Books and Recordings

Books and Recordings Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian “It’s cause for celebration when a country known for doing wrong to its indigenous peoples does something right. . . . Most important, the book [Native Universe: Voices of Indian America] retells American history from the perspective of those who were here first.”—The Washington Post “Prodigious in scope and intimate in detail, this book, like the museum it celebrates, is a landmark.”—Booklist “An expressive, informative, and beautifully designed book . . .” —Indian Country Today D rawing on the magnificent resources of the National Museum of the American Indian, Native Universe explores the heritage, traditions, and history of Native American culture in unprecedented depth and rich detail. With 350 full-color illustrations to depict the artistry and culture of our hemisphere’s indigenous peoples, historic and contemporary photographs, and insightful essays by distinguished Native American scholars and leaders, the book is a reminder that the ancient philosophies and folkways of Native American culture are just as relevant in today’s world as they were generations ago. This new, softcover edition includes the complete text of the original, with a new Foreword by Kevin Gover (Pawnee/Comanche), director of the museum; new Afterword; and many new photographs. “Fritz Scholder once observed, ‘Artistic freedom is colorblind.’ He would discover that the world was not. Given the political and social context in which he emerged in the United States at mid twentieth century, he, his art, and his career would be inevitably defined by his Native American heritage.” —Lowery Stokes Sims I n the 1960s and ’70s, the notion of American Indian art was turned on its head by artists who fought against prejudice and popular clichés. At the forefront of this revolution was Fritz Scholder (Luiseño, 1937–2005), whose dark, energetic, and unsettling paintings of Native Americans combined realism, tragedy, and spirituality with the genres of abstract impressionism and pop art. Published to coincide with a landmark two-city exhibition in New York and Washington, D.C., this beautiful volume features hundreds of extraordinary paintings, prints, sculptures, and photographs, along with thoughtful discussions of Scholder’s myth-shattering depictions of the Native American experience. “Whether you want to teach your children about America’s original inhabitants or give yourself a brief history lesson, the straightforward answers coupled with engaging photographs in Do All Indians Live in Tipis? help break down the barriers between America’s native and non-native populations.” —American Spirit W hich is correct: Native American or American Indian? Did Indians really sell Manhattan for twenty-four dollars worth of beads and trinkets? Why do American Indians run casinos? Are dream catchers an authentic tradition? How does someone become a tribal chief? Debunking common myths, Native staff members at the National Museum of the American Indian have handled a wide array of subjects over the years. Do All Indians Live in Tipis features their answers to nearly 100 thought-provoking questions about American Indians, illustrated with black-and-white photographs from NMAI’s collection and elsewhere. Written by an all-Native team of writers and researchers, this accessible and informative book counters deeply embedded stereotypes while providing a lively introduction to diverse Native histories and contemporary cultures. “This collection proves we are at ‘the dawn of good luck,’ ‘filled with Indian power.’ It’s true. You can hear it in these poems.” —Joy Harjo, Mvskoke/Creek Nation poet and musician “One of the most delightful and moving collections of young people’s poetry . . . seen in a long time.” —The Bloomsbury Review “ When the Rains Sings . . . reveals the tenacity of the human spirit. . . .This generation knows how to hit home.” —The Seattle Times I n When the Rain Sings: Poems by Young Native Americans, young readers are introduced to the poetic voices of their contemporaries in Indian Country. Working in partnership with the Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers, NMAI asked Native students from throughout the United States to use objects and historic images from the museum’s unparalleled collections to spark their imagination. The uplifting, sometimes aching, responses of these poets, who range in age from 9 to 17, invite readers into a world colored by joy, sadness, and memory. This new edition of When the Rain Sings features a brief tribute to the late Lee Francis (Laguna Pueblo), founding director of the Wordcraft Circle, as well as a new design and additional photographs. “Make it a place in the wilderness, with large natural rocks, wild plants, trees, herbs, water over rocks.” —from the consultations with Native thinkers and elders that shaped the museum T he grounds surrounding the National Museum of the American Indian are themselves a living exhibition. Four distinct habitats recall the Chesapeake Bay region before European contact: hardwood forest, wetlands, meadow, and traditional croplands. The Land Has Memory offers beautiful images of these plantings in every season and detailed descriptions of the 150 native species used in the landscape’s design. Essays address Native Americans’ long and varied relationship to the land. The book serves not only as a wonderful keepsake for museum visitors, but also as a