News from I notion Country
Page 7
Spilyay Tyrooo
April 23, 2 0 0 9
Tribes tell their stories in new exhibit
v
Greg Leo photo for the Spilyay.
The Museum at Warm Springs in April hosted its annual Honor Dinner. During the
event, the museum honored former U.S. Senator Gordon Smith (second from left) with
Twanat Award, presented annually to an individual for outstanding service to Native
Americans. Also on hand for the dinner were former governor Vic Atiyeh (left),
Congressman Greg Walden (second from right), and Tribal Council Chairman Ron
Suppah.
Echohawk tabbed for BIA post
FARMINGTON, N.M. (AP)
— President Barack Obama has
nominated Larry Echohawk to
lead the Bureau of Indian Af
fairs, pending confirmation by
the U.S. Senate.
E ch o h aw k , a B righam
Young University law profes
sor and Pawnee Nation (Okla.)
m em ber, served as Idaho's
Democratic attorney general
from 1990-94.
He grew up across the street
from Farmington High School,
in New Mexico, where he gradu
ated in 1966.
E chohaw k was the first
American Indian elected to a
statewide constitutional office in
Idaho. He and his wife, Terry,
have six children.
Rep. Tom Taylor, R-
Farmington, graduated from
high school with Echohawk.
Taylor said Echohawk's experi
ence as attorney general and
work with American Indians in
Idaho qualifies him for the po
sition.
Echohawk declined com
ment, citing a request by the
Obama administration not to
co n d u ct news m edia in te r
views while confirm ation is
pending.
Indian town erased by colonists honored
MIDLOTHIAN, Va. (AP) -
Virginia will add a new histori
cal marker near Richmond to
commemorate a Monacan In
dian town that was destroyed by
colonists.
Sunday's ceremony will pay
homage to Mowhemcho (mow-
H E M -cho), w hich was d e
stroyed in the late 17 th century
and most o f its .people killed.
French Huguenots later settled
there and renam ed the
P ow hatan C ounty tow n
Manakin.
Karenne Wood is a member
of the Monacan Tribe and di
rector o f the Virginia Indian
Heritage Program. She said the
historical marker "completes a
historic circle" encompassing
the importance of the Monacan
town and Virginia history.
Representatives of the Mo
nacan Indian Nation plan to at
tend Sunday's ceremony.
clerk and bondsman when she
stole the money between 2006
and 2008.
She pleaded guilty in federal
court in Pierre to embezzlement
and theft from an Indian tribal
organization.
Man plans guilty plea in
artifacts theft case
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP)
— Court documents say 78-
year-old John M. Sheild, a
retired pastor from Wiscon
sin, plans to plead guilty to
trafficking in archaeological
resources taken from South
D ak o ta public lands or
American Indian lands.
The top penalty is a year
in prison and a $100,000 fine.
Federal prosecutors said they
would recom m end a sen
tence o f probation.
Sheild is expected to
change his plea this week
during a hearing in U.S. Dis
trict Court in Pierre.
He is one of at least five
m en being prosecuted in
South Dakota federal courts
for archaeological resources
crimes. Federal prosecutors
indicted them, saying they
looted or traded ancient ar
chaeological items, such as
military items, gun flints, lead
balls and bullets and brass
copper pieces.
The exhibit, which was three
years in the making, is divided
into six chapters that form a
cycle, each one flowing into the
next until the circle is com
pleted. By the end, a display
shows visitors where the tribes
started and where they find
themselves now.
The exhibit was set up to
describe theLiistory of the tribes
th ro u g h N ative A m erican
voices, beginning just before
E u ro p ean c o n ta c t, m oving
through their forced relocations
to Oklahoma around 1830 and
into thè cultural revival that has
defined recent decades. It in
cludes more than 160 artifacts
from the tribes.
‘We try to make sure that the
words you read are from Native
Americans,” Bennett said. ‘We
wanted to have a Native Ameri
can interpretation.”
To do that, the m useum
sought tribal advisers from each
nation who helped mold the
exhibit into a reflection of their
historical and contemporary ex
periences, as passed down in the
tribes.
Ardina Moore is a Quapaw
tribal historian and a teacher of
the Quapaw language, but is also
part Osage. She said the name
A rkansas com es from early
French explorers who were told
by an Illinois tribe that the
people who inhabited what is
now the state were the
“A kansea,” w hich m eans
“People of the South Wind.”
The museum also was able to
display item s fro m the
Smithsonian Institution, ranging
from buffalq hides to traditional
weapons, that are on loan from
the National Museum of the
American Indian. Those arti
facts supplement items from the
Arkansas museum's own grow
ing collection and some pro
vided by the tribes. Moore even
donated the cradle board made
for her by her grandfather, the
last hereditary chief o f the
Quapaw nation, Victor Griffin.
The space was blessed before
the opening with a cedar wood
smoke ceremony, a traditional
Native American ceremony for
new beginnings.
‘W hat pleases us the most is
the idea that people are going
to recognize our heritage and
our culture, which to this point
has been kind o f ignored,”
Moore said. “It helps to be ap
preciated.”
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Rosebud tribal court worker must repay $4,000
PIERRE, S.D. (AP) _ A Mis
sion woman working as a Rose
bud Sioux Tribe court staffer
m ust repay $4,000 she stole
from the tribe.
Forty-three-year-old Patricia
Rose Thin Elk was a tribal court
LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas
(AP) — The names mark rivers,
valleys, schools and communi
ties across the state, recalling the
people who were settled in Ar
kansas when Europeans first
arrived in the 1500s.
But while the names may be
familiar to many, the history of
the Quapaw, Osage and Caddo
American Indian tribes might
not.
To help change that, the His
toric Arkansas M useum ’has
opened a perm anent exhibit
called “We Walk in Two Worlds”
to pass along the history and
culture o f the three Native
A merican nations that were
once settled in Arkansas.
To m ark the event, Gov.
Mike Beebe sent each tribal
council the state's first formal
invitation to come back to Ar
kansas since the tribes were
forced from the land in the early
1800s, said Swannee Bennett,
the museum's chief curator and
deputy director.
Representatives from each of
the three nations attended the
opening, along with a drum
circle, singing dancing and other
demonstrations by tribal mem
bers.
Besides the restitution, Thin
Elk will be on probation for two
years and must undergo alcohol
treatment.
PRosecutors say she also
goes by the name Patricia Rose
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