Yale Bulletin and Calendar

November 9, 2001

Volume 30, Number 10

Conference on 'ideal' Native American
school to include play, film clip screening

The creation of a Native American preparatory school in South Dakota will be the focus of a conference being sponsored this month by the Yale Collection of Western Americana at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.

Titled "Defining the Ideal Native American Preparatory School: A Planning Conference for Northern Plains Intertribal Preparatory School," the interdisciplinary program will feature talks with the school's founders about the new venture Friday-Sunday, Nov. 16-18, in the Beinecke Library, 121 Wall St.

That conference will also include performances of "My Red Hand, My Black Hand" by Obie Award-winning playwright Dael Orlandersmith, and a presentation by Native American filmmaker Chris Eyre.

"It seems especially appropriate that the Yale Collection of Western Americana, which includes extensive records regarding Native American education in both the 19th and 20th century, should help sponsor this groundbreaking venture," says George Miles, the William Robertson Coe curator of the collection. "In doing so we hope to be 'present at the creation' of a new era in Native American history."

According to Miles, a growing number of Native American communities are reclaiming the responsibility and authority to educate their young. "In the 19th and the early 20th centuries," he observes, "federal and state authorities saw control of education as a means to break down tribal identity and dissolve the distinctive social, political and cultural patterns of Indian communities."

Even the most sympathetic and best-intentioned white educators saw schooling as a way to transform Indians into white men, notes Miles. Over the last quarter-century, however, he adds, tribes have begun to take advantage of new directions in federal policy to begin the process of reshaping educational programs from the elementary to the collegiate level.

The weekend-long conference was organized by Delphine Red Shirt, an enrolled member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, author of "Bead on an Anthill: A Lakota Childhood" and a lecturer in the Yale College Seminars program. She is working to create the new, privately operated secondary school on land near the Black Hills of South Dakota, along with alumnus Fred Danforth, Yale College Class of 1973, and Sven Huseby, former headmaster of the Santa Fe Indian School.

The mission of the Northern Plains school, explains Red Shirt, is to "engage its students in academic learning in a community strongly committed to educational excellence with an awareness and celebration of indigenous cultures."

The goal of the conference is to provide an opportunity for Native American educators and students to meet with the founders of Northern Plains Intertribal Prep to discuss the goals, organization and operation of the new school. Workshop leaders will include Oren Lyons, faithkeeper of the Onondaga Nation; Kogee Thomas, associate director of the Center for Educational Partnerships at the University of California at Irvine; and Patricia Catches, an elder of the Oglala Sioux Tribe. Participants are especially interested in speaking with Native American college students about the strengths and weaknesses of their own secondary education and to hear their ideas about what would comprise an "ideal" Native American prep school.

Admission is free for those wishing to attend the conference sessions, but participants must register beforehand by calling Anne Letterman at (203) 432-2969.

Dael Orlandersmith's one-act play "My Red Hand, My Black Hand" will be staged at the Beinecke Library at 7 p.m. on Friday. Directed by Sarah Peterson and produced by the Long Wharf Theatre, "My Red Hand, My Black Hand" tells the story of one girl's search for belonging and acceptance in the two very distinct cultures that make up her heritage: the "Red" Tlingit and Lakota background of her father, who leaves the reservation to play blues rock in Boston, and the "Black" rural Virginia background of her mother, who goes to Boston seeking the big-city life.

Orlandersmith received an Obie Award for "Beauty's Daughter." Her most recent play, "Yellowman," is scheduled to open at Long Wharf Theatre in April.

There will be a presentation by Native American filmmaker Chris Eyre, the acclaimed director of the award-winning film "Smoke Signal," at 7:30 p.m. Saturday in Rm. 101 of Linsly-Chittenden Hall, 63 High St. Based on the book "Lone Ranger & Tonto Fistfight in Heaven" by Sherman Alexie, the film tells the story of a young Native American on a journey to retrieve his long-gone father's remains. The winner of the Audience Award and Filmmaker's Trophy at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival, "Smoke Signals" was the first feature film by a Native American director to receive major distribution. It opened the prestigious New Directors/New Films event at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City and became one of the top five grossing independent films of 1998.

Eyre, who plans to show select scenes from his forthcoming film "Skins," is an enrolled member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma and a board member for the Native American Producers Alliance, a national nonprofit organization of enrolled tribal members working in film and video as producers, directors and writers.

Both Orlandersmith's play and Eyre's presentation are free and open to the public.

T H I SW E E K ' SS T O R I E S

F&ES launches a $60 million capital campaign

School of Management hailed for emphasis on teaching . . .

Iran is 'buckle' of 'terror belt,' warns exiled crown prince

Yale Books in Brief

For American architects, the sky is still the limit, says Stern

AIA to honor Stern for his contributions to the 'urban landscape'

Ireland's former prime minister to speak at YCIAS

DEA official and New Mexico's governor to discuss war on drugs

Show highlights painter John Singer Sargent's sculptural skills

Panel goes beyond fantasy and crisis to look at richness of Arab civilization

Yale has long history of teaching Arabic language

Conference on 'ideal' Native American school to include play, film . . .

Council on European Studies sponsoring conference . . .

Auction to raise funds to fight hunger and homelessness

Memorial service to honor Levi Jackson, . . .

Rescheduled talks to explore Sept. 11 events, evolution