‘Do you think Crazy Horse checked his warriors’ status cards?’ The fight over Joseph Boyden’s Indigenous heritage

December 27, 2016
by Tristen Hopper

Following the explosive allegation questioning Canadian author Joseph Boyden’s Indigenous identity, debate surges in aboriginal circles over whether Boyden is really one of them.

“Do you think Crazy Horse checked his warriors’ status cards before the Battle of the Little Bighorn?” read a fierce defence of Boyden posted to Facebook Monday by Maurice Switzer, a former director of communications for the Assembly of First Nations.

Ernie Crey, chief of B.C.’s Cheam First Nation and a prominent Indigenous commentator, struck a similar tone, calling Boyden a victim of “envy” and “identity cops.”

“The worst thing this guy (Boyden) could be guilty of is identifying too strongly with us, and I’ll take it,” he said by phone. 

Bemoaning similar instances of bloodline scrutiny, Crey said “if they persist in this line of approach, many of us are going to end up taking mouth swabs and sending them off to a DNA lab.”

A lengthy expose by the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network published Friday dug into Boyden’s genealogical background, finding no records to support the author’s various claims of having Metis, Mi’kmaq, Ojibway and Nipmuc ancestry.

Boyden is arguably among Canada’s most famous Indigenous authors. But most notably, the APTN found evidence from the 1950s showing that Boyden’s uncle Earl — who ran a souvenir shop under the alias “Injun Joe” — explicitly dismissed any claims to aboriginal heritage.

In response, Boyden said in a statement on the weekend that he had “mostly Celtic heritage,” with traces of Ojibwe and Nipmuc, an Algonquian nation from Massachusetts.

He said that he has mistakenly said he was Metis, which is traditionally applied to descendants of French traders and trappers and indigenous women in the Canadian northwest, when what he meant was he was of “mixed blood.”

“I don’t believe anyone should ever be made to feel shame in their identity,” said the Scotiabank Giller Prize winning author, who was was an honorary witness at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Since the article’s publication, other curious examples of Boyden’s unclear heritage have come to light.

In a Monday post, Rebeka Tabobondung, the editor of the Indigenous publication Muskrat Magazine, said she asked Boyden what his home nation was at a writers conference several years ago.

Boyden replied “Wasausking First Nation” — Tabobondung’s home nation. “I later asked a respected community geneologist what his connection was and she said she didn’t know,” she wrote.

Robert Jago, a blogger who uncovered much of the evidence cited by APTN, found a NUVO magazine interview on Monday in which Boyden incorrectly uses the term “two spirit” to refer to his love of living in both New Orleans and Ontario.

“There’s something called the ‘two-spirit person’ in a lot of First Nations cultures … meaning somebody who is never completely in one physical place,” Boyden said.

The term “two-spirit” is actually used to describe sexual identity; the two “spirits” are male and female.

Suspicions of cultural impostors are particularly high in the Indigenous community because accused pretenders seem to emerge so often.

“Why are so many of our most famous Indigenous (people) … not Indigenous?” read a Friday Tweet by Metis Chelsea Vowel, who writes on the blog âpihtawikosisân.

Boyden critics were quick to draw parallels with Grey Owl, a British-born environmentalist prominent in the early 20th century who fraudulently claimed aboriginal heritage.

Twenty years ago, critics were also questioning the Indigenous identity of Ontario-born country singer Shania Twain, who used her Indian Status to move to Nashville without a visa.

“The native community is much more apt to see impostors than another community,” Dean Chavers, director of the U.S.-based native scholarship fund Catching the Dream, told the National Post by email.

For the Cherokee nation alone, Chavers said there are dozens of fake tribes and potentially millions of Americans falsely claiming status. “Jobs are the leading cause of people assuming an Indian identity,” he said.

Both in Canada and the United States, it’s also common that a family’s claim to Indigenous ancestry will turn out to be nothing than a rumour sparked by portraits of a particularly swarthy great grandparent.

