see “final DT cover“ for cover design This guide accompanies the four-part instructional television series Dancing Threads: Community Dances from Africa to Zuni, a production of KET, The Kentucky Network.

Teacher’s Guide Writers: Anndrena Belcher Nancy Carpenter Arden Kucate Paula Larke Margaret Norman

Production Photography: Dave Crawford

Our thanks to Susan Booker of the Lexington Public Library, Lexington, KY, and Dr. Charles Joyner of Coastal Carolina University, Conway, SC, for their help with information on resource materials.

© Copyright 1995 KET Foundation, Inc. 600 Cooper Drive Lexington, KY 40502-2296 (800) 354-9067

ISBN 1-881020-22-3

The Kentucky Network

2 Dancing Threads: Community Dances from Africa to Zuni Program 3: Weevily Wheat Context ...... 20 Table of Bonnie Prince Charlie Over the River To Feed My Sheep Contents Before the Program ...... 22 Weevily Wheat Instructions ...... 23 After the Program...... 24 Finding Out More Talking About It Introduction ...... 4 Showing What They’ve Learned About the Series ...... 5 How To Use This Series ...... 6 Program 4: Zuni Harvest Dances Where To Use This Series ...... 7 Context ...... 25 Program 1: Goin’ to Boston The Zuni People Harvest Dances in Zuni Culture Context ...... 8 Before the Program ...... 26 What Is a Play Party? For Multicultural Understanding Before the Program ...... 10 Preparing for the Dance Dances Today and Yesterday Zuni Harvest Dances Instructions ...... 27 British Isles Immigrations and After the Program...... 28 Settlement in the New World Finding Out More Goin’ to Boston Instructions ...... 11 Talking About It After the Program...... 12 Showing What They’ve Learned Finding Out More Talking About It Pulling It All Together ...... 30 Showing What They’ve Learned Opportunity for Teachers ...... 13 Connecting the Lessons to Students’ Lives Program 2: Little Johnny Brown Creating Your Own Dances For Teachers and Older Students Context ...... 14 Chain of Transference Some Resources You Might Find The Story of Little Johnny Brown Helpful ...... 32 Images in the Song Before the Program ...... 15 African Settlement in America About the Presenters Games People Play Anndrena Belcher ...... 33 Making the Blanket Arden Kucate ...... 36 Little Johnny Brown Instructions ...... 16 Paula Larke ...... 37 After the Program...... 17 Finding Out More Talking About It Showing What They’ve Learned About Ring Plays ...... 18

Teacher’s Guide 3 The fun thing about living today is that we can view the past and the cultural teachings of the ancients and carry those Introduction teachings forward to the benefit of ourselves and our world. Urban lifestyles may not hold as many opportunities for rural-based community dances, but these dances can be enjoyed in urban as well as rural settings. If young people do not have their own com- By Anndrena Belcher munity-supported dances and gatherings, that’s all the more reason to introduce the dances in the classroom. Students can then Jean Ritchie, Paula Larke, Arden Kucate, take them out into the community and and I all come from cultures rooted in the make a place and a way for them to flourish necessity of a reciprocal relationship with in their particular home environments. the land and the air and the waters. Our The dances and play parties included in people have worked the small farms of New Dancing Threads come out of the rural Mexico, Alabama, and Kentucky. Each of us cultures of the Southern African-Americans, comes from a culture rich in the arts; for the ancient Zuni Indians of New Mexico, and stories, songs, dances, games, and the the Appalachian mountain folks of Eastern making/crafting of tools, clothes, Kentucky. The series is designed to provide a housewares, and personal ornaments were, connecting thread to each specific culture and still are, a part of everyday life. through the dancing and oral history of the The Zuni tribes of Arden’s New Mexico dance leader, while connecting each culture homelands were threatened with extinction, to the others through the common threads both by the Spaniards and by the white man. of dance and rural-based economic histories. Old-time Appalachian mountain farmers Each dance can be integrated into units on struggled to survive and raise their families the history, culture, economics, art, cos- on what they could grow and gather from tume, oral literature, music, architecture, the rugged and hauntingly beautiful land geography, and politics of yesterday and they lived on. Nor was life easy for the today. African-American rural folks of Paula’s The main thing is: Have fun dancing Alabama childhood community. She didn’t and see what you feel by participating in one learn all the old games and stories from the of the most powerful forms of the demo- old people who tended to her, but what she cratic process in the land! did learn was their “way,” their “essence,” as she calls it. It is the “way” of each of the ancient cultures represented in Dancing Threads that gets passed on through the stories, songs, games, riddles, sayings, and commu- nity dances. And it is the “way” of these old cultures that very well may help us see our way into human understanding and mutual cultural and generational respect. As Little Tree’s grandmother in Forrest Carter’s book The Education of Little Tree advises, “If it is a good thing, pass it on!”

4 Dancing Threads: Community Dances from Africa to Zuni In each program, students in the television studio follow step-by-step instruc- About the tions and then participate in each game or dance as a group. This segment is followed Series by a short interview with the artist about the historical and cultural contexts out of which the dance sprang. The game “Weevily Wheat,” for example, refers to an individual by the name of Charlie, a reference to Dancing Threads is a series of four half- Britain’s “Bonnie Prince Charlie” of the hour programs featuring outstanding 1700s. performers—African-American, Native Anndrena Belcher hosts two of the American, and Appalachian—teaching programs, teaching traditional Appalachian traditional dances and games, some centu- games brought from the British Isles by ries old. early settlers. A noted storyteller, Anndrena The activities are all “community is featured prominently in the popular KET dances,” involving patterns of singing, series Telling Tales. African-American dancing, poetry, mimicry, and play acting, musician and storyteller Paula Larke and used in olden days to teach social customs to Zuni dancer/storyteller Arden Kucate a whole community. Some are courting complete the talent for this series. dances; some are for play after coming Because the series was created for together to work; some are used to celebrate students of all ages, this teacher’s guide seasonal accomplishments such as the offers a broad range of suggestions for harvest. People of all ages have enjoyed them activities to expand on what students have and passed them on for generations. learned from the tapes. Please adapt the Dancing Threads gives young people a discussion questions and activities to an multicultural and historical perspective, appropriate level for your students. encouraging them to value their own and other cultural traditions. The programs also show students that they don’t need expen- sive things to have fun. As host Anndrena Belcher says, “You’ve got rhythm in your fingers and your hand claps; you can jump; you can make motion; you can create it all. And because the dances and games are old, it’s another way of recycling what we’ve had that worked.”

Teacher’s Guide 5 perform the dance, you can play each part as many times as necessary until they are How To Use comfortable with it. Students will enjoy and appreciate the dance much more if they have This Series practiced enough to feel comfortable with the motions. Then dance the entire dance. If you are working with students older than those featured in the programs, you may want to use the instructional portion to While an instructor on tape can never teach yourself the dances and then teach offer the warmth of a real live visitor in your them, without the video, to your students. classroom, this electronic resource does The final segment, the 10-minute have its advantages: Through the magic of interview, can be used at any time and with videotape, you can introduce your students all ages to give students insights into the to these top-notch experts as your schedule cultures and traditions featured in the series. permits. With your VCR, you can start, stop, The Dancing Threads programs are rewind, and review the tapes as often as you closed-captioned. If you have a decoder, you like. can use it to show the song lyrics on screen. We recommend watching each half- Finally, don’t be too demanding of your hour program all the way through the first students. You’ll notice that Anndrena, Paula, time. You may wish to reset your counter to and Arden all approach the dances with a “0” when you begin and make note of any relaxed attitude and enthusiasm for the segments you expect to review. students’ participation. As Anndrena says, You may want to begin your instruction “Have fun!” by showing your students the entire set of instructions and the final student perfor- mance of the complete dance in one sitting (about 20 minutes) so they will know how the complete dance will look. When you are ready to have students

6 Dancing Threads: Community Dances from Africa to Zuni Dance and Physical Education Ears, feet, hands, and eyes all work Where To Use synchronistically in the making of the music and the dance. Right- and left-brain activi- This Series ties are integrated with clapping of hands, turning, reversing direction, switching hands, and passing partners and opposites right shoulder/left shoulder. Harmonic use of space and respect for the individual player Social Studies in each set builds self-esteem with group Every human being has a story which is support. These dances build community and connected to every other human being in cultural identity as well. the making of history. Each community dance is tied to a whole cultural history. Visual Arts Each culture is tied to an ancient land-based Moving in lines and circles and turn- economy. The links to geography are arounds all require visual imaging, which obvious in the specific cultures represented can be used to express visual representations in the series; a map charting various migra- of design and story. tions and geographic changes as a result of conquering or being conquered would be Drama challenging. Singing/dancing games require suspen- Language Arts sion of disbelief as each person enters the traditional community dance arena as a Archaic forms of the English language player enacting harvest, courtship, or other and the ancient language of the Zuni/Shiwi life and ritual dramas. Each dancer/player are represented in the singing and dancing provides rhythm, music, and character. as they are integrated in the Dancing Threads games. We find linkages to the poetic and beautiful worlds of long ago and the cultures of today in the music’s syntax— so different from mainstream standardized English.

