Live from your public media studios wdia presents Keystone addition Arts of public affairs program that goes beyond the headlines to address issues in NorthEastern in Central Pennsylvania This is Keystone addition Arts and now Erika Funke Welcome to Keystone Edition Arts as we mark native american heritage month with three guests who are dedicated to the that heritage and to keeping it alive You're invited to join the conversation by calling 1 800 3269 eight for two sending an e-mail to Keystone at wgbh wdia dot org and on social media at hashtag keesha Keystone Arts Paul is are paves the way for our discussion according to the national archives president george h w bush approved the joint resolution in 1990 designating november as national american indian health heritage month there has been a similar proclamation every november's since 1994 including this year's by president biden to honor the precious strong and enduring during cultures and contributions of all native americans we learn from the 2020 census results that a little over 31000 pennsylvanians identify as american indian or alaskan needed the number increases to almost one hundred eighty four thousand when we take into account those who identify as american indian or alaska native and two or more other races while a small percentage of pennsylvania's total population of 13 million We all benefit by understanding that cultural memory and heritage are critical matters now and always for Keystone Edition Arts I'm Paul is ah we're filled with questions as we approach these islands in the susquehanna river to see the rock art who made these images why were they made What do they mean we may even have our cameras ready to capture the figures to share on facebook But the images themselves may teach us another way to know them We noticed they appear boldly at sunrise and sunset at midday they almost appear the surplus point us to the horizon to greet the sun at the summer solstice and winter to the flowing waters of the sasquatch hannah rising and ebbing always This is knowing as canadian poet richard bring hurst puts it in the sense of stepping in tune with the world hearing and echoing the music and the heartbeat of being living in an artful way we're fortunate to have three guests on Keystone Edition Arts who know about knowing and about living in distinctive ways said jamison a member of the car yoga nation eric why and the hall of fame lacrosse coach at bucknell university in lewisburg now retired he serves on the advisory council of the chesapeake Dr julie read associate professor in history at Pennsylvania state university author of two books including serving the nation cherokee and social welfare She is a citizen of the cherokee nation frank little bear is an indigenous artists and lecture and member of the northern plains creed nation of canada and montana frank has lived here in pike county and now resides in york Welcome to each of you and thank you for joining us today and and you our viewers are invited to join the conversation by calling 1 800 3269 are too sending an email to Keystone at wdia or and on social media that hashtag Keystone Arts greetings frank We're going to start with you You're an artist in so many media please give us a whole range and tell us whether when you're creating and whatever medium you choose that you might resonate with that phrase we just heard stepping in tune with the world hearing and echoing its music and heartbeat well yeah that really does a lot of the things that we try to connect with for myself as an artist as a musician as a lecture trying to teach the different things that's it important Whether it's beadwork leather work you know anything that we're that we're doing leather carving out a really capture the see o pt e pa tt wh to make with it but also allow it to ever uses where's it whatever we have so many variety of different things that we've gotten into you And one of the things that I feel not only as an indigenous person but also as a parent my kids are active in that as well Learning the history customs and cultures The difference between traditional contemporary art styles the importance of that someone we dance We bring all those things to the shows and we try to do a very interactive presentation because for us it's very important to teach about these things people have so many it and you know our earth are mine that gives us so many beautiful things to use and to utilize in our artwork to allow that to speak in its own language and that's really what we're trying to do And those are your children we saw with you dancing justin those wonderful images of your family let's take one One of the Arts you practice and that is the playing of the flute frank Yes you use the language of music in in part of what you do But are you in so doing telling stories without words when you play the flute is that in some way related to telling stories Absolutely You know one of the most beautiful things about our culture with many different tribal nations many of our first nations people was the fact that we could utilize a lot of our music of fluids drums rattles so many different things in a way of communicating for the and break down barriers of our language it's so beautiful music was one of those things where he told stories we allowed your imagination your heart Your soul to carry you through a journey without a spoken word and you know there's so many different stories as to where their food comes from from different nations and tribes in regions so many more to it than we have time for right now but you know it is important because for those that may not be an audible lerner where they can listen to a spoken word and sort of get what you're doing When you're playing music It kind of transcends that it breaks all those barriers and people can appreciate it from all across the world and and that's really the most powerful thing about music especially for our people because it is president from the heartbeat of our mother earth through our drums You know the vibrations and rhythm struck flutes through the winds through the ultimate whippoorwill and it carries on a transcends and hopefully that those messages carry on to touch a person and the things around us deeper than what we could ever say with a verbal communication it's all about will come from our heart we turn to you now Dr reid and the importance of language we just spoke about the unspoken language of music in in your work and at the start we ventured in a kayak to find the petroglyphs on the island rocks in the subsequent on a river We'd love it if you would take us deep into the imposing manitou caven alabama for and in counter with language and the incredible power of words there sure sir Back in 2015 I was invited to join an interdisciplinary team and intertribal team because it has represented from all three of the federally recognized cherokee tribes and we went into some caves to take a look at what appeared to be early uses of the syllabary and this much of it is hidden in plain sight and and some of it is isn't narrative material and yet there's also There's also writing on the ceiling there's discrete syllables written throughout the cave And so one of the things