Kommen die Indianer wieder?
August 16th, 2007 by blackbird
The phone rang, it was 7 am.
Once I recognized the voice, I shouted.
“Hello Larry!”
“Mornin’ John, how’s it going?” He continues without taking a break. “Let me read a quick e-mail to you.”
“Sure”
He reads. “They contacted us, to put on two - ten day city shows in Germany…”
“Where are they dancing again?” I ask.
“In Mannheim and Bielefeld.”
“For ten days each in each city?”
“But the thing is they are almost at the end of their trip, they’ve been here since July 10.”
“And no payment?”
“None, their contract says that they were to get paid an advance two dancing days before the first show.”
“Ummm.”
“Yeah.” He says.
I comment on the ending that I like it.
“Yeah,” he laughs.
He reads it again.
“All went well until we actually got there, to Germany.”
Before Larry called, I had heard about the Oklahoma Indians coming to Germany. I checked my e-mails, the first e-mail was of hope and excitement of the experience of getting a trip overseas, then the next I heard from them, was this plea for help.
I checked the website, (http://www.indian-shows.de/) it said that 80 -100 original peoples of North America were coming. But only 70 showed, then in the meantime and between time, this number fell and rose to settle eventually at 67. Of those that went home, it was because of funerals and sickness.
The Website continued, never before have so many Indians come to Germany. This would be the biggest Pow wow in Europe.
Larry gave me the numbers and e-mails of some of the Indians dancing, so I called and e-mailed. The first person I got through told me it was true, but she suddenly whispered. “I can’t talk here right now. Too many ears,” she said. I could just see her looking around. She gave me a new number to call, I waited ten minutes and called back.
As we chatted the picture became more clear.
“He finally gave us some money, he used the gate money from today, August 4. He’s pulling our leg, and I don’t believe he will pay. I finally got 100 euros tonight, some got 200, some got 150, the contract says we get paid Friday, Sat and Sun and the remainder on Tuesday, but no set amounts.”
This whole situation reminded me of a story a German trying to relate to me told to me. It’s like that old Indian chief who got off the train and put his ear to the track and realized that his heart was at the last stop.
Okay, first of all, I was grinning, waiting for the punch-line, when I realized that that was it. I wanted to ask who let the Indian on the train, how did you know he was a chief, and was the train gone by the time he put his ear to the track, and plus I wanted to tell the joke another way, how I had heard it.
I guess we all have questions when a story doesn’t come out right. So I called Willy Beivers, to get his side of the story, to somehow make it come out right.
“Here at Serena,” he said. “We do cultural events, with many different groups from many different. countries. This is our first year with Indians.” He was typing something, this must have been many of such interview calls.
“How long did you tour with the Indians?”
“5 weeks, of travelling with 67 Indians, though we had bought 87 plane tickets. Some didn’t make it, or were themselves waiting to the last minute due to passport delayals. We even sent money over to them to help pay for their passports. Some went home early, and still a few others came over.”
“But it all went pretty good?” I asked.
“Yeah, but there were too many dancers, not enough vendors or crafts people.”
I didn’t understand, “what do u mean?”
“Well they wanted to change the rules to be able to dance and vend. But this was forbidden. They wanted to just leave their stores open and go dance.”
“And yet there weren’t enough of these stores?”
“Yeah.”
He typed further.
“He always has some lame excuse for not paying, a mother of one of the participant’s, died.” My contact said over the phone. “He used him, as an excuse of sending him back to the States. Said he had to use lots of money to get him back. What nerve!”
“He might as well as have said that it was heap big wampum!” I joked.
“No doubt.” She laughs. “I know he’s paying his own German people, but he’s not paying the Native Americans here. And we are the main attraction.”
Willy spoke about the weather for the shows, “this is Germany. You can never tell what the weather is going to be like. In each city, at least three or fours days were rain but not rained out.”
“They still danced?” I asked.
“Yeah, it just wasn’t good for their moccasins.”
He assures me, “they will get paid for this.”
“However;” he points out. “They will not get paid for being signed in and not dancing… this is what we’re figuring out right now.”
