'Windows to Our Ways' to air on public access Native American talk show debuts in Fairfax
By Frank Mustac, September 12, 2001

A film and TV actor turned jewelry designer, an up-and-coming pop singer, a nationally recognized author of more than 40 books and the head of a large organization in Washington, D.C.

If the above sounds like a star-studded lineup for a TV talk show, it is. The twist is that this talk show is all about native Americans.

Fairfax Public Access (FPA) television, channel 10, will air the program "Windows to Our Ways" Monday, Sept. 17, at 6:30 p.m.; Thursday, Sept. 20, at 2 p.m.; and Saturday, Sept. 22, at 7 p.m.

The first round of guests includes actor and jewelry designer Ray Tracey, pop singer/performer Jana, best-selling novelist Janelle Taylor and Jacqueline Johnson, executive director of the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI).

"What we're really trying to accomplish here is to show a side of us (American Indians) just as a people, just who we are, how we live, how we feel, how we laugh," said Oklahoma Choctaw Indian and McLean businesswoman Patricia Parker.

Parker is co-producer and host of what the station claims is the first Native American talk show hosted and broadcast in the Washington metropolitan area.

FPA Executive Director Joan Betros developed the series, and she, along with director McKay Daines, a Great Falls resident, are also co-producers. "I'm half Choctaw, a quarter Irish and a quarter German. That accounts for the freckles," said Parker, who also said she would tap into her training as a theater major in college to help her prepare for her first time as a TV talk show host.

Parker is the owner and president of Native American Management Services Inc. (NAMS) in McLean. Her company has provided services including grant application and grant management for more than a decade. "[We do] what we call 'from soup to nuts'--the whole grant process.

We basically do that with all 568 federally recognized tribes," Parker said. "NAMS is underwriting the show plus two more shows," Parker said about the program that will discuss Native American culture and social, economic and political issues.

The first shows, recorded on Aug. 27, will feature guests who have made an impact on Native American society. The shows will also include Native American entertainment and a spotlight on a tribal community during a video segment. According to Parker, the 2000 U.S. Census counted about 2.5 million Native Americans, 60 percent of whom live in urban areas, while only 40 percent reside on reservations and in rural areas. "So we're a small group, but we can talk loud," Parker said.

One of Parker's guests is artist, actor and producer Ray Tracey.

"I was one of those quota actors," Tracey said. "I was an actor from 1974 on." "I own two art galleries, I design jewelry and I have a company. That's basically what I do now," Tracey said. Because of the Hollywood studio requirements to fill actor slots based on race and ethnicity, Tracey played American Indian characters in such films as "Seems Like Old Times," with Goldie Hawn, and in TV shows like "Hart to Hart" and "Lou Grant."

"I'm full-blooded Navajo," said Tracey, who was born and raised in Fort Defiance, Arizona. "Back when I was acting, it was always the same story line," Tracey said. "It was always the militant Indian. It was always the sacred Indian burial grounds. It was always the drunken Indian."

"For me, I just like the idea that there is a venue (the talk show 'Windows to Our Ways') where you can start breaking down the stereotypes of Indians ...," Tracey said. "I've been out in the world some time and [people] are always saying, 'Oh, you're Native American. Oh, you must be so spiritual, you must be close to the earth,'" Tracey said. "[Well,] yes and no," said Tracey in reply to the query. "Well, my grandfather, maybe he was more so than I am. I mean, I love to golf."

"We're not all spiritual," Tracey said about Native Americans. "There are a lot of people who are. For me ... I love to go to New York City. I love to go to Paris. I love to golf." "I hate to camp," Tracey said. "Camping to me is Motel 6. That's just the truth, and I love to portray the truth."

Director McKay Daines asked Tracey to be executive producer for Daines' new film about Native Americans titled "Dream Catcher." Filming will start later this year. "Every picture I've seen so far about Indians, none of us are laughing ...," Tracey said. "This [movie] is a thing which I think will make them laugh. This is a romantic Indian comedy," Tracey said.

