Mark ThunderWolf is a Native American flutist and recording artist of Lakota and Eastern Band Cherokee Wolf Clan descent. He was born in Chattanooga, TN, the son of a musician who had mastered many instruments during his lifetime. As a child, Mark watched and listened to his father play guitar, fiddle, organ and piano all by ear. Mark often dreamed of being a musician on stage and as a teenager bought an acoustic twelve-string guitar and later a dobro acoustic guitar but never quite connected with either instrument. While in high school he was given a harmonica and quickly mastered it playing along with popular songs on the radio. Over the years he jammed with friends and bands at bars and made many guest appearances with local bands across the country but always felt something was missing.
In the spring of 2001 while working in southern California he visited a wolf sanctuary where the woman who ran it gifted him his first flute. Mark cannot read or write music but as his father had taught him to do with any instrument began playing by ear. It didn't take long to for him to learn the rudiments of the Native American instrument. As he practiced every weekend at the sanctuary the wolves, eagles, redtail hawks and ravens taught him how to connect to them though his flutes. He sold his beloved Harley-Davidson named "Ethel" and used the money to record his first CD, "Thru the Eyes…of My Brother" after playing for only eight months.
During the past six years Mark's Native American flute music has developed an explosive following across North America and the United Kingdom where he has been featured several times on the BBC World Series program and network. The Celtic regions of the UK and France air his music regularly and love the ethereal, haunting sounds of his music. His stage appearances and performances include the US and Canada, being the featured artist on NativeRadio.com and a recent interview with NPR, which aired in September and November of 2004. He has received nominations in the Native American Music Awards (NAMMY's), received 2nd Place for Best Album in the 2004 Just Plain Folks Music Awards in November 2004 and selected in 2005 as a showcase performer for the 17th Annual Folk Alliance International Music Conference in Montreal, Canada. Therapists, doctors and people everywhere are recognizing the healing quality of the meditative music that he is given by the animals and living elements of the earth.
Samples of his music can be found here: http://payplay.cd/mthunderwolf2
Monday, February 25, 2008
Book review: Nez Perce Summer, 1877: The US Army and the Nee-Me-Poo Crisis
By: Dona Munker
Published in 2000, Jerome A. Greene's NEZ PERCE SUMMER, 1877 isn't the most recent work on the Nez Perce tragedy, but it does the best job of combining a detailed, blow-by-blow account with a larger overview of this enormously complex and panoramic event, which stretched over three and a half months in the summer of 1877 and constituted one of the saddest mass injustices in the history of the Indian Wars.
Greene, who wrote the book under the aegis of the National Park Service--it's available online at their website, but I wouldn't recommend reading it that way--is especially good at explaining where things happened in relation to other things that were going on at the same time and what all the parties concerned were doing simultaneously-- an invaluable asset in an account of a military campaign. And his final chapter, "Consquences," does a splendid job of drawing back and fairly and objectively evaluating the outcome and import of the campaign, not only for the Nez Perces but for the American army and also some of the individuals involved. (Which reminds me to say that the backnotes are often as interesting as the book itself.)
There are other good books about the Nez Perce campaign, notably Bruce Hampton's more passionate and journalistic CHILDREN OF GRACE (1994), as well as Mark H. Brown's pathbreaking THE FLIGHT OF THE NEZ PERCE (1967); all three are highly readable. But if you have time for only one, it should probably be Greene's, since Brown's account has been superceded and Hampton's book, though it has many virtues, ultimately leaves you without the grand picture.
In fact, my one major complaint about NEZ PERCE SUMMER, 1877 is that it doesn't provide a timeline (neither do the other two books). This would have helped enormously in getting a handle on the complicated, multi-layered events of the story, and while an author can be excused for failing to realize how important this is for his readers, his editor shouldn't be. Luckily, you can get a great timeline on the Internet, put together--very well, as far as I can see--by Montana schoolchildren! ([...])
Aside from this flaw, NEZ PERCE SUMMER, 1877 is indispensable reading for anyone seeking to understand what it all meant.
Published in 2000, Jerome A. Greene's NEZ PERCE SUMMER, 1877 isn't the most recent work on the Nez Perce tragedy, but it does the best job of combining a detailed, blow-by-blow account with a larger overview of this enormously complex and panoramic event, which stretched over three and a half months in the summer of 1877 and constituted one of the saddest mass injustices in the history of the Indian Wars.
Greene, who wrote the book under the aegis of the National Park Service--it's available online at their website, but I wouldn't recommend reading it that way--is especially good at explaining where things happened in relation to other things that were going on at the same time and what all the parties concerned were doing simultaneously-- an invaluable asset in an account of a military campaign. And his final chapter, "Consquences," does a splendid job of drawing back and fairly and objectively evaluating the outcome and import of the campaign, not only for the Nez Perces but for the American army and also some of the individuals involved. (Which reminds me to say that the backnotes are often as interesting as the book itself.)