thoughtful presentation of how traditional ways of knowing can be put into practice. “When you wear your dress, you’re carrying the spirit of all the people who gave you the lessons of life, who made dresses before you.” —Keri Jhane Myers (Comanche) I n Identity by Design the museum presents a striking array of Native women’s clothing from the Plains, Plateau, and Great Basin regions of the United States and Canada, dating from the 1830s to the present. The beautiful creations included in this book reveal the artistic vision of many individual makers as well as different regional styles and tribal designs. These dresses, shawls, moccasins, and accessories reflect Native history and identity during a time of intense social and cultural change. Essays by Emily Her Many Horses, artist and professor Colleen Cutschall (Oglala Lakota), and scholar Janet Catherine Berlo, and the words, insights, and memories of a number of contemporary Native women artists who design and make dresses, add a new dimension to our understanding of this magnificent attire. > > > > > > “Everyone who loves history will enjoy this lively, colorful trip back in time, with its writings, stories, and archival photographs. A Song for the Horse Nation is a book you will treasure and pick up again and again.” —Seminole Tribune American Indian cultures, especially those of the Great Plains, have a rich relationship with horses. Far more than a beast of burden, the horse is for Native people a friend and spiritual companion. Nowhere is this bond more spectacularly illustrated than in the beautiful equipment Native horses wear and the tribal clothing, tools, and other objects that incorporate horse motifs. Filled with photographs of objects from the unparalleled collection of the National Museum of the American Indian, as well as historical photographs of North American Indians and their horses, A Song for the Horse Nation documents the central role horses play in Native cultures. > > > > > > “The best reflection of original American food and recipes to date . . .”—The New York Times “This scrupulously researched book is a labor of love. [The authors] document the sophisticated and varied culinary traditions of the native peoples of the Americas . . . and provide the 21st-century cook with recipes that are accessible and unusual.”—Gourmet Celebrating the diversity of the original foods of North, Central, and South America, Foods of the Americas highlights indigenous ingredients, traditional recipes, and contemporary recipes with ancient roots. With enticing food photography and images from the museum’s collection, the cookbook is a testament to the Native contribution to American cuisine. The book includes illustrated essays by eight Native writers who offer personal insights into a variety of food traditions—ranging from tributes to fry bread and June berries by George P. Horse Capture (A’aninin) to a memoir of a Hopi lunch featuring blue-corn piki bread, stews, and domed pies by Thomas Sweeney (Citizen Band Potawatomi). his generously illustrated book is about American Indians and American presidents, what they said and felt about one another, and what their words tell us about the history of the United States. Focused around major turning points in Native American history, the book shows how Native Americans interpreted the power and prestige of the presidency, and advanced their own agendas, from the age of George Washington to the administration of George W. Bush. The book also provides new perspectives on the presidents. Thomas Jefferson, traditionally portrayed as the Indians’ friend, emerges as a master of the art of Indian dispossession. Richard Nixon is depicted as a champion of tribal self-determination— a position that sprang, in part, from his Quaker origins. Edited by Clifford E. Trafzer, a historian of Wyandot descent, and drawing on inaugural addresses, proclamations, Indian Agency records, private correspondence, memoirs, petitions, photographs, and objects in the museum’s collections, American Indians/American Presidents sheds new light on the relationship between America’s presidents and Native American leaders, on Native Americans’ enduring insistence on tribal sovereignty, and on the social, geographic, and political evolution of the United States over more than two centuries. T S ince the opening of the National Museum of the American Indian on the National Mall, the museum’s Mitsitam Cafe has become a destination in its own right— rated by the popular Zagat Survey and praised by reviewers nationwide. Drawing on tribal culinary traditions from the Northern Woodlands, Great Plains, North Pacific Coast, Mesoamerica, and South America, the cafe’s offerings feature ingredients that were once unknown in Europe, Asia, and Africa: chocolate, chilies, tomatoes, potatoes, wild rice, salmon, buffalo, blueberries, corn, and many more foods Native Americans introduced to the world. Illustrated with color photographs of the finished dishes as well as images from the museum’s marvelous collections, Let’s Eat showcases the true cuisine of the Americas in 90 easy-to-follow recipes for the home cook. Lively and accessible, the book also includes recipe notes that trace the history of indigenous foods, a glossary of less familiar ingredients, and a list of suppliers. > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > forthcoming books Spirit of a Native Place chronicles the story of the only museum in the world dedicated to the