Shinnecock Powwow 2013

Labor Day weekend 2013 my tribe the Shinnecock Indian Nation will be having our 4 day annual powwow on the Shinnecock Indian reservation...Everyone is welcomed. Our powwow has over several hundreds of dancers from across the country and award winning craft artists. Intact we have close to 100 vendors. If you are looking for something exciting to do come to the powwow. Every year there is a concert with NAMMY ARTISTS.

Aponi's Wind hits Lumbee Powwow

Every weekend since the first weekend in March I have danced and set up a booth at a powwow. Traveling and creating brand awareness for my line of accessories for Aponi's Wind. This past weekend, I was set up at Lumbee Powwow, which was such a memorable experience. I am looking forward to attending their powwow in the fall.
Be sure to follow me on instagram @K_aponi for photos of my accessories. And email me at aponiwind@gmail.com for information on ordering.

Walk the Walk Tribal Retreat

Walk the Walk Tribal Retreat
Held on Friday May 10th to Sunday May 12th at the secluded and beautiful Whispering Pines Center in West Greenwich, Rhode Island, the Walk the Walk Tribal Retreat expects to host 55 young adults, space is limited for this gathering.

One of the barriers to Tribe’s moving forward and effectively protecting and maintaining the well-being of Tribes against outside interests are conflicts within the Tribe, its government, its communities and families.
Some of the most common ways these conflicts appear are as the impacts of:

•Alcohol & Drug Use/Abuse
•Verbal Abuse
•Suicide
Bullying

Tribes have many ways of attempting to overcome these harms, and from a tribal operations point of view these can include the work of:

•Tribal Health
•Tribal Police
•Tribal Education
•Tribal Natural Resource
•Tribal Education
Listening to strengthen the work of Tribal governments to help tribal people .
The Walk the Walk Prep2Rep Retreat will provide a place and a way for participants to share, listen, envision, build leadership skills and begin to practice unique strategies to help tribal communities:

•Tribal professionals from Health, Police, Education and Natural Resources to share outreach and education to the next generation of young tribal leaders.

•Young tribal adults (18 – 27) to share questions, ideas, and visions with Tribal professionals.

•Young tribal adults to have hands on learning opportunities to learn how to develop surveys and quantify data to support the priorities they come to identify during the retreat to further help their communities

•Young tribal adults will also receive the benefit of Prep2Rep’s tips to presenting to help strengthen their abilities to represent their communities in diverse situations and acquire the necessary tools to represent in all social arenas.

Tribal Sponsorships for 4 participants: $5,000.00 provides for 4 people to attend and covers all accommodations, food and materials costs, with your Tribe and/or Tribal Department being recognized as a Retreat Partner on all Retreat materials. Tribal sponsors will be acknowledged and represented proudly on the complimentary t shirts.
Additional individual participants are welcome! Registration is $1,250/person, all accommodations, foodand materials costs included.

For more information email aponiwind@gmail.com

It is time!

Danny Menihan and his vision of unity

 

The Northeastern region has been throbbing with energy our young adults. Danny Menihan is a Mashantucket Pequot tribal member, and is also descendant of the surrounding tribes. Two years ago he came to me with a vision he had to unite ALL North Eastern Tribes. It was then we founded the NEW Alliance (Northeastern Woodland Alliance). NEW ALLIANCE is established to bring together the North-Eastern Woodland people of the Northeastern Region. The intent is to reconnect family members of the individual tribes; as well as, connect the historical and cultural resources, opportunities and communities that make up these Nations. The goal is to use social networking to establish cultural opportunities (youth programs, social gatherings, unity fires, cultural classes and demonstrations, as well as social opportunity (youth sport tournaments, huge cookouts, etc).

 

The first event held was in the fall of 2011. Danny held a Unity Fire of the Sister Tribes at the Mashantucket Pequot cultural grounds. He invited elders, sachems, and spiritual leaders to share words of wisdom. With his own funding he gave away coloring books, crayons, and puzzles for children of all northeastern tribes. I loaded up my car with boxes of gifts from Danny to gift to the Shinnecock children.
 

