NEAT exhibit opens July 1 at Lander Art Center

"Black Coal" by Colleen Friday

The Native Emerging Artist Training (NEAT) exhibition is scheduled to open July 1, 2011 and run through August 6 at the Lander Art Center in downtown Lander.

The NEAT program began in 2009 to help train Native artists from the Wind River Reservation how to enter juried exhibitions and how to market their artwork.

This year, the show consists of young artists from Wyoming Indian Middle School as well as skillful adult artists.

BBHC Plains Indian Museum Powwow celebrates 30th year June 18-19

From the BBHC in Cody:

The Buffalo Bill Historical Center’s longest-running public program celebrates its thirtieth anniversary this June when the Plains Indian Museum Powwow fills the Robbie Powwow Garden with drumming, competitive dance, and the vibrant cultural traditions of Northern Plains tribes. The event takes place Saturday and Sunday, June 18 and 19, with grand entries at noon and 6 p.m. Saturday and noon Sunday.

The powwow began in 1982 with just a few dancers and one group of singers who stopped to participate on their way to another powwow. It has since grown to include several hundred dancers—men, women, and children ranging in age from “tiny tots” to golden age—representing some thirty tribes from across the Plains, at least a dozen drum groups, about four thousand spectators, and more than forty arts vendors. Dancers compete for more than $30,000 in cash and other prizes.

Grand entries usher the dancers into the arena with a welcome and an opening prayer, flag and victory songs from the host drum, the posting of flags by the color guard, and a pipe invocation. Competitive dance categories include traditional, jingle dress, fancy, grass, team dancing, tiny tots, golden age, and chicken dance. Spectators are invited to watch the competition and can also visit the Powwow Learning Tipi hosted by Lakota educator Gloria Goggles to learn about powwow dances, etiquette, traditions, and songs. Powwow runs until about 9 p.m. on Saturday and 6 p.m. on Sunday.

Tickets for the Plains Indian Museum Powwow must be purchased at the gate and are good for one day of the event only. Admission is $7 for adults 18 and older, $3 for youths 7 to 17, and free for children 6 and younger. Historical Center members receive a one dollar discount with presentation of their membership card. The Robbie Powwow Garden is an outdoor grass amphitheater with limited bleacher seating; visitors may bring their own lawn chairs or blankets. Gates open at 9:30 a.m. each day.

Interested arts vendors and dancers may contact Rebecca West at rebeccaw@bbhc.org or 307.578.4049. For general information visit www.bbhc.org or contact Nancy McClure at nancym@bbhc.org or 307.578.4102. Press passes are available through prior arrangement with McClure in the Center’s public relations office.

Committed to connecting people with the Spirit of the American West, the Buffalo Bill Historical Center weaves the varied threads of the western experience—history and myth, art and Native culture, firearms technology and Yellowstone natural history—into the rich panorama that is the American West. The Center, an Affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution, is open 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. daily through April; on May 1, hours expand to 8 a.m. – 6 p.m. For general information, visit www.bbhc.org, or call 307.587.4771.

Photo: Men’s Fancy Dancer Corey LeClaire, Lakota/Navajo from Durango, Colorado, dances at the 2010 Plains Indian Museum Powwow. Photo by Ken Blackbird.

"Arapaho Journeys" by Sara Wiles set for a May release from University of Oklahoma Press

Sara Wiles has announced the publication of her book, Arapaho Journeys: Photographs and Stories from the Wind River Reservation. Get more information on the book -- and see some of the photos -- at http://www.sarawiles.com/Arapaho_Journeys/Arapaho_Journeys.html

There also will be an exhibit of Sara's work at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody:

“Arapaho Journeys: Photographs and Stories from the Reservation”
April 29-October 2, 2011 in the BBHC Special Exhibitions Gallery
Public reception: Friday, April 29, 5-7 p.m.

Arapaho Journeys features contemporary photographs by Sara Wiles of Northern Arapaho people—elders, children, families, and leaders.

