Yellow Self-Existing Warrior/ Yellow Galactic Star - Cosmic Turtle Moon of Presence, Day 21

                                              Courtesy Alex Hamer

The Haudenosaunee women march down the streets of Washington.

The Power of Haudenosaunee Women:

‘The strength of the Haudenosaunee women is legendary’ and can be seen from the women’s rights movement to Standing Rock

Traditionally, the women of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) have stood in a position of power.

Long before the women’s suffrage movement in the U.S., Haudenosaunee women enjoyed a life of equality and power in their communities. The Haudenosaunee is a matriarchal society in which a child’s clan is passed down through the mother. When a woman married, it was the man who moved into the woman’s lodging with her family.

The women not only raised and taught the children but they also controlled land. By being the producer of the three sisters—corn, beans and squash—their role was one of control over the food staples as well. It was also the Haudenosaunee women that allocated land to other families that would need it.

The Haudenosaunee are composed of the six nations—the Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, Mohawk and Tuscarora—who joined the confederacy after its formation.

The women had tremendous political power, selecting chiefs and deciding if going to war was the appropriate course of action. It was also the women who decided if a man was to be removed from a position of power. If a man was found to be murderous, a thief or sexually abusive, he could be removed.

It is no coincidence that the women’s rights movement had its first meeting at the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848. Non-Native women who lead the women’s rights movement then, like Elizabeth Cody Stanton and Lucretia Mott, were heavily influenced by the power Haudenosaunee women held. It made them realize that they did not have to accept subservient roles to men.

It was the Haudenosaunee political structure that in part gave America’s Founding Fathers the idea to form a republic. The flaw in their system was excluding women from decision-making and power. The women of the Haudenosaunee gave a balance to the power structure that the U.S. lacked, and some say still lacks today.

Haudenosaunee women’s strength and power is not relegated to distant history. During the Oka Crisis in the early 1990s, when a golf course expansion was threatening Mohawk lands, it was Ellen Gabriel who was selected by the People of the Longhouse to be their spokesperson. After the crisis Gabriel became a teacher at the Mohawk Immersion school in Akwesasne, Quebec. In 2004 Gabriel was elected to the Quebec Native Women’s Association.

At Standing Rock there was a presence of Haudenosaunee women. In August, some of the women spoke at camp, sharing their views and offering support. On this same trip a young Tuscarora woman would sing powerful songs under a full moon at Red Warrior Camp.

On the evening of November 20 a group of men and women were getting ready to leave and go back home after their trip of bringing supplies. This was the night that the water protectors got sprayed with water in freezing temperatures and shot with rubber bullets. According to Hickory Edwards, Onondaga, it was a Haudenosaunee woman who gave the men the orders to go to the front line. Without question, they did. Edwards told Indian Country Media Network (ICMN), “Once things started to get really out of hand she told us we’re not leaving. That we had to go up to the front, so that’s what we did.”

Lisa Latocha, Oneida, says,, “The strength of the Haudenosaunee women is legendary. I’ve seen it since I was a little girl, even though I didn’t quite know it. Our mothers instill it in us since birth. I never realized that my mother was constantly preparing me for the world outside my bubble. Life is tough, but even more so if you’re a minority woman. Recently, a group of us from the confederacy attended the Women’s March on Washington, where I witnessed a crowd of thousands part to watch us walk by behind our purple and white flag.”*

Alex Hamer • July 18, 2017

*https://indiancountrymedianetwork.com/history/people/power-haudenosaunee-women/?mqsc=ED3898845

CIB

Kin 56: Yellow Self-Existing Warrior

I define in order to question

Measuring fearlessness

I seal the output of intelligence

With the self-existing tone of form

I am guided by the power of free will.

The bodhisattva strives to penetrate the place where the aspiration is enlightenment and the memory of the original covenant is located.*

*Star Traveler's 13 Moon Almanac of Synchronicity, Galactic Research Institute, Law of Time Press, Ashland, Oregon, 2016-2017.

www.lawoftime.org

www.tzolkincosmology.com

www.13moon.com

www.mayanmajix.com

 The Sacred Tzolk'in

Anahata Chakra (Silio Plasma)

Blue Electric Eagle/ Blue Resonant Hand - Cosmic Turtle Moon of Presence, Day 20

Courtesy Michael Seto

Buffy Sainte-Marie headlined a roster of aboriginal performers including Iskwé and A Tribe Called Red in New York City’s Central Park on July 9.

