Saturday, October 6, 2012

Charles Eastman - Native American physician,




Charles Eastman
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia



Charles Eastman (Ohiyesa)


Charles Eastman
Born February 19, 1858
Near Redwood Falls, Minnesota
Died January 8, 1939 (aged 80)
Detroit, Michigan
Education Dartmouth College, Boston University
Spouse Elaine Goodale Eastman


Charles Alexander Eastman (born Hakadah and later named Ohíye S’a; February 19, 1858 – January 8, 1939) was a Native American physician, writer, national lecturer, and reformer.

Eastman was of Santee Sioux and Anglo-American ancestry. Active in politics and issues on American Indian rights, he worked to improve the lives of youths, and founded thirty-two Native American chapters of the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA). He also helped found the Boy Scouts of America. He is considered the first Native American author to write American history from the Native point of view.



Early Life and Education


Eastman was named Hakadah at his birth, meaning "pitiful last" in the Dakota. Eastman was so named because his mother died following his birth. He was the last of five children of Wakantakawin, a mixed-race woman also known as Mary Nancy Eastman.[1] Eastman's father, a Santee Sioux named Wak-anhdi Ota (Many Lightnings), lived on a Dakota (Santee Sioux) reservation near Redwood Falls, Minnesota.


Eastman's mother was the daughter of U.S. Army officer and illustrator Seth Eastman, and Wakháŋ Inážiŋ Wiŋ (Stands Sacred), who married in 1830.[1] Eastman was posted to Fort Snelling, near what is now Minneapolis, and married the fifteen-year-old daughter of Cloud Man, a Dakotah (Santee Sioux) chief. Seth Eastman was reassigned from Fort Snelling in 1832, soon after the birth of Winona (meaning First-born daughter). He declared his marriage ended when he left, as was typical of many European-American men. Winona was later called Wakantakawin.

In the Sioux tradition of naming to mark life passages, her last son Hakadah was later named Ohíye S’a (Dakota: "wins often") had three older brothers (John, David, and James) and an older sister Mary. During the Dakota War of 1862, Ohíye S’a was separated from his father Wak-anhdi Ota and siblings, and they were thought to have died. His maternal grandmother Stands Sacred (Wakháŋ Inážiŋ Wiŋ) and her family took the boy with them as they fled from the warfare into North Dakota and Manitoba, Canada.[2] Fifteen years later Ohíyesa was reunited with his father and oldest brother John in South Dakota. The father had converted to Christianity, after which he took the surname Eastman and called himself Jacob. John also converted and took the surname Eastman. The Eastman family established a homestead in Dakota Territory. When Ohiyesa accepted Christianity, he took the name Charles Alexander Eastman.

His father strongly supported his sons' getting an education in European-American style schools. Eastman and his older brother John attended mission and preparatory schools, and college. Eastman first attended Beloit College and Knox colleges; he graduated from Dartmouth College in 1887. He went on to medical school at Boston University, where he graduated in 1889 and became the first Native American to be certified as a European-style doctor.

His older brother became a minister. Rev. John (Maȟpiyawaku Kida) Eastman was a Presbyterian missionary at the Santee Sioux settlement of Flandreau, South Dakota.









Works

  • Memories of an Indian Boyhood, autobiography; McClure, Philips, 1902.
  • Indian Boyhood, New York; McClure, Phillips & Co., 1902. Online at Webroots.
  • Red Hunters and Animal People, legends; Harper and Brothers, 1904.
  • The Madness of Bald Eagle, legend; 1905.
  • Old Indian Days, legends; McClure, 1907.
  • Wigwam Evenings: Sioux Folk Tales Retold (co-author with his wife Ellen Goodale Eastman), legends; Little, Brown, 1909.
  • Smoky Day's Wigwam Evenings (co-written with Ellen Goodale Eastman), 1910
  • The Soul of the Indian: An Interpretation, Houghton, 1911.
  • Indian Child Life, nonfiction, Little, Brown, 1913.
  • Indian Scout Talks: A Guide for Scouts and Campfire Girls, nonfiction, Little, Brown, 1914. (retitled Indian Scout Craft and Lore, Dover Publications). A 1914 reviewer writes, "If one should follow this guide, one would soon begin to doubt he is a white man".[8]
  • The Indian Today: The Past and Future of the Red American, Doubleday-Page, 1915.
  • From the Deep Woods to Civilization: Chapters in the Autobiography of an Indian, autobiography; Little, Brown, 1916.
  • Indian Heroes and Great Chieftains, Little, Brown, 1918. Also Online at Webroots.

