Amerind Free Online Artist Talk with Ishkoten Dougi

Amerind Free Online Artist Talk with Ishkoten Dougi (Jicarilla Apache/Diné)

Saturday, August 2, 2025

11:00 am (AZ time)

To register, visit: https://bit.ly/Online08022025Dougi

Please take this opportunity to join us on Saturday, August 2, 2025 at 11:00 am (AZ time) for an online artist talk with contemporary artist Ishkoten Dougi (Jicarilla Apache/Diné).
as he discusses his art, creative process, experience and more.

Ishkoten Dougi is a contemporary artist working in painting, stone sculpture, and mixed media. He grew up in Dulce, New Mexico, and attended the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, NM. He also attended the Al Collins Graphic Design School in Tempe, AZ.

Ishkoten has developed a personalized style combining abstract imagery, creating narratives that stem from both modern and historical reflections on his roots and history. It’s celebrations as well as reminders of historical traumas that Native American communities have endured. Engaging the viewer with a visual dialogue in aims of connection and understanding.

“Whether it’s stone, mixed media or digital my creations are narratives of all that stems from my roots and history-my celebrations as well as the reminders of individuals massacred by manifest destiny or our bureaucratic standing at the time of culture clashing pitted in the timelines of countless land grabs which transformed what was dreamed for us in the beginning.”

Ishkoten is currently a full-time artist residing in Albuquerque, NM. He is widely collected and has been in numerous museum and gallery shows throughout the US.

We hope you will join us to learn about this colorful and fascinating artist!

Unsure if you will be able to watch live? Register using an email and we will send a recording of the talk later that evening.

 

Amerind Free Online Talk: Indians and Energy Transition: Green New Deal to ‘Drill, Baby, Drill!’ with Scholar Andrew Curley, PhD (Diné).

Free Online Talk

Saturday, July 26, 2025 

11:00 am (AZ time)

Indians and Energy Transition: Green New Deal to ‘Drill, Baby, Drill!’ with Scholar Andrew Curley, PhD (Diné).
To register, visit: https://bit.ly/Amerindonline07262025Curley

Please take this opportunity to join us on Saturday, July 26, 2025 at 11:00 am (AZ time) for an online talk Indians and Energy Transition: Green New Deal to ‘Drill, Baby, Drill!’ with scholar Andrew Curley, PhD (Diné) as he discusses his research on the implications of energy transitions on Indigenous nations.

Energy in the United States is a topic of extreme importance. It is foundational to the U.S. economy, infrastructure, development in local communities, and accelerating processes of climate change. In political rhetoric, energy conversations oscillate between broad ideas of clean energy technology to opening more and more protected spaces for oil and gas drilling. Tribal communities are often caught in the middle of these political movements. Native leaders, planners, and workers must anticipate energy headwinds while shoring up their sources of development and revenue while at the same time thinking through the politics of climate change and the negative environmental impacts of energy projects, such as new kinds of contamination, threatening limited water sources or climate change. In this presentation, I will offer new research focused on the perspectives of Diné, Southern Ute Indian Tribe, and Jicarilla Apache community members in places with long histories of fossil fuel production, primarily oil & gas as well as coal and uranium.

Andrew Curley (Diné) is an Associate Professor in the School of Geography, Development & Environment at the University of Arizona. He is the author of Carbon Sovereignty: Coal, Development, and Energy Transition in the Navajo Nation (2023), UofA Press.

Not sure you can watch live on Saturday? Register using an email and a recording of the talk will be sent to you to watch at your leisure.

We hope you will join us!

Free Online Artist Talk with Max Early (Laguna Pueblo)

Images: Left: Ears of Corn: Listen, publication by Max Early, Traditional style ceramic pot by Max Early.

Amerind Free Online Artist Talk
Ears of Corn: Listen & New Works,
with artist Max Early 
Saturday, June 28, 2025
11:00 am (AZ time)

Please join us on Saturday, June 28, 2025 at 11:00 am (AZ time) for an online artist talk, Ears of Corn: Listen & New Works, Poetry & Art of Max Early.
Meet poet and potter Max Early from the Pueblo of Laguna; he will be reading his most recent work of poetry and from his first book, Ears of Corn: Listen, and discussing his pottery.
Along with his writing, Max is an accomplished and innovative potter who sometimes combines the written word with traditional motifs in his pottery. He is close to releasing his second publication of writings. We hope you will join us to see and hear what Max has been working on.

