Vol. XVI No. 1 Joyce Martin, Curator
Labriola National American Indian Data
Center Newsletter
ASU Libraries
Labriola Spring
Services
• The Labriola Cen-ter
is open from 9-
5 Monday –
Friday
• Coming soon the
Labriola Center
will have a new
web page to host
all the course and
subject guides the
Center creates to
help students re-search
American
Indian topics at
ASU
Gila River Elders Visit ASU
and the Labriola Center
1
Labriola Center Open House 2
New Arrivals by Ann Leonard 2
Enemy Slayer: A Navajo Ora-torio
3
Mobile Library Reference
Services by Melanie To.ledo
3
Everyone Loves a Slice of Hot,
Cheesy Pizza!! By Rhonda
Singer
4
Inside this issue:
The Labriola Center
along with the American
Indian Policy Institute
and the American Indian
Studies Department
hosted a group of over
fifteen elders from the
Gila River Indian Com-munity
at ASU on Octo-ber23rd.
The visit included a tour
of the Agriculture Build-ing
which holds the
American Indian Studies
Department, the Ameri-can
Indian Student Sup-port
Services, the Ameri-can
Indian Policy Insti-tute
and the
Office of the
Special Advisor
to the Presi-dent
on Ameri-can
Indian Af-fairs.
Addi-tionally
they
visited the
Labriola Na-tional
Ameri-can
Indian
Data Center.
While in the Lab-riola
Center the elders
were able to listen to the
Ralph Cameron Oral His-tory
Collection. The
Ralph Cameron Oral His-tory
Collection contains
seven audio tapes re-corded
by Mr. Cameron
(Pima-Maricopa) of Phoe-nix,
Ari-zona.
It
was do-nated
to
the Lab-riola
Na-tional
American
Data Cen-ter
on
August 8,
2000, by
his son,
LeRoy
Cameron.
Mr. Cameron discusses
education at both Phoenix
Indian School and
Sherman Institute in Riv-erside,
California, World
War military exploits,
community activities,
speaking to his grandchil-dren,
and children’s sto-ries.
Transcripts are
available for tapes 1-4.
The call number is LAB
LO-1:1-7
Among those attending
this visit was Mr. Cam-eron’s
widow and the ex-perience
of listening to
Ralph Cameron’s voice
seemed to be quite emo-tional
for several partici-pants.
The Ralph Cameron Col-lection
had recently been
preserved through digiti-zation
and part of a lar-ger
project and is a collec-tion
the Labriola Center
is very proud to house.
Mr. Cameron spoke in the
indigenous language of
Maricopa for a portion of
the tapes.
Dr. Peterson Zah and
various American Indian
Studies faculty met with
the Elders during a
luncheon held at the ASU
Gila River Elders Visit ASU and the
Labriola Center
Spring 2008
Navajo Nation
Gila River Elders tour
American Indian Programs conference room
New Arrivals article by Ann Leonard
work is being used as the textbook
for Michelle Hale’s Federal Indian
Policies and Tribal Governance
courses here at ASU American In-dian
Studies Department.
Border Citizens: The Making of
Indians, Mexicans, and Anglos
in Arizona. By Eric V. Meeks
(University of Texas Press, Austin,
2007)
Focusing on Mexican Americans,
Mexican immigrants, Yaquis, the
Tohono O’ odham, and Euro-
Americans, Meeks shines light on
the race relations in South-Central
Arizona between 1880 and 1980.
While both a social and ethnic
study, this book also aims to serve
as a reference to nation-state build-ing
and the political economy along
the U.S.-Mexico border.
Like a Loaded Weapon: The
Rehnquist Court, Indian Rights,
and the Legal History of Racism
in America. By Robert A. Wil-liams,
Jr. (University of Minnesota
Press, 2005)
Through a dissection of Chief Jus-tice
John Marshall's court in the
early nineteenth century and a
study Chief Justice William
Rehnquist's judgments until 2005,
Robert Williams asserts that the
U.S. Supreme Court used racist
language, racial stereotypes and
depictions of Native cultural inferi-ority
within their Indian Law deci-sions.