Forums for genealogical websites abound with people expressing confusion that their DNA test or genealogical search turned up no rumoured evidence of Mohawk, Mi’kmaq or Sioux.

And Chavers told the National Post he has a friend who believed her whole life she was Cherokee, only to discover following a DNA test that she that was 89 per cent English and 11 per cent Scandinavian.

However, Switzer dismissed the scrutiny of Boyden’s background, calling the controversy a case of “cultural one-upmanship” brought about by the “racist system of ‘Indian status.’”

Switzer has said that the idea of “blood quantum” did not exist before colonialism, and in an interview Monday he defended Boyden, saying the author has not “traded off whatever Indigeneity he can trace.”

“He is just a damned fine writer who has done a great deal to raise the profile of native issues, and who happens to believe he has some Indigenous heritage,” he said.

Ernie Crey, in turn, dismissed the fear that somebody would purposely pretend to be aboriginal to enhance their public profile. Often, he told the National Post, it has been the reverse: Native peoples taking on European identities to avoid stringent Canadian social and legal barriers against aboriginals. 

Nevertheless, critics have noted Boyden’s increasingly political public persona. Boyden delivers paid speeches about Indigenous issues, is a regular editorialist on aboriginal policy and makes frequent appearances as the native voice on political panels.

And as APTN noted, Boyden’s sister Mary works as the aboriginal liaison for Goldcorp.

“It has been conversation among Native people for years — who is this person? Who does he belong to?” wrote Audra Simpson, a Mohawk anthropologist at New York’s Columbia University, in an email to the National Post. 

Simpson said that the question is not driven by a need to measure blood quantum, to see Boyden’s status card or to critique his appearance, “it is simply a matter of kin … it is not shameful to ask who you belong to.”

What was “disturbing” and “egregious” about the whole Boyden controversy, wrote Simpson, was how willing the author is to “take up space” in literary circles and frame the political debate around reconciliation. 

“Like his claims to identity there is no end to what he will do or say, it seems in our name,” she wrote. “There is nothing innocent, or confused about talking about, or speaking for and speaking over us.”

Source: National Post

Bombshell Confirmed: Comics will no longer have NY Times Bestseller Lists

January 26, 2017
by Alexander Lu

Like the death of a warrant canary, sometimes the most notable news stories stem from absence rather than presence. Such was the case last night when literary agent Charles Olsen tweeted out this doozy:

Graphic novels can no longer be @nytimes bestsellers as of February 5th. No explanation for change, I think we deserve one. Please RT!

— Charlie Olsen (@ComicsisPeople) January 25, 2017

According to an email subscription version of February 5th’s NY Times Best Sellers List, “Beginning with the advance BSL edition that will be delivered today for February 5, 2017 there will be revisions to multiple categories in the publication. These changes will span weekly and monthly lists.” One of these changes appears to be the deletion of the hardcover graphic novels, softcover graphic novels, and manga Best Seller lists, as none of these sections are included in the document that we have reviewed.

Graphic novels have been a constant source of profit and expansion for the ailing publishing industry over the last several years. According to ICv2, “graphic novels in the book channel represented the biggest area of growth” in 2016. Raina Telgemeier’s Ghosts received a monumental 500,000 copy first printing when it was released last year. Recently, John Lewis’ biographical comic March won four awards from the American Library Association and topped the Amazon Bestseller List as well. With these things in mind, it is certainly seemed possible that the NY Times had omitted the three graphic literature lists by accident.

@ComicsisPeople @simoncurtis @acthomasbooks Do we know that they won’t return to the body of the list?

— Neil Gaiman (@neilhimself) January 26, 2017

However, as confirmed by comics sales aggregator Comichron, graphic novel and manga categories have been eliminated from the NY Times Bestseller lists.