Max Early (Pueblo of Laguna) is an Indigenous Nations Poets IN-NA-PO Inaugural Fellow. He obtained his MFA in Creative Writing from the Institute of American Indian Arts and his BA in English from the University of New Mexico. His recent poems are published in Inkwell Journal, Poetry Northwest, Poetry Magazine, Green Linden Press, Poetry Foundation, and several others. Early’s first published book is “Ears of Corn: Listen,” and his second manuscript will proceed to publication this summer. His clans are Tsina Hanu (Turkey People) and Kwa-ya Washch’ee (child of the Bear). Also, Early is an accomplished Laguna Pueblo potter and lives in the village of Paguate, New Mexico.

 

*Not sure if you can watch live on Saturday, June 28? Register using an email and a recording of the talk will be sent to you later that evening, to watch at your leisure.

Register at: https://bit.ly/Amerindonline06282025Early

We hope you will join us!

Amerind Free Online Talk- Human Governing and Well-being: a global investigation with the coalition for Archaeological Synthesis with Dr. Gary Feinman

Amerind Free Online Talk

Saturday, August 23, 2025

11:00 am (AZ time)

Join us on Saturday, August 23, 2025 at 11:00 am (AZ time) for an online talk, “Human Governing and Well-being: a global investigation with the coalition for Archaeological Synthesis” with Dr. Gary Feinman (Field Museum of Natural History).

How can we learn from our ancestors to make a better world for tomorrow? Dr. Gary Feinman and an international team of social scientists with the Coalition of Archaeological Synthesis are examining dozens of ancient societies on several continents. Their goal is to better understand how the governing systems humans create affect the practices and well-being of their people. From these insights, they hope to draw lessons that can help create governing systems that allow people to thrive. Amerind’s community has helped support their convenings.

Dr. Feinman is the MacArthur Curator of Mesoamerican, Central American, and East Asian Anthropology at the Field Museum of Natural History. Feinman presently co-directs two international archaeological field projects in Mesoamerica and China. Earlier in his career, Feinman had leadership roles in the Valley of Oaxaca and the Ejutla Valley Settlement Pattern Projects and supervised residential excavations at four sites in the region. For 30 field seasons, he has been co-directing fieldwork in China’s eastern Shandong Province.

To register, visit: https://bit.ly/Amerindonline08232025Feinman

Not sure you can watch live, register with an email and you will be sent the recording of the talk to watch at your leisure after the talk.

 

Amerind Free Online Artist Talk with Matthew Bahe

Amerind Free Online Artist Talk

with Matthew Bahe 

Saturday, May 3, 2025

11:00 am (AZ time)

To register, visit: https://bit.ly/Amerindonline05032025Bahe

Please take this opportunity to join us as Matthew discusses his work, journey, and inspiration behind his incredible creations.

Matthew Bahe (Diné) is a contemporary multidisciplinary artist whose work includes painting, ceramics, and mixed media. He is originally from Hogback, New Mexico, and is currently attending the esteemed Institute of American Indian Arts master’s program in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He earned his bachelor’s degree with a concentration in ceramics from Jacksonville Private University in Florida. Prior to attending IAIA  he was an adjunct Fine Art Professor at San Juan College in Farmington, New Mexico.

His work has garnered much attention at events such as Santa Fe’s Indian Market and the Heard Museum Fair.

He spent his childhood creating art and being interested in artwork, which provided a mental diversion from living on the Diné reservation. “What began as a hobby has turned into a lifestyle, and I am grateful to continue living it today.”

See more of his work at: Facebook: Matthew Bahe or Instagram: Matthewbahe

We hope you will join us to learn about this talented young artist!

 

 

Amerind Free Online Talk: Navajo Traditional Stories and the Science of Geology with Henry Haven

Yaalnii Neé Yani (Navajo Creator) blowing air into the small earth: image by Henry Haven
photo: Spider Rock in Canyon de Chelly

Amerind Free Online Talk

Saturday, February 15, 2025

11:00 am (AZ time)

Navajo Traditional Stories and the Science of Geology, with Henry Haven 

To register, visit: https://bit.ly/Amerindonline02152025Haven

Join us on Saturday, February 15, 2025 at 11:00 am (AZ time) for an online talk with Geologist Henry Haven (Diné).

