Amerind Autumn Fest

Amerind Autumn Fest

Celebrating the history, culture, and arts of the Diné (Navajo).

Saturday, October 21, 2023

10:00 am – 4:00 pm

$10 per vehicle

Join Amerind at our annual Autumn Fest as we celebrate the history, culture, and arts of the Diné (Navajo).  Rich in tradition, history, and culture, Diné teachers, artists, singers and dancers will hold a day-long cultural celebration at the Amerind Museum in Dragoon, Arizona.

This year, Autumn Fest will feature performances by the rock band Sihasin, the Jones Benally Family Dance Troupe, and flutist Mary Redhouse, public talks about Diné culture from Diné scholars Wade Campbell, PhD and Poet Laura Tohe, PhD. and the event will also welcome various Native artists who will be showing and selling their art, youth activities and food.  This year Amerind announces the People’s Choice Artist Award, visitors will vote for their favorite artist, the top three winners will win a cash award.

Amerind is pleased to announce the Sihasin band, the Jones Benally Family Dance Troupe, and Mary Redhouse will play as part of The Angelo Joaquin Jr. Cultural Performance Series, with thanks to donor Ann Parker, PhD.

Autumn Fest is Saturday, October 21, from 10:00 am until 4:00 pm at the Amerind Museum in Dragoon, AZ. $10 per vehicle.

Amerind Free Online Talk: Arizona’s Creation Story: Treaties and Executive Orders Regarding Native Nations and the Arizona Territory from 1846-1912 with Millicent Michelle Pepion, PhD

Amerind Free Online Lecture

Arizona’s Creation Story: Important Treaties and Executive Orders Regarding Native Nations and the Arizona Territory from 1846-1912

with Millicent Michelle Pepion, PhD

Saturday, October 28, 2023, 11:00 am – Arizona Time

 Navajo elders say we exist in the “Fourth World,” the glittering world. In this world, we were given all of the support we needed to sustain life within the boundaries of four sacred mountains. For the Mojave people of the Colorado River Indian Tribes, life began with Mvto at Spirit Mountain. For O’odham peoples, whose traditional territory covered much of southern Arizona and northern Mexico, the epicenter of life lies in the Baboquivari Mountains where, in a cave at the base, resides their Creator, I’itoi. As for the Havasu Baaja, the People of the Blue Green Waters, what is now considered the Grand Canyon National Park also served as the womb for their people’s existence. This talk will focus on the creation stories of these four nations in comparison to the Creation Story of the State of Arizona. Much of the history shared involves the transfer of ownership from Mexico by way of the Gadsden Purchase, along with agreements, treaties, and Executive Orders signed between the Navajo, Mohave, O’odham, and Havasupai peoples, and what we now consider early Arizona pioneers such as Kit Karson, Charles Poston, Jedidiah Smith, and Rutherford B. Hayes, all which played a part in the creation of America’s last contiguous state signed into the Union.

Dr. Millicent Michelle Pepion is Bitter Water Clan born for the Blackfeet Nation. She currently resides in Tucson where she earned a Ph.D. in American Indian Studies from The University of Arizona. Her dissertation research draws connections between U.S. Census data for Native populations and Native Voter Suppression in Arizona. Dr. Pepion’s survey included an overview of all 22 Native Nations in Arizona in comparison to county and state statistics regarding history, land, law, and representation. However, her expertise does not end there. Through various work, Dr. Pepion has developed courses, workshops and presentations that span topics such as Federal Indian Law and Policy, Sovereignty, Native and Western Views on Philosophy, Protection of Sacred Places, Introduction to Navajo Literacy and Culture, Positive Indian Parenting, Traditional Indian Medicine, Indigenous Methodologies, and Writing in Two Worlds. Other degrees include: A.A. in Liberal Arts (Haskell Indian Nations University, 2012), B.S. in Liberal Studies (Arizona State University, 2014), and M.S. in Family and Human Development (Arizona State University, 2016). Dr. Pepion is a 2012 Clinton Global Initiative University Commitment Maker and the recipient of the Cal Seciwa Memorial Scholarship (ASU, 2015), the Heard Museum Eagle Spirit Award (ASU, 2016), and the Margaret Susseman Memorial Scholarship (UA, 2017-2020).

