Join the American Indian Experience website and blog in discussing the largest PBS American Experience series ever produced, We Shall Remain, which airs nationally beginning this Monday, April 13. (Check here for showtimes in your area.)

In addition to a Teacher’s Guide, PBS and WGBH-Boston host a section of the We Shall Remain website just for librarians, where a 26-page “We Shall Remain Event Kit for Libraries” is available. The kit provides advice on hosting events including storytelling programs, reading circles, art contests and projects, discussion forums, and film festivals in support of the landmark television event.

Click here to watch Loriene Roy Discuss PBS’ We Shall Remain series

If you’re planning an event, even a book display, please let us know. You might win a DVD set of the series (I’m featured in an interview in the DVD extras!). This offer is open to both public and high school libraries. Just send Bruce Curliss, Nipmuc (WGBH-Boston Outreach Project Director, Educational Outreach) an email at bruce_curliss [at] wgbh.org, detailing your library’s We Shall Remain event scheduled anytime during the series’ run between April 13 to May 11, 2009.

In your email, please include the following:

• Name of your Library:
• Name of your City:
• Name of your State:
• Brief description of your library event/activity:
• Date of your library event or activity:
• Your contact info [your name, email, and mailing address]:

DEADLINE: The deadline for entries is 5:00 P.M. Central Time, Thursday, May 7, 2009. The top seven (7) winners will each win a We Shall Remain DVD set.

Join us here each week during the series to discuss resources you can find in the American Indian Experience database that supplement and augment your patrons’ We Shall Remain experience. Please share your comments, reflections, and observations on the series, here on our blog.

The library event kit for the PBS television series We Shall Remain provides a list of questions that can be used to initiate discussion of each episode. To start with, you might ask:

• What did you like best or appreciate most about the episode?
• What were some of the emotions you felt as you watched?
• What scene(s) made the biggest impression on you? Why?
• Did anything surprise you? Explain.
• What was the most important thing you learned?
• What issues or questions does the episode raise? [page 14]

Your library patrons may also want further information about the events depicted in Episode One, “After the Mayflower,” which can be found in the following resources on the American Indian Experience database:

Episode One features largely the history of one tribe. For more information about the Wampanoag, start with the “Wampanoag” entry in the Encyclopedia of North American Indians by Frederick E. Hoxie. This brief article will give you an overview of the traditional lands of the Wampanoag, family life, some current issues, and efforts to revitalize language and other cultural expressions.

The Encyclopedia of North American Indians also has entries for other tribes discussed in Episode One, including the Pequot and Mohawk.

Northeastern tribes used the word “sachem” to refer to their leaders. Find out more about this term in the “sachem” entry found in The Encyclopedia of North American Indians.

Find out more about the individuals featured in Episode One with entries found in the Encyclopedia of Native American Biography found on the American Indian Experience site:

Massasoit
Metacom
Squanto

Background on other events featured in Episode One can be found in the following entries:

“Slavery” from the Encyclopedia of American Indians (1996)
“Tears of Repentance” from The Eliot Tracts (2003)
“Trade” from The Encyclopedia of Native American Economic History (1999)
“Thanksgiving” from the Encyclopedia of American Holidays and National Days (2006)

Finally, you can examine Primary Sources for Massachusetts Indians and Puritans:

John Eliot’s Indian Dialogues: A Study in Cultural Interaction (1980)
Enduring Legacies: Native American Treaties and Contemporary Controversies (2004)

Additional information covering the Wampanoag today on the American Indian Experience database:

“‘We’re Still Living on our Traditional Homeland’: The Wampanoag Legacy in New England” Strategies for Survival: American Indian in the Eastern United States (1986)

Watch a preview of Episode 2 of We Shall Remain: “Tecumseh’s Vision” and join the American Indian Experience blog next week for more resources and discussion.

Episode Two of the PBS American Experience seriesWe Shall Remain explores Tecumseh and his brother, Tenskwatawa the Shawnee Prophet, and their efforts to create a Native American confederacy in the Ohio River Valley during the early 19th Century.

The Library Event Kit and the Teacher’s Guide for the PBS television series We Shall Remain provides topics to explore, asking you to consider questions similar to the following:

• Describe Tecumseh’s and Tenskwatawa’s leadership styles. How were they able to unite members from a variety of tribes?
• What was the place of spirituality in Tenskwatawa’s messages?
• What is the legacy of Tecumseh?

