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Summer 2000

Powerful Feelings Recollected In Tranquility Literary Criticism And Lakota Social Song Poetry

R. D. Theisz Black Hills State University

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Theisz, R. D., "Powerful Feelings Recollected In Tranquility Literary Criticism And Lakota Social Song Poetry" (2000). Great Plains Quarterly. 2157. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/greatplainsquarterly/2157

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R. D. THEISZ

The anthropologist and ethnomusicologist Powers' judgment, it seems to me that the con­ William K. Powers, in his Beyond the Vision: ceptual seams between anthropology, ethno­ Essays on American Indian Culture, laments that musicology, and musicology are rather the discipline of ethnomusicology-and mu­ formidable. sic pedagogy-with its emphasis on the vocal At the same time, from the endogenous and instrumental "art music" traditions of point of view of the indigenous traditional musically literate peoples has been lax in ac­ song composers, performers, and audiences, cepting anthropological theory. Thus, Powers the theories and methods of all three of these points out that ethnomusicology, where it is disciplines must necessarily too often appear concerned with the music of oral, indigenous na'ively uninformed, pejorative, arrogant, ex­ cultures, adheres to outdated theories on ploitative, and even bizarre. "primitive" music and displays a telling ab­ The aim in the analysis below is to bridge sence of ethnographic abilities.! Reflecting yet another obstructive conceptual seam that has insulated two disciplines or subject areas from each other, that of western literary criti­ R.D. Theisz is Professor of English and American cism and Native American oral song poetry. Indian Studies at Black Hills State University in Spearfish, SD. He teaches courses on American Indian Dearie, each time I come to this place, Literature, Literary Criticism, and American Indian I cry to myself in secret, Cultural Studies. His publications include Buckskin day and night. Tokens: Contemporary Lakota Oral Narratives, Songs and Dances of the Lakota (with Ben Black -Lakota song poem Bear Sr.), Standing in the Light: A Lakota Way of Seeing (with Severt Young Bear Sr.), and Raising The late Michael Dorris in his 1987 essay Their Voices: Essays on Lakota Musicology. "Indians on the Shelf' stated that "learning about Native American culture and history is different from acquiring knowledge in other [GPQ 20 (Summer 2000): 197-210] fields, for it requires an initial, abrupt, and

197 198 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, SUMMER 2000 wrenching demythologizing."2In his meaning, oral narrative has held a favored position in it seems clear that the elimination of perva­ the emerging field of oral Native American sive falsehoods, of omissions and distortions, literature. Most scholars seem to display a must precede any new knowledge in the area greater affinity for oral narrative forms, so that, of Native American studies. Like other disci­ by comparison, Native American oral song plines, such as women's studies, African­ poetry has aroused little interest. Song poetry American studies, and Latino/a studies, appears to present special difficulties for liter­ American Indian studies in general is a revi­ ary study. sionist undertaking. Moreover, this arduous Compared to the study of oral narrative "demythologizing" is nowhere more necessary forms, the study of Native American oral song in the area of interdisciplinary American In­ poetry as literature has been undertaken by only dian studies than in the academic stance on a select few. So, in spite of admonitions such and treatment of traditional Native Ameri­ as Ruoffs to study the oral literatures of Na­ can song poetry. The myths that have pre­ tive Americans as a "vibrant force that tribal cluded appropriate study of Native American peoples continue to create and perform," and song texts as literature result from several bi­ her view that songs "are central to all aspects ases and failings. of ceremonial and nonceremonial life," the Examining this array of biases and failings literary study of Indian oral song poetry has of American Indian studies in great detail not kept pace with the study of narratives, would digress from the thesis of this analysis. oratory, and ritual drama which have enjoyed Nevertheless, a quick glance at the mistreat­ considerable and energetic attention.4 ,ment of traditional song poetry in the perti­ The issue must be raised whether song po­ nent enterprises such as literary interpretation etry in its use of language, in its incorporation and the study of Native American artistic ex­ of melody and musical instruments, or even in pression will ground the direction of the later its connection to dance and its performance exploration. The terms "song poetry" and "song mode of representing human experience is poems" are used to refer to the two central viewed as subliterary. Perhaps literature dimensions of the gente-the performance and scholars find such performance elements be­ literary dimensions. yond their interest or even competence. The Oral texts of the Native American literary focus of the following spotlight on Native tradition have historically been the domain of American oral song poetry would therefore anthropology, ethnomusicology, and folklore. highlight what Richard Macksey calls the "on­ The first and perhaps major rationale for rel­ tological question" in literary criticism, by egating oral texts outside the literary canon which he means que~: ioning the nature and appears to be the very nature of oral literary mode of existence of a literary work and "the expression. The relationship of orality to lit­ philosophy oflanguage and mimetic represen­ eracy "problematizes" the traditional Western tation."5 So far, the literary study of oral song conceptualization ofliterature, which has most poetry appears to have generally avoided the typically stressed the "close connection with question or declined to engage song poetry as 'literate' forms and 'literate' cultures."3 Yet, if a fitting subject. orality were the only challenge, Native Ameri­ Two examples can serve to illustrate this can oral narratives, life stories, and other oral reluctance. The 1994 Dictionary of Native narrative forms would also linger in critical American Literature includes the following in­ limbo. This is not the case. troductory explanation by its editor, Andrew Even when oral texts received greater liter­ Wiget: ary attention in the works of Dell Hymes, Jerald Ramsey, Karl Kroeber, Richard Bauman, An­ On the other hand, some topics that would drew Wiget, and others in the 1960s and 1970s, have been especially interesting in conjunc- LITERARY CRITICISM AND LAKOTA SOCIAL SONG POETRY 199

