AMERICAN FOLKLIFE CENTER THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

Winter 1989

Volume XI, Number 1

THE ORIGIN OF POLISH SATURDAY SCHOOLS IN CHICAGO

By Margy McClain

The following article is taken from " Eth­ nic Heritage and Language Schools in America, }} a new book from the American Folklife Center. " Information on how to order appears on pages 3 and 4.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, when great waves of im­ migration brought thousands of Poles to the Chicago area, Poland did not exist as a nation. Poland had been par­ titioned in 1795, into areas controlled by Russia, Prussia, and Austria, and ethnic Poles referred to themselves as "Russian Poles" or "Austrian Poles." Language and the Roman Catholic religion, rather than nation­ ality, marked the Polish people. Early Polish immigrants to the United States defined themselves in much the same way, by language, eth­ nicity, regional origin, and religion. They were mostly peasants with little formal education. They came for eco-

Continued on page 2

Jozef Zurczak, principal of the Pulaski School in Chicago, Illinois, at the time of the Folklife Center's 1982 Ethnic Heritage and Language Schools Project. Mr. Zurczak is shown here as a guest teacher for the combined first and second grade class. (ES82-AF88416-1-35A) Photo by Margy McClain POLISH SATURDAY dialects spoken by their parents and AMERICAN FOLKLIFE CENTER teachers. Immigrants arriving after THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS SCHOOLS World War II were surprised to find Continued from page 1 Alan J abbour, Director many archaic words and grammatical Ray Dockstader, Deputy Director constructions preserved in the speech nomic reasons and worked hard so of the established Polish-American Carl Fleischhauer that their children might make it up community. Mary Hufford David A. Taylor the ladder of success in America. Edu­ After World War II, thousands of Folklife Specialists cation was an important rung on that new immigrants flooded the country ladder, and education for many of the from the refugee camps of Europe. Peter T. Bartis, Folklife Researcher children began in Roman Catholic The new arrivals were to have a pro­ parochial schools. Gerald E. Parsons, Reference Librarian found effect on the nature of Chicago's J ames Hardin, Editor Polish immigrants sought to estab­ Polish-American community. Coming lish Catholic parishes that were Pol­ from a Poland briefly reunited be­ Magdalena Gilinsky, ish in character. They built many tween the world wars, they had been Public Events Coordinator churches and established schools along raised with a strong sense of Polish na­ Li sa O shins, Program Specialist J ennifer A. C utting, Program Coordinator with them. Most of the students in the tional identity. Now they were refu­ parish schools came from Polish­ gees who could not return to Doris Craig, Administrative Secretary speaking homes, and the teaching Communist Poland. Their strong love nuns also spoke Polish. Since each of country, fueled by a sense of being Tel: 202 707-6590 school was free to determine its own disinherited, gave rise to a deep need use of the Polish language, the curric­ to keep alive things Polish and to pass Archive of Folk Culture ula varied greatly; depending on the on to their children raised in the school, or even the individual teacher, United States a pride and knowledge Joseph C. Hickerson, Head students might study either religious of what it means to be Polish. subjects or most of the curriculum in Marsha Maguire, Archivist Chicago's Polish schools have their Polish. The Polish instruction in the roots in the upheavals of World War Sebastian LoCurto, Program Specialist parish schools of Chicago, therefore, II. The founders of the Polish Aldona M. Kamantauskas Joseph, seems to have arisen more from the Teachers Association in America, Inc. StaJ! Assistant fact that teachers and students shared (PTAA) and a great many of the T el: 202 707-5510 a common language than from an ex­ teachers and parents currently active plicit desire to impart to students a in the Polish schools were adults or mastery of the Polish language or a young children in Poland during Federal Cylinder Project need to instill values related to the tra­ World War II. After the war, many Judith A. Gray ditions of Poland. Poles found themselves in either Dis­ Ethnomusicologist Language instruction in Chicago's placed Persons camps (also known as Polish parochial schools began to DP or refugee camps) in Germany or T el: 202 707-9022 decline in the 1930s, although some in­ in temporary camps in England for struction continued for another twenty those associated with the Polish Army. BOARD OF TRUSTEES years. During the Depression, pres­ Friendships made in the camps were sures from the Archdiocese (historical­ often long-lasting, carrying over to the Bruce J ackson, Chairman, New York ly dominated by Irish and German immigrants' new homes. Polish Barre Toelken , Vice Chairman, Utah clerics hostile to parishes that clung to teachers who set up schools in the Johnnetta Cole, Georgia camps later helped establish Polish William L. Kinney, Jr. , South Carolina an ethnic interpretation of Catholi­ Judith McCull oh, Illinois cism) to rid the parishes of" foreign" Saturday schools in the countries Marta Weigle, New Mexico associations, combined with a gener­ where they finally settled: the United al pressure on immigrants to assimi­ States, England, and Canada. And late, contributed to the decline in Polish teachers' organizations that Ex Officio Members language use. formed in the camps were models for J ames H. Bi llington, Librarian oj Congrm Polish immigratiull to the United later groups. Robert McCormick Adams, States came to a halt in the 1920s, due Thousands of Polish refugees came Secretary oj the Smithsonian Institution to restrictive immigration laws. Thirty to the United States in the late 1940s Francis S. M. H odsoll , Jr. , Chairman, years passed before another significant and 1950s under the Displaced Per­ National Endowment jar the Arts Lynne V. Cheney, Chairman, wave of immigration occurred. Isolat­ sons Act. Existing Polish-American in­ National Endowment Jar the Humanities ed from Poland, the Polish communi­ stitutions met many needs of the new Alan Jabbour, Director, ty evolved distinctive Polish-American arrivals, but the parochial schools, American Folklife Center traditions. A unique "Chicago Pol­ where the heritage of Poland's turn­ ish" dialect arose as American-born of-the-century rural traditions children learned to speak the Polish predominated, could not. For Poles language based on the various regional educated in a united Poland between

