Pittsburgh Indians,
Relationship of Pittsburgh Indian Narratives and counter narratives and those
of Honduran Indians and Afro-Hondurans
Griffin, Wendy ( 2013) Alternative
narratives to the Founding of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and its relation to
Indian Rights Claims in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky,
New York, Maryland, New Jersey and Oklahoma and comparison to similar themes in
Honduran Indian and Afro-indigenous history.
Wendy Griffin (2013) Alternative
narratives to the Founding of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and its relation to
Indian Rights Claims in the US and
Canada and similar themes in Honduran Indian and Afro-indigenous history.
The Narratives and Counter-Narratives
of “Jessie Grace” by Alice Miller, a
Western Pennsylvania author of Shawnee, Ojibwe, Swiss and Swedish Heritage, Interested in Issues Affecting
Modern and Historic Pennsylvania Indians By Wendy Griffin
Description: “Jessie Grace: A Tale of the
French and Indian War” is the tenth novel by Native American author Alice Miller who lives in the foothills of
the Laurel Highlands in Western Pennsylvania. Western Pennsylvania is also
the setting of the novel, which is the story of a widowed white woman Jessie
Grace living on a farm in the Allegheny Mountains with a Shawnee Indian
handyman Luke “River” La Riviere, whose father was French and whose mother was
Shawnee. Most of the white people in the novel just call him, “The Indian” and
find them living on the same farm alone in the mid-18th century
scandalous. River talks about the
problem of the Indians being hunted and killed in the areas of Central and
Western Pennsylvania and maybe moving to the hills of West Virginia. River’s
situation that gets worse as the French and Indian War breaks out around
them. This articles includes The Historical Context of the Novel and the
use of the true history narrative about
a Native American healer who was hanged at the beginning of the book as part of
an argument of rights and request for compensatory justice, a common theme in
modern Indian narratives especially in the US.
Alternative narratives to the Founding of Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania and its relation to Indian Rights Claims in the US and Canada and similar themes in Honduran
Indian and Afro-indigenous history. Reframes narrative and counter narratives
as argument of rights under real estate law and as
a request for compensatory justice, a common theme in modern Indian narratives
especially in the US. Many of these arguments serve to discredit the white
people as credible witnesses and to show that what they claim is not true.
Books and Articles Related to Health or Mental
health or medicinal Plants
Proposed
Title: Adventures and Cross Cultural Encounters with Honduran
Rainforest Indian and Afro-Honduran Traditional Medicine
Authors:
Wendy Griffin, Clara Tomasa Garcia Chimilio (Garifuna), and Juana
Carolina Hernández Torres (Pech)
Description; See Annex Two for Descriptions
of the work of Wendy Griffin and these Garifuna and Pech healers in the area of
Traditional medicine. This book proposes to look at traditional Honduran medicine as practiced by different
ethnic groups from a number of different perspectives, including interethnic
encounters with traditional Honduran medicine as practiced by a different
group, sometimes told through anecdotes or stories rather than as only a
“serious” traditional medicine study.
Many people confuse traditional medicine study with the study of
medicinal plants.
These intercultural encounters I have
collected after 25 years of listening to Honduran Indians and Afro-Hondurans
and foreigners and Ladinos who also live in Honduras, Garifunas and Black English
speakers who have immigrated to the States,
US medical brigades that drop into Honduras for a week to save the
Hondurans, and to people who work in ethnobotany and “health disparities” (why some ethnic or
racial groups like US Blacks have worse health outcomes than other group like
US whites or why more Miskito mothers die in childbirth than Garifuna
mothers), Honduran education,
anthropology, forestry especially in protected areas, environmental NGO’s, “development” in ethnic areas, in Native American
or Indigenous or Afro-Indigenous
Rights, and to Native Americans in the
US, I see the questions of traditional medicine from a much broader viewpoint.
