Toni Jones is one of the 306 Nooksack who would lose tribal membership if disenrollment goes forward. She joined about a hundred others as they marched from Pioneer Square to the tribe’s lawyer’s office building.
“Ever since I was a little tiny girl, I’ve known that I (was) Nooksack, that’s who I am,” Jones said before marching. “That’s who I was raised to be, it’s in my blood.” She said the disenrollment is hard-hitting for her and her relatives. “It’s a deep hurt that is not explainable. It’s somebody trying to strip me away from what I’ve known, what I was born with.”
Beau Dick was born in Alert Bay on the Northern tip of Vancouver Island and was raised in the neighbouring Kwakwaka’wakw village of Kingcome Inlet. The isolation of the remote villages slowed down the processes of cultural destruction, which had devastated many other villages on the coast. Many of the Kwakwaka’wakw master artists, including Willie Seaweed, Charlie James, and Mungo Martin as well as Beau’s father Ben Dick and grandfather James Dick carried the art and culture through the period of cultural assimilation and transition to become among the first carvers to receive recognition as “name” artists beyond the cultural definition. They also carried the wealth of songs, dances, and ceremonial rites, which were passed on to the dedicated young artists such as Beau who was among the first artists of the modern era. Alert Bay remains a cultural centre as well as producing such noted artists as Wayne Alfred, Russell Smith, Bruce Alfred and Doug Cramner.
Beau’s first carving was a miniature totem pole based on the pole his father carved to commemorate the visit of King George XI. His father also carved the largest freestanding totem pole (173-feet) to commemorate Canada’s centennial in 1967.
Beau moved to Vancouver to complete high school. He became interested in painting and produced several large canvases in a naturalistic style representing Kwakwaka’wakw mythological figures and ceremonial dancers. He continued to carve and received several important commissions while still a young artist; he painted the dance screen for the Cape Mudge museum and was among the youngest artists chosen for the Legacy Exhibition.
The Legacy Exhibition (documented in the book The Legacy—Traditions and Innovation in Northwest Coast Indian Art by Peter Macnair) hosted by the Royal British Columbia Museum in Victoria (1972) was one of the first major exhibitions to focus on contemporary artists. The exhibition traveled until 1982. The exhibition and catalogue became a major resource for the growing collector base interested in contemporary Northwest Coast art. Beau exhibited two works, a Noohmahl (fool dancer) and a Tuxw’id or Kominicka mask both carved in the powerful tradition of the War Spirit Ceremony. These masks were instrumental in building the market for the more powerful and darker subjects of the Kwakwaka’wakw traditional ceremonies.
Beau is a prolific and respected artist. He was chosen to carve the large four way split transformation mask for the Canadian Pavilion at Expo ‘86 in Vancouver, British Columbia, now in the collection of the Canadian Museum of Civilization in Hull, Quebec. He was also commissioned to carve a major eleven-figure pole by the City of Vancouver for Stanley Park.
Xiuhtezcatl Martinez, a 13 year old indigenous environmental activist from Boulder, Colorado, came into the world through the Aztec culture on his father’s side, and environmental activism on his mother’s side. His name was chosen by Aztec elders of Mexico based on the cosmology of the Aztec calendar and given to him when he was six weeks old in the Black Hills of South Dakota by elders Arvol Looking Horse and Xolotl Martinez. Xiuhtezcatl has been participating in ceremonies and Aztec dancing since he could walk, and is very connected with his culture. He grew up learning to respect and care for the Earth and all life upon it.
His deep connection with the Earth inspired him to become a voice for protecting the Earth at a young age, giving his first speech at a climate change rally when he was six years old (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6PrMybQzyQ).
He has remained vigilant in his work as he has watched the trees and forests he loves die from beetle infestation, eco-systems collapse, and species disappear, which are a direct result of our environmental and climate crises.
Xiuhtezcatl is the youth director of Earth Guardians, a non-profit environmental organization that is committed to protecting the water, air, earth, and atmosphere. He has organized many rallies, actions, demonstrations and events, and has spoken globally on many issues. Projects include organizing the largest US iMatter March in Denver in the spring of 2010 with over 2,000 young people.
