

Tiger Lily (Doll) Finds a New Home
Just an update on what ultimately happened to my Tiger Lily doll. After I had purchased her for use towards the "Taking Back Tiger Lily" submission I had published by Four Winds Native Literary Magazine, I felt like I wasn't quite sure what to do with her. Would I still use her occasionally with my Robohontas site? Was she just going to sit on a shelf and not do anything? Well, I finally realized where she needed to end up. Last week I mailed her to the Editor of Four Winds a


I wanted to be an Indian, too -
"When I was a little girl,
I wanted to be an Indian, too -
I felt at home in the water, the
sea-salt rushing against my cheeks;
and how beautiful, and how
silent, long black hair blowing
back as stars and sequins
aligned around me; god! Didn’t
I want to be an Indian!" Excerpted from the poem To the White Woman Who Told Me, "When I was a Girl, I Wanted to Be An Indian." By Misty Shipman Ellingburg (Shoalwater) #TigerLily #quote #poetry #MistyShipmanEllingburg


Tiger Lily: Terese and Tiffany Respond
Well, of course the post I wrote yesterday ruffled some feathers. Just as much as my own were ruffled by the pieces that caused me to write about the two articles I disagreed with. But, while I'm not interested in getting into a fighting match, I also don't want to just ignore these two authors' reponses and move on. Why? Because, just like me, Tiffany Midge and Terese Marie Mailhot have every right to express their own opinions as they see fit. And, more importantly, I am st


Tiger Lily: What is there to take back? A lot!
I already posted a couple of days ago about being so honored to have my work included in the recent Four Winds Literary Magazine's issue Taking Back Tiger Lily. I haven't seen any published responses to the issue yet, and I'm really curious how it will be received. A small part of that is, of course, because my own work is included; but, mostly I'm wondering if the issue itself will put to bed the criticism that the call for submissions received just for asking for a Native r


Taking Back Tiger Lily
Yesterday saw the release of Four Winds Literary Magazine's Taking Back Tiger Lily, Issue #3, Strong Women Edition. I am really honored to have my poem and artwork included with so many other amazing responses to their call for submissions. The work that the Editor (Mistylynn Shipman Ellingburg) and her team did to assemble and publish this online edition was incredible, and the work itself is so strong. Follow this link to see my poem, "Tiger Lily Says No." #TigerLily #poetr


Creating and fostering relationships with the people matter.
"For example, Eurocentric methods rely on objectivity as the standard norm in scientific inquiry. While objectivity has its place, it can also close off sources of knowledge. Indigenous methods acknowledge tribal cultural protocol, which are the actions that a person takes to create a relationship with another person or group. Therefore, to pursue research with individuals from tribal nations, creating and fostering relationships with the people matter. As a researcher, I do


#ShellNo
"Us kids were told never to touch the water because it's so polluted. We can't get clams or fish or anything that the tribe used to be able to get on the waters. If other tribes [in Alaska] have to deal with that, I would feel really bad that we didn't help support them in stopping this." --Jonnica Royal (Lummi/Quinault/Duwamish) #TigerLily #environment #quote #JonnicaRoyal #oil #ShellNo


On using traditional Native ingredients...
“They’re like our old ancestors. They’ve been with our great, great grandfathers and their great, great grandfathers for so long. [This is] reacquainting ourselves with them.” --Sean Sherman (Oglala Lakota) aka The Sioux Chef #food #SeanSherman #TigerLily #quote


The arrival of Tiger Lily
Guess who arrived in the mail today? Somehow, I don't think she'll end a robot like Robohontas, but we'll just have to see. She has more presence outside of her box. I realized that this doll is a Korean version of a Native American character from an American Disney cartoon based on a book by a British author. This girl is global! Which may also explain why the shoes she comes with look like Dutch clogs? Anyhow, look for some new work featuring Tiger Lily in the near future.


Taking Back Tiger Lily
I happened to run across a call for submissions from Four Winds Magazine recently for sketches, paintings, beadwork, photography, poetry, short essays, and prose by Native American artists on the subject of "re-creating Tiger Lily to fit a real model of Indigenous womanhood." In case you aren't familiar, Tiger Lily is the Indian princess from J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan. Her most popular incarnation is likely from the Disney cartoon version, with early character studies shown abo