Maya of Belize

its not clear if the woman in this card is Mayan or of mixed heritage, but she wears a nicely embroidered cotton huipil. She may be a market woman, perhaps selling textiles to tourists!

Pow Wow

a friend in Montreal sent a card showing young dancers at a pow wow....the original Algonquian word pau wau, translated to mean a healing activity in which holy men danced in sacred ceremonies. Today its a social activity but participants still dance to honor the ancestors and to thank elders.

Happy New Year Ben and merci for the nice card!

Yokut

California has a rich native history but sadly most communities were impacted by the arrival of Europeans with unknown diseases and the forced labor of the Spanish mission system. Later native people were affected by the arrival of American gold miners, driven from their lands and once again decimated by disease and violence. Those who survived continued some of their traditional activities such as gathering wild foods & plants; many of California's native communities were skilled basket makers and used them to store foods as well as sell or trade for manufactured items. Native artists also sold baskets to collectors and museums; today these art objects can be found in some very expensive art galleries.
This basket was made in 1905 by Mrs Dick Francisco, using sedge root, redbud, bracken fern root and deer grass. The artist was a member of the Yokut community who lived near San Francisco and Bakersfield. When this basket was made there were perhaps only 600 tribal members remaining.
My collection is very pleased to have such a lovely card!

Canada, Fall 2013

I haven't been as active lately with my postcard exchanges but recently traded with folks in Canada. Here are cards celebrating historic Northwest Coast Village life and modern pow wow dancing:

This photo of a Kwagiulth village was taken by CF Newcombe (1900) and features  an impressive painted clan house known as the Sea Monster House which belonged to John Scow . It would have been seen by anyone traveling along the coastline. This photo also shows the transition between native made wood plank building and European style construction.

Less information is available on this card but it was printed in Edmonton, Alberta and the young man is likely from that area.

American Indian Movement

These very interesting large format advertising cards were sent by a European Postcrosser who was in Minneapolis over the summer doing work in the historical archives. They celebrate a book of AIM photos at a local art gallery reception; AIM was a Native American political and legal awakening in the late 1960s and early 1970s that began in Minneapolis and spread all over Indian Country. Many of their ideas & tactics drew from other Civil Rights efforts, but not all favored their more militant approach which essentially ended at Wounded Knee, South Dakota. However the organization is still active and more information can be found on their webpage: http://www.aimovement.org/

Brazil

My wonderful penpal Joao found more cards of indigenous peoples in Brazil over the summer, but the envelope was buried on my desk so I am late in posting them! He says native cards are hard to find there, so I consider myself very fortunate to have such a kind friend. I don't read Portuguese but fortunately Wikipedia can translate for us

"Danca dos Tapuias" The term tapuias was given to tribal people in the interior who did not speak the more coastal Tupi language. The Dutch artist for these paintings, Albert Eckhout, lived in the early 1600s and made several illustrations of early colonial South American native life.

"Indios Cacando Passaros" It seems that cacando translates to hunting and perhaps passeros is birds. These tribal people live in the region of the Rio Aripuana and the Roosevelt River in the northern Mato Grosso.

British Columbia, Canada

I was very lucky to exchange cards with a Postcrosser from Canada who lives in British Columbia, home of the Haida nation. Northwest Coast native people have a rich tradition of wood carving that included their homes, furniture, bowls, boxes and several kinds of poles that honored ancestors as well as personal achievements. Many of those old poles were placed in Stanley Park and some remain at Native village sites. Here are 2 wonderful cards from Val