Teacher’s Guide 7 Frontier community gatherings often PROGRAM 1 focused on play parties as an occasion for people of all ages to come together and have Goin’ to fun. With limited access to musical instru- ments and special equipment, early settlers Boston found play parties a rich source of entertain- ment in their sparse surroundings. The Handy Play Party Book goes on to say: featuring: “Pioneer life was often difficult and full Anndrena Belcher, host and instructor of challenges. Sometimes there was a Jean Ritchie, guest scarcity of food. Often there was isolation and loneliness. Light-hearted fellowship and recreation was a much-needed tonic, yet religion frequently stood in the way. Quak- “The play party games took place largely ers, Disciples, Methodists, Baptists, or around harvest time, around the work, you Presbyterians might differ as to creed, but know—planting time, harvest time, corn- they were united in their belief that dance hoeing time. And, on weekends, it was the was a wicked sport and the fiddle an instru- reward for working all during the week. ment of the devil. The singing games of the Some family would let the children all come young people, however, seemed innocent in and play games. You had to call it ‘playing enough, being time-honored and unsophis- games’ because you didn’t call it dancing ticated. So it came that these charming since dancing was sinful. My mother said dances, carefully referred to as ‘play parties,’ she always had to say to her mother not, ‘I’m brightened life on the American frontier.” going to run sets’ or ‘I’m going to a dance.’ For a time, the Appalachian Mountains She always had to say, ‘I’m going to the served as the frontier. Some new settlers plays.’ And so it got to be called a ‘play learned from the native tribes along the party.’” routes of migration. Others, eager to make —Jean Ritchie way in the “New World” for their own settlement, took on the role of Indian fighter, and, as Leonard Roberts tells us in Context the introduction to his book of tales called

What Is a Play Party? The Handy Play Party Book, published by World Around Songs, Inc., gives this definition of a play party: “The play party is one of America’s most important contributions to the world of folk dances and folk games. It is rooted in the customs of the old countries from which the early settlers came. Defined simply, a play party is a kind of country dance done to a singing accompaniment. The songs and figures of our early play parties hearken back to Scottish, English, Irish, and German folk traditions.”

8 Dancing Threads: Community Dances from Africa to Zuni Greasybeard: Tales From the Cumberland go out and play on the school yard and in Gap, this natural pass between the moun- the twilight around the houses, around tains became “one of the important passes in homes. The younguns would get together western civilization.” and play the children’s games just anytime. As he writes about the settlement of But when you got up to courtin’ age, the eastern Kentucky, Roberts recounts the places we played play party games were at migration routes of the pioneers: pie suppers and in homes on weekends, at “The American Revolution over, our parties.” people poured across the Northwest Terri- Jean’s family lived on what she calls a tory. To the south they skirted the southern “semi-subsistence farm,” and the play parties tip of Appalachia and settled in the Cotton served as a great reward for working hard all Belt. From the middle reservoirs of popula- week. tion in southern Pennsylvania and Piedmont According to Jean, the play party games Virginia and North Carolina the pioneers took place “largely around harvest time, threaded their way into the Shenandoah around the work, you know—planting time, Valley and converged on the Cumberland corn-hoeing time.” The adults knew the Gap by way of Boone’s Wilderness Trail. This young folks had to have a way to get to- movement began in 1775. By 1780 a thou- gether and have some wholesome fun, and sand were able to hold the Great Meadow the courting couples needed a time and against constant Indian siege. In the same place to get to see each other. The play year 800 Kentucky and Tennessee frontiers- parties allowed both as well as supervision by men marched off to King’s Mountain to the older folks. When Jean asked her mother defeat the British. The 1790 census listed how they let the young folks get away with nearly 75,000 people in the region, enough playing those kissing games and those to make it the fifteenth state in 1792. Almost dances, her mother replied, “Well, young 4,000 Kentuckians fought with Mad An- people gotta have fun. If you don’t let ’em thony Wayne at the Battle of Fallen Timbers have fun, they’ll do something worse.” in 1794. Here they finally defeated the The churches disapproved of dancing northern Indians who barred the way to the and of the fiddle, but the play parties didn’t Midwest.” seem so worldly. “Some family would let the Do you wonder what games and songs children all come in and play games. And and dances the Indian children were playing you had to call it games because dancing and singing and dancing at this time? The was sinful,” Jean explains. It was called Boston Tea Party was a fairly recent event. “going to the plays,” and so it got to be Did the new settlers’ children sing about called a “play party”—a party where people “goin’ to Boston” referring to Boston, played. Massachusetts or Boston, England? Did they The play parties included the older folks, play the singing game around the campfires the young ones, and the little bitty ones, too, at night? she says. “You start goin’ when you’re a baby Jean Ritchie of Viper, Kentucky is a and you watch until you’re big enough to legendary singer, songwriter, storyteller, and toddle and big enough to get out there and dancer; her family is well known for its try to join in…. I’ve seen, even today, people music. Jean shared some of the background do that. They carry a little youngun with ’em of “play parties,” having learned them as part when they’re dancin’ so it feels like it’s of everyday living in Knott County, Ken- joinin’ in.” tucky. Where did these parties come from? “Children played games on the school “From the countries that the people came ground,” she says. “The singing games got from,” says Jean. “England, Scotland, started when you were a little child going to Ireland, Wales … [and] some of them were school and at recess and dinner time—you’d made up after they got here.”

Teacher’s Guide 9 Program 1 (continued)

The play parties, along with other Has the role of dancing in everyday life games, stories, and ballads, served to changed from parent to student? chronicle and reenact or “play out” the Compare the kind of clothing worn for happenings of the times. Community dancing today to the kind worn in their characters and dialogue, propriety and parents’ dancing “youth.” What is the courtship rituals—all get interwoven in role of dancing in courtship today (with the dancing and mimicking and pretend students)? What was its role during their ceremonies of a culture based on self- parents’ generation? What are commu- sufficiency in terms of relationship with nity dances like today? How do they the natural environment. These early white compare to community dances when settlers farmed, gathered food, and made their parents were growing up? their own clothes, tools, houses, warmth, music, literature, education, and dance. 3. Have students go back another genera- Listen to the words and know that the tion and conduct an oral history inter- actions represent people and doings of the view with their grandparents and great- time. The games represent a cultural grandparents (if possible), or with an viewpoint at a point in time. The play party older member of the community. represents an important community gather- ing activity—a thread in the weave of Questions they could ask during the identity. interview: • What dances did people of this generation do? Before the Program • Where did people dance? • What kind of music did people dance to? Dances Today and Yesterday • What role did dancing play in 1. Have students bring in tapes or CDs of community celebrations? their favorite dance music. Ask each • Were special clothes worn for these student to play a favorite cut on the dances? recording and move to the music. Have students note which movements develop British Isles Immigrations and with various music pieces. Settlement in the New World 1. Have students find Boston, Massachu- How would this music be classified? setts on a map of the United States. Now How do people move to this music? find Boston, England on a map of the What is the ideal environment for British Isles. Trace immigration routes dancing to it? What role does dancing from the British Isles to the New World. play in the everyday lives of people today? How would you define “dancing”? 2. Ask students if they’ve ever wondered what the early settlers did for entertain- 2. Ask students to bring in tapes, CDs, or ment. Ask them to employ their re- records of music their parents listened search skills to find out what songs, to when they were the same age as your games, and dances the British settlers students are today. brought with them to this continent. What songs, games, and dances were in What are the differences and similarities existence among the Native Americans between this music and the music the here at the time? students chose for themselves? What about the environments in which the two sets of music are/were danced to?

10 Dancing Threads: Community Dances from Africa to Zuni 3. Have students trace their own ancestry 4. Discuss migrations of settlers from and find which countries their people colonial America into the Appalachian came from. When did they arrive in the Mountains. Can students find out about New World? Do students know their the beliefs and attitudes toward dancing own families’ personal connections with of early white settlers? the American Revolution?

Goin’ to Boston Instructions (See the video for a demonstration.)

Lyrics Movements Start with couples set in two lines facing each other, ladies on one side and gents on the other. The couple at the top of the line is the head couple.

Good-bye girls, we’re goin’ to Boston Circle left all around to home. All join Good-bye girls, we’re goin’ to Boston hands; line becomes a circle and circles once Good-bye girls, we’re goin’ to Boston around to home. Return to lines. Earli in the mornin’

Saddle up girls, and let’s go with ’em Promenade right, all the way around to Saddle up girls, and let’s go with ’em home. Each gent takes his partner’s right Saddle up girls, and let’s go with ’em hand in his right hand and her left in his left Earli in the mornin’ and travels in a circle counterclockwise, returning home and falling back into the initial lines.

