News
NEWS ARCHIVES
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Native Culture is Now Pop Culture
Native Culture is now pop culture as Cherokee language becomes available on Apple's iPhne and iPod Touch devices, according to a Cherokee Naion news release.
"People communicate differently today. Including our language on the iPhone and iPod makes it accessible to more people, especially our youth. This is critical to the survival and growth of our language," Principal Chief Chad Smith said.
Incorporating the tribe's written language, the Cherokee syllabary, into the technology was an almost three-year collaboration between Apple and tribe members Jeff Edwards of Sallisaw, Joseph Erb of Vian and Roy Boney Jr. of Tahlequah.
More than 300 million Apple users worldwide can use the language in e-mails, text messages and across all iPhone and iPod Touch platforms, the release states. Now application developers can easily create new Cherokee applications.
Cherokee is one of about 40 languages available on Apple devices and it is the first native language to be featured, the release states.
Apple added the Plantagenet Cherokee font to its MacOs operating system in 2003, and the release of the iOS 4.1 operating system brought the language to the company's mobile devices.
The public can access the new feature by updating to iOS 4.1. It is available as a free download from iTunes. Instructions on how to set up and use the Cherokee syllabary keyboard are available at www.cherokee.org, the release states.
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Old News Worth Remembering.
A RESOLUTION AMENDING RESOLUTION NUMBER 74-88, ESTABLISHING THE
NATIONAL TREASURES PROGRAM
Passed in General Council on June 15, with four changes:
1. Up to three recognized each year,
2. at least one within 14 county area, C.N. proper,
3. no residency restrictions, and
4. an advisory coucil of five members will be appointed by the Chief and confirmed by theCouncil.
July 13: C.N. Council confirms Advisory Board - Bill Andoe, Al Herrin, Jane Osti, Lori Smiley, and Mary Horsechief.
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NEWS BRIEFS --
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New Foundation to support tribal arts
[IS NOW ACCEPTING GRANT APPLICATIONS][Formed in 2009]
A new foundation has been formed to preserve and nourish the artsof American Indians and other native groups with the help of $10 million from the Ford Foundation, the new Native Arts and Cultures Foundation will begin establishing itself in Portland, said Walter Echo-Hawk, an Oklahoma lawyer who chairs its board.
Among the board members is Elizabeth Woody of the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs in Central Oregon.
The foundation's scope encompasses Alaska Natives and Native Hawaiians. Its new president, Tara Lulani Arquette, a Native Hawaiian, will move to the city next month to select an office site, Echo-Hawk said. By the end of the year, the foundation hopes to start awarding grants to artists and organizations that support native art and culture.
Those grants will not only boost efforts to preserve what remains of the nation's traditional tribal cultures and customs that historically were suppressed or prohibited, but also support contemporary native painting, theater, music and other art, Echo-Hawk said.
But there is still a need for more financial support, and this foundation could fill that void, said Elizabeth Theobald Richards, a Cherokee and Ford Foundation program officer.
"These are the indigenous peoples of this country," she said. "The art forms and the cultural heritage of these people have been underfunded and not recognized enough."
A 2006 study funded by the Ford Foundation showed there was no government support for American indigenous art and culture and relatively little philanthropic assistance, according to the Native AmericanRights Fund. The study led to the founding of the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation.
It's not the first national organization devoted to supporting tribal arts and culture, Echo-Hawk said, but it is the first to be permanently endowed.
In the future, he said, the foundation hopes to partner on projects with other organizations, namely the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C., and the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe. He also expects the foundation's mission to support tribal arts and culture won't be set back by the down economy because funding was secured before the start of the recession.
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CHEROKEE FAMILY & GENEALOGY WEBSITE LINKS
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