tion with the study of oral narratives were the prism of literary theory, literary history, not included. While it would seem logical and literary criticism. to have a general article on "Songs," for Extant ethnomusicological and literary instance, it was clear from the beginning studies of oral song poetry have featured cer­ that Native American songs from over 350 emonial songs and songs associated with the different tribes did not have as a subject warrior tradition. The "vanishing red man" the same kind of formal coherence that oral myth at the close of the nineteenth century narratives did .... To have included ar- caused a rush to preserve documentation of ticles on song ... would have been to in- the disappearing authentic life of the noble vite their authors to create the most but doomed aborigine, and so the songs of the speculative kind of typology with which to hunt, of the warrior, of the communication frame a brief and spotty discussion of an with the world of the spirits, represented the enormous topic.6 sought-out forms of oral song. Social dance songs, which feature romantic contexts as well Wiget certainly appears to understand the as romantic subjects, were considered to ad­ significance of song but then abandons any dress baser and more trivial matters and were effort to advance the study of song because it thus not really of interest. The prolific collec­ would be too "spotty," "fragmented," "com­ tor and recorder of indigenous music, Frances plex," and interdisciplinary.7 Densmore in her 1918 classic Teton Sioux Another specific dimension of the onto­ Music, provides a good example of this ten­ logical dilemma in this regard-one of the dency. Perhaps the romantic focus of social myths, in Dorris's terms-is the very diver­ song poems was also perceived as evidence of gent conceptualization of the broader field of acculturation and thus tainted by Western Native American oral literature. Even though notions of courtship. some, like Ruoff, recognize the cultural cen­ trality of songs as the "largest part of Ameri­ Applying the principles of modern literary can Indian oral literatures,"8 others have theory and criticism to the doubly neglected limited their notion of Native American oral form of Lakota oral social dance songs can literature to that of narrative. Thus Julian Rice, contribute to a more appropriate understand­ who has contributed significant work on oral ing of this particular subgenre and its place in narrative and Indian autobiography to the the canon. The strategy to follow will blend field, in his contribution to the Dictionary of the exogenous or etic perspective of the non­ Native American Literature entitled "Oral Lit­ Lakota academic with the more endogenous erature of the Plains Indians"-perhaps due to or emic perspective of a practicing singer who Wiget's editorial decision above-summarizes has been immersed in Lakota music and lit­ only the tradition of narrative without a single erature for over thirty years, the last twenty­ mention of song poetry. This perspective is five years as a member of Porcupine Singers, a not untypical of the field. It seems clear to me, widely traveled and respected traditional in view of the above, that oral song poetry is Lakota singing group from the Pine Ridge the victim of a general pronarrative bias, or, Reservation of South Dakota. inversely, an anti-song poem bias. The collection and study of Lakota song In response to such disappointing views on poetry begins with the early works of anthro­ the nature and desirability of studying oral pologists and ethnomusicologists such as song poetry, this analysis intends to examine a Natalie Curtis and Frances Densmore. The particular tribal subgenre, that of Lakota so­ more recent contributions of William K. Pow­ cial song poetry, the most marginalized ers; Ben Black Bear and R. D. Theisz; and sub genre of oral song poetry, to illustrate the Albert White Hat and John Around Him have potential for illumination of this form through provided recordings and interpretations of a 200 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, SUMMER 2000

variety of Lakota songs.9 Yet, their work has In the 1920s Owen Barfield, in exploring not emanated from the point of view of liter­ the nature of poetry, proposed that the poetic ary theory and criticism that is undertaken experience can be defined as a "felt change of here, nor has it benefited from it. consciousness" as our aesthetic imagination In the 1960s and '70s, scholars such as Den­ responds to a textY In the 1940s Rene Wellek nis Tedlock, Dell Hymes, and Jerome Roth­ and Austin Warren proposed that of three enberg, as well as others, sought to revise definitions of literature which could be sum­ academic notions of Native American oral per­ marized, that is, "everything in print," "the formance by emphasizing that beyond the early great works," and "imaginative literature," the ethnographic transcriptions lie the "pretexts," last of the three would represent their pre­ the original performances, in their verbal and ferred designation. 12 More recent examinations even nonverbal art. Robert M. Nelson sum­ of the concept of literature have become in­ marizes the pioneering of this literary criti­ creasingly less confident about the nature of cism, which became known as "ethnopoetics": literature. Robert Con Davis and Ronald Schleifer cite Irving Howe's statement that They taught that an oral tradition is a spe­ "literature is difficult to organize" as they ex­ cies of literature. Like any other body of plore the difficulty of fixing the meaning of literature (including any print-text litera­ literature. 13 Terry Eagleton, after reviewing the ture), Native American oral traditions have various historical efforts at defining literature both culturally specific content or subject onto logically, settles on the functional ap­ matter and culture-specific aesthetic crite­ proach: "Perhaps 'literature' means something ria; these aesthetic norms regulate the com­ like ... any kind of writing which for some position of performances and these same reason or another somebody values highly."14 criteria can be used to evaluate such per­ His caution in beginning with "perhaps" indi­ formances. lo cates the circumspection of his conclusion. He continues by asserting that "Literature, in Regrettably, the pursuit of these distinc­ the sense of a set works of assured and unalter­ tive literary principles has not reached En­ able value, distinguished by certain shared glish departments nor most literary critics, inherent properties, does not exist. "15 Eagleton never mind many anthropologists nor linguis­ continues his reasoning by proposing that the tic anthropologists. canon, "the