Tag Archives: Native history

Native Voices: Native American Civil War Soldiers

Posted by on February 11, 2019 No comments

Please join us tonight for a special program from IWU alum Quita Verban Shier (’60), who will be speaking about Company K of the 1st Regiment Michigan Volunteer Sharpshooters in the Civil War. This all-Native American company is the subject of Shier’s recent book Warriors in Mr. Lincoln’s Army: Native American Soldiers Who Fought in the Civil War. Attendees will learn from the soldiers themselves as Shier reads from their letters home about the effects that the war and even the long absences from home had on their health and healing. The program will take place in Beckman Auditorium in The Ames Library from 6:00–7:00p.m, and is free and open to the public.

P.S. You can also check out Shier’s book from The Ames Library afterwards.

Image courtesy the National Park Service.

Native Voices: Medicine Wheel Teaching Event

Posted by on January 24, 2019 No comments

Tonight, The Ames Library, Office of Diversity and Inclusion, and Sociology & Anthropology Department are co-sponsoring a medicine wheel teaching event conducted by Eliida Lakota Knoll and the Reverend Carol Lakota Eastin. Said Washington Post writer Evelyn Porreca Vuko in a 2001 article, “The medicine wheel symbolizes the circle of life in many different Native American cultures. Paths and circles outlined with stones mark passages and changes in people’s lives.”

The event, which consists of a station of activities in each of the four directions, will be held from 6:30–8:00 p.m. in the library’s entry level rotunda. Participants will be instructed to move sun-wise (a.k.a. clockwise) from station to station, and will be guided through a set of craft-making activities at each one creating a set of power-objects to put into a medicine bag.

 

Native Voices: Native Hawaiian Healing Event

Posted by on January 17, 2019 No comments

Ho’oponopono is the Hawaiian concept of forgiveness, characterized as “to make right, orderly, correct” in a 1985 Culture, Medicine & Psychiatry article by Karen Ito.

Francine Dudoit-Tagupa, Director of Native Hawaiian Healing at Waikiki Health, will speak on this topic tonight from 6:00–7:30 p.m. in Room C102 of the Center for Natural Sciences. The event is free and open to the public. We hope to see you there!

Native Voices: Exhibit Opening Event

Posted by on January 11, 2019 No comments

Please join us tonight from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. in the entry-level rotunda for the opening ceremony of the library’s traveling exhibition Native Voices: Native Peoples’ Concepts of Health and Illness. Featured guests will include Butch McCamy and the Spirit of the Rainbow drum singers. If the weather cooperates, the singers will hold a pipe ceremony at the end of the event for anyone who wants to participate.

Native Voices: Native Peoples’ Concepts of Health and Illness

Posted by on January 4, 2019 No comments

Starting today, The Ames Library is hosting Native Voices: Native Peoples’ Concepts of Health and Illness, a traveling exhibition created by the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM).* This exhibition demonstrates how Native peoples of the United States today enhance their wellness through both traditional and Western healing practices.

Native Voices was displayed at the NLM headquarters in Bethesda, Maryland from 2011 to 2015. Through a partnership with the American Library Association (ALA), the exhibition is now traveling to libraries throughout the United States. We are thrilled to bring the exhibition to our community and to hopefully broaden people’s perspectives about this fascinating topic.

The exhibition is on display at The Ames Library during regular hours through February 14. The traveling exhibition comprises six free-standing banners and six iPads with stands which contain videos honoring the native tradition of oral history. The National Library of Medicine has gathered a multitude of healing voices from across the country so that you may hear their stories in their own words.

The library will also be co-sponsoring four associated events with guest speakers, including Native healers, during the month of January. You can find details about these events here.

*The U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM) developed and produced Native Voices: Native Peoples’ Concepts of Health and Illness. The American Library Association (ALA) Public Programs Office, in partnership with NLM, tours the exhibition to America’s libraries.