See also

External links





READ MORE:


Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Eastman

Charles Eastman - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia



Native American studies - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


The Nez Perce or Nez Percé (pronounced /nɛz pɝs/, or /ne pɛr'se/ as in French) are a tribe of Native Americans who inhabited the Pacific Northwest region of the United States at the time of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. The Nez Perce's name for themselves is Ni-Mii-Puu (pronounced nee-mee-poo), which means simply "the People."



Nez Perce warrior on horse
                                                                     

Native American Studies (also known as American Indian, Indigenous American, Aboriginal, Native, or First Nations studies) is an interdisciplinary academic field that examines the history, culture, politics, issues and contemporary experience of Native peoples in North America[1], or, taking a hemispheric approach, the Americas. Increasingly, debate has focused on the differences rather than the similarities between other Ethnic studies disciplines such as African American studies, Asian American Studies, and Latino/a Studies.

In particular, the political sovereignty of many indigenous nations marks substantive differences in historical experience from that of other racial and ethnic groups in the United States and Canada.

Drawing from numerous disciplines such as anthropology, sociology, history, literature, political science, and gender studies, Native American Studies scholars consider a variety of perspectives and employ diverse analytical and methodological tools in their work.[1]

Two key concepts shape Native American studies, according to Sioux scholar Elizabeth Cook-Lynn, indigenousness (as defined in culture, geography, and philosophy) and sovereignty (as legally and historically defined).[2]


Practitioners advocate for decolonization of indigenous peoples, political autonomy, and the establishment of a discipline dedicated to alleviating contemporary problems facing indigenous peoples.[1]

 


Chief Quanah Parker

Quanah Parker (c. late 1840s - February 23, 1911) was a Native American leader, the son of Comanche chief Peta Nocona and "Anglo-Texan" Cynthia Ann Parker, and the last chief of the Quahadi Comanche Indians.




 Bibliography


Academic Journals
American Indian Quarterly
American Indian Culture and Research Journal
Canadian Journal of Native Studies
Native Studies Review
European Review of Native American Studies
Wíčazo Ša Review



Notable Native American studies scholars

Taiaiake Alfred (Kanien’kehaka/Kahnawake Mohawk)
Paula Gunn Allen (Laguna Pueblo-Sioux)
Greg Cajete (Santa Clara Pueblo)
Dean Chavers (Lumbee)
Allison Hedge Coke (Huron-Muscogee Creek-Cherokee)
Elizabeth Cook-Lynn (Crow Creek Sioux)
Vine Deloria, Jr. (Standing Rock Sioux)
Philip Deloria (Standing Rock Sioux)
Raymond DeMallie
Jack D. Forbes (Powhatan-Renape-Lenape)
Daniel Heath Justice (Cherokee Nation)
Trudie Lamb-Richmond (Schaghticoke)
Stacy Leeds (Cherokee Nation)
Devon A. Mihesuah (Choctaw)
Simon J. Ortiz (Acoma Pueblo)
Luana Ross (Flathead Nation)
Greg Sarris (Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria)
James Thomas Stevens (Mohawk)
Charlene Teters (Spokane Tribe)
Gerald Vizenor (White Earth Anishinaabe)
Robert A. Williams, Jr. (Lumbee)
Craig Womack (Muskogee Nation)
Alfred Young Man (Cree)



See also

Indigenous peoples of North America portal

Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Indigenous_peoples_of_North_America/Selected_picture 


Indigenous peoples of the Americas portal

 Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Indigenous_peoples_of_the_Americas





Cultural studies
Navajo Community College Press
Native American sovereignty
Postcolonialism
Center for World Indigenous Studies


Publications
Journal of Indigenous Studies
AlterNative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples
American Indian Quarterly
Indigenous Law Centre
Journal of Aboriginal Health


Notes

^ a b c d e Sara C. Heitshu, Thomas H. Marshall: Native American Studies: A Guide to Reference and Information Sources (Social Sciences), Libraries Unlimited, U.S., 2 Rev Ed 2009, ISBN 1-56308-971-8
^ a b c Cook-Lynn 11
^ Cook-Lynn 9
^ Cook-Lynn 10

References

Cook-Lynn, Elizabeth. Who Stole Native American Studies?" Wíčazo Ša Review. Vol. 12, No. 1. Spring 1997. Pp. 9–28.
Brooks, Lisa, Michael Elliott, Arnold Krupat, Elvira Pulitano, Craig Womack. "Cosmopolitanism and Nationalism in Native American Literature: A Panel Discussion." Southern Spaces, 21 June 2011.
Clara Sue Kidwell; Alan R. Velie (1 October 2005). Native American studies. U of Nebraska Press. ISBN 978-0-8032-7829-5.

