Library Celebrates Native American Month in November

By Susan Braunstein | November 8, 2009

Song, dance, writing, stories, games and book discussions will be featured during Native American Heritage Month at the library.

The library’s Sunday Selections book discussion will feature a poignant novel, “Flight,” by Native American author Sherman Alexie. This is a novel about a teenage Native American boy who travels through time and becomes other people including an FBI agent in the Civil Rights era, an Indian child during the Battle of Little Bighorn, an Indian tracker in the 19th century and a white pilot who inadvertently teaches a terrorist how to be a pilot. This is a powerful story of someone who is so lost and eventually finds out that he can be loved and is worthy of it. 

Alexie uses many of his own experiences as a Spokane/Coure d’Alene Native American in his novels, short stories, films and poetry. One of his more famous novels, “Smoke Signals,” was made into a film directed by Chris Eyre.  The book discussion, led by Susan Braunstein, will take place on Nov. 15 from 2-4 p.m. in the Helen Hoyt room. Friends of the Library provide refreshments.

Another book discussion held by the Friends of the Library takes place on the second Thursday of every month from 3-4 p.m. and in November this will be held on Nov. 12 in the Helen Hoyt room.

Family Story time will also have a Native American theme and those attending the event planned on Nov. 17 at 6 p.m. at General Beadle can also enjoy pizza with the stories.

Rapid City Native American author, Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve, will be here for the Lunch & Learn program planned for Nov.18 from noon to 1 p.m.  She will present, “Writing History for Children.”  Her first book was published in 1972 and since then she has published 25 books that include stories for children, short stories, articles, poems and non-fiction works.
She has also received many honors including the 2007 South Dakota Governor’s Award in the Arts for Distinction in Creative Achievement and the 2000 National Endowment for the Humanities Medalist award from President Clinton.
Sneve was born and raised on the Rosebud Reservation and she has also been a teacher, a counselor, a consultant producer writer for South Dakota Public Television and an editor for Brevet Press.

When the students are out of school on Nov. 30, Ateyapi mentors, Stephen Yellowhawk and Devin Whirlwind Soldier, will demonstrate and discuss Native American dance and song and teach how to play Native American hand games. The events will take place downtown from 10-11:30 a.m. and at General Beadle from 2:30-4 p.m.

The Ateyapi mentoring program was developed and implemented by the Rural America Initiatives Agency and has been in the Rapid City School system and community since 1994. The concept is to build a positive image of stable, sober and responsible Native males that provide strong and safe support for “at-risk” native youth.

There is an after school and summer program provided to children 10-14 years old. This combines cultural, physical and educational activities. Yellowhawk and Whirlwind Soldier provide support to the students and teachers of the schools served by the program.
The library has started a new series of programs entitled, “Drop in Programming,” and every month there will be a community oriented program and demonstrations of library databases. The idea is to set up in the downtown library lobby and people can just stop by and learn about a particular community organization or service or discover how to use one of the library databases.

In November, there will be a demonstration of a database called American Indian History Online on Nov. 18 from 3-4 in the downtown library lobby and the Gale legal forms on Nov. 25.

The American Indian History resource offers access to over 15,000 years of culture and history of Native Americans in North and South America. It includes events and topics entries, biographies, images, videos, maps and charts, legends, primary sources and timeline entries.  There are rare primary sources that include treaties, charts and photos.

The other part of drop in programming will be a hands-on demonstration by Kathy Petersen, from the Social Security Administration, who is the Public Affairs Specialist for South Dakota. She will move away from the lobby into the Helen Hoyt room for this one. Library laptops will be available and Petersen will show people how they can plan for retirement, file for retirement or disability benefits and learn to navigate the Social Security Administration website. This will be held on Saturday, Nov. 21 from 1-3 p.m.

Monthly gaming days are also planned for Nov. 17 downtown and Nov. 18 from 3:30-5 p.m. at General Beadle.  Young people can play Wii games, Guitar Hero and use laptops for computer games.