Gary Trujillo,
While the internet is fast I have not been able to find efficient ways to
keep notes and information. Your recent comments on Indians on CD's and
the plan (?) to develop educational materials by and for American Indians
is of considerable interest to me.
I have been on NATCHAT or one of the NativeNet lists for some time and
posted a number of items including an announcement of the Native American
Map exhibition I am working on. I have found it to have some advantages,
but lately just keeping up is taking to much time and many of the issues
discussed with such fervor on the network are not of interest to me. I am
planning on unsubscribing as soon as I get a message posted which I think
will be of interest to many of the network members. Curiously it is about
a film which i think is an excellent example of blending contemporary
Native American life with their history and traditions. I include a short
description of the film with information on its PBS airing date (Wednesday
October 19) and its availability to both institutions and the public.
A GIFT FROM THE PAST is the pilot film for INDIAN AMERICA, a series of
films about American Indian history and contemporary life being developed
by Media Resource Associates, Inc. a Washington, D.C. based non-profit
organization. A GIFT FROM THE PAST focuses on the Makah Indians of
Washington's Olympic Peninsula, and on how their community was enriched
and strengthened through the unearthing and preservation of artifacts from
an ancient Makah village. The film concentrates on the site of Ozette
where, at around the same time as the encounter with Europeans began, part
of a village was encased in a mudslide and preserved for five centuries
until tides and storms began to unearth it. Compared to a New World
Pompeii, the Ozette site yielded thousands of artifacts from a culture
which had inhabited this area for approximately two thousand years. A
GIFT FROM THE PAST examines how these artifacts helped strengthen and
reaffirm the Makahs' oral traditions. At the same time the film portrays
present day Makah life as a successful combination of modern culture with
traditional beliefs, customs, and experience. The Ozette find reveals a
people with sophisticated technology, ingenious methods of survival and
the courage to travel 40 miles out in the ocean in huge canoes in search
of whales and other sea mammals. In the film, The Makah, who are still
expert mariners on the turbulent waters they call home, also sing the
songs of their ancestors, perform traditional potlatch ceremonies, and
tell legends that are centuries old.
Using stunning location footage, archival film of the excavations,
interviews, animation, three foot high marionettes and extraordinary
artifacts, A GIFT FROM THE PAST explores how a fifteenth-century village
became a prize of immeasurable worth to Indians and non-Indians. For the
first time on videotape, the Makah tell a story of what the Ozette
discoveries mean to them, and how the possessions of their ancestors and
the oral traditions that is their history define who they are today.
A GIFT FROM THE PAST is narrated by the Cherokee actor Wes Studi and was
written with members of the Makah Indian Nation. The film has been
supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Rockefeller
Foundation. It is a superb portrait of contemporary American Indian life
which documents the rich heritage of America's indigenous people. VHS
($59.95) and 3/4 inch ($99.95) copies of A GIFT FROM THE PAST are
available to museums, schools, libraries, and other organizations as well
as to individuals. Call 1-800-775-FILM(3456), or send a check or purchase
order to MEDIA RESOURCE ASSOCIATE, 3615 WISCONSIN AVENUE NW, WASHINGTON DC
20016.
INDIAN AMERICA: A GIFT FROM THE PAST will be aired on PBS on Wednesday,
October 19, 1994 10:00 p.m. ET (check local listings).
Your advice on the best way to post this, and on which networks will be
most appreciated. If it is just as easy for you to forward it to the
appropriate places be my guest, otherwise let me know which networks
might be interested and i will send it myself. I shall email separately
on your comments about educational materials.
Mark Warhus
markw@csd4.csd.uwm.edu