See also

Crosby, Heather, 2011. "Explaining Achievement: Factors affecting Native American College Student Success". Applied Research Projects, Texas State University-San Marcos. http://ecommons.txstate.edu/arp/349.



External links 

Native American and Indigenous Studies Association
Guide to Native American Studies Programs in the United States and Canada
Native Studies Review





Link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Native_American_studies

 
Source:  Native American studies - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Jack D. Forbes on Native American Authors

Native American Authors

This website provides information on Native North American authors with bibliographies of their published works, biographical information, and links to online resources including interviews, online texts and tribal websites. Currently the website primarily contains information on contemporary Native American authors, although some historical authors are represented. The website will continue to expand, adding additional authors, books and web resources.

 Return to Native American Authors Home


Jack D. Forbes , 1934-2011

Powhatan
Delaware

Jack Forbes was born in 1934 in Long Beach, California. He started writing in high school, writing articles for a school paper and later became sports editor. In 1979 he felt he needed a stimulation of a new environment, and went to England for year and then to Holland and Mexico. He said he is deeply interested in human rights and in the common problems experienced by all people. He studied at the University of Southern California earning his Bachelors in 1953, Masters in 1955 and PhD. in 1959.

He was a professor emeritus of Native American studies at the University of California, Davis and was the founder of Degoniwida-Quetzalcoatl University in Davis. He died February 23, 2011.

Awards and Honors

Before Columbus Foundation's American Book Award for Lifetime Achievement, 1997
Wordcraft Circle Writer of the Year (Prose - Non-Fiction) award, 1999

Online resources by or about Jack D. Forbes:

A Brief Biography of Jack D. Forbes
Author: Martin F. Dunn
Type: authorbio
Description: An short bio of Forbes from the "Metis in the U.S.A." web site.
URL: http://www.othermetis.net/USmetis/ForbesBio.html

Canada: Switzerland of the North or a Double Colony by Jack Forbes
Author: Artic Circle
Type: etext
Description: Full text from the Arctic Circle website of a commentary by Jack Forbes originally published in his column, Native Intelligence.
URL: http://arcticcircle.uconn.edu/CulturalViability/Cree/forbes.html

Jack Forbes: We Can Have New Visions
Author: Lois Crozier-Hogle
Type: authorbio
Description: This page from the Winter 1999 issue of Talking Leaves includes several excerpts from the book Surviving in Two Worlds: Contemporary Native American Voices, including an interview with Jack Forbes.
URL: http://www.talkingleaves.org/w99native.htm

Jack Forbes' Webpage
Author: Jack Forbes
Type: authorbio
Description: Forbes' home page on the University of California, Davis Native American Studies Department web site. Includes a brief biographical statement, photos, an extensive publications list, and a link to his personal homepage.
URL: http://nas.ucdavis.edu/nasforbes.htm

Windspeaker Guest Columns (1999)
Author: Taiaiake Alfred, Jack Forbes, et al.
Type: etext
Description: Text of several guest columns written by Alfred from 9/99 - 12/99, and a column by Forbes from 6/99.
URL: http://www.ammsa.com/windspeaker/windguest99.html

Books by Jack D. Forbes:

Forbes, Jack D.. Africans and Native Americans : the language of race and the evolution of Red-Black peoples
Urbana : University of Illinois Press, 1993.
Genre: Nonfiction
Audience: Adult
ISBN: 0252020146 (hc) / 025206321x (pbk)

Forbes, Jack D.. Afro-Americans in the Far West : a handbook for educators
Berkeley, CA : Far West Laboratory for Educational Research and Development, 1968.
Genre: Nonfiction
Audience: Adult

Forbes, Jack D.. American words : an introduction to those native words used in English in the United States and Canada
Davis, CA : University of California, Davis, 1979.
Genre: Nonfiction
Audience: All Ages

Forbes, Jack D.. Apache, Navaho, and Spaniard
Norman : University of Oklahoma Press, 1960.
Genre: Nonfiction
Audience: All Ages
ISBN: 0806126868

Forbes, Jack D.. Atlas of native history
Davis, CA : D-Q University Press, 1981 .
Genre: Nonfiction
Audience: Adult

Forbes, Jack D.. Aztecas del norte ; the Chicanos of Aztlan
Greenwich, CT : Fawcett Publications, 1973.
Genre: Fiction
Audience: All Ages

Forbes, Jack D.. Columbus and other cannibals
Autonomedia, 1992.
ISBN: 0-936-756-70-5

Forbes, Jack D.. The constitutional and legal background for a non-racial human skeletal remains policy for the University of California and other California agencies
California : J.D. Forbes, 1990.
Genre: Nonfiction
Audience: Adult