2 FOLKLIFE CENTER NEWS ETHNIC HERITAGE AND LANGUAGE SCHOOLS PROJECT REPORT PUBLISHED

The eighth grade Sunday school class at the Hellenic Orthodox Church in Buffalo, New York, with teacher, Betty Pavlakis. The Greek School at the church is described in a new collection of reports from the Center's ethnic schools project. (ES82-197823-5-36) Photo by Lydia Fish the two world wars, knowledge of the The Library of Congress has just pub­ munities as a supplement to the stan­ contemporary, standard Polish lan­ lished Ethnic Heritage and Language dard educational requirements met by guage was an important attribute of Schools in America, the report of a public and private schools, and espe­ being Polish. They wanted their chil­ project conducted by the American cially to preserve and perpetuate eth­ dren to speak the language well and Folklife Center in 1982. The collection nic culture and traditions. There are to learn Polish history and national of articles on thirteen different schools probably more than five thousand eth­ traditions in a more structured way from around the country, illustrated nic schools around the country, but than the home could provide. The with photographs, was developed by virtually no awareness of them as a na­ parochial schools could neither teach project director Elena Bradunas and tional phenomenon. modern Polish nor instill a contem­ edited by Brett Topping. Such topics Over the past two decades, as porary sense of Polish national as history, school administration, par­ educationists and the public were identity. ents, teachers, classes and curriculum, drawn into a long, fractious , and still So, while many new immigrants and the purposes of the school are dis­ unresolved debate about bilingual sent their children to parochial schools cussed in each article. education, no one referred to the for their regular education, they also "Ethnic schools " may be a mystify­ widespread and longstanding use of began to create special Polish schools . ing classification for most Americans. ethnic schools by hundreds of Ameri­ In the 1950s, as Polish cultural Yet nearly everyone knows of after­ can ethnic communities, and there has education in parochial schools noon, weekend, or all-day programs been little scholarly investigation of the declined, the Polish Saturday schools called " Hebrew School," "Lithuani­ subject. In 1982, the American Folk­ emerged. 0 an School, " "Polish School," life Center launched the Ethnic "J apanese School," or the like. Such Heritage and Language Schools schools are organized by ethnic com­ Project to begin to remedy that inat­

WINTER 1989 3 tention. The project secured the ser­ vices of a number of researchers around the country to visit , document, and analyze an ethnic school in their vicinity. Twenty research locations were chosen to give a diverse sam­ pling: different ethnic groups, differ­ ent regions of the country, and different kinds of schools. The thirteen schools described in the published report are: The Cambo­ dian School, Houston, Texas; The Is­ lamic School of Seattle, Seattle, Washington; The Official Portuguese School of the T aunton Sports Club, Taunton, Massachusetts; The First Korean School, Silver Spring, Maryland; Ataturk School , New York, New York; Polish Saturday School, Chicago, Illinois; The Senshin Gakuin and the Dharma School of the Senshin Buddhist Church of Los An­ geles, Los Angeles, California; German-Russian Ethnic Studies at Emmons Central High School , Stras­ burg, North Dakota; Lebanese Arabic School at St. Elias Maronite Catholic Church and Greek School at H oly Trinity-Holy Cross Greek Orthodox Cathedral, Birmingham, Alabama; The Greek School at the H ellenic Orthodox Church of the Annuncia­ tion, Buffalo, New York; West End Synagogue School, Nashville, Tennes­ see; Hupa Indian Language Schools, Hoopa Valley, California; and Czech School, Cedar R apids, Iowa. Ethnic Heritage and Language Schools in America is available from the Superin­ tendent of Documents, U .S. Govern­ ment Printing Office, Washington, D. C. 20402. Cite stock number when ordering by mail: SIN 030- 001­ 00124-5. The price is $16, including postage and handling. Check or money order payable to the Superin­ tendent of Documents must accom­ pany order. 0

Madorom Huot at the blackboard of the Khmer Village School in Hous­ ton, Texas. (ES82-197001-9-35) Photo by Frank Proschan, from "The