Native peoples and cultures of the Western Hemisphere. Illustrated with historical photographs and architectural drawings as well as photographs of key objects in the collection, the book features essays by ten people—including founding director W. Richard West, Jr. (Southern Cheyenne), John Haworth (Cherokee), George P. Horse Capture (A’aninin), and Mary Jane Lenz—who describe the history and philosophy behind the museum’s creation. This generously illustrated guide introduces visitors to NMAI’s building on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., walking them through the exhibitions and other aspects of the building as well as its landscaping. Emphasizing the ways in which the museum expresses Native perspectives, the guide includes a foldout map and floor plans, and focuses on the museum’s collections and public programs. A short history of American Indians in Washington, D.C., and a list of the city’s other Native-related points of interest round out the book. Twenty striking color postcards of the interior and exterior of the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C., capture the breadth and detail of a building that reflects the diversity of Native American cultures and welcomes visitors in the spirit of Native hospitality. This small treasure offers a comprehensive perspective on the museum and underscores the extraordinary aesthetic and cultural achievements of the Native peoples of the Americas. It showcases a selection of objects from NMAI’s collection and images from the museum’s renowned photography archive. The book also features beautiful photographs of the museum and brief portraits of the George Gustav Heye Center in New York City and the Cultural Resources Center in Maryland. Revised and updated to include objects exhibited at NMAI’s new museum on Washington’s National Mall, this miniature volume offers a far-ranging overview of the most significant collection of Native American objects anywhere in the world. Nearly 300 illustrations show the vast breadth of the museum’s collections—from ancient stone carvings to 20th-century feathered regalia. “This book opens a door to that marvelous, almost secret, place—Indian New York.”—John Haworth (Cherokee) Ask people to link the words “Indians” and “New York City,” and what comes to mind? The sale of Manhattan to the Dutch? A subway poster for Levy’s Jewish Rye? Cleveland versus the Yankees? In fact, New York City is home to the largest urban Indian population in the United States. Mother Earth, Father Skyline presents the experiences of Native Americans in the world’s most exciting city. Through photographs, illustrations, and brief essays, Duane Blue Spruce traces the Native presence in New York, from a National Indian Memorial proposed for Staten Island in the early 20th century, to Jock Soto (Navajo) dancing at Lincoln Center, to the contemporary Native art on view at the George Gustav Heye Center in lower Manhattan, the New York venue of the National Museum of the American Indian. Twenty memorable color and black-and-white postcards pay tribute to the Native American experience —past and present—in New York City. Home to nearly 90,000 indigenous people, New York is also where the National Museum of the American Indian’s George Gustav Heye Center, formerly the Museum of the American Indian, hosts exhibitions, music and dance performances, films, and symposia. > > > > > > Capturing a form of Native women’s artistic skill and expression on the Plains and westward, this notecard folio features stunning images of dresses, accessories, and historic photographs from the museum’s collections. The folio accompanies the museum’s book Identity by Design: Tradition, Change, and Celebration in Native Women’s Dresses (see page 7), based the exhibition of the same name. Featuring details of traditional designs from four different Native cultures, the holiday cards in our boxed set feature objects from the museum’s collection as well as proverbs or poems. “It is a human right to have a voice and be heard.” —Edgar Heap of Birds Edgar Heap of Birds (Cheyenne/Arapaho, b. 1954) is the creator of some of the earliest and most memorable Native American conceptual art. Drawing on language and history, his public art installations, paintings, prints, and drawings explore the often-contested relationship between non-Indian historical accounts and Native memory. In this book, which grew out of the museum’s sponsorship of Heap of Birds’s Most Serene Republics at the 2007 Venice Biennale, influential writer Lucy Lippard approaches the artist’s work from an activist’s perspective. She is joined by art critic Jean Fisher, who provides a critical overview of Heap of Birds’s contributions from the 1980s to today, and co-curators and editors AshMilby and Lowe, writing on the Biennale exhibition. An original DVD bound into the book features conversations with the artist and footage of his work in Venice. This remarkable book provides an absorbing exploration of the work of James Luna (Luiseño). Essays by the book’s editors reveal how Luna has dramatically expanded the language, territory, and possibilities of Indian art through his emotionally compelling performances and installations. His work—which includes film, music, and video—challenges and confronts commonly held perceptions about Native Americans. James Luna: Emendatio complements an exhibition of the same title presented by the National Museum of the American Indian at the 2005 Venice Biennale’s 51st International Art Exhibition. The book is accompanied by a DVD featuring footage of a rehearsal of Luna’s performance at the exhibition. > > > > > > > > > > > contemporary native art “Exciting. . . . Speaks of the rapid changes transforming not only Indian cultures but also Native American art.”