NorthEast Two-Spirit Society

The Entire 60min Beyond Beads and Feathers Now Available on NE2SS TV

The seven part, 60 minute version of Beyond Beads and Feathers is available on NE2SS TV right now! Yeah!

Panelists included drama therapist Nick Billey (Oklahoma), noted Cultural Interpreter, Ben Geboe (Yankton Sioux), NE2SS Co-Chair Melissa Hoskins (Tahlequah Cherokee), NE2SS elder, Kent Lebsock (Lakota), filmmaker and NE2SS webmaster Kevin VanWanseele (Kumeyaay), and founder of Nations of the 4 Directions, Karen Vigneault (Kumeyaay).

This event was the first time WeWah and BarcheAmpe members (the gay Indian organization which preceded NE2SS) and The NorthEast Two-Spirit Society had a chance to discuss the history of the Two-Spirit movement, where it can go, and what it has to offer Natives and non-Natives of straight and LGBT backgrounds. Other topics such as HIV and co-optation of culture were also discussed. At one point two of the panelists became quite emotionally charged when discussing the issues.

Parts two through seven are after the link below.

Say What?! Houston's Mayor Pro Tem Makes Anti-Native American Remarks

Houston's Mayor Pro Tem member and City Council Member Michael Berry insulted American Indian community during his talk show on slavery and Indians on KPRC Radio 950. The American Indian Genocide Museum in Houston urges others to respond.

Houston's Berry said:

"We need to stop wasting all this time and energy apologizing to the American Indian, which we continue to do ... We give them casinos, we give them special licenses, we give them special scholarships and why I don't understand ..."

" We conquered them, that's history - Hello "

" You got to be against giving welfare to the American Indians because of the fact , that 200 years ago they were whipped in a war.  Lets just call it what it is, they lost a war."

His website: www.michaelberry.com

Email him here.

Listen to his tirade here.

Taken from Racism: Houston Mayor Insults Native Americans

Spring Two-Spirit Times Available For Download

Download 2spirit_times_spring_07.pdf

Click the above link to download June's Issue of Two-Spirit Times. If you still can't view article, you might need the latest version of Adobe Acrobat Reader.

NE2SS TV Premiere: Beyond Beads and Feathers Preview

Last November, the NorthEast Two-Spirit Society hosted a panel discussion with the Two-Spirit community. It received much media coverage, notably three different cameras. We gathered much of that footage, edited it together, and created NE2SS TV's first program, "Beyond Beads and Feathers."

Here's the preview. Enjoy the entire program coming in the next few days. (There's still a few kinks to work out with the video uploading process with YouTube.com.) Featured on the panel were Melissa Hoskins (Talehquah Cherokee), Nick Billey (Oklahoma), Ben Geboe (Yankton Sioux), Kent Lebsock (Lakota), Kevin VanWanseele (Kumeyaay) and Karen Vigneault (Kumeyaay). The panel was moderated by Richard Hake (The Advocate Newsmagazine on Logo) with an historic introduction by Harlan Pruden (Cree).

Taylor On The Set of 'New Amsterdam'

NorthEast Two-Spirit Society member Taylor, took these shots from the set of The New Amsterdam. It looks to be a hot new movie. Let's hope he gets a lot of screen time! Congrats!

Roger Kuhn Named NEXT Gay Superstar!

This weekend Roger Kuhn was named the NEXT Gay Megastar by a panel of judges of this years GLBT Expo in New York.  The contest was help over 3 days. 

We learned about his accomplishment soon after he won. Roger sent us an E-mail telling us what it was like to win such an honor! "It was a lot of fun and I feel honored to have been chosen.

"Now the NE2SS has the Sexiest Gay Alive (Kevin) and the NEXT Gay Megastar (Roger).  Rock on NE2SS!!!" 

To learn more about Roger Kuhn check out his profile on NE2SS and listen to his music at his website World of Roger Kuhn (WORK)

Free Pow Wow Dancing Classes

LEARN POWWOW DANCING
*FREE*
6:30 - 8:00 pm
First Tuesdays in April and May 1st
American Indian Community House
11 Broadway, Floor 2, NYC

This will be a great class with a respected teacher, Louis Mofsie, Lead-Drummer of the American Indian Thunderbird Singers and Dancers, and member of the Hopi and Winnebago Nations. (bio on attached flier)

SEE ATTACHED FLIER FOR MORE INFORMATION

Natives And AIDS Statistics By NativeOUT.com

NativeOUT put together this video presentation entitled "Red Ribbon Warriors" which contains the latests statistics regarding American Indian/Alaskan Native AIDS.
Check it out. And don't forget to check out NativeOUT for the latest news, photos, and merchandise for and about the two-spirit community.

OUTRAGE: This Is Racism; Take Action

IMMEDIATE ACTION REQUIRED:

Please forward to our community

The NorthEast Two-Spirit Society (www.NE2SS.org) wants to bring to everyone's attention a reprehensible video project produced by a group called "The Highly Defective People."

The video series, which our group finds highly racist, is entitled "Native American Apparel." It is apparently a parody of the highly successful commercial enterprise of "American Apparel." We fail to see the connection. The cast portrays the worst kind of stereotypes equal to Blackface. They use iconography that perverts traditional regalia and sacred culture symbols from our ancient and diverse cultures. They portray Native Americans as overtly sexual and as "kiddie porn." The introductory text is the most racist prose we have seen in a long time:

Native American Apparel is a trail of tears-, blood-, and sweatlodge-free pre-teen sex between consenting intergenerational entrepreneurs. All of our manufacturing is done in our 350-square-foot studio facility in Manhattan by a team of Indians named Bear who lost their casino jobs for masturbating in front of the reporter that was interviewing them.

How to proceed is tricky. Obviously this group wants the most amount of press they can get off of this series. Therefore, we suggest staying away from media outlets and simply silencing their voice, or writing a letter directly to them and let them know you are taking action to remove their videos from YouTube.com. (If you can find a way to contact them.) The best way to stick it to them is to get their content taken off YouTube.com.

How to get their content taken off?

1. Flag their videos as inappropriate. Click on each VIDEO link below and if you deem it "inappropriate" – then flag it as such,
2. Write a letter to YouTube asking for all of Highly Defective People's videos to be taken off the site. When writing the letter, source:
   You Tube Terms of Service (5. C.) In connection with User Submissions, you further agree that you will not:... (iii) submit material that is unlawful, obscene, defamatory, libelous, threatening, pornographic, harassing, hateful, racially or ethnically offensive, or encourages conduct that would be considered a criminal offense, give rise to civil liability, violate any law, or is otherwise inappropriate; (iv) post advertisements or solicitations of business, and/or
3. Write a letter to Google (who owns YouTube.com) requesting for the same action to be taken.

We thank you for taking a stand against racism.

(Below are the links to the five videos in the Native American Apparel series.)

Video 1

Video 2

Video 3

Video 4

Video 5

Beading Class With Ben Geboe Recap, New Talks To Have A Monthly Beading Night

Last night's beading class with Ben Geboe (Yankton Sioux) was a blast. Ben taught those in attendance how to bead a necklace and a keychain in the way he was taught. It was a success because there are now talks to have a monthly beading class. Keep your eyes tuned here for more information on the next beading night.

In addition to learning how to bead, the night turned into a talking circle as everyone got to speak their mind on all sorts of issues ie, Land O Lakes Butter!

The NorthEast Two-Spirit Society wants to thank it's valuable member Ben Geboe for his service to the Native community. A-Ho!