Forbes, Jack D.. The education of the culturally different : a multi-cultural approach
Berkeley, CA : Far West Laboratory for Educational Research and Development, 1969.
Genre: Nonfiction
Audience: Adult

Forbes, Jack D.. The establishment of D-Q University : an example of successful Indian-Chicano community development
Davis, Calif. : D-Q University, 1972.
Genre: Nonfiction
Audience: Adult

Forbes, Jack D.. The Indian in America's past
Englewood Cliffs, N.Y. : Prentice Hall, 1964.
Genre: Nonfiction
Audience: Adult

Forbes, Jack D.. Mexican-Americans : a handbook for educators
Berkeley, CA : Far West Laboratory for Educational Research and Development, 1967.
Genre: Nonfiction
Audience: Adult

Forbes, Jack D.. A model of "grass-roots" community development : the D-Q University native american language education project
Davis, CA : University of California, Davis, 1976.
Genre: Nonfiction
Audience: Adult

Forbes, Jack D.. Native American languages : preservation and self-development
Davis, CA : University of California, Davis, 1979.
Genre: Nonfiction
Audience: Adult

Forbes, Jack D.. Native Americans and Nixon : presidential politics and minority self-determination, 1969-1972
Los Angeles : American Indian Studies Center, UCLA, 1981.
Genre: Nonfiction
Audience: Adult
ISBN: 0935626069 (pbk)

Forbes, Jack D.. Native Americans of California and Nevada
Happy Camp, Calif. : Naturegraph Publishers, 1982.
Genre: Nonfiction
Audience: Adult
ISBN: 0879611189

Forbes, Jack D.. Nevada Indians speak
Reno : University of Nevada press, 1967.
Genre: Nonfiction
Audience: Adult

Forbes, Jack D.. Only approved Indians
Norman : University of Oklahoma Press, 1995.
Genre: Short Stories
Audience: Adult
ISBN: 080612699x

Forbes, Jack D.. The Papago-Apache Treaty of 1853 : property rights and religious liberties of the 'O'odham, Maricopa, and other native peoples
Davis, CA : University of California, Davis, 1979.
Genre: Nonfiction
Audience: Adult

Forbes, Jack D.. The potential role of libraries and information services in supporting Native American cultures and the quality of life of Native people : a paper
Washington, D.C. : Office of Library and Information Services, U.S. Dept. of the Interior, 1978.
Genre: Nonfiction
Audience: Adult

Forbes, Jack D.. Racism, scholarship, and cultural pluralism in higher education
Davis, CA : University of California, Davis, 1977.
Genre: Nonfiction
Audience: Adult

Forbes, Jack D.. Red blood
Penticton, B.C. : Theytus Books, 1997.
ISBN: 0919441653

Forbes, Jack D.. Religious freedom and the protection of Native American places of worship and cemeteries
Davis, CA : University of California, Davis, 1977.
Genre: Nonfiction
Audience: Adult

Forbes, Jack D.. Tribes and masses : explorations in red, white, and black
Davis, Calif. : D-Q University Press, 1978.
Genre: Nonfiction
Audience: Adult

Forbes, Jack D.. Wapanakamikok language relationships : an introductory study of mutual intelligibility among the Powhatan, Lanape, Natick, Nanticoke, and Otchipwe languages
Davis, Calif. : University of California, Davis, 1972.
Genre: Nonfiction
Audience: Adult



Jack D. Forbes on Native American Authors

 source Link: http://www.ipl.org/div/natam/bin/browse.pl/A129





Native Sacredness


The Powhatan-Renape-Lenape man Jack D. Forbes:

The life of Native American peoples revolves around the concept of sacredness, beauty, power, and relatedness of all forms of existence. In short the "ethics" or moral values of Native people are part and parcel of their cosmology or total world view.
Most Native languages have no word for "religion" and it may be true that a word for religion is never needed until a people no longer have "religion."
As Ohiyesa (Charles Eastman) said,
"Every act of his [the Indian's] life is, in a very real sense, a religious act."... "Religion," is, in reality, "living." Our "religion" is not what we profess, or what we say, or what we proclaim; our "religion" is what we do, what we desire, what we seek, what we dream about, what we fantasize, what we think - all of these things - twenty-four hours a day.
One's religion, then, is one's life, not merely the ideal life but the life as it is actually lived.... Religion is not a prayer, it is not a church, it is not "theistic," it is not "atheistic," it has little to do with what white people call "religion"
It is our every act. If we tromp on a bug, that is our religion. If we experiment on living animal, that is our religion: if we cheat at cards, that is our religion; if we dream of being famous, that is our religion; if we gossip maliciously, that is our religion; if we are rude and aggressive, that is our religion. All that we do, and are, is our religion. (pg. 154)


Try to make everything you do an expression of the "sacredness, beauty, power, and relatedness of all forms of existence"


Obituary: Jack Forbes | The Aggie

 
Campus leader of Native American studies passes away

The Native American studies program began at UC Davis in 1969, largely thanks to Jack Forbes, who joined the university earlier that year. Forbes was an author, activist and professor emeritus. He died Feb. 23 and was 77.

