Native Sounds Downtown! Rob Lamothe & his band pay tribute to American Indian musicians, April 25 at the museum in New York

 

Rob Lamothe and the band, from left to right: Ryan Johnson, Ronnie Johnson, Rob Lamothe, Rose Lamothe, and Zander Lamothe. Photo courtesy of the artists. Used with permission.

Last summer singer, songwriter, and producer Rob Lamothe helped kick off the opening of the exhibition Up Where We Belong: Native Musicians in Popular Culture at the National Museum of the American Indian in New York. He and his band will return to perform at the museum Thursday, April 25, at 6 p.m. Supporting Rob are talented band members bassist Ryan Johnson, guitarist Ronnie Johnson, drummer Zander Lamothe, and vocalist and pianist Rose Lamothe. Together they will take the stage in the Up Where We Belong gallery and pay tribute to the artists featured in the exhibition with a set of iconic songs and some of their own personal favorites. The concert is free and open to the public; invite friends to attend via the museum's Rob Lamothe event page on Facebook. 

For the past 30 years, Rob has enjoyed an award-winning career with songs on the Billboard charts in the U.S. He has shared stages with everyone from Gun 'n' Roses to Ron Sexsmith. His songs are heard on hit TV shows like Melrose Place and the long-running Australian soap opera Paradise Beach. And Rolling Stone Europe has said he's got an "out-of-this-world soulful voice.” 

In the last several years, Rob has devoted much of his musical energy to working with some of North America's pre-eminent Native artists. Rob has recorded with award-winning artist David Maracle (Aboriginal Peoples Choice Awards, Canadian Aboriginal Music Awards, National Aboriginal Achievement Awards, etc). Rob teaches at Interprovincial Music Camp with Juno Award-winner Derek Miller from Six Nations Mohawk territory and internationally renowned guitarist, producer, and American Idol music director Stevie Salas (Apache). Rob's deep commitment to community is reflected in his work with young people from the Nimkee Nupigawagan Healing Centre in Muncey, Ontario, and in his job running the Emergency Housing Program for the province's Haldimand and Norfolk counties.

The band's up-and-coming young bassist Ryan Johnson has opened for musicians Derek Miller, Pappy Johns Band, and others on both sides of the U.S.-Canada border. Inspired by classic rock bands from the ’60s and ’70s, Johnson and his band earned a 2010 Canadian Aboriginal Music Awards nomination.

Guitarist Ronnie Johnson (unrelated to Ryan Johnson) hails from the Six Nations of the Grand River territory, where he grew up hearing blues and rock. By creating music that makes people dance—playing bass, rhythm guitar, and lead guitar with The Blues Brigade and Midnight Lightning for the past five years—Ronnie has “followed in the storied tradition of legendary Six Nations blues musicians.”

Named “Drummer of the Year” at the 2012 Hamilton Music Awards, Zander Lamothe has rocked in numerous Canadian and European tour shows. With his drumming featured behind artists City and Colour, Melissa McClelland, and others, this zealous artist has drummed his way from California to New York.

Beginning her musical career, 16-year-old Rose Lamothe accompanies the band with her singing and piano skills. Rose has been honored to be mentored by musicians such as Bernard Fowler from the Rolling Stones and Donna Grantis from Prince.

The music will kick off at 6 p.m. on the Up Where We Belong gallery stage at the National Museum of the American Indian in New York, located at One Bowling Green in Lower Manhattan. This show is guaranteed to be a crowd-pleaser and a real treat for visitors who want to experience a concert inside of a gallery surrounded by the history of Native icons of music.   

—Aimee Beltramini

Aimee Beltramini is an intern in the Public Affairs and Visitor Services Departments at the National Museum of the American Indian in New York. 

Native Sounds Downtown! with Rob Lamothe, Ryan Johnson, Ronnie Johnson, Zander Lamothe, and Rose Lamothe
Thursday, April 25, at 6 p.m.
National Museum of the American Indian in New York

Directions

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Will the World End on December 21? Ask a Maya!

Will the world end come to an end on December 21? We certainly hope not; we have some great webcasts coming up in January and February. But before we mention those, there’s a full weekend of webcasts to watch from the museum's Guatemalan festival December 15 & 16.

