Events

November 2, 2012:

Place: Sateren Auditorium, Music Hall, 715 22nd Ave South

All events are free to the public.

4-5:30 Past, Present, Future: Presentation on Dakota History and Vision

Speakers include: Dale Weston (Dakota) and Jim Rock (Dakota). Hosted by Augsburg Indigenous Student Association President, Rikki Dalton

5:30-7:00 Reception hosted by American Indian Student Services in the Music Hall atrium next to Sateren Auditorium.

7:00-9:30 Screening of Dakota 38 (Smooth Feather Productions, 2012)

Screening and discussion with co-filmmaker and producer Sarah Weston, moderated by Dale Weston.

Dakota 38 is a documentary about Jim Miller’s experience in 2005. “A Native spiritual leader and Vietnam veteran, [Jim] found himself in a dream riding on horseback across the great plains of South Dakota. Just before he awoke, he arrived at a riverbank in Minnesota and saw 38 of his Dakota ancestors hanged. At the time, Jim knew nothing of the largest mass execution in United States history, ordered by Abraham Lincoln on December 26, 1862. “When you have dreams, you know when they come from the creator… As any recovered alcoholic, I made believe that I didn’t get it. I tried to put it out of my mind, yet it’s one of those dreams that bothers you night and day.”

Now, four years later, embracing the message of the dream, Jim and a group of riders retrace the 330-mile route of his dream on horseback from Lower Brule, South Dakota to Mankato, Minnesota to arrive at the hanging site on the anniversary of the execution. “We can’t blame the wasichus anymore. We’re doing it to ourselves. We’re selling drugs. We’re killing our own people. That’s what this ride is about, is healing.” This is the story of their journey- the blizzards they endure, the Native and Non-Native communities that house and feed them along the way, and the dark history they are beginning to wipe away.” (http://smoothfeather.org/dakota38/#!prettyPhoto/0/)

Thank you to our sponsors: the American Indian, First Nations, and Indigenous Studies Department, the Augsburg Native American Film Series, American Indian Student Services Program, Augsburg Indigenous Student Association, the Department of History, and the Department of Religion

March 16-18, 2012

Augsburg Native American Film Series in collaboration with Phillips Indian Educators and the Parkway Theater present: Where Condor Meets Eagle: Indigenous Bolivian and Native American Film Festival and Cultural Exchange

Screening Location: Parkway Theater, 4814 Chicago Ave. Minneapolis, MN 55407 (612-822-3030).

FREE Admission

We are proud to present Where Condor Meets Eagle: Indigenous Bolivian and Native American Film Festival and Cultural Exchange, a three-night film festival celebrating Indigenous film, collaborations across national boundaries, and visual storytelling. Continue reading “Where Condor Meets Eagle: three night film festival” →

April 13, 2011

Presented by The Augsburg Native American Film Series and the American Culture & Difference Program at the University of St. Thomas

NDN Shorts: Native American Film Series hosted by Elizabeth Day

This evening of films follows a nouveau comedy theme and will highlight the short films:

“Smoke Break” – Director Sally Kewayosh

“Cousins” – Director Sally Kewayosh

“Other Halves” – Director Migizi Pensoneau

“Scared Talk” – Director Migizi Pensoneau and Dallas Goldtooth

Screening Place: John Roach Center Auditorium (JRC 126)

University of St. Thomas

2115 Summit Avenue, Saint Paul, Minnesota

Free admission

6:30-8 p.m.

For more information contact Lois Dament at ACD@stthomas.edu or 651-962-5649

Sponsored by the American Culture & Difference Program, College of Arts and Sciences

March 2, 2011

Club Native (Tracey Deer, 2008)

Hosted by Tracey Deer and Jennifer Machiorlatti

6:30-7:00 p.m. Reception sponsored by Women’s Studies

7:00-10:00 p.m. Film Screening

Sateren Auditorium, Music Hall

715 22nd Ave South

Film events are free

Club Native is a candid and deeply moving look at the pain, confusion and frustration suffered by many First Nations people as they struggle for the most important right of all: the right to belong.

On the Mohawk reserve of Kahnawake, located just outside the city of Montreal, Canada, there are two firm but unspoken rules drummed into every member of the community: do not marry a white person, and do not have a child with a white person. The potential consequences of ignoring these rules—loss of membership on the reserve for yourself and your child—are clear, and for those who incur them, devastating. Break the rules, and you also risk being perceived as having betrayed the Mohawk Nation by diluting the “purity” of the bloodline.

In Club Native, filmmaker Tracey Deer uses Kahnawake, her hometown, as a lens to probe deeply into the history and contemporary reality of Aboriginal identity. Following the stories of four women, she reveals the exclusionary attitudes that divide the community and many others like it across Canada. Deer traces the roots of the problem, from the advent of the highly discriminatory Indian Act through the controversy of Bill C31, up to the present day, where membership on the reserve is determined by a council of Mohawk elders, whose rulings often appear inconsistent. And with her own home as a poignant case study, she raises a difficult question faced by people of many ethnicities across the world: What roles do bloodline and culture play in determining identity?

Tracey Deer, Director

Mohawk filmmaker Tracey Deer is rapidly gaining a reputation as one of Canada’s finest chroniclers of modern Aboriginal life. She co-directed the feature-length documentary One More River(Rezolution Pictures) about the 2003 agreement between the Cree and Quebec. In 2004, she madeMohawk Girls (Rezolution Pictures/The National Film Board of Canada), a moving portrait of three teenage girls coming of age on her home reserve of Kahnawake, just outside of Montreal.

