American Folklife Center Library of Congress

July-September 1985

Volume VIII, Number 3

Omaha Indian Music

Snappers and Snappering in New Jersey

Archive Radio Series

Paid Internships for Archive land Plateau, where the meeting was conclusion. And indeed, when I finally held and where the Tennessee Folklore sat down this year to read the book, I FOLKLIFE CENTER NEWS Society had been launched fifty years found some strong rhetoric about state a quarterly publication of the before). But as I began to sketch out my boundaries: "Forget the maze of state

Ammcan Folklife Center thoughts on regionalism in America, I and provincial boundaries, those was surprised to find myself swimming historical accidents and surveyors' at the against the tide of both folklorists over mistakes" (p. 1). I also found persuasive Library of Congress the years and cocktail-party savants examples of segments of states feeling in­ today. jured by their geographical alignment. Regionalism has been a hot topic at The farm protest movement of the late Alan Jabbour, Director Washington social gatherings over the 1970s, for instance, was born in the Ray Dockstader, Deputy Director past four or five years, and there appears wheat fields of eastern Colorado, since

Carl Fleischhauer to be an emerging consensus on the sub­ "If any farmer was likely to be mad as Mary Hufford ject. The burden of the usual argument hell, it would be he who sent his taxes Folklife Specialists might be summarized as follows:-The to Denver, despite that capital's obvious Peter T . Bartis, Folklife Researcher United States is subdivided into states interest in loosening its agrarian ties" (p. (which, I might observe, looks at the 3). Yet by and large, the book inve~ts Patricia M . Markland, Program Assistant subject from the top down). Unfor­ its energies simply in getting us to reflect Brett Topping, Writer-Editor Magdalena Gilinsky, Contracts Specialist tunately, state boundaries not only fail upon the macro-regions of North Doris Craig, Administrative Secretary to coincide but clash with the natural America. If you ignore a scattering of Lisa Oshins, Staff Assistant regions that have developed in the rhetorical flourishes and trenchant Tel: 202 28 7-6590 United States. Those regions are a result observations, the author does not really of geographic features, natural re­ advocate abolishing state boundaries. It Archive of Folk Culture sources, and the patterns of flow in is not a radical call for restructuring the goods, ideas, people, and values which continent's bodies politic. Thus it is Joseph C. Hickerson, Head have grown out of that geographic and fascinating to see how many people who Gerald E. Parsons, Jr., Reference Librarian Sebastian LoCurto, Staff Assistant natural-resource base. At best, states are read the book, or who have heard about inefficient mechanisms for accom­ it, drew the instant conclusion that states Tel: 202 287-5510 plishing the business or serving the needs should be scrapped. of regions; at worst, they are hostile or It is worth observing, before going Federal Cylinder Project unresponsive to the hapless fragments of any further, that discussions about Dorothy Sara Lee, Director regions that fall within their borders. regionalism often founder over a confu­ Judith A. Gray, Ethnomusicologist Thus (the argument concludes) the sion about the size or level of region be­ political structuring of the country into ing discussed. The Memphis market Tel: 202 287-9022 states makes no sense. area includes chunks of Tennessee, Washington, D .C. 2054-0 Such ideas are by no means unfa­ Mississippi, and Arkansas; the Flint miliar to students of folklore, cultural Hills are perhaps confined to one state, geography, or for that matter political Kansas. Yet both seem to me to be Managing Editor: Brett Topping science or marketing. Clearly, though, ''regions'' of a quite different order from something has propelled an old constella­ larger entities like "Dixie" and "New tion of ideas into a sort of renewed cur­ England" (to use two regions sketched rency. It was no trouble tracking it out in Joel Garreau's book). Garreau down. Many people who preached the solves this problem neatly by calling the idea cited Joel Garreau's book The Nine larger regional units "nations," leaving DIRECTOR'S COLUMN Nations of North America (Boston: open the possibility that they contain Houghton Miffiin Company, 1981). smaller "regions" within them. But Garreau had in 1979 published an essay "nations" flies rhetorically in the face on the subject in the Sunday Outlook of what I am about to expound, and In the spring of this year I had the section of The Washington Post. The essay though it stimulates conversation to use privilege of serving as keynote speaker was reprinted in various newspapers the word, one contradicts ordinary usage at a conference organized by the Ten­ throughout the continent, and the book along the way. Nations are political units nessee Folklore Society in celebration of followed in a couple of years as a more in this world, and very few ofthem coin­ its 50th anniversary. A focal topic for the extended treatment of the subject. Gar­ cide with the natural geographical­ conference was "regionalism," which reau's efforts clearly had spread a cultural units for which we reserve the has always been of interest to folklorists durable academic concept into the word "region." So, for lack of better and has emerged as a popular topic for broader arena of public-policy discus­ terms, I have taken to distinguishing general conversation in the past few sions. between "macro-regions" and "micro­ years. I looked forward to contributing Did he really denounce states as ir­ regions.'' my two cents on the subject when I relevancies? I wondered. The cocktail No matter what level ofregion we are visited Cookeville (up on the Cumber­ circuit seemed quite certain about that talking about, the talk about states be-

