American Indian & Alaska Native

NATIVE MESSENGERS OF GOD IN CANADA?:
A TEST CASE FOR BAHA’I UNIVERSALISM (1996)

*** Christopher Buck, “Native Messengers of God in Canada?: A Test Case for Baha’i Universalism.” Baha’i Studies Review 6 (1996): 97–133.

*** Award for Excellence in Baha’i Studies. Association for Baha’i Studies, 1994.

EPILOGUE

Thereupon Tekanawitaˀ [Deganawida, the Peacemaker] stood up in the center of the gathering place, and then he said, “First I will answer what it means to say, ‘Now it is arriving, the Good Message.’ This indeed, is what it means: When it stops, the slaughter of your own people who live here on earth, then everywhere peace will come about, by day and also by night, and it will come about that as one travels around, everyone will be related. …

Now again, secondly, I say, ‘Now it is arriving, the power,’ and this means that the different nations, all the nations, will become just a single one, and the Great Law will come into being, so that now all will be related to each other, and there will come to be just a single family, and in the future, in days to come, this family will continue on.

Now in turn, the other, my third saying, ‘Now it is arriving, the Peace,’ this means that everyone will become related, men and also women, and also the young people and the children, and when all are relatives, every nation, then there will be peace as they roam about by day and also by night. …

Then there will be truthfulness, and they will uphold hope and charity, so that it is peace that will unite all the people, indeed, it will be as though they have but one mind, and they are a single person with only one body and one head and one life, which means that there will be unity.” …

When they are functioning, the Good Message and also the Power and the Peace, moreover, these will be the principal things everybody will live by; these will be the great values among the people.”

– Chief John Arthur Gibson, Concerning the League: The Iroquois League as Dictated in Onondaga, newly elicited, edited and translated by Hanni Woodbury in Collaboration with Reg Henry and Harry Webster on the Basis of A.A. Goldenweiser’s Manuscript. Memoir 9 (Winnipeg: Algonquian and Iroquoian Linguistics, 1992): 36–41. 

ABSTRACT

Academic and popular interest has lent prestige to native spirituality and has brought it into prominence. The United Nations proclamation of 1993 as the International Year of Indigenous People gave native peoples international recognition. A corresponding interest in native culture has “valorised” (brought respect to) native spirituality.

The National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Canada took a position of advocacy on behalf of First Nations Canadians in its formal submission to the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples in the fall of 1993. The strong native presence in Canadian Bahá’í community life raises the question of the place of native spirituality within a Bahá’í worldview.

Homefront “pioneers” have extended Bahá’í universalism to a recognition of the richness and authenticity of native cultural values. Such recognition has been supported by local Bahá’í policy, as attested in teaching pamphlets addressed to native peoples, in which the concept of First World messengers of God has been validated. Although theoretically acknowledged, explicit recognition of native messengers of God has yet to be formalised in Bahá’í doctrine.

This study discusses the possibilities of incorporating the principle of “Messengers of God to Indigenous Peoples” within formal Bahá’í doctrine, reflecting a development that has already taken place in popular Bahá’í belief in the North American context. A hitherto under-studied Persian text of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá establishes the principle in such a way that its explicit enunciation is now possible.

The problem of historical attestation remains. The prophetic credentials of Iroquois culture hero and statesman Deganawida are critically examined as a test case. The legend of Deganawida has a kernel of historicity overlaid by hagiography, with admitted Christian influence. Nonetheless, if the Bahá’í principle of “Progressive Revelation” can assimilate the Amerindian spiritual legacy as distinct from and developmentally asynchronous with Irano-Semitic and Sino-Indic religious histories, then it might be possible to accord Deganawida a provisional status with Bahá’í prophetology, and still affirm Bahá’u’lláh’s unific role in world history, as oral cultures take their place alongside the more familiar “literate” traditions.

https://www.academia.edu/36294314/_Native_Messengers_of_God_in_Canada_1996_

Controversy surrounds the origin of the y-chromosome R lineages among Native Americans in the United States. Most researchers assume that the occurrence of this gene among Native Americans is the result of European admixture. This view is not supported by the phylogeography of haplogroup R1 which does not correspond to the former territories of the European colonies with the highest population densities. The
location of this paternal clade, on the other hand, does match the former centers of Black Native American occupation (and the forced migration of Mongoloid and Black Native Americans into the American Southwest), which suggest that the presence of R1 among Mongoloid Native Americans is the result of Mongoloid-Black Native American admixture. This Indian-African admixture would have been between SSA and the Black Native Americans already living here at the advent of the colonial era mating Mongoloid Native Americans. The African specific R-M173 yDNA form a Sub-Saharan African (SSA)
subclade , which in association with the SSA R-M269 subclade in Africa, reveal that there was gene flow from SSA toward mongoloid people in North America, probably during the past 500 years.

American Indians and Alaska Natives (AI/ANs) experience significant cancer disparities. To inform future public health efforts, a web-based needs assessment survey collected quantitative and qualitative data from AI/AN community health workers and cancer survivors in the northwestern United States. Content analysis of qualitative responses identified themes to contextualize quantitative results. Seventy-six AI/AN respondents (93% female) described substantial unmet needs for education and resources to assist cancer survivors, including a shortage of patient navigators, support groups, and home health care workers. Fear of negative outcomes, a culturally rooted avoidance of discussing illness, and transportation difficulties were cited as major barriers to participation in cancer education and receipt of health services. Face-to-face contact was overwhelmingly preferred for community education and support, but many respondents were receptive to other communication channels, including e-mail, social media, and webinars. Survey results highlight the importance of culturally sensitive approaches to overcome barriers to cancer screening and education in AI/AN communities. Qualitative analysis revealed a widespread perception among respondents that available financial and human resources were insufficient to support AI/AN cancer patients’ needs.