Western
Regional International health Conference Proposal Articles title (29
pages): A Female Veteran’s Story Who
suffered from Mental health and Physical
health issues specifically related to women, and a Substance Abuse problem, too, Related to
Self-Medication of the symptoms of the untreated mental illness and Nutritional and hormonal
Issues which also made the mental health worse, and situational problems
related to trouble working, posttraumatic stress due to rape, and to her mental and physical illnesses which put her at high risk of suicide and
homelessness within a short distance of the University of Pittsburgh Medical
Center, its mental health facility
Western Psych and from the Veteran Administration’s Hospital in Pittsburgh
which has a whole special hospital for the mentally ill vets. By Wendy Griffin
(2014) Originally submitted to the Western Regional International Health
Conference, under the Perceptions Unmasked Thread, but the proposal was not
accepted for presentation.
Synopsis:
What were the systemic problems that caused Missed Opportunities to
prevent job loss, homelessness, and being able to Return to being Housed and
Working because of Too Many Closed Doors
and Special Issues Regarding Health in Women of Child Bearing Age and how
public libraries did help? Her life story and the story of men in the EECM’s
homeless shelter involved in a Coordinated Care Network study of how public and
privately funded social services, medical clinics, and mental health programs
do or do not work together show that Mental Health care, Physical Health care,
Access to Social Programs for the Poor who become poor because of mental and physical health
issues and can not resolve the health
issues or homeless issue without access
to care led to increased health care costs and have high personal social
costs.
About the Author
Wendy Griffin is the author of 6 published books on Honduran Indians and
Afro-Hondurans including studying their health care systems, writer of over 300
articles for online newspapers since 1992 including Honduras This Week Online,
HondurasWeekly.com, elaquilanews.com, latinalista.com, altantablackstar.com,
and formerly grant writer and program evaluator of the hunger and housing
programs for the homeless (including mentally ill or dual diagnosed
mentally ill and addiction problems) and the formerly homeless mentally ill people
now stabilized in the community who used the drop in center of the East End
Cooperative Ministry (EECM). She has an undergraduate degree from Western
Washington University and a Master’s degree from the University of Pittsburgh.
She grew up in Pittsburgh and lived there on and off after finishing her
Master’s Degree. Part of her purpose for returning to Pittsburgh from her work
overseas periodically was to seek, generally unsuccessfully help with physical
and mental health problems severe enough to affect her ability to work, her
personal relationships, and even to
function living independently. Her own inability to find adequate or affordable
treatment in the US has a great deal to do with why she was in Honduras and
having a lot of free time to study healing and medicinal plants with local
healers of the Pech and Garifuna communities.
This 45 page guide prepared 3/14/2014 of
Materials by Wendy Griffin
Please contact Wendy Griffin for complete
guide and for information on availability of materials please contact
author at grif.wendy@gmail.com
Part II of This material on the Writings of
Wendy Griffin is divided into:
Writings and donated to the University of
Pittsburgh’s Hillman library-published works
Video donated to the University of
Pittsburgh’s Hillman library
Writings and donated to the University of
Pittsburgh’s Hillman library-unpublished works
New Published materials not in the
University of Pittsburgh Hillman library
Internet Resources
Books,
articles, newspaper articles, websites, Photos of Honduran crafts on Wikimedia
Commons.
Unpublished Manuscripts in US University
Librarians or Museums, but not at the University of Pittsburgh.
Honduran
Craft Series related to Donation of Honduran crafts to the Burke Museum
University of Washington.
Pre-2012 Articles Not in the University of
Pittsburgh Which Wendy Griffin has copies of
Materials Wendy Griffin has written, and
other people have copies of but she does not.
Relationship of Wendy Griffin to Garifuna
Emergency Committee videos produced together with Witness.org.
New unpublished materials
Honduran
Indians and Afro-Honduran Materials and Mexican Indians in Honduras articles,
essays, or proposed books.
Materials
Related to Donation of Honduran Crafts
Pittsburgh
Indians and Narratives and Counter Narratives of Pittsburgh Indians and how
they are similar to Narrative and Counter Narratives of Honduran Indians and
Afro-Hondurans.(In response to the Traditional Indigenous Knowledge Network at
Penn State call for articles about Indian narratives.)
