Joan Marcus/The Public Theater via AP
This image released by The Public Theater shows Rainbow Dickerson, from left, Sheila Tousey, Jeffrey King, David Kelly and Joe Tapper appear during a performance of “Manahatta” in New York. The play was written by Mary Kathryn Nagle.

NEW YORK (AP) — The financial crisis of 2008 hit Mary Kathryn Nagle differently. As a playwright and a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, she saw parallels to events that negatively impacted Indigenous people centuries ago.

Her play “Manahatta” juxtaposes the recent mortgage meltdown when thousands lost their homes to predatory lenders with the shady 17th-century Dutch who swindled and violently pushed Native Americans off their ancestral lands.

“A lot of times history does repeat itself,” Nagle says. “I’m really interested in the ways in which we can connect to our past, carry it with us, learn from it, and maybe change outcomes so that we’re not just doomed to repeat the past in the present.”

Nagle’s 2018 play has landed in New York City at the prestigious Public Theater this winter and it’s just the latest in a flowering of Native storytelling. From “Reservation Dogs,” “Dark Winds” and “Rutherford Falls” on TV to “Prey” on the big screen and Larissa FastHorse becoming the first Indigenous female playwright on Broadway, barriers are being broken.

“I hope it’s not a moment. I hope it’s the beginning of an era,” says FastHorse, a member of the Sicangu Lakota Nation and a 2020 MacArthur Fellow. “We stand on the shoulders of so many folks that came before us.”

In 2020, the University of California, Los Angeles published a diversity report that examined media content from 2018-2019 and found Native representation to be between 0.3%-0.5% in film. In television or on stage, Native representation was virtually nonexistent. ( According to the Census, 9.7 million Americans claimed some Indigenous heritage in 2020, or 2.9% of the total U.S. population.)

“The truth was most theaters had never produced a single play by a Native playwright. Most Hollywood film studios had never produced any content actually written or produced by Natives. It may have been about some Native people, but it was not written by Native people. And we’ve just seen that flipped on its head,” Nagle said.

Non-Native storytellers are also exploring the history of white atrocities on Native Americans with Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon” telling the story of the Reign of Terror in Oklahoma, and documentary-maker Ken Burns examining an animal central to the Great Plains with “The American Buffalo.”

Nagle recalls moving to New York in 2010 and asking artistic directors of theaters why they weren’t producing Native work. They would answer that they didn’t know any Native playwrights or that there weren’t enough Native audiences to power ticket sales.

“Good storytelling is good storytelling, whether the protagonist is white, Black, Asian, LGBTQ — it doesn’t matter,” said Nagle, who is on the board of IllumiNative, a nonprofit working to deal with the erasure of Native people.

“There’s a lot of projects out there that are changing the narrative and that are proving that our stories are powerful and that non-Natives are really moved by them because they’re good stories.”

Madeline Sayet, a playwright and professor at Arizona State University who also runs the Yale Indigenous Performing Arts Program, sees the contemporary Native theater movement flowing from the Civil Rights Movement of the ’60s and ’70s and an increase in awareness of Indigenous issues ever since Native people won the right to legally practice their culture, art and religion.

She connects the Wounded Knee occupation of 1973 to the Standing Rock standoff over the Dakota Access Pipeline in 2016 to Ned Blackhawk’s “The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the Unmaking of U.S History” winning the National Book Award this year.

Sayet, a member of the Mohegan Tribe who became the first Native playwright produced at the Public when her “Where We Belong” made it in 2020, said keeping Indigenous stories being produced depends on changing funding structures and getting long-term commitments from theaters and programs like Young Native Playwrights Contest.

“Part of what’s really helping right now is us all creating more opportunities for each other instead of in competition with each other,” she said.

FastHorse, who made history on Broadway in 2023 with her satirical comedy “The Thanksgiving Play,” which follows white liberals trying to devise a culturally sensitive Thanksgiving play, has since turned her attention to helping rewrite some classic stage musicals to be more culturally sensitive.

“Native people have been exotified in a way that keeps us othered and separate, sometimes in a negative way, as in, ‘We just kill all the Indians’ and sometimes in a ‘positive’ way where they’re this special, magical thing.”

She has recently reworked the book for an upcoming touring musical revival of the 1954 classic “Peter Pan,” which was adapted by Jerome Robbins and has a score by Moose Charlap-Carolyn Leigh and additional songs by Jule Styne, Betty Comden and Adolph Green.