Cindy from TimesDigest, the advance subscription service that provides the bestseller list early to publishing professionals, told Comichron “Please be advised that the Best Sellers List will be focusing on its core lists. These include the lists in this week’s advance BSL publication.” That suggests the lists are gone not just from the advance version, but also will not appear Friday online and this weekend’s print Books section.

This was the @nytimes‘ response when I asked about them dropping the graphic novels best sellers list. Looks like the rumor is true. pic.twitter.com/AXzAYDIGoy

— Christian Hoffer (@CHofferCBus) January 26, 2017

Comics are a demonstrably important cultural force in America. With a deeply rooted history in subversion and resistance, we need them now more than ever. It is a huge loss to us all that the Times has pulled back on their coverage of the industry.

Asked for comment, the New York Times provided the following response:

Beginning February 5, The New York Times will eliminate a number of print but mostly online-only bestseller lists. In recent years, we introduced a number of new lists as an experiment, many of which are being discontinued.

We will continue to cover all of these genres of books in our news coverage (in print and online). The change allows us to devote more space and resources to our coverage beyond the bestseller lists.

Our major lists will remain, including: Top 15 Hardcover Fiction, Top 15 Hardcover Nonfiction, Top 15 Combined Print and E Fiction, Top 15 Combined Print and E Nonfiction, Top 10 Children’s Hardcover Picture Books, Top 10 Children’s Middle Grade Hardcover Chapter Books, Top 10 Children’s Young Adult Hardcover Chapter Books and Top 10 Children’s Series. Several more including Paperback Trade Fiction, Paperback Nonfiction, Business, Sports, Science and Advice Miscellaneous will remain online.

Readers will be notified that individual lists will no longer be compiled and updated by The New York Times on the relevant article pages.

It’s worth noting that while the loss of the graphic novels and manga bestseller lists is of great import to the comics industry, it was not the only sector to be impacted by this policy change. Mass paperbacks will be losing their sales coverage as well. Sports books, however, will continue to receive coverage.

In addition, while the Times called the graphic book and manga charts an “experiment,” these charts first appeared in 2009 when the Watchmen movie debuted and have now been around for nearly a decade. The Times’ post heralding the arrival of these sales charts proclaimed that “comics have finally joined the mainstream.”


UPDATE: The New York Times has explained its reasons for eliminating the graphic books bestseller lists.

Source: The Beat

CBC.ca: 'It's a happy place now': Literacy rates on Manitoba First Nation soar

'It's a happy place now': Literacy rates on Manitoba First Nation soar
Waywayseecappo First Nation credits improved literacy scores to working with Park West School Division
By Meagan Fiddler
January 16, 2017

Six years after a Manitoba First Nation partnered with a neighbouring school division, student literacy rates have dramatically increased. It's a change even the students embrace.

"It was much easier than what we were doing before," Grade 9 student Twyla Mecas said, "The way they taught the classes and the group activities, it helped me be more social."

"It was good," Leighton Heroux, also in Grade 9, echoed. "The teachers were fun."

Heroux and Mecas now go to Major Pratt School in Russell, Man. But they both attended elementary school in nearby Waywayseecappo when the Park West School Division and the First Nation formed a partnership.

The student say the smaller class sizes, one of the results of that partnership, helped them learn.

In November 2010, only three per cent of of Grades 1 to 4 students in Waywayseecappo, about 300 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg, were at or above grade level literacy rates. As of June 2016, 47 per cent met that standard.

"It's a happy place now," said Colleen Clearsky, Waywayseecappo's education director, adding that students across the board are showing positive results.

All 500 students from junior kindergarten to Grade 12, and even adult education, have benefited, she said. Teachers are less stressed and there are fewer behavioural issues to deal with.

"The accomplishments are the children's. They are the ones that are making this work."

VLT revenues top up federal funding

Clearsky said the partnership has increased professional development and given teachers access to speech and language therapists and psychologists. Waywayseecappo has been able to retain teachers for longer because they're a part of the same collective agreement with the same salary and benefits as teachers in the neighbouring school division, she said.