—Art News Don’t look now, but while America’s critical establishment was busy waging a culture war over identity politics, the next generation of artists simply moved on. In Remix: New Modernities in a Post-Indian World, artists and curators Joe Baker and Gerald McMaster bring together the work of fifteen artists of mixed Native/non-Native heritage from the United States, Canada, and Mexico to create a mini-museum for a post-race, post-ethnicity, “post-Indian” world. Personal and political, this art and the accompanying texts raise issues that resonate far beyond the American art scene—questions about the meaning of ethnic and racial identity in an increasingly global society, the tension between self-expression and the templates of mass culture, and individuals’ freedom to adapt or reject elements of tradition without losing their claim on the past. Through words and images, Remix challenges readers interested in art and criticism to question the meaning of cultural identity in our complex, fluid age. “. . . Not exactly in the American tradition of the sublime, [these artists’] work doesn’t speak of spacious skies and amber waves of grain, but of complex personal relations with their culture, ancestry, past and present surroundings.” —Grace Glueck, The New York Times In Off the Map: Landscape in the Native Imagination, the National Museum of the American Indian presents the paintings, sculpture, and multimedia productions of five outstanding contemporary artists whose work defies common expectations of Native American art in both its form and content: Jeffrey Gibson (Mississippi Band Choctaw/Cherokee), Carlos Jacanamijoy (Inga), James Lavadour (Walla Walla), Erica Lord (Inuit/Athabascan), and Emmi Whitehorse (Navajo). Essayists John Haworth (Cherokee), Kathleen Ash-Milby, Kate Morris, and Paul Chaat Smith (Comanche) explore the artists’ interpretations of landscape as a response to 19th-century painting traditions and the history of Native fine art, as well as in the context of the contemporary art scene. Quotations from the artists provide insight into the ways in which memory, imagination, and the mastery of craft are expressed in their work. “Both Houser and Morrison defied stereotypes . . . and created art of a personal character. They entered the modernist project in very different ways, but each left a rich legacy of work.” —Joyce M. Szabo, Museum Anthropology Native Modernism: The Art of George Morrison and Allan Houser showcases magnificent paintings, drawings, and sculptures by two highly acclaimed artists. George Morrison (Grand Portage Band of Chippewa, 1919–2000) and Allan Houser (Warm Springs Chiricahua Apache, 1914–1994) shattered expectations for Native art, and paved the way for successive generations to experiment with a wide array of styles and techniques. In this groundbreaking, beautifully illustrated book, distinguished Native American writers and scholars provide a fascinating exploration of the two men’s work in the context of contemporary art, Native American art history, and cultural identity. “There are many New Yorks. My first, at age eleven, was the unimaginable, dazzling New York of the 1964 World’s Fair. My second was the gritty one of my student days in the ’70s, the New York of cheap rents and Scorcese’s Taxi Driver. My present New York began fifteen years ago, this time as an artist with a project that led me to the eventual discovery of other NewYorks, lost to time and mostly abandoned by history.” —Alan Michelson (Mohawk) Long the capital of the art world, New York City is also home to the largest concentration of Indian people in the United States. New Tribe: New York focuses on New York-based Native artists —Mario Martinez (Pasqua Yaqui), Spiderwoman Theater (Kuna/ Rappahannock), Alan Michelson (Mohawk), and Lorenzo Clayton (Navajo)—who have maintained a sense of tribal or cultural identity while drawing inspiration from modern, urban culture. Essays by Gerald McMaster, Gabrielle Tayac (Piscataway), Paul Chaat Smith (Comanche), and John Haworth (Cherokee) explore the concept of a “new tribe” of urban Indians, replacing reservation stereotypes with the lively and diverse realities of contemporary Native American urban experience. > > > > > > scholarly books In Vision, Space, Desire: Global Perspectives and Cultural Hybridity, distinguished thinkers from around the globe explore the ever-changing realities of contemporary art and discuss new strategies to frame the ways Native contemporary artists are regarded in the international art world. This book, which grew out of a symposium held by the National Museum of the American Indian in December 2005, features a lively exchange of ideas among Native and non-Native museum directors and curators, artists, critics, and scholars from around the world, and opens new possibilities in contemporary art practice and engagement. Essays on Native Modernism: Complexity and Contradiction in American Indian Art explores the legacies of George Morrison (Grand Portage Band of Chippewa, 1919 –2000) and Allan Houser (Warm Springs Chiricahua Apache, 1914 –1994)—two giants of 20th-century art. Mirroring a symposium held by the