Contemporary Native Americans Indians Educational Posters
for classrooms and homeschoolers.

Sherman Alexie Voices of Diversity Poster

Sherman Alexie
b. 10-7-1966; Spokane, WA

Poster Text: “The word gone echoes all over the reservation. The reservation was gone itself, just a shell of its former self, just a fragment of the whole. But the reservation still possesses power and rage, magic and loss, joys and jealousy. The reservation tugged at the lives of its Indians... But the reservation forgave, too.” - Reservation Blues

"According to TV and the movies, Indians don't exist past 1950." says Sherman Alexie, a Spokane and Coeur d'Alene Indian. Growing up, Mr. Alexie couldn't identify with the stereotyped images that he saw of native Americans. Now Mr. Alexie is working to remove those stereotypes with is writing about modern Native Americans.

Sherman grew up in Wellpinit, Washington, the main community of the Spokane Indian Reservation. "I was a weird, nerdy little kid," he says, and he felt isolated from the rest of the community. He spent a lot of time alone, reading. "I'd read the entire reservation library by the time I was 15," he says. "I read everything I could get my hands on – cereal boxes, catalogues, instruction books, you name it."

But even though books were very important to him, he almost didn't become a writer, He planned to study medicine at Washington State University, but changed his mind after he fainted three times in human anatomy class. So he enrolled in the only open class: a poetry workshop. the first assignment was to write five poems. "I went home and did it, and it hasn't stopped yet." Those poems can be found in his first book poetry. The Business of Fancydancing, which was published in 1992. Since then, he has published a variety of works including. The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfighting in Heaven – a short story collection – and the novel Reservation Blues. He also wrote the screenplay for the film Smoke Signals, which was based on one of his short stories, and which was the first feature film written, co-produced, and directed by Native Americans.

Mr. Alexie's work often focuses on the harsh realties of reservation life – including alcoholism on poverty. "I'm not in [writing] to make people happy or to make people feel good about the world." he says. "First and foremost, I want to talk about universal conditions." But although his writing deals with serious subjects, it's also filled with humor. "Indians are funny, the funniest people on the planet," he says, "They have to be."

• Voices of Diversity posters
• more Authors posters

Charlotte Black Elk Contemporary Native Americans

Charlotte Black Elk
b. 1951;

In the Lakota Sioux religion, the Black Hills are the most sacred of all places. Hear those hills, on the Pine Ridge Reservation, lives Charlotte Black Elk, the great granddaughter of the famous Lakota spiritual leader Nicholas Black Elk.

Charlotte was born on the reservation in 1951. She spoke only the Lakota language until first grade. But when she started school her family encouraged her to learn English. "We were told to learn it better than white people," she says, "so that no one cold ever lie to us in a language we didn't understand."

Ms. Blak Elk's trive has been lied to before. the U.S. governemnt had promised the Sioux that their sacred lands, the Black Hills, would never be taken away. But in 1874, gold was discovered in the Black Hills, and the governement broke its promise and took control of the area, Today, Ms. Black Elk is campaigning to get these lands returned to her tribe. She is working to educate people about the Black Hills, their importance to the Sioux, and the treaties the U.S. government broke. To keep her heritage alive, she has passed her Lakota language and religion on to the children. "I was told my generation would make its own choices to remain Lakota or choose to walk away." she has written. "I'm confident of our survival as a people."

• Black Elk Speaks: Being the Life Story
of a Holy Man of the Oglala Sioux

Contemporary Native Americans -
Ben Nighthorse Campbell Wall Poster
b. 4-13-1933; Auburn, CA

available at-
Art.com
AllPosters.com

• political process posters

Tom Giago Contemporary Native Americans

Tim Giago
b. 1934, Pine Ridge Reservation, SD

Tim Giago's voice rises with anger when he talks of his childhood. Born in 1934 on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, he grew up in a time when Native American culture was strongly discouraged. At age six, Tim went to live at a boarding school of Indians. Students' heads were shaved so they could not hae traditional tribal hairstyles, and anyone caught speaking a tribal language was beaten. "It was like a prison," he says. He joined the U.S. Navy at 17, and completed high school while serving in Japan. He later earned a degree in business from the University of Nevada.