Tracey graduated in film studies at Dartmouth College in 2000 where she shot, directed and edited three short films before receiving the 25th Anniversary Film and Television Award for overall achievement in film studies. Her films have been broadcast and screened across Canada.

February 16, 2011

First Circle (Heather Rae, 2010)

Hosted by Randy Redroad (Producer, Cinematographer, and Editor)

7:00-10:00 p.m

Sateren Auditorium, Music Hall
715 22nd Ave South

Film events are free

For any parent, the thought of having a child taken away is a horrific notion. Yet all across America, children whose families can no longer provide proper support are being put into foster care. Heather Rae brings to the screen her own story of a family affected by foster care due to drug and alcohol addiction in the deeply touching and extremely personal Family: The First Circle. With her nephew having spent time in the foster care system, her brother in prison, and her sister-in-law recovering from drug rehabilitation, Rae looks not just at her own family, but at others whose children are similarly affected. She follows the police, who see firsthand the terrible conditions in which some children live, and those who volunteer to foster the children in hopes of providing a better life for them. Incredibly poignant and touching, Family: The First Circle, shows a small slice of the life that affects nearly 300,000 children a year, making this a film that demands to be seen. (Jacob Brades)

Randy Redroad, producer, cinematographer and editor of First Circle, wrote and directed “The Doe Boy,” which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, winning the NHK Award. Redroad also directed “Haircuts Hurt,” “High Horse” and “133 Skyway.”

March 23, 2010

Mona Smith: Media Artist a Retrospective  Hosted by Mona Smith and Jennifer Machiorlatti

5:30-6:30 pm Reception sponsored by ACTC Women’s Studies—Sateren Auditorium Atrium

6:30-9:30 Screening

Mona Smith is a Sisseton-Wahpeton Dakota whose award winning multimedia video work has focused on Dakota health, wellness, and history.  This retrospective will include the following videos and projects:  The Bertha Iron Boy Story, Between Fences, Bdote Podcast, City Indians, Cloudy Waters: Dakota Reflections on the River, Mnisota: Dakota Homeland instillation, Bdote Podcast, Bdote Memory Map website.

For more information on the Mona Smith and Allies: media/art visit: http://web.mac.com/alliesms/Allies/Welcome.html

February 4, 2010

Lost Sparrow (Chris Billing, 2008) Hosted by Chris Billing and Sandy White Hawk.

7:00-10:00 pm

Lost Sparrow is documentary filmmaker Chris Billing’s journey to find the answers to why his two brothers, adopted out of the Crow community, ran away from their adopted home and died in upstate New York.  In this highly personal film, Chris attempts to find answers to these questions and to bring his brothers’ bodies back to be buried in their traditional homeland.   Lost Sparrow is an emotional story that connects to similar stories in many of our lives.

For more information on the film visit: www.lostsparrowmovie.com

November 18, 2009

Hosted by Mitchell Zephier Sr., Mark ST. Pierre, and Tilda Long Soldier

7:00 pm-10:00 pm

Mato Paha: Rally to Protect Bear Butte “documents the escalating clash of cultures between those wanting to increase commercial use of the sacred site-Mato Paha  (Bear Butte)-and those who strive to protect it and use it for religious purposes.  Mato Paha clearly portrays the cultural contrast between Indigenous values, beliefs and practices and the American perspective of land ownership and constitutional separation of civil government and religion” (Press Release).

For more information on the film visit: www.ProtectBearButte.com

Each year, we work with different Native community organizations and programs on special events.  Because these events often happen after our seasonal programming has already been printed on our posters, we ask that you check this link periodically to see what new and exciting things are going on.

The American Culture & Difference Program at the University of St. Thomas invites you to an evening of Native film hosted by Dr. Elise Marubbio (Department of American Indian Studies, Augsburg College) with guests Dorothy Christian and Missy Whiteman

Thursday April 16, 2009

7 – 8:30 p.m.

John Roach Center Auditorium (JRC 126)

University of St. Thomas

2115 Summit Avenue, Saint Paul, Minnesota

Sponsored by The American Culture & Difference Program at the University of St. Thomas, the Mildred Joel Canadian Studies Endowment, and Augsburg CollegeFree and Open to the PublicFor more information contact Lois Dament at ACD@stthomas.edu or 651-962-5649Sponsored by the American Culture & Difference Program, College of Arts and Sciences

March 5, 2009

“Tarnishing the Polish of Racism: The American Indian Mascot Issue” Presentation by Charlene Teters

Augsburg College, Century Room 1:30-3:00 p.m.

Reception for Charlene Teters, Augsburg College, Science 116 5:00-6:00 p.m.

Screening at 6:15 p.m. Science Hall, Room 123, 707 21^st Avenue South

Limited parking available in Lot A (see map link below)

In Whose Honor? takes a critical look at the long-running practice of “honoring” American Indians as mascots and nicknames in sports. It follows the story of Native American mother Charlene Teters, and her transformation into the leader some are calling the “Rosa Parks of American Indians” as she struggles to protect her cultural symbols and identity.

In Whose Honor? looks at the issues of racism, stereotypes, minority representation and the powerful effects of mass-media imagery, and the extent to which one university will go to defend and justify its mascot.

For more information: www.newday.com/films/InWhoseHonor.html