This page includes information that may not reflect the current views and values of the Penn Museum.
The Native American Voices video project, completed in 2011, was conducted by exhibition curator Lucy Fowler Williams with support from the Annenberg Foundation and Gregory Annenberg Weingarten. Dr. Williams hired Hopi journalist, Patty Talahongva and her Phoenix based film crew, and traveled to four U.S. locations to conduct 25 first-person interviews with Native American artists, activists, scholars, and youth in their home communities. The following films highlight important issues that emerged from those discussions. Portions of these videos are presented in the Native American Voices exhibition.
Language: The Heart of Our Culture raises issues about the endangered status of Native American languages today. Highlighting the work of Tlingit linguists Nora and Richard Dauenhauer, this video explores different perspectives on the significance of speaking one's own Native American language today. Though language competency in many communities is endangered, in others fluency is strong. Examples include Tlingit, Dinè (Navajo), and Pueblo languages (Hopi, Tewa, and Towa).
