Senior Honors Project 20254

Traditional Arts and Languages: Storytelling with art through our language

Xandria D Baca

Santa Clara Pueblo

Baca, Xandria, Senior Portrait, 09/21/2024

“Pueblo of Santa Clara Flag.” Infobase, Facts On File. American Indian History, online.infobase.com/Auth/Index?aid=18626&itemid=WE43&iid=202433. Accessed 20 Sept. 2024.

Xandria Baca.webm

And I Went to School

Suina, Joseph “And I went to school” memories of a pueblo childhood,”. New Mexico Journal of Reading, Winter 1985, Vol. V, No.2.

It describes the changes and challenges that he went through while he was attending school, and when he changed schools. He describes how he felt when going through the culture shock that school brought. He explains the importance of his language and the importance it has in his life. “It was the language of my grandmother, and I spoke it well. With it, I sang beautiful songs and prayed from my heart.” This passage helps give an idea of what it was like for someone who was a child living in a white supremacist world and had to go through the struggles that it brought. Personally, I haven’t had to experience being forced to stay away from my culture, we are taught at a young age to be proud of who we are as native people and to honor our traditions. Recently I have been trying to learn my language and my goal is to become a fluent speaker to help teach my younger siblings. Growing up in this generation where we have technology, we tend to stray away from wanting to learn our languages and traditions. Some people don’t want to learn and don’t make the time to want to learn, or some elders don’t want to teach the younger generations.

How place names impact the way we see landscape

Toastie, B. “How place names impact the way we see landscape.” High Country News: Know the West, 1 May 2022, https://www.hcn.org/issues/54.5/people-places-how-place-names-impact- the-way-we-see-landscape.

These memories and stories that are shown or taught, give the landscapes meaning. By giving them a name, it allows others to connect to the land better. When you change the name, it starts to lose the original meaning of the land and you start to lose that connection with it. In the article, linguistic anthropologist, Phillip Cash Cash states, “It’s fairly common, and it is part of the unwillingness of the colonial structure and history to change in recognition of these tragedies and traumas and injustices. At some point, it just becomes unspeakable.” The historical point of view of the meanings behind landscape names is seen in the article. For example, in Santa Clara, we have the Puye Cliff Dwellings, named in Tewa for moccasins. Each landmark we have has meaning because of how we utilize the land. The landscapes around us are sacred because it's the lands that our ancestors used, hunted, and lived. Each landscape has a meaning and a story, when we give them names, it helps to preserve the meaning of the land.

Sharing One Skin: The Okanagan Community

Armstrong, Jeanette. “Sharing One Skin: The Okanagan Community,” in Jerry Mander and Edward Goldsmith (eds), The Case Against the Global Economy. San Francisco, CA, Sierra Club Books, 1996. Pp 460-470.

She describes the meanings of the selves to the best of her ability by translating them from Okanagan. When we think about how we connect to ourselves on a deeper level, we think about our inner voice, but with the Okanagan people, they look at the four selves. These teachings are important because they allow us to see different cultures and the lessons they hold. As native peoples, we can connect to each of these selves due to our traditions and our cultures. Connecting to the spirits when we pray or have traditional doings, becomes a part of our identity. Learning about these four selves helped me see myself on a deeper level. Each of the selves has valuable lessons that can and will help you in your life, despite what you believe in. As long as we have a culture to tie to, we can become one with our four selves.

Native Americans and the age of activism and conflict

Kte’pi, Bill. “Native Americans and the Age of Activism and Conflict.” The Native Americans, Second Edition, Facts On File, 2017. American Indian History, online.infobase.com/Auth/Index?aid=18626&itemid=WE43&articleId=405949.

Over the years, Native American authors, musicians, film producers, and artists weren’t being seen until the Indian Arts and Crafts Act was passed. During this time film directors started honoring the roles of natives in movies. Many were interested in pottery and Navajo rugs, as shown in the 1977 and 1986 series of US postage stamps. It states in the article, “Native Americans and the Age of Activism and Conflict,” that some Native actors and musicians started to open up to the world. Some artists, such as Eartha Mae Keith, also known as Eartha Kitt, was an actress and singer. She was Native and African American, who, after being blacklisted, made a comeback in the 1980s with her song, “Where is my Man.” It states in the article, “There had been relatively little change in style over centuries, with many Native American artists continuing to use the same materials and patterns that their nation, and sometimes their own families, had used for generations,”(pg. 22, Kte’pi). The article relates to my topic because it goes into the history of events and movements that led to some of the Acts and laws that protect Native art.

