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Elders and members of the Bay Mills Indian Community welcomed home the set of four scrolls — used by Ojibwe peoples to record historical and religious information – on Tuesday with ceremony and dignity, and at least a few tears.
“In Western culture, they say a picture says a thousand words. But for Ojibwe, a picture has thousands of years of meaning,” Jondreau told ICT.
For Jondreau, the statement embodies the wealth of historical and cultural significance represented by the scrolls and the symbols engraved by Ojibwe ancestors more than a century ago.
The scrolls had been set for auction at Cottone Auctions based in New York on behalf of a private collector. Jondreau helped organize an effort via social media to purchase the scrolls at a public internet auction, raising about $5,000. The Bay Mills Community quickly joined Jondreau’s efforts, contributing the final $2,500 to make up the $7,500 purchase price to ensure the precious artifacts could be returned to the extended Ojibwe community around the Great Lakes.
The journey to save the scrolls repatriated to Bay Mills has been a whirlwind of activity, including the hastily organized, 800-mile round-trip drive from Michigan to New York state to retrieve the artifacts from the auction house.
Operators seemed unprepared for the group’s arrival and had trouble locating the scrolls, according to Jondreau. After some searching, the artifacts were found uncovered, sitting directly on two folding chairs in an office.
Kayla Perron Assinewe, representative for the Bay Mills NAGPRA Office, was surprised to see a worker at the auction house pick the scrolls up with her bare hands. Such artifacts are typically handled using archival gloves and paper to protect them from fingerprints and dirt. READ MORE — Mary Annette Pember, ICT
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Feb. 16 is Elizabeth Peratrovich Day. Her testimony in 1945 helped lead to the adoption of the nation’s first anti-discrimination law.
Peratrovich was grand president of the Alaska Native Sisterhood when the anti-discrimination bill came before the territorial senate.
Alaska state Sen. Allen Shattuck of Fairbanks said the bill would “aggravate rather than allay” racial tensions. “Who are these people, barely out of savagery, who want to associate with us whites with 5,000 years of recorded civilization behind us?”
Peratrovich responded saying, “I would not have expected that I, who am barely out of savagery, would have to remind gentlemen with five thousand years of recorded civilization behind them of our Bill of Rights.”
Peratrovich’s grand-daughter Betsy, who is Tlingit, said having a role model like her grandmother can help people speak out today.
“Just knowing that standing up can make a difference, that speaking now against injustice is important. I imagine how she must have felt that many years ago, a woman and an Alaska Native woman, the climate she was in and just how much courage it must have taken. But you know, it made a difference and anybody can make a difference. I think there’s a lot of opportunities currently for people to make a difference, including get out the vote efforts,” Betsy Peratrovich said. READ MORE — Joaqlin Estus, ICT
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On the weekend edition of the ICT Newscast, a Native Hawaiian composer turns to the story of Queen Lili’uokalani for inspiration. Plus, we’re getting a lesson in caucuses and how they affect presidential elections. And, we learn what major event prompted this reaction from the director of the National Museum of The American Indian.
FILM: Festival spotlights Native women
The 15th Native Women in Film Festival happens once again prior to the Academy Awards in Los Angeles. The Matriarchs of Cinema/Women of Influence, which aims to decolonize the entertainment industry, presents a week of films, panels and networking. With 45 plus films directed by women, the event happens March 1-8 at AMC The Grove 14 in Los Angeles.
MUSIC: Tunes inspired by paintings
Singer-songwriter Cary Morin, Assiniboine Sioux and African American, had an unusual inspiration for his latest album, “Innocent Allies,” his 10th in 21 years – famed Western artist Charles Marion Russell.
Russell has been a guiding force for all of Morin’s life. The songs on “Innocent Allies” are tied to paintings and directly to Morin’s personal family history. The stories, sky and earthy colors conjure musical landscapes for Morin.
MUSIC: Soundtrack song thunders online
The groundbreaking musical “Distant Thunder,” with music and lyrics by Chris Wiseman and Shaun Taylor-Corbett, has released the first of three singles called “Strong Enough” on February 12 to Spotify and Apple Music.
In the debut song, three kids are running away from the Blackfeet Reservation to find a better life, but the real world teaches them the value of their community and their language.
ART: Sin City goes Native
A new mural by Gregg Deal, Pyramid Lake Paiute, has sprung up on a wall in the arts district in Las Vegas. Sponsored by Content for Change by Paramount, the black and white images reference appropriation, the Indian Child Welfare Act, water is life and proclaiming Nevada as Indigenous land in graphic black and white. READ MORE – Sandra Hale Schulman
- Kali Reis goes toe-to-toe with Jodie Foster in ‘True Detective’: The Wampanoag/Cape Verdean boxing champion brings light to Night Country and perhaps delivers one of the most quotable lines in Indigenous pop culture history
- Mark Macarro: ‘Our needs and rights must rise above partisan politics’: The State of Indian Nations address kicks off the National Congress of American Indians Executive Council Winter Session in Washington, DC
- Reservation braces itself after OB-GYN program closes: Indigenous women in South Dakota often lack access to specialized maternal healthcare, leading to higher rates of poor outcomes
- Oglala Sioux Tribe response to Gov. Noem’s border address
- From Pine Ridge to Palestine: Indigenous Solidarity in the Ceasefire Movement – An Interview with Nick Tilsen
- How the US government began its decade-long campaign against the anti-pipeline movement: Newly released documents show the FBI monitoring anti-Keystone protesters much earlier than previously known. Young Native activists were among its first targets.
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