Xiuhtezcatl has worked with Boulder City Council members, County Commissioners, senators and congresspeople, and has collaborated with over 50 environmental organizations. He has led and participated in many victories including getting pesticides out of Boulder’s city parks, achieving a fee for plastic bags, and containment of coal ash. He is currently working on helping fight for a statewide ban on fracking. He gives presentations on fracking in schools and at conferences nationally, and also has developed and shown a presentation called EARTH, teaching about practical changes all people can make to insure future generations a healthy habitable planet. His work on climate change has led him to become a youth plaintiff against the state of Colorado, and a federal plaintiff against the United States, filing law suits for not protecting the atmosphere.
In May, 2012, he went to Washington DC to meet with representatives from all three branches of government, working to garner support for the lawsuits and a Climate Recovery Plan based on NASA scientist James Hansen’s and Bill McKibben’s work. Over 80 members of Congress and the Congressional Progressive Caucus publicly supported the youth delegation.
Xiuhtezcatl was one of the youngest speakers at the Rio+20 United Nations Summit in Rio Brazil in June 2012. He spoke on UN panels and at many of the UN side events. He also had the honor of lighting the sacred fire with indigenous elders from Brazil (view at this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cd773X7erys).
Frustrated by the inaction of world leaders, he and two other young people intervened in the UN meetings so that the voices of children would be heard (view at this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xp-spJD3Bxc).
He is traveling and initiating International Earth Guardian Crews around the globe to fulfill the Earth Guardian mission, and these groups are now going strong in Africa, India, Australia, Brazil and Europe. He is regularly called upon to provide the youth perspective and voice on issues at conferences locally, nationally, and globally, bringing his message of hope, inspiration and the importance of acting now to avoid further damage to ecosystems.
Xiuhtezcatl is also a piano composer and has recorded his first album called “Journey”. His music was used in “Trust Colorado”, a short documentary featuring Xiuhtezcatl and filmed by Peter Gabriel’s organization, Witness. It won 2012 Best Environmental Film Documentary of the Year and is being shown in 100 cities world-wide. The documentary can be seen at this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xr-GUgpic5E
Xiuhtezcatl also writes and performs original message-driven rap music to inspire and educate his peers through performances. His group “Voice of Youth” filmed their first music video called: “Live as if our Future Matters”(view at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANrxvmHUuV0). He will be releasing his new music video “Be the Change” produced and filmed by HBO in December 2013.
Xiuhtezcatl continues to inspire youth and adults alike, encouraging people everywhere to become more aware and educated, and to work together to face the threats to our future from our environmental and climate crises. Xiuhtezcatl is a living example of one of his heroes, Mahatma Gandhi, and he truly reflects the change that he wants to see in the world.
Chief Arvol Looking Horse is the 19th generation keeper of the White Buffalo Calf Pipe Bundle and holds the responsibility of spiritual leader among the Lakota, Dakota and Nakota People. He holds an honorary Doctorate from the University of South Dakota, and travels and speaks extensively on peace, environmental and native rights issues. He has been the recipient of several awards, including the Wolf Award of Canada for his dedicated work for peace. A skilled horseman, he shares his knowledge with the youth on the long distance rides that take place in South Dakota throughout the year.
Keith and Chenoa Egawa are a brother and sister writing and illustrating team of Lummi and S’Klallam Indian ancestry. Keith is a novelist ( Madchild Running) with a background in education reform and social work. Chenoa is a singer, stoyterller and ceremonial leader, who has worked as a professional illustrator, international indigenous human rights advocate and educator.
Laura Waterman Wittstock is the author of several publications, including the forthcoming We Are Still Here co-authored with Dick Bancroft; Diverse Populations/Diverse Needs: Community Foundations and Diversity and Changing Communities,and ININATIG’S Gift of Sugar: Traditional Native Sugar Making. Her journalism background includes: editor of the Legislative Review in Washington, D.C. and reporter and later Executive Director for the American Indian Press Association, also in Washington.
Waterman Wittstock was elected to the Minneapolis Library Board in 2005 and served until the board was dissolved in 2009. She was appointed to the board in 2002 by Mayor R.T. Rybak.
She served as the fourth (2006) Louis W. Hill, Jr. Fellow in Philanthropy under the University of Minnesota’s Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, and serves on a number of nonprofit boards including Bdote Learning Center and the Greater Metropolitan Housing Corporation. She has served on review panels for the National Endowment for the Arts since 1993. She writes opinions in the Indian Country Today Media Network and the Minneapolis Star Tribune’s Your Voices.
