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Showing posts from July 26, 2020

SHARING TRADITIONS - Frank LaPena

Frank LaPena , who lived from 1937 to 2019, was born in San Francisco, California. He went to a special school for Native American children in Nevada. He got a degree in art in 1965 from Chico State and later earned a Master's degree in Anthropology from Sac State in 1978. He often talked to people about Native American traditions and culture, especially those from California. LaPena worked as a teacher in art and also as the head of Native American Studies at California State University, Sacramento. He was an artist who made paintings and sculptures, and he also wrote poetry that showed how much he loved his Native American heritage. He helped start a group called the Maidu Dancers and Traditionalists, which aimed to bring back and protect Native American arts. He wrote many books of poetry and even wrote about modern California Native American art for a magazine called News from Native California. He was really interested in Native American arts and traditions. He worked on a boo