Further information about events depicted in “Tecumseh’s Vision” can be found in the following resources on the American Indian Experience database:

• While Episode Two of We Shall Remain focuses on events in the history of the Shawnee, many other tribes are discussed. Begin with the “Shawnee” entry in the Encyclopedia of North American Indians by Frederick E. Hoxie. The entry notes three recognized Shawnee, including the Absentee Shawnee.
• The Encyclopedia of North American Indians also has entries for other tribes discussed in Episode Two, including the Chickasaw, Chippewa, Choctaw, Creek (Muskogee), Delaware, Wyandot, Kickapoo, Potawatomi, and Seneca.
• For more about Tecumseh, explore the Topic Guide featuring resources on him. If you are looking for more in-depth coverage, read the full text of Tecumseh: A Biography, by Amy H. Sturgis.

Additional resources regarding Tecumseh and his brother Tenskwatawa found on the American Indian Experience database include:

• Quotations by Tecumseh in American Indian Quotations by Howard J. Langer.
• Tecumseh’s “Speech to Governor William Henry Harrison at Vincennes, August 12, 1810” in Great Documents in American Indian History.
• The Encyclopedia of Native American Biography to read about Tenskwatawa the Shawnee Prophet as well as Distinguished Native American Spiritual Practitioners and Healers by Troy R. Johnson for the entry, “Tenskawatawa (Open Door)”.
• Tenkswatawa’s 1808 address to the Governor of Indiana in Great Documents in American Indian History.

• “The Battle of Tippecanoe, November 7-8, 1811” in Primary Documents on Events from 1799 to 1820 by Patricia L. Dooley.

Background on other events featured in “Tecumseh’s Vision” can be found in the following entries from the Encyclopedia of North American Indians:

• “Diseases“
• “Dreams“
• “Pan-Indian Organizations“
• “Treaties“

Watch the preview of  We Shall Remain Episode Three “Trail of Tears” and join the American Indian Experience blog next week for more resources and discussion.

One of my long held dreams has been to spend more than ten days on the islands of Hawaii. Thanks to the kind invitation of Dr. Andrew Wertheimer at the University of Hawaii at Manoa’s library school, I am here to teach a short summer session class on indigenous librarianship. One of my colleagues, a Native Hawaiian librarian, will audit the class and, possibly, continue to teach the class in his own way in the future.

What better way to begin my time here on Oahu than by attending a book launch party! Last night, four hours after I landed on Oahu, I joined the vibrant local community of writers at the launch of Westlake Poems by Wayne Kaumualii Westlake (1947-1984), edited by Mei-Li M. Siy and Richard Hamasaki. The evening began with light, cold pupus (snacks), followed by warmer, heavier pupus-an excellent opportunity for me to try poke, or marinated raw fish.

The book launch began, like many indigenous gatherings, with ceremony. The readers and presenters were invited to drink ‘awa, a drink made from an indigenous plant, and eat a spoonful of poi, mashed taro. Then, in groups of one to four, the readers introduced themselves, and talked story–introducing the audience to the world of the late poet, Wayne Kaumualii Westlake.

Sen. Russell Kokubun opened the event with a remembrance of his friend, Wayne, followed by Haunani-Kay Trask from the University of Hawaii at Manoa, who reminded the audience of Westlake’s nationalist views and a call for Hawaii to be its own country. Some poets, including Maori poet Robert Sullivan, read their own poetry, often written for the occasion.

Others, including Albert Wendt, the grand poet from Samoa and Aotearoa/New Zealand, recalled their times with Westlake. Still others read selections from the 200 poems in the new book or a Westlake poem not included in the collection. Some of the more lively presentations were the young readers from the Kahuaomanoa Press. Well known Native Hawaiian musician Brother Noland sang several songs, including “Coconut Girl.” The sense of Westlake’s poems can be felt in his titles: “Eating soy beans,” “Cats don’t care,” and “Teaching My Dog Buddhism.”

On Sunday May 17, I joined about 15,000 other people at the Hawaii Book and Music Festival. I came away with a great collection of new books, cited below. I attended a few excellent author sessions on topics including “holding fast to the land,” “non-Hawaiians sense of place,” and “island Settler colonialism.” I was delighted to spend time with young adult author, Lurline Wailana McGregor, and hear her read from her novel, Between the Deep Blue Sea and Me. Some travel to Hawaii for the beaches and the tourist sites; Just give me a great new book by a Native Hawaiian author!

