On Friday, Nov. 8, the public will have two chances to see readings of Diane Glancy鈥檚 play 鈥淲illiam Tincup鈥檚 Squaw,” in partnership with the School of Literary and Performing Arts. The play will be read at 2 p.m. in the Stella Boyle Smith Concert Hall in the Fine Arts Building and 5 p.m. at 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock Downtown, 333 President Clinton Ave.

鈥淭his is one of Diane Glancy鈥檚 plays that she submitted for the Best Play Prize in the 1980s at the Five Civilized Tribes Museum,鈥� said Erin Fehr, assistant director of the Sequoyah National Research Center. 鈥淭he competition was an important way to foster a new genre of Native American plays. This play has been sitting in the archives for decades, and I don鈥檛 believe it鈥檚 ever been performed. We are excited to team up with Dr. Larry Smith from the School of Literary and Performing Arts so that the play will see new light.鈥�

The play is a story of the Cherokee Removal of 1839. This first Cherokee 鈥淭rail of Tears鈥� was a 950-mile-long forced relocation from Georgia through Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri, and Arkansas to the new Cherokee Nation located in present-day Oklahoma. The play is a part of the Garrard Ardeneum Collection at the Sequoyah National Research Center.

The cast of readers for the play include 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock faculty, staff, students, and community members:

• Valerise Bell-Ovwiomoriemu, music major
• April Chatham-Carpenter, chair of the Department of Applied Communication
• Doug Cortes, director of the Business Innovations Legal Clinic at William H. Bowen School of Law
• Grant Diffee, community member
• Kenshi Lewis, theatre arts major
• Maritza Moore, theatre arts major
• Levey Saintil, American Sign Language Studies major
• Rex Wilkins, visiting assistant professor of Spanish

鈥淚t鈥檚 important for people to see how archives can be brought to life, and how they can be used today,鈥� Fehr said. 鈥淎 lot of people think archives are old and dusty and are only useful to researchers who are writing a book, but maybe seeing this play will spark some curiosity about what else we have in the archives.鈥�

In addition to the play, Dr. Daniel Littlefield, director of the Sequoyah National Research Center, will attend the Corvettes and Veterans event Nov. 10 at War Memorial Stadium, where he will deliver the land acknowledgement statement and present an educational display on behalf of Sequoyah.

Dr. Littlefield and Fehr will also be speaking at places like Little Rock Air Force Base, Arkansas National Guard, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Little Rock District, and the American Indian Center of Arkansas Gala throughout November.

With the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Littlefield will discuss the Arkansas Chapter of the Trail of Tears Association鈥檚 ongoing project to mark nine sites along the Arkansas River between Arkansas Post and Fort Smith that were important sites along the Trail of Tears. The Arkansas Chapter of the Trail of Tears Association received a $50,000 grant from the National Park Service Foundation to place interpretive signs and markers at the locations.

Fehr will also attend the Association of Tribal Archives, Libraries, and Museums Conference. She will be on a group panel with members of the Cherokee Nation to discuss a collaborative event held in February to commemorate the 196th anniversary of the first publication of the Cherokee Phoenix newspaper.

Additionally, she will speak about Sequoyah鈥檚 work on the Modern Warriors of World War I project. Sequoyah has created a database of Native American veterans who served during World War I to remember their legacy of bravery and sacrifice, and they are still working to identify more of the 12,000 American Indians and Alaska Natives that served. The Valor Medals Review Act allows for the records of minorities who served during World War I to be reexamined to determine if they should receive medals posthumously. To qualify for a review, the veterans must have received a Distinguished Service Cross, a Navy Cross or a Croix de Guerre with Palm, but then had their honors downgraded.

鈥淚鈥檓 hoping that the audience can help us find even more deserving Native American veterans of World War I that we don鈥檛 know about,鈥� Fehr said. 鈥淭he deadline for review for the Valor Medals Review Act has been extended to 2028, so we still have four years to find new veterans. To date, we have found 25 Native American veterans that qualify for review.鈥�

The Sequoyah National Research Center is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, but they suggest you call at 501-916-3336 before coming to visit. They currently have a small exhibit set up featuring artwork, baskets, pottery, handmade dolls, and Navajo jewelry.

The post Sequoyah National Research Center Celebrating Native American Heritage Month appeared first on News.

The Cherokee Phoenix is the first newspaper published by Native Americans in the U.S. as well as the first newspaper published in a Native American language.

Erin Fehr, assistant director of Sequoyah, attended the event held Feb. 21 at the and the in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. Visitors had the opportunity to view materials printed in the Cherokee syllabary from the collections of the Sequoyah National Research Center along with the .

鈥淭he Sequoyah National Research Center is the world鈥檚 largest collection of Native American periodicals, and the Cherokee Phoenix is one of the many newspapers we have in our collection,鈥� Fehr said. 鈥淒r. Daniel Littlefield and Dr. James Parins (Sequoyah founders) wrote a three-volume set back in the 1980s highlighting the history of Native publishing, and the Cherokee Phoenix was one of those highlighted as it was the very first tribal newspaper to be published in the country.鈥�

The Sequoyah materials on display at the event included a 1910 edition of the Indian Home and Farm newspaper that was published in four languages and is the only known copy to exist. Fehr also displayed a set of four comics published in English and Cherokee in 1975 in collaboration with the Cherokee Bilingual Education Program.