Cambodian School. JJ

4 FOLKLIFE CENTER NEWS GOOD YULE: THE PAGAN ROOTS OF NORDIC CHRISTMAS CUSTOMS

Following the lecture and crafts demonstrations, Kirstin Nordh en­ tertained the winter workshop au­ dience with traditional Swedish music. Photo by John Gibbs

all y practiced in the fi ve Nordic countries. Lutherans are certainly not en­ couraged to worship Thor, m ake fo od offerings to household deities, or strive through every m eans including mag­ ic to assure the return of the sun from its winter hiding place. C lergymen of the state churches in these countries have historically disapproved even of the saints' images that adorn the sanctuary walls and ceilings in so many of their own parishes, which were uniformly Catholic before they became uniformly Lutheran. In spite of all contrary pressures from the church and the present re­ li gious belief system (or lack thereof), Thor is alive and well in the North­ land during the C hristmas season. The goat that pulls his chariot, the sun, stands beside- or, in miniature, hangs from- a hundred thousand C hristmas trees. The word Yule is be­ by Richard H. Hulan The midwinter holidays and their lieved to refer to the wheels of that associated customs have a long his­ chariot; a "good yule" is one that On December 15, 1988, the Folklife Center tory in the Nordic countries of North­ brings the sun back to the North. Less­ presented a winter workshop on the craft of ern Europe: Denmark, Norway, er household deities and imps such as Nordic Christmas decorations. Jytte Ham­ Sweden, Finland, and Iceland. Many the Icelandic C hristmas men, the Nis ­ bric demonstrated the art of Danish folded details of the modern celebrations may sen and Tomten, emerge from their paper; Maij'u Wilson and Lena Becker be traced to the pre-Christian era­ hideouts to adorn the tree and the demonstrated Finnish tied straw; and Bar­ some eight to twelve hundred years m antle. Only grudgingly do they yield bara Freeman demonstrated Swedish woven ago. For example, there is the pride of place to that Mediterranean wheat. Also on display were examples of widespread use of the word Yule, latecomer, St. Nicholas of Myra (San­ Norwegian painted wood (rosemaling) by which is spelled in various ways in the ta Claus). Now that he has a perma­ Christina Keune and Icelandic enameled Scandinavian languages and Finnish nent home and m ailing address in dough by Edith Warner. Richard Hulan in­ but generally used instead of Christmas. Rovaniemi, Finland, Santa Claus troduced the demonstrations with the follow­ But the origin of the Yule celebration himself may graduall y become more ing remarks, which identified the origins of is older than, and has very little to do like his little helpers. After all , they a number of the decorations presented. with, the Lutheran C hristianity gener- were there first.

WINTER 1989 5 Maiju Wilson and Lena Becker thread and tie together delicate pieces of straw to create himmeli, traditional Finnish geometric constructions. Photo by John Gibbs

The inoffensive nature of the old ties in northern Europe are much and they have had som e notion of su­ Norse gods, nowadays, may have older than C hristianity is there. Some pernatural powers , inhabiting more or some bearing upon the apparent Yule customs that we do not much less natural forms- totemic animals , health of the pagan customs, and more practice in America, such as the bon­ little people, and sacred woods. Even particularl y the artifacts associated fires, are undoubtedly older than if we knew nothing from rock and cave with C hristmas in the North. These Christianity is anywhere. art, archaeology, and ancient writings, customs and artifacts are old, tradi­ J esus is not quite two thousand we could reasonably assume that their tional, and in many ways beautiful; years old; and the Christmas story is ritual life in the winter included som e but they no longer carry any theolog­ younger still, by at least half a centu­ sort of grain offerings. They must have ical or even superstitious baggage. ry. Ten thousand years earlier, in held some joyful celebration around They blend easily with a modern, and most of the Nordic countries, some an­ the time of the winter solstice; this fundamentally secular, worldview. cestors of the present population had celebration was about darkness and This blending may be simply a mar­ begun to filter in, closely following the light and , therefore, given their tech­ riage of convenience; but if con­ retreat of the continental ice shelf. nology, involved fire. And there were, venience were the only selling point in Agriculture and permanent settlement periodicall y, ceremonies at especially favor of Nordic paganism, any other seem to have taken several thousand important places (such as springs and paganism would suit as well. They years to develop, but were clearly in hearths), intended to honor the good would not necessarily call the season place around 3,000 B.C. That is to or to appease the evil side of the local­ Yuletide; feature straw or wooden say, there have been Nordic people, ly active supernatural powers. goats in their decorations; put out loosely d efined, for a bout five We Americans share with northern bowls of porridge for the imps that thousand years. Europe the timetable, if not quite the visit by night and sheaves of grain for These people of the North, for at severity, of a midwinter Christmas. the birds that visit by day. These and least fifty centuries, have raised grain; Our celebration takes place in a cold other details of the midwinter festivi­ they have missed the sun in the winter; season, with long nights, when not