2 FOLKLIFE CENTER NEWS ing inefficient or irrelevant troubles me. matter, for it would not require recon­ life . By that I mean that every institu­ In June I happened to be visiting ciling or balancing fundamentally dif­ tional structure contains within it, and Finland, and after a few days without ferent regional problems and aspira­ thus teaches as a social lesson, the any American news and views I ob­ tions. As it happens, though, every state necessity for compromising and accom­ tain~d a copy of the International Herald embraces multiple micro-regions, and modating in order to act. This princi­ Tribune (Europe's "American" perhaps half the states embrace parts of ple is in turn the structural enactment newspaper, put out by the joint efforts more than one macro-region. Thus the of the cultural principle often referred to of The New York Times and The job of reconciling is not merely an as pluralism. I myself prefer the slightly Washington Post). There it was again: an unpleasant inconvenience for states; more homegrown word diversity, but in essay by a professor ofconstitutional law it is at the core of nearly everything they any case the principle is one of the cor­ who, as he pondered a long-range agen­ do. nerstones on which American society has da for changing the U.S. constitution, Would we have it any other way? been built. In short, if you like was convinced that states should be What would be the consequences of democracy in a large nation that accom­ revamped into "10 or 12 regions" to making state boundaries conform more modates great cultural diversity with a prepare us for the future. Somehow, as "sensibly" to natural regional boun­ broader sense of ultimate unity, there I read the essay against the backdrop of daries? For one thing, it would probably might be another way to do it instead of Europe and its nation-states, with their promote the job of reconciliation from having states that are themselves histories of struggle to reconcile the in­ the state level to the national level. Issues regionally diverse-but I wouldn't try it. terests of regional and ethnic groupings that are now negotiated and compro­ When I first broached these notions with the political units of nations, our mised within state politics would be at the Tennessee Folklore Society American toying with redrawing state thrust upon the agenda of national meeting in Cookeville, a lively debate boundaries seemed naive. politics, requiring solution by the na­ ensued. In the course of that discussion, States, or for that matter nations, are tional government. A variety of in­ I pointed out that, though folklorists had political units, which is to say that they stances from abroad-Canada, say, or always had a special passion for the idea are units for taking governmental ac­ Yugoslavia- suggest that drawing state of regionalism, they tended to organize tions. Ifevery state in the United States or provincial boundaries so as to repre­ their own activities by s.tate. Thus state corresponded to a natural region, then sent economic anq cultural regions in­ folklore societies abound, and some are taking actions would no doubt be an easy evitably passes the buck to the national as venerable as the Tennessee Folklore government to effect all the compromis­ Society, which has now celebrated its ing, balancing, and reconciling. Surely 50th anniversary. Regional societies, on there is a virtue in decentralizing the the other hand, are few and far between, process of compromise to the state or and none has lasted many years. The BOARD OF TRUSTEES even the local level. competition of scholars earlier in this In fact, there are two virtues. The first century to collect traditional ballads was Ronald C. Foreman, Jr., Florida, virtue is that it spreads around the task organized-apparently by mutual Chairman of compromising, so that no single agreement-along state lines, and more David E. Draper, Louisiana, Vice governmental unit has to bear the full published collections of folklore are Chairman brunt of it. To be sure, this creates a sort organized by state than by region. Edward Bridge Danson, Arizona of governmental muddle-messy, inef­ Folklorists thus seem not so different Jeanne Guillemin, Massachusetts ficient, hard to comprehend or clearly from other Americans in this respect: Bruce Jackson, New York blame. It is just the sort of ragtag pro­ they may think regionally, but when William L. Kinney, Jr., South Carolina cess of solving problems that drives they take action they revert to state St. John Terrell, New Jersey foreigners, and some Americans, wild boundaries. J. Barre Toelken, Oregon when they try to comprehend how things After all, we do not have to choose ever get done in the United States. One between states and regions. Both are m~ght characterize it as a system of available to us as options for identifica­ Ex Officio Members multiple, limited, and shifting alter­ tion, expression, and action. Perhaps it natives for solving problems-a system, was in preparation for such options in Daniel J. Boorstin, The Librarian of by the way, which is found not only in American life that, when I was growing Congress government but in the private sector up, I was taught that I was a Florida Robert McCormick Adams, Secretary of (itself multiple and variegated) and in Cracker. the Smithsonian Institution the non-governmental public sector of Francis S. M . Hodsoll, Jr., Chairman, foundations and charitable organiza­ National Endowment for the Arts tions. ___, Chairman, National Endow­ The second virtue flows from the first. ment for the Humanities When the process of reconciliation and Alan Jabbour, Director, American compromise is decentralized throughout Folklife Center all levels of government, and in other sectors as well, it is in a literal sense thoroughly institutionalized in American

