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NOTICES Celebrate Tribal Storytelling Season at Annual Festival You are invited to join us at the Second Annual Northwest Indian Story telling Festival on Jan. 4-6, 2007, and the NISA Apprenticeship Workshop and Tellers Gathering on Jan. 6-7 at Portland State University in Portland, Ore. The festival will celebrate tribal storytelling season in the Pacific North west, featuring some of the region's finest traditional and contemporary tribal storytellers, along with tribal drumming, singing, and dancing. Those interested in the tribal story tellers events must register in advance as seating is limited to 150. Registration paperwork is available through NISA. Festival tickets must be reserved at the PSU box office at 503-725-3307, or you can contact Ticketmaster at www.ticketmaster.com. (key word: sto rytellers festival). A live and silent charity auction Jan. 4-5 will benefit the Northwest In dian Storytellers Association. You can find the auction catalogue online at a link at www.wisdomoftheelders.org for those who want to view the catalog or bid ahead of time on Pendleton Woolen Mills blankets and clothing, arts and crafts, getaways, and other items. A raffle also will be held at the end of each evening to benefit NISA, with items including American Indian arts and crafts, and other items. NISA was formed in October 2005 to encourage, preserve, and strengthen traditional storytelling among tribes in Oregon, Washington, and Idaho and to share tribal oral cultural arts with the entire regional community. Among American Indian tribes throughout America, winter is story telling time. Knowledge and wisdom, traditional cultural values and spiritual qualities, as well as tribal oral history and prophecy are all imparted to younger generations through storytelling from generation to generation. • • Jan. 4-7 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. • • • • Roger Fernandes: Lower Elwha Band of the Klallam Indians story teller, educator, and artist Elizabeth Woody: Navajo/Warm Springs/Wasco/Yakama poet and author Adeline Miller: Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Indi ans elder and storyteller This event will be held at PSU’s Native American Student and Com munity Center (corner of SW Broadway and Jackson streets at the south end of the PSU campus). Jan. 5-7 p.m. to 10 p.m. • • Allen Pinkham, Sr.: Nez Perce (Niimipuu) tribal leader, oral his torian, and storyteller Esther Stutzman: Kalapuya and Coos storyteller and educator Johnny Moses: Tulalip tribal storyteller This event will be held at Lincoln Performance Hall (corner of SW Broadway and Market streets at the north end of the PSU campus). Jan. 6-7 p.m. to 10 p.m. • • • • Jan Michael Looking Wolf Reibach: Grand Ronde tribal flut ist and storyteller Elaine Grinnell: Jamestown S’Klallam storyteller Ed Edmo: Yakama, Nez Perce, Shoshone, Siletz, and French tribal storyteller This event will be held at Lincoln Performance Hall. The festival will feature traditional and contemporary storytelling and oral history from the region. Events also will include drumming and singing from the Splac’ta Alla Drum Group (“The People of the Valley" in the Komemma Kalapuya language), and Four Directions Drum Group. Invoca tions from tribal spiritual leaders will open all events. Other events include an Appren ticeship Workshop on Jan. 6 (8 a.m. to 5 p.m.), which includes a special after noon apprentice storytelling matinee. A Tellers Gathering will take place Jan. 7 (8 a.m. to noon). Registration for these events is $20, which includes three meals on Jan. 6, a brunch on Jan. 7, and a three-evening festival pass valued at $45. Registration is lim ited to 150 participants because of lim ited space at the PSU Native American Student and Community Center. Contact Elaine Lanegan at 503-777-7140 or at liaison@wisdomof theelders.org for registration materials. Funding has been provided in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, Regional Arts and Culture Coun cil, McKenzie River Gathering Foun dation, and Umpqua Bank. Festival sponsors also include Native American Student and Community Cen ter and the Native American Studies Program at PSU, Native American Re habilitation Association of the North west, Inc., the Center for Columbia River History, and Wisdom of the Elders, Inc. Sponsors of the Apprenticeship Workshop and Tellers Gathering in clude the Jamestown S'Klallam Tribe, the Quinault Nation, and the Squaxin Island Tribe. For more information, contact Elaine Lanegan at NISA, 503-777-7140, or by e-mail at liaison@wisdomofthe elders.org. More information about the pri mary sponsor, Wisdom of the Elders, Inc. and the online, live, and silent charity auction is available at www.wisdomoftheelders.org. Native Language Preservation Bill Becomes Law originally printed Dec. 15, 2006, on the Web site www.indianz.com A bill that will help tribes preserve their languages was signed into law by President Bush on Thursday. H.R.4766, the Esther Martinez Na tive American Languages Preservation Act, authorizes funding for new pro grams that tribes will use to prevent the loss of their heritage and culture. “These languages will be preserved with attention and effort. Once lost, they will never be recovered.” said Ryan Wilson, the president of the Na tional Indian Education Association. The act took on significance this fall following the death of Esther Martinez, a Native language teacher and storyteller from New Mexico. She was killed in a car accident on Sept. 16, just days after receiving a National Heritage Fellowship award for her ef forts to preserve the Tewa language. “The Native languages were precious to Esther Martinez, and this bill is de 14 • Siletz News • signed to help preserve them,” said Wil son. “It is a fitting tribute to her life’s work.” New Mexico’s congressional del egation worked to pass the bill in the closing weeks of the 109lh Congress. It had passed the House in September but was held up in the Senate and failed to gain approval before the November elections. After some feverish lobbying by the National Alliance to Save Native Lan guages, a coalition that includes the NIEA and other organizations, the measure passed the Senate earlier this month. Tribes then turned their attention to the White House to get it signed before the end of the year. “The urgent need to protect and preserve Native American languages is clear,” said Rep. Tom Udall (D-New Mexico), whose district includes Ohkay Owingeh. the pueblo where Martinez taught her language for decades. “We January 2007 must invest in their preservation by implementing immersion programs.” By authorizing funding for lan guage nests, language survival schools, and language restoration programs, supporters hope to prevent the loss of additional languages. Of the more than 300 languages spoken in the U.S. at the time of European contact, only 175 remain, according to the Indigenous Language Institute. By 2050, only 20 will be spoken with regular use, the organization says, unless efforts are taken to teach the lan guages to new generations. The United States played a major role in the loss of Native languages. Students at government boarding schools were prohibited from using their languages. The Bureau of Indian Affairs at one point outlawed ceremo nies, a critical method of preserving languages and history. Through the government policies of termination, relocation, and assimilation, the efforts continued through the 1950s and 1960s even as the U.S military en listed Native soldiers to create unbreak able codes using their languages. In 2000, President Bush honored Navajo Code Talkers who served in World War II. “For many years, tribes were dis couraged from speaking their native languages and now many languages have disappeared. This legislation will help ensure native languages are pre served, and passed on to future gen eration,” said Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-New Mexico). The grants for the new programs will be distributed by the Administration for Native Americans within the Depart ment of Health and Human Services. Wilson said tribes must work to ensure Congress and the White House provide adequate funds to carry out the bill.