“How do you figure that out?”
No reply. Just typing.
My Contact sounds frustrated over the phone. “Willy would pay some people, little sums of money and not others. He was always whispering into different people’s ears, anyone who would listen to him. He tried to cause division.”
“The classic Indian fighting Indian maneuover.”
“Yeah.”
I thought she was also tired.
“Are you all staying together in the same place?”
“No, we’re in Bielefeld, we’re split into two groups. One group has TV, phone, internet, and access to the town and laundry. The other group is out in the country with no cell phone service, internet, and no access to the city unless they take a taxi 20 Euros one way.”
Willy breathes into the phone, “but you have to know people, and we have certainly learned by doing.”
“How did you meet so many Indians?” I ask.
“By travelling the pow wow trail,” he says.
“You met 87 Indians?” I asked.
“No, I met about 20 – 30% of them, and the rest we met when they got here, the others came as cousins and friends of the people I met.”
“I see,” scratching at my notes. He typed.
My Contact continues, “they have a German interpreter at the shows and he said that Willy told him, the Indians are not getting any money until its time for them to leave.”
“You said that you had business partners and sponsors who helped pay for this event, who were they?”
“Why?” He shoots back, perked up… The typing has stopped.
“Was it coca cola, or someone like that?”
“No, and it’s not important who sponsored. Not for this interview, or even for this phone call.”
“I see, okay.” I scratch at my notes some more. He doesn’t start typing again.
“You know Indians are like everyone else, there are good and bad.”
“Yeah, okay.” A sentence like that always made me feel uncomfortable.
He starts to type again.
I look at the article in the Bielefelder Tageblatt (Bielefeld Daily Post: Thursday 09. Aug. ‘07 ). He is quoted as saying, “I have never seen such undisciplined people.”
“How did this event turn out for you and your organization?” I ask.
“This was a really good event, but in the future, we’ll have better advertising, and… “ He trails off. “Yeah, we’ll just need better preparation.”
Back to the article: “They tried to cheat us organizers, as often as possible. The Indians, they constantly created chaos.”
“This was a good experience for next year,” he says to me for this interview.
“About payment,” I asked.
“Everything,” he said. “Is paid for. Hotels, Busses, and the Indians will be fully compensated. But he added only for work done. Some just went sightseeing, instead of dancing, or appearing at their vending table.”
“What was for sale at the vending tables?”
“Prints, souvenirs, trinkets, etc…”
Back to the Article, “The Indians, Willy said, “were given only an advance of the money as they didn’t really seem to be reliable. And they forced him to change their work contracts otherwise they, the Indians, said they would not perform anything.”
Off-hand, can u tell me who you worked with that was a superstar, someone who liked to steal the show, tell a great story, sing a song and maybe who it was that danced the men’s fancy. He couldn’t tell me a name.
“After 25 days,” I asked again. “You can’t tell me a name of even the story teller that had the crowd Mesmerized in Mannheim?”
He said nothing.
Nothing, more to ask. Only a few phonecalls for stranded Indians.
“The final scary thing that happened was that the buses would not come unless they had gotten paid. At that point Willy Beivers and Werner Mullender under the Serena Gmbh name had already checked us out of the hotel. We called the US embassy and they started calling the bus company and Willy’s cell. The US Embassy said it would be considered, “a case of emergency” if we were stranded. Willy finally paid the buses, but not us. So in the end all the dancers and singers were slaves working for food and a place to stay.”
I call Larry, just after I get off the phone with Willy Beivers. He asks if I checked out that newslink?
“Yeah, where the Commanche Nation sent the Busses to Dallas?”
“Yeah. I made that call, Chairman Coffee, said that he would help them out free of charge.”
“Nice of them,” I said.
“Yeah.”
“Are the Indians coming again for next April?” I ask Larry.
In the interview with Willy Beivers, he said that next April he would be doing this again.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
She says, "there was TV coverage, it was ok but in their report "they hoped the Indians didn't pull out their tomahawks." In an earlier Bielefeld Daily Post, we were referred to as redskins and squaws. I think to entice people to come and see the show."