JULY-SEPTEMBER 3 OMAHA INDIAN MUSIC

The sketch at left, used as the basis of the album cover for Omaha Indian Music, is by George Miller, who sang two of the love songs on the disc. Miller sketched a series of tents for anthropologist George Owen Dorsey, which were included in Dorsey's monograph on Siouan cults. Ethnologist Alice Cun­ ningham Fletcher, who recorded the album's selections with Francis La Flesche of the Omaha Tribe, is pictured below with an Omaha Indian in Macy, Nebraska. (Courtesy of the National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution)

4 FOLKLIFE CENTER NEWS The cover illustration for the companion booklet to Omaha Indian Music is based on a photograph of a Hethus'shka dancer at the Omaha Pow-wow, August 23, 1925. (Nebraska State Historical Society photo no. 1394-211)

Omaha Indian Music, a documentary bibliography. in Washington. record album of historic wax-cylinder The collaboration of Fletcher and La The result of the collaborative efforts recordings made between 1895 and 1910 Flesche dated from the 1880s, when of Fletcher and La Flesche was the 1911 by Alice Cunningham Fletcher and Fletcher began her field studies of Native Bureau of American Ethnology publica­ Francis La Flesche, is scheduled to be American culture, first under the tion The Omaha Tribe, which used the published by the American Folklife auspices of the Peabody Museum at recordings as a musical framework Center this summer. The album con­ Harvard and later under the sponsorship around which the detailed descriptions tains public and social songs of the of the Bureau of American Ethnology, of rituals were constructed. It was the Omaha people, selected in consultation Smithsonian Institution. La Flesche, the first ethnography fully to integrate music with members of the Omaha Tribe. It second son of Omaha chief Joseph La and culture. Transcriptions for many of features Hethu'shka or Warrior Society Flesche, worked with Fletcher and other the songs duplicated on this album ap­ songs, the traditional Omaha funeral scholars to document Omaha culture pear in that 1911 publication. song, the song of the Ritual of the (see Folklife Center News, Vol. IV, No. 1, For the Omaha people Omaha Indian Maize, songs ofthe Tribal Dance, others January 1981). He made substantial Music is a family album. The photo­ celebrating personal and tribal honors, contributions to Fletcher' s early graphs and songs reproduced here evoke songs associated with war and victory, monograph A Study of Omaha Indian memories of friends and relatives who and love songs. A 17-page companion Music, published in 1893, which used have died, and provide ample evidence booklet contains essays by Dennis hand-notated transcriptions made in the ofthe persistence and strength ofOmaha Hastings, archivist for the Omaha field. In the fall of 1895 La Flesche took culture. For information on how to ob­ Tribe, and folklorist Roger Welsch, who a cylinder phonograph to the Omaha tain a copy of the recording, write Omaha has written extensively on Omaha In­ reservation for the first time to record Indian Music, American Folklife Center, dian folklore. It also includes historical ritual songs. Over the next decade both Library ofCongress, Washington, D.C. and contemporary photos ofOmaha In­ scholars recorded over ninety cylinders 20540 dian life and events, a map which locates of Omaha Indian music and narrative the Omaha Indian Reservation, and a in Nebraska and at Fletcher's residence

JULY-SEPTEMBER 5 Just Grab the Tail and Hang On! SNAPPERS AND SNAPPERING IN THE PINELANDS NATIONAL RESERVE

Snapperer Herb Misner with a baited trap in his rowboat. (Photo by Dennis McDonald - PFP84-B235200-Jl/28A)

Southjersey is a famed haven for en­ tie, which is much hunted for, to feast you will,-with which they will dangered reptiles like Pine Barrens tree our gentry withal." There can be no catch hold of a stick, offered to frogs, eastern tiger salamanders, bog mistaking the creature he describes: them-or, if you had rather, your turtles, and timber rattlesnakes. Perhaps finger-which they will hold so fast least endangered of all, and most They are very large-of a dark that you may lift the turtle by it as vigorously hunted, are snapping turtles, muddy colour-large round tail, high as your head, if you have the feisty denizens of the swamps, and feet with claws,-and the old strength or courage enough to lift ditches, and marshes throughout the ones mossy on the back, and often them up so high by it. But as for region-"tigers of the ponds and several horse leeches sucking the their barking, I believe thy relator streams,'' one naturalist called them. 1 superfluous blood; a large head, barked, instead of the turtle. They John Bartram, reporting on this New sharp nose, and mouth wide creep all over, in the mud, where World creature to an 18th-century col­ enough to cram one's fist in,­ they lie perdu; and when a duck, or league in London, called it a "Mud Tur­ very sharp gums, or lips, which fish, swims near them, they dart

