Call for Papers:
1st Annual Native American Studies Graduate Student Symposium
Engaging the Indigenous Americas
Submissions due March 2, 2012

We are pleased to announce the 1st Annual Native American Studies Graduate Student Symposium, to be held on the UC Davis campus on Friday, April 13th, 2012. This year’s theme is “Engaging the Indigenous Americas,” and we welcome proposals from all current UC Davis graduate students whose research critically addresses the issues, concerns, and lives of Indigenous peoples of the Americas (North and South). Graduate students from all disciplines are encouraged to participate in this open hemispheric dialogue. Papers should be in English and 12-15 minutes in length. 

See the full announcement at http://ucdnasgrads.weebly.com/grad-symposium.html

Ene lepa Melissa Leal. Ene Esselen-k.  Nish welel cha’a.  My name is Melissa Leal.  I am Esselen. My language lives.  These are important words for me to write but also for others to read.  Esselen is a language and a people.  Both have been deemed “extinct” by anthropologists, in fact, Esselen was probably the first language to be deemed “extinct” in California.  Esselen is an isolate, meaning it isn’t related to any other language and it doesn’t fit in any language group.  In indigenous linguistic circles we like to say that the language is not extinct but is just “sleeping” and it is my goal to wake it up. 

I think that the Breath of Life Archival Institute of 2011, held in Washington D.C has been a great rooster crow for the sun rising in Esselen country.  Breath of Life is definitely a working conference.  Each participant is paired with a mentor who is a linguist.  The linguist that I worked with was Jim Bauman and he was awesome. He was very open and willing to be creative with working on the language.  Esselen doesn’t have any speakers or audio recordings. Therefore, creativity and intuitiveness is important when working on the language.  Every day the participants and linguists met at the National Museum of the American Indian from 8:30 am until 1:00 pm for lectures/workshops, at which point we loaded on to buses to go to places like the Library of Congress or National Anthropological Archives until 5:00 pm.  Then we headed back to the dorms to do our homework.  Although everyone was excited to be finding information and being able to work on their language, we were all exhausted.  This was the schedule for two weeks. 

Unfortunately, none of the archives had any new information or material that was Esselen but three great things came out of the Breath of Life conference for me. 1.  My linguist and I were able to translate a sentence that had never been done before (correctly). 2. My linguist introduced me to a great database and input all of the Esselen words into it.  Now Esselen has a database and I can add and change it quickly and easily. 3. My final project included writing and then reciting a rap in Esselen which was the first for Breath of Life (and my first time rapping in public!)  Breath of Life left me with great ideas for future opportunities and contacts with other “language people” all over the United States. 

Previously: Two UCD NAS Grad Students are on their way to Washington DC for the Breath of Life Archival Institute.

Some pics that we could get our hands on... nothing fancy. Lots of Grad Students from NAS presented at NAISA this year. You can read more about it here. Pictured above is NAS Grad Student Christine Willie during her presentation: Meet at the Top: Diné Knowledge and Scientific Knowledge Contemplate Dibé. And BELOW are Christine and Professor Zoila Mendoza waiting for their presentation panel to begin. NAISA was held May 19-22, 2011 in Sacramento, CA.

On May 19-21, the UC Davis Department of Native American Studies hosted the official meeting of the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association (NAISA). The program featured three days of presentations and activities. Several UCD NAS Grad Students presented including:

Brook Colley & Gina Caison: Uneasy Remains: Backyard Documentary, Human Remains, and the University of
California, Davis

Angel Hinzo: One People, Two Nations: The Ho-Chunk/Winnebago and the Implications of the
2000 Enrollment Addendum

Patricia Killelea: Between These Songs: Sherwin Bitsui’s Decolonizing Poetics in “Floodsong”

Cutcha Risling Baldy: NAGPRA 20 Years Later: What Works

Abel Ruiz: Indigenous GIS Mapping: Past and present challenges

James D. Sarmento: Reclamation and Revitalization: identity and language ideology in Native American
Studies

Silvia Soto: Zapatismo and the Buried Knowledges of an Indigenous Consciousness

Christine Willie: Meet at the Top: Diné Knowledge and Scientific Knowledge Contemplate Dibé

The winners of the Interdisciplinary Graduate and Professional Student Symposium have been announced.  UC Davis Native American Studies Grad Student Lori Laiwa received the Dean's Prize for Best Oral Presentation, Division of Humanities, Arts, and Cultural Studies for her presentation:

"Ya Hintil Ha Janon: We Are Speaking Our Language: Unsung Heroes of Language Documentation and Preservation Projects within Central Pomo Language Speaking Communities"

The Interdisciplinary Graduate and Professional Student Symposium (IGPS) is an opportunity for graduate and professional students at UC Davis to share their work with each other, the campus, and the wider community. The three day symposium featured presenters, performers and panels across disciplines and colleges. The symposium was held on April 21-23.