SALALM
related articles and Reports and Book Reviews
Wikipedia
related Articles and Reports
Traditional
peoples and health and encounters/clashes with Western health systems.(Most are
in Response to the Western Regional International Health Conference Seattle,
Washington.)
People who have included published thanks
to Wendy Griffin for her help in their investigations of Honduran Indians or
Afro-Hondurans.
Wendy Griffin’s materials published not
related to Honduran ethnic groups (Mostly either English teaching or about
Southern Chinese folk religion.)
Writings and Video Donated to the University of
Pittsburgh’s Hillman Library’s Eduardo
Lozano Collection by former University
of Pittsburgh student Wendy Griffin --ALL THESE BOOKS ARE ABOUT
HONDURAN ETHNIC GROUPS
Published books
Griffin, Wendy & Comite de Emergencia
Garifuna de Honduras (CEGAH), “Los Garifunas de Honduras: Cultura, Lucha y Derechos bajo el Convenio
169 de la OIT” (The Garifunas of Honduras: Culture, Struggle,
and Rights under ILO Convention 169” in Spanish ) Central Impresora San Pedro
Sula, 2005.
Description: This is the result of Wendy Griffin’s 10 year
study of Garifuna culture and land problems.
This book was co-written and revised with a Garifuna NGO from Trujillo
called the Garifuna Emergency Committee of Honduras (CEGAH) which funded the
publication of the book through a grant from the Edwards’ Foundation. The book highlights Garifuna agriculture, especially
since many believe the Garifunas are not farmers. The descriptions of Garifuna foods includes
comparison with similar foods of Afro-Caribbean origin. Garifuna techniques for obtaining proteins
include freshwater fishing, hunting, and animal husbandry as well as the salt
water fishing they are famous for.
The book documents 34 Garifuna dances. Its section of Garifuna religious ceremonies
was reviewed by an 86 year Garifuna shaman.
10 pages of color photos and 125 total photos make this a richly
illustrated book. Over 30 crafts
are described and shown and at least 7
different kinds of traditional housing.
A midwife and healer helped to produce the list of over 100 Garifuna
medicinal plants. There are Garifuna
words for most culturally important things and a description of the Garifuna
sound system and the controversy about the Garifuna alphabet.
All these elements are analyzed as to what
part of the Garifuna ecosystem the raw materials come from and how land and
resource loss are affecting the Garifuna people. Their location on the beach has hidden that
they are being strongly impacted by the loss of the rainforest. Projects to counterbalance the losses
including the legal struggles for Garifuna lands are noted, as are conflicts
with current Honduran government land titling practices. This book was produced for the Garifuna
bilingual-intercultural education project.
326 pages. Copies were also
donated to UNM, CWU and WWU. Some US universities also bought copies when some
were made available for sale through Libraria Guaymuras (who never paid the
Garifunas for the copies sold.)
There is a preliminary English version of
this book Griffin, Wendy (2000) The Garifunas: Resource Loss and ILO Convention
169 which is in some US libraries including the Vine Deloria Jr. Library of the
National Museum of the American Indian and the Burke Museum of the University
of Washington. The English version does contain photos and descriptions of all
the Garifuna crafts noted in the above book.
Flores, David “La
Evolución histórica de la Danza Folklórica Hondureña” IHER, Tegucigalpa, 2003.
Description: Wendy Griffin’s study of the folk dances of the Garifunas, Pech, Bay
Islanders, Tawahkas and Miskitos are combined with David Flores’s study of
Chorti, Lenca and Ladino folk dances to produce an anthology of 140 known
Honduran folk dances. This book studies
the transition from pre-Columbian religious dances in indigenous languages to
colonial Catholic religious dances with musical accompaniment, especially the
Moors & Christians among the Chortis and the Guancascos of the Lencas. The addition of European social dances
resulted in syncretic forms like religious polkas, only done for Saint’s Day
festivals. This book documents religious
dances still done by the Garifunas, Tawahkas and Miskitos. It has interesting tables on how to analyze
Latin American folk dancing. David
Flores has over 20 years of folk dancing experience and has been the National
Director of Folklore for the Honduran Ministry of Culture. This is one of the most general and complete
studies of Afro-Honduran religious ceremonies with dances currently available. This
book was also donated to UNM , WWU,CWU, and Tulane. (The copy donated to UNM
did not end up in the library for unknown reasons.)