Get out of the way, or you’ll get run over Head couple sashays down to the bottom Get out of the way, or you’ll get run over of the set and back. Head couple joins both Get out of the way, or you’ll get run over hands straight across and sashays down to the Earli in the mornin’ bottom of the set and back to the top, between the two lines. Folks on sidelines clap and sing.

Rights and lefts will make it better Grand right and left to opposite line. Head Rights and lefts will make it better couple faces each other. The ladies’ line will Rights and lefts will make it better follow the head lady; the gents’ line will follow Earli in the mornin’ the head gent. Head couple joins right hands in a handshake position, passing each other by right shoulders; then they extend their left Hand your hands just a little bit faster hands to the next lady or gent in the opposite Hand your hands just a little bit faster lines. This continues, passing right hand, then Hand your hands just a little bit faster left, until they weave the whole line and come Earli in the mornin’ home to their original positions and fall back into their lines.

(continued on next page)

Teacher’s Guide 11 Program 1 (continued)

Chorus: Arm right and left (the reel). Head couple Won’t we look pretty in the ballroom? swings each other by their right arms one and Won’t we look pretty in the ballroom? a half turns, then turns loose and gives left Won’t we look pretty in the ballroom? arms, or elbows, to the next lady or gent in the Earli in the mornin’ opposite line and swings. Head couple meets in the center of the set to swing each other one half turn, then out to next lady or gent. Continue alternating swinging opposite line and partner in center one half turn until head couple is at bottom of set. In one variation, head couple stays at the bottom of the set and a new head couple is now at the top of the set. In the video, Anndrena adds on another verse and set of steps, as follows.

Optional addition (demonstrated in the Sashay to the top of the set and cast lines. video): Head couple, now at the bottom of the set, Johnny, Johnny, gonna tell your pappy joins both hands straight across and sashays Johnny, Johnny, gonna tell your pappy up to the top of the set. They release hands Johnny, Johnny, gonna tell your pappy and turn out. The lady leads her line down to Earli in the mornin’ the bottom of the set, and the gent does the same with his. When the head couple arrives at the bottom of the set, they join their hands above their heads in a V shape to make a bridge. Ladies and gents behind the head couple join hands as in the promenade and travel under the bridge to re-form their lines. The head couple stays at the bottom of the set and a new head couple is at the top.

Continue dance until each couple has had an opportunity to be the head couple.

wound up settling in the Appalachians After the Program after the Indian wars? What Indian tribes live(d) in the part of the country Finding Out More where your students live? 1. Research the economic conditions in the early 1900s, when Jean Ritchie’s Talking About It parents were raising their children. How 1. In the interview, Jean says play parties do students view economic conditions were organized to celebrate work today? How do economic conditions completed. What do people do today as a influence dance, music, art, recreation, reward or celebration for working hard? and community celebrations?

2. How is “Goin’ to Boston” different from 2. How did the mountain people of Eastern the games young people play today? Kentucky preserve some of the tradi- How is it similar? How does the com- tional dances and songs from the British munity today involve young people in Isles? What other nationalities of people traditions and celebrations?

12 Dancing Threads: Community Dances from Africa to Zuni 3. Ask students to think about the contem- 4. Let students dance to these three porary dances they shared before generations of music. Invite parents and learning “Goin’ to Boston.” Are any grandparents into the classroom to talk movements in the “Goin’ to Boston” about dancing as they knew it when they play party carried over into dances of were growing up. Can they show today? What are they? What happens photographs of dances? Perhaps one of when you dance all the movements from them would volunteer to teach students this play party? Instead of singing “Goin’ a dance from their generation. to Boston,” perform the dance steps to different kinds of music. How does the 5. Have students produce a performance “feel” of the dance change? piece dedicated to the history of dance as they have learned about a part of this Showing What history from their parents and grand- parents. Include information about They’ve Learned today’s dancing and music. Perform the piece with music to start. Then talk 1. Have students teach the dancing game about whether it could be performed or play party to another group of without accompaniment other than students. singing and hand clapping. Try it! Does the performance change in tone if it is 2. Have students draw or paint a visual performed outdoors with no lighting representation of the key images or other than natural light? designs of this dance. To prompt re- sponses, take a movement from the dance—casting the line, for ex- ample—and ask students to think about Opportunity for how they might represent this move- Teachers ment graphically (as a design). East Tennessee State University in What would happen if this design were Johnson City, TN has a great deal of archival used for clothing? For jewelry? Could material dealing with the British Isles-to- you make a mask or other ceremonial Appalachia connection, including an ex- trapping incorporating this design? Why change program each summer which brings was this particular design important to Scottish studies to Appalachia and takes you? What does it say to you or about Appalachian studies to Scotland. This you? program is accredited. Universities in your area may sponsor similar programs. 3. Have students draw or paint a three-part picture representing images of dancing from their lives today, from the lives of their parents’ generation, and from the lives of their grand- or great-grandpar- ents’ generation.

Teacher’s Guide 13 “I noticed at once how the young PROGRAM 2 African-American and Native American males took to the old-fashioned ‘courting’ that makes the game so inviting to even Little Johnny older youth,” Paula says. “When I asked Guy where he’d learned it, he told me that Janie Brown Hunter of Johns Island, one of the Sea Islands off the coast of South Carolina, had shown it to him. In later conversation I featuring: learned that Mrs. Hunter had learned it from Anndrena Belcher, host Bessie Jones of St. Helena, farther down the Paula Larke, instructor South Carolina coast. “It turns out that Mrs. Jones had visited Johns Island as part of an extended residency with the Penn Center Heritage Program and Generations of black Americans trans- shown the game to senior citizens and planted from Africa have enjoyed playing children. She spent enough time with the “Little Johnny Brown” as a courtship dance, folks on that island to discover a difference as a vehicle for teaching values, and as a between the rhythms and styles of her folks, source of lively fun. Participants with even from St. Helena, and those of the Johns the slightest theatrical bent enjoy the fun of Island folks. The rhythms of the two com- improvising when asked to “show off y’ munities were different enough that Mrs. motion.” All dancers enjoy the freedom of Jones and Mrs. Hunter had trouble singing expression in an atmosphere of group together. Amazing! Such a little bit of water support. separating the two communities and such a large difference between their rhythms. Shadows of the days of relocation and Context readjustment! Can you imagine how difficult it was to communicate from language to Chain of Transference language when you’d been torn from your Paula Larke first saw “Little Johnny families and anyone who spoke your lan- Brown” played at the Highlander Center for guage? Research and Education in Knoxville, TN. “Anyway, from the specific rhythms of Folklorist Guy Carawan was showing it to a the Johns Island traditions to this urban group of young leaders-in-training at the version with electric bass and contemporary annual Summer Youth Workshop. tonality, ‘Johnny Brown’ still delivers a sackful of messages to be carefully and honestly weighed,” says Paula. “I had fun playing it and watching its beautiful kaleido- scope of flirtations.”

The Story of Little Johnny Brown This story of Little Johnny Brown was popular among African-Americans living on the islands off the coast of South Carolina and Georgia: Though small in stature, Little Johnny Brown felt big and important because he was so good at picking cotton. He was mighty

14 Dancing Threads: Community Dances from Africa to Zuni proud to lift his heavy bags onto the scale so Before the Program everyone could see how much he’d picked. And he was mighty angry when the boss told African Settlement in America him his bag weighed only 20 pounds when Johnny knew it weighed 30, or 40 pounds Have students study the Slave Trade when Johnny knew it weighed 50. Triangle: Goods were taken by boat from Determined to get back at the boss, Europe to West Africa. After the goods were Johnny began tossing bricks and stones and sold, European traders filled the empty boats dead animals and whatever else he found with slaves they bought to take to the into the sack with the cotton. If the boss Americas. They sold the slaves along the east cheated Johnny, Johnny would cheat the coasts of North and South America (where boss in return. local native populations had been devastated When Johnny’s mother got wind of the by diseases from Europeans). The traders scheme, she told him to lay his blanket then filled their boats with American goods down on the ground and pour out the to take back to Europe for sale. Have stu- contents of his cotton sack so she could have dents draw a map of the triangle and write a a look. She was not pleased. She explained to brief description of its significance. him that while the man might cheat Johnny out of his money, no one could cheat Johnny Games People Play out of his soul. If he maintained his own 1. Ask students to list their favorite games sense of values, he would grow up to be an of today. Why do they like these games? honest man—and a better man than the Is there a winner? A loser? A team? Is boss who stole. there support from a group? Is there a hero? Describe a winner. What do these Images in the Song games teach individuals about how to be To “lay your blanket down” doesn’t just human to one another? Who teaches refer to the story of Little Johnny Brown. It games of today? What role do these also means to show your true self to your people have in teaching children about partner. community? “Lope like a buzzard” gives the dancers a chance to cut loose and have a little fun. At 2. Ask students to interview older family the same time, it gives the lead dancer a members about games they played as chance to see whether his partner will go children. Where did the family members along and imitate his actions for the fun of grow up? Who influenced their games? it, or look down her nose and give it only Their stories? Their music? Their work? half a try. The image of loping like a buzzard also 3. Have students teach a game their refers to a tradition dating back to the days parents or grandparents handed down. If of slavery. Sometimes a slave would die in there are no parents or grandparents to the field and get dragged off to the side so as share games, have students interview an not to slow down the work. At the end of the older person in the community (at the day, the other slaves would find their friend community center or senior citizens’ and perform a dance with the motions of a center or a nursing home). Ask the buzzard, escorting their friend’s spirit as it person to tell about games from the soared up to heaven. past—singing games, work games, and others. Compare the old games to games of today.

