

Congratulations to January, Kristian, and Angela for creating new works of art for your community!

—Keevin Lewis, Community Services Coordinator, NMAI

Angela Babby's research in the museum's collections and her workshop at the Red Cloud High School were supported by her participation in the museum's Artist Leadership Program. 

Kevin Gover requests the pleasure of your company at the opening of phase one of the imagiNATIONS Activity Center

When I first visited the National Museum of the American Indian on the National Mall in Washington, DC, like most people, I saw a beautiful, elegant place with intriguing and informative exhibitions. As I watch visitors to the museum, I notice that visitors experience the museum rather solemnly. That is fine for the adults who seek a thoughtful and contemplative experience. If you’re a kid, though, that can be pretty boring.

And in fact we found that our younger visitors have a hard time finding fun things to do in the museum. So about two years ago we decided to take the educational resource center space on the third floor and make it into a place for families and children, in order to provide greater opportunities for our younger visitors to engage with Native cultures.

I assigned a project manager who built a team, and I gave the team one direction: Make a dynamic space for young people to learn and have fun. The team started by looking at other spaces and talking with colleagues, both inside the Smithsonian and at institutions in other cities. In the end, they decided on a space that children and adults alike would be comfortable visiting. They wanted a range of activities to cover a variety of interests. And they wanted everything to be immersive and hands-on.

This was a challenging assignment, rather different from the mounting of a traditional museum exhibition. It’s a different way of thinking, of designing, and of building. But when talented and creative people work together, good results are possible. I could not be more excited about this new space and what the staff has accomplished.

We will open the imagiNATIONS Activity Center in three stages: in September, in October, and in early 2012. I walked through the space the other day and watched crews installing the September components: One group was mounting skate decks for the skateboard activity, while another was installing the shelf wall for the "snow" blocks of the build-it-yourself iglu. A third group was on scaffolding in the back, assembling the poles for our Amazonian stilt house, while a fourth was working on the interactive quiz show at the entrance. Our exhibitions development team is producing life-size spin puzzles and the skeleton of a giant basket. Boxes of supplies are arriving daily, and the final details for the opening programs are getting settled.

On opening day, September 25, we will have some very special guests—several children from the Amazonian rainforest in Peru, whose photographs were the model for our stilt house. They will be in the imagiNATIONS Center at 11:30 to talk about their home and their photography. Also, Kekaulele Kawai‘ae‘a, a young Native Hawaiian author, will read from his book at 1 and 3 PM, and Juanita Velasco, an Ixil Maya weaver from Guatemala, will do weaving demonstrations and workshops from 10:30 to 12:30 and 2 to 4 PM.

It feels like this day took a long time to come. We cannot wait to share this space with you, our visitors. I welcome you to the NMAI family and invite you to join me in opening this new museum space on September 25. I hope you’ll be as excited as I am, and that I’ll see you here many times.

—Kevin Gover (Pawnee), director, National Museum of the American Indian 

Photographs (top to bottom): At the entrance to the imagiNATIONS Activity Center, column-spin puzzles address several goals: inviting visitors to engage in hands-on activities, encouraging people to notice how different cultures express their unique identity, and letting children know that this part of the museum has been created especially for them.

The iglu activity space takes shape. Despite the woodworking clamps where text panels are being mounted at the left, no glueing will be permitted once iglu-building commences!

Dwellings from four different parts of the Americas—an Amazonian stilt house, iglu, adobe (below), and tipi (coming in phase 2 or 3)—help young museum-goers experience how cultures reflect the world around them. 

Where We Live: The imagiNATIONS Activity Center’s inaugural publication

Spanish moss dangling from trees like Rapunzel’s hair. Yellow alligator eyes peering out of the murky waters of the bayou. A daytime cacophony of cicadas and a nighttime symphony of frogs and crickets. An aura of Old World charm and moldy decay that makes you wonder if vampires truly do roam the streets at night.

These are the sights and sounds of my southern Louisiana home. What plants, animals, and people live where you live? How would you imagine them? How would you draw them?

Native peoples have been depicting the world around them for centuries, to document their daily lives and express themselves artistically. Where We Live: A Puzzle Book of American Indian Art, the imagiNATIONS Activity Center’s inaugural publication, invites young readers to explore the different ways that contemporary American Indian artists use their imaginations to draw where they live. This fun, vibrantly colored book includes eight 16-piece jigsaw puzzles made from contemporary artworks in the National Museum of the American Indian’s collections.

The most enjoyable aspect of putting this book together was selecting the images to turn into puzzles. As you can imagine, there are thousands of beautiful objects in the museum’s collections to choose from, so we turned to our visitors for help. The Publications Office and the imagiNATIONS Activity Center project team worked with the museum’s Web Development Office to create our first online survey. The survey was promoted on the museum’s website and Facebook profile, and within days we had hundreds of responses. Surveys were also conducted with visitors here at the museum. The results are the eight stunning artworks found in this book, which reflect a range of landscapes throughout the Western Hemisphere. 