There are other good books about the Nez Perce campaign, notably Bruce Hampton's more passionate and journalistic CHILDREN OF GRACE (1994), as well as Mark H. Brown's pathbreaking THE FLIGHT OF THE NEZ PERCE (1967); all three are highly readable. But if you have time for only one, it should probably be Greene's, since Brown's account has been superceded and Hampton's book, though it has many virtues, ultimately leaves you without the grand picture.
In fact, my one major complaint about NEZ PERCE SUMMER, 1877 is that it doesn't provide a timeline (neither do the other two books). This would have helped enormously in getting a handle on the complicated, multi-layered events of the story, and while an author can be excused for failing to realize how important this is for his readers, his editor shouldn't be. Luckily, you can get a great timeline on the Internet, put together--very well, as far as I can see--by Montana schoolchildren! ([...])
Aside from this flaw, NEZ PERCE SUMMER, 1877 is indispensable reading for anyone seeking to understand what it all meant.
Tribe plans to sign deal assuming ownership of Indian City U.S.A.
Associated Press - KSWO 7 News, Lawton/Wichita Falls
ANADARKO, Okla. (AP) - Officials with the Kiowa Tribe are to sign a deal today to buy Indian City U.S.A. near Anadarko.
The 198-acre site includes an Indian village and replicas of the dwellings of the Apache, Caddo, Kiowa, Navajo, Pawnee, Pueblo and Wichita tribes. There is also a gift shop, museum, lodge, campground, amphitheater, radio towers and a game trail with buffalo and antelope.
Members of the Kiowa Business Committee have been negotiating with shareholders of Indian City U.S.A. and Modina Waters with the tribe says she's "99.9% sure" the deal will be made.
Terms of the sale haven't been released and Waters says a statement will be released once the deal is signed.
The park was first offered for sale for $3 million in 2004 but no acceptable offers were received.
Indian City manager George Moran says a key to the sale is the intent of the buyer. Moran says he believes the Kiowas will keep the park as is while making needed repairs and improvements.
ANADARKO, Okla. (AP) - Officials with the Kiowa Tribe are to sign a deal today to buy Indian City U.S.A. near Anadarko.
The 198-acre site includes an Indian village and replicas of the dwellings of the Apache, Caddo, Kiowa, Navajo, Pawnee, Pueblo and Wichita tribes. There is also a gift shop, museum, lodge, campground, amphitheater, radio towers and a game trail with buffalo and antelope.
Members of the Kiowa Business Committee have been negotiating with shareholders of Indian City U.S.A. and Modina Waters with the tribe says she's "99.9% sure" the deal will be made.
Terms of the sale haven't been released and Waters says a statement will be released once the deal is signed.
The park was first offered for sale for $3 million in 2004 but no acceptable offers were received.
Indian City manager George Moran says a key to the sale is the intent of the buyer. Moran says he believes the Kiowas will keep the park as is while making needed repairs and improvements.
Scholarships help Red Cloud students follow their college dreams
By: Kayla Gahagan
Red Cloud High School senior Season Frank is thinking nursing might be the career for her, and a national scholarship has her $20,000 closer to that dream.
Frank, 17, was one of 107 United States high school students awarded the Horatio Alger National Scholarship this year, and she won an all-expense-paid trip to Washington, D.C., for the 2008 National Scholars Conference along with it.
"I was shocked," she said. "I was kind of relieved. It was hard work, and it took a lot of time and effort."
Frank hopes to use the scholarship money to attend South Dakota State University to study nursing.
Her advice to other students is about hard work: "Put a lot of time and effort into everything you do, because it does pay off in the end." The work includes applying for as many scholarships you can, she said. Even with the $20,000, which can be used at $4,000 a year for five years, Frank is also applying for a Gates Millennium Scholarship.
Get the whole story here: http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/articles/2008/02/22/news/local/doc47bdfa8b36bf3626599504.txt?show_comments=true#commentdiv
Red Cloud High School senior Season Frank is thinking nursing might be the career for her, and a national scholarship has her $20,000 closer to that dream.
Frank, 17, was one of 107 United States high school students awarded the Horatio Alger National Scholarship this year, and she won an all-expense-paid trip to Washington, D.C., for the 2008 National Scholars Conference along with it.
"I was shocked," she said. "I was kind of relieved. It was hard work, and it took a lot of time and effort."
Frank hopes to use the scholarship money to attend South Dakota State University to study nursing.
Her advice to other students is about hard work: "Put a lot of time and effort into everything you do, because it does pay off in the end." The work includes applying for as many scholarships you can, she said. Even with the $20,000, which can be used at $4,000 a year for five years, Frank is also applying for a Gates Millennium Scholarship.
Get the whole story here: http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/articles/2008/02/22/news/local/doc47bdfa8b36bf3626599504.txt?show_comments=true#commentdiv
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