I have a question, why do we do it? You know, this cultural presentation. I think as Indians we are always willing to share, we are always willing to give the benefit of the doubt. Plus we love to dance, sing and display our culture. And we also believe that when someone says they'll pay, they'll pay. Willy Beivers says that they will get the rest of their "salary," later.
Let's keep our hatchets buried, though the Stuttgart Daily Post thinks we may dig them out. (Indianer sind zornig auf weiße Männer, 16.08.2007)
Whether it's cultural appropriation (the hobbyists), cultural presentation (professional Indians), or cultural enlightenment (sellouts), we have to always be careful.
This is a open response to the ill fated "German Summer Tour of 2007" of Native American Dancers, Singers, and Artists.
By Richard Donaghey (Caddo-Delaware)
First of all, I realize that by writing this response to the German Summer Tour of 07 that I will not make very many friends. But, it is something that has to be said….as many Natives are trying to make it in the world of arts and media.
I am Richard Donaghey, I own, produce, and direct First Nations Dance Company, we do consider ourselves to be the most successful all-Native owned and operated professional Native dance company in the world. And perhaps this is a good place to begin, and that is to define success in the business world, regardless of race or ethnicity.
We consider ourselves to be successful because since 1992, FNDC has never failed to meet our payroll obligations to any of our artists. Since 1992 FNDC has performed in the best venues in the world such as Istanbul, Amsterdam, Belfast, Rotterdam, Frankfurt, Brussels, and over a hundred western European cities. Considering we work with major television networks such a Veronica, RTL-4, ZDF, and others, our viewing audience is close to 1.7 million viewers.
For over 6 years, until 2002, Bob De Jong a Dutch television producer that we work closely with produced the weekly television series "Western Lifestyle". This program was about ‘cowboys and Indians’, and FNDC was lucky enough to be a major part of that program. FNDC received several minutes each week performing Native dances and doing cultural interviews. Because of this TV program and our work with the annual Western Experience exhibition, FNDC became the most well known Native dance company in Europe. Currently we still work with Bob De Jong Management, and FNDC is currently scheduled to perform at Western Experience 2008, in Den Bosch, Netherlands, during the last weekend in January 2008.
I laugh sometimes because, I am not very good at getting out press releases in the United States, we win no awards in the arts, we are not even nominated for any, I have dropped most of my memberships in Native organizations because those Native organizations do nothing for us, they are too far behind. We went from keeping a database of over a hundred dancers to about 30 "reliable" people, and I say with great pride that we have not performed in the United States, Yet…we will not work for peanuts.. And we will not sell out to other parties who think we should work for nothing.
So, we win no awards for our work. Boo Hoo..O, I am sad…. However, FNDC is a business, we are not some 501 non-profit artsy fartsy organization! We pay taxes on our income, and I pay quarterly estimated taxes just like any other business in America… We are a success in the typical American standard of business.. We make a profit, we are in the black. we always pay our dancers. we have never missed a payroll. I say with great pride as a Native business owner that if an incident occurs and the sponsor dies or something, and say for instance, we cannot get our money immediately.. Then as a Native American producer who understands the financial risks involved…well guess what. because I am the producer. I could guarantee to my performers that within a few days of arriving home, that I would pay their salaries and fees, etc from the FNDC accounts. I can say that and currently, I know of no other Native American producer who can make such a statement? If there is let me know, and I’ll go to work for them!
It is strange as a note, there are many people nominated for NAMMYs, etc…and they are artists. Straight up, some of theses artists are broke, they may win awards true, but they are still broke. They are probably so broke that they cannot even afford to go to the NAMMYs..tell me again "What is success"? As a Native producer, I can pay the salaries out of my own pocket if necessary!
I do understand where Willy Beivers is coming from, as he most certainly did not understand the actions of some Natives. Straightforward, Willy should have hired me cause I can do with 18 people what he thought would take 100 Natives. All of my dancers are into multitasking, they have to dance, sing, be artists, and most importantly they are taught to work with the public.