unquestioned 'great tradition' of The nature of literature has been debated the 'national literature' has to be recognized since the time of Plato and Aristotle. Efforts as a construct, fashioned by particular people at defining literature and its function in the for particular reasons at a certain time. "16 Davis Western heritage have been attempted end­ and Schleifer join Eagleton in cautiously con­ lessly, with many notable benchmarks such as cluding that literary value is thus a transitive Aristotle's well-worn concepts in his Poetics; and provisional idea shaped by ideologyY Horace's formulation of literature as dulce et Charles E. Bressler echoes the notion of utile, or "sweet and useful" in the sense of en­ literature's functional and cultural relativity: joyment and usefulness; Wordsworth's shift to "[I]f people value a written work, for whatever portraying the common man and woman in reason, they frequently decree it to be litera­ common diction and his famous definition of ture whether or not it contains the prescribed poetry as "the spontaneous overflow of power­ or so-called essential elements of a text."18 ful feelings ... recollected in tranquility"; and The review of these diverse though selec­ Matthew Arnold's concept, reminiscent of tive explorations of the nature of literature at Horace's, about the essence of literature being such length, including some of its most recent "sweetness and light," to cite but a few before insights, supports my contention that Lakota the twentieth century. song poetry is valued as a referential imagina- LITERARY CRITICISM AND LAKOTA SOCIAL SONG POETRY 201 tive act within Lakota culture which does not Lakota song poems might wrongly-and re­ have the tradition of distinguishing between flecting past colonial practice-apply a West­ literary and nonliterary, or fine art and popu­ ern set of critical principles to a non-Western, lar art, as the Western academy has been wont indigenous culture and thus reductively as­ to do. Lee Patterson also sees the recent con­ sume validity that cannot be assumed. Steven ceptualizing ofliterature as determined not by Leuthold in his study of indigenous aesthetics some ontological essence but by its "cultural proposes three counter-responses to the dan­ functioning" and, reminiscent of Barfield ger of thus cavalierly universalizing aesthetic above, how its audience-to broaden the con­ principles and definitions. He suggests we have cept of "the reader" to that of "audience" for the option not to attempt to define them at the performance of oral song poetry-regards all, or we can define them variably for each it. 19 Thus, it seems to me, our evaluation of culture or period or even individual, and, oral song poetry, rather than being guided by thirdly, we can "compare ideas about art found traditional literary biases, should be ap­ in different cultures or periods and be aware of proached cautiously as an example of our likely commonalties that may emerge."22 In his dis­ cross-cultural fallibility, as Dorris advised.20 cussion, he then supports the third of the three Robert M. Nelson concurs regarding the study possible approaches "because it acknowledges of Native American literatures: "One thing cultural differences in attitudes about art, but Western-trained critics like myself are learn­ also allows for commonalties that may ing is that we have a lot to un-learn about how emerge."23 As Leuthold continues his ethno­ literature means, or can mean."21 Rather than aesthetic study, he determines distinctive ele­ song poetry being seen as subliterary or as of ments of indigenous aesthetics as they compare less importance than oral narrative, it should and contrast with the Euroamerican tradition, be the subject of rigorous study. If quantity but yet he also reminds us of the intercultural and centrality in Native American cultural nature of much indigenous American experi­ life, as cited by Ruoff above, may be seen as ence and that art is unique in its expression of measures of cultural regard, song poetry clearly universal concerns that ultimately "touch a deserves a more pivotal role in the study of common chord."24 oral literatures. Andrew Wiget agrees that concerns about In this vein, in order to avoid the exclu­ ethnocentrism precluding "proper understand­ sionary application of the term "literature," ing" do not prevent effective study of Native song poetry should be considered as artistic American oral literature. He seeks instead "to verbal (and musical) expression in the sense promote a dialogic consideration of Native of the German "Wortkunst," or verbal art. If American oral literature and the nature of Lakota people themselves have cherished song Euroamerican literature as phenomena" be­ poems as examples of the aesthetic imagina­ cause this undertaking would stimulate con­ tion, if they have experienced song poems in sideration of concepts "problematic even in Barfield's terms in a "felt change of conscious­ Western critical discourse."25 Thus, rather than ness," the well-worn literary assumptions and ~ casual acceptance and application of defini­ antipathies of literary studies should acqui­ tive Western conceptualizations, we are en­ esce and accord them literary attention. couraged to engage in an open exploration of At this point, we would do well to heed unsettled ideas. Dorris's declaration to demythologize by rais­ In this effort to legitimize Lakota song po­ ing the question of whether considerations of ems in terms of Western critical theory and aesthetic experience are too often based on practice, then, it is important to be aware of ideologically narrow, contemporary Western the relatively different aesthetic contexts of definitions of art. Thus the ensuing discussion the Lakota and Euroamerican critical practice of literary critical methods being applied to while recognizing that sufficient commonal- 202 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, SUMMER 2000 ties exist to illuminate this special genre of Making the process of reading transparent American Great Plains literature and culture. can further the purpose of advocating the study The Western conceptualizations of litera­ of Lakota song poems. Heeding Donald Keesey ture have coursed through time, from the and Guerin et al. as they remind us that not all earliest Greek formulations to the most re­ approaches are equally suitable to a particular cent articulations, oscillating and undulat­ genre as well as a particular work, this inquiry ing between various coordinates of mimesis, will rely primarily on the historical/historicist symbolism, realism, verisimilitude, authorial approach, on genre criticism, and on the reader intent, and the like. The time-honored at­ response approach in order to demonstrate how tempts at determining and