“Jack Forbes’ passing is not only a loss for UC Davis but for the Native American studies academic community across the country,” said Chancellor Linda Katehi in a statement. “He was an inspirational and determined leader whose voice influenced the creation of Native American studies programs at UC Davis and around the country.”

Forbes, of Powhatan-Renape and Delaware-Lenape heritage, was born Jan. 7, 1934, in Long Beach, Calif. He received a bachelor’s degree in philosophy, a master’s degree in history and a doctorate in history and anthropology from the University of Southern California.

California’s first all Native American college was founded in 1971 – born from Forbes’ vision. Degoniwida-Quetzalcoatl University was located just several miles west of UC Davis, but closed in 2005. Forbes volunteered there for more than 25 years.

Forbes received many awards, including the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Native Writers’ Circle of the Americas in 2009 and the American Book Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Before Columbus Foundation in 1997.

“Jack was a man of magnificent vision, with a poet’s heart,” said Ines Hernandez-Avila, chair of the UC Davis department of Native American studies, in a statement. “He devoted his life’s work, passionately, brilliantly, as a true great spirit, with all the power of his words and actions, to finding indigenous peoples, recognizing them, and celebrating their faces and hearts in all their colors.”




Obituary: Jack Forbes | The Aggie

Link: http://www.theaggie.org/2011/03/08/obituary-jack-forbes/



Jack D. Forbes (Powhatan-Renape, Delaware-Lenape), 1934-2011 - College of Letters & Science

article-forbes.jpg
Jack D. Forbes (Powhatan-Renape, Delaware-Lenape), 1934-2011
El Aguila Vive![1]
A tribute from the Department of Native American Studies,
University of California, Davis
Dear community:

As I meditated on what to write about the passing of my colleague, Jack D. Forbes, some of my first thoughts were of his poetry and of something the late Sarah Hutchison, another of the founders of our program, used to say about him. 

She mentioned to me several times, “You know, Inés, Jack really wants to be known as a poet.”  As I remembered her words, I thought about Jack’s joy, his gusto, at participating in poetry readings, at his enthusiasm for hearing other people’s work, at his urging of me to publish the pieces I was reading, “because they need to be out there,” he would say. 

He created songs in his poetry, chants, rhythms, movements.  This elder, warrior, scholar-activist, incredible leader, was a poet.  So I would like to begin with an excerpt of a poem in which he talks about the Los Angeles neighborhood where he grew up:

Eagle Rock
            the spirit is still there
            somehow
            in Mother Earth
            when you can see
            snow-covered Mt. Wilson
            on a clear day
            the spirit
            of the Eagle
            is still there

El Aguila vive![2]

Así es.  This is how it is.  The eagle lives.  El Aguila vive.  He is this eagle, and now we must look up high to the spirit world to know that he is still there.  But he is journeying and for now we must wish him Godspeed, which is what so many of us here and across the country are doing for him at this time.

Jack was a remarkable human being.  I remember the first time I saw that he received his Ph.D. in 1959, which made my head spin.  In 1959 I was 12 years old and yet he never seemed that much older than me.  But when I learned that he was born in 1934, I understood that he achieved the doctorate at the age of 25, and I realized what a precocious child he must have been.

His poetry tells us of a childhood growing up in the mixed-race “depression flats of / South El Monte” in a home his parents built with their own hands, his father “working so hard” to earn a living, “always trying / Something new.”[3]  Jack himself sold “salve from house to house / before [he] was eight” which earned him a telescope “to look at / things far away and near,”[4] a practice he carried into adulthood.  He grew up close to the earth, the smells, the feel, the expanse of sky and earth and all that lived in those worlds.  He writes, “I could lay in the grass / and have / Little baby ducks or geese / crawl under me / They followed me all around / thinking I was their mother.”[5]  He writes straight from the heart to tenderly sustain the memory of this cherished early life, in loving tribute to his parents, and to what they provided.  His refrain is “Earth-child I am / always free and wild.”[6]

This makes sense to all who knew him.  And he stayed consistent.  He was a man of learning who looked far and near, or to use the expression of his colleagues and students, he was a “walking library.”  He demonstrated unfailingly that his intellect held worlds of information from likely and unlikely sources, and that he delighted in pursuing inversions, uprooting contradictions, finding anomalies, subverting dogmas, and like his father “trying something new.”  One of the many significant works that represents his unswerving determination to uncover and recover is The American Discovery of Europe (University of Illinois Press, 2007).