So, Willy thought it was strange that some of the so-called performers or artists did not keep to their schedule. Straight up, there are many Natives who simply do not have the self-discipline to be on time. I feel sorry for Willy in that sense. However, for me as a Native producer, I would simply fire you! No problem, and Yes, after I "Pay you" what I owe you, I would tell you to make your own way to the airport. As a Native producer who takes an enormous financial risk in such ventures, I have no time or sympathy for such individuals.
Willy mentioned in a telephone interview that some of the Natives did not show up..Oh Wow, like that is something new in working with Natives. As a Native producer I have to put up with absolute "Numbskulls" who miss the plane, or did not even bother to apply for a passport..this is very costly! So, if 13 performers out of 100 did not show up, that means that you lost money on those tickets..OK, here is the math, 1 ticket equals 1300.00 USD. X 13 = 16,900 USD. Just think at the end of the German program, it would have been nice to have almost 17,000 dollars to distribute to the dancers. But, that money was wasted by irresponsible Natives, who just did not bother to show up, or were to lazy to communicate to the sponsors of the program that they were not coming. Once again, as a Native producer who takes the risks, and understands those risks, I have "No Time" for irresponsible Natives who cannot communicate or cannot get a passport. Those people who miss the plane have no excuse, though Natives just like others come up with some pretty good excuses. Currently, those Natives performing in my company must have a passport, and must begin using electronic forms of communication, like e-mail. Through e-mail I can send a performer’s airline ticket via e-mail. No problem. Only as a note do I say that this is one of the toughest problems in working with Natives. "Real Life Experience" in all these issues has been a really tough teacher!
Yeah, Willy made a few mistakes, without advertising you are nowhere. Without major sponsorship, you are nowhere. Without good communications your event is nowhere. It is really too bad because there are over 60 Native American hobbyist clubs in Germany, and the Germans as well as many Europeans love Native Americans and their culture. However, as far as I know to date, no one has been able to communicate in an organized fashion with these clubs. And those clubs are a huge market. Willy like many promoters had a good idea. But, without such an event being operated as a business, then guess what, you are nowhere!
I personally and professionally think that the performers have basically lost out of their money. It will cost more in lawyers fees then what you may get back…I read in some blog that Willy said.."The performers will get their salaries"..OK..maybe they get paid later on. That would be nice. I know people say they had a contract…yeah, So what! Get Real, if you had an producer like me! I would have the promoters get me a "Letter of Credit" from their bank. With that letter, I could draw down the performers salaries into a separate account in a foreign bank…and to make a long story short, all the dancers would have gotten their money. I can tell you this, and it is easy. But, this where Native artists need to begin looking at themselves, and ask a simple question "How successful do you want to be in media and the arts". And it will not happen if Native artists do not educate themselves about the world of business. You can be the greatest artist in the world. But, no one will know if you don’t learn good advertising and marketing skills. My CPA once told me that the business laws of America are the best and I believe that. But, many Native artists do not take advantage of those laws, perhaps they can’t read? I do not know?
Understanding culture, is a key ingredient in international business. I know Europeans. as a producer who works in Europe, it is my job. I have over time learned a few foreign languages in the conversational mode, some I read and write such as Dutch, French, Italian, German, and a little bit of Turkish, Arabic, and Russian. It is my job! I read in some blog that the Natives thought they would make a lot of money.. Well I know Western Europeans, as was mentioned by some one from Germany that they should not have such high hopes of making grand amounts of money? It all turned out to be too true for the guys and gals that went to Germany.
When FNDC does shows in various venues, we are allowed to sell audio CDs, and Native arts and crafts. No problem. But, what I tell all my performers is that low priced items sell fast, and high priced items sell slow, or not at all. Though the markets in Europe are good and steady year round, many Europeans spend their money only after thinking about it two or three times. Items priced between 5-35 euros sell well…Over 50 euros and you may end up taking those items home with you.. There is a market, that market is basically 90% of the 50 euros and below crowd. But remember that is 90% of your market. There are a 10 % of connoisseurs of Native arts who will spend 500 euros on up for really fancy Native art. But, that is only 10%. So, this knowledge is for free for those people who listen. I learn the culture of my "Clients”. in that way I am financially successful. As a note, it makes me laugh that many times it is the Native American that says, "Understand my culture". Yet, there are those Natives who are unwilling to learn another culture in order to make a better living at whatever they may do! Be it in the arts and media.
