News and Current Events

Thursday, September 17, 2009
The Jacques E. Johnet Trust Scholarship for Native Americans
Upcoming Deadlines:
November 20, 2009 (for Spring 2010 awards)
May 14, 2010 (for Fall 2010 awards)

Click here to download the application form

All application materials must be hand-delivered or received by post in the American Indian Studies Department office by 5:00 P.M. on the deadline date listed above.
Materials should be addressed to:

The Johnet Scholarship Selection Committee
American Indian Studies Department
San Francisco State University
1600 Holloway Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94132

Selection Committee
Joanne Barker, Associate Professor and Chair, American Indian Studies (Project Director)
Wilfred Denetclaw, Associate Professor, Biology
Clay Dumont, Associate Professor, Sociology
All AIS department faculty serve as advisors.

Monday, September 07, 2009
The 40th Anniversary Conference at SFSU will include a Gala banquet and booklet to acknowledge all of those faculty, students, and community members who contributed to the founding and development of their departments. Below is the list of the individuals and organizations whose names have submitted by AIS to the 40th program committee for inclusion in the booklet. Please let us know if others should be included.

We were also asked to submit the name of one individual from among the many as a "representative exemplar" of the faculty and student leaders that were involved in forming AIS as a department. We have selected Dr. Elizabeth Parent. She will be honored at the Gala banquest, which is to be held Friday, October 9, from 6:30-9:30. For more information and to make reservations for the Gala, go to: http://www.sfsu.edu/~ethnicst/home5.html.

AIS Faculty and Staff : Early Contributors : Individuals
Paula Gunn Allen
Wallace Black Elk
Canuto Aranaydo
Burton Gordon
Ann Hardin
Bernard Hoehner-Peji
Vernon T. Ketcheshawno
Jean LaMarr
Dorothy Lewis
Beatrice Medicine
Eagle Medicine
Stephen McLemore
Woesha Cloud North
Richard Oakes
Elizabeth Parent
Elsie Parrish
Donald L. Patterson
Carol Lee Sanchez
Lujan Telesfor
John Trudell
Horace Spencer

Campus-Based Organizations
Student Kouncil of Indian Nations (SKINS)
First Hawks

Community-Based Organizations
American Indian Child Resource Center
California Indian Legal Services
International Indian Treaty Council
Friendship House Association of American Indians
Native American AIDS Prevention Center
Native American Health Center

Representative Exemplar
Elizabeth Parent (Athabascan)
Dr. Parent received a B.A. in Anthropology from the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, an M.A. in Education Administration from Harvard University, and a Ph.D. in Anthropology from Stanford University. Her dissertation, entitled The Educational Experiences of the Residents of Bethel, Alaska: A Historical Case Study, focused on educational issues confronting Alaska Natives.

After teaching as a lecturer for three years in Native American Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, Parent joined the American Indian Studies Department as a lecturer (1980-81) before being appointed as an Assistant Professor (1981-82) at SFSU as a single mother of three. She took on the responsibilities of chairing the program, guiding AIS to department status and developing the minor emphasis. She was the first tenured/promoted faculty member of the department. She retired as Professor Emeritus in January 2001.

Throughout her career, Parent has been actively involved in journalism and multi-media. She is a member of the Native American Journalism Association. While a post-doctoral fellow at the University of California, Los Angeles, she hosted a public broadcasting show called Reality, Mind & Language as well as a bi-monthly radio show on Pasadena Community College's KPCC, earning her the nickname 'Treaty Lady' because of the show's attention to issues treaty rights. Currently, Dr. Parent serves on the Board of Directors for the Native American Cultural Center in San Francisco.

Monday, August 11, 2009
After a three-year search, it is with genuine enthusiasm that the American Indian Studies Department announces the appointment of John-Carlos Perea as Assistant Professor of American Indian Studies.

Perea is completing his dissertation at UC Berkeley this Fall and will join the department in the Spring. He brings expertise in ethnomusicology and American Indian Studies. This Spring he will be teaching AIS 100: Introduction to American Indian Studies and AIS 320: American Indian Music. In the future he will develop interdisciplinary courses in music, performance, pow-wow, and cultural protocol.

Please help us welcome Perea to the department, college, and campus community. We will have a more formal reception for him at the beginning of the Spring semester. Till then, you can reach him at info@johncarlosperea.com.

From http://www.myspace.com/johncarlosperea: GRAMMY® Award winning pow-wow singer and cedar flutist John-Carlos Perea (Mescalero Apache, Irish, German) was born in Dulce, New Mexico and raised in San Francisco, California. He received his BA in Music from San Francisco State University in 2000, studying electric bass with David Motto and ethnomusicology with Dr. Hafez Modirzadeh. During his time at San Francisco State, John-Carlos also studied Northern style pow-wow music with Dr. Bernard Hoehner-Peji and sang with the Blue Horse Singers, Dr. Hoehner-Peji’s pow-wow drum group.

John-Carlos released his first CD, First Dance, in 2001 and since then has performed alongside many eminent American Indian artists including Joy Harjo, Charlie Hill, and Sandra Osawa. In addition to leading his own quintet and performing with San Francisco-based ensembles such as Francis Wong’s Gathering Of Ancestors and Dr. Loco y sus Tiburones del Norte, John-Carlos co-leads the Sweetwater Singers, a Northern Plains intertribal pow-wow drum.

John-Carlos received his MA in Music from the University of California, Berkeley in 2005 and is currently a doctoral candidate in Music at UC Berkeley. His dissertation focuses on the life and music of Creek and Kaw jazz saxophonist Jim Pepper. John-Carlos has lectured at San Francisco State, Stanford, UC Berkeley, and Harvard on the subjects of American Indian Music and American Indian Modern and Creative Performing Arts. He recently completed a Visiting Artist Fellowship with the Institute for Diversity in the Arts at Stanford University that led to the formation of the Stanford IDA Singers, an intertribal Northern Plains pow-wow drum.

In May 2007, John-Carlos toured Japan with the Paul Winter Consort to premiere music from "Crestone", the new Consort CD to which John-Carlos contributes pow-wow vocals and cedar flute. "Crestone" received its US premiere in December 2007 at Paul Winter’s 28th Annual Winter Solstice Celebration held at the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine in New York and is a 2007 Grammy Winner (Best New Age Album, Vocal or Instrumental). John-Carlos' recent appearances include Edwardo Madril's Sun Dagger Solstice and the University of San Francisco's Indigenous People's Day Music Celebration. In addition, John-Carlos recently received a Native American Arts and Cultural Traditions Grant from the San Francisco Arts Commission commissioning him to compose new music for jazz sextet with pow-wow drum and singers.