"We used to have so many teachers come in and in a couple of years they would be gone, because the provincial school divisions were getting a lot more funding than we were," Clearsky said.

When the agreement was signed, Waywayseecappo increased education funding to match what provincially-funded students received. The federal government provides $7,200 per student per year.

The First Nation has been supplementing that with $3,690 per student per year from revenue generated by 70 VLT machines in the community. That's allowed for smaller classroom sizes and the hiring of more education assistants.

Teachers share, learn from each other

The partnership also means literacy specialist Louise Langevin splits her time equally between Waywayseecappo and the Park West School Division. Langevin supports teachers and supplies them with new literacy programs. She models different in-class strategies and can also co-teach alongside regular teachers.

"It was a lot of work, a big investment for those teachers." Langevin said. "It enabled them to do a lot more with the [professional development] they were now able to partake in. Teachers talking to teachers within the school division, that's such a powerful form of PD," she said.

Langevin said literacy rates for Grades 5 to 8 are now being collected to see if the trend continues into the later grades.

"There's a lot of time spent with our students today, to teach them the proper way so we have more graduates, so we can become competitive in the education field," Chief Murray Clearsky said.

"One day I guess you'll see greater results by our people, by our children, which will make me very proud," he added.

Waywayseecappo has plans to hold an education conference in the near future for other Manitoba First Nations who are interested in setting up a similar partnerships, Clearsky said.

Park West and Waywayseecappo just recently signed a new agreement to extend the partnership for another three years.

Source: CBC.ca

CNBC.com: How reading helped Obama deal with the 'isolation' of leadership

How reading helped Obama deal with the 'isolation' of leadership
by Catherine Clifford

Being the leader of the free world brings with it incredible power, responsibility and influence. It also involves feelings of seclusion, especially during crises.

President Barack Obama says that, at those times, he turned to books.

"During very difficult moments, this job can be very isolating. So sometimes you have to hop across history to find folks who have been similarly feeling isolated," says Obama, in a wide-reaching interview with Michiko Kakutani, the chief book critic for The New York Times.

After the mass killings in Newtown, Conn., or in the midst of the financial crisis, for example, Obama says that he consulted the writings of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Mahatma Gandhi or Nelson Mandela.

"I found those particularly helpful, because what you wanted was a sense of solidarity," says Obama.

Similarly, Obama found comfort in the biographies of Presidents who occupied the White House before him.

"I do think that there's a tendency, understandable, to think that whatever's going on right now is uniquely disastrous or amazing or difficult," says Obama. "And it just serves you well to think about Roosevelt trying to navigate World War II or Lincoln trying to figure out whether he's going to fire [George B.] McClellan when Rebel troops are 20, 30, 40 miles away."

"Fiction was useful as a reminder of the truths under the surface of what we argue about every day and was a way of seeing and hearing the voices, the multitudes of this country," he says.

Shakespeare, in particular, is a favorite of the 44th President. The playwright's tragedies are "foundational for me in understanding how certain patterns repeat themselves and play themselves out between human beings," he says.

Like most successful leaders and entrepreneurs, Obama is a lifelong fan of books. And, as he transitions out of the White House, he says he is looking forward to having more time to catch up on reading, and on his own writing, too.

Source: CNBC.com

SF Gate: SF library book returned, 100 years overdue

SF library book returned, 100 years overdue
By Steve Rubenstein
San Francisco Chronicle
Friday, January 13, 2017

Webb Johnson of Fairfield returned a San Francisco library book Friday, 100 years late. There was no fine.

“Whew,” Johnson said.

The book, a collection of short stories published in 1909, had been checked out by his great-grandmother Phoebe Webb in 1917 from the old Fillmore branch which, like his great-grandmother, is no longer around.

Head City Librarian Luis Herrera welcomed the book back and said the library was very glad to get it, finally. At the 2017 rate of 10 cents a day, the overdue fine would have come to $3,650. Fortunately for Johnson, fines on overdue books are now capped at $5. And under the library’s current amnesty program for overdue books, there’s no fine at all.