Teacher’s Guide 15 Program 2 (continued)

Making the Blanket block printing, etc. Have students learn about indigo, which was grown on the Sea Working with your school art teacher or Islands and along the coastal mainland (and a local artist, have students design and was the original dye for blue jeans!). Stu- create blankets to use in the dance. Possible dents may wish to color their blankets using methods include tie dyeing, simple weaving, indigo-colored dye.

Little Johnny Brown Instructions (See the video for a demonstration.)

Materials: You will need four squares of (squares of cloth). These four “Johnnys” cloth, large enough to see from around the begin the dance. They will choose partners room (approximately two feet square). from the large circle of friends surrounding them. Participants: Start with four individuals The following directions for one circle of in search of excellence. They are also looking four dancers can easily be multiplied. Just be for good partners with whom to share their sure to leave enough people in the sur- work and play. rounding circle to provide partners for all The game begins with four players in a the original “Johnnys.” circle/square, holding up their “blankets”

Lyrics Movements Little Johnny Brown Players pick up the squares. Lay your blanket down Players lay squares down. Little Johnny Brown Players pick up the squares. Lay your blanket down Players lay squares down. Now y’ fold one corner, Johnny Brown Each player folds one corner of his/her cloth into the center of the fabric. Now y’ fold another corner, Johnny Brown Each player folds next corner. Now y’ fold another corner, Johnny Brown Each player folds third corner. Now y’ fold another corner, Johnny Brown Each player folds fourth corner. Now y’ go pick y’ partner, Johnny Brown Each player takes cloth and gives it to a Now y’ go pick y’ partner, Johnny Brown chosen partner in audience. Partner follows Now y’ go pick y’ partner, Johnny Brown dancer back to circle with cloth. There will be Now y’ go pick y’ partner, Johnny Brown eight dancers in each circle. Now y’ lope like a buzzard, Johnny Brown All eight dance around in a circle flapping Now y’ lope like a buzzard, Johnny Brown their arms like buzzards, loping toward Now y’ lope like a buzzard, Johnny Brown imaginary prey. Now y’ lope like a buzzard, Johnny Brown Now y’ show off y’ motion, Johnny Brown Each “Johnny” creates a move his/her Now y’ show off y’ motion, Johnny Brown partner must imitate. Now y’ show off y’ motion, Johnny Brown Now y’ show off y’ motion, Johnny Brown “Johnny” hands the blanket to his/her partner.

16 Dancing Threads: Community Dances from Africa to Zuni Lyrics (continued) Movements (continued)

Now y’ go join the circle, Johnny Brown Original four dancers return to the large Now y’ go join the circle, Johnny Brown circle, and the four new “Johnnys” start from Now y’ go join the circle, Johnny Brown the beginning of the song. When it’s time to Now y’ go join the circle, Johnny Brown “go pick y’ partner,” the four will choose new dance partners. So the dance continues.

After the Program

Finding Out More 3. Have students study buzzards and other scavengers of the land, sea, and air who 1. Talk about the secret ways African- clean up the planet. What would our American people had to live and educate world be like if there were no animals to themselves in the early days of our perform this noble service? country. Why did they teach their children double talk, riddles, jive, 4. You and your students learned “Little hambone, and folk songs? How many Johnny Brown” from Paula Larke, who had double meanings—one level of learned it from a man in Tennessee, who understanding for whites around them learned it from a woman on Johns and another for family and friends? Island, SC, who learned it from a woman down the coast in St. Helena, SC. That What are some words, games, talk, process is called a “chain of transfer- gestures, or phrases of today that help ence.” people in a group (ethnic, racial, age group, gang) communicate with one Ask students to ask their parents, other another without others knowing exactly relatives, or friends (even church or what’s going on? scout leaders or babysitters) where they learned traditional songs, dances, 2. Listen to some of your students’ favorite stories, and games. Have students see music of today. Are there carry-overs how far back they can trace the passing from or parallels to the rhythms or along of these treasures. movements in “Little Johnny Brown”? What is the difference between rural and Ask students to list all of the traditional urban lifestyles of young blacks today? songs, dances, games, etc. they can What about African-American people remember learning as children. Can who lived in the cities and on farms one they remember how old they were when or two generations ago? Discuss. they learned them? Will they teach them to their own children or children for Draw images of rural life for African whom they might babysit? Americans before 1940. What role did World War II play in changing life for Talking About It African Americans? Study the civil rights movement. Have students make 1. Some say, “Honesty is its own reward.” visual representations of their families’ Ask the students how they feel about lives at the time of the civil rights honesty. Would they rather have an movement, whatever their race. honest friend or one who hates conflict and covers up his/her failings?

Teacher’s Guide 17 Program 2 (continued)

2. Paula says Johnny brags so much that 2. Paula advises students to pay attention nobody pays attention to him anymore. to the way their partners fold the Ask students how they feel about blankets. Is he or she neat and particular bragging. Why do people brag? Is it or sloppy? She also suggests that more important to impress other people students notice how their partners or to feel confident within yourself? respond when asked to “show off y’ motion.” Are they willing to go along for 3. Paula explains that dancing in a circle the fun of it, or are they stuffy and signifies “a unity of forces—a gathering reserved? What do these signals tell of forces.” Ask students to think of other students about the way their partners images represented by a circle (e.g., a might be as friends or sweethearts? wedding ring, the circle of life, the Olympic symbol of five rings). Some women say, “I like a man who’s rough with me.” How do the students Wise Ol’ Bird Lesson #1: Don’t repay feel about that perspective? Some men dishonesty with dishonesty. You’ll blow your want to put their women on a pedestal. reputation. What about that perspective?

Wise Ol’ Bird Lesson #2: Choose your Ask students to list qualities they hope friends, sweethearts, business partners, etc. to find in a mate. Post a list of all the carefully. Don’t base your loyalty on their qualities suggested and talk about each good looks, fun, personalities, fine clothes, one. Have each student decide which or car. Choose them on the basis of their quality is most important and write that goodness—and pay them with the same word in large fancy letters on construc- respect. tion paper or poster board, then cut it out. Paste the words on a large poster Showing What They’ve Learned board in the room. 1. Ask students some things that can happen to those who try to “get even” with the system. Have them interview About Ring Plays their parents or grandparents, asking them to share any personal stories about By Anndrena Belcher injustice. Encourage students to write a Teachers interested in learning more story about injustice, changing the about ring plays will enjoy reading Step It names and any other details if necessary, Down: Games, Plays, Songs and Stories so other students won’t know the real from the Afro-American Heritage by Bessie people involved in the story. Jones and Bess Lomax Hawes, which includes “Little Johnny Brown” and many These stories could form the basis of a other games. Bessie Jones taught the discussion about such issues as singing games, plays, and stories of the • positive ways of dealing with Georgia Sea Islanders until her death in injustice, 1984. Doug and Frank Quimby, who are kin • revenge and “getting even,” and to her, still travel the world, teaching the • people who have dealt with injustice traditions of the Sea Islanders. in an inspirational way. Hawes, knowing that her own white perspectives were different from Jones’ black Have the students come up with slogans perspectives, gives great insights into why against injustice, then create posters white people found it hard to understand the dealing with injustice. concept of “play.” She tells about the impor-