The American Indian Experience has many resources to learn more about Native Hawaii, including:

• “Hawaiian Americans” from Cultures of Color in America A Guide to Family, Religion, and Health
• “Hawaiians: Hawai’ians; Kanaka Maoli” from Encyclopedia of the Stateless Nations
•  “Hawaii, Legal Status of Native Claims” from The Encyclopedia of Native American Legal Tradition

My New Acquisitions:

• Bolante, Ronn and Michael Keany. Honolulu Magazine’s The 50 Greatest Hawai’I Albums. Honolulu: Watermark Publishing, 2004.
• Brandon, Reiko Mochinaga and Loretta G.H. Woodard. Hawaiian Quilts: Tradition and Transition. Honolulu: Honolulu Academy of Arts, 2004.
• Cleeland, Hokulani. Hawaiian Language Fundamentals: ‘Olelo ‘Oiwi. Honolulu: Kamehameha Publishing, 2006.
• Hawai’I 50: Five Decades of Photography, A Community Album. Honolulu: Mutual Publishing, 2008.
• Helfand, Diana. Hawai’I Light and Healthy: Recipes from MidWeek’s HEART-Y Chef. Honolulu: Bess Press, 2004.
• Holt, John Dominis. Hanai: A Poem for Queen Liliuokalani. Honolulu: Topgallant Publishing, 1986.
• McGregor, Lurline Wailana. Between the Deep Blue Sea and Me: A Novel. Honolulu: Kamehameha Publishing, 2008.
• McKinney, Chris. Miliani mauka. Honolulu: Mutual Publishing, 2009.
• Mitchell, Donald D. Hawaiian Games to Play: Descriptions of Traditional Hawaiian Games with Directions for Playing. 2nd ed.Honolulu: Kamehameha Publishing, 2006.
• Paglinawan, Richard Kekumuikawaiokeola, et al. Lua: Art of the Hawaiian Warrior. Honolulu: Bishop Museum Press, 2006.
• Parker, David. Standards and Values of the Hawaiian People.Volume I. 2nd ed. Honolulu: ALU LIKE, 2008.
• Puku’I, Mary Kawena. Tales of the Menehune. Rev. Ed. Honolulu: Kamehameha Schools Press, 1985.
• Siy, Mei-Li M. and Richard Hamasaki, eds. Westlake Poems by Wayne Kaumualii Westlake (1947-1984). Honolulu: University of Hawai’I Press, 2009.
• Staff of ALU LIKE. Standards and Values of the Hawaiian People. Volume II. 2nd ed. Honolulu: ALU LIKE, 2008.

The Medical Library Association held its national conference several weeks ago in Honolulu. I served on a panel presenting ideas on how to strive for a healthy workplace. My contribution to the panel covered the workplace wellness initiative products that came out of my year of service as the President of the American Library Association. I was fortunate to have the creative help of an Emerging Leaders group that developed several products that are linked from the ALA-APA Website, including tools such as a “Know Before You Go” document with “Tips for Healthy Conference Travel,” a “Workplace Wellness Inventory,” and a “Wellness Passport.”

Wellness is a critical issue in indigenous communities. The American Indian Experience provides resources that will assist you in understanding the place of wellness in Native populations. One of the first places to start is with the introduction to Catherine Swan Reimer’s “Counseling the Inupiat Eskimo“. She explains that:

“Most Native Americans are aware that PWB (personal well-being) or wellness were implanted in the rich soil, roots, and fruits of their culture. The idea of PWB or wellness that is embedded in the concepts of wellness and human development, have always been important for indigenous people.”

For book length coverage of the impact of western contact on Native peoples see the 30th anniversary edition of Alfred Crosby’s monograph, The Columbian Exchange: Biological and Cultural Consequences of 1492.

Similarly, Stacy Kowtko’s Nature and the Environment in Pre-Columbian American Life has a thorough overview of “Agriculture: Cultivating a Living Out of the Environment.”

To bring the content up to near present day, read the chapter on “Health, Medicine, and Cures,” in Donald Fixico’s 2006 volume, Daily Life of Native Americans in the Twentieth Century.

Linday Murray Berzok’s book, American Indian Food, provides detailed coverage. Check, especially, chapter 2, “Foodstuffs,” and chapter 6, “Concepts of Diet and Nutrition.” Berzok also covers some of the Native cultural perspectives on food in the chapter on “Food Customs,” including coverage of food taboos.

Check out the survey articles in Frederick E. Hoxie’s Encyclopedia of North American Indians, including entries such as “Agriculture,” “Diseases,” “Food and Cuisine,” and “Health and Healers.” For more on healers see Troy R. Johnson’s Distinguished Native American Spiritual Practitioners and Healers. You can browse the many biographical entries, but don’t forget to check out the two appendices showing the healers by birth date and by tribal nation.

If you are looking for a more literary approach to the topic of wellness, you might read Lynn Domina’s “Traditional Native American Spirituality and Western Medicine: Ceremony, Illness, and Spirituality,” in Understanding Ceremony: A Student Casebook to Issues, Sources, and Historical Documents. Note that in this case ceremony refers to Leslie Marmon Silko’s well known novel.