Two of the stars of the film are Native American comedian Drew Lacapa and Native American singer Jana. "This is going to be my first lead. I'm real excited," said Jana, a Lumbee Indian from the Charlotte, N.C., area, but who now lives near New York City.

Jana, whose full name is Jana Maria Mashonee, said that, when people see her, they automatically think she is Latin. "I'm an 'urban Indian,'" said Jana, describing who and what she is.

She recently released her third single titled, "More than Life," which reached number 29 on Billboard magazine's hot shots debut chart. "That's a big achievement because I'm the first Native American pop artist on the charts," said Jana, who also says she loves to perform on stage.

"When you're in the music business, business is 75 percent and music 25 percent," Jana said. "But you live to be on the stage and get that response." "It's kind of cathartic. It's kind of like a therapy session," Jana said. About the Native American talk show "Windows to Our Ways," Jana said, "We're making history. I hope we're making history."

Best-selling author Janelle Taylor said that she writes books in a sub-genre she calls Indian White Romance. Taylor said she appeared on the Native American talk show mainly to discuss her writings and the research for the books that she has done--primarily on Lakota Indians of North and South Dakota.

"I loved the works of Crazy Horse, Red Cloud, ... Sitting Bull, Spotted Tail and Black Elk. All of those are Lakota Indians," said Taylor, who titled her two series of books about Native Americans "Lakota Skies" and "Gray Eagle Ecstasy." "It seemed like all of the great warriors who resisted the whites were Lakota Indians in the time [period] of the things I was reading, "Taylor said. "I was so impressed with their works [that] I said I'm going to [write] the books from their point of view. So that's what I did." "All of the books include their ceremonies and detail their culture and their religion," Taylor said.

Taylor talked about her encounter one summer in the mid-1980s with a Siseton Indian from South Dakota named Hiramowen. Hiramowen translated descriptions of Indian rituals for Taylor so that she could incorporate them in her books. They had worked together for years via telephone and through a letter correspondence before meeting face-to-face.

An opportunity to meet came when Hiramowen invited Taylor to visit and witness a powwow. "[When] I got there (South Dakota), it was like seeing my father up out of the grave--just cold chills going over me," Taylor said. "Both my two children at the time, who were seven and eight, said he looked like granddaddy, [my father]," Taylor said. "What so impressed me [about the powwow] was that it was not ... a tourist thing. It was like a religious experience," said Taylor, who started writing in 1977 after leaving a career in medical research.

"Of course I always make the Native American the winner in the book," Taylor said. "I always end with a historical event where they have been the winner, because to me it was just like they've been the losers just much, much too long."

Jacqueline Johnson, executive director of the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) based in Washington, D.C., works with members of the U.S. Congress and the administration to better the lives of Native Americans.

Johnson, a Tlingit Indian from southeastern Alaska in the Juneau area, said the NCAI is the oldest and largest [Indian] organization in the United States. The NCAI began in 1944.

"The reason [this show] is important for me is that I think that education is absolutely one of the biggest missing links as far as understanding Indian country and Indian issues," said Johnson, who lives in Fairfax City.

"My tribal chief Austin Hammond (Chief Donawaak) always taught me ... that we had to look beyond ourselves to be able to get our message out there," Johnson said. "It was really about how many of the non-Natives could we get so they understood our issues, our concerns." "The same issues from 1944 [are issues] today. Sovereign rights is our number one issue," Johnson said.

Native American communities, Johnson said, continue to be the poorest in the country. "The number one barrier, I believe, to economic development [in Indian country] is the lack of basic infrastructure," Johnson said. "Remember, Indian country has the lowest telephone penetration rate in the entire country."

"We still have many, many pockets in reservations that still do not have basic water and sewer, as well as in the Alaskan native communities," Johnson said. "In Indian country, we all know each other. But that doesn't do us any good," Johnson said, laughing. "But we have a lot of fun together."

©Arcom Publishing Inc. - Fairfax/Fairfax Station/Burke/Springfield/Annandale Times 2001
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