The name of festival,which takes place throughout the museum, is Bak´tun 13: A Guatemalan Celebration of Time. 13 Bak´tun—the date on the Maya Long Count calendar coinciding with December 21, 2012—marks the end of a 5,125-year era and a new beginning as the Long Count resets. Guatemala is the heart of traditional Maya territory, which extends through most of Central America, including southern Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and Belize. Far from reaching the end of time, the Maya are very much a living culture today. Definitely something to celebrate!

All of the museum's live webcasts can be accessed via http://americanindian.si.edu/webcasts.

Bak´tun 13: A Guatemalan Celebration of Time | Webcast Schedule

The Ways of the Days: Maya Calendar Tradition and the Way of Life 
Saturday, December 15, 11:30 am EST

Roderico Teni is a Maya–Qeqchi culture bearer who has worked on cultural preservation and social improvement in Maya communities of the Guatemalan highlands. He is also a Maya day-keeper, one of the spiritual guides who advise communities, in part by consulting the 260-day sacred calendar, Tzolk´in (called the Chol Q´ij in K´iche´ Mayan). Jose Barreiro, director of the museum’s Office of Latin American, will facilitate conversation about the Maya calendar and culture. Audience participation is welcomed, and our webcast audience is encouraged to participate via Twitter. Tweet your comments and questions to @SmithsonianNMAI using the hashtag #MayaCalendar.

Maya from the Inside: The 13 Bak´tun as Challenge to the Western Mind
Saturday, December 15, 2 pm EST

Dr. Victor Montejo. Photo used with permission

Victor Montejo, a Jakaltek Maya originally from Guatemala, will talk on the deep meaning of Maya culture and history. An internationally recognized scholar, Dr. Montejo is the author of several major publications, including Testimony: Death of a Guatemalan Village; Voices from Exile: Violence and Survival in Modern Maya History; Maya Intellectual Renaissance: Critical Essays on Identity, Representation and Leadership; Popol Vuh: Sacred Book of the Mayas; and Q´anil: Man of Lightning. His current projects focus on indigenous migration and transnationalism, and developing a curriculum in Native knowledge and epistemology in his new manuscript, Mayalogue: An Interactionist Theory of Indigenous Cultures. The audience will have an opportunity to ask questions at the end of his presentation. Again, webcast audience members may tweet comments and questions to @SmithsonianNMAI using the hashtag #MayaCalendar. 

Bak’tun 13: A Guatemalan Celebration of Time
Sunday, December 16, noon EST 

Juanita Velasco (Ixil Maya). Photo by Walter Larrimore, NMAI

Three events will be featured in this webcast from the museum's Potomac Atrium: "Timeline of Guatemalan Fashion" shines a spotlight on Maya textiles from the 1930s to the present to show the changes that have impacted Maya textiles over the last 80 years. Following the look at textiles, enjoy the music of the traditional marimba under the direction of Fernando Salseño of Pequena Marimba Internacional. Finally, Grupo AWAL presents traditional dances from Concepcion Chiquirichapa in Guatemala. The dances are based on a cylindrical calendar cycle.

Bak’tun 13: A Guatemalan Celebration of Time
Sunday, December 16, 3 pm EST

Two festival events are repeated in this webcast: Traditional marimba under the direction of Fernando Salseño of Pequena Marimba Internacional and a presentation of traditional dances from Concepcion Chiquirichapa in Guatemala Grupo AWAL.


Upcoming Webcasts | January & February 2013

Assuming the world doesn’t end on December 21, more webcasts of events at the National Museum of the American Indian are coming in January and February. 

This Indian Country: American Indian Activists and the Place They Made
Friday, January 18, 2 to 3 pm EST

Join noted historian Frederick E. Hoxie as he talks about his new book, This Indian Country: American Indian Activists and the Place They Made, about political activism that led to hard-won victories in the courts and civil rights campaigns, rather than on the battlefield. It is a story of both famous and obscure Indian lawyers, tribal leaders, activists, and commentators who have sought to bridge the distance between indigenous cultures and the political institutions of the United States through legal and political debate. Dr. Hoxie’s powerful narrative connects the individual to the tribe, the tribe to the nation, and the nation to broader historical processes. Dr. Hoxie is the winner of the 2012 American Indian History Lifetime Achievement Award and a founding trustee of the National Museum of the American Indian.  

