Annette Arkeketa
Encyclopedia
Annette Arkeketa is an enrolled member of the Otoe
-Missouria Tribe of Oklahoma. She is also Muscogee Creek. She conducts professional workshops in poetry, playwriting, the creative process, script consultant, and documentary film making.
Her play Ghost Dance has been performed at public readings at the Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, Okahoma (2001); Tulsa University, Tulsa, Oklahoma (2002); American Indian Community House, New York, New York (2003). This spring the full length drama will be produced by the Institute of American Indian Arts, Drama Department, April 30, May 1–2, 2004. Ghost Dance is published in Keepers of the Morning Star: An Anthology of Native Women's Theater, UCLA American Indian Studies Center 2003.
These days Arkeketa is devoted to her work as a documentary producer and has formed her production company Hokte Productions. Hokte means woman in the Muscogee
language.
Her first documentary production is about Corpus Christi native visual artist Jimmy Pena, entitled Intrinisc Spirit: The Artway of Jimmy Pena. (2002, approximately 24 minutes). Pena's work reveals the natural talent he has developed as a successful visual artist and muralist.
Her most recent project is titled Put Them Back, a documentary that follows Comanche
Nation NAGPRA coordinator, Jimmy Arterberry, through the consultation process with Colorado state and federal institutions to repatriate the remains of his people. This documentary expresses the views of graves protection/repatriation advocate Arterberry with biting opinions regarding the NAGPRA process, archaeologists, policies, and solutions to one of the most controversial human rights issues Native Americans face today. (2004, approximately 1 hour)
She is also looking for a producer for her family feature film screenplay A Good Day to Dance. This a story of dance, family love, and what it takes to win.
Arkeketa's essay, Repatriation: Religious Freedom, Equal Protection, Institutional Racism, has recently been published in a philosophical reader anthology, edited by Anne Water, titled American Indian Thought (2004).
Annette continues, "My personal feelings about writing is that it is necessary for our Indian people to write and produce great works about ourselves. It is important to challenge ourselves to write in the genres that we are unfamiliar with. The more we write the better we become as fiction writers, non-fiction writers, playwrights, screenplay writers, journalists, poets, research and essay writers."
My more recent work has been concentrated in the area of media production for feature films and television documentaries. I believe television and the big screen is the most powerful media available to us today.
The importance of our visibility in these areas writing and the media is for our children. They deserve to perform our work on stage and film. Always they seek us on the shelves of libraries, magazine racks, and newspaper stands. They seek us as mentors and role models, let's not disappoint them.
Annette was awarded the Writer of the Year for Playwriting in 1998 for her play Hokti by the Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers.
Too Much For The Average Indian XI.
Too Much For The Average Indian XII.
The terms of a sister
Ghost Dance, in Keepers of the Morning Star: An Anthology of Native Women's Theater, UCLA American Indian Studies Center.
Hokti, in Stories of Our Way: An Anthology of American Indian Plays, Hanay Geiogamah and Jaye T. Darby (Editors), UCLA American Indian Studies Center, 1999.
Gatherings, Volume X, A Retrospective of the First Decade, Greg Young-Ing & Florene Belmore (Editors), Penticton: Theytus Books
Windward Review, Edited by Patricia Wimberly, Texas A & M University, 1998.
Gatherings, Volume VIII: Shaking the Belly, Releasing the Sacred Clown, Edited by Joyce B. Joe and Susan M. Beaver, Penticton: Theytus Books
the Indian Summer issue of phati'tude
Gatherings, Volume VII, Standing Ground: Strength and Solidarity Amidst Dissolving Boundaries, (Co-Edited by Kateri Akiwenzie Damm and Jeannette Armstrong), Penticton: Theytus Books
Returning the Gift: Poetry and Prose from the First North American Native Writers' Festival, (Sun Tracks Books, No 29), University of Arizona Press.
Indian Market Magazine, Santa Fe, NM, 1994.
Durable Breath: Contemporary Native American Poetry, John E. Smelcer, D. L. Birchfield (Editors), Salmon Run Pub.
Plains Native American Literature, Simon and Schuster, 1993.
That's What She Said: Contemporary Poetry and Fiction by Native American Women, Rayna Green (Editor) Indiana University Press.
Oklahoma Indian Markings, Edited by Francine Ringold, Nimrod, Arts and Humanities Council of Tulsa, 1989.
Otoe
Otoe may refer to*Otoe tribe, a Native American people*Otoe-Missouria Tribe of Indians, a federally recognized tribe in Oklahoma*Otoe, Nebraska*Otoe County, Nebraska...
-Missouria Tribe of Oklahoma. She is also Muscogee Creek. She conducts professional workshops in poetry, playwriting, the creative process, script consultant, and documentary film making.
