The Sequoyah National Research Center has a new DVD, Trail of Tears, produced by Cherokee CRC and presented by the National Park Service and the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail. The docu-drama tells the story of the 1830s Cherokee Removal from the southeastern United States to a new home in the West and the Cherokees’ struggle to maintain their cultural identity. The video runs about 23 minutes and may be viewed at the Center.
Two new titles have been added to the SNRC library.
Velroy and the Maidschie Mafia by Sy Hoahwah is a collection of poetry from the Comanche poet.
Black, White, and Indian — Race and the Unmaking of an American Family by University of Georgia historian, Claudio Saunt, is an examination of racial identity using the Grayson family of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation.
Arlene Hirschfelder has added lesson plans, curriculum guides, and bibliographies to the Hirschfelder Collection at Sequoyah National Research Center. These materials on multicultural education emphasize Native American culture.
AETN education producer, Stephanie Lewis, gave Sequoyah National Research Center DVD copies of AETN’s five-part series Arkansas’s First People, that will air in January 2010. Also included in the gift was a CD with a virtual tour of the Toltec Mounds and a DVD on Caddo bow making.
The website for the series, still under construction, is at www.arkansasideas.org/productions.
The Arkansas Chapter of the Trail of Tears Association has given the SNRC nine rolls of microfilm from the National Archives Record Group 75, Microcopy 234, dealing with the removal of the Five Civilized Tribes. This gift complements the existing collection of microfilm and photocopied removal records from the National Archives, creating the largest collection of removal records outside the National Archives itself.
The American Native Press Archives has added four new titles to the list of active subscriptions:
Chaticks si Chaticks (courtesy of the Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma),
Lakota Country Times (courtesy of editor Connie Smith-Blanco),
Shoalwater Bay Newsletter (courtesy of publisher Leah Thomas), and
Skwale’absh News (courtesy of the Nisqually Indian Tribe)