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WHO OWNS NATIVE CULTURE?
To The Best of Our Knowledge
from Wisconsin Public Radio
In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge,
the mystique of Native Americans. We hear they're close to the land;
they have sacred knowledge. But Indian writer Sherman Alexie says
that's bunk, that the "the whole New Age movement is based
on as many stereotypes as genocide was." What makes a "real"
Indian? And who owns Native culture?
SEGMENT 1:
Sherman Alexie is one of America's most acclaimed
young writers, with strong opinions about what it means to be
a "real" Indian. He discusses this hot button issue
with Steve Paulson, and reads an excerpt from one of the stories
in his collection called "Ten Little Indians." Also,
Michael Brown is an anthropologist and the author of "Who
Owns Native Culture? He talks with Jim Fleming about some
of the legal and constitutional issues involved with controversies
around Native American sacred sites and artifacts.
SEGMENT 2:
Gayle Ross is a Cherokee storyteller whose
great great great grandfather was chief of the Cherokee Nation
during the infamous Trail of Tears. Ross tells Jim Fleming the
history of the displacement of her people, and tells a brief traditional
Cherokee story. Native Americans aren't the only ones concerned
with what it means to be native. It's a topic of great controversy
among biologists. Environmental writer Connie Barlow says
your take on what's native totally changes when you take a deep
time perspective. She tells Steve Paulson that rhinos and elephants
and tigers are native to North America and that we should bring
back the Cheetah. Barlow's books include The Ghosts of Evolution
and Green Space, Green Time.
SEGMENT 3:
Robert Johnson is known as the most famous blues
singer of them all. He died at the age of 27 after recording only
29 songs. Today he's idolized, but Elijah Wald tells Anne
Strainchamps that may be for the wrong reasons. Wald's book about
Johnson is called Escaping the Delta.
Cassette copies are available
at 1-800-747-7444. Ask for program number 04-03-21-A.
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Books:
- Sherman Alexie, Ten
Little Indians (Grove/Atlantic)
- Connie Barlow, The Ghosts of Evolution
(Basic Books)
- Michael F. Brown, Who Owns Native
Culture? (Harvard)
- Elijah Wald, Escaping the Delta: Robert
Johnson and the Invention of the Blues (Amistad)
Music:
- After Sherman Alexie:
Dennis Hawk w/ "Black Elk's Vision" on "Hawk Dance"
Hawk Sounds, Inc.
- After Michael Brown:
Kevin Locke w/ "Across the River" on "The Flash
of the Mirror"
Makche
- After Gayle Ross:
Sharon Burch w/ "Earth and Sun" on "Touch the Sweet
Earth"
Canyon Records Productions
- Music before and in Elijah Wald:
Robert Johnson w/ "Come On in My Kitchen" on "Robert
Johnson: The Complete Recordings"
Columbia
- Robert Johnson w/ "Me and the Devil Blues"
- Bumble Bee Slim w/ "Cruel Hearted Woman"
on "Back to the Crossroads"
on Yazoo Records
- Robert Johnson w/ "Kind Hearted Woman"
- Robert Johnson w/ "Terraplane Blues"
- Bessie Smith w/ "Backwater Blues" on
"The Essential Bessie Smith"
Columbia
Distribution dates:
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Questions and comments can
be addressed to: flemingj@wpr.org
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