18 Dancing Threads: Community Dances from Africa to Zuni tance of the democratic elements of games “Little Sallie Walker,” “Ring Around the and songs and how they differ from white Rosy,” and “London Bridge” require “play games and play, which usually involve like,” as do “Old Bad Wolf” and “Rotten competition instead of cooperation. Eggs,” which require the learning of very In her introduction, Hawes writes: specific dialogue. These would definitely be “Folklorists have often reported the considered dramas. Negro use of the noun ‘play,’ where a non- We use the term ring play to describe a Negro might say ‘game.’ [This is the same in group, standing in a circle, playing, singing, Appalachian culture, where Jean says ‘go to and musically supporting a single character the plays.’] This had never seemed especially who acts out his own brief drama on center significant to me; I assumed the terms were stage before choosing another to take his interchangeable.… Checking back through place. my taped interviews, I discovered that Mrs. Hawes and Jones recall, “The notion of a Jones did, indeed, use the nouns ‘play,’ ring has always had a quality of magic: ‘game,’ and ‘dance’ to refer to different items during play it is, literally, a ‘charmed circle.’ in her repertoire and in a logical and defin- It includes and excludes at the same time. It able way.” surrounds and enfolds while it walls off and Hawes uses the term dance to describe repels.” Having neither beginning nor end, a abstract, or “non-mimetic,” movement ring has no leader, no head couple, no patterns. Game refers to movements winners and losers. involving “conditional sequence of actions.” Says Hawes, “The Islanders found it She gives the example of “Bob a Needle,” in almost incomprehensible that I wanted an which players who pass the needle along explanation of the ring plays before I would successfully pay no forfeit, but players who try them myself. ‘Come on, it’s just a little get caught with the needle do. She uses the play!’ they would urge. The power of the term play in two ways, referring to activities ring, for them, was unbroken. They knew performed both for fun and for drama. that the surrounding group would support When the Sea Islanders “played,” she the shy or the awkward just as strongly as it says, “they were constructing over and over would the bold or the graceful…. [F]or again small life dramas; they were improvis- them, the ring play seemed to be the ulti- ing on the central issues of their deepest mate opportunity for personal reassurance, concerns: They were taking on new person- for feeling the warmth and support of a alities for identification or character; they tight-locked and indestructible circle within were acting.” which they could act out all their feelings This same definition of play, I think, without any fear of rejection or shame.” applies to the yard games, the games that we in the mountains called “play like,” and to the dancing and singing games. There was an aspect of acting when a person took on a courting posture, made gestures, or was called upon to go into the center of the ring, make up a gesture or a character, mimic, or even, in one of the old dances, dance with the broom as a partner.

Teacher’s Guide 19 from the English throne in the mid-1600s PROGRAM 3 (about the time the Pilgrims hopped on boats to get out of England) and moved, with most of his family, to France. His Weevily Wheat daughter, Mary, and her husband, William of (also called “Over the River, Charlie”) Orange, took over the throne. William and Mary College in Virginia is named for them. King James had a son, also named James, who tried unsuccessfully to reclaim featuring: the English and Scottish throne. He came to Anndrena Belcher, host and instructor be known as “the Old Pretender,” from the Jean Ritchie, guest French word pretendant, which refers to one who claims something. In 1720, James had a son, named Charles, who came to be known as “the Young Pretender”—and as “Bonnie This Appalachian dance with two Prince Charlie.” themes is known by several names. It’s In a letter describing the young prince, called “Weevily Wheat” because it speaks of his cousin wrote, “He could, at the age of six taking wheat to the miller to be ground into and a half, read fluently … ride, fire a gun, flour, alluding to a fear that the wheat might and … take a cross bow and split a rolling be infested with the beetles known as ball ten times in succession.” He spoke weevils. The song is also known as “Over the French, English, and Italian perfectly and River, Charlie” or simply “Charlie” because later learned enough Gaelic to hold a of its many references to Scotland’s Bonnie conversation with his Highland troops. Prince Charlie. Charlie invaded Scotland in 1745, rallied the support of the Highland clans, occupied Edinburgh, defeated the army of General Context John Cope at the Battle of Gladsmire, and then made the mistake of turning south into Bonnie Prince Charlie England. His army did not succeed in Who was this Prince Charlie that England and headed back to Scotland. His children would sing about him for 200 troops dwindled, and he was chased by the years? A book of songs and games collected English Duke of Cumberland. The duke, by the teachers of Alamance County, North who had a reputation as a ruthless man, was Carolina refers to a play party called “Charlie well fed, well armed, and had plenty of Over the Water,” saying, “Charlie is identi- soldiers fighting for him. fied as Charles Edward Stuart, the Young Pretender. He rallied the Scottish clans in 1745 and was defeated in the Battle of Culloden in 1746. The present song is, therefore, the descendant of his rallying song.” Charlie was the grandson of James II, King of England and Scotland, a serious Roman Catholic convert for whom the King James Bible is named. Most of England was “sorely” anti-Catholic and feared that James would try to reestablish the Catholic faith as the official religion. King James was ousted

20 Dancing Threads: Community Dances from Africa to Zuni Since a lot of the Scottish troops had Over the River To Feed My Sheep gone by the wayside, Irish soldiers joined the By Anndrena Belcher Bonnie Prince’s band. Charlie was advised to fight the duke on April 16, 1746 at a place called Culloden. Learning that the 15th of What is it that makes one person search April was the duke’s birthday, Charlie’s army so hard to find his or her own origins and rode toward the duke’s camp with plans to another have no interest in history, gene- catch his men off guard after too much alogy, or the past? I have to admit, I am an celebrating. But then the commanders incurable romantic: I have always had a keen realized that the army couldn’t make it to desire to know where I come from, to know the camp in time. The troops turned around my story and how I fit into the making of and marched back to the field at Culloden, history. Maybe that drive to know came from arriving exhausted, starved, and under- my own uprooting, or migration experience, equipped. The duke showed up as originally in the 1950s, when my family moved from “scheduled” with 9,000 men and proceeded the mountains of Kentucky to the skyscrap- to slaughter the prince’s army, then began ers of Chicago. burning Scottish homes and killing Scottish Many years later, after I settled back in Highlanders wherever he and his men could the mountains, my Granny Leon Belcher find them. used to take car trips back to Chicago with Prince Charlie escaped the battlefield, me. Just the two of us, we’d ride and talk. hidden by his faithful Scots as he made his Granny would tell me things about her life way toward the boat that took him to and we’d sing. My Grandpaw Rudy never was France. He left the country without the crazy about music, so my Granny didn’t sing crown and died in Rome in 1788. a lot unless he was out of the house. Many of the Scots, Irish, and English As we drove the hills, we also rode the who had gone to Northern Ireland to find journey of time as my Grandmother remem- better lands migrated to America. The bered bits and pieces of old songs. She’d Lowland Scots who migrated to Ireland and forgotten a lot of the songs because she “fell to the colonies were later called the Scots- out of practice,” not singing them as often as Irish or Scotch-Irish. Many arrived in the she used to. But it didn’t take a lot to whet 1840s, when the potato famine forced them my imagination. Images of love (often false to leave their homelands. love), death, deception, and murder stuck in The Scots-Irish brought with them their my mind’s eye never to be erased! ways, their tales, and their dances and She sang about a “bird in a silver cage” stories. Lowland Scots and Highland Scots hangin’ in the tree branches, a man named were different, but they shared the common “Lovin’ Henry” down on his knee, a “brown history. They were adaptable and inventive, girl,” a “little finger,” a “knife through her creating what they needed to live, whether heart and her heart’s blood did flow.” that be something carved from wood, The past has had a hold on me since I hammered on the blacksmith’s anvil, or was a little girl. I have the images of my grown on the steep blue hillsides of this new Grandmother Mollie’s homemade dresses country. They entertained themselves with and my Grandaddy Glenn’s overalls and the old songs, stories, and singing games sweat-stained Stetson hat in my mind, but that tell the tales of historic connections also in my body and soul. between this new country and the lords, ladies, servants, kings, queens, giants, and princes of the Old World from which they came.

Teacher’s Guide 21 Program 3 (continued) I used to eat Wheaties for breakfast. As I Before the Program sat at the table in the little apartment on Montrose and Magnolia avenues in Chicago, 1. Have students find Scotland and I stared at the Milnot cream can, which held England on a world map. On a smaller- its place by the coffee cups each morning. scale map, find some of the places There was a picture of a can on the can label. named in Prince Charlie’s story. Locate Inside that can was another can, and an- Cumberland Gap and the Appalachian other can, and another can! It went on Mountains in the United States, forever! I could never see to the very last can Culloden in Scotland, Westminster in in the picture, but I swear I never stopped England, and Ulster in Ireland. tryin’. So it is with history, with music and 2. Make a list of the places students were song and dance. So it is with Charlie! When I born, places they have lived, and places asked Jean Ritchie where the play party they have visited. Have students find out games and old singing games came from, where their parents and grandparents she answered, “Oh, I suppose the countries were born, lived, worked, visited, or that the people came from. England, Scot- served in the military. Locate those land, Ireland, and Wales. But some of them places on a map. How did Cumberland were made up after people got here, I guess.” Gap in Kentucky get its name? Aha! More stories of migration! She contin- ued, “‘Over the River To Feed My Sheep’— 3. Have students write down where their this harks back to Bonnie Prince Charlie heroes were born or where they live or from Scotland.” work today. Ask them where they would Children of Jean’s family and families in like or not like to live. Why or why not? other mountain communities were playing Talk about the people who live in those games and making songs and dances that places. carried over the traditions of the British Isles cultures from which their families, neigh- bors, or playmates came. So it is that the children of Jean’s family danced and sang an old song for the Bonnie Prince as they sang, “Charlie’s neat and Charlie’s sweet, and Charlie he’s a dandy.…”

22 Dancing Threads: Community Dances from Africa to Zuni Weevily Wheat Instructions (See the video for a demonstration.)

Lyrics Movements Charlie’s neat, Charlie’s sweet, Join hands and circle left. Charlie he’s a dandy Continue. Charlie he’s the very lad Circle right. That stole my stri-ped candy. Continue back to original positions.