Out of Many: A Multicultural Festival of Music, Dance, and Story
January 18 to 20, 10 am to 5:30 pm EST

Who better than an Indian museum to say "Hail to the chief"? As our neighbor the U.S. Capitol hosts the presidential inauguration, we salute the occasion with a festival featuring music, dance, and storytelling throughout the museum. Check our online calendar as inauguration weekend approaches to see what we’re offering online. E pluribus unam! 

Racist Stereotypes and Cultural Appropriation in American Sports 
Thursday, February 7, 10 am to 5:45 pm EST

Illustration by Aaron Sechrist. Used with permission

Join us for a thought-provoking day examining one of the most persistent issues that divides Natives and non-Natives in our sports-loving land. This symposium of panel discussions presents commentators, scholars, authors, and representatives from sports organizations exploring the mythology and psychology of sports stereotypes and mascots, reaction to the NCAA’s policy against “hostile and abusive” names and symbols, and the on-going debate about the name and logo of the Washington, D.C., professional football organization. We invite the webcast public to join us in the conversation through Twitter. Tweet your comments and questions to @SmithsonianNMAI using the hashtag #RacistSportsLogos.

This program was originally scheduled for November 1, 2012, and was postponed due to Hurricane Sandy.  

Missed a Webcast?

If you missed a live webcast that you really wanted to see, don’t worry. We post nearly all of our webcasts on the NMAI YouTube Channel. You may find the webcast you're looking for in one of our playlists or by clicking the Browse Videos tab, where posted videos appear in reverse chronological order.

—Mark Christal, NMAI

Exciting Webcasts Coming this Fall

Summer is over, but the fall is shaping up to be a great season for programs here at the National Museum of the American Indian. Many of these programs will be webcast live on our webcast page, http://nmai.si.edu/multimedia/webcasts. In addition to finding live webcasts, you can go to that page just about any time and see the webcast programs that will be coming up. Sometimes you will find the most recent webcast is still there for replaying. Most of our webcasts will be posted on our YouTube page in high definition video within a few days of the event. Check out our various playlists on our YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/SmithsonianNMAI to see past webcast events.

UPCOMING WEBCASTS

Printmaking Workshop with Jorge Porrata, Saturday, October 14, 11 am - 12 pm and 2-3 pm

 

Poet and artist Jorge Luis Porrata will conduct a workshop designed for children and their families in this webcast that comes from the museum's imaginNATIONS Activity Center. Learn about the rich legacy and way of life of the Taino people throught the art of storytelling, artist's works and printmaking. In these hands-on activities, participants will create artwork based on Taino words commonly used in countries like Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.

[Photo - Jorge with Child, courtesy of Jorge Luis Porrata]

 

 

Stellar Connections: Explorations in Cultural Astronomy, Saturday, October 20, 2012, 2-4:30 pm

Our first symposium of the fall will focus on indigenous knowledge of the sky. Also called archaeoastronomy or ethnoastronomy, cultural astronomy examines how the night sky provides spiritual and navigational guidance, timekeeping, weather prediction, and stories and legends that tell us how to live a proper life. Our panel of experts will present and compare Native traditions and sky wisdom from around the world. Gary Urton, the Dumbaron Oaks Professor of Pre-Columbian Studies at Harvard University, will speak on “Cosmologies aof the Milky Way: South American Views on the Unity of Earth and Sky.” Michael Wassegijig Price, an Anisihinaabe of the Wikwemikong First Nations will present “Underwater Panthers, Thunderbirds, and Anishinaabe Star Knowledge.” John MacDonald worked for 25 years as coordinaor of he Igloolik Research Center where he collaborated closely with Inuit elders to record and document oral history and traditional knowledge of the region. He will speak on “The Arctic Sky: Inuit Astronomy, Star Lore, and legend.” Babatunde Lawal, professor of Art History at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, specializes in African And African Diaspora art. He will reveal African traditions in “A Big Calabash with Two Halves: The Yoruba Vision of the Cosmos.”

