Category Archives: Native Science

When Censors Take On Indigenous America

Posted on June 30, 2019 by Cynthia (Istá Thó Thó) Coleman Emery

The Case of the San Francisco Mural Should we censor art when it offends our sensibilities? The Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati made headlines in 1990 when it displayed photographs by Robert Mapplethorpe: images of human nudes and acts of … Continue reading →

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Two-Eyed Seeing

Posted on June 24, 2019 by Cynthia (Istá Thó Thó) Coleman Emery

Inviting Natives to the Table One of the world’s leading scientific journals devotes space to Native Science this week. The article in Science begins with the cry, “Don’t shoot the leaders.” The entreaty comes from aboriginal hunters of North America … Continue reading →

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This Book will Haunt You

Posted on February 26, 2019 by Cynthia (Istá Thó Thó) Coleman Emery

Watch out for Teddy I’m beginning to hear voices. Ted Van Alst’s latest story about growing-up-Indian in Chicago has a captivating spirit that won me over. Completely. His character—Teddy—gets inside your head. Here’s a scene in the book (Sacred Smokes) … Continue reading →

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Never Stop Learning  

Posted on August 18, 2018 by Cynthia (Istá Thó Thó) Coleman Emery

It takes guts to examine your failures, but that’s just what we need to do in order to learn and grow. The take-away in a brief news item in today’s New York Times notes that taking time to consider why … Continue reading →

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Kondo as a Verb

Posted on July 16, 2018 by Cynthia (Istá Thó Thó) Coleman Emery

(We discovered a spoon with the Rous insignia) No one enjoys moving, do they? I am in awe that my mother moved us—sometimes once a year—when my step-father worked overseas on construction projects with oil companies. We moved every year … Continue reading →

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Threading the Needle

Posted on July 8, 2018 by Cynthia (Istá Thó Thó) Coleman Emery

Closing the Osage-Buddhist Circle We spent the last weeks—months—on a sewing project, creating a Rakusu: a garment worn when you become a practicing Buddhist. The Rakusu has a rich tradition. The garment is a rectangular cloth with straps that you … Continue reading →

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Honoring Ancestors

Posted on May 18, 2018 by Cynthia (Istá Thó Thó) Coleman Emery

  My heritage—in addition to being a North American native–is English, French, Osage and Lakota. Turns out, I know more about my Indian ancestors than my English or French relatives. It’s not because my relatives kept good records: they didn’t. … Continue reading →

Posted in american, american indian, authenticity, NAGPRA, Naia, national native american history month, native american, Native American Heritage Month, native press, Native Science, nativescience, pine ridge, Plains Indians: Artists of Earth and Sky, zen | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

But how long are they going to be here?

Posted on April 27, 2018 by Cynthia (Istá Thó Thó) Coleman Emery

The Rajneeshis in Oregon One of my favorite reads is Frances FitzGerald’s Cities on a Hill (1987), which explores five diverse communities in the United States, including the town in Oregon that became headquarters for the Rajneesh community. A new … Continue reading →

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Powerful Lessons from Indian Country

Posted on February 18, 2018 by Cynthia (Istá Thó Thó) Coleman Emery

  Infusing Indian Thought in Social Theories I teach a course for college sophomores on social theories and how they relate to my field: communication. Writers who set the stage for Western thought—lots of French, German, British, Italian and American … Continue reading →

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The fight for environmental sanity

Posted on November 17, 2017 by Cynthia (Istá Thó Thó) Coleman Emery

Yet another oil spill Bill McKibben, a college professor and environmental scholar, writes eloquently in the New Yorker that objections to oil pipelines—actual and proposed—that cut through North America (from Canada through the Dakotas and end in Texas) are a … Continue reading →

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