“We recorded thirty-two songs,” says Dr. Mario Garza, Institute Board Chair. “And we provide the translations, vital Coahuiltecan language information, and ceremonial history in a manual that’s packaged with the CD.”

This recording is the first of its kind, documenting words spoken in a language that has long been considered extinct. Carlos Aceves, an educator from El Paso, Texas and Dr. Mario Garza compiled songs that the two have sung in various ceremonies including sweat lodges and Native American Church meetings. These songs are all in the Coahuiltecan language and a number of them have been passed down several generations.

“Indigenous people called Coahuiltecan have been living on both sides of the Rio Grande River for centuries,” says Garza. “We had over two hundred indigenous languages in south Texas that have since disappeared. Now we Native people are determined to revive and preserve our native languages and this CD is part of our effort.”

Besides translating all of the songs, the manual also contains a glossary of Coahuiltecan words and their definitions, plus sources for more extensive dictionaries of not only Coahuiltecan, but also Comecrudo, Cotoname, Maratino, Aranama, and Karankawa, which are also Rio Grande Delta tribes.

The mission of Indigenous Cultures Institute is to preserve and promote the cultures, traditions, ceremonies, and languages of Native Americans indigenous to Texas and Northeastern Mexico. This CD project is the first in its new Coahuiltecan Language Program which will expand over the next year. The Institute also sponsors “Powwow in the Schools” to provide educational and artistic presentations about the indigenous identity of the Hispanic.

“We want our children to feel proud about their Native ancestry,” says Aceves, who teaches elementary school in El Paso. “They stand on the shoulders of giants in the areas of arts, sciences, astronomy, sociology, ecology, and more.” The Institute provides researched information about Native American contributions, performances by Aztec, Mayan, and Powwow dancers, flute players, Native storytellers, and other cultural presentations.

“Now we have a language CD that can help us preserve our culture through the words that our ancestors spoke,” says Aceves.

The CD and manual packets will be available starting on Independence Day and inquiries can be sent to Indigenous Cultures Institute on their CONTACT PAGE or by calling (512) 393-3310.

Dr. Mario Garza

What:             Hispanics’ Indigenous Identity:  Lecture Series & Genealogy Workshop         

When:             June 26 – Untold Truths; July 31 – We Have Survived; August 28 – We Will Remain.

Where:           San Marcos Public Library, 625 E. Hopkins Street, San Marcos, Texas

Contact:       For more information contact Dr. Mario Garza, (512) 393-3310, ICIinfo@IndigenousCultures.org 

Indigenous Cultures Institute is unveiling its lecture series about Hispanics being Native Americans, followed by a genealogy workshop to help this population research and embrace their indigenous ancestry.  The nonprofit organization joins the San Marcos Public Library in presenting “Hispanics’ Indigenous Identity – Lecture Series & Genealogy Workshop.”  The first workshop, “Untold Truths” by Dr. Mario Garza, is scheduled for June 26, 2010, from 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM, at the San Marcos Public Library, 625 E. Hopkins Street, San Marcos, Texas. The three-lecture series focuses on the complex evolution of the Hispanic identity – social and historical factors that influenced Hispanics to reject their Native American heritage and embrace a Spanish-European identity. At the third lecture, genealogist Xoxi Nayapiltzin will present non-traditional methods used in tracing indigenous ancestry.

During the past year of Native lectures, presentations, and events, Indigenous Cultures Institute has received an overwhelming number of requests for help in researching indigenous roots, many of them from Hispanics who were not descendants of federally recognized tribes.

“’I know I’m Indian,’ some people would say to me,” states Dr. Garza, who will present all three lectures. “’I just don’t know what kind,’ they’d say. A primary mission of our organization is to help individuals explore their indigenous ancestry and to feel proud about the tremendous contributions, innovations and future potential of their indigenous legacy.”  

Dr. Garza’s first lecture will provide information about Hispanics’ indigenous ancestors – who they were, their enormous innovations and contributions to society, how political and social factors impacted their survival – and how they emerged into a new identity that suppressed their Native roots.

The second lecture, “We Have Survived” is scheduled for July 31st from 1:00 PM – 4:00 PM, and the third lecture, “We Shall Remain” and genealogy workshop are set for August 28 starting at 10:00 AM.  On August 28, the genealogy workshop is scheduled from 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM, also at the Library. 