museum in May 2005, this book investigates the basis of Native modernism by eliciting a broad discussion about the critical perspectives and practices of Native artists across North America. Essays on Native Modernism also examines the place of Native modernism in the American canon and the currents of influence between Native and non-Native art. Living Homes for Cultural Expression: North American Native Perspectives on Creating Community Museums features essays by eleven noted Native museum professionals, whose varied experiences in creating tribal museums come together in this compact and instructive collection. These intimate portraits, which explore the theory and practice of museum planning for indigenous communities, are paired with a comprehensive directory of more than 200 tribal museums and cultural centers in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Published as a tool for use by Native and non-Native communities, this book is also available free as a downloadable pdf at www.nmai.si.edu/shop/pdf/LivingHomesforCulturalExpression.pdf. Ten leading thinkers on the presentation of Native American history and contemporary life examine the ideas behind the National Museum of the American Indian—their initial implementation and potential looking ahead. Specific topics considered include collections and repatriation, the representation of Native voices in exhibitions and programs, and the museum’s ongoing effort to develop its intellectual authority. A candid look at NMAI’s first three years, Past, Present, and Future reflects the symposium of the same name hosted by the museum in October 2007. The Native Universe and Museums in the Twenty-First Century explores from a global perspective the opening of the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. Eight essays—presented at the museum’s Opening International Symposium in September 2004 and written by museum professionals from Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and the United States—address the representation and interpretation of indigenous peoples in museums, the role of contemporary artists in the museum’s work, and the responsibility of institutions like NMAI to support contemporary Native cultures and arts. In this book, which grew out of a landmark NMAI symposium in 1995, Native and non-Native scholars and museum professionals explore issues concerning the representation of Indians and their cultures by museums in North America. Together, the essays provide an indispensable outline of the intellectual and philosophical underpinnings of NMAI. “A remarkable window into a world seldom truly seen by outsiders.”—La Prensa San Diego Every spring along Oaxaca’s Southern Sea, pilgrims speaking Chontal, Zapotec, Mixtec, Chatino, and Huave visit the encanto of El Pedimento to leave petitions and offerings at this place of answered prayers. Almost every town in coastal Oaxaca has its encanto, a physical space that opens to an unknown, metaphysical world. In the past, conquests and disasters led to the eradication of a few encantos. Today, development and emigration threaten many more. In rich, evocative text and brilliant photographs, The Edge of Enchantment addresses the history and culture of the Native people of the Huatulco region, those living in the area and others who have migrated north. This extraordinary book, the result of years of passionate research, intimately describes the land as the lifeline of these people and asks what transpires when their sovereignty is threatened. “A fascinating look at Indian life and culture shown from two viewpoints: 19th and 20th century white photographers, and Native photographers commissioned specifically for the book.” —News from Indian Country Native Americans have been among the most popular subjects of photography since the invention of the medium more than 150 years ago. Spirit Capture brings together more than 200 compelling images from the museum’s collection with essays from Native and non-Native historians, anthropologists, and curators. Supplemented by contemporary works by Larry McNeil (Tlingit), Dorothy Grandbois (Turtle Mountain Chippewa), Larry Gus (Navajo), Katherine Fogden (Mohawk), and Janine Sarna Jones, the book’s images capture a full range of Native American life. Whether depicting runaway Wyandot girls being returned to their boarding school, a Seminole woman sitting at a sewing machine, or a Yaqui man sporting a pair of bandoliers, these photographs attest to the adaptive strength of Native Americans in the face of profound economic, political, social, and spiritual change. The museum’s holdings are rich in examples of Native ceramics from throughout the Western Hemisphere, stretching across 40 centuries to the present day. In this book, four scholars introduce important and little-known ceramic figures and vessels representing the cultures of the Andes, Mexico, the American Southwest, and the eastern United States. In addition, contemporary ceramic artists from the same regions discuss themes that bridge geographical and generational differences. Based on years of observation, conversations with weavers, and handson learning, this scholarly essay explores Native American baskets with particular attention to how they were made. In addition, five contemporary Native American basket-makers and one basketry scholar highlight historic baskets from the collections of the National Museum of the American Indian and compare them with 21st-century