The National Book Foundation

photo credit: Lorenzo Ciniglio

From left: Leland Bordeaux (Sinte Gleska University, Rosebud Reservation, Mission, SD); Marilee Russell (Stone Child College, Rocky Boy's Reservation, Box Elder, MT); Janet Peery (novelist and short-story writer); Margaret Gibson (poet); Vivian Arviso (project writer; University of New Mexico at Albuquerque); Mary John Taylor (Ft. Belknap Tribal College, Harlem, MT); Julian Lang (Institute of Native Knowledge, Humboldt State University); Sandra Scofield (novelist); Bob Shacochis (novelist, nonfiction and short-story writer); Karla Kuskin (children's book author & illustrator); Joseph Bruchac (Abenaki poet, novelist, storyteller); Archie Mason (Rogers State University, Claremore, OK; and retired, K-12 Indian Education, Tulsa Public School District); Michael Lacapa (Apache storyteller, author/illustrator); Corwin Clairmont (Assistant Vice President, Salish Kootenai College, Flathead Reservation, Pablo, MT); Linda King (guest from Salish Kootenai); Sky Houser (Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwa Community College, WI); Mikki Samuels (Spokane Tribal College, Wellpinit, WA); Meg Kearney (project director, The National Book Foundation); and Alan Caldwell (College of the Menominee Nation, Keshena, WI).

Authors, Teachers, Illustrators, Education Leaders Convened For
First-Ever Symposium May 22nd-24th at National Museum of the American Indian
in New York City. Program Is Outgrowth of National Book Foundation's
10-Year-Old "American Voices" Residencies

"Oral Tradition Meets the Written Word: the Role of Writers and Writing in Contemporary Native Communities"
-- June 10, 2002

Thanks to a grant from the Ford Foundation, the National Book Foundation held a symposium, "Oral Tradition Meets the Written Word: the Role of Writers and Writing in Contemporary Native Communities," from May 22 through May 24, 2002, at National Museum of the American Indian in downtown Manhattan.

The symposium was born out of the Foundation's American Voices program, which brings authors to Indian reservations nationwide. Since the program's inception in 1993, 29 author residencies have been held on 23 Indian Reservations in 15 states across the country.

Drawing together Indian educators and authors who have participated in the American Voices program during the last nine years, the symposium provided a forum to explore the role of writing and writers in contemporary Native communities; and how author residency programs can serve to inspire new writers and help to further the goals of tribal school learning in way that are sensitive to tribal traditions and concerns, and most certain to succeed with Indian students.

The Foundation views the symposium as the culmination of all it has accomplished thus far through the American Voices program since its inception nearly a decade ago. The symposium also signifies a bright future for American Voices and all writer-residency programs, as the 17 participating Indian educators and authors worked, and will continue to work together to develop a guide for organizing and implementing author residencies (and perpetuating the excitement about reading and writing inspired by a writer's visit) that is sensitive to Native concerns.

In the coming year, the Foundation will be working with Vivian Arviso, a Navajo educator and curriculum expert, who was a participant in the symposium and will serve as the main writer of the guide. When it is published, the guide will be made available for free to all interested Native communities in the United States.

National Book Foundation (www.nationalbook.org), sponsor of the nation's most prestigious literary prize, the National Book Award, also sponsors a host of programs involving author residencies in New York City public schools, settlement houses, major urban libraries in the U.S., American Indian reservations, and other under-served communities. The National Book Foundation's mission is to promote the reading and appreciation of great American literature among audiences across the country. Through educational outreach programs featuring National Book Award authors and the publication of related books, the Foundation promotes both the enduring tradition of National Book Award texts, and "literate literacy": reading, writing and an understanding of "the writing life" for all audiences.

The Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian www.si.edu/nmai is dedicated to the preservation, study, and exhibition of the life, languages, literature, history, and arts of Native Americans. Established by an act of Congress in 1989, the museum works in collaboration with the native peoples of the Western Hemisphere to protect and foster their cultures by reaffirming traditions and beliefs, encouraging contemporary artistic expression and empowering the Indian voice. The George Gustav Heye Center is one of three museum facilities. It opened in 1994 in the Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House in lower Manhattan and serves as an exhibition and education facility.

PARTICIPANTS
Leland Bordeaux is from the Rosebud Sioux Reservation where he started his career teaching high school math and science, and later worked as a high school principal and school superintendent. Bordeaux is now Vice President for Academic Affairs at Sinte Gleska University, Rosebud Reservation, Mission, South Dakota.

Joseph Bruchac is the author of more than 30 books of poetry, novels, and re-tellings of Native American folktales and legends, including Crazy Horse's Vision, Between Earth and Sky: Legends of Native American Sacred Places, and The Earth Under Sky Bear's Feet. He has received the American Book Award, the Wordcraft Circle Writer of the Year Award, as well as the Wordcraft Circle Storyteller of the Year Award. He lives in Greenfield Center, New York.

