NOVEMBER 2023

NATIONAL NATIVE AMERICAN HISTORY MONTH My Mother is Watching Me Margaret Sue Barnes Coleman Some Sundays we drive 90 minutes North of our Portland home, paralleling the Columbia River, headed for the Zen Monastery in Clatskanie (Oregon), where we spend the morning meditating and then listen to a dharma talk (I translate “dharma” as truth). We then break for lunch and visit with second…

View On WordPress

INDIGENOUS PEOPLES DAY

Four Osage sisters create the heartbeat of the new film, Killers of the Flower Moon (2023), which is based on David Grann’s 2017 book about the murders of tribal members in the early 20th century. Pictured, from left, are Rita, Anna, Mollie and Minnie. (Credit: The Osage National Museum/Doubleday. Date missing). 9 October 2023 The second week of October welcomes National Indigenous Peoples Day,…

View On WordPress

Labor Day

September 2023 Lewis W. Hine documented child labor conditions in the 1900s—traveling throughout the country and taking photos with his five-pound Graflex 4×5 camera. Historians credit Hine with creating the “photo story,” where images—rather than copy alone—capture a narrative. When visiting a mine in West Virginia in 1908, Hine snapped the picture (above) of a youngster who worked as a…

View On WordPress

Museum Apologizes for Asking Native Mother to Remove Traditional Baby Carrier

The Blog is reposted from Laura Trace Hentz Museum Apologizes for Asking Native Mother to Remove Traditional Baby Carrier A staff member at the Portland Art Museum told her the basket violated … Museum Apologizes for Asking Native Mother to Remove Traditional Baby Carrier

View On WordPress

LITTLE THEORIES

“American Gothic,” photo of Ella Watson, by ©Gordon Parks, 1942, Washington DCCopyright: Gordon Parks Foundation Reading Deeply I’ve been chewing on news about the College Board’s Advanced Placement test in African American Studies that made headlines over the past weeks, trying to sort out my sympathies. Let me disclose that I worked on a consulting team, revising national communication exams…

View On WordPress

When Resolution Meets Revolution

JUST OPEN A CAN I miss the days when we made garlands with strips of colored paper folded into rings and glued together for the Christmas tree. In winter we would crack nuts that arrived with their shells intact. My father would split walnuts by gripping together two in one fist. Some nuts were impossible to break—like macadamias—whose shells resist bashing and end up whole in the…

View On WordPress

When Vegetarians and Meat-eaters Break Bread

When Vegetarians and Meat-eaters Break Bread

CHRISTMAS DINNER 2022 Chacun à son Goût Uncredited linocut from the website Zazzle Today: I’m laundering cloth napkins. And ironing them. This is my kind of housework: I like to see things clean and shine. A tiny red streak on white fabric catches my eye. My thumb is dripping blood onto the freshly ironed cloth. I start a new wash, spraying the bloody napkin with spot remover, find a…

View On WordPress

Making Tamales

Celebrating the Holidays Uncredited photo from “antique advertising” on the web I spent Saturday afternoon at a friend’s home learning how to make tamales, a tradition in many Indigenous communities in North, South and Latin America. She invited a few pals to snack on hors d’oeuvres (deviled eggs, chips and tinned mackerel) and prepared a host of ingredients in advance: stewed pork, cooked…

View On WordPress

Honoring A Native American Activist

Honoring A Native American Activist

Have a Merry Mankiller 5 DECEMBER 2022 Photo Credit: Painting of Wilma Mankiller by Lauren Crazybull for Time. Mankiller was featured as Woman of the Year by the magazine in 1985, and Crazybull’s rendering appears in the 5 March 2020 edition. I was thrilled to learn the US Mint issued a 25-cent coin to recognize Wilma Mankiller. This week I decided to track down some quarters to share with…

View On WordPress

Native American Heritage Month

NOVEMBER 2022 Image by Alesha Sivartha, Book of Life, 1898 Thanksgiving Floats the Media Bubble My social media bubble encircles friends and acquaintances who are–for the most part–kindhearted. I’ve grown weary of folks who shame communities online, drawing attention to someone’s weight, faith, dress and even Indian-ness. Shaming abounds on my Twitter feed, which I’ve slimmed down so much…

View On WordPress

Native American Heritage Month

Native American Heritage Month

NOVEMBER 2022 Pictured: Oscar Howe (Yanktonai Dakota) is a modernist painter who shared his Sioux culture worldwide (1973). Credit: Digital Library of South Dakota (photographer not named).   OSCAR HOWE The Dakota Modern Exhibit Where identity is baked into aesthetics One of the most respected American painters of the last century–Oscar Howe–was born in 1915; the same year Babe Ruth hit the…

View On WordPress

Native American Heritage Month

Native American Heritage Month

NOVEMBER 2022 HONORING ANCESTORS Pictured: My great-grandmother, Eva Agnes Herridge, and her older sister, Mary. Photograph taken around the early 1890s by P.A. Miller. Agnes was born in South Dakota and settled in Oklahoma–in Stillwater and Fairfax (one of the Osage villages)–with her family For thirty days we honor American Indians after the United States sanctified November as Native…

View On WordPress

Taking Steps to Recognize Indigenous Peoples

Taking Steps to Recognize Indigenous Peoples

Let’s Start with Names Seek-Seek-Qua by C. Coleman Emery When I returned home from a September camping trip, I opened my book (Night of the Living Rez) and found a plastic knife holding my place. I had used the knife as a bookmark while reading during a rainstorm in a cabin in the woods. We rented a two-room shack at Lake Olallie Resort, which is sequestered in what is now called the Mount…

View On WordPress

Doing What’s Ordinary

Our puppy lived with his brothers, sisters and trainer for five months before we got to take him home. We learned one important lesson the day the trainer handed over the leash: praise the pup royally when he goes potty outdoors, and don’t lavish praise when he behaves routinely–such as sitting on command. I thought about the dog as I listened to the live report of the January 6 Commission’s…

View On WordPress

Do Media Matter? Maybe, Not So Much….

Do Media Matter? Maybe, Not So Much….

Image from https://i.pinimg.com/ I get it. We long for answers. One step solutions. But life is complicated, and we can’t solve our problems with shortcuts. There’s no single pill to make you slim and no simple test to show you’re smart. Lately I’ve read news stories about the magic pill and the silver bullet as solutions. But pills and bullets don’t solve problems. The question is: how…

View On WordPress

Improvisation: A Formula for Teaching

Improvisation: A Formula for Teaching

Artwork by the inimitable Victor Juhasz Winding up spring term’s college classes, I ask students what they know now that they didn’t know ten weeks ago. The weight of ideas learned in one class is stunning, but what’s more impressive is how students learn how to make sense of concepts in framing and communication. For example, a critical element of how information gets framed in mass media…

View On WordPress

All Things are Relative in Camp Land

All Things are Relative in Camp Land

Our humble cabin Our long weekend trip to the East Coast from the West took an unexpected turn: camping. I had booked an AirBnB that would be a close drive to our family–son and daughter-in-law–and one that welcomed–even encouraged–dogs. Photos online showed a hand-made wood cabin with a quilt-covered bed next to a wood-burning stove, surrounded by trees, creeks and wildlife. It looked…

View On WordPress