FastHorse found the character of Peter Pan complex, the pirates funny, the music enchanting but the depictions of Indigenous people and women appalling. There were references to “redskins” throughout, a nonsense song called “Ugh-A-Wug” and Tiger Lily fends off randy braves “with a hatchet.”

“I was like, ‘What? We’re having little kids read this? This is just rape culture written out, exoticized with a Native person to boot,” she said. “This is what makes you a good woman? If you fight hard enough to keep the men away?”

FastHorse widened the concept of Native in the musical to encompass members of several under-pressure Indigenous cultures from all over the globe — Africa, Japan and Eastern Europe, among them — who have retreated to Neverland to preserve their culture until they can find a way back.

The playwright said one of her guiding principles in the reworking was to make sure a little Native girl in South Dakota could see herself and celebrate. “Then we’ve done our job and she can join the magic instead of having to armor herself against the magic.”

Nagle is enjoying making her debut at the Public Theater — her play runs through Dec. 23 — but is realistic that no one play is going to teach everyone every single lesson they need to know about Native people after hundreds of years of misinformation.

“I think one thing I’m just hoping that people take away from this play is like, ‘Wow, Native stories are really compelling. Native people are incredible. They’re incredibly resilient. They’re incredibly brilliant. Yes, there’s tragedy, but they have such incredible senses of humor,’” she said.

“I want them to love my characters the way I love them. I want them to feel the heartache. I want them to feel the laughter. I want them to feel the love,” she said. “And I want them to leave the theater just wanting to know more about our tribal nations and our Native people.”

Carl Hentsch and Matt Roberts, owners of Betty J’s Mercantile, offer fair-trade gfits at their Newton shop, as well as items by local artists and crafters. The new business is operating out of the former Lemon Tree Tea House and bears a similar look to the house in Tama where Roberts and Hentsch started their business.

NEWTON — Matt Roberts and Carl Hentsch launched their first business inside a big yellow house in Tama about four years ago, and although their company has changed names as often as its changed locations during that time, it was fitting they would again find themselves in another big yellow house when they moved to Newton.

It was a sign, said Roberts, who also felt the town’s location between Tama and his hometown of Marshalltown was ideal for repeat customers who have come to know his reputation to stock shelves with merchandise that cannot be found anywhere else in the area. He hadn’t moved in yet, but it already felt like home.

“We just fell in love with this property because it reminded us a lot of our other house,” Roberts said in an interview with Newton News.

Betty J’s Mercantile officially opened in town on Nov. 1. For the past three months or so, Roberts and Hentsch have been renovating their home and shop. There is still work to be done, but the shop portion is ready, and it’s split between a room with fair-trade items and an “Iowa room” with gifts by local crafters and artists.

The business has gone by a number different names, starting as Big Yellow Antiques & More inside their home in Tama. Then they moved to a small storefront in downtown Tama. To account for the heavy traffic, Roberts and Hentsch opened a second space called Big Yellow Fabulous Finds & Fabric.

Eventually, the two would move away from their antique-centric offerings and move more towards giftware. They also physically moved to Ottumwa where they renamed the store to Big River Fabric & Gift Company since the shop was about a block away from the Des Moines River.

When they decided to move to Newton, the name changed again. While it was tempting to go back to Big Yellow, Roberts was given a chance to dedicate a business to his family. “Betty J” is actually Betty Jean, his grandmother who taught him everything he knows about antiques and business.

“She and my grandfather had an antique business for 55 years, I think, based out of Clear Lake and Le Grand. I would travel with them during the summers doing the antique shows all over the country,” Roberts said. “That’s where I picked up my antique knowledge and why we started out in antiques.”

Throughout the years the two business owners have sold everything from candy to furniture, and while some of those items can still be found at Betty J’s, the shop is putting more emphasis on greeting cards, fabrics, quilt pattern designs by Hentsch (who is a master quilter) and its dozen or so fair-trade giftware lines.

Many of the fair-trade gifts are from countries like India, Pakistan, Tunisia, Africa and Cambodia. Other shops around Newton either do not have such items or focus on it as heavily as the guys over at Betty J’s do. For Roberts, that’s great. He hopes customers at least find these different items interesting.

“That’s my whole goal in business,” Roberts said. “I don’t want to compete. I want to be different. Ever since we’ve opened — even when we were just in the antique business — we were always known to be a little different and carry unique things. We weren’t your typical antique store.”

Roberts likes unique things. If another shop is offering similar giftware, he is not afraid to drop it and find something different.

