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When I am riffling through my files in search of a document I know is on my computer, or in a file cabinet, or (more likely) strewn across some lateral surface in my house, I often see things that previously escaped my eye--a newly familiar name, a suddenly meaningful date, or reference to yet another document I must go track down. Other times, a subtle tension or sarcastic tone leaps off a page of correspondence I had previously pegged as perfunctory and mundane. Tonight, I am struck by the power and affect of family, filled with sentiment and sweet sadness for the short-lived mother-daughter team embodied in a simple set of initials: 

    

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Marie Potts:pansy marine

This snippet is clipped from a letter to Sol Tax. It is less significant for what it says, than for what it reveals: family. A Maidu mother and daughter working hand in hand, side-by-side, making do in rough patches, raising children and grandchildren, putting up with each other one minute and laughing merrily together the next, always dedicated to California Indian lands and rights. Four years after typing this letter, Pansy died, leaving her mother and young children absolutely bereft. But in April 1961, sorrow was nowhere in sight. Potts was headed to Chicago and D.C. for a grand adventure. 

The AIPA's Marie Potts Journalism Award

Jerry Gambill (aka Rarihokwats), Managing Editor of Akwesasne Notes, was the first recipient of the Marie Potts Journalism Award, an honor created and bestowed by the pioneering American Indian Press Association (AIPA). The inaugural ceremony took place at the Denver Indian Center on November 16, 1972. The Rocky Mountain News covered the story, reporting that "The Award includes a $500 prize and is the equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize. Mrs. Marie Potts, the award's namesake is the 77-year-old editor of 'Smoke Signals' [sic], a Sacramento, Calif. monthly news magazine. She was instrumental in the founding AIPA." Note: The Smoke Signal was often, and continues to be, inaccurately referred to in the plural; and while Potts was indeed one of approximately 10 co-founders, the driving figure behind development of the AIPA was Charles "Chuck" Trimble.)

1950 Mother's Day Tribute to Elizabeth Bender Roe Cloud

Marie Mason Potts often wrote Smoke Signal stories based upon news she found in the national press about Native Americans of note.  This column is based on an announcement that Mrs. Henry Roe Cloud had been named "Oregon Mother" for 1950. It seems likely that the story was particularly important to Potts as both women had connections to the Carlisle (and may well have been there at the same time). 

April 1950 Smoke Signal

Fifteenth Anniversary Dance

While working on a chapter about Marie Potts's participation in the American Indian Chicago Conference, I ran across this front page story about the FIC celebrating its 15th anniversary with a dance at the VFW Memorial Hall in Bryte on March 18, 1961 from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. Reading the directions made me wonder what the Mecca Club was like. Is it still there? 

Apologies for the poor quality of this 2nd generation copy 

Kitty Potts Flores (August 9, 1924 - April 1, 1951)

Marie Potts lost her youngest daughter, Kitty Marie "Pumpkin" Potts Flores, on April 1, 1951. Bertha Stewart (Tolowa), Secretary of the FIC,  had worked closely with Kitty for many years and wrote a touching tribute to her as founding editor of the Smoke Signal. Marie Potts, who was elected to the position of Smoke Signal editor in March 1949, added biographical information about her daughter just beneath Bertha Stewart's typescript signature.

Kitty--beloved daughter, wife, and aunt--was laid to rest in East Lawn Cemetery. Her untimely death was clearly a tremendous loss not only to her family, but to the larger world of California Indian activism. 

Lettered Life of a Mountain Maidu Woman at Maidu Museum & Historic Site (Roseville) until May 9

Had a great time this past Saturday night (March 21) at the opening reception and lecture for a small exhibit I was invited to install out at the Maidu Museum, in Roseville. The exhibit is called The Lettered Life of a Mountain Maidu Woman: An Archival Portrait of Marie Mason Potts. I was especially pleased that some of her daughter Pansy Marine's descendants were there and that I was able to chat with them afterwards. The flyer for the show is posted below.

University Library Exhibit Highlights Marie Potts' Life Story

In conjunction with this year's University One Book Program, which features Sherman Alexie's book Blasphemy,  the University Library is featuring an exhibit I co-curated with Dr. Brian Baker, entitled Before 'The Search Engine': Education, Identity and Tradition. Our exhibit was inspired by the short story The Search Engine, and includes four exhibit cases. Two feature Americana Indian artifacts from Dr. Baker's collection, and two (shown below) feature my research on Marie Potts--her years at the Greenville Indian Industrial School and the Carlisle Indian Industrial School and the period of her land claims activism here in Sacramento.  The exhibit is up through December 12, 2014. 

Exhibit Reception for "Off the Walls of Pacific Western Traders"

An exhibit organized by Sigrid Benson. Don't miss it!

Mountain Maidu Stewardship of Ancestral Lands

Congratulations are in order for the Maidu Summit Consortium. Pretty wonderful news.