Sociohistorical analysis of four words commonly used in the language of Western mental health, Indigenous, intelligence, disorder, and depression reveal a “Domination Code” masking past and present professional complicity of the U.S. and global mental health system in the oppression of Indigenous peoples. A historicity is offered of concepts of inferior Indigenous intelligence and current pseudoscientific ideologies within Western biological psychiatry dominating WHO’s mhGAP (Mental Health Gap Action Programme) exported to these communities. mhGAP’s cultural hegemony is achieved through Western mental health ideologies that decontextualize, depoliticize, minimize, and marginalize the lived experience of cultural oppression on health and wellbeing. This program appears to violate the spirit of Article 23 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous people.
Keywords: Indigenous, Native American, American Indian, First Nations, Aboriginal, Mental Health, Behavioral Health, Eugenics, Liberation Psychology, World Health Organization, WHO, mhGAP, Mental Health Gap Programme

Helmcken Falls is a 141 m (463 ft) waterfall on the Murtle River within Wells Gray Provincial Park in British Columbia, Canada. The protection of Helmcken Falls was one of the reasons for the creation of Wells Gray Provincial Park in 1939.

-Gray/Grey- ref.note.

Helmcken Falls is the fourth highest waterfall in Canada, measured by total straight drop without a break. Higher Canadian waterfalls are Hunlen Falls in Tweedsmuir Provincial Park, Takakkaw Falls in Yoho National Park, and Della Falls in Strathcona Provincial Park, all in British Columbia.

There are six other waterfalls on the Murtle River, upstream from Helmcken Falls. The others are The Mushbowl, Dawson Falls, Majerus Falls, Horseshoe Falls, Meadow Falls and McDougall Falls.

The Canadian Pacific Railway surveyors in the 1870s passed to the north and made no mention of seeing the falls. Credit for discovering Helmcken Falls goes to Robert Henry Lee (1859–1935), a land surveyor working for the British Columbia government. In 1911, Lee was awarded a four-year contract to survey lands in the North Thompson and Clearwater Valleys. By 1913, he was working south of the Murtle River laying out lots for homesteaders. On July 24, 1913, he walked west along the Murtle River from his remote camp and reached the top of the waterfall.
He was so impressed that he wrote a letter to Sir Richard McBride, Premier of British Columbia, requesting that the falls be named "McBride Falls".
Three weeks later, Lee received a reply from the Premier stating that the waterfall was instead to be called Helmcken Falls.
This name honoured John Sebastian Helmcken, a physician with the Hudson's Bay Company who arrived in Victoria in 1850. He helped bring British Columbia into Canadian Confederation in 1871.

Dr. Helmcken died in 1920 at the age of 95, but never actually saw the falls himself.

The Ojibwe view all of life as the “Spiritual World” and have been speaking this simple truth, through out all of their plights, to any one who would and will listen and hear the truth of their words, not as words, but as a reality. They ask, “Where did you come from if not from your Mother (earth)?” And yet rarely are they heard. Time and again, they have been moved from place to place, with the claims of papers (treaties) stating that land can be owned and that they must move on. Meanwhile, they watch as those papers (treaties) eat up and destroy the only home that all have been gifted to live on from the Mother … earth.

The focus of this study is roadway safety in American Indian reservations. We provide new sources of data and policy- relevant findings to address the unusually high rates of roadway fatalities and injuries among American Indians. Qualitative methods were used to generate and analyze data from people with the most direct knowledge of and responsibility for reservation roadway safety. Four case studies were conducted in partnership with the tribal governments of the Red Lake, Fond du Lac, Leech Lake, and Mille Lacs reservations; these data sources include fieldwork (90 days), interviews (n=102), focus groups (n=8), and short surveys (n=220). These data are triangulated with data from FHWA’s 2016 nationwide survey of tribes and states (n=196). Key findings from this extensive data analysis are: 1. Pedestrian safety is a critical, yet under-recognized issue on reservations. This is unequivocal across all data sources and differentiates reservations from rural areas in general. 2. Reservation road engineering and repair are very high priorities according to both tribe and state governments. 3. Reckless driving is a multi-faceted concern, including not only impaired driving but also cell phone distraction and speeding. 4. Education and enforcement to increase seatbelt and car seat use are named as high priorities in the national survey. 5. Tribes need better cooperation with local, state, and federal agencies. Priorities include addressing data quality and sharing issues better inter-jurisdictional cooperation for infrastructure and enforcement. The study concludes with recommendations to improve roadway safety in reservations and for further research.

Leanne Betasamosake Simpson (Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg) has accomplished an amazing feat in her forthcoming book, "As We Have Always Done." She confronts colonialism from the perspective of Indigenous nationhood, but goes beyond arguing for changes in politics, writing in a way that enacts changes in our thinking about politics. Simpson articulates Indigenous nationhood as "a radical and complete overturning of the nation-state's political formations." This reiterates what others have found when they dig to the roots ['radical' comes from Latin 'radix': root]: Indigenous reality in and of itself challenges Western modes of thinking and acting. Simpson deploys the content of this insight in the process of her writing. She writes—rather than writes about—Indigenous nationhood.

