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THE IDAHO MYTHWEAVER CELEBRATES Native American History Month! The black and white photo of Nez Perce elders Cy Red Elk on left and Rick Ellenwood on right (poorly cropped)) from the 1970s. Both men are deceased, but Rick's oral histories are one of them that we have already digitized. It's rich with history!
THE OTHER PHOTO IS MYTHWEAVER BOARD PRESIDENT, CHET BLUFF, WHO LOOKS PLEASED -- even lying on her back!!! (sorry I love to take vertical photos ;)) after her mom Jean Bluff, sister Anna Armstrong, and other Kalispel prepared an amazing giveaway salmon and buffalo dinner, and tribal celebration for fifty of our supporters at the Sandpoint Community Hall.
A year has passed since we gathered in anticipation of our 30th year as a nonprofit educational organization. We looked back over three decades working with the Kalispel and five other Idaho tribes on numerous cross-cultural arts, humanities and media projects. Even though you haven’t heard from me in a very long time, your support of this project has been essential, and we are so very grateful! lemlmts (thank you in Salish)!
WE ARE NEARING COMPLETION of the Native Voices Archive Preservation Project to digitize our archive of fragile and aging cassette audio tapes. You, as donors to our GoFundMe campaign, helped us raise a total of $48,200 in 2017 and 2018 for Phase I and II. It’s been a longer haul than we imagined, and we have three more months to go; but, our excitement is that it brings us full circle reformatting our very first oral histories recorded in 1990 for the ‘Idaho Keepers of the Earth’ documentary series for public radio.
We are now in Phase III -- the final lap to completion of the project, but we still need your help to get there. Our total budget for Phase III is $15,990 and we've already raised 2/3 of that. So we hope you'll share what you can to help us finish, and also share our campaign with your friends.
And like the brilliant colors seen in a late afternoon western sky, our board is considering sunsetting the organization in early 2020. It is time to let the Native Peoples carry on their cultural work without us, despite our best intentions. As one of the Mythweaver’s co-founders, letting go is not easy, but necessary. It is a good time to retire our work to their care.
Those cassette tape recordings, gathered between 1989 and 2003, were done primarily with elders, many of whom are now deceased. Of the 100 recordings in the Mythweaver’s archive, nearly half deal with the Nez Perce Tribe. Once these are digitized, the files and transcriptions will be given to the Tribe’s cultural resource department, as well as KIYE Nez Perce Radio for cultural programming. Digital copies, as well as the original tapes, will be donated to the Nez Perce National Historical Park Library Archives for long term access to tribal members, family members and scholars.
We have prioritized finishing the Nez Perce recordings since they are the largest part of the archive. We worked with the Nimii’puu the longest—13 years. There are stories about fishing for salmon at Celilo Falls, told by the late Rick Ellenwood, as well as traditional Coyote stories about the creation of the Falls, as told by Mari Watters and Allen Slickpoo, both deceased.
ONE OF MY FAVORITE STORIES was told walking through Yellowstone National Park with the late Clifford Allen, as he talked about the Animal People when they used to converse with one another. It’s an origin story of when and why the Nimii’puu began to hunt. The park was the perfect backdrop with wildlife roaming freely all around us — elk, bison, antelope.
The collection has many stories about the 1877 conflict, as well. I interviewed the late Horace Axtell walking through the Bear Paw Battlefield, just the two of us, on the last day of the 125th year commemoration. He talked about his ancestors with such respect and sadness, especially those that had died there.
PHASE III OF NATIVE VOICES CONTINUES through January 2020, with the following two months spent preparing the completed digital files and transcriptions for distribution to the tribes in addition to the Museum of Arts and Culture in Spokane, and the Idaho State Historical Society Archive. We will complete this project by the end of March 2020 — almost three years since we began the project’s development and planning.
WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT ONE MORE TIME. November is also the season of giving, and we trust that you will help us reach our monetary goal and complete this vital project. We have raised 2/3 of our $15, 990 budget for Phase III of the Native Voices Project. But now we need your help to ring the bell!
You can donate right here, or from our Facebook page — idahomythweaver — by hitting the blue ‘Donate’ button at the top of the page. Using Facebook (tell your friends!), will redirect you to this site — Native Voices: Preserve Recordings. Gifts checks are also accepted at PO Box 2418, Sandpoint, Idaho 83864. It is a tax deductible gift since we are a 501(c)3 nonprofit corporation.
THANK YOU FOR ALL THAT YOU DO. In Nez Perce, qe’ci yew yew — thank you on behalf of the tribal families, youth and cultural leaders. We’ll keep you abreast of our fundraising and project progress. I promise to be a more timely communicator!
Best,
Jane Fritz, Media Director
THE OTHER PHOTO IS MYTHWEAVER BOARD PRESIDENT, CHET BLUFF, WHO LOOKS PLEASED -- even lying on her back!!! (sorry I love to take vertical photos ;)) after her mom Jean Bluff, sister Anna Armstrong, and other Kalispel prepared an amazing giveaway salmon and buffalo dinner, and tribal celebration for fifty of our supporters at the Sandpoint Community Hall.
A year has passed since we gathered in anticipation of our 30th year as a nonprofit educational organization. We looked back over three decades working with the Kalispel and five other Idaho tribes on numerous cross-cultural arts, humanities and media projects. Even though you haven’t heard from me in a very long time, your support of this project has been essential, and we are so very grateful! lemlmts (thank you in Salish)!
WE ARE NEARING COMPLETION of the Native Voices Archive Preservation Project to digitize our archive of fragile and aging cassette audio tapes. You, as donors to our GoFundMe campaign, helped us raise a total of $48,200 in 2017 and 2018 for Phase I and II. It’s been a longer haul than we imagined, and we have three more months to go; but, our excitement is that it brings us full circle reformatting our very first oral histories recorded in 1990 for the ‘Idaho Keepers of the Earth’ documentary series for public radio.
We are now in Phase III -- the final lap to completion of the project, but we still need your help to get there. Our total budget for Phase III is $15,990 and we've already raised 2/3 of that. So we hope you'll share what you can to help us finish, and also share our campaign with your friends.
And like the brilliant colors seen in a late afternoon western sky, our board is considering sunsetting the organization in early 2020. It is time to let the Native Peoples carry on their cultural work without us, despite our best intentions. As one of the Mythweaver’s co-founders, letting go is not easy, but necessary. It is a good time to retire our work to their care.
Those cassette tape recordings, gathered between 1989 and 2003, were done primarily with elders, many of whom are now deceased. Of the 100 recordings in the Mythweaver’s archive, nearly half deal with the Nez Perce Tribe. Once these are digitized, the files and transcriptions will be given to the Tribe’s cultural resource department, as well as KIYE Nez Perce Radio for cultural programming. Digital copies, as well as the original tapes, will be donated to the Nez Perce National Historical Park Library Archives for long term access to tribal members, family members and scholars.
We have prioritized finishing the Nez Perce recordings since they are the largest part of the archive. We worked with the Nimii’puu the longest—13 years. There are stories about fishing for salmon at Celilo Falls, told by the late Rick Ellenwood, as well as traditional Coyote stories about the creation of the Falls, as told by Mari Watters and Allen Slickpoo, both deceased.
ONE OF MY FAVORITE STORIES was told walking through Yellowstone National Park with the late Clifford Allen, as he talked about the Animal People when they used to converse with one another. It’s an origin story of when and why the Nimii’puu began to hunt. The park was the perfect backdrop with wildlife roaming freely all around us — elk, bison, antelope.
The collection has many stories about the 1877 conflict, as well. I interviewed the late Horace Axtell walking through the Bear Paw Battlefield, just the two of us, on the last day of the 125th year commemoration. He talked about his ancestors with such respect and sadness, especially those that had died there.
PHASE III OF NATIVE VOICES CONTINUES through January 2020, with the following two months spent preparing the completed digital files and transcriptions for distribution to the tribes in addition to the Museum of Arts and Culture in Spokane, and the Idaho State Historical Society Archive. We will complete this project by the end of March 2020 — almost three years since we began the project’s development and planning.
WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT ONE MORE TIME. November is also the season of giving, and we trust that you will help us reach our monetary goal and complete this vital project. We have raised 2/3 of our $15, 990 budget for Phase III of the Native Voices Project. But now we need your help to ring the bell!
You can donate right here, or from our Facebook page — idahomythweaver — by hitting the blue ‘Donate’ button at the top of the page. Using Facebook (tell your friends!), will redirect you to this site — Native Voices: Preserve Recordings. Gifts checks are also accepted at PO Box 2418, Sandpoint, Idaho 83864. It is a tax deductible gift since we are a 501(c)3 nonprofit corporation.
THANK YOU FOR ALL THAT YOU DO. In Nez Perce, qe’ci yew yew — thank you on behalf of the tribal families, youth and cultural leaders. We’ll keep you abreast of our fundraising and project progress. I promise to be a more timely communicator!
Best,
Jane Fritz, Media Director
Organizer
Jane Fritz
Organizer
Sandpoint, ID