Over 300 witness Oprah Winfrey's visit to the DINE

[blackcrowheart]

Over 300 witness Oprah Winfrey's visit to the Navajo Nation


Wednesday, May 31, 2006
Over 300 witness Oprah Winfrey's visit to the Navajo Nation

By George Joe
REZ BIZ magazine
SEE the latest LINKS
Surprise. Surprise. After all the drama, celebrity talk show host Oprah Winfrey showed up in Window Rock today, as initially reported last week.
She wore a straw hat and a long-sleeve turquoise shirt, and a bolo tie.
Over 300 people attended the flea market atmosphere which last about two hours. Sources say Oprah spent considerable amount of time talking with tribal leaders inside the Office of the President/Vice President before walking around to some of the vendor booths set up in front of the OPVP. Her entire visit lasted about two hours, they said. And she left as soon as she finished visiting the booths and moved onto another event. Many tribal employees were suprised to learn she was in town, after the tribe notified tribal employees last week that Oprah's visit was a "hoax." A few tribal employees stumbled across the activities by chance.
She was followed by some four to five cameras, Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley who was no more than 10 feet away, and hordes of people, they said. She walked up to a few booths, then purchased an item from one of the booths. There's yet no press release on the visit from Shirley's people, perhaps later today.
Despite last week's strong denial of a taping or a visit from the celebrity, there was too much activity last week going on inside and outside the Office of the President/Vice President regarding her visit. And lots of people were talking all over the reservation. Some of that talk was written about in earlier blogs.
Many people said Oprah's people didn't want a huge public event. In fact, they almost canceled the entire visit after they learned that a flyer had been distributed last week.
OTHER STORIES posted June 1, 2006
Albuquerque blogger Bruce Daniels
Associated Press brief
Arizona AP wire story

georgerjoe at 1:12:00 PM MST Link to this entry | Blog about this entry | Notify AOL
This entry has 1 comments: (Add your own) George Hardeen is the biggest ***hole in the history of PR whizards this tribe has ever seen. First, he claims to be ignorant, then he dodges and ducks questions from local media and he is front and center with Joe Shirley during her "surprise" visit. If they thought this was going to make them look great to the Navajo people, they were dead wrong. Here's why:
1) Literally 1,000 of people were going to go see Oprah, who is one of the few richest women in the world and a icon in gigantic porportion and then Joe and George and other nitwhits claim to not know anything and say "DUH, where did they go?"
2) People who were planning on going, now missed their chance to go because of a faulty pathetic e-mail circulated by a Ms. Priscilla Litefoot (a.k.a. Pulling-Your-Leg) and allegedly the OPVP and Tuba City Chapter.
3) If Joe thinks he's going to get re-elected over bringing Oprah to Navajoland, THINK AGAIN. We Dine aren't so shallow to think just because you mysteriously pulled Oprah into Window Rock and didn't let the masses know, you just shot yourself in the PR FOOT!
4) This entire Oprah visit was handled so incredibly bad and George Hardeen should he tarred and feathered for his so-called claim to be unware. How can you send an e-mail out and then say in a kind-of-sort-of-maybe kind of way, SHE AIN'T COMING...MAYBE.... and then she shows up. Per. Natasah Kay Johnson's article from last week's award winning, The Truth Well Told Newspaper.....Gallup Enquire....sorry, I meant the Gallup Independent.
5) If you can't handle bringing Oprah to Window Rock and you fouled it up this bad, what makes you think you can do anything constructive, MR. PRESIDENT, sir?

VOTE NO....and I admit, I'm pissed because I wanted to see Oprah. Sign Green Monster who has no JOY TODAY.
Comment from joyshehas - 5/31/06 2:41 PM

journals.aol.com/georgerjoe/Postyourviews/entries/113

[blackcrowheart]

Winfrey Visits Native Americans


Winfrey Visits Native Americans
By WENN| Friday, June 02, 2006
www.hollywood.com/news/detail/id/3503748

[Oprah Winfrey] <http://www.hollywood.com/celebs/gallery/id/2445195>
[0] <http://www.hollywood.com/celebs/gallery/id/2445195>
Photo Gallery <http://www.hollywood.com/celebs/gallery/id/2445195>
HOLLYWOOD - TV star Oprah Winfrey
<http://www.hollywood.com/celebs/detail/id/196753> visited Native
Americans at the Navajo Nation on Wednesday to collect footage for an
upcoming episode of her talk show.
Winfrey <http://www.hollywood.com/celebs/detail/id/196753>
explored the Navajo capital of Window Rock, and was honored with a
powwow dance by the children of the tribe.

Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley Jr. says, "It was a real honor to
have such a celebrity grace us with her presence, especially on sacred
ground right under the Window Rock."

Priscella Littlefoot, who organized the event, says, "Oprah is our key
to let the world in.

Hopefully, Oprah's visit will portray that while we do have social
problems, we're still rich in our heritage, our culture and language."

[Okwes]

Oprah's Oops (Yellow Bird)



www.grandforks.com/mld/grandforks/news/opinion/14749187.htm

DORREEN YELLOW BIRD COLUMN: Oprah missed an important chance

I've been a fan of Oprah Winfrey for many years. I've laughed, cried and
examined issues I didn't know were issues. So when Oprah and her Harpo
companies (that's "Oprah" spelled backward) visited the Navajo
reservation at Window Rock, Ariz., on May 31, I figured this hero of
television would be a hit.

They were a hit all right, but they also caused concern among Navajo
people. They were stereotyping Navajo people and creating misconceptions
about Native Americans.

The major complaint by the Navajo people is that the powwow tradition is
borrowed. It belongs mostly to the Plains tribes, and the Navajo people
tried to explain that to Oprah's company. But the Harpo companies
insisted that a powwow be a part of their taping and couldn't be
persuaded into anything else, the people said.

Even more important, the company seemed to miss the real Navajo culture.

In Indian country, we do borrow and exchange traditions. When tribes met
with other tribes and non-Natives, they exchanged goods and trade items.
Through the years, we've also exchanged gifts such as the Sundance,
ceremonies, regalia and powwows, but we almost always know from whom the
borrowed tradition came. That's an unwritten understanding in Indian
country.

Today, you'd find fewer Native people who are full blood than you would
mixed bloods. We have exchanged more than trade goods: My nieces and
nephews are Navajo and Sahnish (Arikara), for example.

As I mentioned, Harpo missed some of the truly beautiful traditions of
the Navajo people and instead will have the entire country believe that
powwows are a Navajo tradition. Some of what they missed is the Navajo
rug-making art, the hogan ceremonies in which sand paintings are used
for healing and the importance of the land, sheep and people.

I know it's a rich culture. Years ago when I graduated from high school,
my mother sent me to Navajo country to help my sister, who had three
children. My sister and her husband both were working and needed a
babysitter for the summer.

I had little choice and took a bus to Gallup, N.M. I arrived in that
predominately Navajo town about midnight and was told to walk to the
local Catholic mission. A priest in his nightclothes answered my
pounding on the mission door. He found me a place in the mission school,
and I slept among school desks and chairs that night. I fell asleep
looking at a blackboard and a teacher's desk.

My sister picked up a rather irritated teen the next day. I was not a
happy camper.

But it was the beginning of an adventure into an old culture I wouldn't
forget.

While there, the family drove us way out on a dirt road into the desert
of New Mexico. We traveled for miles over rough terrain. Finally, we
came over a hill, and there among a circle of several bonfires was a
Navajo traditional dance.

It was unlike those I'd experienced on the Plains. No one spoke English,
and the dances were strange and unique. I stared like some gawking
newcomer.

I don't remember when it ended; the uniqueness of the experience washed
away the little details.

A few weeks later, we drove to a ceremony that was being held in one of
the districts. It was some distance away. We drove along the main
highway, and when it got dark, we pulled off the road, set up camp, made
a fire, cooked and ate, and slept there - right on the main drag of this
paved highway.

We arrived at the outback. Under the homemade shades of poles with shrub
tops, women in long skirts were roasting lamb, making mutton stew and
frying the most unbelievably delicious fried bread. It also was
different from Plains tribes: It was less "bready," pulled to a dish
size shape and fried golden brown.

It was dawn and beginning to get light, but the sun hadn't come up when
I could see runners in the distance - bringing fire, I think. When the
runners were settled and a ceremony completed, the women came into the
area and scattered candy and fruit in the desert area for the children.

I learned to enjoy the taste of roasted lamb and mutton stew, but mostly
the fried bread was the best. I never could duplicate it, even though
the families tried to teach me.

Later, I attended one of their district meetings held out in the desert.
Their government is as large as their nation. They have more than 17
million acres of land in Arizona, New Mexico and Utah - the largest
reservation in the United States. The reservation is about the size of
West Virginia and has a population of about 180,363.

They're not Plains tribes. Their ceremonies and ways are different.
Their language is distinctly unique and rich. The Harpo companies missed
some of the beauty and wonder of this culture; the executives were
guided, I suspect, by their own stereotypes.