The Russian Orthodox mission to Alaska can be understood in terms of liberative mission. The article shows how the missionaries succeeded in allowing Christianity to become indigenized in native Alaskan cultures, rather than attempting to make the indigenous peoples Russian. It did this through an attention to the narratives, religious and otherwise, of the Alaskan peoples and by allowing these narratives to address and be addressed by the Christian narrative. Current anthropological research points to the depth of the roots of this indigenization, and how it helped in the identity formation of the native peoples especially after the sale of Alaska to the United States when their identity was under severe external threat. The Russian Orthodox mission to Alaska provides a good historical case study of how the gospel can be indigenized in a way that empowers people and suggests a tradition available to Orthodox churches today as they seek to become more mission-minded.

A summation of some of the themes
that were raised in a presentation held at the Evergreen
gallery on August 8, 2017. The speakers included the
artists who led each of the workshops—Jim Denomie
(painting,) Denise Wallace (jewelry,) Nora Naranjo
Morse (clay,) Marwin Begaye (printing), Larry McNeil
(photography), Dan Friday (glass), and Dempsey
Bob (carving). In addition, other speakers included
Linley Logan, who co-curated the exhibition that
accompanied the gathering; Marques Marzan, who
spoke about the role of Hawaiian artists at these
gatherings; June Grant and Sandy Adsett reflected on
the Māori role in the origination and success of these
ongoing events; Trudy Marcellay, who reflected on
her family’s participation and the key role played by
her late mother, Hazel Pete, in leading the weaving
workshop at the previous gathering; and, of course,
Lillian Pitt, who shared her anecdote of how her
engagement with the Māori eventually inspired Tina
Kuckkahn-Miller to plan a gathering at the Longhouse
in 2001.

Historia Indian Ameryki Północnej jest o wiele bardziej złożona
i barwna, niż mogłoby się wydawać. Jak dawniej wyglądało życie
rdzennych mieszkańców tego kontynentu, jeszcze przed przybyciem
Europejczyków? I czy dzisiejsi Indianie wciąż mają łączność z tradycją?

Tribes around the United States and Canada are working to bring back some of these lost languages through a revitalization process that began in the 1960s. It has restored pride in the children to learn their Native tongue and culture without shame or threat. It would seem that a whole people went into hibernation, until the long winter of fear and attack on their culture began to end and they are now opening up to the spring time that lay before them, where they can plant their seeds of language, story telling, ceremonies and practices once again, in an environment that is no longer afraid of their ways, but genuinely interested.

The Grolier Codex (Codice Maya de Mexico, CMM) is discussed in the context of the archaeoastronomy of the ancient Americas on pages 98-99 of the March 1990 National Geographic Magazine article "America's Ancient Skywatchers" by John B. Carlson. One of four known ancient Maya books, the Grolier Codex depicts different manifestations of the planet Venus; the column of glyphs on the left of each panel records days in a 104-year Venus almanac. These plaster-coated bark-paper pages, carbon-dated to the 13th century, represent only half of the 20-page original. A numbered photographic arrangement of the Grolier Codex depictes the author's discovery that Codex pages 10 and 11 are actually two parts of the same "page 10".  Carlson clarifies the identities of Venus deities depicted in the Grolier Codex from a comparison of images from the Cacaxtla murals and links the images of the Grolier Codex with ancient Maya astronomically timed ritual warfare and sacrifice. (Grolier Codex photographs: Enrico Ferorelli; Other photos: Bob Sacha)

This article has been posted on Academia.edu as part of the Grolier Codex Project of the Center for Archaeoastronomy under the directorship of John B. Carlson, Ph.D.  The Grolier Codex Project seeks to further advance the study of the Maya Grolier Codex.

Contemporary Indigenous women’s literature illustrates how American Indian women facilitate adaptation from “traditional” communities to diverse urban communities.  The objective of this study is to examine how Northern Athabascan women lead in communities which are not exclusive to these Indigenous peoples.  The use of Athabascan values such as self-sufficiency, hard work, practice of traditions, caring, sharing, family relations, and respect for elders and others, can be seen as one example of how women lead in non-“traditional” communities.  This thesis examines Athabascan women leaders who have worked at two seasonal Native-owned hotels in Alaska as a case study to examine how women lead.  By analyzing the women of Doyon Tourism Inc. through the framework of Athabascan values, evidence of cultural continuity can be seen through the sustained use of “traditional” values.

When the World Eskimo Indian Olympics first began in 1961 the organizers wanted a woman representative to oversee the games.  The surrounding villages were asked to send in their prettiest young women to vie for the title.  Fifty years later the Olympic Games and the pageant contest have grown significantly.  While the games have grown in size, attracting more competitors and drawing larger crowds each year, the pageant has grown in maturity.  The original concept of a woman representative to oversee the games is still the same, yet the contest has been adapted.  The beauty contest, in which the participants had to parade in a swimsuit and learned to walk like a lady, has now become a fully-fledged cultural ambassador program with a focus on leadership and community service.  But how exactly has the contest evolved over the years?  What do the young women do in their roles as cultural ambassadors?  And how is that different from what the young women did as beauty pageant contestants?  This article gives the history of the Miss World Eskimo Indian Olympics pageant, illustrating significant changes between the first ten years and the current contest.  The conclusion suggests how the contest has become a venue to promote, sustain, and revitalize Indigenous cultures through youth leadership.