鈥淭he set of comics were definitely highlights,鈥� Fehr said. 鈥淭he comics included 鈥楶opeye,鈥� Beetle Bailey,鈥� and 鈥楤londie.鈥� Visitors asked a lot of questions about the comics.鈥�

Visitors also listened to panels of Cherokee journalists and artists who discussed the work of the Cherokee Phoenix newspaper and the efforts to preserve the written Cherokee language. Fehr moderated a panel celebrating the past, present, and future of Cherokee journalism featuring Tyler Thomas, executive editor of the Cherokee Phoenix, and Roy Boney Jr., a 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock alumnus who was manager of the Cherokee Language Technology Program at the time but now works for the Cherokee Film Commission.

The Cherokee Phoenix also holds a unique place in Native freedom of the press history, according to Fehr.

鈥淭here are only five tribal newspapers in the country that have free press provisions, meaning they can print whatever they want without fear of retaliation,鈥� Fehr said. 鈥淣ot many people realize that freedom of the press isn鈥檛 a given for a tribal newspaper. The Cherokee Nation was the first to add a free press provision to its constitution in 2000. It鈥檚 easy to say that the Cherokee Phoenix has been a forerunner in many areas as far as Native journalism is concerned.鈥�

The Sequoyah National Research Center contains early editions of the Cherokee Phoenix from the 1800s on microfilm as well as print copies from when the newspaper began reprinting again in the 1970s.

鈥淲e have over 100 years of Cherokee newspapers represented in our archives,鈥� Fehr said. 鈥淲e really enjoyed collaborating with the Cherokee Nation on this project, and we think it is the first of many collaborations to come. We hope to do this next year to celebrate the 197th anniversary of the Cherokee Phoenix.鈥�

The post Sequoyah National Research Centers Helps Celebrate History of Cherokee Journalism appeared first on News.

Littlefield, director of the Sequoyah National Research Center at 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock, will be honored during the 8th Annual Arkansas Heritage Celebration of Black History Month 鈥淟egend Among Us鈥� presentation. The event will take place at 10 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 25, at the Hillary Rodham Clinton Children鈥檚 Library and Learning Center and will be .

鈥淎 legend is not a term I would use to describe myself, but I am honored that others might see me in that light,鈥� Littlefield said of the award. 鈥淲hoever I am or whatever I am, I enjoy the work I do.鈥�

The event will also include a remembrance of the late Dr. Raye Jean Montague by Carla Coleman. Raye Montague is the mother of Dr. David Montague, associate vice chancellor for academic affairs at 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock.

Author Jason Irby, who will be presenting the award, said Littlefield was selected for his unique scholarship at the intersection of shared Black and Native American history.

鈥淒r. Littlefield has investigated the shared American Heritage that exposes the relationship among these two cultures and the forgotten experiences among friends, family, and the enslaved,鈥� Irby said. 鈥淭his American story has been buried in the past and is only most remembered by a generation that is quickly passing away. His efforts and research bring the past to the forefront and ties loose ends together and completes pieces missing from a puzzled past. This is a tale of blood, sweat, and a Trail of Tears.鈥�

Littlefield has worked continuously to share and preserve documents in the Sequoyah National Research Center that detail 鈥渘ew beginnings, old practices that pass away, and people that survive together while still being denied humanity or livelihood,鈥� Irby said.

After joining 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock as a professor in 1970, Littlefield served as the director of the American Native Press Archives, the world鈥檚 largest archival repository of Native American newspapers and periodicals, from 1983 to 2005. He left teaching in 2005 to join the newly created Sequoyah National Research Center, which houses the archives and other major collections.

“Dr. Littlefield deserves all the accolades for his lifetime commitment to the truth in history and archives,鈥� said Littlefield鈥檚 colleague, Erin Fehr, assistant director of Sequoyah. 鈥淗e built his career by seeking out untold stories to tell and by creating a legacy built on hard work and generosity. I am so pleased that he is being honored as a Legend Among Us.”

In addition, Littlefield has been a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellow in the Institute of Southern and Negro History at John鈥檚 Hopkins University; has been a visiting professor of history at the University of Arizona, where he was an assistant editor of 鈥淎rizona and the West;鈥� and has taught as a visiting professor of English at the University of Alabama, as well as a distinguished visiting professor of ethno-history at Colgate University.

Littlefield鈥檚 most recent research concerns the Dawes Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes and Indian removal. He has served as a member of the Cherokee Nation鈥檚 Great State of Sequoyah Commission and a member of the Board of Directors of the Arkansas Humanities Council.

In 2001, Littlefield was inducted into the Oklahoma Historians Hall of Fame. The Arkansas Historical Association honored him with the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2014 for his co-founding of the Sequoyah National Research Center and his promotion of Arkansas history. At the end of the spring semester, Littlefield will celebrate the completion of 63 years in his career as a teacher and scholar.

The post Littlefield Named 鈥淟egend Among Us鈥� for Contributions to Black History appeared first on News.