6 FOLKLIFE CENTER NEWS an unburnt piece of the log, when they are packing up their other decorations. Many other practices and artifacts have been adopted from earlier times and customs, and I want to begin with one that is little discussed in the liter­ ature. That is the Finnish geometri­ cal construction of straw called himmeli, a word not found in my Fin­ nish dictionary. There is reason to be­ lieve it has something to do with heaven, and is thus a loan-word from some non-Finnish language, probably German or Swedish. Be that as it may, the making of himmeli was already traditional in Fin­ land early in the nineteenth century. Whether it was then an old tradition , or a neyv one, I cannot say. These ob­ jects must be made from specially selected and prepared straw. Like a lot of the older customs, this requires ad­ vance planning and some seasonal ac­ tivity that takes place well before the actual Christmas season. The straw used to make them has to be straight, clean, and unblemished, requirements that may have to do only with esthet­ ics and structural soundness: if you are going to all this trouble, the materials Jytte Hambric demonstrates the Danish art of folding paper to make Christ­ ought to be pretty, and you hope it will mas tree decorations. Photo by John Gibbs be strong enough to keep from year to year. The nicest himmeli are in fact kept- sometimes for several much seems to be happening on the as we are ever less an agrarian people, generations- typically being hung farm. And it is here in the seasonal cy­ that such baby-celebrations fall undet from rafters in the attic between cle, especially as it affects agriculture, the general heading offertility, broad­ Christmases. that we find some of the strong affini­ ly interpreted. But, apart from concerns for beau­ ties between the older Nordic pagan­ But Christmas is both more, and ty and durability, the list of require­ ism, and more recent European less, than an ancient Near Eastern fer­ ments sounds very much like those for Christianity. It is these natural and tility rite. I only mention its parallels offerings to the gods, such as first­ seasonal affinities that make their an­ with that sort of cui tic observance to fruits, sacrificial lambs, and the virgins nual marriage of convenience work. help explain the obvious ease with thrown into volcanoes. From that per­ Both belief systems focus, at this time which the Nordic Yule has incorpo­ spective, using straight, clean, and un­ every year, upon a group of in terrel at­ rated old Norse symbols and behaviors blemished products of the field is most ed topics, including the return of light, that have nothing to do with likely to invoke a kind of charm, one the revelation of invisible life, the Christianity. Ifa good Lutheran pas­ worked to renew the fertility of that renewal of the family hearth, and tor suspected that one iota of belieflay field. There is no particular reason, associated feelings of joy and happi­ behind these rituaIs and symbols, he other than geography, to associate this ness. These feelings are often induced, would have to condemn them as kind ofcharm with the Norse gods; the or at least accompanied, by an in­ heathenish and demonic. Israelites, Egyptians, and many ot;1ers creased consumption of cholesterol, What could be more innocent, for have made grain offerings of some sugar, and alcohol. example, than the lighting of the Yule kind. In the Christian case, this mid­ log from a piece of wood saved from When we move from himmeli to the winter celebration purports to be the previous year's log. The Nor­ woven and braided artifacts of straw, about the baby Jesus in particular, wegians in Poulsbo, Washington, do there is a bit more information avail­ with a lot of attention paid to babies this every year; they even bring their able. For the angels and stars, I refer in general. There are associations also new Yule log over from Norway. you to the familiar second chapter of with baby sheep, baby goats, and even More typically, people who want to the Gospel according to Luke. But I baby angels. It becomes less apparent, observe this pagan rite just put away would like to say a few words here