affirming the na­ literary criticism, and maintaining intercul­ ture and functions of literature have yielded tural vigilance, can enrich the interpretation to our postmodern tendency not to assert un­ of Lakota song poems.28 equivocally or prescriptively but rather ac­ The concept of the historical approach in cept the principle of indeterminacy. In Western literary criticism relies fundamentally somewhat the same way, literary criticism has on the belief that a work can be better read if increasingly preoccupied itself with self- defi­ we know the life of the author as well as the nition and bringing its own functioning to values and assumptions of his age, the life and mind. Distinguishing between "practical times approach. Since the majority of Lakota criticism" and "theoretical criticism," as song poetry, today more so than in past gen­ Bressler has undertaken, or between "criti­ erations, has become anonymous even in the cism" and "critique," as Davis and Schleifer Lakota community, the biographical individu­ have done, have become representative con­ ality of the author is a thankless avenue of cerns. By the former term "criticism" Davis pursuit. Contrary to the common academic and Schleifer mean the study of "what texts perception that song poetry is anonymous, say and how they say it," and by "critique" however, it must be emphasized that the com­ they refer to the study of "the often unno­ munity in which the song poem originated ticed assumptions within criticism."26 This itself often recalls the composer-author into very sketchy example is mentioned to exem­ the third generation. Moreover, even when plify how the recent inclination has been to the author is recalled, the Lakota audience become more and more theoretically self­ does not expect that the author's biographical conscious, to recognize that all reading is or personal experience is necessarily reflected based on some theory, whether well articu­ in the text, and it is understood that the situ­ lated or not, whether ideologically commit­ ation portrayed is a fictional convention akin ted or eclectic. In this way, the study of to the conventions of the medieval European literature has yielded to the study of theory, courtly love and its complaint. Hence, the with literature serving the theory. Ultimately, audience would make no effort to pursue the the contemporary state of the art of critical reflection of the song text in the composer's theory and criticism encourages us to aban­ life. don blithe assumptions of disinterestedness or What will prove more helpful in pursuing objectivity in our critical reading of texts and the historical critical approach, then, is to see instead to carefully review our own interests the work in light of how it reflects the life and and our practices of reading. In reflecting this times of the characters in the work along with trend, Peter Brooker and Peter Widdowson the sociocultural or historicist background advocate that the function of literary theory during its genesis. In this sense, we must recall is "to explain and generalize both literary dis­ that the historical sense of courtship among course and critical practice, making strange the Lakota is quite different from Western what has become naturalized and taken for notions. As in so many other non-Western granted. "27 cultures, being or falling in love is a sign of LITERARY CRITICISM AND LAKOTA SOCIAL SONG POETRY 203 youthful exuberance and immaturity, when a stop to the Sun Dance there before coming one is behaving foolishly and potentially tar­ to the Standing Rock Reservation in Septem­ nishing family honor and threatening the so­ ber 1881,33 Similarly, Valentine McGillicuddy, cial fabric. Julian Rice explores the theme of the agent at the Pine Ridge Reservation, in sexuality and how, in their self-centered in­ the summer of 1882 warned the Lakota lead­ dulgence and lack of restraint, lovers violated ers, including Red Cloud, that this was to be traditional Lakota expectations.29 As William their last Sun Dance.34 When we also consider K. Powers describes it, courtship among the the notorious actions surrounding the Ghost Lakota was historically rather ritualized and Dance Movement, especially the events sur­ performed in a structured public way, usually rounding the Wounded Knee Massacre, we can with strict chaperoning.30 Thus, limited in­ begin to fathom some of the tragic conse­ stances of close physical contact in courtship quences of cultural suppression. were strictly controlled. As Severt Young Bear Ironically, Francis E. Leupp, the commis­ Sr. recalls: sioner of Indian Affairs, in 1905 lamented re­ garding the dominant attitude toward tribal In our Lakota tradition we didn't have so­ music: "Eminent musicians in all parts of the cial courtship kinds of dances like white world express astonishment that our people people had. The only dance even close was should have left so noble a field almost unex­ the night dance, where under strict chaper­ plored."35 Although I grant that this statement oning by relatives, young men and women regatded primarily the music dimension of oral under the watchful eye of elder relatives song poems and not their literary aspects, it who were in attendance exchanged gifts and flies directly in the face of all other policy danced together in public. There was no evidence designed to eradicate traditional other dance where courtship was involved.3! ceremonies, music and dance, language, fam­ ily, and values. Withholding of treaty rations Frances Densmore also briefly mentions the and imprisonment were common strategies. night dance, as does Ben Black Bear Sr. more These destructive, culturally disruptive poli­ recently, who believes it to have begun in the cies did not end until John Collier, commis­ 1860s and last saw it performed in 1936.32 As sioner of Indian Affairs issued his Circular we place these night dance songs in historical 2970 on Indian Religious Freedom in January perspective, they appear as somewhat of an of 1934. Moreover, residual negative attitudes anomaly, as the Lakota had no extensive love of government, education, and church con­ song or dance tradition. tinued well into the 1960s. Curiously, while With the early 1880s, assimilation efforts their institutional policies denigrated and intensified. The Carlisle Indian Boarding sought to eradicate tribal cultural practices, School heralded the initiative to deculturate and Indian people suffered accordingly under Indian children on the one hand and assimi­ these policies, research on Native American late them on the other. With the "Peace music and culture was maintained by the fields Policy" came the magnified influence of Chris­ of ethnomusicology, anthropology, folklore, tian churches. President Chester Arthur au­ history, and linguistics, but not by literary thorized the Secretary of the Interior to forbid cri ticism. 