Indian Culture

You'll feel the drums before you see them. Approaching a Native American powwow affects the viscera first, throbbing the gut in a way that no rock concert can. Hives of tribal dancing and music, powwows center around an open arena rimmed with drummers who thunder away on animal skins and chant songs passed down through generations. Dancers fill the center ring, strutting and crouching to the rhythms; their beaded breastplates, fringed shawls and plumed headdresses twitch in time.

TeleFutura, a Spanish-language network owned by Univision, is taking viewers to another world ? one in which heroines' saris sparkle and some Hindi is spoken. The network is airing " India," a 2009 telenovela imported from Brazil that showcases Indian mores in a story of forbidden love between a low-caste Dalit man and an upper-caste woman. Set in India and Brazil, the soap ? originally titled "Caminho das Índias" (Road to India) ? sparked a frenzy in Brazil. And TeleFutura is hoping it will do the same here.

Imparting Chumash tribal wisdom to students at Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School on Thursday, Mark Mendez warned the children to beware of coyotes, the "tricksters" of Native American lore, as they journey through life. "Stay true to your path," Mendez said, concluding a fable about a young boy who was led astray by a coyote. "There are no shortcuts. Don't be misled by the coyotes you may encounter."

The Wampanoag Indians of southeastern Massachusetts welcomed the Pilgrims when they arrived on the Mayflower nearly 400 years ago. But now they're trying to stop another newcomer -- wind turbines. Citing customs and religious practices recorded since the earliest contact with Europeans, two local tribes have blocked, at least for now, America's first planned offshore wind farm and the Obama administration's efforts to promote renewable sources of energy. At issue is a private developer's plan to erect 130 wind turbine generators on a sandy shoal in the middle of Nantucket Sound, the scenic channel between Cape Cod and the resort islands of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket.

El Dorado Nature Center is seeking volunteers to take museum kits to schools in Orange County and teach children about Native American culture. Volunteers will receive 20 hours of instruction in the history, culture and economy of the Chumash and Tongva people who lived in Southern California before the first European settlers. The Acorns, Sea & Sage Moveable Museum kits to be delivered to schools include replicas of artifacts made and used by Native Americans.

Sifting through layer after layer of dirt along the banks of the Susquehanna River, archeologists have uncovered prehistoric Indian remains that offer an extraordinary look at the 700-year evolution of a culture. The 100-square-foot site is the only one in the eastern United States that has not fallen victim to the area's wet and dry periods, which disintegrate artifacts, said James Adovasio, chairman of the University of Pittsburgh's anthropology department.

Coming of age, with its attendant trials and successes, is a topic so well-worn in family theater and film that it borders on the threadbare. You know the plot by heart: On his or her journey to adulthood, a young person meets a string of seemingly insurmountable challenges while learning a valuable lesson in self-reliance and honor.

When it comes to indigenous history, Kat High has a warm greeting, a clear mission and answers for all who visit the Haramokngna American Indian Cultural Center. And sometimes her best answers can be to unasked questions. "I come from an area in Wisconsin that's near a Native American area," says Kathy Jones, a first-time visitor to the converted fire depot 12 miles deep in the Angeles National Forest. With a good-natured smile, High responds that historically, "it's all Native American area."

If the Artesia City Council ever relents, if businessmen such as Dhanesh Bhindi and Dilip Shah ever win the day, if Caltrans puts up a sign on the Artesia Freeway saying "Little India--Next Exit," will someone please track down Mr. Lahoti and invite him to the ceremony? Indian emigres in Southern California once had few places to call their own.

There is a saying in India, "May you always wear red," a phrase spoken among women, and offered as a sort of benediction. Widows, who do not have an easy time of it in India, are prohibited by custom from wearing the color red. And so what this saying means is: May you die before your husband. May you be spared the indignities of a solitary old age. It's the sort of detail, a way of looking at things, that an American might never think of but which is an integral part of the world of R. K.

Its indigenous people are an integral part of Mexican society, but you wouldn't guess it from watching Mexican movies and television, glancing at billboards or perusing the ranks of the nation's political and economic elites. Poorer, less urbanized and more geographically isolated than the population at large, Indians have endured centuries of discrimination and oppression, despite official policies ostensibly safeguarding their rights. L.A.-based documentary maker Yolanda Cruz, a Chatino Indian from rural Oaxaca state, has been working to increase not only the number but also the nature of representations of indigenous Mexicans.

You'll feel the drums before you see them. Approaching a Native American powwow affects the viscera first, throbbing the gut in a way that no rock concert can. Hives of tribal dancing and music, powwows center around an open arena rimmed with drummers who thunder away on animal skins and chant songs passed down through generations. Dancers fill the center ring, strutting and crouching to the rhythms; their beaded breastplates, fringed shawls and plumed headdresses twitch in time.

A card, chocolate and roses, an affectionate evening with your sweetheart -- what's not to like about Valentine's Day? Plenty, if you're one of the extremist groups in India that see in Cupid's pointed arrow a lance aimed at the heart of Indian culture.

There was a bit of a street brawl outside a pub, nothing too unusual on the face of it, except for what happened next. After pushing a few men out of the way, the 40 or so attackers revealed what they were really after: young women at the bar, whom they slapped, pummeled and yanked by the hair, in what they later justified as a bid to safeguard traditional Indian culture.

Reporting in the American media on the spread of AIDS has focused on Africa. Yet India, with its enormous population, its grinding poverty juxtaposed with rapidly growing wealth and its distinctive attitudes toward sex, has become an epicenter of the disease. Since the onset of the AIDS pandemic, ignorance and prejudice have been the virus' greatest allies -- and the most frustrating impediments to care and prevention programs.

Two Harvard University researchers believe they have uncovered the meaning of a group of Incan khipus, cryptic assemblages of string and knots that were used by the South American civilization for record-keeping and perhaps even as a written language. Researchers have long known that some knot patterns represented a specific number.

TeleFutura, a Spanish-language network owned by Univision, is taking viewers to another world ? one in which heroines' saris sparkle and some Hindi is spoken. The network is airing " India," a 2009 telenovela imported from Brazil that showcases Indian mores in a story of forbidden love between a low-caste Dalit man and an upper-caste woman. Set in India and Brazil, the soap ? originally titled "Caminho das Índias" (Road to India) ? sparked a frenzy in Brazil. And TeleFutura is hoping it will do the same here.

As a non-Indian who worked on an Indian reservation in Arizona from 1978 until 1985, I would like to respond to your coverage of the Indian Child Welfare Act. In my position as director of Tribal Social Services, I experienced the impact of the act both on our reservation and through networking with other tribes. Initially, I had concerns about some aspects of the law, but quickly became aware of its importance and necessity. The difficult identity problems faced by Indians raised outside the Indian culture were apparent.

When Ashokkumar Patel and Sirvart Kassabian entered the ballroom for their wedding reception this month, they followed the beat of their hearts -- and two drummers. There was the barefoot and turbaned dholi, or traditional Indian drummer, who escorted them into the room. And there was the Armenian dance music, which drew both sides of the family onto the floor.

Re "San Juan OKs School's Athletic Fields," May 21: Both houses of the California Legislature overwhelmingly supported legislation declaring the importance of preserving California's Native American sacred sites. But San Juan Capistrano council members ignored legislative guidance on cultural resources and took actions to develop and destroy a Native American cultural heritage site of unparalleled importance by approving a zone change for the Junipero Serra High School and aquatic complex.