6 posts tagged “peter toth”

We're getting into the home stretch for the video release of "Peter Toth and the Trail of the Whispering Giants," the film I made about Pete's work on Waokiye. In the meantime, we interviewed friends, fans and others and came up with a nice little documentary. CreateSpace/Amazon is finishing up on the final production end and they should be available for sale soon. In the meantime, here's the clip from YouTube: 

  https://www.createspace.com/267617

I have to give credit to Richard Miramontes for shootin' the best photo from Cabot's birthday bash. (the rest I took, but he really caught the moment) We're familiar with Tomas Garcilazo from the Indio County Fair and Date Festival and if you ever get a chance to see one of his performances, do not miss it. His horsemanship and rope skills are truly amazing. His young son's really coming along in the ways of the charro too - it's a family act. http://www.tomasgarcilazo.com/

http://ravenjake.vox.com/library/post/bull-o-rama-5.html 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Folks, you know I'm a huge fan of woodcarver Peter Toth. Toth has traveled to every single state to carve a giant head that is representative of the indigenous people in that area.

I've been covering our local "Indian Monument," Waokiye pretty extensively in previous posts. Waokiye just got some much-needed restoration work done in February and I'm going to be releasing the video of that work in a couple o' weeks.

Now, as I said before, I'm a big fan of the Whispering Giants, but that is nothing compared to Bonnie and David Schumaker; they literally plan their trips around going to see the Giants, and have "bagged" most of them. Dave has set up a beautiful website with photos and stories about all the Giants they've collected. The Schumakers planned a trip to Hawaii to get one of the last ones on their list.

When this message from Dave came across my digital desk, I just about fell out of my chair! This

Giant needs some help fast - people of Hawaii, you need to do something about this horrible situation! "The second day, armed with pre-researched location directions, we drove to find the statue," he said. "Asking a local, we found, to our dismay, that the statue and the house it was in front of, had been demolished. I talked with a person that lived across the street and he told me to talk with the man who lived next door to the statue. Finding and talking with that man revealed to me that just maybe the contractor had secretly saved the statue!

We drove to a small northern island town and asked around. A man directed us to a man who carved small statues for sale.

Yes, he had seen it and he told us how to get there. His directions were confusing and we ended seven miles away before we asked again. A man who was at this place finally said, “follow me”, and he drove us back to where we started. He pulled over at the site and got out and came over and said, “I can’t believe it is gone!” He thought maybe they had laid the statue flat on the ground, so we walked across a field looking for it. We came to a dirt road and followed it about a block. We spotted the back of the log and when we arrived at the front of it, there he was, in all his glory. Standing in the middle of a compost pile! We called the contractor for more information concerning the fate of the statue, and as of this writing have not heard back from him.

- Dave & Bonnie"

Maui Pohaku Loa, we're wishing you the best. Hang in there - it ain't over til it's over.

Dave Schumaker 

 

 

Hi Folks -

This time of year the desert really comes alive and if any of y'all are in the SoCal desert, February's gonna be a busy month. In no particular order:

The Riverside County Fair and Date Festival is always great. Gotta love those ostrich races. February 13-22. http://www.datefest.org/ Bull-O-Rama is on the 14th and the Blessing of the Dates is on the 13th at 9:30 am.

Artist Peter Toth will be doing repairs to Waokiye in Desert Hot Springs February 3-25 with a special event on February 17 at 5pm with the mayor, Yvonne Parks at the City Council offices on West Drive. http://www.cabotsmuseum.org/ There will also be art demonstrations on the 21st-22nd and an event afterward (on the 21st so everyone can go home and watch the Oscars on Sunday) from 3-5pm. 

The Morongo Basin Historical Society is doing a play to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Willie Boy Manhunt - that's coming up on March 19. And there's always somethin' happening at the Hi-Desert Museum - they're First Wednesdays progams are great http://www.hidesertnaturemuseum.org/index.html

June 6 is Cabot's BBQ bash - it's a fundraiser and tickets are $100 this year. If yer interested in attending, I'll set you up with a board member. Usually there's a great bbq meal, an open bar, a free photograph with "Merry Christmas, Cabot's Donkey" and entertainment. Support the cause!

Don't forget to stop and see the flowers - we've had a lot of rain this year and by the end of the month we should be getting a real show!

As I mentioned in my "Waokiye" post http://ravenjake.vox.com/library/post/waokiye-and-the-trail-of-the-whispering-giants.html, an artist, Peter Toth, used to drive around the country carving giant Indian heads. He did at least one in each state - including Alaska and Hawaii - and a couple more in Canada. He did this mainly as a way to raise awareness about Native Americans and point out, quite rightly, that we are on Indian land; no matter what state of the Union you're in, an indigenous American was there first.

