The Appalachian Indian Voice November, 2014

THE APPALACHIAN AMERICAN INDIANS of WEST VIRGINIA
The Appalachian
Indian Voice
November, 2014
Next Tribal Council Meeting - Saturday November 15, 2014 at 12 P.M. at
the Tribal Office in Lesage, WV.
AAIWV Web Page:
http://www.aaiwv-ani.org
Tribal Officers:
Principal Chief – Wayne Appleton
Rt. 1 Box 273
Lesage, WV 25537
[email protected]
304-762-2416
Chief – Mel Charlton-Smith
501 Brown Ave
Belington, WV 26250
[email protected]
304-823-0255
Tribal officer- Anthony Simms
PO. Bx. 2109
Beckley, WV 25802
[email protected]
304-860-5770
Treasurer – Tracy BrownhawkDolinski
[email protected]
304-730-2443
Secretary – Gail Murano
[email protected]
304-787-3117
Tribal Liaison-LaVerna Vickers
[email protected]
304-412-2578
Tribal Council
Lori Glover 304-864-0563
Dalphine fields
Teresa Johnston
Pat Lowe 304-648-7455
William Mohler-304-772-5009
Richard Murano 304-787-3117
Bob Parkins
Johnny Raven
Mike Smith 304-823-0255
Phyllis Snead
Tawanda Turner
Zina Turner
Non-Native Council Position
Vacant. Please Direct inquires to
Wayne Appleton at 304-762-2416 or
[email protected]
Veteran Contact
Danny Pauley
[email protected]
304-561-7666
Faith Keeper
Mel Charlton-Smith
[email protected]
304-823-0255
Newsletter Editor/
Subscriptions $12 Yr.
The Voice
c/o Lori Glover
915 Morgan Mine Rd.
Reedsville, WV 26547
[email protected]
AAIWV UPCOMING EVENTS:
** 2014 Events**
November 15 – Council Meeting, General Gathering, and Fall Sharing Ceremony – Council meeting will begin
at 12 P.M. and followed by the Fall Sharing Ceremony and a covered dish social at the Tribal Office in Lesage.
Attendees are reminded to bring their surplus foods & items for the Sharing Ceremony as well as a covered dish for
the social. For directions to the Tribal Office, please contact Chief Wayne Grey Owl Appleton at (304) 762-2415.
.
November 24 – AAIWV Learning Lodge – AAIWV will be presenting from 9 to 1 at “Kids College” at New River
Technical College in Summersville, WV.
December 20 – Council Meeting and General Gathering – Council meeting will begin at 10 A.M. and followed by
a covered dish social at the New River Unitarian Universalist Fellowship located at 911 S. Kanawha St., Beckley,
WV.
Look for future Events & Updates in future editions of the Voice and on Facebook or at www.aaiwv-ani.org
COUNCIL MEETING UPDATE:
Council was held October 18, 2014 at the Raptor
Powwow, Fairmont, WV. Principal Chief Wayne
Appleton announced his engagement to Lori Glover.
The happy couple was congratulated by all. The day
was not a day for politics or bringing up old business
but for enjoying participating with others. The Secretary
reported that cards were sent out as requested at the
September meeting. The Tribe has gained about thirty
new members. Sales of the Tribal Cookbook are
starting to take off. Some books were sold at our
Powwow in September and others have started selling
on Amazon. State Recognition efforts will resume after
Election Day. The next meeting is scheduled for
November 15th at the Lesage Council Office. Meeting
adjourned so all could go drum, dance, and generally
enjoy the Powwow.
~ Gail Murano, Tribal Secretary
PRAYER REQUESTS:
No requests were made this month, but we ask that you
keep all our ailing members and elders in mind as we
move forward into the cold winter months.
~ Editor
TRIBAL SECRETARY'S NOTE:
The Tribal meetings are open to all. If you cannot
attend in person, there are on-line or voice
conferencing options depending on the meeting
location. If none of these options are available to you, I
would like to encourage you to send me any questions
or comments you would like to have brought up at
Council. You may e-mail me at
[email protected]. Please put AAIWV in
the subject line and include your contact information if
you would like a response. I am looking forward to
hearing from you.
~ Gail Murano, Tribal Secretary
REFLECTIONS OF A GRUMPY OLD MAN:
Thoughts on Re-Enactors: I have been to a couple of
