This week's sporkful: Articles for Native American Heritage Month

This is the last of the months for this year, so when I decided to do it, I had more time to prepare.

By the time we got to November, I had four articles and three names I wanted to look up.

That was a start, but I really wanted to do some searches and get the whole schedule set for the month. I mean, sometimes when you know what you are doing you can put things in a better order.

That just didn't feel right. Instead I went along, with material presenting itself in time as new articles popped up, or as I remembered people and connections.

Some of it came from the music. Redbone was on the list, whom I knew, and then also Romeo Void. I had not known that Debora Iyall (November 21st) was Cowlitz; that's pretty local.

One of those led to an extra link. Christian Staebler's Redbone: The True Story of a Native American Rock Band has a nice account of the Hendrix/Redbone meeting, and Hendrix's own roots. None of the Redbone articles really explored that, so I added one that day (November 26th) that was about Jimi.

In addition, I could post an article about Stephanie Craig (November 19th) because we went to hear her speak at the library. Since then, I could not stop thinking about a video, One Becomes the Other, I had seen from Jeffrey Gibson. I posted an article about him the day after hers, and a link to the video.

The video is about items locked away in museum archives, with no one seeing them or connecting to them. The potential advantage of being in a museum collection is that it can inspire and educate others. I will not do so when locked away in drawers where only staff has access.

That is the antithesis of a lot of these articles, which ended up being mostly current or sometimes history that was fairly recent.

So much of what we get wrong about Native Americans is about relegating them strictly to the past. They're still here, and that refusal to connect makes some abuses easier.

At the beginning of the month, I could never have planned on posting about Confederated Tribes of Umatilla citizen Elaine Miles being detained by ICE, but it happened.

When I decided I was going to post articles for each of the heritage/pride months this year, it was because the government was erasing history and I was determined not to forget.

I don't know how next year will shape up, but the need to remember remains.

November daily articles:

11/1 CCC totem poles: https://www.juneauempire.com/news/fdrs-new-deal-helped-preserve-alaska-native-art-like-these-three-totem-poles-in-juneau/

11/2 First first responders: https://hakaimagazine.com/features/the-first-first-responders

11/3 Canoe: https://hakaimagazine.com/features/the-canoe-in-the-forest/

11/4 Water potatoes: https://www.vox.com/climate/377249/climate-solutions-traditional-indigenous-foods-water-potato

11/5 Residential school story https://thewalrus.ca/my-father-was-found-in-a-residential-school-incinerator-when-he-was-an-infant/?utm_source=firefox-newtab-en-us

11/6 Ada Blackjack: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/ada-blackjack-arctic-survivor

11/7 Bill Reid: https://www.visitexpo74.com/art-and-music/bill-reid-bear

11/8 Nancy Ward: https://www.allthingscherokee.com/nancy-ward/

11/9 Maud Bolin: https://www.yakimaherald.com/news/local/it-happened-here-the-remarkable-life-of-maud-bolin-pilot-rodeo-star-philanthropist/article_b0f6c41c-6529-11e7-9724-17ac3034eeb5.html

11/10 Allan Houser: https://westernartandarchitecture.com/june-july-2025/perspective-allan-houser-1914-1994-a-legacy-of-independence-and-innovation