36 traditional rites and dances. The Court of In­ At the same time, Lakota people observed dian Offenses was established in 1883, which the courting practices at military forts and identified the sun dance, the central sacred settlements with curiosity and bemusement. tradition of the Lakota, as one of its punish­ Square dances and officers' ballroom dances able offenses. In practical terms, James did not go unnoticed. Not surprisingly, this McLaughlin, the agent at Devil's Lake in North mix of exposure to alien dance and music Dakota from 1876 to 1881, describes putting forms-including song texts-and the oppres- 204 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, SUMMER 2000 sive cultural policies created a historical mi­ tive which we have called "reader response" lieu conducive to new forms and content. approach in literary criticism.38 Severt Young Bear Sr. provides an enlighten­ The basic premise of Western reader re­ ing version of the Lakota response to these sponse theory is that the text does not exist influences in the chapter of his life story en­ without a reader, thus focusing critical atten­ titled "Dancing Behind Drawn Curtains: So­ tion on the reader and the interaction between cial Dance Songs": the reader and the text.39 In the early part of our century, I. A. Richards proposed that we From the early 1880s, when the U.S. gov­ value literature because it satisfies our ernment started to forbid our sacred cer­ "appetencies," our "seeking after," and there­ emonies, to the 1920s, when they still tried fore meets our deepest need and desire for some to force us to become good modern white sort of meaning and view of our world and our citizens no matter what we wanted, we re­ human condition.4o This taking stock of the acted in different ways. Our public Sun reader's response is termed "transactional Dances sort of went underground and were theory" by Louise Rosenblatt although she feels held way back in the grass-roots communi­ the experience is more one of negotiating ties someplace. Our warrior society parades meaning between the text and the reader.41 and ceremonies were adapted to fit white For this inquiry, the reader corresponds to patriotic holidays ... so the agent would the Lakota audience responding to the social allow us to dance. But the new result of dance song poem performance, from which these assimilation policies was the social the text cannot be isolated. Its performers and dances that developed just around and af­ observers-whether active dancers or onlook­ ter the first World War.37 ers-share a common reaction regarding these social dance song poems, which I will explore Since public ceremonial and warrior dances below. Examining the categorizing perspec­ were broken up by the Indian agent's police, tive of the audience is in keeping with the Lakota people began to hold dances in private interests of reader response critics and will homes "behind drawn curtains." During this also illuminate the conative classification of time, then, social dances became a popular this song poem category that Powers has pos­ innovation. ited. In addition, however, this perspective I will demonstrate how applying the time­ also leads us to another area of Western liter­ honored historical approach, together with the ary criticism, that of genre criticism. more recent critical historicist emphasis on Northrop Frye emphasizes that the basis of issues of power imbalances, can illuminate our the term "genre" is "determined by the condi­ experience of the text. tions established between the poet and his public."42 This formulation continues to be Lakota social dance song poems may be de­ very useful for purposes of this paper, as social fined "cognitively"-to use Powers's "cogni­ dance song poems establish a particular con­ tive" versus "conative" distinctions- that is, ventional relationship between the texts and by function, as songs that accompany prima­ their performance and the members of the rily round and rabbit dances in which men Lakota audience. In the focus on rabbit dance and women dance together in a circle and as songs, a particularly widespread subgenre of couples, respectively. By comparison, the "con­ social dance songs, the convention is that the ative" category refers to categorization accord­ text shares the words of a woman regarding ing to the manner in which the audience matters of love, primarily unrequited, unful­ responds to the songs, a feeling dimension that filled, unrealized, and embittered love. The groups songs not by their function but by the Lakota audience in its awareness of the con­ affective reaction of the audience, a perspec- ventions of this subgenre expects to hear such LITERARY CRITICISM AND LAKOTA SOCIAL SONG POETRY 205 feelings shared at a somewhat trivial level. As Frye continues his conceptualization of the Powers points out, the audience enjoys these lyric by stating that "a rhythm which is poetic song poems in a humorous vein for several but not necessarily metrical tends to predomi­ reasons. First, men are performing in Lakota nate."46 From reading the texts of the song women's female speech, and the humor is poems recorded in this essay, the reader gains therefore generated by the incongruity of nar­ little sense of its rhythmic quality. It should rated female perspective and male perfor­ be remembered in this regard that though these mance. Secondly, courtship in Lakota culture song texts appear to be rather prosaic, in the is considered a period of irrational thoughts sense of prose discourse, the drum accompani­ and ill-considered behaviors in which particu­ ment provides a clear duple beat-or actually larly women lose their proper perspective on a triple beat with the second beat silent-the modesty, reticence, and family honor. Thirdly, louder beat of which is analogous to the stress the humor results from the understanding by of syllables in English. The texts are thus pro­ the audience that private and even intimate vided cadence and are sung rhythmically ac­ thoughts have been made public exposing the cording to this accented beat. woman's foolishnessY As Frye continues in discussing the rela­ Frye's discussion of literary gente theory tionship of poetry to music since the Greeks: continues with his idea that "[p]resentation" "We should remember, however, that when of the acted, spoken, and written word distin­ the poem is sung, ... its organization has been guishes the gentes, and that the lyric poem taken over by music."47 Though our represen­ specifically presents the "concealment of the tative Lakota song poem texts when printed poet's audience from the poet, ... [is] preemi­ appear to be rather simple prosaic statements, nently the utterance