Buffy Sainte-Marie Headlines Aboriginal Performances in NYC:

SummerStage features night of indigenous music with Iskwé, A Tribe Called Red and Buffy Sainte-Marie

Three aboriginal performers including Iskwé, A Tribe Called Red, and Buffy Sainte-Marie brought a diverse crowd of some 3,000 to New York City’s Rumsey Playfield in Central Park on July 9 for a free concert.

“You got a whole lot of Canadians here, eh?” Buffy Sainte-Marie jokingly asked the crowd when she took the stage after Iskwé and A Tribe Called Red.

She had the crowd on their feet and swaying to songs like “Up Where We Belong,” Starwalker,” and “War Racket” off her latest album.

Buffy Sainte-Marie talked about activism and instead of war having a school to teach alternative conflict resolution before singing her song “Universal Soldier.”

She got the crowd going speaking the lyrics to “Carry It On.” She asked the crowd “Are you here to improve?” And reminded everyone that “We’re only here by the skin of our teeth as it is.”

Before Buffy Sainte-Marie took the stage, A Tribe Called Red got everyone pumped up and dancing with their original “pow wow step.” The group includes DJ NDN, Bear Witness and 2oolman, and the music mixes electronic rhythms, hip-hop, moombahton, reggae, and dubstep. It’s impossible to stand still while listening.

The screen behind them showed various scenes depicting Native Americans in movies, television shows and even music videos, like Michael Jackson’s “Black or White,” William Shatner playing Indian in the original “Star Trek,” and Michael J. Fox being chased by Indians on horseback in “Back to the Future Part III.”

As ICMN has noted previously, it is Bear Witness who serves as ATCR’s visual artist and video director and incorporates the pop culture references into shows to reclaim the aboriginal image.

The SummerStage evening opened with Iskwé, her full name in Cree, translates to “Blue Sky Women,” but Iskwé alone means “women,” and this is the name she chose to “represent both her culture and passion for shedding light on female causes and struggles,” notes the City Parks Foundation, the organization behind the event.

Her sound is reminiscent of Bjork with a touch of trip hop and R&B, and she even did a cover of Bjork’s “Army of Me” during her set.

She ended her set with a haunting homage to missing indigenous women called “Nobody Knows.”

Even though having all three of these performers on the same stage may seem like a stretch because they all sound so different, the crowd loved it. As people were leaving, many noted how amazing the show was.

“Buffy Sainte-Marie is an artist I first saw perform live in a church in Montreal several years ago, and I have wanted to bring her to SummerStage ever since, not specifically because she is a pioneering indigenous voice, but simply because she is an amazing musician and performer,” City Parks Foundation Executive Artistic Director Erika Elliott told ICMN.

“The rest of the line-up then evolved organically to include other indigenous voices, because all were acts we wanted to have in the SummerStage season. A Tribe Called Red has been a favorite of mine for years now as well, and I had struggled to find the right show to have them on. Once I confirmed Buffy Sainte-Marie, it honestly seemed like a stretch sonically to book them on the same bill, but after talking with all and knowing Buffy and A Tribe Called Red both liked the idea, we moved ahead,” Elliott said. “I gauge response by crowd response, and the night was really well-received by everyone in attendance, especially since the audience was so diverse.”

It certainly was a diverse evening to remember. Even Buffy Sainte-Marie commented that the only Canadian aboriginal musician missing was Tanya Tagaq.

Buffy Sainte-Marie & Tanya Tagaq "You Got To Run (Spirit Of The Wind)"*

By Leeanne Root • July 17, 2017

*https://indiancountrymedianetwork.com/culture/arts-entertainment/buffy-sainte-marie-headlines-aboriginal-performances-nyc/

MEN

Kin 55: Blue Electric Eagle

I activate in order to create

Bonding mind

I seal the output of vision

With the electric tone of service

I am guided by the power of self-generation

I am a polar kin

I establish the blue galactic spectrum.

