NMAI Collection Online

News Release from the National Museum of the American Indian -

"National Museum of the American Indian Collection Online"




The National Museum of the American Indian is putting its collection online! This vast new online archive, Collections Search, is one of the most exciting and significant undertakings in the Museum's history and we have already uncovered a wealth of new information in the course of building this critical resource. It's almost as if the Museum was being created all over again, as objects that have been known and labeled as simply as "beaded saddle, Chippewa" take on rich and fascinating new meaning.

Our mission - to preserve the cultural richness of Native American heritage and make it accessible to the widest possible audience - demands we take this next logical step. Collections Search will open our collection to millions who have never had the opportunity to see it in person.

Explore and share the collection today at _www.americanindian.si.edu/searchcollections. _

Every object has a story. And beyond the rudimentary facts about material, tribal origin and age is the deeper level of information that can truly reveal an item's "histories and mysteries." The hard work and resources we're investing in Collections Search is helping us capture the lost, forgotten, and incomplete histories of our collection before they disappear forever.

Because of the unlimited access of the Internet, Collections Search has virtually no limitations. Eventually, Collections Search will contain nearly all 800,000 of the Museum's objects and 65,000 historic photographs, including those that are too fragile to display.

This new way of looking at, and learning about, the Museum's collection will further our mission in profoundly important ways.

Reminder -- "Who Speaks For The Dead?: Kin, Science, The Law?" -- Tomorrow Night @ Eiesland Hall

The WVU Native American Studies Program will host its annual West Virginia Native American Heritage event on Tuesday, February 17 at 7 p.m. “Who Speaks For the Dead: Kin, Science, the Law?” will be held in G24 Eiesland Hall on the downtown campus. The event is free and open to the public.

Award-winning West Virginia archaeologist Darla Spencer will give the keynote address on the history of the Buffalo Village site in Putnam County. In particular, she will detail the ongoing controversy over efforts to repatriate and rebury the human remains that were excavated and taken from the site in the 1960s. Spencer is currently studying pottery artifacts from the Buffalo Village to learn more about the origins and material culture of its former inhabitants.

WVU assistant professor of anthropology, Amy Hirshman will moderate a panel presentation that highlights related topics such as indigenous cultural representation, collaborative protection of sacred sites and creating a respectful balance between scientific, historic and traditional Native interests.

The participants include: Native American Studies lecturer Joe Candillo (Pascua Yaqui); doctoral history student Isaac Emrick; author and professor Allison Hedge Coke (of Huron, Eastern Tsalagi, French Canadian, and Portuguese descent); associate professor of English Ellesa High (Lower Eastern Ohio Mekoce Shawnee--a federally non-recognized tribe); assistant professor of history SilverMoon; sociology and anthropology lecturer Genesis Snyder; and cultural educator and traditional storyteller Suzanne Tewawina (Hopi-Navajo).

The event is sponsored by the Native American Studies Program with support from the Division of Sociology and Anthropology, the Historic Clarion Hotel Morgan, and Ellesa High, a founding sponsor of the West Virginia Native American Heritage Series.

For more information about “Who Speaks for the Dead: Kin, Science, the Law?” or the WVU Native American Studies Program, please contact NAS Coordinator Bonnie Brown at 304-293-4626 or by email at BonnieM.Brown@mail.wvu.edu. You can also log on to: http://www.wvu.edu/~nas

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Click here for a link to ONAI's Facebook Event page, where you can RSVP.

Film Festival Polls and Surveys!

Please take a minute to complete a quick poll regarding the film festival this past Sunday...ONAI will really appreciate it.

http://www.polldaddy.com/s/D6B9C681B671A806/

Film Festival A Success!

The inaugural ONAI Native American Film Festival was a great success!
We raised over $130 for blizzard relief efforts in South Dakota as
well as $150 for ONAI! :) Thank you to everyone who came out to
support ONAI and to watch some pretty interesting cinema.

If you can take a moment to fill out a quick survey about the
festival, we would very much appreciate it:

http://www.polldaddy.com/s/D6B9C681B671A806/

Sunday's event was a very nice start to what will now be a yearly event for ONAI and the Native American Studies department. Thank you for making it happen!

