Congrats to creative force behind WHEN THE SHADBUSH BLOOMS

 

When the Shadbush Blooms, written by Carla Messinger and Susan Katz, illustrated by David Kanietakeron Fadden has been selected for inclusion on the 2008 Notable Children's Books in the Language Arts!

It is among thirty books selected by the Children's Literature Assembly of the National Council of Teachers of English.

I wrote about the book on March 24th of this year. Congratulations to all those involved in the creation of this lovely book!

Erdrich's Illustrations on Notecards

As fans of Birchbark House know, the illustrations in the book were done by Louise Erdrich.

Her store, Birchbark Books, was exhibiting at the Native American Literature Symposium I attended in Minnesota earlier this month. Among the many wonderful books were notecards that are reproductions of the art Erdrich did for Birchbark House.

Click here to get to the on-line site for the store. At present, their catalog is not available online, but contact info is, so call them up if you want a set of the cards. I got several sets. If I recall correctly, each set was $12 and includes six cards.

Letter from Nambe Leader

As sovereign nations, we have forms of government and systems by which we select leaders. At Nambe Pueblo (my home), we elect a governor to lead and represent us. Today, I received a letter from a former governor, Thomas F. Talache. With his permission, I am posting his letter today.

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April 4th, 2008

Hi Debbie:

I occasionally search on Google News to see if there is any "Nambe News" happening and found an article about you and the blog you write. I visited your site and am writing to let you know how proud I am of you and all the great work you are doing in representing our Tribal Nation out in your part of "Indian Country."

I am now living and working in Denver, Colorado and have been active with Denver's Metro Indian leadership since my work with the Council of Energy Resource Tribes brought me up here in 2006.

I am still active with Native youth nationally. You can visit our website, "When Your Hands Are Tied" to see the movie trailer of our award winning documentary that is still being presented in film festivals in different cities and Tribes in the United States.

I miss home a lot, but former governors have to pay bills, too. In any case, thanks for your leadership and example of the very best that Nambe has to offer.

Thomas F. Talache, Former Governor
Nambe Pueblo Tribe of Tewa Indians

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Update, April 4, 6:30 PM...
The article Governor Talache refers to is in Diverse: Issues in Higher Education. Click here to read it.

Art by Bunky Echo-Hawk

Last summer I talked about the work of a terrific artist, Bunky Echo-Hawk. His artist statement is on the website of the Native American Rights Fund (click on "Today's Warriors" and then on "Culture Warriors" to get to it).

A member of the Yakama and Pawnee tribes, he does a lot of shows, including "live painting." In October of 2005, he was visiting Native students at Brown University.

I ordered the print shown here, "If Yoda Was An Indian" on-line. You can buy prints of his work here.