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Lit->Authors->A-L: National Geographic magazine to feature story about ancient American people

Posted on Monday, September 13 @ 11:51:29 CDT

Joseph Bruchac American Indian tale to be featured in National Geographic magazine. KEYWORDS: Joseph Bruchac American Indian ancient American people Abenaki native roots documentary-style magazine Indian renaissance Maggie Steber Cherokee ancestry linguistic families of North America Mohawk village Canajoharie wild ricing Chippewas chhipewa ancestors Indian culture

AUTHOR: Judith White

American Indian author and tribal storyteller Joseph Bruchac shares a new tale of an ancient American people and their progress in the current issue (September 2004) of National Geographic magazine, one of the most widely read periodicals in the world.

Stumble It!

Abenaki on his mother's side, raised by his maternal grandparents in the same Greenfield Center home where he lives today, Bruchac is Saratoga County's most prolific author, having written more than 100 books, published by a wide range of presses, including West End, Fulcrum, Crossing, Dial Books, Harcourt, HarperCollins, Fulcrum, Scholastic and his family owned Greenfield Review Press.

A gifted teacher who earned a Ph.D. in comparative literature, he had little awareness of his native roots while growing up, but has spent his adult life learning and teaching about American Indian traditions and history.

National Geographic editors sought out Bruchac for this documentary-style magazine feature about Indian renaissance. Large, striking color photographs published with the article are by Maggie Steber, who is of Cherokee ancestry.

The National Geographic Web site offers additional images, background and sound files, including recordings of Bruchac telling additional Abenaki tales and details of his travels.

Also, a large map supplement to the magazine offers extensive background information, including a guide to the linguistic families of North America, details of Indian innovation, graphic representations of 'Indian country' through history and portraits or photos of American Indians who are significant historic figures.

Bruchac provided details and background for all of these.

Founded about 115 years ago, National Geographic has published numerous photos and accounts of American Indian life, although some of those might be considered politically incorrect or historically inaccurate today.

Bruchac himself wrote for the October 1991 issue of the magazine in a commemoration focusing on a Mohawk village not far from Canajoharie in 1491, a year before Columbus 'discovered' America.

The current issue of the magazine coincides with the dedication and opening later this month of a new National Museum of the American Indian on The National Mall in Washington, although that subject is barely mentioned in Bruchac's piece.

He said some 14,000 American Indians are expected to walk in a procession for the opening ceremony.

'The guest list is enormous,' he remarked.

Speaking by phone last week, Bruchac said National Geographic had a general idea of what they wanted for this article when they contacted him. To write the piece, he started traveling about 16 months ago, making brief trips over a six-month period to reservations and places of importance to Indian culture.

'In some cases it was reconnecting with old friends, and in others it was meeting new people and trying new things,' he reported on his experience. 'Like wild ricing with the Chippewas,' he said, remarking on an adventure he had in northern Minnesota, where he harvested grain into a canoe, using the ancient technique of Chippewas' ancestors.

Bruchac notes a growing awareness of American Indians over the past 20 years, perhaps most evidenced by the Congressional Native American Caucus, a bipartisan group that represents tribal interests on Capitol Hill.

'A lot of my article is about how American Indians define themselves, though, and what I wrote gives a glimpse of this being the tip of a very big iceberg,' he said.

Indeed, how American Indians define themselves might be as individual as each separate tribe's identity, or as complex as whether a person grew up on a reservation, or learned the language of his or her ancestors.

'Growing up, I just thought of myself as a person,' he explained. 'It wasn't until I was in higher education that I started to see myself differently.

'In general, people are looking for respect for their background, but also acceptance as an individual human being, rather than stereotyping a group in ways that are historically accepted,' he observed.

The National Congress of American Indians is mounting a national grass-roots campaign to turn out a million American Indian voters in November, and the opening of the new museum should give a boost to that effort.

Bruchac used the buffalo as an analogy of the American Indian in his writing for National Geographic, but said he hadn't planned that symbolism.

'It grew out of the experience I had,' he said. 'I like to leave myself open to messages of the world, and the buffalo is a great image,' he said.

And buffalo herds are growing larger and stronger today in those same places where they once roamed freely and sustained the ancestors of so many American Indians.

It's a comforting thought for Bruchac, and for most native Americans, be they American Indian or descendants of other cultures.

Storyteller and writer Joseph Bruchac will speak to students at Gowana Middle School on Sept. 28 and at Koda Middle School on Sept 29, both in Clifton Park.

SOURCE:

RELATED LINKS:

National Congress of American Indians
www.ncai.org
What is a federally recognized tribe? What is the relationship between the federal government and Indian nations? Do Indians pay taxes? Who funds health care and education for Indians? Get answers to these questions and updates on national Indian issues from this national tribal government organization that monitors federal policy.

Carlisle Indian Industrial School
home.epix.net/~landis/index.html
Learn about the 10,000 Indian children who attended the first off-reservation boarding school between 1879 and 1918, where the goal of "civilizing" Indians meant that students were punished for speaking their native languages and maintaining other aspects of their culture.

Indian Country Today
www.indiancountry.com
Get your news from the national Indian weekly newspaper.

Indian Land Tenure Foundation
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Navigate the complex history of Indian land ownership with publications and FAQs on subjects such as allotment and checkerboarding.

The Harvard Project on American Indian Development
www.ksg.harvard.edu/hpaied/index.htm
Access dozens of publications on Indian self-governance and nation building, economic development, gaming, health care, and education.

The Iroquois Confederacy and the Influence Thesis
www.campton.sau48.k12.nh.us/iroqconf.htm
Did the Founding Fathers borrow from the Iroquois constitution when drafting their own? Brian Cook reviews the debate over how much the Iroquois Confederacy influenced the development of the U.S. government.

National Museum of the American Indian
www.nmai.si.edu
Explore the exhibits and locate special events coinciding with the museum's grand opening on the National Mall on September 21.

American Indian Policy Center
www.airpi.org
Learn more about the unique relationship between the U.S. and Indian tribes—history, current standing, and directions for the future.

Wild Rice—Manoomin
www.kstrom.net/isk/food/wildrice.html
Learn about the stages of harvesting wild rice and the central role it plays in Ojibwa culture.