The exhibition's insightful photographs of the people, as well as the tribal activities, of the Northern Arapaho invite viewers into the culture, values, and philosophies that guide contemporary Arapaho life. They also honor individuals who have contributed much to their own communities as leaders, artists, and traditionalists.

While providing a historical background for the Northern Arapaho, the exhibition also depicts the experiences of younger tribal members growing up on the reservation as they participate in traditional cultural activities.

As one of two American Indian tribes with contemporary homelands in Wyoming, the Northern Arapaho constitute an important element of the state's heritage.

Arapaho Journeys is supported in part by a grant from the Wyoming Cultural Trust Fund, a program of the Department of State Parks and Cultural Resources.

Wyoming Archaeology Month poster wins national award

The 2010 Wyoming Archaeology Awareness Month (WAAM) poster, featuring the Tolar Petroglyph site, has been awarded first place in the Society for American Archaeology’s (SAA) annual nationwide poster contest.

The poster features a well preserved image of a Comanche warrior on horseback, elaborately carved into sandstone bedrock and strikingly contrasted with the dark natural varnish of the cliff face. The panel design is likely over two centuries old. The site is valued by several Indian nations as a sacred and honored place. The glyph used on this poster was chosen with the concurrence of the Comanche, Eastern Shoshone, Ute, and Northern Arapaho tribes, a cross-cultural collaboration that benefits all of Wyoming.

This is the thirteenth year the Wyoming poster has been recognized with an award from the SAA. The announcement was made at the SAA’s annual meeting held in Sacramento, Calif. Production of the poster was coordinated by Judy Wolf of the State Historic Preservation Office.

The Wyoming Archaeology Awareness Month posters are available free of charge and may be picked up at the State Historic Preservation Office in Cheyenne, 3rd floor Barrett Building, 2301 Central Ave. or in Laramie in the new Anthropology Department building, 2th and Lewis,Room 312.

If you would like a poster mailed to you, a $10 charge is necessary to cover mailing costs. Limit one poster per person. Send your request along with a check or money order payable to "Wyoming Archaeology Month" and your name and mailing address to: Judy Wolf, State Historic Preservation Office, Wyoming Archaeology Month, Dept. 3431, 1000 E. University Ave., Laramie WY 82071.

11th annual Native American Business Expo set for May 4 at Intertribal Center in Riverton

The 11th Annual Native American Business Expo/Wind River Business Conference will be held Wednesday, May 4, 2011, at the new Intertribal Center in Riverton. The target market includes those located on the Wind River Indian Reservation, Fremont County, and statewide. This year it has three main focuses: "Artisan, General Business, and Government Contracting."

FMI: Margie E. Rowell, Director, Small Business Development Center, 213 W. Main Street, Suite C, Riverton WY  82501; 1-800-969-8639; http://WyomingEntrepreneur.Biz

CWC Intertribal Education and Community Center dedicated today in Riverton

From a UW press release:

Central Wyoming College officially dedicated and celebrated the opening of the Intertribal Education and Community Center at a ceremony (today) Friday, March 25 in Riverton.

After a decade of planning and fundraising, the 16,713-square foot facility, which opened for classes and community gatherings last October, was officially dedicated during a ceremony on the plaza in front of the building.

The Intertribal Center has a multipurpose function. In addition to being an educational facility for both CWC and the University of Wyoming, it serves as a venue for conferences, workshops and meetings. It is also a highly visible landmark that celebrates the cultural diversity of the area, said CWC President Jo Anne McFarland.

U.S. Sen. Mike Enzi, who obtained federal appropriations that allowed CWC to proceed with construction in 2009, was the special guest. His talk was followed by remarks from UW Provost Myron Allen, Fremont County representatives Del McOmie and Patrick Goggles, as well as tribal and college officials.

Eastern Shoshone tribal member Ann Abeyta performed a hoop dance accompanied by a drum group. The ceremony was preceded with an informal feast in the Wind River Room and followed by tours of the building.

Funds for the facility came from multiple sources, including state and federal appropriations and private donations. CWC also has received support from the Northern Arapaho, Eastern Shoshone and the Shakopee Mdewankanton Sioux tribes.