To register for this free online event, visit: https://bit.ly/AmerindOnline10282023

 

Amerind Free Online Talk: The Distribution of Cultural Lac Scale Use (Tachardiella spp.) in the Arid Southwest

Amerind Free Online Lecture

The Distribution of Cultural Lac Scale Use (Tachardiella spp.) in the Arid Southwest

with Marilen Pool, PhD

Saturday, August 12, 2023, 11:00 am – Arizona Time

This talk will discuss the examination of the lac scale insect in the arid Southwest and the distribution of its cultural use. Three species, Tachardiella fulgensTachardiella larreae and Tachardiella pustulata are those most known to have been utilized by the indigenous peoples of the region from as early as the Archaic period to the modern era as an adhesive, mastic, and coating for the fabrication of tools, weapons, musical instruments, kicking balls, ornaments, and amulets. It was also used for hermetic sealing of containers to protect foods and seeds from pests and as a repair material for mending pottery.

Marilen Pool, PhD, is a Senior Project Conservator at the Arizona State Museum and Objects Conservator and owner of Sonoran Art Conservation Services in Tucson. She recently earned her doctorate degree in Arid Lands Resource Sciences at the University of Arizona. She has a graduate degree in Museum Studies from Oregon State University and is a graduate of the Sir Sanford Fleming Art Conservation Program in Ontario, Canada.

To register for this free online event, visit: https://bit.ly/AmerindOnline08122023

Amerind Free Online Lecture: Caretakers of the Land: History of Land and Water in the San Xavier Community with Jacelle Ramon-Sauberan, PhD

Amerind Free Online Lecture

Caretakers of the Land: History of Land and Water in the San Xavier Community  

with Jacelle Ramon-Sauberan, PhD

Saturday, September 30, 2023, 11:00 am – Arizona Time

San Xavier del Bac is known as the White Dove of the Desert, but not many know the rich history surrounding the community called Wa:k (where the water goes in). Long before our urban centers and city lights lit up the dark desert skies, the Tohono O’odham were cultivating and shaping the land with abundant agriculture—from squash and beans to corn and cotton.

For generations they passed down their rich knowledge and culture grown from their connection to the desert.  Join us for a program with Dr. Jacelle Ramon-Sauberan as she shares her knowledge about the history and culture of her people, the Wa:k O’odham.

 

Dr. Jacelle Ramon-Sauberan is Tohono O’odham and from the San Xavier District. She serves as faculty in the Tohono O’odham Studies Program at Tohono O’odham Community College. Ramon-Sauberan earned her PhD in American Indian Studies with a minor in Journalism at the University of Arizona in May 2023. Her research focuses on the history of land and water in the San Xavier District and she has written for news publications across the US including Indian Country Today. Ramon-Sauberan is also a communication specialist for the National Science Foundation’s AURA/NOIRLab closely working with Kitt Peak National Observatory.

To Register Visit: https://bit.ly/AmerindOnline09302023

 

 

Amerind Free Online Lecture: Origins of Maya Civilization Examined at Aguada Fénix, Mexico with Takeshi Inomata, PhD

Amerind Free Online Lecture

Origins of Maya Civilization Examined at Aguada Fénix, Mexico

with Takeshi Inomata, PhD, University of Arizona

Saturday, June 3, 2023, 11:00 am – Arizona Time

 

The talk will discuss recent findings from the site of Aguada Fénix, Mexico, which was discovered in 2018.

Its central platform, which measures 1400 x 400 m horizontally and 10-15 m in height and was built around 1000 BC, is the largest and oldest monumental building in the Maya area.

The results of investigations at this site are changing our understanding of how the Maya civilization and surrounding societies developed.

