My lack of Native American ancestry

I know this is a long shot, but I wanted to check genealogy websites to see if there were any Native Americans with the last name Blair. I thought this would be really cool to find out if i had any ancestors that were Native American. It took me awhile to locate a free website but it's possible, so I typed in Blair and recieved six different results. Unfortunately, I have never heard either one of my parents or grandparents ever hint at there being a Native American ancestry. So, I tried my mother's maiden name next. That was not even an option, absolutely zero results. i don't know what my paternal grandparents maiden name was but i had my maternal grandmother's name, which was Johnson. I knot it's a common name but I got tons of results, so much in fact, that I didn't even have a chance to look through them all because it was so lengthy. It would be really cool to find out if I had Native American ancestry, although I know the bloodline by now would be way into the 20's or 30's at least. And maybe I'm just going about this the wrong way, but finding out my ancestry in general would be very fascinating.

Check her out.

In my never ending search for new artists on the internet (i get bored with mainstream sometimes), I don't know how or why I came across this artist Jana Mashonee. I started listening to her music and her voice is utterly and completely captivating. I began stalking her on the internet trying to find out more about her and her inspiration for her lyrics. In her newest album New Moon Born, Jana provided all the vocals, played the piano, wrote and co-produced her album. This girl is very talented and I'm not talking about Miley Cyrus/Jonas Brothers. She has the soul of Mary J Blige with the range of Christina Aguilera. She is very passionate when she is belting out every note. She is a part of the Lumbee tribe and is working on more albums to come. I'm very excited about listening to her new songs and continuing to follow her career in music.

[ps]--I just read that she is making an extremely unique album containing ten traditional Christmas songs, all sung in a different Native tongue. Where does her talent end?

http://www.myspace.com/janamashonee

False Advertising

I was searching around the internet looking up the new jewelry fashion trends and I decided to look at Native American jewelry styles. I found a lot of results with all different kinds of descriptions, colors, and discounts. But I found myself laughing when I was looking over some of the sites. Most of the sites, the jewelry was made completely of metal and different colored stones that had been "processed colors". This is most defiantly not jewelry made by Native Americans. Besides that, these were chain stores that had no authenticity or Native American tribe attached to their website. It was really ridiculous that this type of false advertising was displayed on the internet to give the buyers false believing that they are buying authentic pieces. I think from what knowledge and little insight into this culture had been seen by me, these websites are complete phonies and shouldn't be able to advertise such lies.

Native American 10 Commandments

Ok, so i am really excited that i found this video. I found it through my website that i recommended and have only good things to say. It was created by a Native American and completely encompasses everything I have learned this semester in this course. The commandments are simple and truthful. Honestly it's everything you've heard before but it's put straight forward. The video also has pictures to enhance it's overall effect and feeling. The music that accompanies the video plays an important role as it is, I believe, sung in the Native language. If you're bored or want to get a short insight into what the Native American life is all about, take 4 minutes out of your day to watch.
http://www.native-american-online.org/video.html

"The Birchbark Series" Rundown

So for my final project, I have elected to read three books by Louise Erdrich. They are all centered around the Ojibwe Tribe and more precisely Omakayas and her family. Upon reading the first book,The Birchbark House, it is definintely more for the reader to recieve a general background about Omakayas and her life she has. She fun, spunky, and strong-willed but like all good stories there are also events that take place that can be life-alternating. The Game of Silence is the second book by Erdrich. I'm almost done reading it, but I feel like the book is just kind of dragging along, which really surprises me. From different reviews I have read, it seemed like out of all three it was the one that critcs and readers enjoyed the most. The third book, The Porcupine Year, is by far my favorite so far. I felt like the book was captivating and kept me interested the entire time. I really want Erdrich to continue with the last book b/c it begins Omakayas' journey into womanhood, especially since she is starting to fall for a young man.

Some things about Thomas King

The last book I have to read for Native American Literatures and Culture is The Truth About Stories by Thomas King. Right away, I was hooked. I feel like he has written his book in a different form than what I've ever read before. Therefore, I thought, b/c I liked the different way of writing, I should find out more about him. So I wikipedia-d him. A few fun facts about Thomas King, he is a novelist and politician, he is a dual citizen of America and Canada, and his birthday is this Friday April 24th . He is a very active First Nations Activist and he has been writing books since 1987. But not only is he Cherokee but he's mixed with Greek descendency. If you would like to see a picture, I am attaching the wikipedia website here.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_King

Blog Read-Around2

Ryan G
I completely agree with you. I loved Driskill's collection but then read Harjo's and felt like it fell a little short. It didn't measure up to what I had expected. Perhaps, I had to high of expectations, but the overall feeling of complete boredness. In regards to the singing, Driskill has a much more captivating and intriguing poetry reading voice. When Harjo started singing her poetry, I got really turned off from it. I loved looking at the imagery and the background voice, but not hers.
Jennifer
When I was reading "Map of the Americas" the visual writing of the words forming continents created a vivid detailed experience. Upon turning the page, I actually had stopped reading to first look at the shape the poem had created. The poem is powerful on its own, but the added detial gives me a different experience reading it. Plus, I like it when poets step out of the box by doing artsy designs with their words.
James
I was really disturbed when I was reading that section. I also was aware of the nuclear testing on people, but the physical descriptions were so vivid. I couldn't imagine trying to live through that experience every day. Even though our Constitution is the governing body of the land, most people aren't educated enough (in law) to comprehend or understand that they could try to fix the problems they are constantly complaining about. Until humanity realizes the sounds existing their mouths are complaints and a change occurs, the government isn't going to change.