In the Fall of 2012 we held a Healing Fire for the Woodland Nations. The purpose of this gathering was to wipe the tears of family members who were grieving and in mourn of the passing of loved ones. Our sister tribes during the year of 2012 experienced a rapid number of deaths. When one sister tribes has a death all of our tribes feel it. It is a tradition among tribes to burn a fire when a loved one passes. The fire burns until they are put to rest. Family members from all tribes come to give gifts, share songs, share stories, and give love and comfort. We also held talking circles for our youth and our young adults. It is important for young people to speak and be heard. We wanted our families to come together as one for one another.

The heart the Danny has is so huge. Most people who know Danny can say he is very reserved and carefully speaks when he does. His actions are mighty and with N.E.W. Alliance his vision will become reality.

For generations the Wampanoag, Narraganset, Pequots, and Shinnecocks have sustained close relationships with one another as sister tribes. The tribes in the Northeastern region are also known as the “forgotten tribes” When most people think of Native Americans their first thought is not the tribes that live on the oceans, near the largest cities in the country—New York City, and Boston. It is our responsibility to teach those who are unaware of our existence and our way of living. Danny has such an old soul. When speaking with him one can gather knowledge of how our tribes are connected. He is passionate about his people.

In addition to his activism, Danny is an exquisite artist. Using the knowledge of his lineage he created a fishing scene for the doll exhibit at the Mashantucket Pequot Museum, it is on display until mid April.




Check out the Doll Exhibit http://www.pequotmuseum.org/Home/MashantucketGallery/CurrentExhibit.htm
 

 

I just wanted to take this opportunity to say Danny you’ve become family to me and am strengthen the more and more we communicate. Thank you for pouring your heart into helping to heal our people. Keep up the good work!

 

Check out Danny Menihan on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/danny.menihan?fref=ts 

Nahaan Speaks Up

Tattooing is a tradition that our people have been practicing for generations. Indigenous people from all four directions have many traditional ways of tattooing.  These tattoos represent different clans, tribes, and even individuals’ status in their communities. Today there are still traditional tattoo artist that perform tattoos. I got the opportunity to vibe with a Tlingit tattoo artist!  At the Northwest canoe journeys there can be over 10,000 natives in one location. So many people were holding raffle ticket signs, selling amazing cedar work from carving to weaving. My homeboy Keet Dayeen was walking around holding a sign that said "Tlingit Tattooing by Nahaan". Tlingit Tattoo and Design by Nahaan https://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/TlingitTattoo I got the chance to meet Nahaan from the Tlingit nation.

Tattooing has been a large part of the Tlingit culture since time began. It is ceremonial to give and receive tattoos whether it is done through tapping, sewing, or gunning.

Keet Dayeen, Nahaan, and myself--Paddle to Squaxin Island 2012

Not only is Nahaan a tattoo artist, but he is a carving and a design apprentice under Nathan Jackson. He paints, draws, craves, sculpts, sings, writes and speaks on many issues that he is passionate about. 

 I am so ecstatic about Nahaan’s work!  From being an Eastern Algonquin native I can say that the coastal designs in the west are very different from our traditional coastal designs here in the east. Our traditional designs were found near the edge and border of our garments and even pottery. Sometimes designs would be found in the center of mantels, bags, and breech cloths. They were also abstract and had minimal detail. Sometimes when looking at a eastern Algonquin design you can see many different types of things in one design. That could also depend on who was viewing the design.

Nahaan’s designs are so lively with so much consistency. It is artist like Nahaan that helps to keep our traditions alive. The exsposure of his work we will become relevant in today’s society because it will intrigue people to look further into what not only native artist are doing but what is happening in Native America!