 

Takeshi Inomata, PhD, is a professor at the School of Anthropology, University of Arizona.

He has been investigating social changes in the Maya area through field projects at Aguateca and Ceibal in Guatemala and in the Middle Usumacinta region of Mexico.

 

To register visit: https://bit.ly/Amerindonline06032023Inomata

 

 

Free Online Lecture: Comanches and Germans on the Texas Frontier with Daniel J. Gelo, PhD and Christopher J. Wickham, PhD

Amerind Free Online Lecture

Comanches and Germans on the Texas Frontier with Daniel J. Gelo, PhD and Christopher J. Wickham, PhD

Saturday, November 20, 11:00 am – Arizona Time

Relations between the Comanches and German immigrants to Texas are most frequently discussed with reference to the Comanche Treaty (Meusebach Treaty) of 1847. However, a long-neglected document of even greater significance for our understanding of the Comanches and Germans in Texas appeared just four years later. In his 1851 article “Über die Verwandtschaft der Schoschonen, Komantschen und Apatschen“, Heinrich Berghaus published not only the first Comanche-German dictionary, but also a set of detailed, original cultural notes and observations, and an original map of Comanche hunting and grazing grounds.

Berghaus obtained his information from German immigrant Emil Kriewitz, who lived in the village of Penateka Comanche headman Santa Anna following the 1847 treaty. The circumstances of Kriewitz’s residency throw light on the nature of the interactions between the settlers and the Native tribes.

This presentation examines in depth the contexts contributing to the 1851 article, the nature of the article’s content, and value of the document for subsequent scholarship.

Daniel J. Gelo is Dean and Professor of Anthropology Emeritus and former Stumberg Distinguished University Chair at the University of Texas at San Antonio. Gelo holds Ph.D., M.Phil., M.A., and B.A. degrees in anthropology from Rutgers University. His publications include: Comanche Vocabulary (University of Texas Press, 1995), Comanches in the New West, 1896-1908 (with Stanley Noyes, University of Texas Press, 1999), Texas Indian Trails (with Wayne L. Pate, Republic of Texas Press, 2003), Comanches and Germans on the Texas Frontier: The Ethnology of Heinrich Berghaus (with Christopher J. Wickham, Texas A&M University Press, 2018), and Indians of the Great Plains (Second Edition, Routledge, 2019). He has won the UTSA President’s Distinguished Achievement Award, the University of Texas System Chancellor’s Council Outstanding Teaching Award, and the Presidio La Bahia Award for best book on early Texas history.

Christopher J. Wickham is Professor Emeritus of German at the University of Texas at San Antonio. He earned his B.A.(Hons) and M.Phil. at the University of Reading (UK) and his Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He taught at the Universität Regensburg, Germany, Allegheny College, PA, and the University of Illinois at Chicago before moving to UTSA in 1991. He taught at the German Summer School at Middlebury College for seven years and directed the “UTSA in Munich” study abroad program for many years. He retired from teaching in 2017. His research focuses on German regionalism, Bavarian dialect, cinema, poetry, singer-songwriters, travel writing, Texas Germans, and German painters. He authored a monograph on the dialect of Diendorf, Bavaria, (1987) and books on the notion of Heimat (1999) and Comanches and Germans in Texas (2018, with Daniel J. Gelo). He edited books on German cinema and television (1992, with Bruce A. Murray) and German literature and culture (1991, with Karl-Heinz Schoeps). His recent articles include: “Postwar Tales of Two Cities: Rubble Films from Berlin and Munich” (2014); “Mid-Century Cultural Tectonics: Unpacking the Ying Tong Song Core Sample” in “Journal of European Popular Culture” (2021); “Remembering Exile: Jews in the American Dystopia in Axel Corti’s Santa Fé (1985)” in Nancy Membrez (ed.), “War and Remembrance: An Anthology of Critical Essays” (2021); and a translation of Heinrich von Kleist’s “Über die allmähliche Verfertigung der Gedanken beim Reden“ („On how we gradually make up our thoughts while we are talking,” 2019). His annotated bibliography of Adelbert von Chamisso’s tale “Peter Schlemihl” will be published in 2021. He is currently working with Daniel J. Gelo on a historical anthropological analysis of three mid-19th century sketches by German immigrant to Texas, Wilhelm Friedrich, and a study of 19th century Texas botanist and publicist Ferdinand Lindheimer.

