Akwe:kon Press, acknowledged by Convocation speaker, continues its work

By Franklin Crawford

During his May 25 Convocation address in Barton Hall (read the story), activist and actor Danny Glover singled out Cornell's Native Americas Journal for special praise. He referred specifically to a summer 1999 issue of Native Americas, the flagship publication of Akwe:kon Press at Cornell's American Indian Program.

At the American Indian Millennium conference last fall at Cornell's Statler Hall, José Barreiro (center), editor in chief of Akwe:kon Press, poses with Maekiew, left, and Ali El-Issa, son and husband of Native American activist Ingrid Washinawatok, who was killed in Colombia in 1999. Native Americas devoted its 1999 summer issue to Washinawatok. Courtesy of Akwe:kon Press

That issue was dedicated to the work of Ingrid Washinawatok, one of three Americans killed while on a humanitarian mission in Colombia. In early May, U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft's office announced grand jury indictments targeting several Colombian guerrilla leaders with the kidnapping and murder of Washinawatok and her two American colleagues, Lahe'ena'e Gay and Terrence Freitas.

According to Jose Barreiro, editor-in-chief of Akwe:kon Press, stories documented in the 1999 Washinawatok issue of Native Americas helped to provide background for murder investigators. And there is a deeper connection: Barreiro, a friend of Washinawatok and her husband Ali El-Issa, assisted with rescue efforts in the wake of the kidnapping.

"I was asked by the committee of families that coalesced during the crisis to coordinate the rescue effort out of New York City," Barreiro wrote in his introduction to the 1999 issue. "That traumatic and ultimately fruitless experience nevertheless resulted in great bonding by the wide and large circle of people who knew and loved Ingrid, Lahe and Terrence, and in our mutual commitment to see the truth emerge."

Glover also knew Washinawatok. His Convocation remarks and his acknowledgment of Washinawatok's husband Ali El-Issa and son Maekiew, who were in the audience, meant a great deal to that family and to Barreiro, who has often struggled to sustain the work of Native Americas in challenging times.

Recently, the Lannan Foundation reaffirmed its support of Akwe:kon Press with a three-year, $270,000 grant that will help keep the quarterly journal on track for now. About 8,000 copies of the quarterly are produced and distributed to Native American schools in the United States as well as to universities, public libraries, Congress and the media.

The journal operates on a yearly budget of about $120,000 and is in the final phase of a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation grant. In addition, a grant of $30,000 through the Ford Foundation is also active.

The grants help support Akwe:kon's larger mission, of which the journal is but one, albeit vital, branch. The press sustains working relations with a number of national and international communications initiatives; it also engages in community development projects and advises closely on significant community projects in the United States, Canada, Guatemala and Cuba, said Barreiro.

"Native Americas and the Akwe:kon Press are more than words on paper," he said. "We are also a creative workshop that generates strategic and curriculum planning toward community development and empowerment. The idea is to process and make available useful information and useful contact between and among people working on similar issues and interests."

Among these projects: In Guatemala, Akwe:kon Press is an adviser for an indigenous land-recovery initiative among the Maya Qeqchi people. Many Qeqchi communities live under conditions of virtual peonage, as trapped communities inside large estates and forest reserves. The press provides networking and fund-raising assistance to a project that recovers indigenous community lands via revolving credit funds and agricultural extension. And the press also advises on an indigenous geography project in Hopi, Ariz., as part of an international cultural exchange process, in collaboration with the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian.

Among members of the press's Cornell committee, professors Eloy Rodriguez (plant biology) and Charles Geisler (rural sociology) advise and team up on development issues. Prominent national native leaders, such as former Cherokee chief Wilma Mankiller, philanthropic advocate Dagmar Thorpe (Sac and Fox tribe) and historian John Mohawk, are also close supporters.

This past fall, Akwe:kon Press organized a forum sponsored by Cornell's American Indian Program that brought dozens of Native American leaders, educators, youth, culture bearers, community members and national organizations to the Cornell campus. The event, titled "American Indian Millennium: Renewing Our Ways of Life for Future Generations," examined the trends and challenges facing Native communities in the 21st century. Presentations from the forum are being transcribed and published by the press for distribution.

In recent years, the Akwe:kon Press has won first place for "general excellence" and numerous other national journalism awards from the Native American Journalist Association. At the NAJA conference last summer, Native Americas garnered top honors for the second year in a row.