Sesame Street Heightens Native American Awareness
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Millions of children worldwide learned the ways and
traditions of the Indian Crow Nation, along with Big
Bird during Sesame Streets weeklong series aired
November 18-22.
Sesame Street is involved in a four year race relations
curriculum. Each year Sesame Street focuses on one
minority group which is not widely represented and runs
four special series running a week each.
Last year, they took an in-depth look at the Afro
American culture. This season the Native American
culture will be featured, specifically the Navajo, Crow,
Iroquois, and Cherokee. Next year, Sesame Street will
focus on Asian-American and Latino-American cul
tures. Tor the first time on TV children will see family
culture, nature, customs, religions and how other people
live," Caroline Miller, Director of Media Relations of
Sesame Street, said.
Dr. Valeria Lovelace, research director for the series,
invited members of three nations from various parts of
the country-the Navajos, Iroquois and Cherokees- to
form an advisory commitee. Each nation sent represen
tatives to a curriculum meeting in New York to express
to the production staff what American Indians would
like other children to know about their cultures.
For two weeks during taping, the cast and crew were
guests of the Crow nation in Pryor, Montana, about an
hour south of Billings. One of the most rewarding parts
of the experience, according to Karen Young, was the
friendship that developed between the visitors and their
Indian hosts.
The Crow nation acted as advisors and directors to get
traditions correct. "When they taped the 'Naming
Ceremony', which is the first dance of a seven-year-old
boy, they did not use professional actors or directors on
location," Miller said.
This series on Native Americans focuses mainly on
larger Indian nations, but it serves as an awareness tool
for all tribes.
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Big Bird learns to Lasso with new Crow friends.
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Tribal Siblings Reunite at Powwow After 25 Years
By Gordon Oliver
Surrounded by his four brothers and one sister,
Matthew Kirkland sat on the parched grass at the Grand
Ronde tribe's annual powwow and soaked up the day
he'd dreamed of since childhood.
Kirkland, 27, and some of his siblings had not seen
each other for 25 years. Their parents, Bob and Vivian
Phillips, had turned their children over to the state in
1966, and the siblings ended up in separate homes. Their
parents died early deaths.
The powwow, a 7-year-old gathering of Grand Ronde
Indians who are reviving traditions, was an emotional
homecoming. The sense of family and community
togetherness was a stark contrast to the sibling' frac
tured lives. They now are building bonds with their
family and their culture. Four of the Phillips children
have registered as members of the Grand Ronde tribe,
and the two others are preparing to join.
Today, the federal Indian Child Welfare Act and
Children's Services Division policies would require more
effort to keep the family together and more sensitivity to
the children's cultural heritage if they were placed in
foster or adoptive homes. But in 1966, the state moved
quickly to foster care and adoption for children in
troubled families. It rarely went out of its way to place
American Indian children in American Indian homes.
The Children's Services Division's actions inadvertently
set off a trail of horrors for some of the Phillips chil
dren. Many years later, the children remain divided
about whether they would have had beter lives had they
remained with their parents or other relatives.
Kirkland, for one, is angry that the children were not
kept together. "We would have at least had each other
to console each other," he said. "It became one against
the world instead of six against the world."
And although he was loved and nurtured by his
adoptive parents, Kirkland regrets his lack of exposure
to American Indian culture. "I didn't talk to an adult
Native American male until I started looking for my
family," he said. He is thinking someday of making his
own costume for a Grand Ronde powwow but says he
won't be ready for that next year. "Maybe I'll start with
a set of moccasins," he said.
For some of the Phillips family, the Confederated
Tribes of Grand Ronde has become a focal point for
their emerging interest in their American Indian
ancestry. The Phillips children who live in the area take
advantage of medical care and other benefits that come
from tribal membership. Bob spends many weekends in
Grand Ronde and considers it his second home.
They are only beginning to open the doors of their
American Indian heritage.
At the powwow, some of the grandchildren of Bob and
Vivian Phillips danced in the opening ceremony. Kurns
and Kirkland stood on a bale of hay to watch the ancient
ceremony being revived and passed on to a new generation.
"It's like a miracle that this happened," said
Bob Phillips Jr. "It was meant to be"
"It seems like when you're older, you start looking for
your roots," Kurns said. "You don't appreciate it until
you have children of your own."
The night before the powwow, the six children of Bob
and Vivian Phillips had their first adult meeting. Emo
tions ran high.
"It wasn't really excitement, it was just kind of a feeling
of relief," Kirkland said. "It was amazing, given all the
things that had happened to us, that we had all made it
back to our roots and gotten together."
Bob Phillips was one-eighth American Indian. Vivian
Phillips carried blood of the Paiute, Chinook and Grand
Ronde tribes.
At the powwow, Kurns camped with her husband and
two children. Her brothers relaxed outside the tent,
reliving the past and catching up on the present.
Some of the children of the Phillips clan-they have 10
among them-wandered in and out. Long-lost cousins
and other relatives dropped by for btroductions. Not far
away, thousands of visitors to Grand Ronde were
settling in for the powwow's opening ceremony.
"It's like a miracle that this happened," said Bob
Phillips Jr. "It was meant to be."
"We get along because we are all tolerant of each
others' lifestyles," said Kurns, who operates a house
cleaning business.
And Kirkland is just beginning to learn about his past
He likes what he sees. "Meeting you and your families is
pretty amazing," Kirkland said to his kin at the end of
the visit. "These are healthier families than I've seen in a
long time."
In July, Kirkland placed an ad in The Daily Astorian
asking for information about the Phillips family. Kurns
heard about the ad from her niece who had read it.
Kurns called the number listed in the ad. "I left a
message on his recorder," said Kurns. "I could tell by
his voice that he was definately a Phillips.
"I thought, 'This is it. We're finally complete."
Note:
The Federal Indian Child Welfare Act transformed
foster care and adoption practices among American
Indians after it was adopted in 1978.
Combined with other changes in rules and philosophy,
the law would have created a different life for the
Phillips children had it been in effect 25 years ago.
The Indian Child Welfare Act requires states to work
with tribes on foster and adoptive placements for
children of American Indian ancestry who are removed
from their natural homes.
The intent of the legislation and agreements is to
preserve American Indian families and cultures by
allowing them to decide what is best for their children,
said Richard Acevedo, Indian Child Welfare Act
manager for the state Children's Services Division. The
act is based on the fact that American Inian tribes have
sovereignty under the law and on a belief that tribal
children need to get "culturally connected" as soon as
possible, he said.
Tom Jones, social services director for the 8-year-old
Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, said nowadays,
he would try to keep a family like the Phillips' together
by providing social services to the family and drug and
alcohol treatment to parents. If the children were
removed, the tribe would work to place them with
relatives or other tribal members, he said.
Courtesy of The Oregonian