“I don’t want to be the same as anybody else,” he said. “I want to keep this a unique destination. That’s the whole goal. With that comes risk because sometimes you bring in different items that are not to everybody’s taste. But I also like that, too. Plus, I’m learning what people do like.”

Oftentimes what customers do like is when each item has a story. Which is why Roberts and Hentsch have attached tags onto every piece of merchandise that tells people where it is from. Roberts said it serves him well, too, when it comes to remembering the stories and origins of the gifts customers ask about.

Of course the keeper of the best story is Hentsch, a quiet and reserved artist whose talents are on full display inside the shop. His quilts hang on the walls. His books are stacked on shelves. Hentsch has taught classes and talked about quilting all over the world; he humbly mentioned local places like Grinnell and Knoxville.

But Roberts is quick to brag about Hentsch, saying he has been all over the country and even on cruise ships to talk and teach quilting.

Roberts said, “He’s written books and teamed up with a big name artist named Tula Pink.”

Hentsch adds, “And I design quilts for the fabric companies.”

“So he gets commissioned out by the fabric companies who make fabric. When they have a line they get ready to release, they ask him if he’ll design a pattern for them. Of course it has to go through the process of being approved, but once they approve it then it gets released into his patterns.”

Hentsch’s patterns and books aren’t going to be found anywhere else in Newton besides Betty J’s Mercantile. Again, it’s different.

In Newton, different can stand out in a big way. So far, Betty J’s has done just that. Opening weekend for the shop brought in numerous customers.

“We like this community quite a bit,” Roberts said. “We’ve always liked Newton and we’ve come here for the Fourth of July Parades and other events around town, and we’ve always enjoyed it. Right now, I can’t get over the overwhelming response from the community. I’ve never been so busy on Facebook.”

Even some of their former customers from the Big Yellow days found their way into the 309 First Ave. W. shop.

“Our very first customer on Wednesday, Nov. 1 was a former Tama customer,” he said. “So we’re getting some of our Tama customers back. We’ve got Marshalltown people coming to see us, too. It’s just so nice to be back in this little hub of communities. As a business owner, I like to see familiar faces.”

With a constantly changing line of products, there is even more reason to get familiar with Roberts and Hentsch.

“I always say, ‘If you see it, get it.’ Because if it’s fair-trade or even the Iowa crafters, chances are we’re not going to be able to get it in again,” Roberts said.

Oneonta native Bobby Sharp has been a lifelong artist, but his passion for glass was forged in the early 2000s.

Sharp, 57, owns Glassworks, a studio, production and gift shop space established in 2004 at 736 state Highway 28 in Oneonta.

Sharp said he came to glass by way of furniture.

“I started designing high-end furniture at a very young age, and then somebody told me that you have to sell this to the rich and famous, because of the quality of the work,” he said. “I did things very well, but I knew some glassblowers that had some shards, and I said, ‘You throw all this out? Can I take it?,’ so I gathered it all, cleaned it and polished it by the hundreds and I had this dream about encasing glass in plastic. I approached (local attorney) George Silvernail, and he commissioned me to do an end table. I knew I was on to something and … it was incredibly beautiful and that’s how I got started: the attention paid for it, and that opened up the door for me to glassblowing.”

Another commissioned piece, Sharp said, proved pivotal.

“Frank Mann, of Mann Media, said, ‘Create something for me and I’ll see if I’ll buy it,’ and, being as I had all those shards of glass, I thought I’d do something with this picture of Jimi Hendrix,” he said. “You have to think differently, and you can’t just do the basic stuff like everybody else; it’s got to be unique.”

The result, Sharp said, was a mosaic-style, hand-painted glass portrait that took three months to refine, but emerged “incredible” and “a masterpiece.”

The Hendrix portrait, he said, launched a follow-up commission from Mann to “do the whole series of Woodstock” artists.

“I took that money to feed the business,” he said. “Then Hoffman Lane Bistro (in Cooperstown) said, ‘this man is incredible,’ and ‘we’ve got an idea for you; we want you to put dividers in the restaurant of glass and flowers.’ I created the forms and the flowers. I went to the woods and did a test, and it was incredibly beautiful. Then something strange happened. I was taking a walk on Main Street and met an art dealer that was a big dealer in Manhattan and Paris. (Robert Horne) looked at this composition of the flowers … and said, ‘You’re a genius. Your spatial sense is incredible.’ He knew I was living in a garage and he said, ‘I’ll put you up in business,’ so he put up thousands and thousands of dollars as I built the business. That’s how it started to take off … and it got me known.”