Chorus: Grand right and left, head couple leading. Over the river to feed my sheep Continue until dancers are back in place. (You Over the river, Charlie may have to repeat the chorus.) Over the river to feed my sheep And to measure up my barley.

My pretty little pink, I once did think Head couple sashays down to bottom of set I never could do without you; and back. Since I lost all hopes of you I care very little about you!

Repeat Chorus Grand right and left, as before. Don’t want your wheat, don’t want your Cast lines: Head lady leads off to left, and cheat, other ladies follow her. Head gent leads off to and neither do I want your barley— right, and other gents follow. Head couple But I’ll take a little of the best you’ve got meet at bottom and make an arch with their To bake a cake for Charlie! arms. Other couples go under, then back up to head of set. Head couple stays at bottom.

Repeat Chorus Grand right and left, as before. Repeat lyrics from the beginning. Same dance, now with new head couple.

Teacher’s Guide 23 Program 3 (continued) After the Program Showing What They’ve Learned 1. Who are the most important people in Finding Out More the making of history? Ask students to think about people they might be 1. Did any students in your class (or their singing about when they are 30 years ancestors) migrate from the mountains old. Have students make up songs or of Appalachia? From what other places, dances about their heroes. inside and outside the U.S., did students come? Are any students Native Ameri- 2. Have students choose a current song cans? Who are their heroes? Are they with a message about today that they different from the heroes of the white think they will be singing ten years from settlers in this country? Are they now. Why has the song about Bonnie different from heroes of students who Prince Charlie lasted as long as it has? moved to the U.S. from other countries? How many students can dance a tradi- 3. After reading about Prince Charlie, do tional dance from their own culture? students think there might be any remains of some old culture in their 2. Do the students’ families have any family history, language, sayings, and special costumes, artifacts, jewelry, or traditions? Have the class work together photographs that help them celebrate to compile a list of questions to ask who they are? Ask students to bring in family members about their traditions, photographs or items unique to their family gatherings, dances, language, cultures. stories, work, wars, community service, and talents. Talking About It 1. Ask students to tell what they think a What are the most important things stereotype is. Where do stereotypes their families taught them? What will come from? Why? Are heroes stereo- they think is important enough to teach typed? Are family heroes stereotyped? By their children someday? Do they think whom? What are some of the stereo- their answers to these questions will types of a hero? What are some of the change as they get older? stereotypes of students? Of family members? Of the places they live?

Did the English stereotype the High- landers? What was the stereotype they gave them? Did the Highlanders stereo- type the English? What images in the story about Bonnie Prince Charlie became stereotypical?

2. Who were the heroes in Charlie’s story? Who were the villains? Why? Tell the same story from an English perspective.

24 Dancing Threads: Community Dances from Africa to Zuni Context PROGRAM 4 The Zuni People Zuni Harvest The Zunis (Ah-Shiwi) are Pueblo Indians who live on the Zuni Reservation in the Dances northwest part of New Mexico. They mi- grated to the general location of the current reservation about 1,000 years ago. Many of featuring: the early sites were abandoned as tribes Anndrena Belcher, host moved from one area to another in search of Arden Kucate, instructor better opportunities for farming and hunt- ing. The Zuni people first came in contact with non-Indians in 1539 when Fray Marcos, Arden Kucate teaches students two a Spaniard, took possession of the Indian dances performed in the traditional Zuni province in the name of the king of Spain. Harvest Dance, an annual tribal celebration. The following year, a Spanish army led by In Zuni tradition, singers, dancers, and Coronado subdued the Zuni villages known drummers practice for four nights, with then as the “Seven Cities of Cibole,” thought guidance from elders of the tribe. This to be the fabled seven cities of gold. training serves an important role in preserv- Many Zuni pueblos, or villages, were ing and passing along traditions of the tribe. scattered so far apart and in such remote During the four days, a great deal of work areas along the Rio Grande and Colorado goes into preparing costumes for the dance River that the Spanish made very little and food for the feast to follow. attempt to colonize the area. They did, On the day of the dance, as many as 500 however, attempt to convert the Zunis to visitors and members of the tribe watch the Catholicism, establishing a mission at 500 performers of all ages present four sets Hawikuh, the main Zuni village in the early of dances, with breaks between. While they 1500s. One mission built in another Zuni celebrate the harvest, members of the tribe village is still in use today. also enjoy making new friends and renewing Spain maintained control of the region acquaintances. from 1539 until 1821. Then Mexico ruled the land until 1848. At the close of the Mexican War, the Zuni land became part of the United States. The Zuni Reservation was established by executive order of the U.S. government in 1877. In prehistoric times, social, religious, and economic life were integrated, and the dominant authority was vested in the religious group known as Casiques. The Spaniards established a new system with a Pueblo Council, consisting of a governor, a lieutenant governor, and six officials called tenientes, to regulate civil affairs. These officers were appointed by the religious leaders until 1935, when provisions of the Indian Reorganization Act directed that new

Teacher’s Guide 25 Program 4 (continued)

leaders be elected by the vote of the people. usually gather their own things for the Present Zuni government was based on the dance. structure of the United States government. After four days of preparation and nights An elected tribal council represents mem- of practice comes the day of the actual bers of the Zuni Pueblo on all tribal matters. dance. Everyone taking part comes to the kiva, dressed in their finest jewelry, hand- The Harvest Dance woven dance dresses, and kilts. Singers in Zuni Culture practice their songs as they wait for everyone to arrive. After harvesting all the crops that have When it’s time to go dance, they form grown over the summer, the Zuni people are two lines inside the kiva, placing all the ready to celebrate a productive growing dancers in their appropriate places before season and the end of many months of hard they go out into the plaza. work. Kiva (religious) leaders meet to decide People congregating at the plaza talk on a date for the Harvest Dance. In this and laugh as they prepare for the feast. Once dance, the Zuni people honor the earth and the singers and dancers reach the plaza, the gather the community for a celebration of dance begins. There are usually four sets of the harvest. songs/dances with breaks in between. After After setting a date, kiva leaders choose the dancers come out for the fourth time, those who are to be in charge of inviting the families bring all sorts of food to the young and old dancers and preparing dance plaza for everyone to feast on. Before anyone regalia for the female dancers. During the starts eating, though, the religious leaders next four days, the people in charge of the and others there give bits and pieces of food dancing make plans and invite the dancers to Mother Earth as offerings for another year to meet and prepare for the dance. They of prosperous crops and longevity. gather at a kiva, an underground room After the feast, the dancing continues generally used for sacred rituals and special through the afternoon until the leaders meetings. decide it is time to end the dance. Participants gather at the kiva every night to recite all the songs they will dance to and to practice dancing. The older men patiently teach new dancers how to move Before the Program and how to keep in step with their partners and work with new drummers who need For Multicultural Understanding help keeping the beat. After each night of Have students talk about the common practice, the men in charge make sure the stereotype of an American Indian. In what girls are taken home, since they are respon- ways is it accurate? In what ways is it not? sible for them. Do all Indians wear war bonnets and live in These evening practice sessions are tepees? How do students feel about stereo- important not only for learning the songs types? and dances, but also for learning to sit Study the cultures of several different patiently and listen carefully. Dancers must groups, including Appalachians, African learn the drum beats and the breaks by Americans, and Native Americans. What is heart, a process that helps participants really unique to each? (Their habitats? Food? Art?) enjoy the spirit of dancing on the actual day What basic needs are common to all people? of Harvest Dance. What characteristics are common to all Daytime is busy, too, as those respon- people? What’s good about our similarities? sible prepare all the dance regalia for the What’s good about our differences? females’ headdresses and any other items needed for the dance. The male dancers