Henry will be giving a talk on his knowledge of traditional Navajo stories and oral history and the connection to the history and science of geology. Henry compares the four geological eras and geological events in the Four Corners region and lands of the (Diné Biknéyah) to traditional oral stories of the four worlds, four sacred elements, and other cultural concepts, where appropriate. They are not based on science as we know it but reflect an awareness of past geological events. Henry also draws on his education and experience as a geologist. This talk is based on his book entitled “Navajo Traditional Stories and the Science of Geology”, which he co-authored with J. Dale Nations, PhD, Geologist, and Max Goldtooth, Sr., a Navajo Medicine Man. (Innovative Ink Publishing, 2023).

Henry Haven is a geologist from the Navajo Nation. He received his master’s in Geology from Northern Arizona University. He retired after many years from the Navajo Nation Environmental Protection Agency. Previously, he worked for the Oil and Gas industry in Texas and the Four Corners area, exploring for oil and gas. Henry continues to consult for the Navajo Nation EPA, helping value and care for the land and water.

If you are unsure if you will be able to watch live at 11 on February 15th, register with an email, and you will be sent the recording of the talk after the talk.

Amerind Free Online Talk: “Rio Abajo Cultural Traditions during the Late Prehistoric-Early Colonial Periods: A View from Goat Spring Pueblo (LA285), New Mexico” with Suzanne Eckert, PhD

Amerind Free Online Talk

“Rio Abajo Cultural Traditions during the Late Prehistoric-Early Colonial Periods: A View from Goat Spring Pueblo (LA285), New Mexico” with Suzanne Eckert, PhD

Saturday, October 26, 2024, 11:00 am – Arizona time

“Rio Abajo Cultural Traditions during the Late Prehistoric-Early Colonial Periods: A View from Goat Spring Pueblo (LA285), New Mexico”

Located at a little over 6,000 feet in elevation along the eastern edge the Cibola National Forest, Goat Spring Pueblo overlooks the Plano San Lorenzo of the Rio Abajo floodplain. It has been suggested that Rio Abajo villages played a major role in late Ancestral Pueblo Period (A.D. 1300-1680) social dynamics. For example, a major trail between the Western Pueblo and Rio Grande regions passed near Goat Spring Pueblo before ending near modern day Socorro. Given this known trail, the Rio Abajo may have been a gateway for the movement of people, cosmological ideas and ritual practices, as well as goods between the Rio Grande and Western Pueblo regions. This lecture considers recent excavations at Goat Spring Pueblo that have contributed to a much better understanding of cultural change and continuity in this region during this time.

Suzanne L. Eckert is the Head of Collections at the Arizona State Museum.  She earned her doctorate in 2003 from the Department of Anthropology, Arizona State University.  Dr. Eckert’s research focuses on how late Ancestral Pueblo cultures organized ceramic technology. She is especially interested in how this technology integrated with other aspects of society, including migration, political and social organization, religious practice and ideology, and gender and ethnic relations.

Register here: https://bit.ly/Amerindonline10262024Eckert

Amerind Free Online Talk: Comanches, Captives, Germans: Transactions on the Texas Frontier, 1847 with Daniel J. Gelo & Christopher J. Wickham

Free Online Talk

Comanches, Captives, Germans: Transactions on the Texas Frontier, 1847

with Daniel J. Gelo, PhD & Christopher J. Wickham, PhD

Saturday, June 22, 2024

11:00 am – Arizona Time 

In 2021, three finely worked sketches dating back to the middle of the nineteenth century were brought to the attention of scholars studying the relationship between German settlers and Comanche Indians. Seemingly the work of one artist, and (with one exception) never published, the sketches feature Comanches, Germans, a captive girl, a wagon train, the landscape and wildlife of the Texas Hill Country, and dynamic scenes of cultural contact. Who was the girl? Who were the Comanches involved? Who were the Germans? Where and when did this captive exchange take place? What do we make of the rich Indian and German cultural details that the artist includes? How can we understand his work—as art, as data about Comanche life and customs, and as documentation of a specific cultural encounter? And, of course, who was the artist, and how important is his work? Trying to find answers to these questions, the presenters will examine the drawings in detail and decode information placed by the artist.