This online program is free, but space is limited. To register visit: https://bit.ly/AmerindOnline112021

Free Online Lecture – The Origin of Our Extinction: The 1851 Yellow Fever Epidemic and the Hia Ced O’odham with David Martinez, PhD

David Martinez, PhD

The Origin of Our Extinction: The 1851 Yellow Fever Epidemic and the Hia Ced O’odham with David Martinez, PhD

Amerind Free Online Lecture

The Origin of Our Extinction: The 1851 Yellow Fever Epidemic and the Hia Ced O’odham with David Martinez, PhD

Saturday, January 29, 2022, 11:00 am – Arizona Time

What became of the people that Spanish explorers called “Areneños” or “Sand people”? After the United States appropriated the New Mexico Territory–first by treaty (1846), then by purchase (1854)–references to the people known for their “sand food” and their “tinajas” disappeared from the historical record. Supposedly, the Sand people, who call themselves Hia-Ced O’odham, succumbed to a yellow fever epidemic in 1851. Supposedly, which means to assume or believe, but not necessarily know for sure. Which begs the question, what do the Hia-Ced O’odham have to say about this? What David Martínez (Akimel O’odham/Hia Ced O’odham) will present is his research on the “extinction” and revitalization of the Hia-Ced O’odham, which is a part of a book he is writing titled The Resilient History of the Hia Ced O’odham: O’odham Sovereignty During the American Era, 1850-2015.

David Martinez, PhD (Akimel O’odham/Hia Ced O’odham/Mexican) is an associate professor of American Indian Studies at Arizona State University and the author of Dakota Philosopher: Charles Eastman and American Indian Thought (Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2009), editor of The American Indian Intellectual Tradition: An Anthology of Writings from 1772 to 1972 (Cornell University Press, 2011), and author of Life of the Indigenous Mind: Vine Deloria Jr and the Birth of the Red Power Movement (University of Nebraska Press, 2019). His publications appear in, among other venues, the American Indian Quarterly, the American Indian Culture and Research Journal, Studies in American Indian Literatures, and Journal of the Southwest. His areas of concentration are American Indian intellectual and political history, contemporary American Indian art and aesthetics, and O’odham culture and history.

This online program is free, but space is limited. To register visit: https://bit.ly/AmerindOnline012922

Free Online Lecture via Zoom: From “Chief” to Code Talker: Four Profiles of the Navajo Code Talkers with Laura Tohe, PhD

Free Online Lecture via Zoom:

From “Chief” to Code Talker: Four Profiles of the Navajo Code Talkers with Laura Tohe, PhD

Saturday, August 1, 2020, 11:00 am, Arizona time

During WWII a group of young Navajo men enlisted in the Marines without knowing that they would be called on to develop a secret code against the Japanese military. This select group of Code Talkers devised a Navajo language code that was accurate, quick, never broken, and saved many American lives. This talk profiles four Code Talkers who reflect on their lives growing up on the Navajo Nation homeland, their military service as Code Talkers, and the personal and spiritual costs of war that many struggled with after the war.

Laura Tohe is Diné.  She is Sleepy Rock clan born for the Bitter Water clan.  She is the daughter of a Navajo Code Talker.  She holds a Ph.D. in Indigenous American Literature. She is Professor Emerita with Distinction in Indigenous Literature at Arizona State University and is the Navajo Nation Poet Laureate.

This program is made possible by Arizona Humanities.

*Please note a recording will not be available of this lecture, be sure to catch the program live on Zoom.