June 13, 2017
The Community Library hosts a conversation with Molly Larkey, Sarah Manning, and LaNada War Jack, moderated by Tony Evans. This event is in conjunction with the recent exhibition at the Sun Valley Museum of History: “Portraits from Standing Rock,” which featured photographs by Jen Rosenstein and text by Molly Larkey. They visited Oceti Sakowin Camp at Standing Rock last November, where Molly interviewed organizers and allies who came to stand with the Standing Rock Sioux. Oceti Sakowin Camp was a historical gathering of First Nations and their allies that centered indigenous sovereignty within the larger fight for the environment, decolonization, and social and economic justice. By creating a native-centered community based in ethical and spiritual principals, the camp modeled a platform for organizing against the root causes of white supremacy, extractive and exploitative industry, and other forms of injustice.
Molly Larkey is a Los Angeles based artist, writer, and activist. She received an MFA from Rutgers University, New Jersey and a BA from Columbia College, New York. Her work has been featured in exhibitions at PS1 MoMA, New York; The Saatchi Gallery, London; LACMA, Los Angeles; The Drawing Center, New York; Dutton Gallery, New York; Ochi Gallery, Ketchum and Los Angeles, among others. Her writing has been featured in Los Angeles Review of Books, CARLA and Haunt Journal of Art. For this event, she will share her experience, and discuss ways that allies can support ongoing indigenous movements on this continent.
Dr. LaNada War Jack is a tribal member of the Shoshone Bannock Tribes. She resides on the Fort Hall Reservation, Idaho. She graduated from the University of California at Berkeley in 1971. In 1969, together with Indian students throughout California, she was a leader of the Alcatraz Island Takeover in protest of the federal government’s ill treatment of Native people and broken treaties. Dr. War Jack was on the founding board and executive board of the Native American Rights Fund. She served as an elected councilwoman for her tribes and served on many local and national boards. Dr. War Jack completed her graduate work at Idaho State University with a Masters in Public Administration and a Doctorate of Arts Degree in Political Science. She has recently completed her book Colonization Battleground: Personal and Historical Story of Resistance, Struggle and Survival; Special Edition Alcatraz to Standing Rock.
Sarah Sunshine Manning is Native American of the Shoshone-Paiute Tribes, a sovereign nation located on the Duck Valley Indian Reservation of northern Nevada and southern Idaho. Sarah is also a proud descendent of the Chippewa-Cree tribes of Rocky Boy, Montana. Sarah is a social science educator, an avid social justice advocate, and has spent much of her professional career advocating for Native American rights, and especially for the rights of Native American youth, who suffer the highest rates of suicide in the nation. Sarah’s advocacy for Native American communities also involves cultural revitalization, environmental protection, healing from historical and generational trauma, and advocacy for accurate representations of Native American people in the media, education, popular culture, and society. In addition, Sarah is a writer, serving as a regular columnist for Indian Country Today Media Network, and as a staff writer for Embrace Race.
Tony Tekaroniake (Two Skies) Evans is an award-winning journalist, columnist and freelance writer, and 30-year resident of the Wood River Valley. He is an enrolled member of the Mohawks of Kahnawa’:ke in Quebec. He is the author of “A History of Indians in the Sun Valley Area,” published in 2017 in collaboration with the Blaine County Historical Museum. Tony earned a B.S. degree in cultural anthropology/biology from the University of Colorado in Boulder and studied as the Expatriate Scholar at the Prague Summer Writer’s Workshop in 1997. He has written for numerous publications, including the Idaho Mountain Express, Boise Weekly, Idaho Arts Quarterly, and the Environmental News Network. He has also helped produce and direct several documentary films about indigenous issues, contributed interviews to the BBC and National Public Radio and recently interviewed La Nada War Jack on our local KDPI radio station in Ketchum. He can be reached at Twoskies@hotmail.com or on Facebook.
The conversation will be preceded by a closing reception for “Portraits from Standing Rock” at 4 p.m. at the Sun Valley Museum of History in the Forest Service Park in Ketchum.