6 FOLKLIFE CENTER NEWS since they were put here! They're at least five million years old. " 4 Some of the hoarier specimens, weighing in at sixty or seventy pounds, look as though they consorted with mastodons themselves. Covered with algae and moss, these chthonic beasts peer out through a mass of fleshy folds, spangled with wartlike tubercles, as they propel their bulk on ponderous legs. Their tails are set with brontosaurus-like ridges and their craggy upper shells taper to a distinctive­ ly toothed rear end. This last feature has several practical applications in trapping. For one thing, turtle trappers- known as "mud­ wallopers" and "proggers" in the mar­ shes along the Delaware Bay-who "prog" for the turtles in water, feeling for them with their feet or with large sticks or metal rods, can determine which end to pick up. This has been called "the braille system. " 5 The jagged edge also detains the turtle in the trap. "His shell fetches up in the net," ex­ plained Bill Lee, an octogenarian mud­ walloper from Port Elizabeth. 6 "It's a guard,'' said Tom Brown, a fellow trap­ per from Millville. "That keeps him from getting out of the fyke. " 7 The snapper has two systems of defense, one for the land and one for the water. On land he is belligerent­ lunging, snapping, and hissing at his adversary, sometimes lifting himself off the ground in a spectacle of impotent fury. "They're mad all the time," laughed Herb "Snapper" Misner of Drawing by Jan Adkins. Medford. "You get him out of water, you can't hardly touch him.... Soon as they hatch out ofthe eggs they'll want to bite you.''8 Almost magically, out their heads as quick as light, While their relatives experimented however, the minute a snapper is placed and snap him up. Their eggs are with almost everything from flight round as a bullet, and choice to tremendous bulk, turtles have in the water his aggressive rage subsides eating.2 changed little over the eons. into mere violent efforts to swim away. Thus trappers can cautiously identify the Typical boxlike turtles watched the Linnaeus named him Chelydra serpen­ rise and demise of the dinosaurs, business end of a submerged turtle with tina, meaning ''the snakelike, fetid the development of the insects, and less risk of being bitten than one would swamp beast." A New World creature, the proliferation of the mammals. think. "They call it proggin' 'em," said the snapper has the broadest distribution Snapping turtles are one of the Misner. of any reptile in this hemisphere, rang­ most primitive, unchanged groups Put down a boom, keep pokin ' ing from the Atlantic Ocean to the within their ancient order. 3 around. . . sounds different when you Rocky Mountains, and from Canada hit one's back. Just step your foot on south to Ecuador. Trappers marvel at the prehistoric him, give him a couple of pushes to This strange primordial creature look of the creature. "That's one of the see which way he's gonna move-he seems to have renounced evolution oldest animals in the world, the snap­ always movesforward, he won't come shortly after the basic turtle shell per," said Ted Ramp of Egg Harbor, back-and then just grab the developed, 200 million years ago. who has caught a few in seventy-five tail. . . . Hang on! Donald Hammer writes: years of living. "They never evoluted Continued on overleaf

JULY-SEPTEMBER 7 SNAPPERS Continued from previous page Even if one is not a snapperer, being on the lookout for snapping turtles is part of being a South Jersey native, ac­ cording to Mary Ann Thompson, a cranberry grower from Vincentown:

Snapping turtles are a big thing. My father got into a car accident. He picked up th£s snapping turtle and he put it in the back of the car, and it was a hatchback, and he was driving. He wanted to take it back to the guys at the bog because they love snapper. And the turtle kept coming up. And he was trying to keep it in the back and he ran into a telephone pole. And then, when he tr£ed to explain to the state police why he h£t the pole, t~e state policeman was from jersey City, and he couldn't understand why he . would pick up a snapper to begin with. It was a complete cultural dif­ ference to have to expla£n . But, a791way, he ended up with soup. 9

Snapping turtles are not hard to find. "They leave a lot of sign, snappers," said Tom Brown. "Ifit's a big snapper he leaves a trail a foot wide.'' Good-sized snappers weigh twenty-five to forty pounds, but South Jersey occasionally yields turtles of fifty pounds or more. A trapper can obtain a rough head count in a given pond by clapping his hands, causing the turtles to pop their heads above the water, or he can simply sit and watch for a while with binoculars to determine.their whereabouts. In colder weather, when turtles are in the mud and the marsh grass is short, he progs for them. In warmer weather he can prog, fish for snappers with a hook and line, or trap for them with fyke nets. The classic turtle fyke is a barrel-like affair comprised of oak, hickory, or grapevine hoops set in a net. It has a funnel-shaped entrance leading to a bait Bill Lee of Port Elizabeth, New Jersey with snapper fyke. Drawing by Jan Adkins. box strung up in the receiving area. Bill Lee of Port Elizabeth, whose perennial VVhen I was a l£ttle fellow, seven, Snappers have an uncanny sense of grin during his professional boxing days eight years old, I went to work and underwater smell. John C. McLoughlin earned him the name "Smiling Billy I knitted myself a snapperfyke. Now reported that, according to herpetologist Lee," made his first fyke, out of "fisher­ there's one snapper jyke. See th£s? Karl P. Schmidt of the Chicago Natural man's bend" knots, more than seventy Now look, you wouldn't believe that History Museum, one snapping turtle years ago, measuring its three-inch mesh was done by hand, without a measur­ was exploited for its nose: by eye, as he told ethnobiologist Eugene ing stick. I done every one of 'em like Hunn. this-by hand.10 An American Indian . . . on more