26 Dancing Threads: Community Dances from Africa to Zuni Preparing for the Dance Once lead dancers reach their original positions, they can dance in place until the 1. Have students learn about crops grown song is over. in New Mexico and the challenges of raising crops in a dry area. What crops are grown in your region? When are Lyrics for Line Dance they harvested? Do the students’ parents in Zuni/Shiwi or grandparents have any stories Note: Arden Kucate wrote this song in connected to a successful harvest? honor of his visit to Kentucky. He sings in Shiwi, the language of the Zuni people. 2. Have students make shakers from gourds that grow in their area or other (,) indicates a break between drumbeats source materials. Be sure to incorporate (___) indicates where dancers take four designs from nature, such as the star steps into the center and four steps back out and flower images Arden describes. First Verse 3. Have students make the flower bundles Ooh-we-na-ha-yea-we-na-ha-yea-eeh, for the girls to carry in the dance. chim-dee-ya-dow-kwa-yee-p, Meh-eh-lee-kya-ah-t/sana-ha-swiw-ah-one- deh-na-wok-kya-oh-dee-weh- Zuni Harvest Dances Hey-na-ya-aye-nah-ah-hey-ha-ya-aye-na- Instructions ah, ___ Chim-dee-ya-dow-kwa-yee/p, meh-eh-lee- (See the video for a demonstration.) hya-ah-t/sana-ah-shiw-ah-one-deh-na- wok-kya-oh-dee-weh-hey-na-ya-aye-na- The Line Dance hey-na-ya-aye-na, This Zuni harvest dance is a social dance in which participants form two lines, Second Verse preferably lined up boy/girl, boy/girl, facing Hee-ya-eh-luu-ooh-na-ya-eh-luu-ooh-ya- each other. After the three initial drumbeats, aye-na-aye-na-aye-na-ya-aye-na-aye-na-aye- everyone starts dancing in place—1-2-1-2, na-way,-ah-ha-ah-ha-ha-ah-e-he-yee-he-yee- to the beat of the drum. hey-ya-i-yee-yea-i-yee- The first male dancer in each line leads ya-hey-ahh-ah-ha-way-ah-ya-yo-oh-ho- the rest of the dancers in his line. When the wei-na-ya-ah-ee-ehh-meh-ehh-ah-hey-na-hi- lead dancers are ready to start their lines oh-wee-na-ha-yeh-ehh-oh-wee-na-ha-yea-we- moving, they move their right arms forward na-ha-yea-eh,-wee, na, yeh. and rattle their gourds steadily (like the sound of a rattlesnake) to signify that it is time to make a half turn. Dancing in Place Now that he is facing the opposite Dancers again form two lines, facing direction, he steps forward and begins each other, four to six feet apart. Once again, dancing sideways to his left. All of the Arden will give three drumbeats to indicate dancers in his line will dance up to the place it’s time to start dancing in place. In this where their lead made a turn, then turn and second song, when dancers hear their follow him down the other side. When the leaders shake the gourd in a steady rattle, line leader stops dancing sideways, turns, they will all dance toward each other. and begins dancing back the other way, the others in his line will continue dancing sideways to that spot, then turn and follow the leader.

Teacher’s Guide 27 Program 4 (continued) Dancers need to listen carefully for four After the Program distinctive strong beats, which tell them to shake their gourds or flowers four times, Finding Out More each time farther away from their bodies, toward the other line and slightly down. 1. In the Harvest Dance, line leaders give They also need to listen carefully for the other dancers instructions without variations in the drumming rhythm or using words. What are the advantages of speed. using a gourd rattle for communication in this context? How else might a lead Lyrics for Second Dance dancer communicate with other dancers in Zuni/Shiwi in this kind of setting? Have you ever watched the motions of a field referee in (,) indicates a break between drum- a football game? Think of some other beats situations in which non-verbal commu- (*) indicates synchronized full arm nication would be preferable to talking. movement forward during drum breaks (^) indicates arm movement to the 2. In his brief history of the Zuni people, side of the shoulder up and down four times Arden says that the Spanish conquered (___) indicates that dancers take four seven Zuni villages thinking they were steps into the center and four steps back out the “Seven Cities of Cibole,” thought to be the “seven cities of gold.” Have Oooh-hu-hu-wah*, -eh-heh-eh-lu-ooh*, - students find out more about these ooh-hu-hu-way-ha-way-ah-haweh*, seven fabled cities.

Ah-hey-ah-ha-way-ah-hay-ah-wee-yah*— 3. Go to a nursing home or invite elderly ya-ya-ah-ya-weh-ya*, -ah-heh-nee-ya*, - members of the community to your Wee-yah*-ya-ya-ah-ya-wey-ya*, -ah-hey- classroom to talk about life when they nee-ya*, -^hey,-iya,-hey,-ah-ah-ha- were growing up. Ask them to relate Ha-way-ah-ha-ah*, -i-ya-lulu-she-yee*, -I- some of their traditions and values. How ya-lulu-she-yee*, -iya*, -hey*, - have things changed? What do they Ah*, iya*, hey-ah*, -ha-wey*, ___ah-hey- think the future holds? ah-ha-way-ah-hay-aaah-hay-ah- ya-yey-ah-aah-ha-ha-ee-yee-he-he-yea-he- Talking About It yea. 1. How do most Americans get food today? What did the Zuni people have to do to get food in the early days? What kind of time and labor were involved in produc- ing food? What kind of natural risks did Zuni farmers face? How do modern farmers harvest crops? How did the Zuni farmers harvest their crops? After months of planting, nurturing, and protecting their crops, how do you think they felt to finally harvest them for sale and storage? Would you be ready to celebrate?

28 Dancing Threads: Community Dances from Africa to Zuni 2. How are traditions and values handed 3. Arden talks about the sacred colors of down from generation to generation in the four directions. Have students each student’s culture? In other cultures research the significance of color among they have studied? Native American tribes. Do all tribes place the same significance on the same 3. Ask students whether they remember colors? What colors convey specific the story Arden told about the signifi- meanings in our culture? Talk about cance of the gourd. How do Zuni boys which colors represent specific holidays. get their gourds? Ask students to Have students collect examples of describe ways in which they think Zuni common expressions using color to children show respect for their parents. convey an idea (e.g., green with envy, How do American kids show respect for feeling blue, or tickled pink). their parents? Why is respect important?

Showing What They’ve Learned 1. Arden talks about fetishes—small wooden or stone figures representing animals and plants sacred to the Zunis. According to America’s Fascinating Indian Heritage, published by the Reader’s Digest Association, “The Zunis believed that animals and plants had the power to act as mediators between man and the forces controlling the universe. These powers also resided in representa- tions of the living things, fetishes the Zunis decorated with symbolic markings as well as animal sinews and feathers.” Have students study more about the specific significance of various plants and animals in Indian culture, then create their own fetishes sculpted of soap or formed of clay.

2. In the biographical information at the end of this book, Arden talks about how his grandfather makes fetishes to barter—to trade. Have students study the barter system in general and Indian “potlatches” in particular. Have them make various items (food, jewelry, craft items, etc.) to swap among themselves.

Teacher’s Guide 29 Can students make this dance into a ring dance, with the whole class stand- ing in a circle while each student takes a Pulling It All turn in the middle? Incorporate words, hand claps, or other rhythmic accompa- Together niment from the group. What kind of “music” would best suit the dance?

2. Have students make up a dance called Connecting the Lessons “What I’m Going To Do To Shape My to Life America” in which they take turns going into the ring to act out what they want 1. Ask students to think about all four to do to help make America the country dances they have learned. In what ways they want it to become. are they similar? In what ways are they different? Does one feel any more The student in the middle can go to “natural” than another? Describe what each person in the circle, face that you mean. person, and make up a motion to let that person know what to do to help 2. Have students reflect on the three make America better. For example, if cultures they’ve studied and write a you want someone to help you get an description of each. Help them make a education, you can pretend to be list of cultures represented in your reading a book or working a problem. community. Invite representatives of Once the student demonstrates a some of those cultures to speak to your motion, everybody in the circle mimics class about their history and traditions. that motion. The leader then goes back Would they be willing to teach a tradi- into the center of the circle and names tional dance, game, or song? something else that would help make the country better—building a house, Many traditional songs and dances are for example. The leader goes to another associated with food—in celebration, person in the circle, creates a motion, often of the harvest, or simply in sharing and gets that person and everyone else food at a large social gathering. Help in the circle to mimic the new motion. students put together a celebration of Continue around the circle until the cultural diversity complete with food, leader has approached each person in music, and dance. the ring. Then take turns letting other students go into the center of the ring. Creating a Dance of Your Own This dance can be done with one large 1. Have students make up a dance called group or several smaller groups. It is “The Dance of My Self.” They should more “community-effective” with one create movements to tell about them- big group. selves and their families, their work and play. They could portray any interesting characters in the family or portray themselves as they will be at age 25, 35, or 75! How will they look? Walk? Move?