“Most Hispanics can’t use traditional methods to trace their roots, like birth certificates and land titles,” says Nayapiltzin.  He will discuss the methods he used to research and discover over 200 of his ancestors, such as Mission records, tribal migrations and settlements, and alternative processes.   

All presentations are free and open to the public.  For further details call 512-393-3310, or visit IndigenousCultures.org. The genealogy workshop is made possible in part by a grant from Humanities Texas, the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

PHOTOS

San Marcos’ sacred springs reawakened when over three hundred Native American powwow dancers and participants arrived for the much anticipated 1st Annual Sacred Springs Powwow & Indian Market, held on Saturday, May 1, 2010, from 10:00 AM until 7:00 PM at Aquarena Center, 921 Aquarena Springs Drive, San Marcos, Texas.  The event was sponsored by Indigenous Cultures Institute with support from Hays County, the City of San Marcos, San Marcos Arts Commission, Texas State University, San Marcos Consolidated Independent School District, CenturyLink, Pendleton Outlet, Austin Monthly, U.S. Census 2010, and the Tomblin Family Foundation.

“The Sacred Springs area is one of the oldest inhabited sites in North America and Native people believe it’s one of three creation sites where we originated,” says Dr. Mario Garza, board chair of the institute.  “Over the next several years, this event – held in honor of our ancestors – will bring together hundreds of Native people not only from the United States, but from all of the Americas.”   Garza refers to the institute’s plans for a heritage festival to be added to the powwow slated for 2011.

Activities began at 10:00 AM with a blessing at the Sacred Springs.  Several people were called upon to say a prayer in their Native language, and the Cuican In Xochitl Aztec dance members participated in the prayer to the four directions. 

The powwow featured Keetoowah Cherokee champion dancer David Hoskins as Head Man Dancer, Comanche renowned traditional singer Lance Tahchawwickah as Head Southern singer, and Texas-famed Eagle Point as the Northern Drum.  Indigenous Cultures Institute sponsored a Tiny Tots dance where little dancers enjoyed the spotlight and lined up afterwards to receive a gift to honor their dancing.

A major Indian Market offered the largest gathering of Native American arts, crafts, and food vendors ever assembled in San Marcos.  Food booths offered the ever popular Native fry bread tacos, healthy buffalo burgers, buffalo stew, roasted corn, turkey legs, chicken shish kabobs, and a variety of sweets like kettle corn, funnel cake, and snow cones.  Arts and crafts included almost 50 vendors with a large selection ranging from Southwest jewelry, pottery, moccasins, Native dolls, stone oil lamps, breast plates and other relic replicas, to fine art paintings, weavings, and sculptures.

At 5:00 PM, Dallas Aztec dance company Cuicani In Xochitl made a special guest appearance in honor of this first powwow.  Famous for their dynamic and physically demanding dance movements and their spectacular regalia, this dance group provided a dazzling indigenous performance.  The Aztec group also shared a naming ceremony with the public where little ones were given their Nahuatl names.  Following this group, Yanaguana Danzantes Azteca from San Antonio provided a huge audience participation performance that closed the event with the spirited sharing of camaraderie.  

Comments from the public included:

• “Congratulations on a successful wonderful, beautiful fulfilling day.”
• “The aquifer was a great backdrop for the entire event.”
• “Oh it was WONDER FILLED!  I am so privileged to be a part of it. “
• “…that’s what a powwow is supposed to be like in my mind!  Outdoors with your feet feeling mother earth as you hear and feel the heart beat of her through the drum!”
• “Congratulations on putting on a first rate pow wow!”
• “A pow wow in San Marcos was long overdue and we look forward to attending the pow wow annually.”
• “Your Powwow had something…and that is a proper Spirit.” 

Photo collage: Rene Renteria Photography

 Courtesy of TylerTube.com

Indigenous Cultures Institute organized the local Native community to provide education and information about Native Americans, particularly from this area, southern Texas, and northern Mexico.  Their first major event in San Marcos, “Songs of the Seven Directions,” was held at the Aquarena Center’s Earth Day Celebration in April 2009.  They have since produced several Native functions including “Eagle and Condor” dance exhibition, “Hispanic’s Indigenous Identity” lecture series, “Tracing Indigenous Ancestry” genealogy workshop, and the “Seven Directions Art Exhibit – celebrating Native American culture.”

