Tag Archives: storytelling

Tribal Libraries, Archives, and Museums – Spring 2012

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Week 1 – Welcome!

We are kicking off the new semester with the opening class of TLAM.  Seated around the beautiful wood circle table of 4246, ten classmates introduced themselves and the interests they are pursuing while enrolled in SLIS. Travis, Phillip, Rachel, Robin, Dorothy, Dawn, Jeanetta, and Tammy are all eager to begin what is sure to be an exciting, informative and inspirational semester.  Jeanetta will be our intrepid photographer for the semester, coaxing smiles from the unwilling, documenting guest lecturers, and preserving forever the record of our interaction with Wisconsin tribal communities.  Omar gave us an overview of the upcoming semester, the history of TLAM and updated everyone on the project partnerships.

Week 2 – Native Languages and Storytelling

This week TLAM focused on Wisconsin’s Native languages and storytelling.  Through an interactive online guide, we learned of the fragile state of Wisconsin’s Indigenous  languages.  Menominee elder John Teller has a long tradition of teaching his heritage language to Menominee students and is one of the storytellers participating in the 15th Annual Evening of American Indian Storytelling.  Andrew Thundercloud, a Ho-Chunk elder, is a first-language speaker who develops language curriculum for his tribe.  Lisa LaRonge is a second-language speaker of Ojibwe who started Waadookodaading ‘the ones who help each other’ or ‘they help each other’ an Ojibwe immersion charter school located at Hayward, WI.

At this time, there are approximately 175-200 indigenous languages in North America, with just a few that have  several thousand speakers; Na-Diné (in brick red), Ojibwe, and Cree (both in clay) .   The rest of the languages are either endangered or will be endangered as the elders who speak the languages pass on.  The map shows the immense linguistic diversity of North American indigenous languages.

Guest Speaker – Rand Valentine
Rand Valentine is the university’s resident expert on the Ojibwe and Odawa languages and TLAM was lucky enough to visit our class.  Rand has worked with Algonquian languages for over thirty years in Canada and Wisconsin and is dedicated to promoting and preserving endangered Native languages.  Every year he teaches Ojibwe and Odawa instructors on learning their heritage language and they, in turn, will pass along their knowledge to their students.   Language activists work to revive their heritage languages that boarding schools and assimilation policies have interrupted.  Rand is instrumental in passing along his knowledge not only to future language instructors, but UW students as well.   Additionally, Rand emphasized the importance of libraries and librarians in Native American communities and becoming a hero “…just like Julian…”.

Guest Speakers – Baraboo Project
Janice  Rice and Kelly Kraemer visited the class to give us updates on the Ho-Chunk Learning Center project.  Even though the project is in its nascence, there has already been an immense amount of work completed.  There is a large collection of good quality books, most of which have been catalogued by students.   Rather than purchasing a cataloguing package, the Baraboo library group decided to use Library Thing (librarything.com) to organize the center’s books.  Not only is this a free and easy way to catalogue books, it is also a creative way for small libraries to check out books to patrons, using the notes feature. When funds are limited, imaginations soar and come up with creative solutions.  More information will be available in the upcoming weeks for students who wish to participate in this project.

For those who are interested in more information on endangered Native American languages, there are the following references:

Texts

  • Goddard, Ives ed. (2006).  Handbook of North American Indians , vol. 17.  Washington, D.C. Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press.
  • Campbell, Lyle (1997). American Indian languages: the historical linguistics of Native America. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Mithun, Marianne. (1999). The languages of Native North America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

UW Courses

  • LING371 – Survey of North American Indian Languages – Dr. Monica Macaulay
  • Various # – Ojibwe I, II, III, IV – Dr. Rand Valentine
  • Various # – Ho-çak – Henning Garvin

Free online language information

-Tammy Goss

Evening of Storytelling – Reflections

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On Friday, February 3, TLAM attended The University of Wisconsin American Indian Studies Program’s 15th annual Evening of Storytelling. The night began with the Wunk Sheek Drum Group silencing us with their native song, sparking the mood that would encompass the night.

After a prayer, given to us by John Teller, onto the stage came Sunny Dooley, a storyteller from the Four Corners area of the southwest and member of the Chi Chil’ Tah community.  Sunny regaled us in Dine (or Navajo); an epic tale of Coyote and how his mischievous behavior led to his death.  Before stepping off the stage, she left us with a message to live your life in the best way possible.  Following Ms. Dooley was John Teller, the Menominee Language Liaison at College of Menominee Nation.  He told the story of the creation of the North Star by Manabush, a Menominee hero.  Last, but not least, Mark Dennings, a member of the Ojibwe, Oneida, and Menominee tribes, stepping in for Mary Louise Defender-Wilson, who was unable to participate, delivered a multimedia presentation which included personal anecdotes that related to traditional stories from his youth.  His stories illustrated a different way of looking at life, from a native perspective (clearly demonstrated by listening to two versions of the same song: Judy Garland versus Israel Kaʻanoʻi Kamakawiwoʻole’s Somewhere Over the Rainbow). He expressed how the native way is already in the place that Judy Garland yearns to be a part of, they do not have to wish for it because that is home.

Overall, the evening of storytelling left the audience with an incredible feeling of community. We left with the knowledge that this event was gift and that it should be cherished. For the two hours that we were among these storytellers, we became unified in the offering being bestowed upon us and we each grew in our own way from this gift.

- Dorothy Terry

History, Media, and Stories – TLAM Week 3

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For the third week of TLAM, we looked at the topics of Wisconsin tribal histories, media, and storytelling. Class began with a continuation of the discussion from the panel at last week’s screening of “Reel Injun.” Like the panelists, many of us were concerned with the issue of how to present depictions of Native Americans in Hollywood movies and TV to children in a way that can create a positive learning experience. We liked that the documentary ended on a positive note by showing that more Native actors and filmmakers were beginning to tell their own stories, using media as a positive force. This discussion provided a good set-up for our guest of the week, Patty Loew, whose book Indian Nations of Wisconsin we had just finished reading.

Patty had just recently returned from a trip to Mozambique, where she been helping to train community-based journalists. She made an insightful parallel between Native American cultures and the people of Mozambique regarding challenges they face not only in acquiring and transmitting information because of the widening digital divide, but also in how to educate the next generation in traditional culture.

For the rest of the class we learned about how the Tribal Youth Media camp at Lac Courte Orielles, which Patty helped to create, helps Ojibwe children learn about science in ways that integrates with their culture’s traditional methods of learning. A major problem that Patty sees is the tremendous disconnect between Native children and the field of science, partly due to the fact that the way science is taught in ways that aren’t compatible with traditional Native American culture and worldviews. The lack of Native people with a scientific background is especially problematic because today there is a great need for tribes to have scientists that can help them protect their natural resources. At the camp Patty told us about, Native culture leads science, including ethics and values with the other information the kids learned.

The Tribal Youth Media program linked well to the chapter from Donald Lee Fixico’s The American Indian Mind in a Linear World that we read for class this week. Fixico explains the important role of oral tradition and traditional knowledge in teaching Native American history and culture. Storytelling conveys “values, ideas, beliefs [and] insights about the community,” and also serves a relational purpose, connecting people and places. I could easily see how this idea of storytelling and traditional knowledge was integrated into the experience of the science camp at LCO.

Finally, the class went to the Tribal Youth Media website where we watched one of the videos created by the kids, which incorporated both scientific research and interviews with tribal elders. They did an amazing job! Thanks again to Patty Loew for sharing this with us.

- Kelly