WINTER 1989 7 literature it is possible to identify more than thirty different Christmas men or Jolasveinar, each with a proper name indicative of the particular misery he inflicts upon the farming community during the winter. C hristmas men are sort of tall gnomes who come down from the mountains once a year in a predictable sequence and for a set peri­ od of two weeks. They do not bring presents, but are uniformly trouble­ makers, most of them thieves of one kind or another. Literary sources since the eigh­ teenth century have reduced the num­ ber of Christmas men, usually to thir­ teen; and their roles, I am sorry to report, are getting less demonic all the time. In conversation with a few Icelandic-American moms, I have sensed a reluctance to tell their chil­ dren about the Christmas men at all. The rationale is that kids in the United States see so much propaganda about Santa Claus, the additional and con­ tradictory information would confuse them. Anyway, the personification of a list of socially unacceptable be­ haviors is one ancient and effective Barbara Freeman, a practitioner of the art of Swedish woven wheat, describes means of teaching children how to be­ the angel, stars, and dancing figures held by the. Folklife Center's work­ have. This does not explain the origin shop coordinator, Magdalena Gilinsky. On the table are the figures of two of Christmas men, but it is one of their goats, seemingly un-Christmas-like creatures that are traditional fixtures functions that is still valid . at Nordic Christmas celebrations. Photo by John Gibbs. Finland has just one Father Christ­ mas, except in the Swedish-speaking areas where they also have to blend the about goats. It is widely asserted that wheel on the chariot of this, or some Jultomten into the image. Father the julbock, very loosely meaning other, Norse god. Christmas has helpers, and other spe­ Christmas goat, is a holdover from the If elements of myth, legend, and cifically named elves get into the act old Norse cult of Thor. Traditionally pure speculation form a lumpy stew in in their own characteristic ways. One this goat is made of straw, although regard to the julbock, when we turn to is the first cousin of Santa Claus, Nes­ other materials are sometimes used. Santa Claus we find a veritable al­ tor the elf. His image is the symbol for Leaving aside questions of a sun­ phabet soup. In each Nordic land the 1989 winter games in Lahti, chariot, there seems to be some con­ there is at least one ancient character, Finland. sensus that the goat was the draft upon whom the modern role as the Jolly old Saint Nicholas himself, a animal of the god Thor. Whether his deliverer of Christmas gifts has fourth-century bishop whom we might goat-cart was normally drawn across devolved. H e is usually described as now describe as a Turkish citizen of the sky, over the ground, or some­ a gnome or an elf: in Sweden he is the Syrian Orthodox persuasion, would where beneath it seems more Juitomten. The physical appearance of not have recognized a reindeer if he problematic. Any problem with the the Tomten has been attributed to the saw one. And indeed, he has little in sun-chariot theory would cast its commercial art of Jenny Nystrom common with his Nordic counterparts. shadow on the Norse etymology for around the turn of this century. His He began his career, so to speak, as the word Yule. It can be true that jul jollity and generosity seem to have de­ the patron saint of children; and one means wheel in Old Norse, without its veloped fairly recently also , under the thing led to another. Clearly, the origi­ necessarily being significant. Or, its influence of the published writings of nal St. Nicholas had little need for a significance might lie elsewhere; one Viktor Rydberg. A very similar little heavy red coat trimmed in fur to shield very plausible suggestion is that a mid­ person is called Nissen in Denmark and him from the balmy sea breezes of winter festival called "Wheel" signi­ Norway. Myra and neither would he have had fi es the revolving of the seasons Iceland has the greatest abundance much use for a sleigh. 0 themselves, rather than a particular of Old Norse literature, and from this

8 FOLKLIFE CENTER NEWS PONCA INDIAN SONG COLLECTION PRESENTED TO FOLK ARCHIVE

by Judith A. Gray On November 10 , 1988, Earl C. Buffalohead. It is among the most Fenner of Terre Haute, Indiana, and detailed explorations of the songs of "These are songs that the old chiefs Jonathan B. Orens of Baltimore, one tribe and of one person's reperto­ [probably sang] when they came here Maryland, presented to the Library of ry in the Archive's collections. [to Washington, D.C., as visiting Congress's Archive of Folk Culture Earl Fenner, an air-traffic con­ tribal delegations] .... They're prob­ thirty hours of recordings and accom­ troller, and Jonathan Orens, a physi­ ably recorded somewhere in one of panying information on more than six cian, were introduced to Indian these buildings .... I' m not the first hundred texted Ponca songs, thus ful­ culture when they were Boy Scouts, one; the old people have been here be­ filling a commitment made to their approximately thirty and fifteen years fore and they've done this .... This Ponca collaborator, Harry Buffalo­ ago, respectively. Both subsequently is where I want all the stuff you guys head, one of the most knowledgeable became serious students of Indian are working on ... I want it here of the old generation of Ponca singers. songs and earned undergraduate where it 's gonna be safe." The collection is the product of many degrees in anthropology. Harry Buffalohead, years of interest and approximately In 1970, Fenner and his family de­ November 1986 three ycars of direct collaboration with veloped a close relationship with AI-

r

Earl Fenner; Judith Gray, ethnomusicologist for the Center's Federal Cylinder Project; Jonathan Orens; Center director Alan Jabbour; and Marsha McGuire, archivist at the Archive of Folk Culture. A picture of Harry Buffalo­ head is shown in the briefcase with his tapes. Photo by Reid Baker

WINTER 1989 9 Harry Buffalohead, one of the most knowledgeable of the old generation of Ponca singers, is pictured at the drum (center) in this 1940s photograph, when he was fifteen years old. Others around the drum (clockwise from Buffalohead) are Russell Rush, John Elk (white straw hat), McKinley Eagle, Bill Kemble, Francis Eagle, Charlie Waters (in round-top hat), Tim Little Voice, Logan DeLodge (in baseball cap), Lamont Brown (not in picture), Sylvester Warrior, Joe Rush, Lawrence DeLodge, and Leonard Smith. The women at the back of the photo­ graph are (left to right): Madeline Eagle, Marline Eagle, Rose Marie Eagle, Annabelle Eagle, Angeline DeLodge, Mary Ann Crazy Bear, Agnes Howe, Carrie Little Voice Tyndall, Delphine White Star Little Voice, and Leona Rough Face. Photo by Carruth Mutchmore, courtesy of Earl Fenner ford and Victoria Waters, a Ponca and 1975 powwow in Danville, Illinois, the Indian ways of showing respect for Osage/Quapaw couple li ving in where they both came out to the drum tradition as expressed by Sylvester Chicago, and were introduced as to sing with Albert Waters. Hearing Warrior, one of the old generation of family to the Waters' Oklahoma rela­ each other sing, they realized a com­ singers: "You must go to the old peo­ tives. This experience opened the way mon interest and soon were exchang­ ple. You must be humble and sincere. for Fenner to record some of the best ing visits. Each had already started Information costs you dearly. Grocer­ Ponca singers. He was also privileged recording powwow groups and in­ ies, blankets, money. Whatever you to have a seat at the Ponca Hethush­ dividual singers. Word of their interest can acquire you must pay. Just like ka drum bought for him by an Otoe spread and other people began to send when a white man wants to learn. It woman, Agnes Pipestem. Orens them tapes or brought out old family costs him dearly to go to college. In­ meanwhile began singing at age thir­ recordings for them to copy. As Orens dian is the same way. It costs dearly teen , and was first exposed to Ponca expresses it, " the more we found, the to learn these things from the old peo­ music a few years later when he was more we found." Together they now pIe. " This was a time when young allowed to sit by Ponca head singer have approximately eight hundred Poncas were more often interested in Albert Waters at a powwow in tapes, primarily of Oklahoma Indian Northern-Plains-style singing than in Oklahoma. (The Ponca tribe, original­ musIC. their specificall y Ponca heritage, and ly from Nebraska, is now based in Throughout the years spent par­ Fenner and Orens found that the Oklahoma.) ticipating in powwows and in learning elders were pleased by their interest, Fenner and Orens first met at a the songs, they have tried to practice doors were always open, and seats