8 FOLKLIFE CENTER NEWS than one occasion aided officials in "Crabs would have gotten there trap. Setting fykes on the tidal meadows locating drowned persons by quicker," commented Tom Brown, is more difficult, because the rising tide releasing into the fatal waters a when he heard the story. will disorient the fyke, fill it with mud, snapper on a leash. That turtle The fyke is set with the entrance and drown a trapped turtle. "In the sped unerringly to the decompos­ under water and the top above W

JULY-SEPTEMBER 9 SNAPPERS Continued from previous page

Painting ofa snapper attacking two ducks by Margaret Bakely, Vincentown, New Jersey. (Photo by Dennis McDonald - PFP84-B39985/5)

[and then) you gotta float 'em-take If I got a piece of cord, I put what operation is more chaotic, according to some of them white milk jugs and tie we call a bridle on 'em. I let 'em bite Misner: them on the sides." on a stick, and then tie a string on each Getting a turtle out ofthe trap is much end, and pull their head back, and I dump 'em out on the ground, then harder than getting him into it. Tom fasten underneath the back part ofthe pick 'em up by the tail-go around Brown stuns it momentarily by tapping shell. And that's what we call ''put­ 'em till you get a tail, or stepyourfoot it on the nose with a ball peen hammer. tin' a bridle on 'em. " Then they can't on his back. They'll come around after Then he reaches in and grabs the tail, get their head out to bite. See? 12 you ifyou try to reach down and get before inaugurating the second means of him, butyou stick onefoot on his back, snapper disarmament: If there is more than one turtle, the keep him turned to you, his tail. Never

10 FOLKLIFE CENTER NEWS tum his back towardsyour leg; always show his belly towardyour leg-ifhe's got his back towardyour leg, they can bite up. Never had oneyet bite under. Always got his head up.

A snapping turtle's fist-sized head is largely occupied by the two muscles con­ trolling his jaws. Flanking a brain that is smaller than either of them, the jaw muscles of a large snapper can exert a pressure of up to 440 pounds per square inch.13 When something gives it is usual­ ly a chunk of a leg or the tip of a finger or toe. The saying goes that nothing pries those jaws open except thunder and the setting sun. u Trappers generally store the live turtles somewhere until they have enough to take to market. Janice Sher­ wood of Forked River recalled that her father kept them in the basement oftheir house. One day, when some baby chickens fell into the basement, she was assigned the task ofprotecting them until her father came home, by sitting on the steps and throwing pebbles at any turtles that approached the chicks. 15 Allie Chor was a legendary turtle trap­ per from Lower Bank who, according to local tradition, kept the turtles in his house, until his wife rebelled and told him to choose between her and the turtles. He moved for a time with the turtles to an outbuilding. 16 "He used to kiss 'em!" recalled Ted Ramp with residual disbelief.

He'd come up town. He used to catch Herb Misner taking a snapper out ofthe bathtub behind his home on Chairville Road in Med­ turtles, catfish, eels, and he'd come in ford, New Jersey. (Photo by Dennis McDonald - PFP84-B235200-18/30A) town and peddle 'em. And he'd get in a bar after he sold a couple, and six to eight years ago. I made a cou­ gummy like. It took me a whole day get drunk, and kiss these goddam ple of traps; I still got three or four to get about ninety pounds. I sold it turtles! He wasn't afraid of 'emf up in the shed-fyke nets. So, I'm to him, and I went right out of the goin' in the snapper business. The guy snapper businessI Misner stores his snappers in a in Sweetwater Casino, he wanted bathtub full of water behind his house about a hundred pound a week, ''You cut his head off,'' said Misner, until he is ready to sell them to a cleaned, a dollar a pound. Well, boy, "scald him, clean him, cut him open­ restaurant. He generally sells them live, that was really money. So I made the [pausing for dramatic effect,J-and his even though snappers are worth twice as nets and I set 'em. And I got 'em heart's still beatin'. You can clean all his much when cleaned. For that local home. And got gas to heat the water insides out, and lay his heart in your celebration known as a snapper soup and started in about seven o'clock one hand, and it's still pumpin'. They say party, however, he will clean them. morning. And I got about six or eight if you swallow a snapper's heart you'll Chelydricide is very hard to commit. heads off and I went to scald 'em. never be ascared, while it's still beatin'. "The goddam things don't die right When you dumped him in the water That's what they used to tell the kids, away, you know," said Ramp. "Some he'd hunch up like this [demonstra­ them oldtimers."17 of'em live a week after you cut the heads tion] and all under his legs and sides off-they don't die!" you couldn't scald him! And you'd And the beat goes on. clean the rest up and then, when you I went into the snapper business about had to scald that again, it would get Continued on overleaf