UW contributed $1.1 million toward the center's construction to make its Fremont County Outreach Center more visible and accessible.

"This stunning facility represents a truly innovative relationship among Central Wyoming College, UW, and Wyoming's American Indian communities. It's a win-win-win scenario," says Allen. "The intertribal center makes every leader in higher education proud, and UW President Tom Buchanan and CWC President Jo Anne McFarland stand with the best. The students are Wyoming's, and they're our best hope for the future."

Photo: The Intertribal Education and Community Center at Central Wyoming College was dedicated Friday. In addition to being an educational facility for both CWC and the University of Wyoming, it serves as a venue for conferences, workshops and meetings. (CWC Photo)

SEWIPA Powwow March 26 at LCCC

SEWIPA holds traditional powwow March 26 at LCCC

IMLS offers Native American Library Services Enhancement grants

The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) is accepting grant applications to the Native American Library Services Enhancement Grant program.

Federally-recognized tribes and Alaska Native villages and corporations are encouraged to apply. The competitive Enhancement Grants support exemplary projects designed to enhance library services to communities and to serve as model projects for others. Applicants may request up to $150,000.

Prospective applicants are invited to participate in a webinar on Monday, March 7, 2011, 4:00-5:00 PM Eastern Time to learn more about the program. Instructions for connecting to the webinar will be available on the application guidelines and instructions page closer to the webinar date.

Applicants are also encouraged to contact program staff with their questions:

Alison Freese, Senior Program Officer
Phone: 202/653-4665
E-mail: afreese@imls.gov

Kathy Mitchell, Program Specialist
Phone: 202/653-4687
E-mail: kmitchell@imls.gov

First novel by Wyoming sheriff debuts March 1

A reviewer's proof of a new book landed on wyomingarts' desk a few weeks ago. "Death Along the Spirit Road" is a mystery by deputy sheriff C.M. Wendelboe of Gillette. The book will be released March 1 by Berkley Prime Time Trade Paperback (978-0-425-24002-1, $14). Several mystery writers well-known to Wyomingites wrote blurbs for Wendelboe's first novel:

From Craig Johnson of Ucross, author of "The Cold Dish and Junkyard Dogs:" "With Lakota FBI agent Manny Tanno, Wendeloboe has intrduced a powerful new character to Western crime fiction."

Margaret Coel, Colorado author of a mystery series set on Wyoming's Wind River Reservation: "A mystery novel that grabs you by the lapels and refues to let go... This is storytelling at its best and C.M. Wendelboe is the new author to watch!"

Some comments from Publishers Weekly:

Wendelboe's debut, the absorbing first in a new Native American series, introduces FBI special agent Manny Tanno, a former Oglala Sioux tribal cop. When someone buries a war club in the head of Jason Red Cloud, an ambitious developer who put together a coalition of interests to build a resort overlooking the Wounded Knee site on South Dakota's Pine Ridge Reservation, Tanno reluctantly leaves his FBI academy teaching job to investigate. Tanno must face the enmity of acting chief Leon "Lumpy" Looks Twice as well as the tribe's distrust of FBI agents rooted in the American Indian Movement fiascos of the 1970s. To complicate matters further, Tanno's brother, Reuben, is a prime suspect. The residual animosities that divided the tribe during AIM's heyday, the awful heritage of the Wounded Knee Massacre, and the plight of the residents of the "poorest county in the nation" form a somber backdrop.

Call for entries: American Indian/Alaska Native artists

The Office of Minority Health Resource Center is in the process of developing American Indian/Alaska NativeYouth related digital educational materials. Along with our partners, Kat Communications, and the IHS HIV Program, we are seeking American Indian and Alaska Native artists that can portray regional and cultural areas. We are accepting ALL styles and themes of American Indian/Alaska Native Art. Traditional, contemporary, alternative process, digital, mix processes, and experimental works are welcome. All art must be original and appropriate for conversion to a digital format. Please send us a one paragraph biography, anddetails about the type of art work you create to artists@katcommunications.com.

Deadline: February 18, 2011. Once chosen to work on the project, artists will be compensated. Additional Questions? Contact artists@katcommunications.com or Evonne Bennett-Barnes at ebennett@minorityhealth.hhs.gov.