As Jack wrote, “I suppose I am searching for practical things / And impractical things / Searching for meanings / For experience/ For answers to internal questions . . . / For more noble things . . . / To find myself I search / To find my soul I search.”[7]  Perhaps this search for himself led him to pursue one of his greatest legacies as a scholar.  We are known throughout the country and beyond for our hemispheric approach to Native American and Indigenous Studies.  To say that Jack is one of the beloved founders of our hemispheric program is not enough—this man of magnificent vision, with a poet’s heart, devoted his life’s work, passionately, brilliantly, as a true great spirit, with all the power of his words and actions, to finding indigenous peoples, recognizing them, celebrating their faces and hearts in all their colors.  For him, “indigenous” is everlastingly embracing, generous, loving.  This is the heart of his legacy.

As a scholar and a creative writer, Jack remained steadfast to expanding the idea of “Who is an Indian?” With books like Aztecas del Norte: Chicanos de Aztlan (Fawcett Publications, 1973) and Africans and Native Americans: The Language of Race and the Evolution of Red-Black Peoples (University of Illinois Press, 1993), he used all of his immense critical, scholarly skills to put in relief how racial/ethnic identities are formed, by whom and for what purpose, questioning, unlayering, untangling, asking us eloquently to see what he was seeing. 

One of my first memories of him is hearing his important refrain about how the West, the United States in particular, always “finds African Americans and loses Indians,” referring, of course, to the way drops of blood have historically been manipulated to discriminate in such highly politicized and deliberate ways.  A major part of his life’s work was to expose these lies and prevent the ongoing erasure of indigenous peoples. 

It is not by accident that Aztecas del Norte was published in 1973 during the period when our hemispheric program was taking shape and the DQU project was being articulated as a College of the Americas.  Jack was honored throughout his life for the inspiration he gave to so many Chicanas/os around the issue of their indigenous roots.  Africans and Native Americans was published in another landmark year of our program, the year that we achieved departmental status and established our Designated Emphasis as a step towards our graduate program. 

At the start of Africans and Native Americans, Jack writes of the way the spirit-powers from Africa established relationships with the spirit-powers of the Americas, coming to mutual and respectful understandings.  In both of these studies, he turned his scholarly and heart’s eye to a radical reassessment of institutionalized formations of identity.

In his creative production as well, Jack collapsed contemporary borders in favor of recalling ancient landscapes and early trade, cultural, social, linguistic relations; he was often poignant and acutely direct in his narratives.

The title short story in Only Approved Indians Made in the USA (University of Oklahoma Press, 1995) is about a basketball tournament in which the Tucson team is disqualified because the players, a Tarahumara from Mexico and a Yaqui, and some Papagos, don’t have BIA enrollment cards. 

The officials decide that the Tucson team members “are not Indians within the meaning of the laws of the government of the United States.”[8]  The irony in Jack’s story is that the Tucson players are all dark young men with long black hair.  The opposing team from the Great Lakes are lighter-skinned but they “are all land-based and federally recognized Indians (although living in a big Midwestern city) and they had their cards to prove it.”[9] 

They are the ones who start the rumor that the Tucson players are “really Chicanos,”[10] that is, not Indians. In his novel, Red Blood, however, he pursues more of the intricacies of these identity issues and the ways in which racial/ethnic formations were intentionally established, enforced, perpetuated by the state and very often internalized by indigenous peoples throughout the hemisphere.  His eagle eyes give witness, meticulously, to these dynamics in his writing.

Because of all that he has accomplished and the way in which his voice has gone beyond any imposed borders or categories, Jack belongs to the world.  His spirit will live on with innumerable people on this campus and beyond, from local to regional, national, and international communities.  Certainly in Hart Hall, the impact of his passing is profound.  

Adalijiza Sosa-Riddell, professor emerita of Chicana/o Studies wrote a moving statement about Jack’s role in the community of scholar-activists who created the ethnic studies programs. 

She concluded by saying, “I thank you, Jack, for always treating me as an equal partner in any struggle, for showing me respect, and for being a friend.  But most of all, I thank you for helping me understand that equality was not a gift to be awarded to me by those in power. 