The amnesty program has gotten 2,000 overdue books back onto library shelves since it began Jan. 3. About 1,400 delinquent borrowers have had their library privileges restored. An additional 54,000 patrons with accumulated fines of $10 or more are still walking around with suspended library cards. Under the amnesty program, they have until Feb. 14 to turn in their books with no penalty.

Amnesty programs — which San Francisco also offered in 2009, 2004 and 1998 — are somewhat controversial in the generally noncontroversial world of libraries. Some say that when libraries are known to forgive and forget every few years, it offers little incentive to return overdue books at other times. But Herrera said it was all about getting books back in the library where they belong, not about collecting a dime or two or 36,500.

Johnson said a check of family history showed that his great-grandma had died one week before the book was due. The timing suggests that Webb may have had more pressing business to attend to at the time than returning the book, he said.

The amnesty came in handy because Johnson said he had discovered the overdue book in 1996 and had hung onto it ever since. That means “Forty Minutes Late” has been unintentionally late for 79 years and deliberately late for 21 years.

“We figured it was ours now,” Johnson said. “I’m guilty. I know it. Guilty, guilty, guilty.”

The book is by F. Hopkinson Smith, an author, artist and engineer who designed the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty. The first story in Smith’s collection is about a cranky man who nearly misses a speaking engagement because of a late train. The author, in the story, suggests there are worst sins than being late, such as being cranky — a notion that Johnson says he fully endorses.

Conscience, along with the amnesty program, persuaded him to bring the book back. Another reason he brought it back is his cousin Judy Wells wanted to check it out.

She showed up at the Park Branch Library on Page Street on Friday along with Johnson. After Johnson handed the overdue book back to the library, Wells stepped up to the circulation desk and applied for a library card. She figured she could go right home with “Forty Minutes Late” again, for three weeks or 100 years, whichever comes first.

But Herrera, perhaps reluctant to entrust the volume to the extended Webb-Wells-Johnson family for another century, said “Forty Minutes Late” would be temporarily unavailable until it could be properly re-cataloged and evaluated by library historians.

“I can wait,” Wells said.


Source: SG Gate

CBC.ca: You can now 'borrow' a social worker at the Kitchener Public Library

You can now 'borrow' a social worker at the Kitchener Public Library
'The library has tonnes of resources and I’m another one that people now can access,' says social worker
By Kate Bueckert
January 15, 2017

Long gone are the days when librarians were simply asked to recommend a good book.

Now, library staff members are asked a number of questions that range from homework help to local tourism to aiding someone who needs community services.

It's part of the reason some libraries have started introducing a social worker to their staff, and Kitchener Public Library (KPL) is no different.

"I think of my role as a resource. The library has tonnes of resources and I'm another one that people now can access," says Kym Bohachewski, who has been a social worker for 17 years and is currently working on her master's degree at Wilfrid Laurier University.

As part of her school work, she's completing a practicum placement at KPL, which means she's in the building for three days a week.

"I'm basically acting as a resource, so whether I'm a resource for staff – maybe library users are coming to them with some questions around finding some things in the community and staff can come to me – or I can work directly with the library customers," Bohachewski said.

Social worker a 'great fit'

Laura Reed, the manager of children's and teen services at KPL and the person overseeing Bohachewski's work placement, said having a social worker on hand is a "great fit."

"Public libraries are evolving. We're not what we were 10 years ago, or 20 years ago or two years ago. And that's especially true here in Kitchener with this new space and this beautiful new building and all the changes that are happening in Kitchener and downtown Kitchener. We need to evolve and we want to be as relevant and useful to the community as we possibly can be," she said.

People are initially surprised to hear there is a social worker at the library, but that quickly turns to people saying it makes sense, Reed said.

"We see an absolute cross-section of society here and often encounter customers with complex needs and we want to be able to help as much as we can," she said.