Otoe-Missouria/Muscogee playwright, film maker & poet
Arkeketa's play Hokti has been produced by the Tulsa Indian Actors' Workshop, Tulsa Oklahoma (1997) and The Thunderbird Theatre, Haskell Indian Nations University, Lawrence Kansas, (1998). Hokti is published in Stories of Our Way: An Anthology of American Indian Plays, UCLA American Indian Studies Center 1999.Her play Ghost Dance has been performed at public readings at the Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, Okahoma (2001); Tulsa University, Tulsa, Oklahoma (2002); American Indian Community House, New York, New York (2003). This spring the full length drama will be produced by the Institute of American Indian Arts, Drama Department, April 30, May 1–2, 2004. Ghost Dance is published in Keepers of the Morning Star: An Anthology of Native Women's Theater, UCLA American Indian Studies Center 2003.
These days Arkeketa is devoted to her work as a documentary producer and has formed her production company Hokte Productions. Hokte means woman in the Muscogee
Muskogean languages
Muskogean is an indigenous language family of the Southeastern United States. Though there is an ongoing debate concerning their interrelationships, the Muskogean languages are generally divided into two branches, Eastern Muskogean and Western Muskogean...
language.
Her first documentary production is about Corpus Christi native visual artist Jimmy Pena, entitled Intrinisc Spirit: The Artway of Jimmy Pena. (2002, approximately 24 minutes). Pena's work reveals the natural talent he has developed as a successful visual artist and muralist.
Her most recent project is titled Put Them Back, a documentary that follows Comanche
Comanche
The Comanche are a Native American ethnic group whose historic range consisted of present-day eastern New Mexico, southern Colorado, northeastern Arizona, southern Kansas, all of Oklahoma, and most of northwest Texas. Historically, the Comanches were hunter-gatherers, with a typical Plains Indian...
Nation NAGPRA coordinator, Jimmy Arterberry, through the consultation process with Colorado state and federal institutions to repatriate the remains of his people. This documentary expresses the views of graves protection/repatriation advocate Arterberry with biting opinions regarding the NAGPRA process, archaeologists, policies, and solutions to one of the most controversial human rights issues Native Americans face today. (2004, approximately 1 hour)
She is also looking for a producer for her family feature film screenplay A Good Day to Dance. This a story of dance, family love, and what it takes to win.
Arkeketa's essay, Repatriation: Religious Freedom, Equal Protection, Institutional Racism, has recently been published in a philosophical reader anthology, edited by Anne Water, titled American Indian Thought (2004).
Annette continues, "My personal feelings about writing is that it is necessary for our Indian people to write and produce great works about ourselves. It is important to challenge ourselves to write in the genres that we are unfamiliar with. The more we write the better we become as fiction writers, non-fiction writers, playwrights, screenplay writers, journalists, poets, research and essay writers."
My more recent work has been concentrated in the area of media production for feature films and television documentaries. I believe television and the big screen is the most powerful media available to us today.
The importance of our visibility in these areas writing and the media is for our children. They deserve to perform our work on stage and film. Always they seek us on the shelves of libraries, magazine racks, and newspaper stands. They seek us as mentors and role models, let's not disappoint them.
Awards
In 2000, Annette was named Mentor of the Year by the Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers.Annette was awarded the Writer of the Year for Playwriting in 1998 for her play Hokti by the Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers.
Writing available online
Too Much For The Average Indian IX.Too Much For The Average Indian XI.
Too Much For The Average Indian XII.
The terms of a sister
Plays
Pahdopony: See How Deep the Water IsGhost Dance, in Keepers of the Morning Star: An Anthology of Native Women's Theater, UCLA American Indian Studies Center.
Hokti, in Stories of Our Way: An Anthology of American Indian Plays, Hanay Geiogamah and Jaye T. Darby (Editors), UCLA American Indian Studies Center, 1999.
Anthologies
American Indian Thought: Philosophical Essays, Anne Waters (Editor), Blackwell Pub.Gatherings, Volume X, A Retrospective of the First Decade, Greg Young-Ing & Florene Belmore (Editors), Penticton: Theytus Books
Windward Review, Edited by Patricia Wimberly, Texas A & M University, 1998.
Gatherings, Volume VIII: Shaking the Belly, Releasing the Sacred Clown, Edited by Joyce B. Joe and Susan M. Beaver, Penticton: Theytus Books
the Indian Summer issue of phati'tude
Gatherings, Volume VII, Standing Ground: Strength and Solidarity Amidst Dissolving Boundaries, (Co-Edited by Kateri Akiwenzie Damm and Jeannette Armstrong), Penticton: Theytus Books
Returning the Gift: Poetry and Prose from the First North American Native Writers' Festival, (Sun Tracks Books, No 29), University of Arizona Press.
Indian Market Magazine, Santa Fe, NM, 1994.
Durable Breath: Contemporary Native American Poetry, John E. Smelcer, D. L. Birchfield (Editors), Salmon Run Pub.
Plains Native American Literature, Simon and Schuster, 1993.
That's What She Said: Contemporary Poetry and Fiction by Native American Women, Rayna Green (Editor) Indiana University Press.
Oklahoma Indian Markings, Edited by Francine Ringold, Nimrod, Arts and Humanities Council of Tulsa, 1989.
See also
- HOKTE Productions
- projectHOOP, Honoring Our Origins and People
- Native American Women Playwrights Archive
- Terry Gomez directs "Ghost dance"
- Student works to preserve, protect historic graves