pieces. “Innovation is the second-oldest form of tradition.” —Yaya (Charles Peter Heit, Gitxsan) Since its inception in 1989, the museum has added contemporary Native art and objects to its collections, across all genres. Indigenous Motivations highlights some of the most important, interesting, and amusing of these works. Brief, lively essays discuss why contemporary Native people continue to make art, and why museums collect it. It is the art itself, however, that steals the show. Never-before-published photographs convey the beauty and vitality of these newest treasures in the museum’s marvelous collection. > > > > > > > > > > unparalleled collections The Native nations of the Pacific Northwest are renowned for the beauty and complexity of their artistic traditions. From elaborately carved masks, dance regalia, woven hats, and feast bowls to tools and utensils, the objects connect one generation to the next and tell the stories of their makers. In this lavishly illustrated book, writers from eleven Northwest Coast communities describe the importance to their cultures of carvings, weavings, and other treasures from the collection of the National Museum of the American Indian. In Small Spirits, stunning color photographs portray the beauty and craftsmanship of American Indian dolls, from prehistoric ceramic figures to striking contemporary creations. Each doll offers a glimpse into a particular cultural world, and the dazzling variety of materials used— such as walrus tusk ivory, cornhusks, and brilliantly colored feathers of tropical birds—reflects the diversity of Native life. The insightful text discusses the roles dolls play in Native cultures, while historical photographs bring to life the people who made and used the dolls. Native Americans from six diverse cultures—Northern Plains, Tuscarora, Cherokee, Makah, Quechua, and Western Apache—share personal accounts of their origins, the effects of European-American settlement on their communities, and their commitment to preserving cultural values for future generations. “Moving, instructive and thought-provoking . . .” —The New York Times Book Review For All Roads Are Good: Native Voices on Life and Culture, respected singers, storytellers, artists, elders, and scholars from Native cultures throughout the Americas were invited to the museum to choose objects of personal meaning to them. In this evocative blend of first-person narratives, stunning illustrations, and historic photographs, Native voices celebrate American Indian cultures and their perseverance in the contemporary landscape. A Crow storyteller recounts Thunderbird sightings. A Seneca museum director suggests that Indians themselves may sometimes help to perpetuate stereotypes. Laser beams and other technologies are the vehicles of a new vision, according to a Cherokee arts educator. A Navajo multimedia artist declares that his work is driven by the need to show that “our culture is not dead.” Insightful and intensely personal, All Roads Are Good weaves together a rich tapestry of old and new Indian folkways. “In [this] memorable book, Indian people use words, actions and artifacts to represent themselves as fully human, free at last from the soul-cramping and spirit-reducing tests of authenticity and purity.” —The New York Times Book Review For the first Americans, a record of the past is written in the objects that were part of daily life. Values, traditions, and beliefs are embodied in works of Native creativity, from children’s toys to leaders’ war shirts, and from Arctic kayaks to masks made by the people of Tierra del Fuego. Using objects from the museum’s collection, historical photographs, and the voices of Native Americans past and present— and following the course of life from birth to death—the authors of Creation’s Journey reawaken us to ways of life and thought that once prevailed in the Americas, and that are still observed in many Native homes and communities. “[This] dazzling catalogue perfectly fulfills the goal of the NMAI to bring native art out of the darkness of ‘overcrowded cases’ into the galleries, where its aesthetic beauty can better be appreciated.”—Booklist This full-color book celebrates the rich aesthetic traditions of North American Indians through the presentation of objects of exceptional beauty and cultural significance from this extraordinary private collection. Organized around seven aesthetic principles, First American Art offers insight into the lives of the collectors, scholars, and creators of indigenous arts. > Published in conjunction with an installation exhibition based on the travels of 15 diverse Native artists to sites representing the four cardinal directions, where they conceived works reflecting indigenous traditions and sensibilities, This Path We Travel enables readers to share in this creative process. > With essays from 28 leading Native writers, this book examines seven main areas: dance, music, media, art, literature, oral tradition, and theater. The authors reflect on the origins of Native expression, describe what has shaped different traditions, and explore possibilities for the future. Presenting the creative process from a Native point of view, the book shows the inherent value of Native expressive culture both to its practitioners and to its audiences. > > > > > > “Some [of these] writers are seasoned and come with their own fans and students; some are emerging and leave with new followings. Some are poets, novelists, and short-story