The superhuman is endowed with cosmic consciousness to know that it is an androgynous, ever-evolving interval of expansive cosmic enlightenment.*

*Star Traveler's 13 Moon Almanac of Synchronicity, Galactic Research Institute, Law of Time Press, Ashland, Oregon, 2016-2017.

www.lawoftime.org

www.tzolkincosmology.com

www.13moon.com

www.mayanmajix.com

The Sacred Tzolk'in 

Manipura Chakra (Limi Plasma)

White Lunar Wizard/ White Rhythmic World-Bridger - Cosmic Turtle Moon of Presence, Day 19

                                                       Photo by Konnie LeMay

In Ojiwbe, the word for September or Waatebagaa-giizis, translates to Leaves Changing Color Moon. The Dakota word for October or Čhaŋwápa kasná wí translates to Leaves Shaking Off the Trees Moon.

From Sucker Moon to Sore Eyes Moon: Native American Moon Names:

Moon names send knowledge across generations; here they are in five languages

It’s likely that there is no Native word for “phenology,” the study of cyclical changes in the natural world. Yet phenology was part of the fabric of Native tradition that kept the generations alive, and that ancient, evolving tradition appears in the many Native American moon names.

Unlike the nod to ancient Roman gods (such as two-faced Janus for January or the war god Mars for March) that became the standard for most Western cultures, each First Nation used the naming of most months to pass along information about what to expect and how to prepare, passing knowledge of nature between the generations.

Traditionally, there are 13 moons within the full circle of Earth around the sun, so true traditional calendars marked 13 months, but shared here are the equivalents of 12 months named in five languages—Ojibwe, Diné, Oneida, Dakota and Cherokee.

Many names indicate something that will likely happen or that should happen during the particular cycle of days from new moon to new moon. Even within a single language, such as Ojibwemowin—the language of the Anishinaabe people—names vary as do lingual dialects. So, for the Ojibwe people on the western side of Lake Superior, March indicates Onaabani-giizis or Hard Crust on the Snow Moon while the milder eastern side names Iskigamizige-giizis, Maple Sugar Moon (which comes one month later in the west).

For the western Ojibwe, we are entering February, Namebini Giizis or the Sucker Moon.

“The month gets its name in honor of the sucker fish, which sacrifices its life to sustain the Anishinaabe people,” states a January 26 weekly e-newsletter from the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. “As the teaching goes, as the month of January gradually becomes February, the burden of hunger afflicted the Ojibwe. It was a time of great hardship, for food and game were scarce during Gichii Manidoo Giizis – The Great Spirit Moon (January). It was at this time that sucker fish, seeing the Anishinaabe suffering, decided to give his life so that the Ojibwe may live on.”

“February was traditionally a time when the women would begin netting more and more suckers through the ice,” the newsletter continues. “Likewise, the men would increasingly find the sucker more plentiful when spearing through the ice or in open running water. This is why the sucker fish continues to hold great importance to the Ojibwe today. To everything is a place and purpose as the Ojibwe journey through the circle of life.”

In the Native tradition, moon names often prepared people for what they would need to do, such as indicating when to plant or what to harvest.

One of the interesting and valuable aspects of retaining these traditional names can be within the modern study of phenology. By seeing what should or used to happen, we might better understand the changes wrought by climate alterations. The Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission in Odanah, Wisconsin, has launched a phenology study seeking tribal observation and knowledge for just that purpose.

Enjoy these insights that language brings. For an additional view of 29 Native languages, check Western Washington University’s Skywise site.

Ojibwe

The Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission offers a downloadable PDF of the 2017 calendar.