Ras K’dee (VOCALS & KEYS), from San Francisco, is a Native California (Pomo)/African musician, community educator, and renowned lyricist, producer, & lead vocalist/keyboardist for San Francisco-based live world hip-hop ensemble, Audiopharmacy. For K’dee, his musical inspiration is deeply rooted from his experience as a Pomo/African artist.
Translating artistically through hip-hop rhymes and soulful melodies, K’dee invokes the songs and dances from traditional ceremonies of his native people, and tells stories of resistance, healing, community & empowerment that can be understood and felt universally by all people. He has been compared to the likes of Gil Scott Heron, Marvin Gaye, Michael Franti, Black Star, and Aloe Blacc. Ras K’dee’s musical repetoire includes “Street Prison” (2005), which was awarded by East Bay Express as Best Local Album of The Year in 2006, co-production on Audiopharmacy album, “U Forgot About Us” (2009), and producing his first solo-project, “Cloudwriter” (2011). K’dee has also had his hand in releasing, producing, and engineering 16 LP albums by local and international artists.
K’dee has toured locally and internationally with Audiopharmacy for 8 consecutive years. In 2002, K’dee co-founded (and is the current director) of a Native youth media organization Seventh Native American Generation (SNAG). K’dee leads workshops weekly with Youth and co-hosts the radio program “Bay Native Circle” on 94.1 FM in Northern California. K’dee has also been featured in Smithsonian Magazine (Summer 2010) and his awards include KQED American Indian Local Heroes Award, and Most Earnest and Up And Coming Band (2005). In 2013 K’dee and band Audiopharmacy were invited as Cultural Music Ambassadors, and toured throughout the South Pacific visiting Indonesia, Fiji, New Zeland, Samoa, and the Solomon Islands, performing and hosting music workshops for Youth. Audiopharmacy’s music was also featured in animation series Injunuity which aired nationally this fall.
Dennis Banks is a Native American leader, teacher, lecturer, activist, and author. He is an Anishinabe, Ojibwa, born on Leech Lake Indian Reservation in northern Minnesota. In 1968 he co-founded the American Indian Movement (AIM), and establishing it to protect the traditional ways of Indian people and to engage in legal cases protecting treaty rights of Natives-such as hunting and fishing, trapping, wild riceing.
Banks earned an Associates of Arts degree at Davis University and taught at Deganawida Quetzecoatl (DQ) University (an all Indian-controlled institution), where he became the first American Indian chancellor.
In 1994, Banks led the four-month Walk for Justice (WFJ) from Alcatraz Island in San Francisco to Washington, DC. The purpose was to bring public awareness to current Native issues. Banks agreed to head the “Bring Peltier Home” campaign in 1996 bringing Native Americans and other supporters together in a national drive for executive clemency for political prisoner Leonard Peltier.
He also had roles in the movies War Party, The Last of the Mohicans, and Thunderheart. A musical tape “Still Strong” featuring Banks’ original work as well as traditional Native American songs was completed in’93 and a musical video with the same name was released in’95.
Edmund Ciccarello, Diné (Navajo), Roanhorse Canyon, New Mexico.
A family man with a loving wife and beautiful children and grandchildren. I treasure making life-long friends near and far. I pray that we strive to ensure our future generations have a wonderful beautiful safe world that they can also enjoy besides us.
Welcome! It is an honor to contribute and give another voice to the “The First Peoples” of our world.
Make No Bones About It. * KAOS 89.3 FM
Sundays 4pm to 6 pm with your Host, Raven Redbone.Visit KAOS 89.3 FM @ www.kaosradio.org!
Make No Bones About It
Make No Bones About It- Sound Cloud
World Peace and Prayer Day 2013
Encouraging Words from our Elders
"I appreciate your work in giving voice to our peoples. Blessings to you." Grandmother Mona Polacca
Quote of the Month
Yes, our life energy must be a gift for our future. Your life, my life, everybody’s life must follow your given path. So pray or meditate. Follow your inner path and learn just how powerful you are and learn that you are a leader for your people, your family, your children, and the Mother Earth.
-Chief Arvol Looking Horse, Lakota
Make No Bones About It 