Professional Documents
Culture Documents
be able to inhibit the transmission of certain nerve impulses across synapses. So people are looking at those
kinds of venoms as potential cures for certain kinds of neurological diseases like epilepsy that involve those
kinds of transmissions.
The new exhibit is a good start at undoing the web of mystery and misunderstanding that surrounds the spider.
The show closes December second.
Totem Pole Carver
In the middle to late eighteen-hundreds, special schools were opened on Native American reservations in the
United States. The goal was to make young Indians become Christian and accept other parts of European
culture.
The use of native languages and culture was not supported in the schools. Over time, many Indian children grew
up knowing little about their culture or languages.
But, Tsimshian tribesman David Boxley of Washington state is working to keep his native culture alive.
Mr. Boxley is a dancer, songwriter and wood carver. He is also an ambassador for Tsimshian culture and
heritage.
"We call it art now, but it was a way for people to say, This is how I am. This belongs to me, or this is my clan, this
is my crest, this is my family history, carved and painted in wood."
Mr. Boxley was raised by his grandparents. He says the influence of Christian missionaries was strong while he
was young, so he learned little about his native culture.
After college, he went to work as a teacher. He also began to research Tsimshian wood carving in museums and
other cultural collections. In nineteen eighty-six, he left teaching to spend his time on wood carving and bringing
attention to Tsimshian art and culture.
I guess I came along at the right time. Our people really needed a shot in the arm. Our culture wasn't very
prominent after all that missionary influence, and years and years of not having anybody be in that kind of
position to guide."
David Boxley works at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington
on one of the totem poles that he created with his son
That was almost thirty years ago. Since then Mr. Boxley has created seventy totem poles. Totem poles tell a
story. Earlier this year, he finished carving an especially important totem pole, made of red cedar wood.
"The title is Eagle and the Young Chief."
The totem pole tells the story of a young chief who rescued an eagle caught in a fishing net. Years later, when
the chief's village was starving, the eagle repaid the chief for his kindness.
"A live salmon fell out of the sky, and he looked up and he saw the eagle flying away. And every day for days and
Lupe Fiasco performing at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival in New
Orleans last year
Now comes the release of album number four, Lupe Fiascos Food & Liquor II: The Great American Rap Album
Part One. The album is political just like its singer.
But like most musical artists, unreturned love is also a theme, as in Fiascos song Battle Scars.
Finally, Mumford & Sons new album Babel, is having huge sales in album stores and digitally. Billboard
Magazine reports six-hundred thousand copies of the album are expected to sell by the end of its first week out.
The British band helped put folk music back in style with the first groups first album Sigh No More, released in
two thousand nine. Mumford & Sons continues to favor soft, quiet lyrics and mostly non electric versions of
guitar, banjo, accordion and other instruments on Babel. We leave you with the albums first single I Will Wait.