Establishing Bobby Sharp Glassworks, Sharp said, again relied on critical collaborations and commissions.

“I put a small glass line and a small 190-pound tank with gas and I did everything small — a small website and I started working on designs and it started taking off,” he said. “It was around then that I got the Beekman 1802 (commission). I approached them to do soap dishes and some decanters, and they said, ‘We have other ideas for you’ and started giving me commissions for more decanters and champagne flutes.”

That, Sharp said, necessitated an early expansion of the business, originally called Mountain Glass, for which he relied upon help from Art Reed of Sweet Water Glass in Andes. Simultaneously, Sharp said, he began a relationship with Corning Museum of Glass, where he also rented studio time and further honed his skills.

“I would do what Art told me … and it took months and months to develop all the equipment,” he said. “When Art and I finished updating, that’s when I brought people from Corning to work for me in Oneonta.”

Popular items developed during that period, Sharp said, included his “Lady Fingers” whiskey glasses, designed to fit comfortably in female hands, and baseball bat-shaped drinking glasses.

Today, Sharp said, he’s focused on sharing his passion.

“Out of all that hard work, now I’m setting up all these workshop classes and maybe a school and I’ll be teaching through the whole winter,” he said. “I’m doing these ornament classes and have other classes coming up with the head teacher of glass from Corning and he is going to teach an intro to glassblowing … and do that at the end of January or beginning of February. And we’re having make-your-own paperweight (classes), where you’re one-on-one with the glassblower and … another where you’ll be able to make your own beads for necklaces.”

Classes, he said, are $99 per person and will be “a little over an hour.” Classes and gift shop hours will take place from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday, and 9 to 3 on Saturday. Sharp said he is open to requests for gift shop products.

Though his products are sold “all around the country,” Sharp said, locals are enthusiastic about the class series.

“After ‘Blown Away’ (a Netflix documentary), people are coming to Corning from all over the world and everybody wants to be a glassblower,” he said. “That’s why I’m pushing now to do the classes and I have something different than what other people are offering. I’m going to have a class where you can learn how to make glass and make money from it. It will include the chamber of commerce and the bank and the right people … so that, when (people) take the class, they’ll know how to wholesale and retail and do social media and open up a small business and generate revenue. A lot of locals now are approaching, like for the ornament class, so it’s Franklin and Oneonta people signing up.”

Sharp said, after nearly two decades, glass still fuels him.

“It’s so much fun and you get so excited,” he said. “Sometimes, it’s late at night and I’ll just come out and sit out by the furnace, because it glows and it’s something that you appreciate and look forward to. It’s fun and it’s not boring and I can’t wait to wake up in the morning and start to create. It makes you feel good. I love it, I love glass.”

For more information or to book a class, visit bobbysharpglassworks.com.

Solomon ‘Sol’ Atkinson was born in Metlakatla, Alaska in 1930 and, as a Ts’msyen (Tsimshian) Native American he lived a purposeful life defined by both his Native American heritage and his service as a U.S. Navy SEAL.

His early years were shaped by the region’s rugged lifestyle, which taught him to be resourceful and appreciate the support of his community. These values guided him through his career in the U.S. Navy and public service. He also inherited a rich cultural legacy from his ancestors, a society that follows the matriarchal line, and who belonged to the Gitlaan clan of the Xpi’hanaḵ house in the Tsimshian nation.

“Dad was such a humble guy who had so little growing up here, but he never ever complained,” said Atkinson’s daughter Maria Hayward. “As a matter of fact, he only owned one pair of shoes and when those got a hole in them, he placed cardboard inside so he could still wear them.”

The National Museum of the American Indian explains that many clans in tribal communities are based on animals that have history and meaning. As a Tsimshian, he was part of the raven and frog clans, two animal-spirits that matched his naval career with their stories and traits.

As the Creator’s helper, the raven is a heroic figure. According to Tsimshian artist Bill Helin, the raven stole the Sun in an operation that required courage, cunning, and creativity and delivered it to humans who had never seen the light. Likewise, “Sol” Atkinson shone in service with brave deeds during conflicts in Korea and Vietnam, often putting his life on the line for the sake of his comrades and country.

The Sun that the raven brought is so vital to the ‘long-winter’ Metlakatla community, that it is featured in the middle of the town’s logo. And, as a SEAL, Atkinson prepared astronauts for space exploration, an act that launched humans into the sky and closer to the raven’s Sun than ever before. The raven also symbolizes Atkinson’s legacy as a protector, safeguarding others through his courageous actions during wars in Korea and Vietnam, frequently risking his life for his teammates and nation.