[Photo - Artic photo.jpg Caption: Detail from the cover of The Arctic Sky: Kenojuak Ashevak, Nunavut Qajanaartuk (Our beautiful land) hand-colored lithograph, 1992.]

 

Racist Stereotypes and Cultural Appropriation in American Sports, Thursday, November 1, 10 am - 5:45 pm

The museum begins Native American Heritage Month with a thought-provoking day examining one of the most persistent issues that divides Native and non-Native in our sports-loving land. Join commentators, scholars, authors, and representatives from sports organizations for a Symposium of panel discussions on racist stereotypes and cultural appropriation in American sports. The distinguished panelists will explore the mythology and psychology of sports stereotypes and mascots, examine the retirement of “Native American” sports references and collegiate efforts to revive them despite the NCAA’s policy against “hostile and abusive” names and symbols, and engage in a lively community conversation about the name and logo of the Washington, D.C. professional football organization.

 [Photo - Mascots.jpg Caption: Edgar Heap of Birds, American Leagues, 1996. Billboard, 6 x 12 ft., commissioned by the Cleveland Institute of Art, Cleveland, Ohio. Photo courtesy of the artist.]

 

Nixon and the American Indian: The Movement to Self-Determination, Thursday, November 15, 10:30 am - 12 pm

[Photo - NixonSigning.jpg Caption: President Richard Nixon signing landmark legislation on Native American sovereignty at the White House, December 15,1970. Photo by Oliver F. Atkins.]

At the height of the civil rights movement, great strides in American Indian self-determination were made through key policies and legislation crafted by the Nixon White House. Tune in and learn from White House and administration officials who worked with President Nixon as they discuss the leadership, legislation, and litigation necessary to implement these policies and the implications they have for Native Americans then and today. The Archivist of the United States, David Ferriero, will deliver opening remarks. This event is cosponsored with the Richard Nixon Foundation and the National Archives.

 

Social Media for Live Audiences

For some of our webcasts we will be displaying a Twitter hash tag and invite our live webcast audience to tweet comments or questions. We may also provide an email address for questions to direct to symposium speakers. We are still working out these kinds of details, but we will make it clear during the webcast how one may interact.

 

More to Come

The museum has many programs coming that will not be webcast, but planning for the events is an ongoing process, so it is likely that more events will get webcast requests. Keep an eye on our calendar page and check our NMAI blog to keep informed!

Mike Christal produces the Museum's webcasts.

Thank yous and closing credits for 2011, from NMAI's Film and Video Center

With 2012 almost here, the staff of the museum's Film and Video Center (FVC) wants to share with you a look at what we did in 2011.

For their lively participation and creative gifts, we want to thank the filmmakers whose works we have screened this year, the program speakers who gave us new insights; the interpreters who made fluid our on-site and Internet discussions in English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and indigenous languages; and the four guest selectors for the 15th Native American Film + Video Festival: Ana Rosa Duarte (Yucatec Maya), Helen Haig-Brown (Tsilhqot'in), Terry Jones (Seneca), and Nancy Marie Mithlo (Chiricahua Apache).

The festival, March 31 through April 3, was this year’s main event. One hundred works were screened and discussed by the filmmakers and other cultural activists here to show their work and exchange ideas. More than 75 Native nations from 11 countries in the Americas were represented in this year’s events. For a good look at what took place, visit the festival's handsome web page. We tried to capture a sense of the experience in this video overview:

 

The department is also a national resource for information services about Native film and media, and work leapt ahead on the redesign of the Native Networks Website and on developing our database on indigenous media. We began to use social media platforms including Facebook and Twitter to continue conversations about Native film and promote a diversity of programs. We responded to hundreds of inquiries and this year hosted more than 40 researchers using the media study collection. We are particularly pleased to have had as a resident fellow Maite Sanz de Galdeano of Cultura de Futuro in Madrid.