JULY- SEPTEMBER 11 SNAPPERS Continued from previous page

The traditional advice is to bury the severed head, because it will snap until sundown at anything that touches it. "They can bite you after you cut their head off," cautioned Misner. "Their head will stay alive a long time after you cut it off. Their mouth'll be open, but don't touch anywhere near that mouth: he's gonna get you." A number of inquisitive dogs in the region are supposed to have lost tongues, noses, and toes by violating that inter­ diction. Joanne Van Istendal ofMedford related a story of one snapper's revenge:

An old Pineyfriend ofmine died about jive years ago. He was eightyjour when he died. He told me a story that when he was maybe thirtyjive, and, of course, being a Piney, he did the seasonal round, and snapping turtle was the meat of the spring and sum­ mer. They had gotten a thirtyjive­ Interior of Tom Brown's trapper's cabin, featuring snapper shell painted with duck scene. pounder and brought it back to the Painting by June Taylor of Dividing Creek, New Jersey. (Photo by Joseph Czarnecki ­ house. And they went in to have some PFP83-B217721-1418) soup for lunch, and they had cut the head off-they'dput the turtle upsitk­ rolled itself over! They spent the rest cabbage, potatoes, celery, onions, down-and the head was layin' by the of the day looking for it. carrots-cooked in stock. Then string turtle out by the back door. beans, peas, whateveryou want. Then So, anyhow, finally the other old I put six pounds of butter. Well, over by the barn, right behind fellow was going down the road in his Then . . . hard boiled eggs that I the house, was a dog chained to the car. And a quarter ofa mile down the ground. That's the Piney way that we barn. They 're all in there having a road the turtle was ahead of him, make snapper soup. In restaurantsyou good time talkin' about what walking straight down the asphalt/ 18 get that brown gravy soup, and I don't happened-what they'd come up with like it. 19 for the day, the ones that got away and The snappers that do not get away are the ones they got, and so forth. And featured in many local stews and pot In terms of flavor, the snapping tur­ they heard the dog yippin' and pies. People also like to fry them, using tle is a sumptuous smorgasbord, distinc­ whinin '. And they said, "What ails cracker crumbs and eggs, seasoned with tive for the assortment ofmeats it offers. that dog?" salt and pepper. Turtle eggs are regard­ "A snapper doesn't have anything that ed by some as a superb delicacy. To tastes like snapper, as far as that goes," So they went out. And the dog's got celebrate his fiftieth year in Browns said Bill Lee. "You'd think you was the snapping turtle's head attached to Mills, Jack Davis gave a snapper soup eatin' veal or somethin' like that.... his tongue. And they were over there party. His wife Ann made fifty gallons There's chicken, pork chops, beef, and and they were tryin ' to pry his head of soup: everything else.'' According to Johnny off the dog's tongue-a thirtyjive­ Broome of Chatsworth, the snapping pounder, which is a pretty good sized You've got to be careful how longyou turtle was creation's catch-all. "There's head. So, anyhow, it was a good dog, cook it-it's accordin' to your size seven kinds of meat i~ a snapping tur­ a good hunter dog. And they finally snapper. It's like lobster-ifyolf don't tle," he said. "And you know why that got the head off, along with a bit of cook it right, it 's not good. There are is? Because when God created the the dog's tongue. I don't know what people who fry it, make it into pot universe, he had a bunch of parts left they cauterized it with, but they went pies. There 's a lot ofpeople does a lot over. So he threw all those together and back to the house again to get some of with it. made the snapping turtle. " 20 that. And when they came out again Snapper soup is mysteriously volatile. the doggone turtle was gone! It had I shred my snapper. I start out with ''Is it true, Dad,'' Betty Gravinese asked

12 FOLKLIFE CENTER NEWS her father, Herb Misner, "that if you make snapper soup and you don't freeze it, if you just have it in the 'frigerator, or have it sittin' on the stove, it'll spoil in a thunder and lightning storm? It goes bad. I have always heard this.'' "It starts to bubble, like," Misner confirmed. "Like it's curdled," continued Betty. "My mother, ifwe were having a snap­ per soup party, and if it looked like rain, you had to hurry up and get it packed away.'' A place that is crawling with snappers keeps its other citizens hopping. Recalcitrant in evolution, intractable in hand, indomitable in the pot, snappers reward those who pay attention, enliven­ ing South Jersey's human nature with stories to tell, soup to be made and con­ sumed between thunderstorms, and the spark in a snapperer's eye.

-Mary Hufford

This article is based on the final report from the Center's Pinelands Folklife Project.