He is an active vigorous advocate for native rights. My Facebook newsfeed floods with the current work in his movement. I know many people have the perception of Facebook being a negative platform; however, I think it depends on who you choose to follow and who follows you. The posts that Nahaan includes on his page, creates awareness in the social media network for Native America. The content of the posts that he projects is an artistic outlook on important issues from our native languages to our fight and struggle in standing for our rights.

You know how people use the phrase “ A man of many hats”?  LOL…Well I would say Nahaan seems to be the artist of many hats!

I just want say to Nahaan--keep the fire burning because your work provides our people with the enlightenment that we need to prosper. Specifically our youth! Role models and mentors seem to be short in numbers these days. However, people like you and many others I have blogged about are those role models and mentors that our youth need to lead our nations.

              Be sure to check out Nahaan’s work

Instagram @nahaan206

Facebook:

Nahaan Speaks Up https://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/nahaan?fref=ts

Tlingit Tattoo and Design by Nahaan https://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/TlingitTattoo

The Inspiring Keet Dayeen

    

Last summer I got the awesome opportunity to vibe with +Keet Dayeen at the annual Northwest canoe journeys “Paddle to Squaxin Island 2012”.  He is from the Tohono O’odham Nation. We spoke about the power of unity and how our people are progressing towards coming together. As young adults it is our job to be as active as we can right now to continue to pave the way for the younger generations to follow. 

 

Dayeen is surely one of those young adults that is paving a road to success. From being a lyricist to being an activist for native rights, Dayeen sends out the good energy we need to help in the betterment of our communities. He is moved and inspired by music. Right now he is continuously working on his own artistic progression through hip-hop, poetry and music. He has his own recordings and production.  Check him out on Sound Cloud https://soundcloud.com/#keetdayeen

It’s natives like Dayeen that deserve recognition for the work that they do. Through my blog I hope I can show the world the great work Native Americans are doing not only in Indian country but in the country period. For some reason there is still a foot over our backs stunting our growth to breach the mainstream conversations alone. I encourage ALL of you—native and non-native that when reading my blog you begin think about ways to bring light to what Native Americans are doing.  Whether it is the work a Tribal elder has done for their people throughout their entire life or a young leader in a youth organization, we demand to be “Idle no more”! http://bflybiz.blogspot.com/2013/01/idle-no-more.html  If we can bring Native Americans to a relevant place in today’s society then the struggle will become less painful in our communities.

The conversation that Dayeen and I had on unity is what we need others to be discussing in BOTH worlds. When I say BOTH worlds I am sure all of my native followers know what I am referring to. However, to the non-native followers it means that as a Native American today we literally live in two worlds at the same time. Being Native American is not just an ethnicity; moreover, it is a way of life. With that said I KNOW if you listen to Kent Dayeen’s work you will be more than in encouraged to do something about this movement of being “Idle No More”.

Just giving a shout out to Dayeen, I am a fan of your work and appreciate your dedication to our people! Keep the tradition alive and keep working hard.

Check out Keet Dayeen on Sound Cloud https://soundcloud.com/#keetdayeen

 

Introducing Ahna Red Fox Smith

Meet Ahna (Red Fox) Smith. She is a 17 year old Native American photographer. This young and gifted photographer is from the Shinnecock Indian Nation. The inspiring idea of Ahna's work is that she represents all youth. There is so much enlightenment in seeing the perspective of our youth. The importance of the vision of our youth is that their vision is our future. Youth need more and more verbal encouragement than ever because our world needs change, and it’s encouragement that will give our youth the power to lead and be that change. I have to say Ahna’s work is definitely moving! Photographers from all over the world are inspired by Native Americans. On a larger level Native American photographers see things in our culture that other photographers cannot capture.

Through the uplifting photography by Ahna  the world can begin to understand that photographers help to bring change in our communities. It allows people to see things in ways they may have never thought of seeing. Ahna continues to rise with her gift. A gift is something to be shared so be sure to follow Ahna.
Follow her INSTAGRAM @ahmckeyz_x