Native American Arts and Entertainment

LAS VEGAS – Cans filled with vibrant colors of red, blue, yellow, orange and green paint lined the stage to kick off the Reservation Economic Summit 2010.

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) – A new online radio station will give voice to the Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian cultures in southeast Alaska.

NEW YORK – Christopher Columbus was a disaster for indigenous people, but he did do one thing they derived considerable benefit from. In 1493, he reintroduced the horse to the North American continent. Now, a wide-ranging exhibit showing the many ways horses have affected Native people, and the strong bond they still share, is on display at the National Museum of the American Indian.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – American Indian art took its place among the great art of the world in 2009.

I was barely a half-hour into watching “Avatar” in 3-D at our local theater when I realized that a great many people who see it will almost certainly read various bent messages about American Indians into James Cameron’s by-the-numbers storytelling, which has unmistakable parallels to Native history. Sure enough, by the time I got online the next day, the blogs and reviews were already rife with commentary.

(AP) – Near the end of the hit film “Avatar,” the villain snarls at the hero, “How does it feel to betray your own race?” Both men are white – although the hero is inhabiting a blue-skinned, 9-foot-tall, long-tailed alien.

CLEVELAND – “Art of the American Indians: The Thaw Collection,” a major traveling exhibition developed by the Fenimore Art Museum and debuting at the Cleveland Museum of Art in March 2010, explores Native North American art from the Eastern Woodlands to the Northwest through more than 140 masterpieces spanning 2,000 years.

WASHINGTON – An exhibition opening this fall at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian explores the identity of people whose ancestry is both African American and Native American.

GALLUP, N.M. (AP) – Ernest David Tsosie III is as much a storyteller as he is a comedian and actor.

The science fiction writer Harlan Ellison, when asked where he gets his ideas, famously always answers: “Schenectady.”

AOTEAROA, New Zealand – Contemporary Maori art’s future lies with “rangatahi,” emerging artists working creatively with established artists, say founders of Te Atinga, a committee within the indigenous arts organization, Toi Maori Aotearoa. “He mana tangata, He toi whakairo: Where there is artistic excellence, there is human dignity.”

LOS ANGELES – The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Diversity Committee and Writers Guild of America, West American Indian Writers Committee co-presented the “American Indian 101” Panel Discussion Nov. 9, 2009 at the Television Academy’s Conference Centre in North Hollywood.

LAWTON, Okla. – An early 20th century ceremonial war bonnet once belonging to former Comanche tribal leader William Karty is on display at the Comanche National Museum and Cultural Center thanks to a generous loan from his family. The headdress was originally loaned to Lawton’s Museum of the Great Plains for display. Karty’s family opted to move the piece to the Comanche Museum after their loan agreement with another museum expired.

HELENA, Mont. (AP) – The Montana Historical Society is scheduling the Smithsonian Institution’s “Native Words, Native Warriors” exhibit to tour the state’s American Indian reservations.

TAHLEQUAH, Okla. – The award-winning Cherokee National Youth Choir recently announced the release of its latest music CD, “Learning as We Sing,” a project intended to entertain and teach language skills.

RED LAKE, Minn. – Born in California the oldest of seven children, Stacey Thunder watched her father struggle to provide for his family on a police officer’s salary while her mother stayed home to care for their children. Living through some challenging times, as a child Thunder didn’t like seeing her family depending on commodity foods to survive. Inspired by her parent’s struggle, she realized in high school that if she studied hard and went to college she could make a brighter future for herself.

WASHINGTON – The National Congress of American Indians is sponsoring the NCAI Art Competition in its ongoing efforts to publicize and promote participation in the 2010 Census.

TERRACE, British Columbia – Northwest Community College and Freda Diesing School of Northwest Coast Art alumnus Dean Heron and his artwork are featured in a book of aboriginal art inspired by the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games in Vancouver.

Arguably the first ever universal story to be set on an American Indian reservation, “Rez Bomb” redefines what a movie set in Indian country can be.

LOS ANGELES – Native Voices at the Autry kicked off its 10th Anniversary Season with the world premiere of “Carbon Black,” a suspenseful psychological drama by Terry Gomez, Comanche. Native Voices, established in 1999, is a Native Theater Company housed at the Autry National Center of the American West in Los Angeles. It is the country’s only Equity theater company dedicated to producing new works by Native American playwrights.