January: Gichi-manidoo-giizis, Great Spirit Moon

February: Namebini-giizis, Sucker Moon

March: Onaabani-giizis, Hard Crust on the Snow Moon

April: Iskigamizige-giizis, Maple Sugar Moon

May: Waabigwanii-giizis, Flower Moon

June: Ode´imini-giizis, Time for Picking Strawberry Moon

July: Aabita-niibino-giizis, Half-way through Summer Moon

August: Manoominike-giizis, Ricing Moon (time for wild ricing)

September: Waatebagaa-giizis, Leaves Changing Color Moon

October: Binaakwii-giizis, Falling Leaves Moon

November: Gashkadino-giizis, Ice Is Forming Moon

December: Mannidoo-giizisoons, Little Spirit Moon

Diné (Navajo)

January: Yas Niłt’ees, Frying Snow (melting snow for water source)

February: Atsá̜ Biyáázh, Little Eagles (time of eaglets hatching)

March: Wóózhch’í̜í̜d: (this word mimics the eaglets first sounds)

April: T’á̜á̜chil, Little Leaves

May: T’a̜a̜tsoh, Big Leaves

June: Ya’iishjááshchilí, Small Planting

July: Ya’iishjáástsoh, Big Planting

August: Bini’anit’á̜á̜ts’ósí, Small Harvest

September: Bini’anit’á̜á̜tsoh, Big Harvest

October: Gha̜a̜ji̜’, Back to Back (summer back to back with winter)

November: Níłch’its’ósí, Slender Wind

December: Níłch’itsoh, Big Wind

Oneida

These names were provided by the Shako:wi Cultural Center, in Oneida, New York, but are also found, with pronunciations, on the website of the Oneida Language & Cultural Centre in Southwold, Ontario.

January: Teyakohúhtya’ks. Someone’s Ears Are Freezing

February: Tsha’tekohsélh̲a̲’, Midwinter

March: Tewʌhníslya’ks, The Day Is Cut in Two (split days)

April: Wahsakayu:té:se̲’, It’s Thundering

May: Latiyʌ́thos, They Plant

June: Awʌhíht̲e̲’, Strawberry

July: Ohyótshel̲i̲’, String/Green Bean

August: Onʌ́stase̲’, New Corn

September: Yeyʌthókwas, Someone Harvests

October: Yutékhwayʌh̲e̲’, Someone Stores Food

November: Tehutʌnuhela:túh̲e̲’, They Give Thanks

December: Wahsu:tés, It’s a Long Night

Native American Moon Names

Dakota

The University of Minnesota Wi Akenuåpa page provides descriptions and pronunciations for Dakota names of the month. The new font, soon to be on the website, was provided by U of M Dakota Language Teaching Specialist Joe Bendickson, who reminded, “Keep in mind that some communities use different words.”

January: Wítheȟi wí, Hard Moon (difficult moon)

February: Wičhá thawí, Raccoons’ moon

March: Ištá wičháyazaŋ wí, Sore Eyes Moon (snow blindness)

April: Maǧá okáda wí, Geese Laying Eggs Moon

May: Wóžupi wí, Planting Moon

June: Wažúšteča šá wí, Strawberries Ripening Moon

July: Čhaŋphá šá wí, Chokecherries Ripening Moon

August: Wasúthuŋ wí, Harvest Moon

September: Wayuksapi wi, Corn Harvest Moon

October: Čhaŋwápa kasná wí, Leaves Shaking Off the Trees Moon

November: Thahé čapšúŋ wí, Deer Shedding Antlers Moon

December: Čhaŋkáphopa wí, Popping (or Exploding) Trees Moon

Cherokee

Cherokee language uses a special font to express words. The Cherokee Nation provides a word list that includes the Cherokee font spelling, the phonetic spelling and an audio pronunciation guide (and you can look up each month through the list). These phonetic spellings and translations come from an 1890s calendar used at Cherokee Seminaries (boarding schools) and sent by translation specialist John Ross. The Cherokee font, and other Native language fonts, can be downloaded for free via Language Geek.