that is overheard," and the nature of actual performance conventions that "the lyric poet normally pretends to be allows them to provide more of the effect we talking to himself or someone else."44 This generally expect of Western poetry. In con­ observation continues to be applicable here as sidering Edgar A. Poe's Poetic Principle, where well. Lakota Rabbit Dance song poems in the the latter maintains that poetry is "essentially early stages of this subgente generally began oracular and discontinuous," Frye supplies us with the word "Scepansi," which in Lakota is with these two qualities which are contained a form of address for an older sister or female in the song poem performances by the public cousin as a confidante of the female speaker. male musical performance of purported female A 1921 Rabbit Dance song poem text exem­ intimacies.48 Though line and stanza forms are plifies this feature: not evident from the written and translated texts, the common "bi-partite, incomplete rep­ Scepansi, kici wayaci ki he tuwe so? etition" of Lakota/Plains song structure, which Takeciyapi na tokiyatanhan hi so? have been described elsewhere49 adds the sense Okiyakaye imacuka ca kici wowaglaka of regularity and shape that is associated with wacin yeo much traditional Western poetry. In applying Sister/cousin, the one you're dancing with, some fundamental features of genre criticism what is his name and where is he from? (see some others below under poetic language), Tell him he captures my heart [or: ex­ I would submit that Lakota song poetry meets cites me so]. I really want to talk to him.45 the general expectations of a valid poetic form. To return to the historicist criticism mode The audience is thus privy to a privately of analysis for a moment, some sense of the shared confidentiality between two females, longitudinal understanding of Rabbit Dance which reveals the vulnerability of the infatu­ song texts can be enlightening. The above ated young girl or the naive young female in sample exemplifies the conventional term of love. address in the early days of these song poems. 206 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, SUMMER 2000

The young female speaker was confiding a ro­ Dearie, tawicu yatun na nicinca ota yesa mantic thought to another female relative. In wastecilaka waun we. Wacin kin tiwahe the 1930s and 1940s the term "scepansi" (fe­ najujuciyin kte. male cousin) was replaced in most songs by Dearie, [even though] you are married and "Dearie." The female speaker is now address­ have a lot of children [I'm loving you], If ing the male directly, indicating the change I want to, I can break up your home and from the modest young Lakota woman who be with youY talked with a female relative about a young man she is attracted to, to the more modern, Having witnessed several public perfor­ westernized woman who talks directly to the mances of this particular song poem in the last male. few years, I have been able to observe the laughter that this egocentric and exaggerated Dearie, wicoiye ota ye, wicoiye ota ye, self-assertion generates among the Lakota au­ itokasni yeo Wancala wiconiye toksa dience. iyecetu kte. The latest stage of development for these Dearie, there's a lot of talk about us, there's social dance song poems has been the substi­ a lot of talk about us, but don't worry tution of texts completely in English for the about it. There is only one lifetime and original Lakota words. As a result, the con­ everything will work out for us. 50 ventional Lakota female speech and the origi­ nal female point of view thus loses some of its In subsequent decades, the changing impact. I first heard and recorded this song Jifestyles and behaviors of Lakota people are poem in the middle 1970s: reflected in the female speaker's increasingly assertive tone. An example of such a song poem Dearie, every time I see you, I can still re­ was composed during the so-called New Deal member the time I was with you. I don't period of the 1930s: care what they say about us, honey, I still love you. Wicasala wan ecas kid waun wesa waund canna iyopemayaye. Toksa New Deal kta Another of these all-English song poems ca cante sicin kte. was composed by the late Severt Young Bear That man that I will stay with forever, Sr. also in the 1970s: whenever we dance together, he gets mad at me. [or: Although it's true he's the Dearie, take me home, take me back to Por­ man I live with, whenever we dance to­ cupine. If you don't take me home, I will gether, he ridicules me] Later, when the tell Mama on yoU. 53 New Deal comes, he will be broken hearted.51 By the 1970s, one of the original purposes of these song poems-for husbands and wives The implication is that the new order of and lovers not to be jealous of each other­ the New Deal will result in greater empower­ has also faded along with the popularity of ment for the female speaker. The occasional social dance song poems. The early custom intrusion of English words may also be noticed was for husbands and wives not to dance with as adding a note of humorous novelty to the each other and for women to chose their dance audience's response. Another example of the partners. Some Lakota people blame jealousy increasingly aggressive and even confronta­ and overpossessiveness for the decline of these tional attitude of the female speaker, to the song poems. 54 point of destroying marriages, goes as follows: From the perspective of applying selected Western critical literary strategies to the in- LITERARY CRITICISM AND LAKOTA SOCIAL SONG POETRY 207 terpretation and evaluation of Lakota social telescoped, drawn out, turned on its head ... song poems, however, their decline in our time 'made strange."'55 If all literary language is may also be interpreted slightly differently. somehow language that attracts attention to The value and appeal of these song poems has itself, poetry specifically uses language in a been that they presented a satire of how young way that causes the reader to recognize it as women under the dangerous influence of love such. In his central theoretical statement of succumb to immodesty, infatuation, as well as the Russian formalist school, Viktor Shklovsky forgetfulness of proper behavior and thought. defined poetry as "attenuated, tortuous speech. Today, these social dance song poems no Poetic speech is formed speech. Prose is ordi­ longer serve the functions that originally gen­ nary speech."56 In this view, which is not shared erated them. If we recall, originally these texts by Coleridge and selected other poets and presented a form of underground resistance to poetry, poetry's selective language use is one cultural oppression by United States Indian of its distinuishing qualities. Lakota social song policy. In addition, they reflected a new kind