Flores, David (2003) Evolución Histórica
de la Danza Folklórica Hondureña. Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Incluye descripciones
y mas de 125 fotos de danzas folklóricas
incluyendo muchas danzas afro-hondureñas
incluyendo las danzas ceremoniales o religiosas. Estudio de danzas Garifunas de
Wendy Griffin, Estudio de danzas de Isleñas de Wendy Griffin y David Flores,
Estudio de danzas Miskitos de Miskiwat y Wendy Griffin, Danzas Ladinos de David
Flores. Danzas Lencas y Maya-Chortis de
David Flores y Wendy Griffin. Unas
danzas ceremoniales grandes conocidos
como "los Guancascos" de los Ladinos, Chortis y Lencas tienen una
sección especial que se llama "Los Negritos" y los bailaraines andan
con máscaras y hacen danzas graciosas. (Book Review in HondurasWeekly.com February
2013 in Culture)
Miskiwat “La gente de Miskut y otros cuentos” Editorial
Guardabarranco, Tegucigalpa. 1996. Miskiwat--Miskitu
Iwanka Watla/Centro de Cultura Miskita(1995b)
Miskut Kiuma Nisanka Kiska Nani Cuentos de la gente de Miskut--versión
bilingüe Miskito/Español (Wendy Griffin, coordinadora) Teguicgalpa: Editorial Guardabarranco. Con dibujos del artista Miskito David Smith.
Description: This is a collection of Miskito folktales collected in both Miskito and
Spanish in a Project coordinated by Wendy Griffin as part of Miskito
bilingual-intercultural education. The
people of Miskut, the lead story, tells the origin of the name of the Miskito
people. This book also tells the story of the Rah people who are believed to be
the Mesoamerican descendants of the builders of the Ciudad Blanca, who later
mixed with the Miskitos or were killed. This book also has many twin stories
where one person does something with good intentions and is rewarded and
another person does the same things because they are greedy and envious and
they usually die. These type of stories
are also found in Angola. This is one of two story books published by Miskiwat,
a group of Miskito university students studying at the UPN.
The second
book is Miskiwat (1996) “El niño que un kisi se llevó
y otros cuentos” Tegucigalpa: Editorial Guardabanco. Miskiwat--Miskitu Iwanka Watla/Centro de
Cultura Miskita(1995a) El Kisi que Se
llevó a Un Niño y Otros Cuentos--versión bilingüe Miskito/Español (Wendy
Griffin, coordinadora) Tegucigalpa:
Editorial Guardabarranco. Con dibujos del artista Miskito David Smith.
This book
contains many Rabbit stories similar to Brer Rabbit stories in the US and the
Caribbean and among the Bantus of Africa.
This book also contains many kisi stories. The word kisi comes from the Bantu word nkisi
meaning nature spirit, but the character of the kisi, a large hairy
spirit-man-moneky who lives in the mountains and woods, is probably a
translation of the sisimite of Nahua Indian origin. These books were funded by
UNICEF and all copies were given to Miskito elementary schools except one copy
to the library of the UPN which these are copies of. Miskiwat also did most of
the study of Miskito dances in David Flores’s book on Folkdances for this
UNICEF grant, but then UNICEF did not publish the Miskito-Spanish songbooks
that these dance descriptions were part of. Donated also to Tulane.
Many of my manuscripts at the University
of Pittsburgh related to Afro-Hondurans like Los Miskitos, Yaya: La Vida de Una Curandera
Garifunas, Habia una vez en una Comunidad Garifuna, Los Isleños y los Ingleses
de la costa norte de Honduras, Los Pech de Honduras, and the books by MISKIWAT
below do not show up for example on World Catt, but they should be accessible
by Inter-Library loan from the University of Pittsburgh whose catalog is called
pittcat.