Indigenous Language Use

The amount of Native peoples knowing their language continues to drop because there aren’t people willing to learn it. This is due to the US government's Assimilation. “Loss of language diversity is a global trend, and it has been estimated that, at current rates, the 5,500 currently living languages will be reduced in a century or two to just a few hundred,” (pg.1, Ewen, Wollock) As stated above, there aren’t many people who are willing to learn or teach native languages in their communities. Some people don’t have the resources to be willing to learn their language. Although there aren’t many resources, some people will try to go out of their way to make the resources that our youth need. The languages that we have, have been in our traditions and our culture since our ancestors have been here. With the new technology that we have, it can be distracting and it can lead to our future generations not to care about learning whatever they need to learn.

Ewen, Alexander, and Jeffrey Wollock. “Indigenous Language Use.” Encyclopedia of the American Indian in the Twentieth Century, Facts On File, 2014. American Indian History, online.infobase.com/Auth/Index?aid=18626&itemid=WE43&articleId=359713.

Painting and Sculpture

In the article, “Painting and Sculpture,” it describes the different forms of art different tribes made in order to record their history. An example of this is known as the ‘Winter Counts’ the Plains Indians used. These were made from buffalo hides that told stories from the winter and was passed down from the generations. When they started fading, they would let the elders recreate the hides. The first signs of art made from native peoples would be petroglyphs on cave walls. An Act was passed by the government in 1906, the Antiquities Act, which protected artifacts and human remains from “pot hunters.” These people would steal artifacts and human remains to sell to museums. The Act was to protect everything that was a part of US government land, and claimed the remains and artifacts are property of the government. The laws and the different types of artwork is related to my topic. The laws not only protect native artwork, but it also allows native artists to continue to work on their artwork.

Keoke, Emory, and Kay Porterfield. “Painting and Sculpture.” Buildings, Clothing, and Art, Chelsea House, 2005. American Indian History, online.infobase.com/Auth/Index?aid=18626&itemid=WE43&articleId=581798.

Three Native Muses: Pottery, Basketry, Weaving

The three muses: pottery, basketry, and weaving, is the explanation of the Heard Museum’s 2023-2024 exhibit, “Arriving Forever into the Recent World.” This exhibit showcases contemporary works of pottery, baskets, and weavings. The artists featured in this exhibit test the “traditional” aspects of the artwork they make. This ties to the concept, “the white man and his cities surround us- we must embrace those of his ways which are good while keeping our pride in being Indians.” In this case, the artists incorporate modern artwork into their own traditional pieces.

Martínez, David, and Velma K. Craig. "Three Native Muses: Pottery, Basketry, Weaving: Museum as (Colonial) Idea and Institution on Indigenous Lands." American Indian Quarterly, vol. 48, no. 1, 2024, pp. 26-57. ProQuest, https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/three-native-muses-pottery-basketry-weaving/docview/3099870425/se-2

Looking Closely at Words and Worlds: Emergent Bilinguals Making Meaning through Drawing and Talking

After learning about the history of my topic, we can now look at the current actions and events that correlate with my topic. To start off, the article by Rajgopal and Kendrick, “Looking Closely at Words and Worlds”, explains different studies that other people have done and explain their findings when doing an experiment with bilingual students. These experiments explain other studies that were done years before. For example, they reference P Freire’s study, Pedagogy of the Oppressed. In this study, Freire says,” Reading the world always precedes reading the word, and reading the word implies continually reading the world,” meaning that not everyone has the same opinions and we all have different perspectives. In this experiment, children were to draw objects that they saw, talk about them with their peers, and write descriptive narratives on their perspectives. They all had a connection in one way or another, whether it was their language or their experiences.

North American Indian & Inuit Art

After learning about the current state of what our communities The origins of some art forms, as explained in “North American Indian and Inuit”, such as some pottery forms, basket weaving, mask making, etc. This article describes how the introduction of new materials brought by Europeans helped change and modernize everyday items such as clothing, rugs, pans, cups, etc. It describes how different tribes from everywhere in North America used various materials for certain art. It also talks about the different perspectives of different people. For example, “one comment frequently heard maintains that the Indian artist never created ‘art for art’s sake’, arguing that everything had a mundane function.”

Latin American Art

“Latin American Art” describes how different eras of art were created and were separated into distinct periods, Colonial Art, Post-colonial art, Popular arts, and Latin American art of the 20th Century. Each section talks about how the arts were created in that period and how they were preserved. Not only was artwork in this period, but also the need to convert the indigenous peoples. Chapels and churches were built, some of the artwork within them. “Many artists believed that art should have a direct and public role; in Mexico, with State patronage now replacing the Church, and in the absence of a commercial art market, it was natural that, under favorable governments, the walls of public buildings should be their adopted sites.”