poem texts may not give evidence of all the of behavior and language regarding courtship various descriptions of poetic language, such that departed from the norms of traditional as the "condensed, elevated, sublime, emo­ courtship mores, much as the courtly lyric and tive, fine, self-referential" kinds of formula­ carpe diem poetry of the Western poetry tra­ tions, but they do utilize language that is dition did in their respective eras. The perfor­ understood by Lakota audiences to be differ­ mance of these song poems, which exposed ent from ordinary, everyday speech, thus such immoderate behavior to public satire, achieving a felt change of consciousness. In thus confirmed the "more enlightened" tradi­ this regard of using nonordinary speech, also, tional Lakota perspective on love and court­ Lakota social song poetry can be interpreted ship held by the audience at the time. Similar from this principle of literary criticism. examples that warn men and women of the dangers of heedless love and sex abound in the How is the language of these texts "made Lakota oral narrative tradition. The well­ strange" in Eagleton's meaning? First, the per­ known Iktomi trickster stories, the Double formance dimension calls attention to the spe­ Woman stories, and the narratives featuring cial use of the language. Melody supplied by deer and elk spirits reinforced appropriate groups of male singers and the rhythmic ac­ courtship behavior. After the middle of the companiment of their drum tells us this is a twentieth century, however, these dynamics special language occurrence. Then, there is are no longer at work, and social dance song the choice of female speech, clearly discern­ poems, at least, begin to lose their historical ible in the female grammar of the original cultural function. Lakota texts, but which is sung by men and which thus estranges the language performed. Finally, these song poems during their great­ As indicated above, the musical performance est popularity exemplified another concept of agds rhythmic structure and form to the lan­ Western literary criticism. In seeking to de­ guage. In addition, the awareness by the audi­ fine what literature actually is, theorists have ence that the dialogic intimacy of the proposed that one fruitful avenue of defini­ words-whether between two female relatives tion is to look at how literature uses language in the earlier texts or, in the later form, be­ in a special way. Terry Eagleton reviews these tween two lovers-contradicts their public efforts of defining literature in terms of its performance and thus clearly makes their lan­ using language in a peculiar way: "Literature guage nonordinary. The feelings of the woman transforms and intensifies language .... Un­ speaker in the texts may also very well give der the pressure of literary devices, ordinary evidence of being influenced by popular main­ language was intensified, condensed, twisted, stream music, thus making the audience ready 208 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, SUMMER 2000 for any deviance from Lakota discourse in lan­ three strategies widely used in Western liter­ guage or content. Yet again, the occasional ary theory and criticism, this exploration has insertion of an English word, such as the use of sought to illustrate that these song poems do "Dearie" or "New Deal" in the song poem above meet literary criteria. It has not considered and in the following song poem, is seen as evaluative issues as to whether these texts rank drawing attention to the special use of lan­ among the "best that has been thought and guage. spoken" (or sung in this case), ranking them among the great works of the human imagina­ Dearie, iyotancila k'un tion, but rather has adhered to the principle Wana yagni kte cited by Maynard Mack et al. in their Norton Tehan yagnin kte Anthology of World Masterpieces that works Ehake kiss wanj i mak'u we. worthy of literary consideration should have "recognized authority in their own languages Dearie, I loved you most and cultures but also in the judgment of a And now you're going home larger world."58 The considerations above have Home, so far away sought to present an adequate picture of the So kiss me just once more.57 place of these song poems relative to Lakota cultural history, Lakota genre classification, Texts completely in English, such as the and Lakota audience response. That the "larger two presented earlier, also draw attention to world" will grant them a place in its literary themselves in this respect, as their performance spectrum can only be hoped for as we seek to otherwise follows Lakota contextual conven­ renovate our ideologies. For now, in spite of tions. Among these performance conventions some concerns about reductionist aesthetic is a five-syllable cadence of Lakota vocables failings or about succumbing to ongoing intel­ (weyaha, weyaha, yo) peculiar to social dance lectual colonialism in applying Western criti­ song poetry at the end of each text portion of cal theory and practice to a Native American a song rendition, providing a sense of closure form of oral literature, it should be clear that recognized as specifically signifying social song if insights such as these from historical criti­ poems. Hence the placement of vocables, both cism, genre theory, and reader response theory within texts and in terminal locations, must are applied in an open manner, these song also be seen as a poeticizing element. poems satisfy not only Western literary crite­ In all cases, the language of the texts of ria but, more broadly, meet cross-cultural lit­ these song poems has been viewed and en­ erary expectations as well. joyed by its Lakota audiences in the heyday of social dance song poetry as innovative, very REFERENCES modern, fashionable, and even a bit risque. 1. William K. Powers, Beyond the Vision: Essays on American Indian Culture. (Norman: University This analysis has deliberately selected a of Oklahoma Press, 1987), pp. xvii-xviii. Native American oral literature form that is 2. Michael Dorris, "Indians on the Shelf," in generally ignored and disregarded as serious The American Indian and the Problem of History, ed. Calvin Martin (New York: Oxford University Press, literature, even by scholars who work in the 1982), pp. 98-105. Native American oral and written literary 3. Alan Durant, "Orality and Literacy" in field, in order to demonstrate how, if viewed Michael Groden and Martin Kreiswirth, eds. The as worthy of literary attention, such a category Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory and Criti­ of oral literature can yield illuminating re­ cism (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994), p. 549. sults. Since such song poems have been prized 4. A. LaVonne Brown Ruoff, American Indian by nearly seven decades of Lakota audiences, Literatures (New York: Modern Language Associa­ they merit thoughtful attention. By applying tion of America, 1991), pp. 5, 24. Certainly some LITERARY CRITICISM AND LAKOTA SOCIAL SONG POETRY 209 scholars have addressed Native American song 20. Dorris, "Indians" (note 2 above), pp. 98-105. poetry. Among these studies, Brian Swann, ed. 21. Nelson, "Place" (note 10 above), p. 265. Smoothing the Ground: Essays on Native American 22. Steven Leuthold, Indigenous Aesthetics: Na­ Oral Literature (Berkeley: University of California tive Art, Media, and Identity (Austin: University of Press, 1983); Arnold Krupat, For Those Who Come Texas Press, 1998), p. 47. After (Berkeley: University of California Press, 23. Ibid, p. 48. 