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 Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Having taught at the Universität Regensburg, Germany, Allegheny College, PA, and the University of Illinois at Chicago he moved to UTSA in 1991. Wickham retired from teaching in 2017. His research focuses on German literature and culture, and most recently on the interaction between German settlers and Comanches in 19th-century Texas. 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) which won the Presidio La Bahia Award for best book on early Texas history. Comanches, Captives, and Germans, a book coauthored with Dan Gelo, Hoppy Hopkins and Bryden Moon, appeared in January 2023. He is currently working with Dan Gelo on a study of 19th century Texas botanist and newspaperman Ferdinand Lindheimer.

Book Publication:

 Gelo, Daniel J., C. B. “Hoppy” Hopkins, Christopher J. Wickham, and Bryden Moon.

Comanches, Captives, and Germans: Wilhelm Friedrich’s Drawings from the Texas Frontier. Kerrville, TX: State House Press, 2022.

 https://www.tamupress.com/book/9781649670137/comanches-captives-and-germans/

To register for this free online event, visit: https://bit.ly/Amerindonline06222024GeloWickham

 

 

Amerind Free Online Talk: Capturing Water in Chaco Canyon and the Legacy of R. Gwinn Vivian, with Samantha Fladd, PhD

Amerind Free Online Lecture

Capturing Water in Chaco Canyon and the Legacy of R. Gwinn Vivian

with Samantha Fladd, PhD

Saturday, April 6, 2024, 11:00 am – Arizona Time

 

Capturing Water in Chaco Canyon and the Legacy of R. Gwinn Vivian

While Chaco Canyon is renowned for massive great houses and concentrations of nonlocal materials, the ability of residents to productively farm the arid landscape has remained contentious within archaeology. These debates have ranged from questions over soil quality to the existence and use of water management features. Throughout his career, Dr. R. Gwinn Vivian worked tirelessly to locate and document evidence of water management, particularly canal systems, from within and around the Canyon. In this talk, I will provide an overview of this evidence and discuss the importance of Dr. Vivian’s legacy on the field of Southwest archaeology.

Samantha Fladd is an assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology and Director of the Museum of Anthropology at Washington State University. She received her PhD from the University of Arizona in 2018 and has been doing archaeological research in the Four Corners region of the US Southwest for about 15 years. She is the second author on an upcoming book with Dr. R. Gwinn Vivian on Capturing Water (University of Utah Press), which presents his lifetime of research on water management and agricultural potential in and around Chaco Canyon.

To register for this free online event, visit: https://bit.ly/Amerindonline04062024Fladd

Amerind Free Online Talk: American Indian History and Public Education, with Julie Cajune (Salish)

Amerind Free Online Talk

American Indian History and Public Education

with Julie Cajune (Salish)

Saturday, December 2, 2023, 11:00 am (AZ time)

American Indians are a distinct minority in the United States for several reasons. First, they are the original people of this land, and second, they hold political status as tribal nations. Many Americans do not understand the political distinction of American Indian Tribes. If we recall our public-school years of social studies, we find scant content on American Indian nations or individuals.

This circumstance influenced Salish educator Julie Cajune throughout her career in public education and with her own tribal nation. One of her efforts to address this situation resulted in the book Our Way, A Parallel History.

Julie will discuss the importance of history education for a literate society and healthy democracy.

Julie Cajune (Salish)

Julie holds a master’s degree in education from Montana State University–Billings. After several years of classroom teaching on her home reservation, Julie began developing tribal history materials and curriculum and served as her Tribe’s Education Director. Julie has collaborated with Indigenous scholars, knowledge keepers, artists, and musicians, as well as elders and poets to produce materials in a variety of media including DVDs—Stories from a Nation Within, Art and Identity, Remembering the Songs, and Inside Anna’s Classroom— and children’s books—Gift of the Bitterroot and Huckleberries, Buttercups and Celebrations, and a variety of other publications Julie is a recipient of the national Milken Educator Award, the Montana Governor’s Humanities Award, and two Lifetime Achievement Awards. She continues her work to add Native voices to the master narrative of American history.

https://www.fulcrumbooks.com/product-page/our-way-a-parallel-history (attendees can use coupon code AMERIND25 for 25% off the book)

To register for this free online event, visit: https://bit.ly/AmerindOnline1222023