This will be our last open to the public event for this semester, so we're looking forward to meeting up with everyone in the new year. We have many events in the works for the spring semester, including the following:

- Native American Cooking Demo with the WVU Cooking Club (possibly frybread, bean bread and venison stew...just maybe...)

- Contemporary Native American Music special show with U92, the WVU radio station...possibly to feature the ONAI Singers (ONAI's drum group) in a live performance...

- Earth Day events (concert, workshops, activist lectures, etc.) with Dine political/punk rock band Blackfire (Album of the Year winner at the Native American Music Awards)

- Plus assorted trips, seminars, special events and the like for ONAI members.

If you would like to be added to ONAI's listserv for special events, please e-mail us at wvu.onai@yahoo.com ... if you would like to join ONAI and receive free admission to public events (plus invites and participation in members-only events)...membership is $15 (or $10 with a ticket stub from yesterday's festival). Add ONAI as a friend on Facebook as well to receive photos and other notifications, or check out our website at http://wvuonai.blogspot.com ... there are many ways to keep in the loop.

We would like to thank everybody who helped put the festival together and everyone who attended. Thanks to supportive NAS faculty, staff, students and community supporters. Most especially we would like to thank Bonnie Brown, NAS Program Coordinator, for her special assistance and guidance in setting up the festival. Thank you, everybody!

Sincerely,

Erin Clemens (President)
Matt Darwin (Vice President)
Melissa Pearson (Treasurer/Secretary)
Ryan Dunkerley (Historian)

1st Annual ONAI Native American Film Festival

The 1st Annual ONAI Native American Film Festival will take place this coming Sunday, November 16, from 12:00 - 6:00 pm at the Gluck Theater in the Mountainlair. Admission for the entire festival is $5 - participants cane come and go as they please. This event honors Native American Heritage Month and will be taking place along with Mountaineer Week festivities.

For more information, contact the ONAI President at wvu.onai@yahoo.com.

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Schedule of Events: (Click on titles to view trailers)

12:00 PM - Four Sheets To The Wind (1997)

1:30 PM - 30 Days: Life on an Indian Reservation (2008)

2:15 PM - Edge of America (2003)

4:15 PM - Christmas in the Clouds (2001)

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ONAI Columbus Day/Indigenous Peoples Day Event: Movie

Peace Tree Ceremony 2008

The following is excerpted from the press release about the upcoming Peace Tree Ceremony...


Expert, archivist to preside at WVU's Peace Tree ceremony

Jamie Jacobs, an authority and archivist of Iroquois Indian history who has worked to reclaim burial grounds through the Native American Graves and Repatriation Act, will preside over West Virginia University’s Peace Tree rededication ceremony Tuesday (Oct. 14).

The event will be from 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. at the site of the tree between Elizabeth Moore and Martin halls on the Downtown Campus. It will feature native drumming, talks and other testimonials to the culture.

WVU’s Native American Studies Program is hosting the ceremony, which is part of the University’s annual Diversity Week observances.

Jacobs is a collections assistant with New York’s Rochester Museum and Science Center. He’s an expert in Iroquois history, culture and ceremony. He speaks Seneca and other Iroquoian languages and is a member of the Tonawanda Seneca, Turtle Clan.

Part of his work at burial sites is to identity and rescue artifacts and relics contaminated by pesticides and other compounds.

He’ll discuss other ways to acknowledge the culture in his talk, “Honoring the Sacred Past, Planning for Seven Generations,” which will be at 6 p.m. Tuesday in G-21 Ming Hsieh Hall on the Downtown Campus.

WVU’s Peace Tree was planted Sept. 12, 1992, to commemorate the University’s commitment to the rediscovery of America’s Indian heritage. In 1996, vandals cut down the tree, but a second tree – planted Oct. 19, 1996 – stands today on campus as a visible symbol to the power of peace.

Visit http://www.wvu.edu/~nas/peacetree/about for more on the history and symbolism of the tree.

For more on Native American Studies at WVU, contact program coordinator Bonnie M. Brown at bonniem.brown@mail.wvu.edu or 304-293-4626, or go to http://www.wvu.edu/~nas/.