Mapping Heritage, 'Shooting our Imaginations': Early Works by Frank Day

More information here.

28th Annual California Indian Conference

The Ethnic Studies Department at California State University, Sacramento is hosting the 28th Annual California Indian Conference here on campus, from October 3-5, 2013. The conference also maintains a Facebook Page. The Conference is a wonderful gathering of scholars, artists, activists and California Indian youths and elders. Although it is free and open to all, you need to download and complete the registration form to assist the Planning Committee in estimating necessary seating, refreshments, and the like. The University Union Gallery, Anthropology Museum, Library, and Archives and Special Collections are all hosting related exhibits. I am curating (with anthropology graduate student Valerie Garcia) an exhibit of Frank Day paintings that will be shown in the University Union Gallery (opening reception on October 3, from 5:30-7:30 pm). Be sure to come by and  say hello. And stop by the other exhibits during this time as well!

Honored Elders Day, California State Indian Museum, June 8, 2013

In 1978, Marie Potts (1895-1978) was recognized as the California State Indian Museum's first Honored Elder. The annual event will run tomorrow until 1:30 p.m.*

*closing earlier than originally planned due to predictions of extreme heat.

First Families Exhibit Opens March 7

Valentine's Day

While the Smoke Signal was primarily a vehicle for delivering news about California Indian land claims cases, it also offered holiday greetings and news of upcoming dances and other opportunities for socializing, as seen in these examples drawn from the early 1950s.

Stay tuned (or email me) for information about the West Sacramento Historical Society exhibit "First Families," opening in early March.

Happy New Year

The December 1949 issue of the Smoke Signal offered a New Year's greeting to the membership. Notice the addressee in the upper right-hand corner of this issue.  Edna and Saturino Calac hailed from Rincon Reservation, in San Diego County. Their choice to back the FIC land claim petition (versus that of the Mission Indians) reflects the political potential of social affiliations forged in boarding school contexts, including Stewart and Carlisle. For instance, Marie Potts and Peter Calac (who gained national fame as a member of the school's football team) overlapped at the Carlisle from 1912-1915.

Thanksgiving Soliloquy

In the November 1949 edition of the Smoke Signal, Marie Potts re-published this memento from her years at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School. "Thanksgiving Soliloquy" appeared on the last page of  Volume VIII, No.13. Potts (then Marie Mason) attended the Carlisle from September 1912 through May 1915. 

Smoke Signal, Vol. VIII, No. 13., November 1949

"Boys in the Service of U.S."

In Vol. X, No.1 (Dec. '50/Jan. '51) issue of the Smoke Signal, editor Marie Potts (Mountain Maidu) called for readers to submit addresses of American Indians in the military service. Through three wars--WWII, Korea, and Viet Nam--the FIC sent the Smoke Signal free to countless California and other American Indian service men and women.

Smoke Signal, Vol. X, No. 1

Smoke Signal, Vol. XI, No. 9

Smoke Signal, Vol. XI, No. 9

Smoke Signal, Vol. XI, No. 5

Indian (Gaming) Country

Land claims news of an entirely different sort. Surely the gaming economy that has developed in California over the course of the last two decades would have been impossible for an earlier generation of activists to envision, though I find it hard to believe that any of them would be surprised to learn that the gaming landscape is just as inhabited by non-Native stakeholders as was the claims-scape of mid-20th century California. The land claims opportunities and cases enabled by the California Indians Jurisdictional (CIJA) and the Indian Claims Commission (ICC) Acts were no less complicated in their historical origins, legislative logic, and political contentiousness than those making headlines today. Perhaps the key difference is that during the mid-20th century, there was no hope for the actual re-claiming of any land.

Smoke Signal Debut, January 1948

 The Smoke Signal, Jan. 1948 (top portion of p. 1)

The Federated Indians of California (FIC) was almost two years old when the first Smoke Signal made its appearance.* Within months, a formal masthead with additional artwork was designed and introduced as a way to mark the transition from news letter to newspaper.  An image of that masthead will be posted next week, but it is worth noting that the organization's tag line, "In Unity There is Strength," can be seen penciled in on this archival copy, perhaps by the inaugural editor, Kitty Potts Flores. This motto would feature prominently on the newspaper masthead. The clips below are also taken from the January 1948 issue.

A note from editor Kitty Potts Flores

In mid-1949, Marie Potts succeeded her daughter as Smoke Signal editor. For three decades, she continued to edit and publish the paper out of the family home in the popular neighborhood of Oak Park, in Sacramento, California. The final issue of the paper was printed in January 1978, just months before Potts'  passing. At that time, The Smoke Signal was the longest-running, American-Indian owned and operated paper in the country.

*Prior to the introduction of the Smoke Signal, the FIC communicated with its membership by newsletter.

Indian Day Dance and Fundraiser