I must claim equality for myself.  I will keep a vigil for you on el Día de los muertos, for you are family.”  Isao Fujimoto, professor emeritus from Asian American Studies and Human and Community Development, also remembers the early years, saying,

“To avoid getting hit by any ‘divide and conquer’ type approaches, he suggested that the financial support offered by the University to our ethnic studies programs be evenly divided. We could then build up from there, instead of wasting time on arguments like who was more deserving, etc.”

Professor emerita of Women and Gender Studies, Judy Newton remembers Jack as “a force of nature,” writing, “I admired Jack for his incredible productivity, his willingness to speak out politically, and for the kindness and warmth that went into his admonitions and gestures of friendship and into his efforts to cross borders and to work with the collectivity that took shape.”

Michael Smith, professor of American studies, writes of his first memories of Jack, of how in meetings, “he watched everything with a serene but knowing look.  Every now and then he'd say something -- irreverent, sometimes wickedly funny, always straight to the point.  In a couple of sentences he could cut to the chase, aiming everyone's attention at the Real Issue with the sheer clarity of his words. You could feel the room shifting, like a creaky old ship struggling to change course.  All because of this one guy.”  

Moradewun Adejunmobi, professor of African American and African studies, wrote, “What I remember about Jack was his continued involvement with the business of protecting ethnic studies at UC Davis, even after he retired. I’m not sure how many of the younger faculty realized he was actually a professor emeritus since he was often around and appeared so well informed. His knowledge of the institutional history of ethnic studies at UC Davis will be greatly missed.”

Of all the current administrators, Barbara Horwitz, vice-provost of academic personnel, knew him the longest, and she writes, “I was saddened to see that Jack had died.  I always felt that Jack was a man of great integrity and I know that his commitment to the importance of research/teaching the history and culture of indigenous people has had a major impact on our campus as well as others.  There is no question that he will be missed.” 

Griselda Castro, assistant vice chancellor of student affairs, also someone who knew Jack for many years, wrote, “I first read Jack’s work when I was in high school during the sixties and greatly enjoyed working with him as a colleague at UC Davis.  He was and always will be a great spirit.”

At the national level, Jeani O’Brien, president of the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association (NAISA), and professor of history at the University of Minnesota, says, “Indigenous studies scholars in so many places are mourning the loss of a towering figure, an intellectual, a leader in building indigenous studies in ways that have benefitted all of us in the indigenous world.  I think of him as such as bold thinker, courageous in his work, selfless, generous in building the infrastructure that we’re still working with.” 

Lee Francis IV, national director and president of the Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers, says, “The Wordcraft family is saddened by the news of Jack's passing.  He was a great supporter of Wordcraft Circle and he served on our National Caucus for many years.
 He was a tremendous writer and mentor and we will always remember his talent, his wisdom, and his generosity. Blessings on his next journey!” 

These are but two of the many voices, nationally and internationally, who we know are mourning his passing and remembering his tremendous contributions.

In speaking of our program, it is good to remember how Jack considered David Risling, Jr., another of our founders, his elder brother.  Their relationship spanned forty years, and Jack always credited Dave with bringing him to Davis.  Barbara Risling, Dave’s widow, says the two had “a very good partnership on everything—Jack was the idea man, ideas way beyond what most people believed.”  She says that Jack was “kind, conscientious, and he stood up for people’s rights, he wasn’t afraid of anything.” 

Jack considered Dave a tenacious fighter and warrior for the people, so the two were a match.  Add to the mix, Sarah Hutchison, herself a fierce woman warrior, and George Longfish, a passionate artist, and we have a formidable combination of elders who were the pillars of our program for decades. 

Professor Emeritus Longfish is the last of these four, still practicing his art full-time in retirement.  What he remembers about Jack is his humanity, and that “in his heart he was always for the people.”  On a lighter side, one of George’s first memories of Jack is that when he first came to Davis, Jack took him on a trip to visit a reservation in the Southwest, which is when he learned of Jack’s love of the blues, because he would sing for what seemed like eight hours a day while they were on the road. 

Several faculty sent me comments for this tribute.  Martha Macri, professor, former chair of the department, and the Yocha Dehe Chair in California Indian Studies, who will remember Jack as a dear friend and dinner companion, says, “He was an inspiration to so many of us.  I particularly appreciate his understanding that the story of Native Americans did not begin with European contact. Instead of ignoring the work of archaeologists, he used archaeological knowledge along with oral tradition to present a vibrant image of creative and intelligent Native populations throughout the Americas.”

Zoila Mendoza, professor, says: “One of the things I will most remember from Jack is his belief that change can be made and things can be done if we have a strong commitment to what we do. He inspired me to look at things differently using the perspective of indigenous people and their struggle to maintain and re-vitalize their world.  His encouragement was crucial in my decision to create a Quechua language and culture series.”