To focus your search in various ways, don’t forget to browse the “Health, Science & Environment” section of the Title List of the American Indian Experience. A general discussion of Native food appears as the Topic Guide, “American Indian Food.” And, read more about any one or more tribal communities through the clickable map on the Tribal Communities Resource.

While on Oah’u, I was fortunate to hear the Hawaiian language spoken frequently–on the radio, at events such as the graduation for students attending Kamehameha Schools, at book launches, and at ceremonies. Native language recovery is an important topic for Native peoples. The American Indian Experience has a number of resources that will help you become acquainted with this topic.

Volume 1 of the Praeger Handbook on Contemporary Issues in Native America includes a great survey chapter, “Back from the (Nearly) Dead: Reviving Indigenous Languages Across North America.” Read this article to find a list of relevant resources, issues, and examples of Native language recovery efforts. See also the entry for “Languages” in Frederick E. Hoxie’s Encyclopedia of North American Indians, scroll down and click on the language map of Native America.

Specific Native languages are also featured in Hoxie’s Encyclopedia of North American Indians; read the following entries for “Algonquian Languages,” “Cherokee Language,” “Cree Language,” “English Language and Indians,” “Iroquoian Languages,” “Lakota Language,” “Navajo Language,” “Ojibwa Language,” “Pueblo Languages,” “Salishan Languages,” and “Sign Language.”

For additional information and resources, see also lesson 8.1, “Native Language Recovery,” in the book Native Americans Today: Resources and Activities for Educators, Grades 4-8.

To find out about legislation regarding Native language, read the short entry in Encyclopedia of American Indian Civil Rights about the Native American Languages Act of 1990. To read the full text of the law, click here; for further amendments, visit the following pages found at Eric.ed.gov and Senate.gov.

The final episode of PBS American Experience series We Shall Remain brings the series to more contemporary times with events taking place in 1973 at what is known as “Wounded Knee II.” Themes prominent in the previous episode-leadership, resistance, self-determination, sovereignty, the impact of assimilation policy-are obvious again in the actions and beliefs of the Indian activists from 35 years ago.

The Library Event Kit and the Teacher’s Guide for the PBS television series We Shall Remain provides a list of questions you might explore, asking you to consider questions similar to the following:

1. Consider the atmosphere at the Pine Ridge Reservation before the arrival of AIM. How were the styles of the leaders, Dick Wilson and Fools Crow, different from each other?

2. Unlike other social movements in the 1960s and 1970s, those at Wounded Knee followed more violent means. Why do you think the leaders at Wounded Knee II made this decision?

3. How effective was the content about the Indian boarding school experience?

4. What was the impact of Wounded Knee II?

Further information to support your students or library patrons about the events depicted in Episode Five can be found in the following resources on the American Indian Experience database.

• Episode Five features events in the history of the Oglala Lakota tribe. Find out more about the history of this people in the “Sioux” entry in Frederick Hoxie’s Encyclopedia of North American Indians.

• Find information about the Pine Ridge Reservation in the Tribal Communities Resource. The founders of AIM are identified as Anishinabe, also known as Ojibwe or Chippewa. For more about this tribe see entries in Hoxie’s Encyclopedia of North American Indians (look under “Ojibwa”).

• To gain better context, scan the Timeline to see events that occurred contemporaneous with the 1890 Wounded Knee and Wounded Knee II. Read brief entries about the 1890 Wounded Knee and Wounded Knee II in Encyclopedia of American Indian Civil Rights.

• For more about the 1890 Wounded Knee event see these entries in Hoxie’s Encyclopedia of North American Indians: “Ghost Dance,” “Wounded Knee Massacre, 1890,” and “Wovoka (Jack Wilson).”

• A number of primary sources in Great Documents in American Indian History are especially useful, including “An Account of Wovoka, the Paiute Messiah,” “A Defense of the Ghost Dance Religion,” “Reasons for the Trouble between the Indians and the Government During the Ghost Dance Excitement of 1890,” and “The Massacre at Wounded Knee, South Dakota, on December 29, 1890.”

• For additional background information on the Ghost Dance, see the Introduction and selected entries in Shelley Osterreich’s The American Indian Ghost Dance, 1870 and 1890: An Annotated Bibliography.

• You can find lengthier essays on Wounded Knee in the following resources: Enduring Legacies: Native American Treaties and Contemporary Controversies and Episodes in the Rhetoric of Government-Indian Relations.

