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By Kristin Dowell, Ph.D. candidate, NYU Dept. of Anthropology
 An
exciting explosion of Native media projects is occurring across
the country as Native youth take up the camera to tell their own
stories. Native youth are creatively using media to engage their
cultural traditions and to convey their unique experiences. This
feature explores Native youth media programming at the National
Museum of the American Indian and highlights some of the innovative
youth media projects happening throughout Indian Country.
Teen Video Program of the Native American
Film and Video Festival 2000 National Museum of the American Indian
The National Museum of the American Indian was honored to present,
for the first time in the festival's twenty-year history, the
work of young Native media makers in a special teen video
program of the 2000 Native American Film and Video Festival. Three
works produced by Native youth from the United States and Canada
were screened in a special program with a Native teen and youth
audience. The media instructors and young Native
media makers involved with the featured productions introduced
their work and participated in a lively roundtable discussion
about the  role
of media in expressing the experiences of Native youth.
Titles Screened:
Four Directions Project
 Contact:
Marty Kriepe de Montano
Cultural Resources Center
4220 Silver Hill Rd.
Suitland, MD 20746
Phone: 301-238-6624, ext. 6422
demontano@ic.si.edu
www.conexus.si.edu/vrtour
 The
NMAI has worked in collaboration with Native communities on projects
that provide students with skills in computer-based technology
and video. A virtual tour of NMAI exhibitions was developed through
the Four Directions Project, funded by the U.S. Dept. of Education
and designed to provide Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) schools
with technology and training for developing culturally relevant
curriculum materials. Students from three schools were trained
in using QuickTime Virtual Reality software to create a three-dimensional,
interactive Web tour of two NMAI exhibitions at the George Gustav
Heye Center in New York. The project enabled them to learn about
NMAI's resources and their own cultures while providing them with
the skills to produce a virtual product.
Native Youth Video Production Workshop
 In
2000 NMAI held the Native Youth Video Production Workshop for
three Cherokee high school students and their teachers from Cherokee
High School in Cherokee, North Carolina, The skills learned at
the workshop at the Heye Center in New York were taken back to
the school to be used in the development of a video program to
help teach Cherokee language and cultural practices.
Image credits All
photographs by Georgetta Stonefish, NMAI of NMAI Native American
Youth Media Projects: Cherokee
High School students at the Native Youth Video Production Workshop;
Cherokee High School students at the Native Youth Video Production
Workshop; Instructor and students from Hannahville Indian School,
Four Directions Project; Students from Hannahville Indian School,
Four Directions Project; Instructor and student from Marty Indian
School, Four Directions Project; Student from Santa Clara Day
School, Four Directions Project; Cherokee High School students
at the Native Youth Video Production Workshop
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