1985); and the more recent Paul Zumthor, Oral 24. Ibid, p. 41. Poetry: An Introduction (Minneapolis: University 25. Wiget, "Introduction" (note 6 above), p. 5. of Minnesota Press, 1990) and Paul G. Zolbrod, 26. Bressler, Literacy (note 3 above), p. 3; Davis Reading the Voice: Native American Oral Poetry on and Scheifer, Contemporary (note 13 above), p. the Page (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 507. 1995) have all made stimulating contributions. 27. Peter Brooker and Peter Widdowson, eds., 5. Richard Macksey, foreword to The Johns "Introduction: Theory and Criticism at the Present Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism, ed. Time," in A Practical Reader in Contemporary Liter­ Michael Groden and Martin Keiswirth (Baltimore: ary Theory (London: Prentice Hall/Havester Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994), p. vi. Wheatsheaf, 1996), p. 3. 6. Andrew Wiget, ed., Dictionary of Native 28. Donald Keesey, Contexts for Criticism, 3rd American Literature (N ew York: Garland, 1994), ed. (Mountain View, CA: Mayfield, 1998), p. 2; p. xv. Wilfred L. Guerin, Earle Labor, Lee Morgan, Jeanne 7. Ibid. C. Reesman and John R. Willingham, A Handbook 8. Ruoff, American Indian (note 4 above), p. 24. of Critical Approaches to Literature, 3rd ed. (New 9. John Around Him and Albert White Hat, York: Oxford University Press, 1992), p. x. Lakota Ceremonial Songs, audiocassette (Mission: 29. Julian Rice, Deer Women and Elk Men: The Sinte Gleska College, 1983). Marcia Herndon sur­ Lakota Narratives of Ella Deloria (Albuquerque: veys the study of Native American music in 1980 University of New Mexico Press, 1992), pp. 21-32. (32-55). A more recent "General History of Re­ 30. Powers, "The Art of Courtship among the search" is provided by Richard Keeling in North Oglala," American Indian Art Magazine 5, no. 2 American Indian Music. A Guide to Published Sources (1980): 40-47. and Selected Recordings (New York: Garland, 1997). 31. Severt Young Bear and R. D. Theisz, Stand­ 10. Robert M. Nelson, "Place, Vision, and Iden­ ing in the Light. A Lakota Way of Seeing (Lincoln: tity in Native American Literatures," in American University of Nebraska Press, 1994), p. 87. Indian Studies. An Interdisciplinary Approach to Con­ 32. Francis Densmore, Teton Sioux Music and temporary Issues, ed. Dane Morrison (New York: Culture (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, Peter Lang, 1997), pp. 265 -79. 1992), p. 479; Ben Black Bear and R. D. Theisz, 11. Owen Barfield, Poetic Diction. A Study in Songs and Dance of the Lakota (Aberdeen, S.D.: Meaning (Middletown: Wesleyan University Press, North Plains, 1976), p. 97. 1973 ), pp. 48-49. 33. James M. McLaughlin, My Friend, the In­ 12. Rene Wellek and Austin Warren, Theory of dian, vol. 2 (Vancouver: Salisbury Press, 1970), Literature, 4th ed. (New York: Harcourt, Brace and p.9. World, 1956), pp. 20-22. 34. Robert Larson, Red Cloud: Warrior-States­ 13. Robert Con Davis and Ronald Schleifer, man of the Lakota Sioux (Norman: University of "General Introduction," in Contemporary Literary Oklahoma Press, 1997), p. 233. Criticism: Literary and Cultural Studies, 3rd ed. 35. Wilcomb Washburn, The American Indian (White Plains, N.Y.: Longman, 1994), pp. 5-7. and the United States. A Documentary History, vol. 14. Terry Eagleton, Literary Theory: An Intro­ 2 (New York: Random House, 1972), p. 745. duction (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota 36. Richard Keeling, North American Indian Press, 1987), p. 9. Music. A Guide to Published Sources and Selected 15. Ibid., p. 11. Recordings, vol. 5, Garland Library of Music Eth­ 16. Ibid. nology (New York: Garland, 1997), p. ix. 17. Davis and Schleifer, Contemporary (note 13 37. Young Bear and Theisz, Standing (note 31 above), pp. 5-7. above), p. 86. 18. Charles E. Bressler, Literary Criticism: An In­ 38. Powers, "Foolish Words: Text and Context troduction to Theory and Practice (Englewood Cliffs, in Lakota Love Songs," European Review of Native N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1994), p. 8. American Studies, 2, no. 2, (1998): 29-32. 19. Lee Patterson, "Literary History," in Critical 39. Guerin et aI., Handbook (note 28 above), Terms for Literary Study, 2nd ed., ed. Frank p.334. Lentricchia and Thomas Mclaughlin (Chicago: 40. I. A. Richards, Principles of Literary Criticism University of Chicago Press, 1995), p. 256. (New York: Harcourt, Brace and World, 1924), p. 47. 210 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, SUMMER 2000

41. Guerin et al., Handbook (note 28 above), 1990), p. 117. Black Bear and Theisz, Songs (note p.336. 32 above), pp. 11-15. 42. Northrop Frye, Anatomy of Criticism (New 50. Young Bear and Theisz, Standing (note 31 York: Atheneum, 1966), p. 247. above), p. 91. 43. Powers, "Foolish" (note 38 above), pp. 29- 51. Porcupine Singers, Rabbit Songs (note 45 32. above). 44. Frye, Anatomy (note 42 above), p. 249. Paul 52. Young Bear and Theisz, Standing (note 31 G. Zolbrod proposes the innovative taxonomy of above), p. 92. a voice axis (whether toward the lyrical or collo­ 53. Porcupine Singers, Rabbit Songs, part 2 (note quial polarities) together with a mode axis (narra­ 45 above). tive or drama) in his stimulating Reading the Voice 54. Young Bear and Theisz, Standing (note 31 (note 4 above). above), p. 93. 45. Porcupine Singers, Rabbit Songs of the Lakota, 55. Eagleton, Literary (note 14 above), pp. 2-4. part 1, audiocassette (Canyon Records Productions, 56. Viktor Shklovsky, "Art as Technique," in 1987). Contemporary Literary Criticism: Literary and Cul­ 46. Frye, Anatomy (note 42 above), p. 250. tural Studies, 3rd ed., ed. R. C. Davis and R. Schleifer 47. Ibid., p. 273. (White Plains: Longman, 1994), p. 271. 48. Ibid., p. 272. 57. Powers, "Foolish" (note 38 above), p. 32. 49. Powers, War Dance: Plains Indian Musical Per­ 58. Maynard Mack ed., preface to The Norton formance, (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, Anthology of World Masterpieces, 8th ed. (New York: W. W. Norton, 1997), p. xxiii.