that's fascinating is that early users of this delivery we're doing and using it for a variety thinks they were on the one hand they were using it to record events and talk about current events on namely stick ballgame I'm thrilled to hear jamison talk a bit more about like lacrosse given the kind of the thoughts that people were having about this game and the sport within this cave itself and yet there's also There's also a communing with the upper world kind of a cosmological understanding of the world that's being conveyed through particularly what's written on the ceiling and in the cave itself and all of this is to say it's happening it's kind of this transformative moment for the cherokee nation nation when this delivery is being released and people are gaining literacy and both turkey language but also an english there's pressures civilization policy to assimilate and at the same time there's also the movement in of the removal policy So what's happening in this cave is a bit more private immunity centered and its using sequoias invention of the syllabary and some slightly different ways than say how the cherokee nation wines using it for its larger press work through the turkey phoenix after 1828 so for my positioning as a historian I think about the role that these caves operate in where they're very old spaces that mississippi in people's have been going into an woodlands people have been going into and here you have 19th century cherokees going in to do very old things but with this very new educational technology which is just fascinating for me as a historian We're looking for changes and but also thinking about kind of the intellectual lives of native peoples in a given moment and for people who know about alphabets what distinguishes a syllabary so the syllabary basically sequoia studied the language studied the sounds of the language itself and determined that there were 86 distinct sounds in the cherokee language and he a symbol too attached to each of those sounds in order to create a syllabary as distinguished from say an alphabet eventually they were eighty five have continued to be a news and the celebrity looks a little bit different Today from what it originally didn't and sequoia invented it but but again each of these syllables attaches to each of the sounds that discrete sounds that people use when we're speaking the language and just a little bit since you know when we know that the city's here What do they say about stickball there were preparing for a game What What do they want were Yeah they're doing kind of the that the post game synopsis that the things didn't go well they they got their noses bloodied and so there so we have we have to think that this particular case manager cave has a water source in it and so ah ah assumption is that if this is a place where rituals post game host stickball game after especially when there's then blood involved There's a very variety of ceremonies that people need to go through when they come in contact with blood because of the kind of potency and power of blood and certainly the cave presents is kind of out of the way space to kind of conduct those ceremonies but also to to to make sense of the of the sport of the little brother war is it's often referred to as a relative to stick ball And so these young men are making sense of there of their loss so to speak Wow Then we will go from that wonderful explanation of what's inside there You were not in your head said jamison when Dr reid was talking about the post game ritual or ceremony What What what does this mean to call to mind to when you hear this Yes well lacrosse as it is a game basically that you present yourself too the creator and hope that he will look favorably upon you So how do you do that Well you do that And as fair play as possible all out very physical and it's a demonstration of your personal character and who you are Every single time you go on the field whether it's practice or a game and after the contest you respect and honor your opponent when you shake his hand because he has honored himself and the game in la crosse and you by playing as tough in his harden is fair as he possibly could So that you you yourself could find out who you are that's And at the end of the game There's always food The three sisters corn beans and squash and that stands for community and sportsmanship now you've brought with you What Ah what many people would say ah pieces of art but they are all integral to the game Yes Tell us about the the cornhusker doll Well the courthouse stall is exactly what it is It was what they say it's a piece of corn but it this particular doll is symbolic of the game with lacrosse and a unique piece about this kornheiser doll is that it's 40 some years old and it has no face because we believe that only the creator can give you a face So any of these original corn how stores will never have a face and the stick and the stick is would very old and you would say a prayer before you took a piece of a tree probably hick rear admiral ash and you would think the tree for what was about to happen that tree was going to give a piece of itself to you after he took the piece from the tree You gave thanks again to the tree for doing so for giving you a piece of himself to you Most of the treaty have good medicine and that good medicine goes with you when you take it and make it turned it into a stick which is a piece of art in itself and the head peace The head peace is called the guest stohr and it's it's basically a ceremonial peace and it's made out of turkey feathers goose feathers and it's about it's about 40 years old also does it tell us something The choice Well the feathers the way the feathers lay on your head will tell you basically what nation you're from By the way the feathers lay on your guest stole it Some of them may have two or three upright or couple of them lay down under back so whatever nation you from You will be identified by how your father's lay on your gusto we know that lacrosse has you just have told us that lacrosse this big in california but it's practice in its in perth australia it's in england its around the world and and frank when it comes to your art We know you're keen with connecting with us here rooted in the traditions of your people but you have said you want to grow and connect with other cultures in your art So you're looking at cultural celtic culture's for example to see if there are commonalities one of the things that when I was growing up and a lot of the elders and individuals and i've gotten to meet a lot of the artists indigenous artists all throughout turtle island You know it really inspired me was the fact that there's so much that is almost a comparative or you know it has a connection to other indigenous cultures throughout the entire world and you know we're just one where we're sort of like one family in one part of the part of the long house if you will in the home you know out here and you know there's other families there that day nature equally do you know songs and ceremonies the drums and flutes and rattles and things like that So for me as an artist it we're always i'm always trying to grow I'm always looking to see what can I collaborate