1 A. Hyatt Verrill, Strange Reptiks and Their Swries (Boston: L.C. Page & Company, 1937), p. 156. 2 John Bartram, letter to Peter Collinson, November 3, 1754, in William Darlington, ed., Memnrials ofjohn Bartram and Humphry Marshall (New York: Hafner Publishing Company, 1967), pp. 196-197. David Scofield Wilson analyses this bit of literary nature reportage in his book In the Presence ofNature (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1978), pp. 103-104. ' Donald A. Hammer, " The Durable Snapping Turtle," Natural History, Volume 80, Number 6 Qune-July 1971), pp. 61-62. ' Interview with Ted Ramp by Mary Hufford on Tom Brown at door of his trapper 's cabin in Millville, New Jersey. (Photo by Joseph Czar­ February 21, 1983 (PFP83-AMH001). Interviews will necki - PFP83-B216558-3/24A) be cited the first time they are quoted from; subsequent quotes are from the interview cited , unless stated otherwise. Blair and Ketchum 's Country Journal, Volume 8, Number beliefs collected in North Carolina and Ohio. ' Richard M. Rau, " 'Braille System' for Turtle 7 Quly 1981), pp. 30-34. 15 Anecdote related by Janice Sherwood during a Trappers," OuJdoor Life, Volume 158, Number 4 (Oc­ 12 Interview with Tom Brown by Eugene Hunn on concert she gave with the Pineconers at Stockton State tob~r 1976), p. 115. June 21, 1984 (PFP84- AEH009). College in Pomona, N.J. on May 20, 1980. 6 Interview with Bill Lee by Eugene Hunn, June 24, 13 McLoughlin, pp. 30-34. 16 This story was told to me in 1979 by Edmund 1984 (PFP84-AEH016). " This belief is widespread, appearing as a motif Kemble, who grew up in Lower Bank, New Jersey. 7 Personal communication, June 28, 1985. in Native American and Afro-American folk tales 17 This belief is also recorded in The Frank C. Brown 8 Interview with Herb Misner, Betty Gravinese, and (MotifB761-Turtle holds with jaws till it thunders) Colkction of North Carolina Folklore, Volume 7, p. 408: Lou Gravinese by Mary Hufford and Rita Moonsamy in Stith Thompson, Motif-lrukx ef Folk Literature, "You'll always be brave if you swallow a turtle's heart on April 11, 1985 (PFP85-AMH001-002). Volume 1 (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, raw.'' ' Interview with Mary Ann Thompson by Jens 1955) and elsewhere applied to snake and crawfish. See 18 Interview with Joanne Van lstendal and Elizabeth Lund, Elaine Thatcher, Christine Cartwright, and The Frank C. Brown Colkction of North Carolina Folklore, Woodford by Mary Hufford and Sue Samuelson on Mary Hufford on September 16, 1983 Volume 7 (Durham, North Carolina: Duke Universi­ November 11 , 1983 (PFP83- AMH022). (PFP83-RMH004). ty Press, 1964), p. 359 and Popular Beliefs and Supersti­ " Interview with Jack and Ann Davis by Mary Huf­ 10 Interview with Bill Lee by Eugene Hunn on June tions: A Compendium of American Folklore, Volume 2, ford on September 19, 1983 (PFP83-RMH008). 21, 1984 (PFP84-AEH010). Wayland Hand et al., eds. (Boston: G.K. Hall and 20 Interview witJ:>Johnny Broome by Mary Hufford 11 John C. McLoughlin, " The Snapping Turtle," Company, 1981), p. 1311 for a sampling of similar in April 1980.

JULY-SEPTEMBER 13 WATERMELON FOLK ARCHIVE Ones That Got Away RADIO SERIES

Ifyou tune in to the National Public Radio network on a regular basis, you may hear a series of radio programs drawn from the holdings of the Archive of Folk Culture this fall. Bob Carlin, the banjo playing host of two programs for NPR affiliate WHYY- FM in Phila­ delphia, produced the series, called ''Our Musical Heritage,'' with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts. Each of the thirteen half-hour pro­ grams explores a separate instrument or type of music. There are programs on the fiddle, the banjo, and the harmonica and other portable instruments, as well as programs devoted to songs of work, music from the old country, and dance bands. Within those categories the pro­ grams offer a juxtaposition of ethnic traditions. The two segments on the fid­ dle, for instance, present Appalachian, Cajun, Middle Eastern, and Afro­ American fiddle styles. The dance-band segment, also in two parts, includes Native American, New England, Southwestern, and Appalachian groups. "I am not an advocate of the American melting pot," notes Carlin, "but I'm ex­ cited by cross-cultural influences.'' Carlin's primary motivation in under­ taking the project was his interest in call­ ing attention to the Archive's hold ings- " a great collection of material, generally underutilized," as he charac­ terizes it. "The shows, in general, are trying to let people know that the col­ lection is there, that there are LPs Contemporary watercolor by Jonathan Heath of Berkeley Springs, W Va., who displays his available, and that, with proper advance notice, they can listen to the material." artwork at the Eastern Market on occasion. Another purpose of the programs is to In the year since the Folklife Center watermelon festivals across the country, present some of the country's strong published Watermelon staff members and and recipes to help you enjoy America's ethnic musical traditions. friends have spied images of the giant quintessential summer fruit. Watermelon In developing the series Carlin tried melon everywhere-from the Eastern (AFC B2) is available for $10 from the to represent as many different ethnic Market to the National Archives. While sales counter in the Jefferson and traditions, regions, and geographic areas the illustration on this page came to· Madison buildings or by mail order as possible. Other selection criteria in­ our attention after the fact , the 64-page from the Information Office, Box A, cluded sound quality, performance, and book is chock-full of duotone and color Library ofCongress, Washington, D.C. whether or not a particular item had reproductions of watermelon paintings, 20540. For single orders please include been published previously. etchings, posters, and a variety of mer­ an additional $1 postage and handling; Carlin is quick to point out that it is chandise sporting the appealing red and for multiple orders please include an ad­ not an academic series, although he did green motif. In addition, it offers ditional $2 . ask advice from many of the country's history, lore, a complete list of folk-music scholars while selecting the

