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.