In response to the urgency expressed in many film submissions this year, FVC initiated Mother Earth in Crisis to showcase and discuss outstanding films about environmental issues. This on-going program was launched during the festival with a full-day event that included filmmakers and eloquent leaders Chief Oren Lyons (Onondaga and Seneca) and Tonya Gonnella Frichner (Onondaga). 

Mother Earth in Crisis was also the theme of two fall presentations featuring the Conversations with the Earth project for indigenous community media, and selections from the series Samaqan/Water Stories, with outstanding commentary by Chief Brian David of the Mohawk Council of Akwesasne.

This year’s Native Cinema Showcase (NCS) in Santa Fe moved to a new venue, and expanded to a week-long event, opening with On the Ice, the multiple award-winning first feature by Andrew Okpeaha MacLean (Iñupiat). In New York, the 2011 Animation Celebration! and other daily screenings were well-received, including special screenings for Day of the Dead, Thanksgiving, and the December holidays.

Other highlights include a partnership with UCLA’s Motion Picture and Television Archives and Cinema Tropical to screen a retrospective of works by filmmaker Pedro Daniel López (Tzotzil Mayan) in New York and Los Angeles. Other screenings with discussions included Smokin’ Fish by Luke Griswold-Turgis and Cory Mann (Tlingit); and Grab by Billy Luther (Navajo/Hopi/Laguna Pueblo), which screened with a Laguna-style “grab," or gift toss, to the audience in both New York and Santa Fe. Here I Am, the first feature of Aboriginal filmmaker Beck Cole (Luritja/Warrumunga), had a special screening at the Heye Center before going to Toronto to win Best Feature in the imagineNATIVE Film & Media Arts Festival.

Thanks and Appreciation

The FVC’s programs could not have flourished without the generous support and lively contributions of so many filmmakers, funders, colleagues, and friends. We are all especially appreciative of this year’s festival manager, Reaghan Tarbell (Mohawk), for accomplishing the immense job and making a fabulous festival.

FVC continued partnering and working with other organizations, including Agua Caliente Cultural Museum’s Film and Culture Festival in Palm Springs; Cinema Tropical; the Experimental Film Festival of Madrid; the imagineNATIVE Film & Media Arts Festival; the International Center for Transitional Justice; the Mexican Cultural Institute, Native American Public Telecommunications; New York University’s Native Forum and its Centers for Media, Culture & History and Media & Religion; SWAIA (the Southwestern Association for Indian Arts); the Tribeca Film Institute; and many other groups.

Comings and Goings

The Film and Video Center staff is going through a lot of changes, and there have been many goodbyes. Having worked as the FVC’s information specialist and programmer for more than 30 years, Millie Seubert has returned home to Oklahoma. Reaghan Tarbell has started work towards an M.A. in Cinema Studies at Concordia University in Montreal, returning home to live on the Kahnewake Reserve. Also returning home to Georgia is program assistant Rebekah Mejorado. Gaby Markey, FVC’s invaluable administrative support staff for the past 6 years, has now joined the staff of FEMA.

Newest additions to the staff include Fatima Mahdi, coordinator of database and media study activities; Lindsey Cordero, Latin American Program assistant; and Aaron Kutnick, media producer working on films about FVC’s programs for on-line posting. Wendy Allen continues to provide her talents to the new design of the Native Networks website and the Film and Video Center’s own web page on the NMAI site. Cindy Benitez returns in January, and Amalia and Elizabeth are still at work developing the program and FVC’s future possibilities. This year, perhaps the greatest welcome we give is to Ayelén Avirama, born in February. 

What an incredible year it has been!

All our best,

Elizabeth Weatherford, Amalia Cordova, Wendy Allen, Fatima Mahdi, Aaron Kutnick, Lindsey Cordero & Cindy Benitez 

Honoring Native veterans, at the museum and with the Muscogee (Creek) Nation in Oklahoma

Drum circle during the 120th Engineer Combat Battalion powwow at Al Taqaddum Air Base, Iraq, 2004. Photo by Master Sergeant Chuck Boers (Lipan Apache/Oklahoma Cherokee, b. 1964). Gift of Sergeant Debra K. Mooney and members of the 120th Engineer Combat Battalion. D00142

The next time you visit the museum on the Mall in Washington, stop and take a look at three new cases opposite the entrance to the Mitsitam Cafe. Honoring Indian Traditions in a Combat Zone is a small but important exhibit that tells the story of the powwow organized in 2004 by Sergeant Debra Mooney (Choctaw) and the 120th Engineer Combat Battalion in Iraq.