Few in Hollywood knew that James Young Deer, general manager of Pathé Frères West Coast Studio from 1911 to 1914, was really an imposter. After all, Young Deer had earned a reputation as the first Native American producer and had worked alongside D. W. Griffith, Fred J. Balshofer, and Mack Sennett.  For decades, he eluded film historians.  But after ten months of poking through dusty archives and faded vital records, the identity of this mysterious filmmaker finally came to light.

Wilderness as a concept emerged as a way of thinking about nature with the beginnings of a pastoral way of living around twelve thousand years ago.  It was conceived as a region where one was likely to get into a confused, disordered, or “wild” condition, but it is now commonly defined as uncultivated and otherwise undeveloped land.  This essay investigates how wilderness is represented, and any associated limitations, in Jon Krakauer’s non-fictional account and Sean Penn’s film adaptation of Chris McCandless’s journey Into the Wild. Firstly, the Alaskan wilderness is treated as a sanctuary, separate from “civilisation”, a place where the “civilised” individual can retreat to escape from the perils of ordinary life. Secondly, Into the Wild continues the literary tradition of portraying wilderness as antagonist to man and his works, and a relentless environment that needs to be “tamed” and “conquered”.  Thirdly, wilderness is exclusive, following on from the American pioneering tradition, as a “frontier” reserved for the individual white American male. Lastly, it suggests the existence of a pure and pristine wilderness that is devoid of other human inhabitants and a history. All of these themes impose limitations on our understanding of “wilderness”.

Prior to contact with Europeans, California Indigenous peoples maintained a culture of three genders: male, female, and joya. Spanish missionaries and soldiers, however, viewed joyas as practicing "the execrable, unnatural abuse of their bodies" and reported that "we place our trust in God and expect that these accursed people will disappear with the growth of the missions. The abominable vice will be eliminated to the extent that the Catholic faith and all the other virtues are firmly implanted there, for the glory of God and the benefit of those poor ignorants." I argue that what Spaniards saw as a religious duty was actually a form of gendercide, the destruction of an entire third gender, and explore the various strategies employed to accomplish this gendercide. Ultimately, this gendercide-while severely destructive to both joyas and the indigenous community-was unsuccessful, and I further argue that we are experiencing a renaissance of joyas in the form of two-spirited indigenous peoples.

This essay focuses on the movement to free Leonard Peltier to better understand the relationship between the rhetoric of American Indian activism and non–American Indian audiences. A rhetorical analysis of Peltier's response to denial of clemency in 2001 reveals how Peltier appealed to non–American Indian supporters to join in a broader struggle for American Indian social justice revealing a rhetorical strategy of transference from individual to collective. The essay challenges assumptions of previous research and adds more complexity to our understanding of the rhetoric of American Indian activism.

Anishinaabe White Earth Ojibwe Gerald Vizenor in the 1990's repurposed an old legal term — "survivance" — to define a combination of survival and resistance of Native Peoples. Vizenor deployed the term in conjunction with a new phrase of his own making — "postindian"— to mount an assault on conventional discourse about Native Peoples. He proposed that the dominant discourse about Native Peoples is a discourse of domination. He attacked "Indian" as a rhetorical trope inextricably tied to subjugation, assimilation, and simulation, which he called "manifest manners."
With these thoughts in mind, let us look at the project to decolonize Native Studies discourses and, by extension, discourses emanating beyond classrooms. I suggest four arguments every student in Native Studies must encounter if we are to continue to move away from manifest manners and toward survivance, struggle, resistance, and innovation. The arguments focus on "INDIAN", "TRIBE", "GENOCIDE", and "NATIVE RIGHTS / CIVIL RIGHTS".

Explores how the heritage and behind-the-scenes activities of Native American actors and filmmakers helped shape their own movie images. Highlights Native actors in lead or supporting roles and how a "pan-Indian heritage" that applies to all tribes in terms of spirituality, historical trauma, and a version of ceremony and storytelling have shaped these performers' movie identities.

Available March 2022                    ISBN 978-1440871566

The extraordinary story of the Nahuhulk, a Tlingit/Tsimshian copper artifact of great power, prestige, and value.  This tale narrates the story of the Copper from its forging in a Tlngit village in the 1700s, its acquisition by the chief Wisaiks, and its subsequent dramatic history.

The tlakwa or Copper is a symbol of surplus wealth, cultural nourishment, conspicuous consumption and spiritual power among the Kwakiutl, the Tsimshian, the Tlingit, the Haida, and other indigenous peoples of coastal British Columbia. Names of high ranking people often contained references to copper, such as “Born to be Copper Maker Woman” and “Copper Maker.” Copper was also used as a decorative motif on garments, staffs, and crest carvings, where it represented wealth. The Copper was made of a large flat sheet of beaten metal cut in the shape of a flared shield, with a T shaped ridge beaten onto the lower portion. The shape perhaps reflects the trunk proportions of the human body, or possibly a filleted salmon. The Tsimshian thought it represented the backbone of an ancestor. The size varied in height from six inches to three feet.