Like I said, we win no awards, and were not nominated for anything. But, Since 1992 First Nations Dance Company has made a home in Western Europe. We have made money in Europe, enough to be fiscally successful, enough to reinvest in my own company and create Donaghey Media, and NDN-TV.COM. Success in other areas such as tourism promotion is just as good. My little company helps to promote the 4-Corners region for tourism, to the tune of 2.7 million in foreign tourism, that is New Mexico alone. These are the dollars that come to the Indian reservations from Europe. In the future, with a few more dollars, then Donaghey Media will go into the creation of Native films.
One of the major reasons for writing this is because without the Europeans, my business would be flat broke. We would have been put out of business. If we depended upon American dollars then we would not exist. I have a tendency to believe that there are a number of other artists who depend greatly upon their income from overseas sources, not just Europe. That is because Native Americans are loved around the world.. In this day and age where there is a great deal of anti-Americanism, and for some strange reason or rationale Americans are loathed around the world. But, in spite of open hatred of Americans, we the Native people, or Indians are actually loved, admired, and respected by nations throughout the world. And, yes, I exploit that concept to create at least temporary jobs for my performers.
There have been many incidents over the years where performing arts groups are not paid or do not get what they were supposed to receive, and that is too bad. Yes, I personally know of events in Holland, Germany, Italy, Hong Kong, Greece, and Russia, where the promoters went "Belly Up", and I think the dancers were lucky to have a plane ticket back home. But, to me a long time pow-wow dancer, it would not be the first time a pow-wow could not pay out what they advertised as their prize money. I think many dancers can relate to that analogy. When you win at a pow-wow and someone gives you an IOU or I’ll have the money tomorrow, of course that money will never be seen! And that’s Indians cheating other Indians. Forget the Europeans at this point it’s not their fault.
OK, back to Americans, they are no better in my book. Shows that we have scheduled in the States just have not come to pass for whatever reasons. But, here is a good reason, in my opinion, Americans are full of bull$%^^# ! In our latest escapade with Americans from the International House of the University of Chicago, in association with Kalapriya Dance Company. FNDC was to perform with this other dance company last April. In the long run, the University of Chicago, International House, never had their funding to begin with. We (FNDC) wasted time, money, and resources on a group we thought to be legitimate. I actually flew to Chicago to visit the director of the Kalapriya Dance Company and she was thrilled to have a Native dance company to perform with.. But, alas…No money honey, and 2 months before we supposed to perform, the International House canceled our performance. Work with Americans? Forget that noise! Old white man’s saying: "Money talks and bullshit walks". Give me all the International work!
Last April, while other dance groups or troupes were sending e-mails to producers and directors in Europe. I went to Holland and spoke with my promoters, I laid out what I wanted to do in the future. By doing that, by traveling to Holland and making a few personal visits with my clients. I have guaranteed work for my company for the next 5 years. Oh Yeah, and we will get paid. Ask Kevin Connywerdy, he was one of the participants that went on this German Summer Tour of 07. I did speak to him on the phone the other day as I was recruiting him to come back to Holland with us for Western Experience 08. Of course Kevin and his wife Kricket accepted our offer. Kevin knows for sure that this time he will get paid.
OK, time to say good-bye..
Richard Donaghey
Caddo-Delaware
Owner/Producer/Director
First Nations Dance Company
Donaghey Media International
NDN-TV
My web sites need updating. but here they are.
http://www.donagheymedia.com
http://www.firstnationsdance.com
http://www.ndn-tv.com
Bob De Jong and Western Experience B.V. website
http://www.westernexperience.com
Comment by Richard Donaghey — September 5, 2007 @ 10:25 am