Part of growing trend

It's not a new idea – but it's also not an idea that has taken off everywhere yet.

The San Francisco Public Library hired a social worker in 2009 when staff started to notice a large number of patrons were homeless.

Since then, a trend has formed in the United States and spread into Canada. Edmonton, Winnipeg and Hamilton have social workers as well, while Brantford added a child and youth worker in response to problems with unruly teens and Toronto has a public health nurse who works out of the reference library.

"Some people might not access existing social services, but visit EPL knowing it's a safe, friendly space," Edmonton Public Library says on its website. "In collaboration with library staff, our three outreach staff (all registered social workers) work in and outside four branches ... But their impact reaches well beyond the library's walls."

KPL hopes to continue program after April

A big part of what Bohachewski can offer people is simple: it's her time.

"I've got the time to sit down and kind of chat with people and look at what might be helpful after talking with them and hearing what their needs are, and trying to find some way to connect them up with a resource," she said.

"Being able to do that, being able to sit down with somebody and work with a customer and know that OK, yeah, this has been helpful for them, they've said this is great, I didn't know about so-and-so, and then they're able to go and utilize that, that's a great thing."

Bohachewski started working at the library in September and will be there until April. A big part of her job over the next few months will be training staff members to be able to find the proper resources for people coming in with questions.

Reed said they hope to have another social work student come in and fill Bohachewski's shoes, but it will be up to the students.

In the meantime, staff will gain a better understanding of the services in the community that could help patrons in need.

"This just is another way that we can really help the people in our community," Reed said.

Source: CBC.ca

The Waterloo Region Record: Not just books — Kitchener Public Library puts a social worker on the shelf

By Catherine Thompson | December 13, 2016

The library has always loaned books, videos and even CDs that offer guidance and advice on everything from how to manage money to how to lead a healthier lifestyle.

Now, the Kitchener Public Library's Central branch is offering a little bit more: a trained social worker who can give advice and guidance, offer a friendly presence and a sympathetic ear.

Kym Bohachewski admits many of her friends and colleagues were skeptical when she said she would do a work placement at the library as part of her requirements for a master in social work at Wilfrid Laurier University.

It's actually a logical fit, said Laura Reed, the library's manager of children and teen services. "We're a public building and we see a good cross-section of society," Reed said. "Our role is to make sure people can find what they need."

People come to the library for all kinds of things: to access computers for free, to get help filling out applications or e-documents, to search for housing or to get resources if English isn't their first language. A social worker could help any of those clients, Reed said.

"People find their way here not because it's a library but because it's a warm place, it's a welcoming place, it's a place to bring your kids to read a book," Reed said. "Over the years we've always gotten questions around, 'I have nowhere to stay tonight' or 'Where can I get a hot meal?' We'll be able to not just answer those questions but be able to add some support."

Social workers have in-depth knowledge about what's available to help people in the community, and they have skills in helping figure out what they need, Bohachewski said. "I've got the time to sit down and talk with somebody who maybe isn't quite sure what's available or what they need."

Her placement, which runs three days a week until April, includes training library staff in how to recognize when a library customer may need help with a bigger issue; outreach with community agencies to help the library figure out how it can best meet the needs of clients such as women staying at a shelter, or homeless men. That work could include helping people sign up for library cards, or even offering library tours for groups from the House of Friendship or OneROOF youth agency, or even organizing pop-up libraries at community agencies.

Having social workers at the library is still fairly unusual, but is something that libraries across North America are trying. The first was probably in San Francisco in 2009, while Edmonton Public Library was the first Canadian library to bring in a social worker in 2011, Bohachewski said.

"Libraries are increasingly a hub for the community, meeting different community needs," said Nancy Schwindt, the field education co-ordinator at Laurier who helped set up the placement. "This is just an extension of work we do with, for example, community centres, with drop-in centres, all those sorts of agencies."

To read the original article, please visit therecord.com.