With unapologetic chapter
titles such as "The Most Indiano-phobic
Supreme Court Indian Law
Opinion Ever", Williams text makes
a bold request of the current Su-preme
Court to confront the origins
of Indian Law.
Like a Loaded Weapon will be
shown by the Center's Curator,
Joyce Martin, to Professor James
Riding In’s American Indian Sover-eignty
and the Courts class on
January 23rd as an example of one
of the many texts within the Lab-riola
collection which analyze In-dian
Law .
Here is a sampling of some exciting
new additions to the Labriola collec-tion
this Spring semester:
The State of
Native Na-tions:
Condi-tions
under
U.S. Policies
of Self-
Determina-tion.
(Oxford
University
Press, 2008)
Primarily a reference textbook and
collection of essays, this work was
compiled by scholars and Native
leaders brought together by the
Harvard Project on American In-dian
Economic Development. The
text aims to analyze the current
state of Indian Country by covering
issues such as tribal governance,
land and natural resources, eco-nomic
development, arts and cul-ture,
the ever growing off-reservation
Native population, and
federal Indian policy. Currently this
The Labriola Center hosted an
Open House the afternoon of Octo-ber
18th to announce the hiring of a
new curator, Joyce Martin and li-brarian
Melanie Toledo.
The Center also debuted the new
exhibit American Indian Scholars
at Arizona State University featur-ing
photographs of American
Indian faculty at ASU and a
sampling of their publica-tions.
A blessing was given by Mi-chael
Begaye, director of the
American Indian Student
Support Services. And Dr.
John Howard and Curator
Joyce Martin spoke about
the ASU Libraries’ continued
commitment to American Indian
Programs at Arizona State Univer-sity.
A nice mix of ASU faculty, librari-ans,
American Indian Programs
directors, staff and students joined
with the Labriola Center staff to eat
good food and celebrate the upcom-ing
academic year.
Labriola Center Open House
PAGE 2 LABRIOLA NATIONAL AMERICAN INDIAN DATA CENTER NEWSLETTER VOL. XVI NO. 1
Exhibit poster
Open House attendees
As part of The
Phoenix Sym-phony's
60th Anni-versary
Season, the
orchestra has com-missioned
a work to
celebrate the vi-brant
musical and
cultural heritage of
Arizona. This cele-bration
will culmi-nate
in the world
premiere perform-ance
of Enemy
Slayer: A Navajo
Oratorio with li-bretto
written by Associate Profes-sor
of English at Arizona State
University Dr. Laura Tohe.
A poet and scholar, Tohe's work
has been published in the journals
Ploughshares, New Letters, Calyx
and others. In 1999 Dr. Tohe's book
of poetry, No Parole Today was
awarded Poetry of the Year by the
Wordcraft Circle of Native Ameri-can
Writers and Storytellers.
Her new book, Tséyi', Deep in
the Rock, a book of poetry with
photography by
Stephen Strom,
was listed as a
2005 Southwest
Book of the Year
and in 2007 won
the Glyph
Award from the
Arizona Book
Association for Best Poetry
and Best Book.
The oratorio depicts the journey
of Seeker — a war veteran — as a
contemporary retelling of the ancient
Navajo story of the Enemy Slayer. A
revered mythological figure, Seeker
is born to protect the Navajo people
and rid the world of monsters.
At the outset Seeker returns from
the Middle East to a heartfelt wel-come
by his people. But while he has
left the war behind, Seeker's battles
Enemy Slayer: A Navajo Oratorio
VOL. XVI NO. 1 LABRIOLA NATIONAL AMERICAN INDIAN DATA CENTER NEWSLETTER PAGE 3
Mobile Library Reference Services by Melanie Toledo
The Labriola Center
offered remote library
reference services to
students at the
American Indian Stu-dent
Support Services
(AISSS) during the
previous Fall semes-ter.