Powwows in the last year or so, where they had Re-enactors
dressed as their idea of what “Indians” looked like at some
time in the past. These are generally very nice well-meaning
individuals but I have real problems with the historic
correctness of their presentation. I’m sure that at some
point in the distant past ALL of our ancestors were as
primitive as the re-enactors portray but in historic times
their portrayal is as inaccurate as portraying the British as
wearing fur clothing and carrying clubs. There are several
folks in the state who are either re-enactors or who give paid
“historic” lectures that portray our People as living in crude
grass huts during “historic times”. For the record, the
Peoples who lived in this state lived in wooden homes or
wooden long houses. A young surveyor named George
Washington visited an Indian town in the late 1740s on the
banks of the Ohio River in what was then disputed land
claimed by Virginia and by the Native Peoples who lived
here. The town had several thousand inhabitants living in
wooden long-houses. It was in-fact the largest town in
“Virginia” west of Richmond. If you travel WV Route 2 along
the River in the Spring before the crops grow you can still see
the post-holes from some of the long-houses from the
hillside overlooking the field where the town was. From the
earliest days of post-contact times, the Peoples of this area
wore clothing of cloth, were farmers who cultivated many
different crops and had permanent orchards and who lived
in wooden homes. That was a significant part of the friction
between the settlers and the Native Peoples because the
settlers were both envious and very greedy to take the
property, crops and homes of the Native Peoples. I’m sure
that at some time in the past, our ancestors lived in crude
huts and wore poorly crafted skin clothing. I’m also sure
that at the same time the Europeans almost certainly lived in
very similar crude huts and wore very similar clothing. I
would draw your attention to the earthen mounds and
monuments that used to exist in West Virginia and point out,
again, that some of our towns were larger than the towns
and cities the “settlers” left. In the year 1000 the city of
Cahokia near what is now St. Louis was larger than London
or Paris.
The Re-enactors can be fun but their representations
play into the racist stereotype of our ancestors as crude
nomads. I have real problems with that.
~Chief Wayne Appleton
RECIPE:
November is DEER SEASON so lets talk:
Venison!
Ingredients:
 2 lbs of cubed venison
 28 oz can tomatoes
 1 small can of mushrooms with liquid
 2 medium onions diced
 10 oz can tomato soup
 ½ can of water (5 ounces)
 Garlic to taste
 Salt and pepper to taste
 6 to 8 Potatoes
Directions:
 Stir everything except the potatoes together in
a small roasting pan.
 Cover and roast 1 ½ hours at 350*
 Add Potatoes and roast another 30 minutes or
until Potatoes are tender.
Oven style stew could not get any easier than this. Go
all out and serve it up with some fry bread ☺
speakers, who are very educated in the field. Also,
there was Q & A after the main lecture.
Enjoy!
~ Submitted by Charlie 4 Feathers
~ Lori
ABOUT NATIVE AMERICAN HERITAGE MONTH:
VOLUNTEERS STILL WANTED AND NEEDED:
General Counsel and Paralegal – Assist with
conducting legal research and provide legal advice and
relevant information to tribal board members. The
advice may involve any number of legal issues
important to the tribe, including administrative policy,
litigation and compliance issue. Preferred qualifications:
Licensed to practice law within West Virginia and
minority descent.
Media/Public relations Assistant – Provide direct
support with developing, coordinating and maintaining
communications within tribe and outside entities.
Childcare workers – Will supervise children and child
activities, during the tribal meetings and other events.
Powwow Help – Please consider donating time to
perform a shift (1, 2, or 4 hours) from one of the
following:
 Head Dancers for the circle
 Traffic directors