Rolled into the concept of home is also the idea of protecting natural resources and preserving homelands for future generations. Indigenous peoples have deep ties to the land, which are often explored in the works of contemporary Native artists. As the threat of global warming and other environmental calamities increases, it is often Native communities that feel the effects first. Scientists and academics are closely watching Native responses to the changes and learning from the vast environmental knowledge that these communities have accumulated over the millennia.

Where We Live: A Puzzle Book of American Indian Art will be available mid-November—just in time for the holidays—in the museum’s gift shops and on the website. The National Museum of the American Indian is grateful to its constituents for helping us create such a captivatingly visual book for our young readers. We invite you to take a journey with the book’s eight Native artists to their homes near and far, and to think about why it is important to care for the land we share with others. 

Just beware the vampires!

—Arwen Nuttall (Cherokee), writer/editor, NMAI

Storybook readings at the Heye Center in New York (one consolation for the end of summer)

“Back to school,” those dreaded words most students don’t want to hear during their summer vacation! The staff of the Resource Center at the museum’s George Gustav Heye Center in New York eagerly looks forward to the return of students and the chance to assist them with their assignments and educate them about indigenous peoples of the Western Hemisphere through our comprehensive book collection. We also encourage educators to come in so they can speak to knowledgeable staff and take a look at resources that will surely enhance their teaching about Native Americans in the classroom.

 
Carrie Gonzales leading a storybook reading at the Heye Center. Photo by Gaetana DeGennaro (Tohono O’odham), GGHC.

A fun way to learn about Native People is through our storybook reading and hands-on activity program. This family program invites visitors to listen to stories about different Native cultures living throughout the Western Hemisphere. Each story is followed by a culturally related hands-on activity. Storybooks document oral stories that have been handed down by storytellers through generations. Contemporary stories, such as “real children” stories, tell about Native young people in their communities today. Stories are a valuable way of learning about who we are and where we come from. Some stories are humorous, others are scary; there are stories about tricksters and stories about heroes; some are about the environment while others are about astronomy—whatever the story, each has much to teach, as well as providing good old-fashioned entertainment.

Children decorating drawings of horsemen's exploits on canvas after listening to a related storybook. Photo by Mary Ahenakew (Cherokee/Piscataway).

The program From the Shelves of the Resource Center: Storybook Reading and Hands-on Activity takes place the second Saturday of each month at 1 pm at the Heye Center in lower Manhattan. For those of you visiting the museum in Washington, D.C., the new imagiNATIONS Activity Center will be hosting it own storybook reading programs beginning in the fall.

Here are a few storybooks recommended by the Resource Center staff, if you'd like to do storybook readings with your family, in school, or on your own: 

The NMAI series My World: Young Native Americans Today shows how real Native children's lives are like other children's lives, and how, in the observance of ceremonies and other cultural traditions, they may be different. The fourth book in the series, Meet Christopher: An Osage Boy from Oklahoma by Genevieve Simermeyer, was a recipient of the 2010 American Indian Youth Literature Award.

The NMAI series Tales of the People includes four children’s books celebrating Native American culture with illustrations and stories by Indian artists and writers.

Children of Native America Today by Yvonne Wakim Dennis, Arlene Hirschfelder, and the Global Fund for Children. Charlesbridge , 2003.

Grandma Calls Me Beautiful by Barbara M. Joosse, illustrated by Barbara Lavallee. Chronicle Books, 2008.

A Coyote Solstice Tale by Thomas King, pictures by Gary Clement. Groundwood Books, 2009.

La Música De Las Montañas: Cuento basando en un relato aymara by Marcela Recabarren, illustrated by Bernardita Ojeda. Editorial Amanuta, Colección Pueblos Originarios. Chile, 2005.

Jingle Dancer by Cynthia Leitich Smith, illustrated by Cornelius Van Wright & Ying-Hwa Hu. HarperCollins, 2000.

Giving Thanks: A Native American Good Morning Message by Chief Jake Swamp, illustrated by Erwin Printup, Jr. Lee & Low Books, 1997.

Crossing Bok Chitto: A Choctaw Tale of Friendship & Freedom by Tim Tingle, illustrated by Jeanne Rorex Bridges. Cinco Puntos Press, 2008.

A Man Called Raven by Richard Van Camp, pictures by George Littlechild. Children’s Book Press, 1997.

Please feel free to share your favorite books for young people on Native American life and culture in the comments.

—Gaetana DeGennaro (Tohono O’odham), Resource Center staff, George Gustav Heye Center