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Weekly Online Assignment and Reflection (Mar. 22-28)Aanii indinawemaaganag/ hello my relatives,First, I wanted to tell you that I love and appreciate all of you who are handing your work in on time, allowing me to come to know you and find relatedness with you. If you are not handing in your work on time, you may need to review the policies outlined in the syllabus regarding late work and requesting extensions so that you are not surprised by your grade at the end of the semester; as you have been reading about, your choices will always have impacts on others and it is our shared responsibility to take care of each other as best as we can. Additionally, please check to make sure you have received credit for all your past work and if you need to make additions and resubmit, that you take care of that ASAP as the end of the semester is approaching. I am so thankful for your reciprocal and full engagement in making this format work. Trust that I am doing EVERYTHING I can to create lessons that I think are of value, giving you the space you need for deep reflection, engaging with each of you uniquely, and providing relevant opportunities to grow as a collective force for change. I am passionate about honoring my responsibility as your mentor and I appreciate your patience as I try to support you all and optimize our experience through this challenging time. Part of what makes us relatives is that my future depends on what you create with your energy and Medicine. As the weeks pass, I am fueled by increasing hope knowing that my future is in your thoughtful and capable hands. This week we will be looking at the power of our imaginations, the concept of “begging to question” (with regard to what that means and who or why should anyone ever have to do that), and Indigenous expression.1. Power of our imaginations. Teachings are supposed to convey information that helps us to become better beings. Because they were made so long ago by the ancestors and need to continue to help us through changing times, our minds must be flexible to make sense of them; they were ingeniously created to be timeless in helping us through being relatable to our situations without being exactly transferrable to them. The world is much different now than when the ancestors created these teachings and they could not anticipate what that difference would be when we needed them to guide us.A. Read: CoyoteGoingWest.pdf . What happens in this teaching and what resonates with you from it that may relate to the world we live in (provide examples form the article to support your answer)?B. I tell a version of this story also. This recording was for a young Navajo friend of mine who was considering suicide during this pandemic. Unfortunately, suicide is one of the epidemics faced in Native communities due to the senseless trauma we have endured through oppression and marginalization from colonizing forces. Listen to the version I told to my friend: (If you have trouble listening to it with your device, please email me so I can send you the recording to you. I don’t want you to miss out on anything due to incompatibility in our software.) What are your thoughts on why I told this to my young friend to help her through her situation (provide examples from the recording to support your response)?C. Teachings are considered animate beings in Native culture because once breathed into the world, they cannot be withdrawn, begin to live their own lives, and evolve beyond our control. What do you notice about King’s version of the teaching and mine? D. What do you believe influenced the differences in our versions of this teaching? What do you believe influences imagination and how it becomes real in the world?E. I think this pandemic has significantly disrupted former routines, allowing for a complete re-thinking and re-making of our habitual ways of being. I like to make memes. Look at one I made you: What does it make you think about in relation to this Coyote teaching and the current situations we are facing in the world?2. Indigenous Expression.A. Read AIT: Chapter 20 (p. 251-255). What resonates with you from this chapter and why (provide examples from the chapter to support your response)?B. Read AIT: Chapter 21 (p. 256-262). What resonates with you from this chapter and why (provide examples from the chapter to support your response)?C. What are your thoughts on these chapters in relation to the power of our imaginations?3. Begging to question. Read AIT: Chapter 7 (p. 72-83).A. What does Anne waters discuss in this chapter that resonates with you and why (provide examples from the chapter to support your response)?B. To reconcile past invasion and mistreatment, to create moral believers that these acts were justified, settler-colonial leaders, policies, and processes influence our imaginations in providing us with propaganda that leads us to believe that everyone on the American continent is an ‘immigrant,’ regardless of the fact that some have been here even before it was in its current floral, faunal, and geologic state, that is, long before the most recent continental glacial event. How does this idea that no one was here, support a rationale for colonial invasion? If no one is believed to be from this continent, how does that impact our ability to find sure ways that have been tested and used over millennia to support sustainability?C. One thing that stuck out to me in Waters’ chapter was the phrase “begging to question.” In my life I have heard this phrase used many times, so many times that the words contained in it lost their visibility to me. When I read them in Anne Water’s chapter on the Land Bridge, I asked myself, “yeah, why do I always feel like I have to beg the dominant culture to ask questions of things that, from my vantage, appear unjust or worth stirring up some questions about as to how we can do better?” I feel like this also relates to our current situation. Now is a critical time for realizing questions that need to be asked, being brave enough to ask them, and deeply reflecting on alterations in our behavior that bring about transformative change. What are your thoughts on this idea of us having or needing to ‘beg to question’ to promote a better future for us all?4. Indigenous Creativity in context.A. Look at this work, “Indian Children’s Bracelet,” by Nicholas Galanin: londonessays.com (There are a series of images, but the link will take you straight to “Indian Children’s bracelet”. Also, read the blurb below the image). Describe this art.What are your thoughts on how this creates cognitive dissonance, a disruption in how someone sees the world that causes them to re-think how they imagined the world to be through their limited experience?W