Trash collectors

Set-up/Breakdown crew

Security help

Information Booth workers

Water runners to periodically check and provide
water to drum groups and dancers

Teachers/Aids for children activities

Kitchen staff/help

Clean-up crew

Assistant for First Aid Tent

Runners for emergency pickups/messages

Donation coordinator
 Advertising/Signage assistants
Contact Tracy at (304) 730-2443 for more information.
~Submitted by Tracey Brown-Dolinski
WHO IS INDIAN?:
I got an i-Pad last Dec. 2013. I love it. There is almost
nothing that can't be found on it. I have watched and
listened to powwow drum music and dancing, and even
Indian games. Also, there are many educational
venues of Native American information and education,
including blood quantum lectures. I found out that the
one I watched on my i-Pad is also on Youtube. the
name of it is 'Quantum Leap; Does “Indian Blood”
SMill matter?'. It is about three hours long, but very
interesting and educational. There were five different
Information courtesy of the Bureau of Indian Affairs,
U.S. Department of the Interior.
“What started at the turn of the century as an effort to
gain a day of recognition for the significant contributions
the first Americans made to the establishment and
growth of the U.S., has resulted in a whole month being
designated for that purpose.
One of the very proponents of an American Indian Day
was Dr. Arthur C. Parker, a Seneca Indian, who was
the director of the Museum of Arts and Science in
Rochester, N.Y. He persuaded the Boy Scouts of
America to set aside a day for the "First Americans" and
for three years they adopted such a day. In 1915, the
annual Congress of the American Indian Association
meeting in Lawrence, Kans., formally approved a plan
concerning American Indian Day. It directed its
president, Rev. Sherman Coolidge, an Arapahoe, to
call upon the country to observe such a day. Coolidge
issued a proclamation on Sept. 28, 1915, which
declared the second Saturday of each May as an
American Indian Day and contained the first formal
appeal for recognition of Indians as citizens.
The year before this proclamation was issued, Red
Fox James, a Blackfoot Indian, rode horseback
from state to state seeking approval for a day to
honor Indians. On December 14, 1915, he presented
the endorsements of 24 state governments at the
White House. There is no record, however, of such
a national day being proclaimed.
The first American Indian Day in a state was declared
on the second Saturday in May 1916 by the governor of
New York. Several states celebrate the fourth Friday in
September. In Illinois, for example, legislators enacted
such a day in 1919.
Presently, several states have designated Columbus
Day as Native American Day, but it continues to be a
day we observe without any recognition as a
national legal holiday.
In 1990 President George H. W. Bush approved a
joint resolution designating November 1990 "National
American Indian Heritage Month."
Similar proclamations, under variants on the name
(including "Native American Heritage Month" and
"National American Indian and Alaska Native Heritage
Month") have been issued each year since 1994.”
~ Submitted by Johnny T. Raven
LIPAN APACHE LEGAL VICTORY FOR NATIVE
AMERICAN RELIGIOUS FREEDOM!:
“This month, after eight years in court, a Lipan
Apache tribe has achieved a legal victory to defend our
religious rights.
In 2006, federal officials violated a sacred powwow
circle and confiscated feathers.
Thanks to the tireless work of Lipan Apache Vicechairman Robert Soto, and lawyers Milo Colton and
Marisa Salazar, the feathers will be returned and given
the respect they deserve.
PHOTO SUBMITION:
As a conservationist, I’d like to emphasize that this
ruling does not affect the eagle population. Feathers
are recycled from healthy birds.
Rather, the ruling challenges the federal
government’s power to arbitrarily decide which
Native Americans have the right to worship. As the
Lipan Apache events page explains:
The law is not only a win for the Tribe and other
State Recognized Tribes but also for those who fit
the definition of American Indians as stated in the
1997 “Revisions to the Standards for the
Classification of Federal Data on Race and
Ethnicity,” 62 FR 58782-01: “A person having
origins in any of the original peoples of North and
South America (including Central America), and
who maintains tribal affiliation or community
attachment” and who are within 5th Circuit Court
States: Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi.
In other words, the government has no right to
claim that a “select few American Indians” are more
equal than others.”
~ Submitted by Johnny T. Raven
THE CORNSTALK CURSE:
Very Interesting historical account in “Ghosts of the
Prairie”. The section on Haunted West Virginia tells the
history behind The Cornstalk Curse. Check it out at
http://www.prairieghosts.com/haunt_hwy.jpg
~ Submitted by Sammi Neason
~ Submitted by Spirit of the Wolf