writers. Others write essays, textbooks, and scholarly works. . . . Each causes the listener to wonder at the interior workings of the mind and spirit of another human being.” —Suzan Shown Harjo (Cheyenne and Hodulgee Muscogee) The Native Writers Series of readings at the museum features some of the most engaging and provocative Native writers working today. This firstever CD anthology of Native writers reading from their works includes Pulitzer Prize winner N. Scott Momaday (Kiowa), Louise Erdrich (Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa), Simon Ortiz (Acoma Pueblo), and many others. Alternately funny and moving, angry and contemplative, the readings address the Native American experience, as well as universal themes of love, death, and family bonds. > > > > > > “If there is a more dramatic way to assert the survivance of Native peoples than to have a line-up of immensely talented Indians cranking out our versions of rock, punk, funk, blues, and reggae right across the street from the U.S. Capitol, I am unaware of it.” —Kevin Gover (Pawnee/Comanche) Indian Summer Showcase brings the compelling sounds of Indian Country to a wide audience, through the creativity of performers who demonstrate the astonishing wealth of Native talent. Influenced by a diversity of Native and non-Native traditions—from Inuit and Greenlandic chants and Aymara instrumental music to gospel and rock and roll—the 12 individual artists and groups presented on this CD offer listeners a new understanding of the ways in which Native people draw from and add to the increasingly interwoven world of contemporary music. > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > recordings “If there is a deeper meaning in the perseverance of our Native languages, it is nowhere more apparent than in the wonderful music of these singers, joining the past with the present.”—Gerald L. Hill (Oneida) This anthology of hymns and songs from American Indian communities throughout the United States demonstrates how music has helped to preserve and perpetuate Native languages. Singers from the Southeast to the Plains and from the Southwest to Alaska and Hawai‘i illustrate the dynamic interplay between language and faith, and they show the importance placed on the singing of these songs in keeping alive their cultures. > Wood That Sings features Indian musicians from Nova Scotia to Arizona, Mexico, and Peru. The first recording ever to use this most popular of instruments as a way to explore the great variety and creativity of Indian musical traditions—from Chicken Scratch and Santiago dances to indigenous Apache fiddle—this anthology expresses the capacity of Native cultures to adapt and synthesize non-Native influences. The lively and informative booklet that accompanies the CD includes a brief essay by Smithsonian ethnomusicologist Dan Sheehy on Native Latin America’s embrace of the violin. One of the only general anthologies of the indigenous music of the Western Hemisphere, this recording features ceremonial, social, and contemporary music, from Mi’kmaq reels to Aymara planting songs. Music from the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Bolivia was selected by noted ethnomusicologist Charlotte Heth (Cherokee). My World: Young Native Americans Today is a series for 9- to 12-year-olds that profiles young American Indians from different communities. Insightful and educational, each book provides a look at a modern Native culture while celebrating tribal histories and traditions. Copublished by NMAI and Council Oak Books: 800-247-8850 or order@counciloakbooks.com > > > > > > In this fourth book in the series My World: Young Native Americans Today, young people are invited to meet Christopher, an eleven-year-old Osage boy from northeast Oklahoma. Join Christopher and his family at the annual I’n-lon-shka Dances on the Osage Reservation, where neighbors gather for outdoor feasts, dress in their traditional outfits, and dance with the entire community. Go fishing at the lake with Christopher and his brothers, hear him play the trombone in music class, and learn the Osage language as he learns it, too. Watch Christopher’s mother practice finger weaving, and meet his grandmother, who works at the Osage tribal museum. Learn the stories of his Osage ancestors, those who hunted buffalo and lived in hide-covered lodges, and those who first learned to drive cars and pilot airplanes. > > > > > > Meet Lydia follows the life of a Tlingit girl in southeast Alaska as she makes and wears ceremonial clothing, dances in the region’s biggest Native festival, and learns the Tlingit language by helping kindergartners learn it, too. Travel with Lydia to the coastal communities where her family has lived for generations, and learn about the Tlingit traditions of weaving robes, catching and preserving salmon, and carving totem poles. > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > children’s books “ Meet Mindy unselfconsciously shows the seamless way most American Indians smoothly step between traditional Indian and current mainstream lives. The book is vibrant, refreshing, inviting. It feels very, very today. Colorful, intimate, authentic, and personable, it is a peek into the lives of a few of the 10,000 Hopi in the United States.” —News from Indian Country The reader journeys with Mindy, a Hopi girl from Arizona, through her coming-of-age ceremony, her daily life at high school, and her participation in the Yah-ne-wah Dance. Vibrant