10 FOLKLIFE CENTER NEWS were usually made available for them tribe and now regards this collection at the drum. as his legacy to be preserved and held As the collection of recordings grew in trust for the younger Ponca singers. and as they saw many of the old Fenner recalls Buffalohead's words: "I singers pass on, they increasingly felt want that material preserved in that the need to document the Ponca songs. museum in Washington. I'm giving it In 1985, therefore, they asked Harry to you guys; it's up to you to get it Buffalohead if he were interested in there.' , recording his knowledge of Ponca Fenner and Orens chose to focus on repertory, and he agreed. Born in the texted Ponca songs, those with 1926, Buffalohead was one of the last meaningful words as well as vocables of the old generation. His knowledge (syllables such as "hey" and "ho"). came largely from the great­ Texted songs in a very real way con­ grandfather who raised him after he stitute the history of the tribe. For was orphaned as a child. First invited those who speak the Ponca language, to be head singer at a drum when he each text recalls the personal or group was only seven, he had sung for many experience that prompted the song's years with the most accomplished composition. When singers died Ponca singers-Sylvester Warrior, Joe without passing on their songs or when Rush, Lamont Brown, Charlie young people have not become fluent Waters, Bob Littledance, Francis Ea­ in Ponca, a part of the tribal history gle, McKinley Eagle, Sterling White has been lost to the younger genera­ Star, Louie Yellowhorse, and many tions. The collectors' procedure, others. Buffalohead has devoted his therefore, has been to extract all text­ life to learning the music of the Ponca ed Ponca songs from their tapes, to playa portion of a song for Buffalo­ head to fix it in his mind, then to record him singing the song. They translate the text both as it is sung in a condensed or abbreviated fashion ,I and as such a text would be spoken, and explain the source, context, and significance of the song. Orens had recorded Buffalohead in the latter's home at White Eagle, Oklahoma, in 1982. But the record­ ing project really began in 1985 when Jonathan Orens. Photo by Reid Baker Orens worked for a month as a medi­ cal student at the Ponca health clinic and spent evenings recording Buffalo­ head, a practice repeated during Sep­ wolf dance, pipe dance, and hand tember 1988 when Orens returned to game songs, as well as Christian the clinic as a doctor. Fenner and hymns. Among them are also the Orens also brought Buffalohead to "Osage songs," most of which were Baltimore for two weeks in 1986 and composed by the Ponca singers hired have made other brief visits to Okla­ by the neighboring Osage people for homa. Buffalohead's eagerness to the June Inlonshka ceremonies. The teach is evidenced by the intensity with tapes document almost one complete which the three worked; they record­ generation of singers, representing ed over one hundred songs in one day both individuals and groups. during the 1986 visit. Fenner then At a memorial dance in White Ea­ took on the task of transcribing each gle last September, Orens saw a young of the tapes verbatim, entering the Ponca man in a car listening to and material into a computer data base learning songs from a cassette- it was and using his lunchtimes and periods one of the cassettes of war dance songs of inactivity during overnight shifts to that the three had recorded in Balti­ push the project ahead. more. The project of three dedicated Still growing, the collection now men has thus come full circle. It is consists of Ponca Hethuska, peyote, their hope that the process will Earl Fenner. Photo by Reid Baker individual, love, scalp, soldier dance, continue. 0