Miskiwat--Miskitu Iwanka Watla/Centro de
Cultura Miskita(1995a) El Kisi que Se
llevó a Un Niño y Otros Cuentos--versión bilingüe Miskito/Español (Wendy
Griffin, coordinadora) Tegucigalpa:
Editorial Guardabarranco. Con dibujos del artista Miskito David Smith. Casi todas las copias de este libro publicado
con fondos de UNICEF fueron donados a escuelas en La Mosquitia. Hay copias en la biblioteca de UPN y el IHAH
en Tegucigalpa, el Museo de Antropología e Historia de San Pedro Sula,
University of Pittsburgh y Tulane University, EE. UU. y PRONEEAAH. Unas
personas como Jeanette Allsopp, Elmor Matute Wood y la biblioteca del IHAH
también tiene la versión electronica en inglés. English version in digital
version available from Wendy Griffin.
Miskiwat--Miskitu Iwanka Watla/Centro de
Cultura Miskita(1995b) Miskut Kiuma
Nisanka Kiska Nani Cuentos de la gente de Miskut--versión bilingüe
Miskito/Español (Wendy Griffin, coordinadora)
Teguicgalpa: Editorial Guardabarranco.
Con dibujos del artista Miskito David Smith. Casi todas las copias de este libro publicado
con fondos de UNICEF fueron donados a escuelas en La Mosquitia. Hay copias en la biblioteca de UPN y el IHAH
en Tegucigalpa, el Museo de Antropología e Historia de San Pedro Sula,
University of Pittsburgh y Tulane University, EE. UU. y PRONEEAAH. There is no version in English
of this story book.
Flores, Lazaro and Wendy Griffin
“Dioses, Héroes y Hombres Pech en el Universo Mítico Pech” Universidad Centroamericana, San Salvador.
1991.
Description: This is a collection of Pech myths.
The first unit has a summary of the history of the Pech by Wendy
Griffin. This is followed in the second
unit by Pech myths and their historical and comparative cultural analysis. Most analysis is by Wendy Griffin. Most Pech myths tell of the Post Classic
struggle between themselves and the Nahua invaders in their region. At the end of the book is a short ethnography
by Lazaro Flores, a noted Honduran anthropologist. This book was written in connection with the
beginning of the bilingual intercultural education project of the Pech
Indians. This book was previously used
as a university textbook in Honduras
Griffin, Wendy, Juana
Carolina Hernández Torres y Hernán Martínez Escobar (2009) Los Pech de
Honduras: Una etnia que aun Vive
Tegucigalpa: IHAH. This is a book about Pech rainforest Indians,
including history, crafts, foods, and problems of the destruction of the
rainforest and the loss of cultivated as well as wild plants, and the loss of
wild game to eat. Includes descriptions of most Pech ceremonies by Don Hernan’s
90 year old mother whose husband was one of the last people to do the
ceremonies. There arePech words for most culturally important Pech ítems. The
two co-authors with Wendy Griffin are Pech Indians who lived in Moradel,
Trujillo, Honduras at the time of the book’s publication but who grew up in
Culmi, Olancho and who for 20 years lived in the Rio Platano Biosphere Reserve..
Video
“Discover
the Rio Platano Biosphere: In Search of Ciudad Blanca” produced by SEPH (Society for the Exploration and Preservation of
Honduras-Ted Danger and Discovery Channel cameraman Tony Barrado). 2004. (The
filming and the website were done in 2000)
Wendy Griffin is featured as an ethnohistorian
about this lost ruin about which the Pech have myths and the Spanish, the
Ladinos, the Aztecs, the Mayas in Mexico, and the Honduran Nahuas recount
legends. The video include rare shots of
the archaeology of the White City region including metates and petroglyphs and
ceramics. Nahua city names and place
names are associated with the culture that produced the Ciudad Blanca and the
Nahuas of Catacamas say this ruin was one of their hidden cities where they
buried their gold when the Spanish came. It is located in the Rio Platano
Biosphere, a UNESCO World Heritage site. Beautiful rainforest photography and
exploration of the problems of rainforest destruction by Discovery channel
cameraman Tony Barrado. Donated to Hillman Library. Now available on Youtube.com in English and
in Spanish (Search Ciudad Blanca Honduras)
See the website www.roatanet.com/ciudadblanca
for details about this archaeological ruin and the group that made this movie.