Now this body of work is collectively called "The Trail of the Whispering Giants." You can check out descriptions of the work in the Smithsonian archives:http://siris-artinventories.si.edu/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=121763SJ4T822.1551&profile=ariall&uri=link=3100006~!209292~!3100001~!3100002&aspect=Browse&menu=search&ri=2&source=~!siartinventories&term=Toth%2C+Peter%2C+1947-+%2C+sculptor.&index=#focus

And then there are other folks who make it their business to follow the Trail of the Whispering Giants, "collecting" the giants on their travels. David Schumaker http://www.dcschumaker.com/default.html is one such fellow, Bob Clenandin ais another and you can also find some waymarkers who are doing a terrific job of pinpointing exactly where these guys are at http://www.waymarking.com/cat/details.aspx?f=1&guid=8fbd270d-3a97-42ab-8631-b73cf6c32335&wo=True&sg=56bdf13c-28aa-49aa-89bf-14fb69a3a46d And Flickr has a couple of categories for shutterbugs who can't resist a good-looking model that doesn't move http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=Peter%20Toth&w=all

Wolf Toth isn't "done" yet - now that the giants are getting on a bit, they need repairing and Waokiye is slated for some fairly major elective surgery in November 2008. So to that end, over here at the Raven Jake Command Center, where we're very fond of this project, my lovely sidekick has been compiling a Google Map of Whispering Giants. Now this isn't the work of any one researcher - we're shaking the bushes and leaving no stone unturned. The geocatchers have done the best job with finding them, Dave Shumaker takes the best photos of them and the Smithsonian does the best job of describing them - and about 20 other people have picked up the slack and filled in the missing pieces of the puzzle. As more info becomes available, we'll keep updating for the latest on the Whispering Giant circut.

Here are a sampling of photos (that I didn't take) of some of the Whispering Giants:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=en&ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=107348785646573726339.000453306dab0e2d89264&ll=41.376809,-113.203125&spn=56.497569,105.644531&z=3

Waokiye," meaning "Traditional Helper" in the Lakota language, was carved in 1978, by Hungarian-born sculptor Peter "Wolf" Toth.

During a 21-year period (1971-1992) Toth carved 67 giant Native American heads; at least one in each of the 50 states plus several in Canada. The first giant, which he began at the age of 24, was carved from the cliff at Wind and Sea Beach in La Jolla, California. All of the subsequent colossi have been made from giant logs. Waokiye was the 27^th sculpture in the "Whispering Giants" series.

Born in 1947, Peter Toth (rhymes with "oath") was one of eleven children. His family fled from Hungary during the 1956 uprising. They lived in refugee camps for two years before emigrating to the United States and settling in Akron, Ohio. Learning about Native American culture, he empathized with the tribes’ situation and saw a parallel to the violent repression he had experienced in Hungary. Expanding on his desire to highlight the struggle of American Indians for justice and recognition of their human rights, the statues represent all humanity and stand against injustice to all people. He has been adopted into several tribes as the result of his mission.

The Desert Hot Springs Chamber of Commerce invited Toth to come to California and carve a sculpture. Toth, later joined by his wife Kathy, traveled the US in a Dodge van, spending summers in the north and winters in the south, and "stopping wherever local officials would allow or invite him to carve one of his ‘Whispering Giants.’" He did not accept money for his work and lived on donations, sales of small carvings and sales of his self-published book. Cole Eyraud, who was the vice-mayor as well as the curator of Cabot’s Pueblo Museum, saw the similarities between Toth’s tribute to Native Americans and Cabot Yerxa’s and volunteered the museum to be the site for the statue.

A 45-ton giant Sequoia redwood log was donated through the efforts of the Riverside County Fire Department and the state Division of Forestry. The 750-year-old tree, which was almost 200 feet tall, was originally from the Sequoia National Forest near Porterville. It had been struck by lightning in the mid-1950s. Moving the log which had been earmarked for the sculpture, a segment 10 by 20 feet and weighing 40,000 pounds, from central California was no easy task. Bad weather delayed the arrival of the log until the end of February 1978.

Toth used power tools for the rough shaping, and then set to work with a #5 chisel and a hammer. All of the work was done on site. The finished face is 22 feet high, eight feet in diameter and weighs 20 tons. The feather is made from an Incense Cedar from Idyllwild, it is 15 feet tall, four feet with and one-and –a-half feet thick. The pedestal is 5 feet tall, extends 4 feet into the earth and is made of 2,000 pounds of steel and 33 yards of cement. Local rocks decorate the outside surface. The overall height of the sculpture – base, face and feather - is 43 feet. The project was sponsored by Landmark Conservators (Cole Eyraud’s management company for Cabot’s Pueblo Museum), the Desert Hot Springs Chamber of Commerce and the California State Department of Forestry.

On May 20, 1998, Waokiye was ready to meet the public. Dennis Banks, educator and founder of the American Indian Movement was the guest speaker, and about 250 people showed up for the event. This project could never have been achieved without donations and community support – the donation of Peter Toth’s time and talent, the donation of the land, of the tree, the transportation… every step of the project required an act of generosity. At the dedication ceremony, Peter Toth said simply "The American Indian is a proud and often misunderstood people. They have suffered atrocities ever since the first white man landed on this shore. Even as a young boy I had admiration for my Indian brothers and perhaps this monument and all the others… will bring awareness of a proud and great people."

We are fortunate that Waokiye has survived the years in relatively good condition. Other giants have not been so fortunate. See the list on the following page for the other Whispering Giants - not all of them remain. Some websites, such as this one from David Schumaker, can provide current information.Whispering Giants