Final Project - Cooking
I made Indian Tacos, which were adopted into Mohawk food culture during the 70s-90s when POWWOWs began to become a thing in Kahnawake. We make the bread differently, and incorporate beans and other vegetables to our chili sauce to make the tacos more of our own (Mohawks are agricultural people, traditionally)

Final Project- Foster

For the final project, David and I made Wojapi, which is a berry pudding. Traditionally it is made from chokecherries, wild blueberries, buffalo berries, etc, this that are found in the plains region; but we made it out of normal blueberries which is more common today since it is more accessible.

Final Essay - Michael S.

Cedar

In class, I mentioned how I would be writing about my cedar, what I use it for, and what it signifies to me. First of all, for those that don’t know what cedar is, it’s a small, rough, grainy, dark green needle (from a cedar tree) that has a very potent smell. To me, the cedar itself smells good, but once it is burned, it smells even better. As mentioned earlier, the cedar itself comes from the cedar tree which is pretty common on the Navajo Nation, or at least in Kayenta. Most people don’t pick their own cedar because it would take a while to collect an abundance of it, so instead people buy it from the flea market in hand size bags.

Cedar can be used for various reasons in various settings, but the main purpose of it is to bring goodness. Most people, such as myself, use cedar to pray and again, the idea behind it is to bring goodness not only into your life, but also for your family and friends. Cedar can be burned on pretty much anything, but for me, I grew up watching my mom use a small skillet. I start by getting the skillet, placing it over a hot surface such as a stove, grabbing a pinch (or more) of cedar, and placing it on the skillet. The cedar will then make a crackling sound as it is burned, going from dark green to black, and smoke will arise during the process. As this is happening, I usually talk/pray towards the smoke and the idea behind this is that the smoke will carry your words and everything you prayed for up to/towards shídiyin (God). I was also told that smelling cedar will clear your head of all bad thoughts and fill it with good thoughts.

Regina's Final Essay

Contemporary Native American Identity Through Art

Natani Notah is an artist who uses her work to explore contemporary Native American identity, and in particular Diné womanhood. She emphasizes the importance of knowing where you come from and being grounded by your family—citing acts of decolonization, Indigenous feminism, and indigenous futurism as further sources of inspiration. Through her art, she examines the impacts of colonialism and uses materials in her pieces that have a history of contamination and exploitation. By bringing together items that may not fit together, such as the stereotypical portrayal of a Native American woman on a Land O’Lakes mug to a fine art gallery, Natani challenges the viewer to think deeply about the way that we are influenced by images. 

One work that had a significant impact on me was Natani’s film, “I Cut My Hair.” In the film, she wears a plain, white t-shirt and a dusty pink long skirt. She sits in front of a tan door and cuts her hair piece by piece while performing a monologue for missing and murdered indigenous people. I was very moved by how Natani chose to shed light on a critical and urgent issue through art. What art allows for is an unrestrained, fearless perspective on the world. What can’t be said in everyday conversation is given greater complexity through creative mediums.

Natani works across several mediums, from painting to film to poetry to sculpture and beyond. Another work I really enjoyed was her “Standing Rock Collages” in which she took photographs from the Dakota Access Pipeline protests and pasted them onto white paper. She then cut out tan speech bubbles but left them blank. What results are visually striking, powerful images that say so much without literally saying anything at all. 

Although Natani is an interdisciplinary artist, she is most of all a storyteller who uses her art to highlight Native narratives that are often overlooked by mainstream media. She seeks to confront the dominant patriarchal and colonial dialogues in the United States by inserting a female Native perspective. Dealing with topics such as intergenerational trauma, Natani facilitates collective healing and reconciliation through her artwork. 

I am immensely inspired by the thought and creativity Natani puts into her work, as well as her ambition to use her work to comment on issues of identity and culture. I think that people like Natani are doing such important work for our society today, and I’m so excited to see where else she takes her art to.   

Two Events- David Espi

Lakota Dinner 2/17 

Lakota dinner is a dinner that happens every quarter and consists of students in SpecLang 247, otherwise known as Lakota language. At Lakota dinner, we go over introducing our selves in Lakota to whomever our special guests are, showing off what we are learning. After that we eat a traditional-contemporary Lakota meal which is soup, wojapi, bread, and mint tea for a beverage. At this particular dinner the soup was buffalo chili with blueberry wojapi (pudding) and ceyaka (field mint tea). I seemed to gain a lot of energy from being in this space and eating the food. It was sort of a spiritual energizer for me. The chili was phenomenal, as well as the bread and wojapi. Anytime I drink ceyaka is a great time to me, so in return, this event was wholesome and was very powerful for me.

