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My name is Raven. When I was in the third grade, our class read The Courage of Sarah Noble. In this book they said Indian people were savages and murderers, they chop your head off and eat you alive and that we were not really people. When the class put on the play for the whole school, the kids started taunting me, calling me "stinky" and asking me how many people I've eaten. Nobody would play with me or even sit next to me in class...I felt so ashamed. Finally, I told my mother I didn't want to go back to school. —Raven Hoaglen (Maidu/Konkow/Wailaki/Mono)
Oyate is a Native organization working to see that our lives and histories are portrayed honestly, and so that all people will know our stories belong to us. For Native children, it is as important as it has ever been for them to know who they are and what they come from. It is a matter of survival. For all children, it is time to learn the truth of history. Only in this way will they come to have the understanding and respect for each other that now, more than ever, will be necessary for life to continue.
Our work includes evaluation of texts, resource materials and fiction by and about Native peoples; conducting of teacher workshops, in which participants learn to evaluate children's material for anti-Indian biases; administration of a small resource center and library; and distribution of children's, young adult, and teacher books and materials, with an emphasis on writing and illustration by Native people. We hope by making many good books available to encourage many more, especially from Native writers and illustrators. Oyate, our organization's name, is the Dakota word for people. It was given to us by a Dakota friend.
We thank the following organizations that, over the years, have made it possible for us to do our work, and to gift many of our books to Native children: Akonadi Foundation, BankAmerica Foundation, California Arts Council, Citibank, Clorox Company Foundation, Community Services United, Educational Foundation of America, Evangelical Lutheran Church, First Interstate Bank of California, Flow Fund, Funding Exchange, LEF Foundation, Norman Foundation, Peace Development Fund, Reconciliation Mission, Seva Foundation, Sisters of Loretto, Morris Stulsaft Foundation, Onaway Trust, Threshold Foundation, Union Bank, United Church of Christ, Vanguard Foundation, Van Loben Sels Foundation, and Bernard E. and Alba Witkin Charitable Trust.We especially thank the Fond du Lac Ojibway Tribal Council for making our catalog available through the Internet; and Rudolph & Sletten for funding a modem and internet account, and encouraging us to take this step. Our web site is a growing and changing thing. We thank River Abeje, Marco Palma, Guillermo Prado and Ray Ryan for their designs and enthusiasm. We thank and honor Paula Giese for insisting that we do this, Karen Rudolph for seeing that it got done, and Ted Wetherbee at Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College for hosting our first web site. And we thank Sharon Williams (Nuu-chah-nulth) for allowing her photo, taken in 1978 when she was eight years old, to become our “logo.�?/P> Click on the envelope to e-mail Oyate at [email protected] |
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