American Indian Stu-dent
Support Services
aims to serve all
American Indian stu-dents
needing and
seeking support to
become academically
and personally successful at Ari-zona
State University. http://
www.asu.edu/clas/aisss/
While offering my assistance at
AISSS, it was great to make con-nections
with some of the students
which prompted them to visit the
Labriola Center to seek additional
help with their research and utilize
our resources.
Offering library reference services
to the students was rewarding be-cause
it allowed me to interact
with students and answer their
questions in person. Sometimes aca-demic
terminology can create confu-sion,
for example, “What are peer
reviewed journals?” or “What is an
AP article?” It allowed me to explain
and demonstrate how to find the
proper articles.
Some other positive feedback I re-ceived
from the students was, “I
should have come to you first!” after
fruitless searches on the Internet. In
addition, a few of the students took
advantage of making appointments
outside of our normal hours—even
coming in to research on Saturdays!
Library instruction and an introduc-tion
to RefWorks were also offered to
the students at AISSS.
I look forward to offering reference
services this semester and meeting
even more new faces.
are not over. The pressure of combat
plagues him, and he soon discovers
his problems are more than emo-tional:
demons
haunt his dreams.
Representing the
Diné culture's
traditional cycle
of life, Enemy
Slayer: A Navajo
Oratorio follows
Seeker's personal
quest toward balance and whole-ness.
(Text for this story from the Phoenix
Symphony web site at http://
www.phoenixsymphony.org/events/
navajo-story.html)
The Phoenix Symphony and the
Phoenix Symphony Chorus will per-form
Enemy Slayer: A Navajo Ora-torio
on Thursday February 7th at
7:30PM and Saturday February 9th
at 8PM in Symphony Hall. For
more information call the box office
at 602-495-1999 or 1-800-776-9080.
Dr. Laura Tohe
Representing the Diné culture's
traditional cycle of life, Enemy
Slayer: A Navajo Oratorio
follows Seeker's personal quest
toward balance and wholeness.
American Indian Student Support Services
The Labriola National American Indian Data Center was officially dedi-cated
on April 1, 1993. The Center was made possible by the vision of
Frank and Mary Labriola, whose generous endowment gift supports its
work. It is their wish that "the Labriola Center be a source of education
and pride for all Native Americans."
The Labriola National American Indian Data Center, part of the ASU
Libraries, is a research collection international in scope that brings to-gether
in one location current and historic information on government,
culture, religion and world view, social life and customs, tribal history,
and information on individuals from the United States, Canada, Sonora,
and Chihuahua, Mexico.
Labriola National American Indian Data Center
PO Box 871006
Tempe, AZ 85287-1006
http://www.asu.edu/lib/archives/labriola.htm
ASU LIBRARIES
petition Feature Film and
(Luminaria) 2001 Best Native
American-Themed Film.
I worked at the Labriola Center’s
reference desk dur-ing
the showing of
the film and directed
the visitors into the
Labriola classroom.
There was a student
who was so thrilled
that he got to eat in
the library. I just
giggled at his excite-ment.
The turnout for the festivities was
great. We had faculty and other
personnel from Hayden Library
come in and eat. The pizza came
from local favorite family owned
Red Devil Pizza. There was plenty
of pizza and soda for everyone.
The Labriola Center knows how to
kick off the end of the semester.
Joyce Martin, Melanie Toledo and
the student workers at the Center
thought it would be a great gesture
to invite the ASU
American Indian
students to view
a movie and have
some food as a
reward for all
their hard work
throughout the
Fall semester.
The movie shown
was the award
winning film Christmas in the
Clouds directed by Kate Montgom-ery.
It is a romantic comedy about a
ski resort owned and run by Ameri-can
Indians. Christmas in the
Clouds won two film festival
awards; (Audience) 2001 Best Com-
Since the event was successful, the
Labriola Center may hold another
pizza party at the end of the Spring
semester.
Everyone Loves a Slice of Hot, Cheesy Pizza !! by Rhonda Singer
Phone: 480-965-6490
Fax: 480-965-0776
E-mail: archives@mainex1.asu.edu
“The turnout for the festivities was
great.” Rhonda Singer