In this article, see pages 164, 166-168 for Stuart's discussion of the Grolier Codex.  It is highly significant that the Mexican State of Chiapas and the Universidad Autonoma de Chiapas chose to include the Grolier Codex as an authentic ancient Maya book in 1985 and make a fine color facsimile available along with the Dresden, Paris, and Madrid codices for further research. 

This review and essay of "Los Codices Mayas" is being posted as a personal tribute to my friend and colleague, the late George E. Stuart, Ph.D. (1935 - 2014) for his great generosity and many extraordinary contributions promoting world archaeology over several generations.

This article has been posted on Academia.edu as part of the Grolier Codex Project of the Center for Archaeoastronomy under the directorship of John B. Carlson, Ph.D.  The Grolier Codex Project seeks to further advance the study of the Maya Grolier Codex.

This is a biographical sketch of the Odaawaa Chief Mookomaanish (aka Little Knife aka Mokomaunish aka Pebamitapi). Mookomaanish fought alongside the British during the War of 1812, was a chief of L'Arbre Croche, in upper state Michigan, specifically the village of the Cross (aka Cross Village), and later a chief in Wikwemikong on Manitoulin Island. He signed treaties on the American and Canadian side after the war. This paper traces his policies, diplomatic interactions and speeches.

The paper discussed a number of events related to military clashes between Tlingit Indians and American sea fur-traders and U.S. Army and Navy. In the first half of the 19th century, sea fur-traders were drawn in similar clashes with the American side. Tlingits attacked them planning revenge or robbery. After the transfer of Alaska in 1867 to the U.S. jurisdiction, series of collisions took place between the Tlingits and U.S. military, the cause of which was mutual misunderstanding of the parties. The to-called “Kake War” (1869), the Bombardments of Wrangell (1869) and Angoon (1882) and number of collisions on the Sitka Island became the result.

The fourth known pre-Columbian Maya codex—the only one discovered in the 20th century—was found by looters in the mid-1960s. First exhibited in New York in 1971, what has come to be known as the Grolier Codex is half of a hybrid-style 20-page, 104-year Mesoamerican divinatory Venus Almanac. With new radiocarbon dates that place it in the 13th century CE, it is likely to be the oldest surviving book on paper from the Americas as well as the only ancient Maya codex now residing in Mexico. Although most Mayanists have accepted it as authentic, based in part on the author’s 40 years of research,* it remains an unacknowledged Mexican national treasure as it has never been officially recognized except in the State of Chiapas. Mesoamerican Venus Almanacs were widely used in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica to regulate practices of sacred warfare and ritual sacrifice, the goal of which was to obtain captives whose blood was shed to invoke the personified forces of rain and fertility. The Grolier Codex offers unique images of 10 of the 20 manifestations of Venus (named in the Maya Dresden Codex), greatly enriching our knowledge of these traditions documented in four other pre-Columbian codices as well as numerous archaeological and ethnohistoric sources. This article is a summary of the talk given on November 7, 2014 to the Pre-Columbian Society of Washington DC and includes a brief history of accounts of the discovery of the Grolier Codex and allegedly associated artifacts; photographic history; outlines the author’s comprehensive program of research, including several new scientific discoveries leading to an interpretation of the Codex—based on the Dresden Codex and other sources; and offers a new Latinized name that recognizes that the “Codex Mayano-Mexicanus” is an authentic ancient book deriving from the Maya culture and now properly residing in Mexico.

          *See <http://umd.academia.edu/JohnBCarlson>.

Also utilized as part of the November 7, 2014 talk are TWO 1983 historical STUDY GUIDE documents which can be viewed at the following academia.edu links:

• GROLIER CODEX Page Study Guide: Pages 1-9 and Reconstructed Page 10/11 (1983): 

https://www.academia.edu/7911420/GROLIER_CODEX_Page_Study_Guide_Pages_1-9_and_Reconstructed_Page_10_11

• GROLIER CODEX Comparative Study Guide (1983): Grolier pages 1-9 and reconstructed page 10/11 with Maya Dresden Codex Venus Almanac page numbers 48/1 – 50/2 with Venus Station and Directional Associations; Names (on Dresden Rows 17 & 22) of the associated Venus Impersonators; and Initial (1983) interpretations of the Grolier Codex scenes & iconographic interpretations. Over the three decades since 1983, some of the glyphic and iconographic interpretations have changed, as discussed in the presentation. The details are in press:

https://www.academia.edu/9208071/GROLIER_CODEX_Comparative_Study_Guide_1983_

*****

This article has been posted on Academia.edu as part of the Grolier Codex Project of the Center for Archaeoastronomy under the directorship of John B. Carlson, Ph.D.  The Grolier Codex Project seeks to further advance the study of the Maya Grolier Codex.

Nushagak, Alaska, 19th century: Wallaunuk as a Shaman’s Free Soul

[I] The discovery in 2007 and the in-depth study of a Yup’ik seal mask identified the ritual practice of using halved paired masks, designed by the shaman as simultaneous counterparts featuring one sole entity, needed for celebrating and illustrating the Beginning of Times, at Nushagak, Bristol Bay, Alaska in the 19th century (Jean-Loup Rousselot, 2011).

[II] Although largely documented, the family of twelve masks from Nushagak gathered from 1875 on, until 2019, was until now given as built in asymmetrical pairs – symmetry yet appearing in several, the meaning of such family not being yet studied as a whole.