Meanwhile the frog represents the voice of the people and strives to build unity. The selfless frog teaches by example and is more focused on the us and we of the community and less on I – key notions also reflected in Atkinson’s SEAL ethos: “…I humbly serve as a guardian to my fellow Americans …placing the welfare and security of others before my own.” And while many know Atkinson was the first Alaskan Native to join the Navy’s Underwater Demolition Teams (later becoming a SEAL) he may have also been the first “Frogman” descended from a frog clan.

“He was just a gigantic person and I’m not talking about him being six foot something,” says Verdie Bowen, director of the Alaska Office of Veterans Affairs, who knew Atkinson since he was a kid. “He was a great storyteller.”

After retiring from his successful navy career, Sol was called to service again. As Metlakatla’s mayor, Atkinson used his charisma and “great storytelling” skills to motivate the town to pursue projects like an Olympic-sized pool for the high school which resulted in a certified dive program at the small school where about a fifth of the students participate in the lessons.

This career preparedness program exposes young Alaskans to U.S. Navy Diver and SEAL career paths. Four of Atkinson’s grandsons and two of his great grandsons have achieved SCUBA certifications through the program.

Brad Billings, the state’s Career and Technical Education (CTE) Program Administrator praised the program as unique and impressive, noting that Metlakatla offers the state’s only high school CTE dive certification course. “What was impressive is their discipline, they really stuck to the goal of certification and that’s quite an accomplishment considering the requirements and how small of a community they are.”

Atkinson wanted to give back to his community by championing the high school dive program and pool. He believed that anyone could excel by attacking every challenge and turning it into a chance to succeed.

“There wasn’t much here as far as opportunity when he was growing up,” noted Hayward. “He was shipped off to boarding school at one point, yet he overcame everything he had to deal with. Dad’s success in the SEALs allows young people here today to have hope that they too can really make something of themselves just like he did.”

Sol was proud of his Tsimshian heritage and served his community in many ways. Besides helping high school divers, he also led a team that created the first of what would eventually be three totem poles for Disney’s Canadian Pavilion at Epcot Center in Florida. There, about 30,000 visitors a day can admire the amazing Tsimshian art that includes Atkinson’s own raven at the bottom of the first pole, carrying the entire weight of the vertical community on his feathery shoulders.

“Sol was really involved in the community, proud of having grown up in it. He was a leader, always carried himself so well… intelligent, thoughtful, kind and friendly, said Metlakatla board member and tribal historian David Boxley who was also responsible for carving two of the totem poles. “You never would have known that he had been a very capable Navy SEAL and did the incredible things he did while he was in service,” added Boxley.

Like the totem raven’s unflinching community support, Atkinson founded and launched the Metlakatla Veterans Association, working diligently to ensure his fellow veterans received the benefits and recognition they earned.

“As a mayor and a veterans’ advocate, he was a pillar in his community,” said Verdie Bowen, the director of the Alaska Office of Veterans Affairs. “He was always putting others before himself.”

In the spring of 2019 – the same year as his passing – Atkinson’s contributions were displayed as part of the Avenue of Heroes Program by the City of Coronado, California, a tribute that underscores his enduring impact. And just this year, the Navy he heroically served paid tribute to Atkinson by naming a future Navajo-class Towing, Salvage and Rescue ship after him, serving as a lasting tribute to a man who gave so much to his country and his community.

“I am pleased to ensure that his name will extend globally to all who view this great ship,” said Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro when announcing the name of the future USNS Solomon Atkinson (T-ATS 12).

This honor is not just a recognition of Atkinson’s service but also a milestone in acknowledging the contributions of Native Americans in the armed forces. The National Indian Council on Aging reminds us that Native Americans serve in the military at five times the national average; the highest per-capita volunteerism of any other ethnic population.

Solomon ‘Sol’ Atkinson’s life was not just an account of military valor but also a narrative of Native American heritage and community leadership.

“His pioneering role as one of the first U.S. Navy SEALs, and his unwavering commitment to service both in and out of uniform, serves as an inspiration for the entire Naval Special Warfare community,” said Rear Adm. Keith Davids, commander, Naval Special Warfare Command.

By Andre’ Billeaudeaux, Naval Special Warfare Command Public Affairs
Petty Officer 1st Class Alex Smedegard, Naval Special Warfare Group One and Balinda Oneal, Alaska National Guard Public Affairs, contributed to this story.