Study Guide for Teachers
Grades: k-5, 6-8, 9-12 & college levels
Audience limit: 30 workshop
Time: 50 minutes
The Pueblo World
Old Man Kokopeli & Stories From the Southwest
Program Overview
Traditional and contemporary Pueblo Indian life revealed through mask theatre performance, storytelling, music and dance.
Student participation in Pueblo Style (2-step) pow-wow round dance.
About the Artist
John Jaramillo has been a professional performer since 1983. During this time he has performed and taught at theatres, festivals, art centers, colleges, universities and schools throughout the United States. In 1996 John produced, co-directed and performed OLD MAN KOKOPELI, a masked theatre work inspired by his Native American-Pueblo Indian heritage. He also played "Coyote Blue" in "Coyote Tales" - a series of seven Isleta Pueblo coyote stories originally told by John Jaramillo’s great grandfather that were adapted for the stage. The production “Coyote Tales” made its touring debut, May 1st, 2000 at the University of New Mexico, Popejoy Hall, Center for the Arts in Albuquerque. In May and November of 2000 “Coyote Tales” was performed at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian in New York City. His artistic background also includes mime training as well as dance and theatre training at the University of New Mexico and international study in Spanish Dance in Spain. In 1990 John was invited to join the Aztec dance troupe, Ehecatl (the wind), by the troupe’s founder, Paz Zamora. This dance troupe is based in Albuquerque, New Mexico and is comprised of members of various Native American tribes from different regions of Mexico and the United States. Since then, John has performed with Ehecatl in the U.S. and Mexico. He has also toured nationally as a principal performer with Naa Kahidi Native American Theatre, Daystar Native American Dance Theatre, Prairie Dance Theatre and several Spanish/Flamenco Dance Companies.
Audience Etiquette
Before the workshop/program, discuss with your students what makes a good audience.
Before the workshop/program, discuss with your students what makes a good audience.Compare appropriate behavior for different kinds of audiences situations – e.g., rock concert, sporting event, theatre, ballet.
Compare appropriate behavior for different kinds of audiences situations – e.g., rock concert, sporting event, theatre, ballet.Students will get more out of the wkshp/program if they come prepared. Use this guide to help student anticipate what to listen & look for.
Students will get more out of the wkshp/program if they come prepared. Use this guide to help student anticipate what to listen & look for.Set a good example, catch up on paperwork after the workshop/performance.
Set a good example, catch up on paperwork after the workshop/performance.Program Description
Students are introduced to a storytelling process without the use of words with a mask and flute performance excerpt from theatre production “Old Man Kokopeli”. They are then encouraged to (story) tell in their own words what they have just experienced. “In the Beginning”, a telling about the Pueblo People’s world, sets the stage for stories to follow. Humorous animal stories and/or character stories will be shared. Student participation in a Pueblo style pow-wow dance ends the program.
Program Objectives
•To learn about Pueblo Indian Culture, the oldest tribal communities in the U.S.
To learn about Pueblo Indian Culture, the oldest tribal communities in the U.S.•To learn about the different languages, customs and beliefs.
To learn about the different languages, customs and beliefs. •To learn about geography of the southwest – it’s plants and animals of the region.
To learn about geography of the southwest – it’s plants and animals of the region.•To explore the cultural connections to other Native Indian cultures of Canada, Mexico, Central America and South America.
To explore the cultural connections to other Native Indian cultures of Canada, Mexico, Central America and South America. Vocabulary
•PUEBLO – Spanish word for “town”. Refers to the indigenous people of New Mexico as well as the villages that they inhabit.
PUEBLO – Spanish word for “town”. Refers to the indigenous people of New Mexico as well as the villages that they inhabit. •RIO GRANDE – The “Big River” that flows, north to south, year round through the entire length of the state of New Mexico.
RIO GRANDE – The “Big River” that flows, north to south, year round through the entire length of the state of New Mexico.•SHIPAPU – The underworld place of emergence of the Pueblo People.
SHIPAPU – The underworld place of emergence of the Pueblo People.Curriculum Connections: Social Studies, Foreign Language, Arts, Language Arts
The program describes the belief system of the Pueblo People through stories as well as the connection to the New Mexican landscape and the wildlife living there. The Pueblo Tiwa language is used to name animals, places and objects related to the stories. Traditional and contemporary Pueblo life is also addressed.