[III] Following to these observations, this essay distinguishes, within this group of masks, paired masks according to gender (“couple”), their generation or family filiation (“mother and cub”), their halving or repetition of one sole protagonist demonstrating the ubiquity of a single character (“simultaneous homologues”); far from being opposite or limited, such identities may overlap and complete each other (“polysemy”);
as well, the addition of “main” external elements grafted to a core-mask, allowing evolution of this central person within the shaman’s narration scheme to a so-called extended use (“interleaving”); as such its transformation into a seal-bird mask, or hunter’s mask – would be here a version of the seal mask decorated by grafted appendages (“interweaving”) – These additions were simply expletive or “decorative” clues to the interpretation and ramifications of the stage drama, leaving their bearer mask unchanged as the stem or central character (Knecht, Mossolova and alii, 2019-2020). As to the works by the Nushagak Master, a bird head (Metropolitan museum, NYC), a mammal head (MQB), legs, mouths or ears.

[IV] The reconstituted group as a family of masks (Sean Mooney, 2018) is here studied under the scope of Yup’ik cosmology and Pan-inuit myths (in particular, as given by Brigitt Sonne, 2017), making it possible to approach its symbolic value and might trace the various mythological characters attached to each of the masks.

[V] The Bearded Seal-Spirit hence appears both (i) as a remembrance of a Seal cult and the personification as such of People in the village of origin Agalik, discovered at Nunalleq, Alaska (in Knecht, Mossolova and alii, 2019-2020) and (ii) as the central figure of the Nushagak rite. This cult ceased in the early twentieth century (Resp. Chuna McIntyre – Sean Mooney, 2018).

[VI] Specifically, with this twinned split mask to be reported at birth (J.L. Rousselot, 2010), the Seal Spirit on both twinned masks would thus feature his main and initial incarnation - namely the transformation of the primordial Spirit lying in the abyss into a breathing being, representing the initial moment of its birth from the Other World at the bottom of the oceans  – a  central Spirit in Yup’ik mythology and cosmology, personified or multiplied in several named characters.

[VII] The Nushagak masks – attributed to a named family of practitioners (Resp. Chuna McIntyre – Sean Mooney, 2018) would prove such Spirit of the Seals, Wallaunuk, Master of Bubbles, representing the global cosmic Spirit Sila and intercessor with the marine world, to have been the Free Soul Spirit attached to these two Nushagak Masters as the legacy following the spiritual gift and the sculpted visions bequeathed by the Shaman Dyeutciaq to his son Agyatciaq (the latter being named after a Star, the Family indeed in direct connection with the Cosmos – in Resp. Chuna McIntyre – Sean Mooney, 2018).

As accompanied, indeed, by a walrus mask and a bear mask (Resp. Chuna McIntyre – Sean Mooney, 2018), his two star-guardians appearing by his side in the ceremony, the primordial Bearded Seal mask would incarnate the Yup’ik mythical Star, Anautalik, the ultimate cosmic person (B. Sonne, 2017) as here for the ritual ceremonies at Nushagak.

Key Words: Arctic – Alaska - Branly (Musée) – Clark, J - Cosmology – Jacobsen A. - Initiation – Levi-strauss C. – Mask - Metropolitan Museum – Mythology – Nushagak – Paalen W. - Pinart, A. - Rockefeller, N.A. - (Bearded) Seal – Sedna – Shaman – Shamanism - Sila – Spirit - Surrealism – Thwaites, J.E. -  Wallaunuk – Yup’ik

The fourth known pre-Columbian Maya codex, the only one discovered in the twentieth century, was found by looters in the mid-1960s. First exhibited in New York in 1971, what has come to be known as the  Grolier Codex is half of a 20-page, 104-year divinatory hybrid-style Mesoamerican Venus Almanac, probably the physically oldest surviving pre-Columbian book, and with new radiocarbon dates that place it in the thirteenth century CE. It is likely to be the oldest surviving book on paper from the Americas as well as the only ancient Maya codex now residing in Mexico. Although most Mayanists have accepted it as authentic, based in part on the author’s 40 years of research, it remains an unacknowledged Mexican national treasure, as it has never been officially recognized. Mesoamerican Venus Almanacs were widely used in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica to regulate practices of sacred warfare, the goal of which was to obtain captives for sacrifice, their blood shed to invoke the personified forces of rain and fertility. The  Codex offers unique images of 10 of the 20 manifestations of Venus, greatly enriching our knowledge of these traditions. The present study offers a brief history of accounts of the discovery of the Codex and allegedly associated artifacts; presents a documented photographic history; outlines the author’s comprehensive program of research, including several new scientific discoveries; and offers a new Latinized name that recognizes that the Codex Mayano-Mexicanus is an authentic ancient book deriving from the Maya culture and now properly residing in Mexico.


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This article has been posted on Academia.edu as part of the Grolier Codex Project of the Center for Archaeoastronomy under the directorship of John B. Carlson, Ph.D.  The Grolier Codex Project seeks to further advance the study of the Maya Grolier Codex.