with what can I connect with in a broader spectrum i've gotten into some of the weather carving and have been very inspired by even like the old biking world art as many people know the you know we're some of the first in contact with turtle island they kind of came down to canada area And that was a lot of the of the northern tribes in suffolk through their did all these different things so you know there's so much history in this world there's so much that we should be reaching for an inspiring too And I think with our art music and things like that You know finding the connections not what separates us is really what is a is a passion of mine And what I hope to relay through some of my work you know seeing where our beadwork and how that came across in the trade that that inspired through that and the different variations that other nations and cultures throughout the world have taken indigenous flute music and of inc within celtic music and stuff and being able to work with those individuals and stuff It's it's really amazing journey and I can't wait to see what else we can go with it I'm Dr reid angela has speaks of the wampum belt record at the cherokee heritage center trail of tears exhibit surrounded by whitewashed honor beads that lay the path with a continuance she says our culture and language the purple wampum beads remind us of the survival of some but the genocide of thousands is that in a sense what the cherokee syllabary has made possible remembering continuing culture language honoring even to the present day it Yeah I mean it's interesting because we still don't understand the full scope and rage materials We have available to us so many of the records and history is particularly guilty of this where people are studying the history of of the cherokees but don't bother to learn the language or invited the syllabary or work with records written in this delivery and said there are thousands pages of in translated cherokee that exist out there at the same moment that our nations are working really hard to revitalize language and our children's speaking again and so some of these documents are going to start a bit longer And so So there's a way in which we know that ceremonial material has been handed been been written down and carried forward at the same time we also have to be careful because not everyone should take a look at that material or should read that material should have access to that material and stood there's a there's a careful balance between what's what's being handed down into who and what may be needs to stay a little more private within the community in order to to honor and and validate those traditions and who they were meant for But at the same time we also have I went to give a shout out to eat a young up and coming scholar named constance owl who wrote a master's thesis that western carolina university She's eastern band and she was taking a look at the cherokee phoenix which we have digitized and available to us every every day but what she found when she was looking at articles written in english versus articles written in cherokee is that the The message is weren't necessarily the same for each of the audiences and so we've kind of taken for granted that we had the english So why did we need to look at the delivery but in fact what she says is we need to take a look at all of that celebrity and really of the material itself and the messages that are coming through In each of those types of materials as well So I think there's a whole whole variety of reasons too Can you 10 years studying the cherokee and understanding the purposes of the syllabary from perspectives of our ancestors and for the merits of what it can provide for us today we pick up on the thought of the wampum and there is a painting by mohawk artist david fat and titled the great law of peace featuring benjamin franklin meeting with a member of the iroquois nation He has a wampum belt representing the iroquois constitution over his forearm and the u s constitution below said We know that this is a very meaningful story to you And as we come to a close Please remind our listeners What we should take away from this meeting of cultures that took place at the founding the very founding of the united states of america will certainly be directing our viewers to the pbs link on our Keystone Edition Arts resources page but it really is something that you are you are very Thank you Erika for asking So school hand a river basically was a conduit for democracy in this country and when I say that I mean the council of chiefs of the euro coronation sent a chief to a meeting of the colony leaders in lancaster Pennsylvania and he traveled by the susquehanna river to that meeting and at that meeting he told the leaders unless you form a union similar to what we have you will probably wound up having difficulties amongst yourselves benjamin franklin at that time was a typesetter in philadelphia and when he typed it's set the letters for that meeting He'd never forgot that subsequently thomas jefferson samuel adams and benjamin franklin spent a great deal of time studying the structure and new unity of the iroquois confederacy so benjamin franklin then formed the albany plan of union which was a bit early for the colonies to accept but in that he identified many of the tenants up that appeared in albany plan as coming from the iroquois confederacy so from 17 44 we moved to the albany plan of union and then we moved to the constitution of the united states in a bill of rights in 1987 88 congress unanimously passed a resolution recognizing the contributions of the iroquois confederacy to the constitution of the united states and the bill of rights I can't think of a more appropriate connection between the confederacy the indigenous people of this country and where we are today we will As we suggest refer our viewers for all purposes to our Keystone Arts page but we want to say as we bring the threads together in a way we It's much more complex than this We understand that from having heard from each of you but the wampum belts the storytelling through the Arts in in through the Arts the remarkable role of la crosse in and around cultures helping each of the players understand who in this case who he is who he was and then the syllabary also helping preserve pass along traditions and as you say Dr reid it's fascinating to know about how much more is left to explore and frank how you want to expand addicts explore the connections and enrich your traditions and share your traditions with others and frank When we see lacrosse on tv We won't think about it The same again having been in your presence So we really just want to thank all of our guests for making time Dr julie reid who will be talking about this very subject This week in penn state university on that tv station will send you that link everyone said jamison thank you for coming to the station to bring these treasuries to us and frank little bear You aren't you know this turf well geographically but you come when you're back in from york you come and say hello to us For more information on these topics links to our guests and resources please visit wdia dot org click on east Keystone Edition Arts