RESOURCES/Books
Indians of the Southwest
Traditions, History, Legends, and Life
By Lisa Sita
Courage Books/Philadelphia, PA 1997
ISBN 0-7624-0070-6
Pueblo Stories and Storytellers
By Mark Bahti
Treasure Chest Books/Tucson, AZ 1996
ISBN 1-887896-01-5
Where there is no name for Art
The Art of Tewa pueblo children
By Bruce Hucko
University of Washington Press 1996
ISBN 0-614-2045-34
The Serpents’ Tongue
Prose, Poetry and Art of the
New Mexican Pueblos
Edited by Nancy Wood
Dutton Books/New York 1997
ISBN 0-525-45514
Pueblo and Mission
Cultural Roots of the Southwest
By Susan Lamb
Northland Publishing/Flagstaff, AZ 1997
ISBN 0-87358-653-0
Indians of North America/The Pueblo
By Alphonso Ortiz
Chelsea House Publishers/New York 1994
ISBN 1-55546-727-X
OVERVIEW OF NATIVE AMERICAN STORYTELLING
Storytelling among Native American cultures has existed for centuries. Since written language was not prevalent among many North American tribes, oral tradition became one, if not the most important, way that a tribe’s identity, history and language was passed along. It also became the means by which specific information was disseminated to instruct as well as to teach values, morals and acceptable behavior. In tribal life certain customs and traditions, especially spiritual traditions, have ancient roots. Native Americans are able to practice them today because these customs and traditions have been handed down to them from their ancestors through oral tradition. These spiritual traditions contain myths and stories of emergence, creation, the cosmos, deities and supernatural life. Tribal stories also conveyed their supreme connection to the land and their relationship with the animals in nature. Oral tradition continues with the native people of the southwestern desert lands and mountains regions in the United States. Today, they are known as the Apache, Pima, Maricopa, Yaqui, Mojave, Tohono O’odham, Navajo, Ute, Hopi and Pueblo People all living in the states of Arizona and New Mexico.
OVERVIEW OF PUEBLO INDIAN CULTURE
According to emergence stories of the Pueblo People, “…it was the underworld from which we emerged, a passage through a lake at a sacred place known as shipapu…”. Once through, they wandered the land, aided by the Great Spirit and other sacred beings. With their help they showed the people how to make their way through the desert and mountain ranges in this new world. They were also given knowledge of how to live in it. The descendants of those first people, millennia ago, are known today as the Mogollon/Mimbres culture (300 BC to AD 1200) of the mountain regions ranging from the boarders of Arizona and New Mexico into Mexico; and the Anazasi (AD 1 to AD 1300) who lived among the canyons and mesas near what today is called the Four Corners region (the area where New Mexico, Arizona, Utah and Colorado meet). There were others who shared that ancient past and landscape and more were to come at a much later time. It is known the descendants of the Mogollon/Mimbre and Anazasi are today’s Pueblo People. They were first to depend on agriculture for their food supply and one of the first to live in permanent settlements. In 1540 when the Spanish Conquistadors arrived (in what is now New Mexico) looking for the “Seven Cities of Cibola” (the seven cities of gold), there were as many as 90 river pueblos along the upper Rio Grande River with more desert pueblos to the west. The Spanish came upon the native people living in villages of multilevel homes with an intact system of government and religious societies. They referred to the villages as “pueblos. (a Spanish word which means “town”). Today “pueblo” refers to the people as well as the villages that they inhabit.
Nineteen New Mexican pueblos exist today. They are the Rio Grande River pueblos: Isleta, Sandia, San Felipe, Santa Ana, Santo Domingo, Cochiti, Zia, Jemez, Tesuque, Nambe, Pojoaque, Santa Clara, San Ildefonso, San Juan, Picuris, Taos. And the desert pueblos: Acoma, Laguna, Zuni. The Hopi are a similar people who live in Arizona.
Four languages are spoken among the Pueblos: Keresan, Tanoan, (with three dialects: Tiwa, Tewa, Towa) Zuni and Hopi (a Uto-Aztecan dialect). John Jaramillo’s family extends to two pueblos of different languages – his father’s pueblo of Isleta where Tiwa, a dialect of the Tanoan language, is spoken and his mother’s pueblo of San Felipe where they speak Keresan.
Copyright © 2011, John Jaramillo
Contact Info:
205-902-6231 John
205-441-5000 Therra
John Jaramillo
actor - dancer - choreographer - instructor - arts in education