Mentor Dinner 2/28

The mentor dinner was a dinner to invite your personal mentors, people who have affected your life positively, to come enjoy a tasty "indian taco". Which is a contemporary staple that derives from government rations given during and through the establishment of reservations. The food was prayed for in two different languages as well as sang for in three others. There were awards that were handed out later throughout the night. I really enjoyed this event because the food was great as well as the SAIO members who gave speeches. In particular, Gabi Saiz had a really interesting speech that inspired me. All in all it was a great event with great people.

(No photos: Foster posted one from Lakota Dinner)

Two Events - Michael S.

Above are the two events I attended this quarter. The left picture was an event held by the Department of Art & Art History where Wes Studi (the guy by me) had a conversation with Alexander Nemerov (a Stanford professor). The conversation started with Wes Studi sort of talking about his character in Last of The Mohicans and how he went about acting for it. The conversation then shifted to Wes Studi’s personal life and he talked a little about his involvement in the American Indian Movement. Overall, I really liked this event and gained some insight on the American Indian Movement from Wes Studi.

The picture on the right was the Annual Native Student and Mentor Dinner held at the Clubhouse Ballroom. Not only was the food very delicious, but I also got the chance to meet new people/mentors. I liked how there was a diversity of people there in terms of undergrad students, graduate students, professors, and mentors. As a freshman, this event was very beneficial and overall I really enjoyed it.

Two Events - Riio

(No photos for the events, but Justin can vouch for my first one)

1: Katie Cromack
        I attended this event on February 4th, and listened to Katie talk about her experiences at Stanford as a student, as well as her life after leaving Stanford. It was reassuring to hear her talk about how even after she graduated, she didn't necessarily know what she was doing. She talked about how there is a lot of pressure on Stanford students to have these amazing accomplishment upon and after graduation, but that it is unrealistic. I think going to this talk was really refreshing and comforting because I was able to hear that my worries are legit. But, that I shouldn't really worry all that much about them.
       She talked a lot about her job and how she got to the career she is in now. It was nice to hear about her journey, and I was very interested by how she found what she loves (a career that has nothing to do with her undergrad degree). It was just a really nice, reassuring talk/event.

2: Petition
       As you guys know, I organized the petition to correct Prof. Kenneth Fields' class on Native American Myth, Legend and Lore. There were a lot of events and planning involved in this, and one of the meetings was open to the public. There, we discussed with the English Dept., NativeAM Dept., and Creative Writing Dept. how we could move forward after everything that went down. It was cool to talk to the heads of each department and have input on how we want to further Indigenize the campus. I really liked being able to organize and help bring voice to the students of the Native community here at Stanford. It was a good one.

Regina's two events!

[Above] A photograph from Natani Notah's performance piece #TSIIYÉEŁPOWERED. Notah is a Native artist whose work focuses on missing, murdered and indigenous women as well as her family's own history. She got her MFA from Stanford and came to the Harmony House earlier in the quarter to give a talk. The performance piece was filmed and shows Notah wearing three TSIIYÉEŁs.I was really inspired by Notah, especially when she shared with us how she uses social media to bring awareness to these important issues. (She's the one who started the "and Native Americans") social media movement.

[Below] Nanoia Thompson's talk (featuring Vance!).  I really enjoyed listening to Thompson speak about how his Native Hawaiian heritage connected with his passion for the earth. One part of his talk that really struck me was when he talked about how Native Hawaiian history carries so much shame. It made me think about the consequences of intergenerational trauma and how pain and suffering can be passed down along family lines. Also, Thompson's journey—both physical and personal—really moved me. 

Foster- Two events

Here are my two events that I attended. On the left is a picture of David eating Delphines Buffalo Chili, Cherry Wojapi, and fry bread for the Lakota Traditional Dinner. It was a fun time eating such amazing food and being around Lakota elders that were there. On the right is Brett Shelton (Oglala Lakota) who is a peacemaker of the Native American Rights Fund NARF. He talked about the work that he does and this specific project he helped with on the Pine Ridge Rez which worked on incorporating the Lakota language and culture into policy and law.

2/20/19 Hawaii History Make-up

For those who did not attend tonight's House Sem, please watch this short documentary on Nainoa Thompson. What did you learn? What are you thoughts?

https://www.pbs.org/video/long-story-short-leslie-wilcox-nainoa-thompson/

200-250 words.

MMIW make up

For those who did not attend the MMIW panel, please watch this 35 min video on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women called Our Sisters In Spirit. What did you learn? What are your thoughts? Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdzM6krfaKY
200-250 words.

Naturally Native part 2

For those who weren't in class when we finished Naturally Native we talked about how the movie touched upon issues such as alcoholism, MMIW, growing up on the reservation v not (urban), tribal sovereignty, selling your indigeneity, tribal enrollment numbers, etc. We also came to the conclusion that this movie sort of beat around the bush when it came to these issues. If you were to update the movie now, what would that look like? OR What native issues would you include in the movie that weren't touched upon. 

If you were at the discussion at the end of class you do not have to respond. But if you have more thoughts we'd love to hear them :)