American Indian course explores native heritage

By Linda Prendez, On-Line Forty-Niner

Tuesday, September 9, 1998

Rarely do students get a first-hand look at the cultures they study about, say in their literature or anthropology classes. Artifacts and photographs of faraway lands may be the closest brush with the people they read about in books.

This semester, students of AIS 490, an American Indian studies course, will get to transcend the usual limitations of the classroom and actually experience the cultures they are studying about.

"We've always been thinking about having a class that teaches the aspects of American Indian culture and history the way Indians do it," said Dr. Lester Brown, director of the American Indian studies program about the course, "Conduits of American Indian Cultures and Histories: Art, Dance, Music and Stories."

The course, conceived by faculty members of the program, is a series of performances by representatives of 12 different California Native American Nations: Tongva, Chumash, Yokut, Cahuilla, Payoomkawichum, Ajachmen, Juaneno, Achumawe, Atsugewi, Cupeno and Luiseno.

The artists will tell stories about their people and perform dances, songs and the traditional crafts of their culture, ranging from shell work to basket weaving. The students will learn about a different nation every week.

As if the performances and concept of the "Conduits" course were not grand enough, at the end of the semester, the American Indian studies faculty will produce a collection of books based on and named after the course and its performances.

Each performer will produce a paper to accompany its performances that will be part of the prepared reading for the course. The performances will also be videotaped. Afterwards, there will be a question and answer session.

At the end of the semester, the papers and videotapes will be edited and compiled by the faculty as a book and video supplement. When the collection is completed and published, the royalties will go to the program, Brown said.

The course will continue every semester, and though there will not be as many live performances as this semester - 14 in all - the faculty will invite different nations to come perform and will add their papers and videotaped performances to the "Conduits" collection. There are about 50 American Indian nations throughout California.

Students who are interested in the performances, but do not wish to register for the course can attend the class, which meets every Tuesday from 6:30 to 9:15 p.m., for an admission fee of $5 for each performance. The fee for nonstudents is $8.

The next performance, an exhibition of the Tomol, a traditional plank canoe of the Chumash and Tongva nations, will be in PH1-141. The other performances will be in the Small Auditorium of the University Student Union.