WINTER 1989 11 MARCIA AND JON PANKAKE PRESENT PROGRAM BASED ON "A PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION FOLK SONG BOOK"

by J ames Hardin and Joseph C. Hickerson

On January 10 , Marcia and Jon Pankake delighted a Library of Con­ gress audience of adults and school children with songs and stories from their recent compilation, A Prairie Home Companion Folk Song Book, pub­ lished by Viking Press with a foreword by Garrison Keillor. MichaelJacobs, vice president for marketing at Viking was on hand to present two au­ tographed copies to Judy McDermott, chief of the Library's Exchange and Gift Division. A portion of the royal­ ties from the sale of the book will be donated to the Friends of the Folk Ar­ chive Fund, and for the Pankakes, this designation and the visit represent a chance to repay the Folk Archive for the service it has rendered them over the years. Marcia and Jon Pankake have col­ lected American folksongs and record­ ings and have sung with their folk band , "Uncle Willie and the Brandy Snifters," for the past twenty-five years. They have always been interest­ ed in original and authentic versions of the songs, and have regularly or­ dered tape copies of field recordings from the Archive. The Pankake s both hold doctorate degrees from the University of Min­ nesota, he in American studies and she in library science, and it was there they met Garrison Keillor, the well­ known host of the popular " A Prairie Home Companion" program on Min­ nesota Public Radio. Keillor was pub­ lic affairs director at the university At a special program in the Library's Whittall Pavilion, Marcia and Jon radio station, KUOM, and recorded Pankake, compilers of the recently published A Prairie Home Companion Folk Song Book, entertain an appreciative audience from the Capitol Hill Day the Pankakes for his program of folk music. Later, the Pankakes made School. Photo by Reid Baker regular appearances on " A Prairie H ome Companion," and Jon per­ formed on the show as the mysterious carve out a ten-minute segment after you remember the words mostly." "Masked Folksinger." the Lake Wobegon story called the The department received thirty or In 1983, when, as Keillor puts it , Department of Folk Song." There forty letters a week, from which eight the program "still didn't know what were two requirements: the songs had or ten songs were selected to be sung to do with itself, it seemed exactly right to be "ones you have heard from on the air, and nearly eighteen to put out the call for folk songs and someone else" and ones " to which hundred songs came in over a period

12 FOLKLIFE CENTER NEWS "CHAD GADYA" COLLECTION PRESENTED TO FOLK ARCHIVE

Ursula Schwadron (right) discusses the work of her late husband, Dr. Abraham A. Schwadron, professor of music at the University of California at Los Angeles, who, for ten years, studied the Jewish Passover song "Chad Gadya" ("One Kid"). Mrs. Schwadron and her son, Steven C. Schwadron (second from right), administrative assistant to Massachusetts Representative Gerry E. Studds, visited the Archive of Folk Culture on November 14, 1988, to present her husband's collection of recordings, publications, and manuscripts to (from left to right) Archive headJoseph C. Hickerson, Exchange & Gift Division chiefJudy McDermott, and Center director AlanJabbour. The collection includes recordings and transcriptions of hundreds of versions of the "Chad Gadya" from Jewish communities around the world. Photo by Reid Baker

of three years. (Interestingly, this call From the songs sent in to " Prairie from the Capitol Hill Day School seat­ for songs echoes a similar effort by Home's" Department of Folk Song, ed before them in the front row. The Robert Gordon, first head of the the Pankakes selected about three more " gross" and irreverent the song Library's Archive of American Folk­ hundred for A Prairie Home Companion ("Greasy Grimy Gopher Guts," "I Song. Gordon had a column in Adven­ Folk Song Book, funny , irreverent Shot My Teacher" ), the more gleeful ture magazine in the twenties, "Old songs, parodies, nonsense rhymes, was the response of the class, which Songs That Men Have Sung," and he and old favorites. Arid from this idi­ readily joined in with the singing and issued an invitation to readers to send osyncratic grab bag, they made a pro­ offered additional verses- amply in "all the old songs of every variety. " gram that delighted the January demonstrating that one mark of the It was part of his plan to collect every audience at the Library of Congress, true folksong is that we embrace it as American folksong.) and particularly the second-grade class our own. D

WINTER 1989 13 Exhibition Honors 150th Anniversary of the Invention of Photography