January: Unolvtani, Windy Moon

February: Kagali, Stationary Moon

March: Anvyi, Strawberry Moon

April: Guwoni, Duck (hunting time)

May: Anusgvti, Moving Large Basket

June: De-ha-lu-yi, Violet Moon

July: Gu-ye-quo-ni, When Wind Turn Blue

August: Ga-lo-ni, Drying Up Moon

September: Du-li-s-di, Moon From a Black Butterfly (perhaps the Black Swallowtail, Oklahoma’s state butterfly)

October: Du-ni-no-di, Sala Moon

November: Nv-da-de-qua, Big Moon

December: V-s-gi-yi, Frosty Moon*

By Konnie LeMay • July 15, 2017

*https://indiancountrymedianetwork.com/education/native-education/sucker-moon-sore-eyes-moon-native-american-moon-names/

IX

Kin 54: White Lunar Wizard

I polarize in order to enchant

Stabilizing receptivity

I seal the output of timelessness

With the lunar tone of challenge

I am guided by the power of death.

It is the nature of the individual soul and spirit evolution to extend into the noosphere and work with others collectively.*

*Star Traveler's 13 Moon Almanac of Synchronicity, Galactic Research Institute, Law of Time Press, Ashland, Oregon, 2016-2017.

www.lawoftime.org

www.tzolkincosmology.com

www.13moon.com

www.mayanmajix.com

The Sacred Tzolk'in 

Visshudha Chakra (Alpha Plasma)

Red Magnetic Skywalker/ Red Overtone Serpent - Cosmic Turtle Moon of Presence, Day 18

                                                            YouTube

Sen. Jon Tester questioning Indian Health Service Acting Director Rear Admiral Michael Weahkee, Zuni

Sen. Jon Tester on IHS Budget Cuts Video Goes Viral:

Tester: ‘If you guys don’t advocate for a budget how the hell are we supposed to fix it?’

Sen. Jon Tester, D-MT, was apoplectic by the time he finished questioning Indian Health Service Acting Director Rear Admiral Michael Weahkee, Zuni, during Wednesday’s Senate Interior Appropriations Subcommittee hearing on President Donald Trump’s 2018 budget proposal for IHS.

Tester repeatedly asked Weahkee whether the proposed budget included an increase or a decrease in spending for hiring additional staff, which Weahkee had identified as IHS’s top priority. Despite Tester’s direct questioning, Weahkee simply refused to answer, saying instead that the agency was prioritizing maintaining direct services and that tough decisions had to be made.

By the end of the exchange, Tester was virtually yelling. “I have never had, in 10 years on this committee, I have never had somebody come up here and when I ask them a direct question they don’t answer it. I asked you a direct question on whether this budget was up or down and you would not answer it, you refused to answer it. That is totally unacceptable,” he said.

The proposed budget cuts $300 million from IHS funding. This, combined with cuts to Medicaid included in both the House and Senate versions of bills to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, could have a devastating impact on Indian health in general and the Indian Health Service in particular.

Another question from Tester that Weahkee refused to answer was how much IHS had received in Medicaid reimbursements, even though that number is public information. In 2016, IHS informed ICMN a few weeks ago, the agency “collected over $659 million in reimbursements for services provided by IHS federal government facilities and programs to IHS patients who are also enrolled in Medicaid. This comprised over two-thirds of total third-party reimbursements to IHS that year.”

Tester expressed outrage that Weahkee seemed to be refusing to advocate for Indian people’s health and welfare, leaving senators with no way to argue for rejecting the president’s cuts. “If you guys don’t advocate for a budget how the hell are we supposed to fix it?” he asked.

One of the most disturbing consequences of Weahkee’s testimony was embodied in Tester’s final comments on his performance during the hearing, which was evocative of the all-too-common stance of blaming Indians for failed federal Indian policy. “Indian health services is in a crisis and if you have served in Indian Health services for 10 years and you have answered the questions in Indian health service like you have here today, there is no wonder it is in a crisis,” said Tester.*

ByTanya H. Lee • July 14, 2017

*https://indiancountrymedianetwork.com/news/politics/sen-jon-tester-ihs-budget-cuts-video-goes-viral/?mqsc=ED3898393

BEN

Kin 53: Red Magnetic Skywalker

I unify in order to explore

Attracting wakefulness

I seal the output of space

With the magnetic tone of purpose

I am guided by my own power doubled.