Also includes some recordings in Miskito at the big painted rock which is
covered with petroglyphs on the Rio Platano, and music by Garifuna Boyz.
Includes a Garifuna Roberto Marin showing the plants including Medicinal plants
in the rainforest and talking about how aid is arriving to protect the Rio
Platano biosphere, but it is all spent in office and salaries and every day the
Mosquitia is getting worse. (See the video Paradise in Peril from 2011 on
Vimeo.com for the comparison of how the Rio Platano biosphere is being
destroyed.)
1.Background on the video “Discovering the
Rio Platano biosphere in Search of Ciudad Blanca”.
This movie features a Garifuna guide
Roberto Marin who tells about guifity, the traditional Garifuna healing wine
with herbs to clean the blood, he shows medicinal plants in the rainforest, he
talks about the problems in the Biosphere and is shown when they find people
taking out jaguar pelts, killing peccaries, talking to school kids in Biosphere
schools about the need to protect the Rio Platano Biosphere, showshim going up
to huaqueros who are digging up artifacts near a petroglyph, and particularly
dramatic, he talks about donations of money arrive in Honduras to protect the
Rio Platano Biosphere, but the Biosphere is the same, there is no protection.
The video also has short interviews with Osvaldo Munguia, the executive
director of MOPAWI the environmental and development NGO which works in the
Mosquitia, Wendy Griffin, Paul House the ethnobotanist who worked at the UNAH
for more than 10 years, other Honduran environmentalists, the son of Jesus
Aguilar Paz, people who sell Honduran archaeological pieces on the illegal art
market, and the nephew of Theodore Morde.
Although there is a version in 4 parts for free on Youtube in English
and in one part in Spanish, if you buy the DVD from the makers of the film it
comes with about 15 minute extra of archaeological pieces in private Honduran
collections from the Northeastern Honduran area where the Ciudad Blanca is. It
is available with Spanish or English soundtrack. The website associated with
this video is www.roatanet.com/ciudadblanca.
For biggest effect, see this video which shows heavy vegetation in 2000
and then see Paradise in Peril on Vimeo.com which shows the destruction of the
Rio Platano Biosphere in 2011.
The
Pech Indians are rainforest Indians who now primarily live in the department of
Olancho, but also in the Rio Platano Biosphere in Eastern Honduras. They are
mostly famous for telling the legend of the Ciudad Blanca or White City, a
large archaeological ruin in NE Honduras. A video about the area where the
Ciudad Blanca ruin is and its archaeology
featuring Wendy Griffin can be seen on Youtube. Search Ciudad Blanca Honduras
and is also in the University of Pittsburgh library. Wikipedia in English has a
good Ciudad Blanca article. This ruin has been the subject of specials by A and
E network and National Geographic and the new book Jungeland.by Wall Street
Journal Editor Chris Stewart. The drastic loss of rainforest in this area
between the Youtube video shot in 2000 and the Paradise in Peril video shot in
2011 available on Vimeo.com is alarming and is confirmed by Pech residents in
this area.
The book with the Ciudad Blanca legend and
the ethnohistory of the area is in “Dioeses, Heroes y Hombres en el Universo
Mitico Pech” (Gods, Heros, and Men in the Pech Mythical Universe) is the University of Pittsburgh library, as
are the books Los Pech de Honduras (The Pech of Honduras) , los Garifunas de
Honduras (the Garifunas of Honduras) and
La Historia de los indigenas de la Zona Nororiental de Honduras tomo I y
II (The History of the Indians of Northeastern Honduras Vol.I and II)by Pittsburgh
native Wendy Griffin and are available through Interlibrary loan. The
information of the books The History of the Indians of Northeastern Honduras in
their English and Spanish versions also appears on google books. Contact Wendy
Griffin grif.wendy@gmail.com or Tony Barrado
about the possibility of buying this DVD in English or in Spanish. It is in the
collections of the University of Pittsburgh, Tulane, IHAH, the UPN, and
University of Kansas. It was originally for sale on the Internet.
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