Held at the Al Taqaddum Air Base near Fallujah, the two-day event featured Native regalia, dancing and singing, and traditional games and foods, including genuine fry bread. Participants made their powwow drum from a discarded 55-gallon oil barrel and canvas from a cot. The goal of the powwow was to bring a piece of home to Native Americans serving in Iraq while sharing their cultural heritage with fellow soldiers, marines, and sailors.

American Indians have served in the U.S. military since the American revolution, and by percentage they serve more than an other ethnic group. If you can't be in Washington this weekend, a Native community closer to home is no doubt observing Veterans Day. If home is anywhere near Okmulgee, Oklahoma—coincidentally, headquarters of the the 120th Engineer Combat Battalion—you're particularly in luck: The Muscogee (Creek) Nation Museum and Cultural Center is hosting a special exhibition featuring Native American servicemen and servicewomen.

Native Words, Native Warriors—produced by NMAI and the Smithsonian Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES) and on view at the Veterans Affairs Services building at the Muscogee (Creek) Nation Complex—tells the remarkable stories of Native American soldiers who used their Native languages as battlefield codes during World Wars I and II. These soldiers came from many tribes: Assiniboine, Cherokee, Chickasaw, Chippewa, Choctaw, Comanche, Cree, Crow, Dakota Sioux, Hopi, Kiowa, Lakota Sioux, Menominee, Meskwaki, Muscogee, Navajo, Oneida, Pawnee, and Seminole. Best known are the Navajo code talkers of World War II, whose history has been popularized in documentaries and feature films. But as early as October, 1918, during World War I, eight Choctaw soldiers serving in northern France used their language to save other Allied soldiers' lives.

The exhibition at Okmulgee is enriched by extensive displays of Muscogee veterans' mementoes, awards, uniforms, and documents, as well as historic photographs and accompanying texts that recognize the contributions of Muscogee members of the U.S. Armed Forces. An honor guard will be present at the exhibition opening on Veterans Day. The exhibition is on view through February 29, 2012. 

Looking ahead, on December 2, Debra Mooney will be at NMAI in Washington to take part in a program about Native American soldiers' experiences during wartime. She will be joined by Chuck Boers (Lipan Apache/Cherokee), an Iraq War veteran (and participant with Sgt. Mooney in the Al Taqaddum Inter-Tribal Powwow), recipient of two Bronze Stars and three Purple Hearts; John Emhoolah (Kiowa), a Korean War veteran who joined the Oklahoma Thunderbird Division while he was still in high school; and Joseph Medicine Crow (Apsáalooke [Crow]), a World War II veteran who was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009. Attorney Jason Giles (Muscogee [Creek]), a Vietnam War veteran, will moderate the discussion. Herman J. Viola, curator emertius at the Smithsonian, will chronicle the roles of Native soldiers from 1770 to the present.

If neither Washington nor Okmulgee is in your travel plans this year, the December presentation will be webcast live. In the meantime, have a wonderful, grateful Veterans Day.

Illustrations:

Upper: Marine radio messengers on their way to Okinawa, Japan, 1945. Left to right: Private First Class Joe Hosteen Kelwood (Navajo), Steamboat Canyon, AZ; Pvt. Floyd Saupitty (Comanche), Lawton, OK; and Private First Class Alex Williams (Navajo), Leupp, AZ. Courtesy of the U.S. Marine Corps.

Lower: Drum, stand, and drumsticks, 2004. Metal, canvas, wood, commercially tanned leather, plastic, nylon cord, adhesive tape, metal nails. Made by members of the U.S. Army's 120th Engineer Combat Battalion, headquartered in Okmulgee, Oklahoma, and used during their Al Taqaddum Inter-Tribal Powwow, September 17–18, 2004, in Al Taqaddum, Iraq. Gift of Sergeant Debra K. Mooney and members of the 120th Engineer Combat Battalion.