Recently in Native News

Native Americans have been making headlines this month across the country for their contributions to society through Native art and culture. We’ve compiled a few of our favorite Native American news headlines from the month of August for your enjoyment. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn and stay up to date with the latest headlines all year long.

Summit equips Native youths, communities for healthy living via Rapid City Journal

• “Native American teens got a summer camp-style crash course in weaving traditional Lakota culture and timeless skills into a healthy 21st century lifestyle. The second Native Youth Food Sovereignty Summit immerses kids in lessons about nutrition, cooking, Lakota culture, health and life skills. About 40 kids, ages 13 to 17 from the Cheyenne River and Pine Ridge reservations, were chosen by their community leaders to attend the invitation-only summit. The teens spent July 29-31 at Storm Mountain near Rapid City learning how to cultivate positive physical and mental health.”

Native American powwow a colorful celebration of culture via Cheyenne Edition

• “The 11th annual Colorado Springs Native American Intertribal Powwow celebrated American Indian culture and heritage through colorful [outfits], and traditional dance and song. More than 2,000 people from throughout Colorado and neighboring states attended the cultural sights and sounds celebration Saturday at the Norris-Penrose Events Center. For Diane Reynolds, the powwow was the perfect vehicle from which to learn about the nation’s native peoples.”

Joy Harjo’s New Poetry Collection Brings Native Issues to the Forefront via Smithsonian

• “Seeing Joy Harjo perform live is a transformational experience. The internationally acclaimed performer and poet of the Muscogee (Mvskoke)/Creek nation transports you by word and by sound into a womb-like environment, echoing a traditional healing ritual. The golden notes of Harjo’s alto saxophone fill the dark corners of a drab university auditorium as the audience breathes in her music… She first expressed herself through painting before burying herself in books, art and theater as a means of survival…”

The Artistic Achievements of Native Americans Through the Ages via Hyperallergic

• “It was a big deal when the Metropolitan Museum of Art began displaying work by Indigenous artists in its American Wing in 2018. As Hyperallergic wrote at the time of the acquisition of Charles and Valerie Diker Collection’s 116 works by Indigenous artists: ‘Frequently in American museums, Indigenous art is excluded from the visual narrative of this country,’ and ‘in spaces like the Met’s American Wing, often the only images of Native American people and culture were by non-Indigenous creators.’ The acquisition and subsequent 2018 exhibition sought to correct that discrepancy in the Met, as well as locate work by Indigenous artists firmly within the context of ‘American art.’”