14 FOLKLIFE CENTER NEWS material. The programs are mostly ethnomusicology, American studies, an­ FOLK RECORD music, but will also include some anec­ thropology library science, and related dotal material, information about the fields to develop professional skill in the LIST piece or the collection, and other in­ administration of a reference/research teresting tidbits. One program contains facility, and second, to assist the Archive an excerpt from David Brinkley's inter­ of Folk Culture by performing tasks that American Folk Music and Folklore Record­ view of former Archive head Duncan further its mission. ings 1984: A Selected List is now available. Emrich. Another presents a portion of The Archive of Folk Culture is the The list includes recordings of old-time John A. Lomax's own radio series on public reference facility for the Library's country music, shape-note singing, folk music from around 1940. American Folklife Center. Established in bluegrass, blues, Cajun, Cambodian, Beginning in October, "Our Musical 1928 within the Music Division, its af­ Native American, Norteiio, Norwegian, Heritage'' will be made available filiation was transferred after the Folklife through NPR's satellite service to some Center was created. Approximately 290 member stations across the country. 30,000 hours of field recordings, 150,000 For information regarding the schedul­ pages of manuscript, and thousands of AMERICAN FOLK MUSIC ing of broadcasts, contact your local photographs are now under Archive AND FOLKLORE NPR affiliated station. For further in­ control. Every region and every state of RECORDINGS 1984 formation regarding the content of the the United States is represented in this A SELECTED LIST programs, contact Bob Carlin, corpus. In addition to material from the WHYY-FM, 150 North 6th Street, United States, the Archive acquires and Philadelphia, Pa. 19106, tel. (215) maintains extensive collections of tradi­ 351-9200. tional music and lore from many other parts of the world. At present, at least twenty-five percent of the Archive's recordings were made abroad and ap­ proximately twenty percent of the material from the United States represents non-English-language traditions. Processing new recorded materials in­ to the collection is the core task around which the intern program will be struc­ tured. The steps in this activity provide an orderly and concrete introduction to the Archive's fundamental systems. Once these are well understood, the in­ tern will be able to work with the same systems in order to perform reference research for the Archive's patrons. and other musical traditions found Both administrators of graduate pro­ within the United States. Each entry has grams and interested graduate students been annotated by project coordinator PAID may get on the mailing list to receive in­ Michael Licht. INTERNSHIPS formation as it becomes available. Send The recordings listed exemplify your name and address to Gerald Par­ "root" traditions and provide extensive OFFERED BY sons, Reference Librarian, Archive of documentation through liner notes or ac­ Folk Culture, Library of Congress, companying booklets. The thirty records FOLK ARCHIVE Washington, D.C. 20540. and cassette tapes described in this il­ Note that the paid internship com­ lustrated booklet were chosen by plements, but does not replace, the panelists Thomas A. Adler from the Plans are afoot to create a paid intern­ volunteer intern program that the Archive University of Kentucky, Norm Cohen ship in the Archive of Folk Culture. The has operated for more than a decade. of theJohn Edwards Memorial Forum, duration of each internship will corre­ Many persons have found their ex­ David Evans from Memphis State spond loosely to the spring, summer, perience in these informal internships of University, William Ivey of the Coun­ and fall academic terms-beginning and great help in planning a career or fur­ try Music Foundation, and Ethel Raim ending dates will be flexible as long as thering their education. Students often of the Ethnic Folk Art Center from they fall within a single 120-day period. arrange with their own institutions to ob­ among nearly 200 recordings released in Initially, only one internship will be of­ tain scholastic credit for volunteer in­ 1984. Free copies of the list may be ob­ fered each term.. The purpose of the in­ ternships. A flyer describing th~ tained by writing Annual Recordings ternship program is twofold: first, to en­ volunteer intern program in greater List, American Folklife Center, Library courage graduate students in folklore, detail is available from the Archive. of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540.

JULY-SEPTEMBER 15 Joana Del Rio (L) and Estefania performing on the Neptune Plaza during an outdoor concert on September 19 that featured renowned flamenco dancer Ana Martinez. The Center presented the concert in conjunction with the Library's celebration of National Hispanic Heritage Week. (Photo by Reid Baker - 85-280119)

Front cover: Herb "Snapper" Misner of Medford, New Jersey (L) and Ray Drayton of Vincentown with the day's catch. (Photo by Dennis McDonald - PFP84-B235200-2/22A)

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