Voices of America article and radio story: Decimated Tribe Seeks Recognition Through 2010 Census

San Marcos Daily Record story: A Census Campaign, Hispanics can claim Native American heritage

Roberto Dr. Cintli Rodriguez, article: Census: Masking Identities or Counting the Indigenous Among Us?

Ahora Si! article: Un mal conteo cuesta mucho

By: Heidi Zhou – News 8 Austin

The U.S. Census has changed the way it collects information about Hispanics and American Indians, in a way that could help the latter gain more recognition.Mario Garza and his wife, Maria Rocha, will tell you ethnicity and race are two different things. The couple runs the Indigenous Cultures Institute, a 2010 Census partner working to educate Hispanics about how to fill out the census form.

“According to your DNA, there are four races, and one of them is American Indian,” Rocha said.

The other three include white, black and Asian. Hispanic is considered an ethnicity.

“You can identify as a Taino, Mexican American, Mexican. All of those are national words, but not exactly racial words,” Rocha said.

It is by such standards that the couple can consider themselves Hispanic and American Indian at the same time.

The couple said the new wording of the 2010 Census shows the U.S. government is finally willing to give American Indians their due weight.”It finally validates to the individual it’s not only OK to be American Indian, it’s a good thing, and the Census wants to know,” Rocha said.

It wants to know because funding and programs for various groups depend on the results, and in those terms, experts say race and ethnicity really are more than just words.

WHEN

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San Marcos’ sacred springs reawaken when over one hundred Native American powwow dancers and participants arrive for the much anticipated 1st Annual Sacred Springs Powwow & Indian Market, held on Saturday, May 1, 2010, from 10:00 AM until 7:00 PM at Aquarena Center, 921 Aquarena Springs Drive, San Marcos, Texas.  The event is sponsored by a local Native American nonprofit organization, Indigenous Cultures Institute, with support from Hays County, the City of San Marcos, San Marcos Arts Commission, Texas State University, and CenturyLink.

“The Sacred Springs area is one of the oldest inhabited sites in North America and Native people believe it’s one of three creation sites where we originated,” says Dr. Mario Garza, board chair of the institute.  “Over the next several years, this event – held in honor of our ancestors – will bring together hundreds of Native people not only from the United States, but from all of the Americas.”   Garza refers to the institute’s plans for a heritage festival to be added to the powwow slated for 2011.

Activities will begin at 10:00 AM with a blessing at the Sacred Springs.  The powwow will feature Keetoowah Cherokee champion dancer David Hoskins as Head Man Dancer, Comanche renowned traditional singer Lance Tahchawwickah as Head Southern singer, and Texas-famed Eagle Point as the Northern Drum.  

A major Indian Market will be held in conjunction with the powwow, offering the largest gathering of Native American arts, crafts, and food vendors ever assembled in San Marcos.  Food booths will offer the ever popular Native fry bread tacos, healthy buffalo burgers, roasted corn, turkey legs, chicken shish kabobs, and a variety of sweets like kettle corn, funnel cake, and snow cones.  Arts and crafts will include a large selection ranging from Southwest jewelry, pottery, moccasins, Native dolls, stone oil lamps, breast plates and other relic replicas, to fine art paintings, weavings, and sculptures.

At 5:00 PM, Dallas Aztec dance company Cuicani In Xochitl will make a special guest appearance in honor of this first powwow.  Famous for their dynamic and physically demanding dance movements and their spectacular regalia, this dance group guarantees a dazzling finale to the indigenous festivities.  

Indigenous Cultures Institute organized the local Native community to provide education and information about Native Americans, particularly from this area, southern Texas, and northern Mexico.  Their first major event in San Marcos, “Songs of the Seven Directions,” was held at the Aquarena Center’s Earth Day Celebration in April 2009.  They have since produced several Native functions including “Eagle and Condor” dance exhibition, “Hispanic’s Indigenous Identity” lecture series, “Tracing Indigenous Ancestry” genealogy workshop, and the “Seven Directions Art Exhibit – celebrating Native American culture.”