The feud between the Tlingit Indians clans Kaagwaantaan and Naanyaa.aayi grew out of a private quarrel over the abduction of a woman, but then it turned into a fierce bloody confrontation, that dragged on for a hundred years. The most striking events of this war were the defeat of the Kaagwaantaans in 1830 and the treacherous massacre of the peace delegation of the clan Naanyaa.aayi in 1852. The article examines in detail these and other events of the long war, as well as the circumstances of the reconciliation of both clans at the beginning of the XX century.

Thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy
OPEN PASSAGE: ETHNO-ARCHAEOLOGY OF SKIN BOATS AND INDIGENEOUS MARITIME MOBILITY OF NORTH-AMERICAN ARCTIC
Evguenia V. Anichtchenko

This thesis is an examination of prehistoric maritime mobility in the Arctic regions of North America through the ethno-archaeological analysis of skin boats. Covering over 100,000 km of coastline, the skin boat traditions of the Arctic and Subarctic zones are arguably among the most expansive watercraft technologies in the world, dating back at least 10,000 years. Despite the considerable material record generated by this geographically and chronologically extended use,  and the potential this record contains for understanding Arctic maritime mobility, skin boat datasets are rarely considered in scholarly discussions on prehistoric exchanges and population movement.  This study aims at closing this gap by focusing on the skin boat record as a key dataset for assessing the scale, nature and significance of maritime mobility in the North-American Arctic.  The analysis of particular regional trends and cross-regional patterns is based on review of three case studies. Moving west to east this review starts in the Bering Strait region with a particular focus on the Kukulik site on St. Lawrence Island. Maritime mobility in the Chukchi Sea region is assessed through the archaeological assembly of the Birnirk site near Point Barrow, Alaska. The third case study is focused on the Qariaraqyuk site on Somerset Island, extending the geography of the research to the Central Canadian Arctic. Individual boat parts and the information they provide for reconstructing complete watercraft are analyzed along with the boat fragment frequency and spatial distribution.  This provides understanding of the statistical and social makeup of seafaring in Arctic North America, of the logistics of maritime mobility, of the larger scale cross-regional and chronological patterns of skin boat design and use, and, ultimately, of the role of seafaring in constructing cultural landscapes of the prehistoric Arctic.

This dissertation explores the adaptation of traditionally objectified women's spaces, into an arena for leadership development, research which incorporates the development of culturally relevant mechanisms of leadership training within Indigenous societies.  Cultural pageants offer a place for young women to become spokespersons on social justice issues, without the sexual objectification of entering beauty pageants.  Such pageants also provide a glimpse of how cultural groups wish their national identity to be portrayed to the general public.  Fifty years in the making, today's Native Nations cultural pageants have been decolonized to present images of young leaders, confident in their heritage, introducing themselves in their Native language, and committed to cultural continuity and sustainable Nations.  This research examines a state-wide Alaska Native pageant, Miss World Eskimo Indian Olympics, from three perspectives: 1) the young women who develop culturally based leadership skills; 2) the community, who gains language and cultural, revitalization and maintenance role models; 3) and the general public, who gains a much needed positive representation of a contemporary Indigenous woman.  This study draws from interdisciplinary theories and research methodologies (including observation, in-depth interviews, questionnaires, surveys, and archival research) and follows the young women through to the contest at the national level, Miss Indian World, run annually in Albuquerque, through Gathering of Nations.  The underlying hypothesis is that women use cultural pageants as a stepping stone to advance their cultural leadership.  In doing so, they promote factors of community well-being affecting Indigenous communities, such as suicide prevention, substance abuse, and language and cultural revitalization.

Résumé / Abstract

[I] La découverte en 2007 et l’étude approfondie d’une masque Yup’ik de Phoque permettaient d’identifier la pratique d’utilisation rituelle de masques jumelés, conçus par le chamane comme une paire d'homologues simultanés dédoublés, pour les besoins du rite de représentation du « commencement des Temps », à Nushagak, Baie de Bristol (Alaska) au XIXe siècle (Jean-Loup Rousselot, 2011).

[II] Une famille de douze masques de Nushagak, collectés depuis 1875 et identifiés jusqu’en 2019 (Resp. Chuna McIntyre – Sean Mooney, 2019), était jusqu’à présent donnée pour être formée par paires asymétriques, quoique des exemplaires symétriques fussent observés - la signification d’une telle famille complexe n’ayant pas donné lieu à une étude spécifique.

[III] La présente étude se propose de distinguer dans ce corpus les masques appareillés selon le sexe (« couple »), leur génération ou filiation (mère-petit), leur répétition d’un même protagoniste suivant les apparitions simultanées de ce dernier rendues nécessaires par la dramaturgie du rite (« homologues simultanés »), vouée à illustrer rituellement l’ubiquité d’un même personnage (« dédoublement »). Loin de s’opposer ou se contredire, ces identités se chevauchent et se complètent selon l’évolution sémiotique d’un même masque en divers protagonistes pouvant relever d’une figuration symboliquement liée (en reliant, pour Nushagak, l’esprit-phoque, donné par la mythologie comme permettant la représentation de plusieurs entités, simultanées (polysémie) ou successives (re-interprétation autour d’un corps central ou « core mask » ). L’ajout d’éléments extérieurs permettait l’évolution narrative du masque, au sujet et autour de cette même personne initiale, établissant un décor visuel du cours de la narration et une interprétation contextuelle ne modifiant pas le personnage ou esprit central figuré (« imbrication »). Ainsi la superposition « phoque-oiseau » figurait le chasseur tel que se le représente le phoque (changement de POV, ou « vue d’ensemble ») – à savoir comme un volatile marin, tels ajouts ayant une fonction annexe limitée, simplement explétive et « décorative » (Knecht, Mossolova and alii, 2019-2020). Pour les œuvres de Nushagak, l’ajout d’une tête d’oiseau (Metropolitan museum, NYC), d’une tête de mammifère (MQB), de pattes, palmes, bouches, oreilles… sont des éléments amovibles et annexes d’interprétation de ce déroulement dramaturgique, restituant les circonstances du récit se déroulant.

