klasiloo's blog

The Traditional Native American Farmers Association along with countless others are fighting to keep traditional farming alive throughout native communities.

SANTA FE, NM - The Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA), located at 83 AvanNu Po, Santa Fe, is going a step farther to introduce new technology to their students and the surrounding community. In a press release from IAIA it was announced that the Institute, along with the University of New Mexico (UNM) and the Santa Fe Complex, has been awarded $597,220 in funding from theNational Science Foundation’s Partnership for Innovation program. IAIA, UNM and the Santa Fe Complex will use the award to develop the hardware and software that will make it possible to use fulldomes as interactive, multisurface environments that help people visualize, simulate, or experientially comprehend a wide range of information, from educational and artistic material to evaluating scientific data and complex systems.

The new Digital Dome, which is currently under construction at the moment, is proving to be a huge undertaking by the college. J. Carlos Peinado is the chair of the New Media Arts Department at IAIA. “What a dome is essentially is a planetarium,” Peinado said. “But if you've never been to a planetarium, then I always say, take a ping-pong ball, cut it in half, and the inside of one of those halves is all projection space, so 180°, its a perfect hemisphere.”

In the fall of 2007 Peinado and a number of other colleagues attended an educators conference in Albuquerque where he met David Beining, the founding director of UNM's ARTS Lab. That day Peinado was introduced and blown away by David, and his use of the technology and immersive properties of the “fulldome experience.”

“Colloquially we call it fulldome, it's taking a planetarium dome and washing it in digital video by using many projectors.” David said. “Each of those is connected to a computer or a graphics card at least. The pictures combine to cover 180 degrees over your head and 360 degrees around you.” The UNM ARTS Lab is unlike any other viewing facility. Although this brown building, with it's wooden steps, doesn't look like much from the outside. The interior is filled with wondrous, innovating technologies.

“He put on the most amazing show. I've never experienced anything like that, and I've been to planetariums so I'm familiar with being in a planetarium and looking at stars and stuff like that,” Peinado said. “But to see moving image material going on, coupled with surround sound, it was wild.” David Beining has been spent years on working with this medium. He could now be easily identified as the “go-to man” when needing information about a “fulldome experience.”

But it wasn't until Peinado was shown work done by students from, UNM, that he became overwhelmed with excitement and wonder. “I think the thing that really struck me the most was, David demonstrated some material that some native students had done at UNM with the dome.” Peinado said. “That's where I had my ah-hamoment, I was like wow.” David explained the project that was so inspiring to Peinado. The project was entitled, “Indigenous Skies & Celestial Beings” by Colleen Gorman an enrolled member of the Diné (Navajo) Nation. “She really celebrated her perspective and her philosophy of the importance of symmetries and how we can find things in symmetry. ” David said. “It was the first time I had ever seen a contemporary Diné voice so large, so big.” After that amazing presentation, Peinado was off and running.

As chair of the New Media Arts department, he pushed this project to the top of his list. Soon both, Dr. Robert Martin the President of IAIA, and Ann Filemyr the Dean were on board. Peinado was able to share his vision so vividly that anyone would be excited when learning of all the possibilities this medium could offer IAIA's students. “If you really think about it the idea of the circle, the idea of the hemisphere.” Peinado said. “It's iconography that is so deeply embedded I think, in our stories, our mythology, our cultural heritage and our way of thinking.” According to the current work schedule the Digital Dome should be ready for it's grand opening some time in late August or early September.

SANTA FE, N.M. - The Indigenous Language Institute is doing all it can to combat the extinction of indigenous languages, a vital part of Native people’s identity. Native American stories, history and prayers are all passed down orally. But Native American languages are disappearing at an alarming rate. According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger, there are 191 endangered languages in the United States, 74 of which are listed as critically endangered.

 The Indigenous Language Institute's Guiding Philosophy is to create speakers of endangered indigenous languages while there are still speakers left. The institute is working to turn the tide of indigenous language decline within 10 years so that those languages can become a vibrant component of everyday life in Native communities. First founded in 1992 as the Institute for the Preservation of the Original Languages of the Americas by Joanna Hess, the institute has been working diligently to preserve and spread original indigenous languages throughout Native communities.

The institute offers a number of resources to communities and individuals interested in participating, including workshops geared at producing digital stories, films, textbooks, teaching aids and other types of media in the participant's language. "Two of the workshops that are quite popular, that we like to share with everyone is our technology workshops,” said Rachael Nez, workshop coordinator for the institute. “One is creating short videos using your language, and the other is creating print materials, like broachers, calendars and storybooks in your language."

Nez said the institute has worked with numerous Native American communities throughout the United States, providing different types of training and workshops to help communities make languages visible and accessible. With the use of technology, the institute is trying to bridge the gap between Native elders and youth. The institute strives to help community members create quality multimedia projects and stories that they can then take back to their communities and utilize.

Advocates for Native language preservation say language loss has hurt Native youth, who have struggled to connect to their culture and find an identity. Daisy Thompson, director of the Albuquerque school district's Indian Education Department, told the Associated Press in a July 2009 story that research shows that becoming disconnected from their culture leads to a lack of motivation among Native American students and can leave students behind academically.

In the same article, Inee Slaughter, the executive director of the institute said, while tribes nationwide often offer summer Native language programs, it's uncommon for them to be offered in public schools. She went on to say that New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon and Washington lead the country in licensing Native Americans to teach their languages in public schools.

The institute’s efforts have not gone unnoticed: Their workshop, “Ancient Voices, Modern Tools: Native Languages and Technology,” was the national winner of the Third Annual Verizon Tech Savvy Awards. The institute was awarded a $25,000 grant to expand and continue their work. “I'd like to see the institute really grow,” Nez said. “So we can help a lot more people, reach a lot more communities and be able to do everything that everyone wants.”

It seems the institute is well on its way to that goal.

The National Congress of American Indian's held their mid year conference in Rapid City, SD.  The Cobell vs. Salazar lawsuit was one of many issues that were addressed at the conference.