First we must understand that this date has been extracted from the Mesoamerican calendars of the Maya and Nahua peoples.  These ancient calendars complete their calculations at the end of their greatest or longest cycle of 25,625 years – also known as the Great Cycle by the Sumerians and Egyptians.   It is this completed cycle, coming full circle on 2012, that has been reinterpreted to predict the end of the world.  But this supposed “doomsday number” is only one of the calendars’ cyclical calculations.

Earth spins on her axis, giving us day and night. She also orbits the sun, giving us years. She also moves around the sun on a tilted axis, which creates the boundaries of the equator in the middle, the Tropic of Cancer to the north and Tropic of Capricorn to the South. This tilt is what gives us the seasons. However, motion on the Earth’s axis is not even or uniform; the Earth wobbles and thus the tropics are not static. This wobble is called obliquity and the tropic change is called precession. They shrink and expand over a 25,770 year cycle. This shrinkage and expansion over the years gives us periods of extreme heat as well as ice-ages. Currently the tropics are shrinking.

Something else happens. As this great combination of cycles continues, the Earth gains a different star as her North Star.   About 5,125 years ago, the North Star was Thuban. In the next cycle, starting in 2012, it will be Alderabim, then Tau Herculi, and then Vega. Like the Mesoamericans, the Egyptians, Babylonians, and Sumerians knew about this changing of the North Stars. When the European empires invaded the Americas, they had no idea of such astronomy.

There are also other important cycles that will occur on 2012-2013.  Currently the Sun is aligned with the center of the Milky Way Galaxy.  On December 21, 2012 the Sun will be in alignment with the dark area just above the galactic center. The Mesoamericans called this dark spot “the great womb” and it symbolized a rebirth. The “era of corn” and sustainable agriculture in Mesoamerica is marked as beginning on August 13, 3144 B. C. This alignment occurs every 5,125 years, which is one fifth of 25,625.  Thus the Great Cycle is divided into five parts.

This five-part division is marked on the Aztec (Nahua) Calendar as a fractal progression.  A pentagon symbol begins at the central face and fractally expands three times to exactly encompass the entire wheel.  The symbol beginning at the face represents the “human cycle” which correlates the human gestation period with Earth’s orbit. The second progression is the five cycles of Venus that repeat every eight years, as well as the five transits of Venus that also are visible from North American every eight years, and the alignment of Venus with the Pleiades every eight years. The third fractal expansion is the correlation of all of these cycles with the “Great Year”.

These cycles are not meshed together by human will. Rather they reflect what exists in nature. The Tzol’k'in (Mayan calendar) and Tonal Machiotl (Nahua calendar) only measure the cycles and calculate their future occurrence.  The year 2012 marks the end of these calendars in the sense that it is the end of their greatest or longest cycle. However, at this zero-point the calendars will continue to measure the cosmos and provide people with knowledge and measurement of key Earth and celestial cycles.  Of course, at one time, these calendars were also the compass-blueprint for a natural way of life to peoples in an area that roughly covered the territory of the tropics (Cancer and Capricorn) in North America. So are we in for a major social change?

When the Hopi saw a photo of the mushroom cloud of the atomic bomb and learned it had been detonated in New Mexico, they believed that their thousand year old prophecy was beginning. “When a gourd of ashes appears over your land, go to the house of mica where you will find the nations of the world gathered and tell them to change their ways. By this time humans will have brought great imbalances to the Earth and there will already have been two great shakings of the world.”  Some interpretations of this prophecy state that the house of mica (dark glass) was the United Nations building and the two shakings were World War I and II.  The prophecy goes on to say that if the nations of the world did not change their ways, the Creator would cast purification upon the Earth.  This purification would wipe out the bad that has been done and only those who follow the Natural Way would survive.

Does this Hopi prophecy coincide with 2012?  Does global warming or the other six major imbalances caused by our industrial society play a part in this doomsday date line? The Tzol’k'in and Tonal Machiotl are calendar-books that measure cycles.  Humans decide their fate. We know “the Way.”

Carlos Aceves, M.Ed.
Author and educator in El Paso, TX