 Native
American Village News
By The Associated Press
PBS to do documentary on Cherokee language program
By The Associated Press
Nov 14 10:13
TAHLEQUAH, Okla. (AP) - A program
that teaches the Cherokee language to Cherokee children will be featured
in a PBS documentary.
A film crew and producer for ``We
Shall Remain'' were in Tahlequah Thursday to visit the Cherokee Language
Immersion School and interview Principal Chief Chad Smith and others.
``We Shall Remain'' will be a
five-part documentary beginning in April. The series will cover major
turning points in relations between American Indians from the 1600s
through the early 1970s.
The Cherokee language program has 58
students ranging from 3- to 8-years-old.
___
Information from: Tulsa World,
http://www.tulsaworld.com
Tradition remains strong for Zuni bread business
By ELIZABETH HARDIN-BURROLA
Gallup Independent
Nov 12 03:55
ZUNI PUEBLO, N.M. (AP) - On any given
week, tourists from around the world may knock at the front door of the
Paywa home in Zuni Pueblo.
Along with freshly baked Zuni bread,
they are probably looking for something more -- a unique tourist stop,
information about a centuries-old tradition or a personal glimpse into
an American Indian home.
They get all of those things when
they stop by the Paywas' house, where they can see the largest bread
oven in Zuni Pueblo, learn about the Zuni tradition of bread making and
purchase bread, fruit pies and turnovers.
Paywa's Zuni Bread is a family
affair, run by siblings Jimmy Paywa and Rose Seeyouma and Jimmy's
daughter, Karlene Paywa.
The business was started in the 1970s
by Jimmy and Rose's parents, Bowman and Louise Paywa, who called it B&L
Zuni Bread.
Thirty years later, Jimmy, who once
ran his own machine shop; Rose, who retired from a long career at the
Leupp Boarding School; and Karlene, who used to work at the Gallup Head
Start, are carrying on a family business rooted in Zuni tradition.
``It's a lot of hard work, but you
get to meet a lot of people,'' Jimmy Paywa said.
Three days a week the family members
work from about 7 a.m. to 4 p.m., preparing and selling their bread,
pies, and turnovers.
Jimmy Paywa oversees the outdoor oven
and everything that goes with it -- chopping the firewood, heating and
cleaning the oven and loading and unloading the bread and pies.
Seeyouma, a lifelong baker, oversees
the kitchen work by preparing the dough, pie crusts and fruit filling.
Karlene Paywa helps both her father
and her aunt by kneading and weighing dough, making turnovers, helping
load and unload the oven, wrapping the baked items and waiting on
customers.
On Saturdays, Jimmy Paywa sells the
baked goods at the Gallup Flea Market, while Seeyouma sells in front of
the Zuni tribal building. On Sundays, Karlene Paywa and her husband haul
more firewood for the next week.
They take two vacations a year during
times of religious ceremonies in Zuni Pueblo during June and December.
The rest of the year, the family
sells about 180 loaves of traditional Zuni sourdough bread each week,
along with 80 loaves of yeast bread and 24 loaves of raisin bread.
The women fashion the sourdough and
yeast bread into one of two styles: ``flip-over,'' where the dough is
folded over like a taco, and ``fancy,'' where the dough is cut into
horn-like shapes.
Seeyouma said the fancy style is the
traditional Zuni bread style.
``It's always been made like that,''
Seeyouma said when asked about the unique shape. Zuni people call it
``bread with the horns,'' she said, while Navajo customers call it
``bear claw'' bread.
The family also makes and sells about
16 fruit pies and nearly 100 turnovers each week. Seeyouma regularly
mixes up apple, peach, cherry and pineapple filling, and sometimes
apricot and blueberry.
In addition to the attraction of
freshly baked goods, many visitors to Paywa's Zuni Bread stop by to see
Jimmy Paywa's huge bread oven, which sits inside a three-sided metal
building.
The average Zuni bread oven can hold
about 30 loaves of bread, and his family's old oven could hold about 55
loaves, Jimmy Paywa said. About a year ago, he completed building the
new oven, which can bake 100 loaves at one time. Because of the oven's
size, the family was able to cut their work week down by one day.