hat might he be “begging to question” with this piece?What are your other thoughts on this piece?B. Ricardo Cate is one of my best friends in the whole world. He is the only Native American cartoonist with a daily feature. In 2016 he went to Standing Rock to protest the building of the Dakota Access Pipeline through the lands of our Native Relatives there. He decided to next level his work by shifting it to be more focused on political cartooning. This was not only done to bring about awareness, but also so that he could potentially be in the running for a Pulitzer Prize, thus amplifying Native voice and perspective. I brought him here to visit in the fall of 2018 to speak on art and activism, especially related to Native protection of Lands under threat of pollution by oil and gas pipelines. He loved everyone here, gave great messages to us, and did an awesome job of singing karaoke at Top of the Stairs. He gifted us a painting that hangs in Squires 122 of his experiences at Standing Rock and very much looks forward to returning one day. Look at: londonessays.com (8min in length).Describe his work.What are your thoughts on how this creates cognitive dissonance, a disruption in how someone sees the world that causes them to re-think how they imagined the world to be through their limited experience?What might he be “begging to question” with his art?What are your other thoughts on one of the pieces you saw in the clip?C. Look at ALL these 4 videos on Steven Paul Judd (and weave them into your responses below):1) londonessays.com (6min in length)2) londonessays.com (3min in length)3) londonessays.com (2min in length)4) londonessays.com (2min in length).Describe Judd’s work (provide examples from each video to support your response).What are your thoughts on how this creates cognitive dissonance, a disruption in how someone sees the world that causes them to re-think how they imagined the world to be through their limited experience?What might he be “begging to question” with his art?What are your other thoughts one of the pieces you saw in these clips?D. The work of Virgil Ortiz began as pottery but has become much more. His work with the re-imagining of the 1680 Pueblo Revolt, an event very few outside of the Pueblo community know of, is distinct in his pieces. I know and have worked with many Pueblo People from most of the villages. They are united, like a confederacy, with each separate village being extremely distinct in language, culture, and tradition. They are some of the kindest, most thoughtful, and most patient people you could ever know (my friend Ricardo Cate is also Pueblo from Kewa). I often think of how badly the Spanish colonizers must have abused them to push them to revolt. Anyway, the focus of Ortiz’s work is to educate the Pueblo youth on the prophecies that led to the revolt. To invite and fascinate the attention of the youth in these stories, he shifted the characters—Pueblo superheroes—from the year 1680 into the future of 2180. I think you will find the likenesses very compelling to what is going on in the world presently and how the knowledge of Native ancestors is so relevant to healing the problems of today. Watch these 2 videos:1) londonessays.com (8min in length)2) londonessays.com (1min30 in length)Describe his work (provide examples from each video to support your response).What are your thoughts on how this creates cognitive dissonance, a disruption in how someone sees the world that causes them to re-think how they imagined the world to be through their limited experience?What might he be “begging to question” with his art?What are your other thoughts one of the pieces you saw in these clips?E. Nakotah LaRance was a friend of mine who passed away last spring. It was such a great loss to both those who knew him and those who did not because of the creative beauty he brought to interpreting human experience in this world. In his life, he won the world hoop dancing championship MULTIPLE times (I think 9 times). He learned to dance, not from his family, but a visitor who came to dance in his village. After winning the world hoop dancing championships many times he traveled the world in a Cirque de Soleil show called “Totem.” In his travels he was exposed to many other dancers, dances…and MARTIAL ARTS. He was not only Pueblo, but also part Navajo and lived on the Navajo nation where he often was at home working to shepherd his family’s sheep with his dog. While he was shepherding, he practiced the body control he learned, not just from hoop dancing but also from his exposure to the other cultural influences he experienced; when we used to talk, he would always encourage me to take up a martial art to learn body control. Anyway, in these videos, I want you to note the progression and fusion of his dance through the growth in his knowledge from his experiences abroad. Watch these 2 videos:1) londonessays.com (7min in length)2) londonessays.com (4min in length)Describe his work (provide examples from each video to support your response).What are your thoughts on how this creates cognitive dissonance, a disruption in how someone sees the world that causes them to re-think how they imagined the world to be through their limited experience?What might he be “begging to question” with his art?What are your thoughts on how this pushes people to reconsider the potential of Indigenous knowledge as part of enhancing other knowledges? How does his dance show the beauty of adaptation to modern conditions?5. Thinking about what we create. I want to share one more story with you. Many of you will be engaged in research in your lives and settler-colonial forces will push you to create things to see if you CAN without considering if you SHOULD. Listen to: (Again, if you cannot access it through Canvas, email me so I can send it to your email).A. What happens in this teaching?B. Technology or any thing we create should make our lives better. I want you to think about your wellness for a minute: your intellectual (e.g. getting your schoolwork done), your physical (e.g. eating well, sleeping, and exercising), your social (e.g. being with friends), your emotional (e.g. balancing your mental health). How does the concept of ‘time’ impact those aspects of your ability to be well; that is, how does ‘time’ impact your ability to attend to your wellness and relatedness to your world? If a technology erodes our being on an individual level, why does it exist, who benefits, and should we question its implementation?C. What are your final thoughts on how this teaching may relate to this lesson or others on the power of our imaginations and how we express our gifts through what we create?