You are unique. Out of 7 billion humans, no two energy patterns are alike.*

*Star Traveler's 13 Moon Almanac of Synchronicity, Galactic Research Institute, Law of Time Press, Ashland, Oregon, 2016-2017.

www.lawoftime.org

www.tzolkincosmology.com

www.13moon.com

www.mayanmajix.com

 The Sacred Tzolk'in

Svadhistanha Chakra (Kali Plasma)

Yellow Cosmic Human/ Yellow Self-Existing Seed - Cosmic Turtle Moon of Presence, Day 17

A collection of Vintage Native American Jewelry made of Turquoise and Sterling Silver. Necklaces, cuff bracelets, Squash Blossom and a Silver Cross.

Millions in Fake Native Art and Shark-Infested Waters:

As much as 80 percent of all Native art is fake, so we need stricter laws against cons and sharks

During the 1970's, Cheyenne-Arapaho artist Charlie Pratt built a reputation on his exquisite bronze chess sets that featured iconic adversaries like cowboys and Indians.

Pratt, a self-taught artist, sold his art in galleries across the Southwest, earning praise and prestige for his unique work. That is, until someone stole the designs and began selling them as his own.

“Charlie sold one or two copies of his cowboys and Indians, and then his chess set started appearing in silver and selling for large amounts of money,” said Harvey Pratt, Charlie’s younger brother and chairman of the Interior Department’s Indian Arts and Crafts Board. “Someone was copying and selling his work, as Native American art.”

Pratt took the imposter to court in the late 1970's, said Harvey, who is also a celebrated artist. Pratt won and the court ordered the defendant to pay royalties and stop making the chess sets.

“My brother met this guy later, socially, and the guy said he’d been doing this for 30 years and no one had challenged him before,” Harvey said. “People make copies of Indian art and sell it illegally. They take their work and their name. A lot of Natives don’t have the assets or financial means to protect their work, to take people to court.”

Forty years after Pratt’s win in court, many Native artists still face the same obstacles to protect their art—and their names—from fraud. Artists and advocates met with federal lawmakers during a three-hour hearing July 7 in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where they demanded heavier crackdowns on counterfeit Native art.

The hearing came 27 years after Congress passed the Indian Arts and Crafts Act of 1990, a truth-in-advertising law that prohibits misrepresentation in the marketing of Indian products. Some of the biggest names in Native art testified during the hearing, hosted by the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs and held in the home of the Santa Fe Indian Market, the country’s oldest and largest Native American arts venue.

Dallin Maybee, CEO of the Southwestern Association for Indian Arts, which produces the annual Santa Fe Indian Market, called on the federal government to step up its enforcement of the Indian Arts and Crafts Act. The sale of fake Indian art harms both artists and customers, he told U.S. Sen. Tom Udall, a New Mexico Democrat and vice chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs.

“Artists are grateful for the enforcement efforts that have been made to date,” Maybee said. “But I am sure that the testimony heard today will reflect a desire for increased resources for continued and ongoing enforcement efforts.”

The hearing also came as a high-profile case involving fraudulent art sales at galleries in New Mexico and California is pending in federal court. In 2015, federal agents raided galleries in Albuquerque, Gallup and Santa Fe and seized Filipino-made jewelry marketed as Native.

Six people were indicted in the investigation, said William Woody, chief of the law enforcement office at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which pilots the enforcement of the Indian Arts and Crafts Act. If convicted of federal charges, each faces a fine of $250,000 and five years in prison.

But Woody called the fine a “pittance.” The seized items have a wholesale value of $11 million—and a much higher retail value, he told senators July 7.

Woody estimated that as much as 80 percent of Native art sold in the global market is fake. This “drives legitimate Native American artists out of a flooded market,” he said.

Federal officials also used the hearing to call for changes to the law. Stricter language would allow for tougher investigations, including the use of wiretapping to prove that dealers and retailers are knowingly marketing and selling fraudulent art.

Demand for Native art has skyrocketed during the past few decades, said David Bradley, a Chippewa artist and anti-fraud activist who was instrumental in getting the Indian Arts and Crafts Act passed in 1990. As the popularity of Native art increases, so does the market for fake Native art.