The beehive-shaped outdoor ovens,
which were introduced into pueblo culture when the Spanish introduced
wheat into the American Southwest, attract a lot of attention regardless
of their size. The Paywa family says tourists who have some knowledge of
Native American culture sometimes think the ovens are the Zuni version
of a Navajo sweat lodge, while other tourists think the ovens are Zuni
dog houses.
Although amused by such comments, the
family members said they enjoy meeting new visitors. Karlene Paywa said
the family ends up in a lot of photographs taken by tourists and
visiting school teachers.
Some of their visitors keep in touch
and send postcards, letters and even gifts. A customer from Texas mailed
the family gifts of jam and pecans, and a French woman sent them a
postcard featuring a photograph of French crepes.
But non-Indian tourists aren't the
only customers of Paywa's Zuni Bread. Members of other tribes will
frequently stop by, particularly Navajo families needing bread for
family gatherings, weddings and funerals.
``We even have Apache people clear
from Arizona,'' said Seeyouma.
Other Zuni people are also frequent
customers. Not all Zuni families have their own bread ovens and those
who do have ovens don't necessarily bake their own bread on a regular
basis, the family members explained.
The Paywas and Seeyouma agreed that
although the business involves a lot of work, it gives them time to
spend together. Karlene Paywa grew up helping her grandparents when they
ran B&L Zuni Bread, and she now enjoys working with her father and aunt.
``I guess it brings back memories of
my grandparents,'' she said.
Joseph Boyden wins Canadian literature award
By The Associated Press
Nov 12 11:45
TORONTO (AP) - Joseph Boyden, a New
Orleans resident who was raised in Toronto, has won the prestigious
Scotiabank Giller Prize for his book ``Through Black Spruce.''
``I'm so deeply humbled to be counted
among the writers here,'' Boyden, 41, told a packed ballroom as he
accepted the 50,000 Canadian dollars ($41,000) award on Tuesday night.
The Giller Prize is considered one of
the most prestigious in Canadian literature. Past winners have included
Margaret Atwood, Mordecai Richler and Alice Munro.
Boyden's book is a portrait of
contemporary aboriginal life and family struggles that ensue after a
beautiful young woman goes missing. Boyden, a Canadian with Irish,
Scottish and Metis roots, writes exclusively about Canada and First
Nations people.
``It lets us see First Nations
communities in a way we've never seen them before,'' Atwood said.
Competing against Boyden were Rawi
Hage for ``Cockroach,'' Mary Swan for ``The Boys in the Trees,'' Anthony
De Sa for ``Barnacle Love'' and Marina Endicott for ``Good to a Fault.''
The Giller was created in 1994 by
businessman Jack Rabinovitch in memory of his late wife, literary
journalist Doris Giller. It honors the best in Canadian fiction. Judges
this year included Atwood and politician Bob Rae.
___
On the Net:
Giller Prize:
www.scotiabankgillerprize.ca
Native Americans to weigh in on NY bridge project
By The Associated Press
Nov 11 13:54
NEW YORK (AP) - A $630 million
project to replace New York City's Kosciuszko (Kuh-SHOOS'-koh) Bridge
will include input from Native Americans in Wisconsin and Oklahoma.
Highway Administration spokesman Doug
Hecox says New York state has notified federal officials that the
project could affect some ancestral land of the Stockbridge-Munsee
Mohicans, based in Wisconsin, and the Delaware Nation, based in
Oklahoma.
Dan Keefe of New York's Historic
Preservation Office says preliminary studies show the area could hold
buried artifacts.
Letters are being mailed to the
tribes this week. They will have 30 days to respond.
The bridge carries the
Brooklyn-Queens Expressway over Newtown Creek.
Alaska Native Tribal Health gets grant
By The Associated Press
Nov 05 20:07
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - The American
Cancer Society is giving a $627,000 grant to the Alaska Native Tribal
Health Consortium.
The money will support a program
called ``Developing Arts-based Cancer Education with Alaska Native
People.''
The money will be used to lower
cancer rates for Alaska Natives.
The consortium is developing the
arts-based educational tools for Alaska Native care providers and people
in their communities. Officials say it is their hope it will be help
people understand more about cancer and encourage them to get
screenings.
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