Alan Caldwell is Director of the Menominee Cultural Institute, College of the Menominee Nation, Keshena, Wisconsin. Since joining the college in 1997, he has also taken on directorships of the Veterans Upward Bound Program, the Wisconsin Professional Development Teacher Training Project, and the Menominee Language ANA Resource Development Project. He is the former principal of the Menominee Elementary School.

Corwin Clairmont is Assistant Vice President at Salish Kootenai College, Flathead Reservation, Pablo, Montana. He has produced contemporary art for more than 30 years and was an active member of the community of conceptual artists in Los Angeles before returning to his home in Pablo.

Margaret Gibson has published seven books of poetry including The Vigil (a Finalist for the 1993 National Book Award and a nominee for the Pulitzer Prize) and most recently, Icon and Evidence. Gibson is a professor of English at the University of Connecticut. She has twice been a participant in the American Voices program at Stone Child College on the Rocky Boy's Reservation in Box Elder, Montana. She lives in Preston, Connecticut.

Sky Houser has served since 1975 at several tribal colleges, and is presently the President of Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwa Community College in Hayward, Wisconsin. He has published articles on tribal organizations and economic development, and most recently, on the effects of global climate change upon tribal communities. He helped organize American Voices programs at the Spokane Tribal College, Nebraska Indian Community College, and Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwa Community College.

Karla Kuskin is a children's book author and illustrator. She was a Finalist for the National Book Award in 1983 for The Philharmonic Gets Dressed, and served as the chair of the Young Peoples Literature judging panel for the 1998 National Book Award. She participated in two residencies with American Voices in 1999 - on the Stockbridge-Munsee Reservation in Bowler, Wisconsin, and the Menominee Indian Reservation in Keshena, Wisconsin.

Michael Lacapa, author and illustrator of children's books, including The Flute Player, Antelope Woman, and The Mouse Couple, incorporates the traditions of his Apache, Hopi, and Tewa descent within each of his stories - gaining inspiration from traditional stories and art. He was a writer-in-residence for the 1998 American Voices program on the Onondaga Reservation, Nedrow, New York.

Julian Lang is Director of the Center for Indian Community Development at Humboldt State University, in Arcata, California. He is on the Board of Directors for the Ink People Center for the Arts and is founder and director of the Institute of Native Knowledge. He also helped to coordinate American Voices residencies on the Hoopa Reservation in 1994 and 1997. Archie Mason teaches Native American Spirituality and "Indians of Oklahoma" at Rogers State University in Claremore, Oklahoma. He was the former coordinator of K-12 Indian Education in the Tulsa Public Schools, where he helped organize an American Voices Residency in 1995.

Janet Peery is a novelist and short-story writer. In 1996, she was a Finalist for the National Book Award for her novel, The River Beyond the World. Her collection of short stories, Alligator Dance, received the Whiting Foundation Writer's Award and the Rosenthal Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. A recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, Peery is presently an associate professor of English and Creative Writing at Old Dominion University. She has participated in two American Voices residencies.

Marilee Russell has taught English and humanities courses at colleges for more than 22 years, most recently at Stone Child College, a community college focused upon meeting the needs of the Chippewa-Cree Tribe community, tribal members, and tribal programs. She is a member of the Montana Committee for the Humanities, and lives on Rocky Boy's Reservation in Box Elder, Montana - home to about 2,500 members of the Chippewa-Cree Tribes.

Mikki Samuels is former Library Director at Spokane Tribal College in Wellpinit, Washington, and has been an active participant in American Voices over the years. She is an enrolled member of the Spokane Tribe.

Sandra Scofield is the author of seven novels including Beyond Deserving, a 1991 National Book Award Finalist, and has been a teacher in public schools and colleges and an educational curriculum consultant in Montana and Alaska. She lives in southern Oregon and has twice served as an author-in-residence with American Voices at the Spokane Indian Reservation in Wellpinit, Washington.

Bob Shacochis is novelist, nonfiction writer, short story writer, essayist, educator, and journalist. He won the National Book Award for his collection of stories Easy in the Islands in 1985, and was a Fiction Finalist in 1993 for Swimming in the Volcano. Last year, he participated in an American Voices residency at the Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwa Indian Reservation in Hayward, Wisconsin.

Mary John Taylor is Academic Dean at Fort Belknap Tribal College in Harlem, Montana where she has helped to host two American Voices author residencies. She came to the college in 1991 from Salish Kootenai College, where she was an instructor in the business and office education departments for ten years. She holds a Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration from Baylor University, and a Master's Degree in Education/Administration from the University of Montana.

Also participating:
John Haworth, Deputy Assistant Director of Public Programs and Director of the George Gustav Heye Center, National Museum of the American Indian; Gerald McMaster, Deputy Assistant Director for Cultural Resources, NMAI; Elizabeth Weatherford, Head of the Film and Video Center, NMAI; and Neil Baldwin, Executive Director, National Book Foundation. Meg Kearney, the Foundation's Associate Director and Project Director of American Voices, will moderate the three days of symposium sessions, which are not open to the public.