Since 1922, the Santa Fe Indian Market has gathered artists and customers alike, turning New Mexico’s tiny capital city into the “unofficial capital of Indian art,” Bradley told ICMN in a phone interview. During the 1980s, Santa Fe played host to a “Southwest art frenzy”—a flurry of buying and selling that still occurs on an annual basis.

The Indian market comes at the peak of the tourism season, drawing more than 100,000 people to downtown Santa Fe in late August. Artists lucky enough to get their own booths at the market can pull in most of their yearly income during the event, Bradley said, and collectors come from all over the world specifically to buy the work of top Indian artists.

But the event, historically, was fraught with fraud, Bradley said. Prior to 1990, even some of the most influential galleries contributed to the sale of fake Native art.

“Needless to say, where there is lots of easy money, the sharks and con artists are going to gather to take the biggest share of the pie that they can get,” Bradley said. “Many galleries encouraged their con artists to find or manufacture an Indian in their family tree.”

The Indian Arts and Crafts Act promised to curb some of the fraud, Bradley said. Now, most Indian markets and gallery owners require artists and dealers to show credentials, but without stricter enforcement of the law, fraud will continue to be a problem.

“The federal Indian Arts and Crafts law has made a big difference in how art shows do business,” Bradley said. “But it doesn’t go far enough. There is almost no enforcement of the law, despite widespread fraud that continues.”

Sen. Udall agreed that the law needs to be updated and more must be done to stop fraud. In a statement issued after the hearing, Udall suggested federal and local leaders work together to combat the marketing and sale of fake Native art.

“This rampant and shocking illegal trade is destabilizing the Native art market, devaluing Native American art and forcing Native Americans to quit their crafts — and it must be stopped,” he said. “We must take action to stop this assault on artists’ ability to carry on deeply significant traditions that have helped hold families and communities together for generations.”*

By Alysa Landry • July 13, 2017

*https://indiancountrymedianetwork.com/news/politics/millions-fake-native-art-shark-infested-waters/?mqsc=ED3898179

EB

Kin 52: Yellow Cosmic Human

I endure in order to influence

Transcending wisdom

I seal the process of free will

With the cosmic tone of presence

I am guided by the power of intelligence.

The cosmos appears differently according to the level of perception and intelligence to which a particular organism has evolved.*

*Star Traveler's 13 Moon Almanac of Synchronicity, Galactic Research Institute, Law of Time Press, Ashland, Oregon, 2016-2017.

lawoftime.org

www.tzolkincosmology.com

www.13moon.com

www.mayanmajix.com

 The Sacred Tzolk'in

Ajna Chakra (Gamma Plasma)

Blue Crystal Monkey/ Blue Electric Night - Cosmic Turtle Moon of Presence, Day 16

                                                 Courtesey: Theresa Braine

The Mohawk and Abenaki section of the new 'Life in the Adirondacks' exhibit at The Adirondack Experience, The Museum on Blue Mountain Lake, in New York State.

Adirondack Museum Dispels Myths With Native Exhibit:

New ‘Life in the Adirondacks’ exhibit dedicates area to Abenaki, Mohawk presence in northern New York State

For millennia, the ancestors of today’s Mohawk, Abenaki and other Native tribes have called the Adirondack Mountains home. Yet much of that history, not to mention present experience, has gone unrecognized. A new exhibit aims to change all that.

“We have not tackled the story of Native Americans in the Adirondacks in the past,” said David Kahn, executive director of The Adirondack Experience, The Museum on Blue Mountain Lake, formerly the Adirondack Museum. “The institution has been influenced by the sort of general perception that Native Americans didn’t really live here full time, this hasn’t been Native territory. But it’s not true.”

Perched on the shores of Blue Mountain Lake, the 121-acre, indoor-outdoor museum lies in the heart of the mountain range that forms part of the traditional territory of the Abenaki, Mohawk and other tribes. Although Natives were well entrenched for millennia before Europeans came, previous exhibits had never addressed that. A sizable section of the 19,000-square-foot interactive Life in the Adirondacks, a permanent exhibit that debuted on July 1, highlights Native life and culture in the region to help fill that gap. The museum is open seasonally, through October 9.

