Native American Heritage Can Spur Economic Development (Tulsa)

Tulsa has yet to realize what city’s Native American heritage can do for the economy, art festival planners say

by Gretchen Collins

http://www.urbantulsa.com/article.asp?id=1808

Another facet of Vision 2025 is about to shine as the funding is in place to begin the infrastructure improvements along the Arkansas for the American Indian Cultural Center.

Once the center is in place it will add 68 full-time jobs and some 1800 part-time positions. It is expected to draw visitors from all over the world to its museum, art gallery, restaurants, and stomp grounds. And it will bring together historical materials from many tribes for safekeeping and use for future generations.

The 18th Tulsa Indian Art Festival is just a preview of what will be available once the cultural center opens. This year’s festival is located at the Greenwood Cultural Center and will take place Feb. 20-22, 2004. This is three days of American Indian art, food, exhibition dancing, storytelling, and theatrical presentations. Friday evening is preview night. For a $30 donation participants will enjoy hors d’oeuvers and wine, a fashion show, and view the juried art awards. These pieces will be auctioned.

A percentage of the proceeds from silent and live auctions go to the artists. The rest is earmarked for scholarships for Native American high school students interested in art. They may be used for college art courses or independent study for high school students.

Marcus Amerman, who is an internationally recognized artist, is the guest poster artist. His beadwork portraiture entitled “She Touches Down” is a commanding work. The poster is beautiful, but nothing like seeing this piece in person. Each bead is stitched in place, not glued. It is full of movement and vibrant color, yet the features of the model are detailed.

Amerman has an insight into the American Indian experience that is both serious and humorous. He has been quoted as saying: “The Indian experience is like an episode of Divorce Court I saw. A couple gets married. He moves into her place and starts leaving his stuff around and not sharing in the housework. She feels that she’s being taken advantage of and that her needs aren’t being met. So he slaughters her entire people.”

Amerman, who is Choctaw, has turned beadwork into many forms including jewelry, ceremonial clothing, even postcards. Since the mid-1980s he has participated in Indian Market, held every August in Santa Fe. He says of this event: “This is the Olympics of Indian art and the Indian Oscars rolled into one. I know a lot of artists in the Southwest who can afford to make it because of their earnings at Indian Market.”

Learning from the past

Tulsa can learn something from the success of Santa Fe’s Indian Market. “This market is equivalent to what we’re doing right here at the Tulsa Indian Arts Festival,” according to Wendy Ponca, director of development for the National Indian Monument and Institute, Inc. “The Santa Fe Indian Market brings in more than $250 million every year to the economy of Santa Fe. They don’t have as many Indians there as we do here. Tulsa can really benefit from this if all of Tulsa would promote this Indian market.”

The fashion show Friday evening promises to be anything but normal. “None of this art is traditional Native American art. This is all contemporary art. We’re Native Americans but a lot of times when people think of Native American art they think of rugs, silver and turquoise jewelry, or a traditional type of paintings, or the beautiful paintings some of the Tigers do. This art that Marcus and I do are totally contemporary.”

Ponca, who is of Osage heritage, has created high fashion Mylar dresses combined with body painting for the show. One of Amerman’s dresses is made of the velvet sacks that Crown Royale comes wrapped in. All models are Native American.

Ponca shows her work in Arizona, New Mexico, and New York where she says being Native American is considered a “good thing” where in Oklahoma it is downplayed.

For generations American Indians were encouraged to assimilate within the Anglo population. Native languages were not spoken or taught and traditions were not practiced. The American Indian Cultural Center hopes to change that.

“When we build the American Indian Cultural Center that’s our main impetus.” A National Indian Monument Institute (NIMI) booth will be set up at the festival with a three-dimensional model of the American Indian Cultural Center so people can see for themselves what a wonderful facility is planned. T-shirts will be sold to help raise money for the building fund. Groundbreaking is planned for this spring. Native American contractors will be employed for construction.

Although the Tulsa Indian Art Festival awards scholarship monies to art students, its primary purpose is to provide a venue for Native American artists to sell their work and perform. The artists participating in the festival teach classes and workshops in the areas of acting, writing, and visual arts for young people. These are held at the OSU-Tulsa campus.

Those attending the festival may expect American Indian foods such as dried corn soup, meat pies, meat gravy, Navajo tacos, squash dishes, fry bread, and grape dumplings. A grape dumpling is a dessert made with grape juice, sugar and dough from fry bread. Ponca says it’s quite good.

At the top of every hour there will be fancy or exhibition dancing. At the bottom of the hour look for Will Hill and Geninne Washington’s traditional Creek storytelling. “That’s my favorite part. Kids love it. They’re both Native Americans and they do a really good job of storytelling. It always has a funny ending or a moral. They act it out so well. It’s totally captivating.” Throughout the day informal education programs will unfold, such as the use of Cherokee blowguns done in a previous year.

Ponca promises virtually every type of art available–from painting and ceramics to traditional Native American clothing techniques such as Seminole patchwork, and flutes. All are certified Native American artists. “You won’t find anything here made in China. You can visit with the artists right there or commission them to make something especially for you.”

She hopes that people come away with a better understanding of Native American art and entertainment. “It’s right here. Right here in their backyard. They could be able to experience this year-round through the American Indian Cultural Center. Support this. Promoting American Indian art can turn Tulsa into a cultural Mecca like Santa Fe and Taos and Scottsdale. It’s not just the Indians who make money off this, although they do and that’s good; but it’s the people who come in for the hotel rooms, restaurants, the taxes from gasoline.

“This is the most important untapped natural resource in this area: the Native American community.”