• Relevant entries in Hoxie’s Encyclopedia of North American Indians include “Alcatraz, Occupation of,”"American Indian Movement (AIM),” “Civil rights movement-Participation, American Indian,” “Bureau of Indian Affairs,” “Pan-Indian Organizations,” “Radicals and Radicalism, 1900 to the Present,” and “Wounded Knee Takeover, 1973.”

• You can also find a wealth of material on many individuals mentioned in Episode Five. For more about Dennis Banks, see the entry in Hoxie’s Encyclopedia of North American Indians as well as in The Encyclopedia of Native American Biography. You will find other noteworthy inviduals such as Russell Means, Elder Frank Fools Crow, Leonard Peltier, and Anna Mae Aquash also listed in The Encyclopedia of Native American Biography. Find a more detailed reporting on Peltier and events associated with Wounded Knee in the chapter titled, “Beyond a Reasonable Doubt: The Curious Conviction of Leonard Peltier,” in volume 2 of The Praeger Handbook on Contemporary Issues in Native America.

• Read about press coverage, including that of the local Rapid City Journal, of Wounded Knee II in Mary Ann Weston’s book, Native Americans in the News: Images of Indians in the Twentieth Century Press. Chapter six covers “The 1960s and 1970s: Direct Action and Self-Determination.” For coverage of Wounded Knee II in the American Indian press, the serious researcher can identify the titles of American Indian and Alaska Native Newspapers and Periodicals, 1971-1985. See, for example, the description of the “Wounded Knee Legal Defense/Offense Committee Newsletter.”

February 3, 2009

The morning session of International Indigenous Librarians’ Forum (ILLF) took place in the nearby Rangiatea church. Kim Lawson from Canada gave an update on the thesaurus work at the Xwi7xwa Library and continuing work on indigenous knowledge organization with a larger, international  group.

Dr. Te Kani Kingi’s presentation was titled,”Professional & Indigenous: The Cultural Interface.” He asked, “what does it mean to  be indigenous” and described an indigenous knowledge system as a unique way of explaining the world and reality. He covered indigenous aspects of well-being.

I was the second keynote presenter, giving an overview of my experiences during an American Library Association (ALA) Presidential year.  As with other speakers, I was gifted with a beautiful kete (handmade flax basket). My summary remarks  were as follows. A person of color taking a leadership role might find that:

1. You will receive help but not always from expected or logical sources.
2. You are ever the teacher.
3. People may suspect your decisions.
4. You do have to feel as though you are twice as good.
5. Ideas are a dime a dozen. It is action that counts.
6. People will treat you-kindly, for the most part, not so kindly in other respects.
7. People from your past will come back.

The afternoon of the third day of the Forum was devoted to discussion. Delegates voted to support a proposal for a satellite meeting for the 2010 International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA) World Congress in Australia. Delegates are also interested in knowing more about communication related to the IFLA Special Interest Group on Indigenous
matters. The Forum Dinner was held on the Te Wanango-o-Raukawa campus with a two-hour musical performance and invited guests.

In December 2008, the International Federation of Library Associations approved the establishment of a first Special Interest Group on Indigenous Matters. The SIG is located within the IFLA Section on Library Services to Multicultural Populations. I’m the convener of the SIG. Anyone is invited to join the SIG, indigenous or not, IFLA member or not. We now have a Group in Facebook where current discussion includes a plan to support the establishment of an International Indigenous Librarians Council, a body that would exist outside of the IFLA SIG.

Last Saturday, I had the good fortune to receive a guided tour of the Palmerston North City Library on the north island of Aotearoa/New Zealand. The library is divided into six zones: The Basement (Youth), Fiction and Literature, Children’s, Non-Fiction, Sound and Vision, and New Zealand and Pacific Islands. There are small sections called Living Rooms within each zone. Living Rooms are organized around content areas of interest such as thrillers, picture books, or graphic novels and the corresponding resources of different formats (e.g. books, DVDS, CDs) are arranged by Dewey Decimal class.

In addition, there is Sound and Vision Zone on the ground-level floor. This zone not only has recordings in various formats but also includes a sound stage for live events and a recording studio. Resources in this area, as in others, are located on shelves with wheels, which can be moved to reconfigure the space to adjust for small and large group events. Zones are tailored for specific audiences. Youth visiting The Basement can watch Sky TV, read, play games on XBOX 360 or Playstation. The nonfiction zone includes print resources in many of the world’s languages.

For more information about Palmerston North City Library got to http://www.citylibrary.pncc.govt.nz.

The attached images give you a view of some of the physical features of the main library, which was used as a department store for over 60 years. One of the contemporary features of the building is the Welcome Wall at the library’s
entrance with greetings writing in over 100 languages.