“We’re trying to set the record straight with this exhibit,” said Kahn. “We’re hoping that this exhibit will be a kind of wake-up moment for anybody who might have had that misperception that this wasn’t Mohawk and Abenaki territory. Because it certainly was.”

Native artists on hand for the opening said it does just that.

“Awesome. It’s been wonderful,” said Diane Cubit, an Abenaki artist who was helping visitors make prints based on her artwork on opening day. “It’s huge for me. That’s why I’m here.”

While the Abenaki are well known in Canada and among First Nations, “we haven’t gotten that here in the U.S.,” she said. “To have anyone in New York State recognize that the Abenaki were here is huge.”

Cubit’s sister, Jennifer Coler, spoke of how it felt to honor her mother and grandmother.

“Basically, they were not allowed to be proud,” she said. “For us to celebrate who we are in their memories is very moving.”

Aesthetically, too, the exhibit got high marks.

“The colors are great. The graphics are amazing,” said Natasha Smoke Santiago, Mohawk, a potter and the artist-in-residence at the museum, who had finely crafted jewelry on offer.

She added that it made her happy “that they wanted to genuinely include us in the exhibit—and that they picked really beautiful work.”

Outstanding features include a language center, where touching a symbol on a screen generates a mini oral-history lesson—with English subtitles.

But first one enters through a present-day portal, greeted with video interviews of modern Mohawk and Abenaki people talking about their daily lives and how that interweaves with tradition. Later in the exhibit is the cultural appropriation section, complete with cringeworthy photos of partying white people from the 19th and 20th centuries in faux-Native dress, captioned with the words, “How would it feel to have your community portrayed this way?”

Part of the display on cultural appropriation at the Adirondack Experience: The Museum on Blue Mountain Lake, in a newly launched exhibit on Native life in the region.

The cultural appropriation and contemporary life sections were must-haves designated by the Native American Advisory Committee that was convened to help design the exhibit.

“One of the other things that we’re hoping that this exhibit does is that it counters the ersatz Indian imagery that has been associated with the Adirondacks for generations,” Kahn said. “Where you have promotional brochures going back to the late nineteenth, early twentieth centuries showing Plains Indians in war bonnets to help promote the Adirondacks. And you see totem poles all over the Adirondacks.”

Thus a totem pole is part of the cultural appropriation section—an example of what Native culture in this region is not.

The building that houses Life in the Adirondacks was initially dedicated entirely to modes of transportation, Kahn said. That 47-year-old exhibit, which had been in place since 1969, was taken down to make way for the revamp.

“Basically the whole building was filled with carriages and sleighs,” he said wryly. “So it told the story of how people used to get around in the Adirondacks before motorized transport.”

Life in the Adirondacks was years in the making, and the Native component was purposely planted in the building that will serve as the entry point for the entire museum.

“This is now an overview exhibit of the Adirondack story, and we’ll be directing all our future visitors to begin their visits here,” Kahn said. “Then they can go and see the other buildings. But this will be the starting point. So it was important to us to have the Indians in this core exhibit for everybody to see.”

By Theresa Blaine

*https://indiancountrymedianetwork.com/travel/destinations/adirondack-museum-native-history/?mqsc=ED3897978

CHUEN

Kin 51: Blue Crystal Monkey

I dedicate in order to play

Universalizing illusion

I seal the process of magic

With the crystal tone of cooperation

I am guided by the power of abundance

I am a galactic activation portal

Enter me.

Any act of kindness, goodness or compassion places you in relationship with the Absolute.*

*Star Traveler's 13 Moon Almanac of Synchronicity, Galactic Research Institute, Law of Time Press, Ashland, Oregon, 2016-2017.

www.lawoftime.org

www.tzolkincosmology.com

www.13moon.com

www.mayanmajix.com

 The Sacred Tzolk'in

Muladhara Chakra (Seli Plasma)