Discover the cultural meanings behind Native American songs during an event featuring an award-winning film and the women who produced it.
Songscapes of Native America, the final event in NAU’s 2005-2006 Environmental Lecture Series, Conversations for the Future, is at 7:30 p.m. April 27 in Cline Library Assembly Hall. It features film producers Melissa Nelson (Turtle Mountain Chippewa) and Vivienne Jake (Kaibab Paiute), who will discuss and present their film, The Salt Song Trail—Bringing Creation Back Together.
The film won best documentary short from the American Indian Motion Picture Awards. It features the sacred salt songs of the Southern Paiutes and shows how the songs are used in memorial ceremonies, for cultural revitalization and as a spiritual bond for the Southern Paiute living in the Southwest. The film also documents a Southern Paiute healing ceremony and traces the tribe’s historic sacred sites.