[IV] Le groupe des douze masques restitué en une famille (Sean Mooney, 2018) donne ici lieu à une interprétation inédite suivant la cosmologie Yup’ik et les mythes Pan-Inuit (en particulier, tels que transcrits par Brigitt Sonne, 2017), permettant d’en comprendre la valeur symbolique probable et de retracer les différents personnages attachés à ces représentations et variantes.

[V] L’Esprit-Phoque Barbu apparaît à la fois comme (i) la poursuite ou résurgence d’un culte et de la personnification du phoque au sein des populations du village d’origine Agalik (15e-18e siècles), localisé au nord du fleuve Kuskwokwim en 2008 (Knecht, Mossolova and alii, 2019-2020), et, de même (ii) comme la figure rituelle centrale à Nushagak ; Ce culte y cessait au début du vingtième siècle (Resp. Chuna McIntyre – Sean Mooney, 2019).

[VI] De manière spécifique, et ce masque dédoublé se devant d'être rapporté à une naissance (J.L. Rousselot, 2011), l’Esprit-Phoque sur les deux masques jumeaux représenterait ainsi son incarnation première et majeure - à savoir la transformation de l'esprit primordial, enfoui dans les abysses, en un animal pouvant échanger et dialoguer avec les humains, via le chamane - figurant le moment initial de sa naissance au fonds des océans depuis le Monde-Autre.

[VII] Le groupe des masques de Nushagak, attribués à une unique famille de chamanes-sculpteurs identifiés et nommés (Resp. Chuna McIntyre – Sean Mooney, 2019), nous amène à considérer cet Esprit-Phoque Barbu, Maître des Bulles, Wallaunuk, représentant l’esprit cosmique global Sila et intercesseur avec le monde marin, comme ayant été l’Esprit-guide (« Free Soul ») attaché à la pratique et la personne de ces deux maîtres chamanes-sculpteurs de Nushagak, suivant le don spirituel et les visions sculptées légués par le Chamane Dyeutciaq à son fils Agyatciaq – nom en relation directe avec le Cosmos (Resp. Chuna McIntyre – Sean Mooney, 2019). Accompagné par un masque Morse et un masque Ours Polaire (effectivement présents dans cette famille : in Resp. Chuna McIntyre – Sean Mooney, 2019), ses deux gardiens stellaires dans les cérémonies, le Phoque Barbu Primordial y incarnait l’Etoile Yup’ik mythique Anautalik (B. Sonne, 2017) - comme ce masque pour le rite de Nushagak.

Atabasklar, Atabask halkları, Atabask Kızılderilileri, Athabaskalar[2] ya da Deneler (İngilizce: Athabascan/Athabaskan/Athapascan/Athapaskan/Dene peoples, Athabascans, Athabascan Indians, Athabascan Native Americans, Athabascan-speaking peoples, Athabasca Indians), Kuzey Amerika'da Amerika Birleşik Devletleri ile Kanada'da yaşayan ve Na-Dene dillerinin Atabask dilleri grubundan dilleri konuşan, avcı ve toplayıcı, yarı göçebe, anasoylu, animist-şamanist Kızılderili halklardır. Kanada (Kanada Atabaskları) Alaska (Alaska Atabaskları) yoğun olmak üzere. ABD'nin Kuzey Pasifik kıyıları, orta güney bölgeleri ile Meksika'nın kuzey sınır bölgelerine kadar yerli halk Atabask dili konuşur bu dilde yoğun Türkçe kökenli kelime mevcuttur. Şaman kültürü ile Türk kültürüne yakın bir kültür vardır. Atabaskan çoğunlukla kabile şeflerinin lakabıdır. Son yapılan bilimsel çalışmalarla Atabaskların Ural Altay Türk dil gurubu Yenisey dili ile ortak dil yapısına sahip olduğu kanıtlanmıştır. Atabaskların Asyadan Amerika ya Bering boğazı üzerinden göç ederek Amerika kıtasına yerleştikleri belirtilmektedir....
Devamı yazımızda...
Fatih Mehmet Yiğit

The late thirteenth century religious ideologies that transformed the Pueblo World sprang from far-ranging beliefs, rituals, and social relations inextricably linked to Mesoamerica (Figure 2.1). Indigenous peoples living in the southwest of the United States and the northwest of México (the Southwest/Northwest) clearly share many aspects of cosmology, iconography, belief, and ritual with peoples living in Mesoamerica. But, Pueblo religion also differs from Mesoamerican religion in many ways. It did not diffuse north in neat packages of cosmology and ritual, nor did Mesoamerican missionaries, traders, or conquers impose a new religion on Pueblo Peoples. This chapter presents a more complex model of this relationship that considers the historical dynamics of similarity and difference between the Pueblos and Mesoamerica.