Sneak peek at BBHC's upcoming exhibitions

From a BBHC press release:

The beauty of one of the last fully-functioning mountain ecosystems in the world, the stories of contemporary American Indian life entwined with tradition, and a view of the real and idealized West as seen through the evolution of western clothing-the Buffalo Bill Historical Center explores these diverse themes through this year's upcoming special exhibitions.

The stunning landscape and wildlife images of Yellowstone to Yukon: Freedom to Roam reveal the beauty in the large area running from Yellowstone National Park up through the Yukon in Canada, a nearly two-thousand-mile corridor encompassing vital passageways on which wildlife depend for survival. The more than forty large-format color photographs by Florian Schulz highlight conservation issues and efforts to link existing parks with connected corridors throughout the region.

In collaboration with the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative, the exhibition was organized by the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture at the University of Washington in Seattle and Mountaineers Books. Yellowstone to Yukon opens April 15 in the Historical Center's John Bunker Sands Photography Gallery and runs through August 7.

On April 29, a second extraordinary photography exhibition opens in the Special Exhibitions Gallery. Arapaho Journeys: Photographs and Stories from the Wind River Reservation features the photography of Sara Wiles. The exhibition provides historical background for the Northern Arapaho people while the contemporary images invite viewers into the culture, values, and philosophies that guide contemporary Arapaho life. The photos include children, elders, families, and tribal activities.

Arapaho Journeys will be on view from April 29 - October 2 and is supported in part by a grant from the Wyoming Cultural Trust Fund, a program of the Department of State Parks and Cultural Resources.

The real West and the idealized West are represented through apparel in a unique exhibition titled Dressed Just Right: An Evolution of Western Style from Function to Flamboyance, opening June 3, also in the Special Exhibitions Gallery at the Center. Function and style blend together in the western clothing, accessories, and decorative arts that make up the exhibition.

More information about these special exhibitions, as well as the permanent galleries, programs, field trips, and other events planned for 2011 can be found at the Historical Center's Web site, www.bbhc.org

National Museum of the American Indian features webcast of Native American writers Feb. 5

The annual conference for The Association of Writers and Writing Programs in Washington, D.C., features some interesting off-site events that will be simulcast on the web. Here's one that showcases Native American writers:


Reading & Webcast, The Florida Review Native Issue

Location: National Museum of the American Indian, Rasmuson Theater, 4th St and Independence Ave, S.W.

When: Saturday, Feb. 5, 1-3 p.m.

Cost: Free and open to the public

Website: http://www.americanindian.si.edu/

Description: In celebration of the special Native issue of The Florida Review, a reading, live webcast, and book and issue signing. Featured writers include Sherwin Bitsui, Orlando White, Santee Frazier, Sara Marie Ortiz, Allison A. HedgeCoke, and Toni Jensen. 

Wyoming high school students invited to Native American Art summer workshop in S.D.

The University of South Dakota hosts a summer workshop for high school students interested in Native American Art. Please help us spread the word of the Oscar Howe Summer Art Institute to high schools in Wyoming by providing them the following link to our website: http://www.usd.edu/fine-arts/art/oscar-howe-summer-art-institute.cfm

FMI: Cory Knedler, Chair, Department of Art, The University of South Dakota, 414 E. Clark Street, Vermillion, SD 57069; 605-677-5637; 605-677-5988 (fax); Cory.Knedler@usd.edu

Scottsdale promotes Dave McGary's sculptures of Native Americans

This video comes to us via the Scottsdale (Ariz.) Convention and Visitors Bureau. It features sculptor Dave McGary and some of his work now on the grounds of the Camelback Resort and Spa. McGary grew up near Cody and got his start as an artist in Wyoming. He's best known for his Chief Washakie sculpture which is one of Wyoming's two pieces in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda. A duplicate is in the Wyoming State Capitol Building and soon will be relocated to a spot in front of the Capitol Building. Another Chief Washakie statue resides on the Wind River Reservation. Dave has galleries in Scottsdale and Ruidoso, N.M.