"Documenting America: 1935-1943: Photographs from the Farm Security Administration-Office of War Infor­ DOCUMENTING mation Collection at the Library of Congress," the inaugural event in a nationwide celebration of the 150th 35 AMERICA 19 anniversary of the invention of pho­ tography, opened at the Library of Congress on December 15, 1988. The exhibition, which runs through May 14, 1989, also celebrates the 50th an­ niversary of the FSA-OWI photo­ graphic section, which produced the famous collection of photographs now housed at the Library of Congress. The curators for the exhibition were Carl Fleischhauer of the American Folklife Center and Beverly W. Bran­ nan of the Library's Prints and Pho­ tographs Division. Between 1935 and 1943, a group of photographers working for the feder­ al government documented America in pictures. The photographers were members of a photographic section that moved from one government agency to another and then to a third during its eight-year existence. Head­ ed by Roy Emerson Stryker, the sec­ tion was first established in the Resettlement Administration (RA) in 1935, became part of the Farm Secu­ rity Administration (FSA) in 1937, and was transferred to the Domestic Operations Branch of the Office of War Information (OWl) in 1942. In 1943 Congress eliminated the domes­ tic branch, and Stryker and several of At first , the section focused on rural section's changing roster. Twenty or the section's photographers left the and small-town America, but as more photographers worked with government. World War II neared, and especiall y Stryker for varying lengths of time, The photographs presented in the after Pearl Harbor, it began covering and twelve of them are represented: exhibition depict the nation as it urban and industrial subjects. The Esther Bubley, John Collier, Jr., Mar­ recovered from the Great Depression Resettlement Administration, Farm jory Collins, Jack Delano, Walker and entered World War II. Selected Security Administration, and Office of Evans, Dorothea Lange, Russell Lee, from the approximately 77,000 images War Information used the section's Gordon Parks, Marion Post Wolcott, produced by Stryker's section, they photographs in their day-to-day com­ Arthur Rothstein, Ben Shahn, and may be seen as vignettes documenting munications, but the project did not John Vachon. life in the United States between 1935 end there. Stryker foresaw the long­ A book to accompany the exhibition and 1943. As each group (or series) of term value of the photographs, and he was published by the University of photographs was selected from an in­ assembled an encyclopedic pictorial California Press in cooperation with dividual photographer's coverage of a file as a historical record of the era. the Library of Congress. It is availa­ single subject, they also show the pho­ Although not every photographer is ble at bookstores throughout the tographers at work. included, the exhibition represents the country. 0

14 FOLKLIFE CENTER NEWS Folklife Center Publishes Fraktur Guide and Best Folk Recordings List

Among the many magnificent collec­ The American Folklife Center has re­ tions of the Library of Congress is a "u"i~IU.i4 (!Itt.... cently released American Folk Music and small but significant collection of frak­ lJftlftltf Folklore Recordings 1987: A Selected List. tur and printed broadsides, the folk art ••• "ria••, \I..aUi." The Center has been compiling and is­ of illuminated manuscripts frequent­ suing yearly lists since 1983 to help ly associated with Pennsylvania Ger­ promote the best recordings of Ameri­ man communities during the late can folk music and folklore from vari­ eighteenth and the nineteenth centu­ ous companies and organizations ries. The Library's collection of hand­ during the previous year. painted and printed manuscripts is Although many of these recordings housed primarily in the Prints and elude mainstream distribution net­ Photographs Division, but there are works and seldom appear in record several fine examples in the Rare Book shops and catalogs, they have been in­ and Special Collections Division and strumental in preserving America's the Performing Arts Library. heritage and encouraging performers In 1986 the American Folklife in local communities. The recordings Center invited Professor Don Yoder of A GtJlD£ TO utE COUECnONS IN TIlE UBI\ARY OF CONGRESS are also valuable resources for stu­ the University of Pennsylvania to dents, teachers, and libraries. speak on the subject of fraktur and To be eligible for consideration, a Paul Connor to present a workshop, recording must feature cultural tradi­ and from this program came the plan tions found within the United States; to produce a guide to the Library's Congress. The 48-page guide lists 168 emphasize "root traditions' , over collection. Pennsylvania German Fraktur manuscripts and prints, and includes popular adaptations of traditional and Printed Broadsides: A Guide to the Col­ black-and-white and color illustra­ materials; be conveniently available to lections in the Library of Congress, com­ tions. Professor Yoder's interpretive American purchasers; and include piled by Paul Connor and Jill Roberts, introduction describes the history, well-annotated liner notes or accom­ with an introduction by Don Yoder, subject matter, and function of frak­ panying booklets relating the record­ is now available from the Library of tur in Pennsylvania-German commu­ ings to the performers, their nities, and explains the way it was communities, genres, and styles. displayed and regarded by the people The 16-page, illustrated pamphlet who produced it. is free of charge from the American Pennsylvania German Fraktur is avail­ Folklife Center, Library of Congress, FOLKLIFE CENTER NEWS able from the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540.0 Sales Shop, Washington, D.C. 20540 . J ames Hardin, Editor The price is $9.95, plus $2 for postage Don Shomette, Design Consultant and handling. 0 FOLKLINE Folklife Center News is a quarterly report on the programs and activi­ For timely information on the ties of the American Folklife field offolklore and folklife, includ­ Center, available free of charge ing training and professional op­ from the Library of Congress, portunities and news items of American Folklife Center, national interest, a taped an­ Washington, D.C. 20540. Folk/ife nouncement is available around the Center News does not publish an­ clock, except during the hours of9 nouncements from other institu­ A.M. until noon (eastern time) each tions or reviews of books from Monday, when it is updated. Folk­ publishers other than the Library line is a joint project of the Ameri­ of Congress. Readers who would can Folklife Center and the like to comment on Center activi­ American Folklore Society. Dial: ties or newsletter articles may ad­ dress their remarks to the editor. 202 707-2000

WINTER 1989 15 At the First Korean School in Silver Spring, Maryland, a martial arts class is instructed by Mr. Myung Chul Choi, April 17, 1982. A new report on maintaining cultural traditions through ethnic schools is described on page 3. (ES82-193186-1-17A) Photo by Lucy Long

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