Today, Mr. Giago, an Oglala Sioux, is a leading Native American journalist, and he writes to help people understand the struggles Native Amerians have faced. He began his writing career as a reporter for a South Dakota newspaper in 1981. Mr. Giago founded the Lakota Times, an Indian newspaper for the people of the Pine Ridge Reservation. The paper was so successful that Mr. Giago expanded its coverage and renamed it Indian Country Today. Today it is America's largest Indian-owned newspaper. In 1998, Mr. Giago sold Indian Country Today to the Oneida Nation, although he continues to write for the newspaper.

Mr. Giago has also written books, on of them about his experiences at boarding school. He believes that his writing has helped him deal with his own childhood and has also helped others understand native American culture.
...
Tim Giago’s Sioux name, Nanwica Keiji means,
"He Who Stands Up For You." - more journalism resources at journalism.org

Wilma Mankiller Contemporary Native Americans

Wilma Mankiller
b. 11-18-1945; Tahlequah, OK

In the Cherokee language, Mankiller means someone who protects the village – a defender of the people. For Wilma Mankiller, chief of the Cherokees from 1985 to 1995, it is a fitting name.

Wilma was born in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, in 1945. Even though her family and the other people around her were poor, she was happy because she was surrounded by her Cherokee culture. When Wilma was 12, the U.S. government uprooted her family to San Francisco. The idea was to help Native Americans blend in with white society. But big city life was a shock to her family and they struggled to hold on to their Cherokee heritage. As a young adult, Ms. Mankiller grew interested in Indian politics and she eventually returned to the land where she was born.

In 1985, Ms. Mankiller became the first woman ever to serve as Principal chief of the Cherokees. Although at first some people did not want a woman for chief, they changed their minds when they saw how much she was helping the tribe. She brought new jobs to the area and helped poor women start businesses. She also improved the Cherokee court system and opened medical clinics. Chief Mankiller chose not to run for reelection in 1995, but she has stayed active in politics, speaking out for women's rights and the environment, as well as Native American issues. In 1998, Ms. Mankiller was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom – the nation's highest civilian honor.

• Women Who Dared II poster, Mankiller
• Every Day is a Good Day: Reflections of
Contemporary Indigenous Women

Maria Tallchief Contemporary Native Americans

Maria Tallchief
b. 1-24-1925, Fairfax, OK

Newsweek magazine once called Maria Tallchief "the finest American-born classic ballerina the twentieth century has produced." She was the first American ballerina to gain international fame. Her lightning speed and the precision of her dancing captured the world's attention.

Maria was born on Oklahoma's Osage Indian Reservation in 1925 to an Osage father and an Irish-Scottish mother. When she was three, her mother recognized her musical talents and arranged piano and dance lessons for her. As a child, Maria practiced both piano and dance for hours every day. She eventually chose to concentrate on ballet, and by age 15, she was dancing solo roles at the legendary Hollywood Bowl. That was only the beginning. In 1927, she joined the New York City Ballet and was a principal dancer there for many years. She is especially remembered for her role in Igor Stravinsky's "Firebird" in 1949, which established her international reputation. as a Native American, she not only sparked respect for Americans in the ballet world, she also broke through racial barriers in a field dominated by white Europeans.

In 1953, President Dwight Eisenhower presented Ms. Tallchief with the "Woman of the Year Award." The Osage Tribal Council named her "Wa-Xthe-Thorba" or Woman of Two Standards" for her achievements in both the Osage world and the world of other cultures. she retired from performing in 1966, but remains active in the arts, serving today as director of ballet for the Lyric Opera of Chicago.

• Native American Dance posters
• Dance posters
• Maria Tallchief DVD