Native American Heritage Celebration Nov. 13 at Cheyenne Depot Museum

Native American Heritage Celebration at the Cheyenne Depot Museum. Join us for a celebration of the American Indian history with Native dances, music, jewelry, costumes and more. Special presentations from the various Plains Indians with conversational sign language. Wyoming Arts Council roster artist Willie LeClair will be on stage. A day for the entire family to enjoy. Date: November 13, 2010 Time: 9 a.m.-6 p.m. FREE!

Willie LeClair at Uinta County Library

Nostalgia Days festivities at Niwot, CO include ongoing cultural exchange

“Eagle Catcher,” (left) a massive carving in red willow by Eddie Running Wolf, Northern Cheyenne, at Niwot, Colo. north of Denver, is part of an ongoing cultural exchange between that community and the Northern Arapaho Tribe of the Wind River Reservation, Wyoming, whose ancestral home is in the area and whose noted Chief Niwot (Left Hand) gave the town its name. The carving was dedicated during Niwot’s annual Nostalgia Days.

The current piece adjoins another he carved, which he describes as his interpretation of the way Chief Niwot might have looked at the age depicted in the sculpture, and it will adjoin a third that will portray an Arapaho woman or woman and child with Niwot Ladies Club funding support.

It’s all part of an ongoing cultural exchange that began as a Warming of the Hearts Coat Drive for the Wind River Reservation and evolved into the tree sculptures, said Mike Anfinson, president of nonprofit Ni-wot Prairie Productions, which was a sponsor of the project.

William C’Hair, co-chairman of the Northern Arapaho Language and Culture Commission and co-host of the “Eagle Catcher” dedication ceremony, said of the homelands area, “It was not so much that the land belonged to us, but that we belonged to the land,” and the Arapaho still feel a connection to it.

In an address to dedication attendees Sept. 11, C’Hair said he represents the past, while Harvey Spoonhunter, Northern Arapaho tribal chairman, represents the present, and Jola WallowingBull, development coordinator for the Arapaho Educational Trust, represents the future.

Spoonhunter described the tribe as the largest organic beef producer in the U.S., noting, “We’re also going green here.” WallowingBull, the first enrolled Northern Arapaho woman to earn an engineering degree, described an $8 million Sky People Higher Education Capital Campaign to serve nearly 10,000 tribal members, even though “philanthropy is new for all of us.”

Read the complete article at
http://www.indiancountrytoday.com/national/Carving-a-contemporary-tribute-to-history-106321188.html   

Indian Country Today: Eyeglass frames feature Native art

Liz Bent of the Penticton Indian Band of British Columbia is seen recently at the Wellpinit powwow wearing the "Coyote Moon" eyeglass frame design by Smoker Marchand. Photo by Jackie McNeel. 

From a story in the Oct. 13 edition of Indian Country Today by Jack McNeel:

SPOKANE, Wash. – Wearable art is nothing new. We wear all forms of jewelry and clothing inspired by Native artists, but something new is available and designed particularly with Native Americans in mind. Eyeglass frames with designs created by Smoker Marchand, a member of the Colville Confederated Tribes, Arrow Lakes Band, are the latest in wearable art.

The company producing these frames is Encore Vision, Inc. located in Spokane, Wash. It’s not a Native-owned company but General Manager Teri Harris said their focus will be the Native American niche and she plans to expand their offerings to include designs from Indian artists throughout the country, thus providing a wide variety of styles and designs. Marchand is the first artist to be signed and was told at the time that others would follow.

"They told me from the get-go that they’re looking for different Indian artists from different areas. They’d like to incorporate that and I said that’s no problem.”

Read the rest of the story here.

Learn more about native arts

The Native Arts & Cultures Foundation is dedicated to promote the revitalization, appreciation, and perpetuation of Native arts and cultures in all sectors of society through philanthropy and partnership, ensuring a path that benefits present and future generations of indigenous peoples in America. In its first year of its grant program, it has awarded $384,000.
Go to http://www.nativeartsandcultures.org/innovation to read more about this foundation.