photographs document Mindy and her family as they continue the Hopi traditions of growing corn, carving katsinas, and making clay pots. “ A great resource for teachers who want to give a human face to Native American studies . . . ” —School Library Journal Following Naiche Tayac’s daily life at school and at home in rural Maryland, young readers learn about significant Piscataway places and ceremonies, get to know Naiche’s grandfather and greatgrandfather—both important chiefs—and accompany Naiche and his family to the annual Awakening of Mother Earth celebration. Tales of the People celebrates Native cultures with illustrations and stories by Indian artists and writers. Each book in the series also offers four pages of information and photographs exploring various aspects of Native culture. Copublished by NMAI and Abbeville Press: 877-364-2938 or www.abbeville.com A respected elder of the Crow people narrates a fascinating tale in which mother Thunderbird calls on human help to save her chicks from a monster who is trying to snatch them from their nest at the top of a cliff. Children will cheer as the hunter Brave Wolf, using fire, water, rocks, and buffalo hide, defeats the monster with an ingenious plan. Coyote is lonely in the wide-open spaces of the Potawatomi Reservation in Kansas, so he moves to New York City and finds work as a Rodent Control Officer in the World Trade Center. But he is always homesick, so he goes up to the top of the tower to enjoy the quiet night skies. One night he spots a star more beautiful than all of the others. . . . Sihumana, a young Hopi girl, is a member of the Rabbit Clan. Like her mother and grandmother before her, Sihumana takes part in the traditional Butterfly Dance, performed late each summer to bring rain to the dry lands, to make the corn grow, and to bring back the butterflies. Long ago, the only light on earth came from campfires, because a greedy chief kept the stars, moon, and sun locked up in elaborately carved boxes. This traditional Tlingit story tells how the trickster Raven transforms himself and sets out to steal the celestial lights for the people—and reveals what happens to his snow-white feathers. “A fascinating overview of Native American history and traditions . . . packed with stunning pictures.”—Bookpage This fall sees the release of a new, revised edition of Native Universe: Voices of Indian America, produced in softcover only (see page 2). At the same time, a limited number of copies of the original, hardcover edition are still available. An unprecedented publishing event, Native Universe is a sumptuously illustrated cultural history written exclusively by Native Americans to commemorate the opening of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian in September 2004. With insightful writing and spectacular photography that captures the astonishing wealth of Native American art and experience, Native Universe remains a remarkable collector’s item and an eloquent tribute to our hemisphere’s diverse indigenous peoples. “. . . a fresh and engaging treatment of an overlooked subject and a significant attempt to bring Indian voices forward in the discussion of indigenous American cultures.” —Book Watch “The extraordinary images in Native American Dance . . . illustrate how dance serves as a means for ethnic and spiritual awakening. . . . Dance fuses past and present for peoples as diverse as the Aymara in Bolivia, where youngsters still perform the Qhashwa on frosty nights to protect the potato crop, and the Kiowa in Oklahoma, where veterans of Operation Desert Storm perform dances at meetings of the Black Legs Society.”—The New York Times Book Review The enthralling scope of Native American dance—from the Fancy dancers of the powwow circuit and the traditional keepers of sacred Indian ceremonies to the contemporary flourishes of modern Indian choreographers—is explored in this enlightening collection of essays by leading Native and non-Native scholars and practitioners of dance in the Indian community. A gathering of prominent voices, all marked by their passion for the dance, along with a wealth of illustrations (including nearly 200 in full color), gives Native American Dance: Ceremonies and Social Traditions a creative spirit grounded in authoritative scholarship. > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > while supplies last > > > > > > dvd s Celebration. Triumph. Respect. History was made on September 21, 2004, as more than 25,000 indigenous people gathered to mark the Grand Opening of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. To commemorate the historic occasion, Welcome Home vividly captures more than 60 minutes of footage from an array of Grand Opening events. The remarkable Native Nations Procession, Opening Ceremony, and week-long First Americans Festival are featured on an intimate scale, allowing the viewer to enjoy the beauty and diversity of Native America and experience the heartfelt tributes to this cultural landmark. The dramatic signature film of the National Museum of the American Indian, A Thousand Roads follows the fictional lives of four contemporary Native Americans as they confront the crises that arise in a single day. With epic settings that include the Andean highlands, northernmost Alaska, the mesas of New Mexico, and the concrete canyons of Manhattan, this 40-minute film is a celebration of Native peoples and communities. > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > >