Here‘s a lovely remembrance of Shoshone storyteller Carmel Garnett that deserves to be read in full. It’s by Missoulian (Mont.) reporter Kim Briggeman:

Close your eyes and go to your special place.

How many hundreds of Missoula area schoolchildren heard Carmel Garnett invite them to do just that over the past quarter of a century? A traditional dancer and story teller from the Shoshone tribe, Garnett captivated his audiences, first with strains from his flute, then with tales of Coyote and Dreamcatchers and the boy who couldn’t walk.

After Garnett died unexpectedly of a stroke on Feb. 21 at age 67, a deluge of cards came to his wife, Linda, at her home in south Missoula.

“I am saddened to hear about your husband’s passing,” read a handwritten note. “I know he was a valued teacher of Indian Education throughout the School district. You are in my thoughts and prayers.”

It was signed by Gov. Brian Schweitzer.

Linda was a straight-A student at Anaconda High in the late 1950s. Carmel wasn’t.

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Tags: Bitterroot Valley, buffalo post, Carmel Garnett, Gwen Florio, Honoring Our Youth Powwow, Indian Education for All, Missoula County Public Schools, Missoula Indian Center, Native American heritage, Native American storytelling, Native American week, Oglala Lakota, Shoshone, Victor Cemetery

The Gros Ventre and Assiniboine tribes who live on Montana’s Fort Belknap Reservation, and the Northern Arapaho and Shoshone tribes on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming have long sought the several dozen bison corralled in holding pens for nearly four years now after straying beyond the borders of Yellowstone National Park.

Ranchers fear the park’s bison carry brucellosis, a disease that causes stillborn calves. For years now, when bison go outside in the park in search of winter forage, they’ve been slaughtered to prevent the spread of the disease.

But some bison, after being declared disease-free, were spared. They’re the ones in the holding pens, and the idea is to use them to repopulate public and tribal lands across the West with free-roaming bison, writes the AP’s Matthew Brown, here.

However, those animals apparently will be relocated to a Montana ranch owned by billionaire Ted Turner, under a recommendation made by state and federal officials.

Turner already owns about 50,000 bison, and his restaurant chain Ted’s Montana Grill serves buffalo burgers. But Turner Enterprises general manager Russell Miller says the Yellowstone bison won’t be served up on a bun, and that the genetically pure Yellowstone bison will be kept separate from the others on his ranch.

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks administrator Ken McDonald tells Brown that giving up bison to Turner’s ranch was not his preferred choice, and that his agency already is getting “a lot of backlash over the whole privatization thing.”

The tribes’ applications were judged insufficient, but officials say they’ll be given first choice the next time bison are available.

Gwen Florio

Tags: Assiniboine, bison, brucellosis, Fort Belknap Indian Reservation, Gros Ventre, Northern Arapaho, Shoshone, Ted Turner, Wind River Indian Reservation, Yellowstone National Park

If you’re in or anywhere near Denver, this show – “Currents: Native American Forces in Contemporary Art,” featuring seven Native artists – would be a terrific thing to see this weekend.

Cecily Cullen, assistant director and curator for the Metropolitan State College of Denver, tells the Denver Daily News, here, “I think that so many people have this idea of Native American art in the traditional forms. It really is a culture that is alive and well and growing.”

Among the artists featured is Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, who is of Salish, French-Cree and Shoshone heritage, whose work is featured in the photo to the right. Others are Nicholas Galanin, Norman Akers, Jeffrey Gibson, Marie Watt, Will Wilson and Melanie Yazzie.

If you miss it this weekend, the show runs through Nov. 7. For more details, check out the museum’s Web site, here.

Gwen Florio

Tags: buffalo post, Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, Cree, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Metropolitan State College of Denver, Shoshone

Oglala Woman To Head USDA Agency in South Dakota
Elsie Meeks, who is Oglala Lakota, will lead the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development agency in South Dakota, according to this Rapid City Journal story. Previously, Meeks headed the First Nations Oweesta Corp., which helps provide investment capital and assistance to help Native communities develop financial institutions.

Keep Up With Stimulus Projects in Indian Country
Rather than getting news piecemeal from around the country, here’s a government site that puts it all together. So far, it highlights the water projects on reservations, money to combat violence against Native women, and other health care efforts. Let’s keep an eye on it and see what else is in the pipeline.

Navajo Nation Marks Anniversary of Spill that Spurred Uranium Ban
There’s a reason the Dine ban uranium mining, despite intense pressure to allow it. Thirty years ago this month, what Navajo President Joe Shirley called “the largest peacetime, accidental release of radioactive contaminated materials in the history of the United States” occurred on the reservation. Some 94 million gallons of acidic water poured into the north fork of the Rio Puerco after an earthen uranium-tailings dam failed, according to this AP story in the Arizona Daily Star. Unfortunately, the incident was overshadowed by the Three Mile Island disaster the same year. But the tribe is working hard to make sure that people remember. People made a seven-mile walk last week to commemorate it.

Native Wedding Traditions
On a much happier note, Indian Country Today has this story about Jody Colbert, a member of the Comanche Tribe of Oklahoma, and her Native-themed floral wedding designs. The fourth-generation granddaughter of Quanah Parker now heads Mother Earth Floral Design, which combines her beadworking skills with those as a floral designer. In addition to weddings, she also creates centerpieces for conferences.

Native-owned PR Firm is Liaison Between Indian Country, Media
Jason Oberle at American Indian Policy Blog posted an item about a 1680 PR, a Native-owned public relations firm in Albuquerque. The company is the brainchild of Herman Gallegos, who is Jicarilla Apache, and Ken Lingad of Isleta Pueblo. Read the post here.

Preserving Native Languages, Ten Teens at a Time
NPR had this piece this morning on efforts to preserve Native languages. It focuses largely on a program in Utah aimed at Shoshone teenagers, but also mentions other efforts.

And Native Radio Stations, Too
NPR followed up its story on languages with this piece on the proliferation of radio stations on reservations. Both stories make for very enjoyable listening.

Gwen Florio

Tags: American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan, Apache, buffalo post, Comanche, Indian Country Stimulus Plan, Native American news, Navajo, Oglala Lakota, Shoshone, USDA