Victor Montejo, Professor and former chair of the department wrote:

I arrived around 3PM [on Feb. 23] and stood at the side of his bed for three hours.  Carolyn was there with him and she said that he was on his way to the spiritual world.  I was so sad to see a great man, an extraordinary poet, writer and academic laying there with no more strength and breathing with difficulties ready to leave the material world behind.  I approached his bed and touched his forehead talking to him as a friend and colleague, a person that I admired and respect because of his contribution to the field and department in which I was hired.  Jack Forbes was a genuine warrior whose action and legacy are palpable for Native American colleagues and students here at UC Davis.
Victor met Jack at the first Returning the Gift, the first North American Native Writer’s Festival held in 1992 in Norman, Oklahoma.  Jack and Stefano Varese were the ones who invited Victor to apply for the UC President’s Postdoctoral Fellowship, which is how Victor became a member of the faculty.

Stefano Varese, professor emeritus and former chair of the department, wrote:

Querido and dear Jack,
Otra vez me ganaste la mano! Once more your trickster spirit won the race! Remember that in 1981 at the Russell Tribunal in Rotterdam we had compared ages and stages of life and agreed that our undertaking, although not difficult in essence, required immortality and that your commitment to unpopular causes and to justice and peace could be helped, like poetry, by the touch of love. You did it Jack, like the Blackfoot say: “Life is not separate from death. It only looks that way”. You are immortal, you were immortal already when we were young and you are teaching us, like Plato did many centuries ago, that “Death is not the worst that can happen to humanity”.
So long, Jack, hasta siempre. Stefano
Oaxaca, February 27, 2011
I myself am deeply grateful to Carolyn Forbes for allowing me to say good-bye to Jack over the phone on the evening of February 23.  I had been ill so I didn’t want to visit the hospital, but I called and Carolyn said she was going to put the phone to Jack’s ear—she said, “He’ll hear you.”  I believe this way, too, so thank you again, Carolyn.

There are countless students, at the undergraduate and graduate levels, that Jack impacted in his decades-long career.  When I think of him working with students I not only think of the knowledge he imparted, but of his humor, his wit, his ability, as Michael Smith said, “to cut to the chase.”  This humble tribute must simply say that there will be more to come from the ones whose paths he counseled, from the ones who received his learning.

In reference to a new edition of Columbus and Other Cannibals, Jack wrote, in July 2008,
Wherever one is, one must be on a good path, a spiritually beautiful path, if one is to avoid being an exploiter or a beneficiary of aggression. This is not, however, a matter of dogma or adherence to a restrictive philosophy, but is simply a recipe for a good life where mistakes can and will be made, but can also be overcome by the discovery of a better path.[11]

In the preface to the 1992 edition of this book, Jack honors and credits those who helped him find his good path, beginning with a loving tribute to his parents—his father who gave him “a legacy of authenticity which [he] hope[s] to pass on to [his] children” and his mother who gifted him with the love of “plants and growing things.”[12] 

He also credits his Native American, Celtic, and Swiss ancestors for the inspiration they gave him, especially their examples of courage in the struggles for justice.  He voices his thanks and respect to all the animals in his life, “authors” themselves who taught him “a great deal about the joy and spontaneity of authentic life free from the pettiness or evilness sometimes found in the human world.”[13] 

He thanks the trees and plants who have been “his great friends”, as well as his adopted uncle Antonio del Buono, for “his honesty, frankness, optimisim, and absolute immunity from pettiness or corruption”.[14]  And, he thanks Carolyn for her “spirituality, vigorous sense of justice, and deep understanding of pain and suffering [that] had a lasting impact upon [his] consciousness.”[15] He considers her co-author of the book. 

In this preface, Jack speaks to the near in his life, what has made it possible for him to look far and wide, what gave him his roots, his grounding, his certainty, throughout his life.

At the conclusion of Red Blood, Jack writes, “The time had come.  A woman had given birth to him.  Now it was the time to return to another mother-woman, the Earth, for the lessons that she and the other spirit-powers might bring, away from the people.”[16] 

He writes this in relation to his character, Jesse, seeking a vision.  But it is a good to recognize that Jack himself is now on another good path of learning that has to do with the immensity of Spirit, his own and the Creator’s. 

Dear Jack, as you walk in radiance, sing to your heart’s content, to your place of peace and grace.

Ometeotl.

  Ines Hernández-Avila, chair and professor, Native American studies, UC Davis




Jack D. Forbes (Powhatan-Renape, Delaware-Lenape), 1934-2011 - College of Letters & Science

Link: http://www.ls.ucdavis.edu/harcs/news-and-research/jack-forbes.html