30 Dancing Threads: Community Dances from Africa to Zuni For Teachers and Older Students Thinking he has been betrayed, (High School) Milkman’s best friend comes to take his rightful share of the gold from Pilate’s sack. Read Song of Solomon by Toni The money no longer matters to Milkman Morrison, Plume, published by the Penguin because he finally knows who he is. He can Group, 1987. fly! The main character in the novel is a This novel is a powerful example that black boy named Milkman who starts out parallels “Weevily Wheat” in attesting to the after one kind of treasure and discovers a roles folklore, games, and “acting out” or different treasure of much greater value. “playing” have had in preserving the cul- In trying to figure out why his parents tures of the “underdogs.” The children of behave as they do, Milkman starts piecing each time and society have, in many ways, together his family history. His father’s taken on the role of intergenerational sister, Pilate, is a strong woman who makes guardians of the characters, events, and and sells wine. She will defend her daughters attitudes of life around them. “Out of the and her household with a butcher knife if mouths of babes!” she has to. Pilate has a sack hanging over the doorway from the kitchen; Milkman’s father says there’s gold in it. At the urging of his father, Milkman and his best friend decide to steal the sack and split the profits. Inside the sack, Milkman finds secrets from his father’s and his Aunt Pilate’s childhood. Milkman travels from the Michigan city where he was born and raised to the hills of Virginia, where his father and aunt had come from. He gets into all kinds of trouble, goes through culture shock and an initia- tion, and finally pieces together the truth of his own story as he watches a group of small black children singing, acting out, and dancing a game which retells the story of Milkman’s great-grandparents and of those named in his family who go back to the time of slavery.

Teacher’s Guide 31 “Now and Then,” The Appalachian Maga- zine, Summer 1992, Volume 9, Some Number 2 Sally Go Round the Moon, Nancy and John Resources You Langstaff Seedtime on the Cumberlands, Harriette Might Find Arnow Singing Bee, Jane Hart Helpful Singing Family of the Cumberlands, University of Kentucky Press Southern Highlander and His Homeland, Horace Kephart Books and Articles Square and Folk Dancing, Hank Greene Step It Down: Games, Plays, Songs and Stories from the Afro-American Heri- Ain’t You Got a Right to the Tree of Life? tage, Bessie Jones and Bess Lomax (second edition), Guy and Candy Hawes Carawan Zuni Atlas, T.J. Ferguson Celebration of Life, Geordie Music The Zuni Man-Woman, Will Roscoe Publishing Company The Zunis, Katherine Dougherty The Complete Book of Indian Crafts and Lore, W. Ben Hunt Dancing Is, George Anacona (for younger children) Recordings Down by the Riverside, Charles Joyner Exploring the Roots of Appalachian English, The McLain Family Band Country Dance Center for Appalachian Studies and Album: Dances from Appalachia Services, East Tennessee State (includes “Goin’ to Boston”) University Childhood Songs by Jean Ritchie Flowering on the Cumberlands, Harriette Arnow Greasybeard: Tales from the Cumberlands, Leonard Roberts Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico, Fredrick W. Hodge Handy Play Party Book, World Around Songs, Burnsville, NCAnHan Here Is Your Hobby … Indian Dancing and Costumes, William K. Powers Hullabaloo and Other Singing Folk Games, Richard Chase The Jacobite Rebellion, Robert McKinnon Jean Ritchie’s Swapping Song Book, Jean Ritchie The Last Stuart: The Life and Times of Bonnie Prince Charlie, David Daiches The Laura Ingalls Wilder Songbook, Eugenia Garson

32 Dancing Threads: Community Dances from Africa to Zuni there in the store at dinner time and after school, too, while waiting on the buses, and About the they played the jukebox and danced. Well, I liked the jukebox music and I Presenters liked to dance, so I put in one nickel after another and I danced. I loved it! The big kids danced with me, taught me the turns and all. I danced away dinner hour and my whole week’s lunch money. Danced it Anndrena Belcher A-WAY! Needless to say, Ms. Substitute Teacher had done the right thing with I am from Pike everybody else’s money, and every student in County, Kentucky. I my class except me had a meal ticket for a attended the 1st whole week. Me, I had a whole week’s worth grade and the first of fun, a worried look on my face, and a sick half of 2nd grade at stomach as I rode the school bus home, Elkhorn City knowing I had to tell my mother what I had School in Elkhorn done. City, KY. I always My daddy was hauling coal for a living at liked school, but the time, and that week’s worth of fun cost my sister Sherry me dearly knowing that my folks had to find and I were kind of bashful. I was always a some more money to give me for the next little nervous about things. One day, when four days of meals. The guilt hung around my usual teacher was absent, we had a my neck like an old dead bird. My mother substitute teacher and I worried all morning and father were very kind about the whole about whether or not she would know what thing, but I knew I had done wrong. to do with the money we were to give her I never pulled that trick again, but I did that day for our weekly lunch tickets. I wait for the third school bus home, and remember reminding her several times that more than once I waited out the time she was to hand our lunch money over to dancing in that little snack shop with the the person down in the cafeteria, and that jukebox blaring out the rock ’n’ roll and person should give each of us a ticket as we rockabilly tunes of the day! Even though I went through the line for this first day’s was shy, when I was dancing nothing else meal. mattered. I was carried off somewhere else. Ms. Substitute seemed smart and able, Play and pretend were part of our daily lives, but as dinner time neared I just could not and dancing was a certain kind of pretend- feel confident about handing over my ing. It didn’t require dialogue, but there was Mommy and Daddy’s hard-earned money to a degree of bringing forth another self, a a strange woman. Instead, I held onto my beautiful free self, when the music played money, and when lunch time came I walked and I danced. on over to Snead’s Snack Shop (an old store My Mamaw Mollie was a member of the built by the side of the road next to the Old Regular Baptist Church, and she did not school, built up on poles, like a lot of other encourage dancing, but she did encourage structures in Eastern Kentucky), and I spent “play.” She sang and played the concertina, my money on a hot dog with chili, a bag of the harmonica, and the organ. She acted out potato chips, and a bottle of pop! I had some whatever characters popped into her mind at money left, and I asked for my change back the moment, and she gave these characters in nickels. I wanted nickels because the life and form with her voice, her gestures, jukebox took nickels. The big kids gathered and with the very belief in her eyes—a belief

Teacher’s Guide 33 in magic! A belief which she passed on to us in a neighborhood called Uptown. This children. neighborhood lay right behind the lakefront My Adkins cousins were great at play. I and was easy to get to for incoming mi- loved going to their house down at Beaver grants from all over the world. At one point, Bottom, by the Big Sandy River. They made out of 90,000 people in the neighborhood, rafts, they swung from trees, they acted out statistics showed that 60,000 were either tales in the cornfields. On Sundays, my Aunt Southern or Appalachian rural-to-urban “in- Marie filled our plates high with green beans migrants.” picked and snapped that weekend and sent After settling into their jobs a little bit, us to the cellar to tell “scary” tales. Seated Mother and Daddy came back to the moun- on the potato bins, the least of us would tains to fetch me and my sister and take us listen as one of my cousins would start in on to our new place. We waved goodbye to our “Old Raw Head and Bloody Bones”: “Step by old beloved grandfolks and twisted our way step, inch by inch …” Old Raw Head would out of the holler road, out to the hardtop get closer and closer until we could not and up Route 23, north to the plains, lakes, stand it any longer! Out the door we ran, and concrete streets of one of the most into the light, to check and see if we still had powerful industrial centers of post-World hide. Our imaginations were alive! War II America. We played Smack Hands, Clubfist, Ring It was here, in this new environment, Around the Rosy, Car, Rotten Egg, and Old that I realized that my family and I were Bad Wolf. All the games we played incorpo- “hillbillies.” The talk of my grandparents— rated movement, dialogue, dramatic inter- “vittles, vessels, coal drag, and lollygag,” pretation, singing, and “play like,” or “I hain’t got nary’n,” “There’s a scrimpton pretend. Each game or “play” required a of …,” “Don’t be briggity!” and “It vexes my suspension of disbelief. My Mamaw Mollie mind”—rang juxtaposed to the standardized may not have believed much in dancing, but English of the inner-city classrooms. It was she did teach us mimicking and music. She “get,” not “git,” and “guitar” with the taught coordination and helped us develop accentuation on the second syllable, not our motor skills using a crochet hook and a “git-tar,” I was told. fine little piece of thread which we learned Hillbillies come in all colors and nation- so feebly to hold wrapped around our little alities. I found that out right away! My pinkie fingers. friends from the world over related stories of My Granny Belcher let us play down home in the mountains of Puerto Rico, under the little house built on stilts at Colombia, Japan and Hawaii, China and Belcher, KY. We could use the teensy Thailand, Jamaica and Mexico. Blacks from potatoes from her garden when she dug the the deep South and from the south side of big potatoes out, and she gave us her best Chicago—everybody was moving, everybody old beat-up metal cooker with water for was in this city looking for work, hoping for washing and peeling our tiny treasures, for a better life, for an opportunity to be free we were playing house. Flat rocks for stove economically, politically, and racially. We and kitchen table, old rags, a piece of were all different from the mainstream, clothesline, linoleum in the “island,” all was standardized, textbook English language and fine. Our imaginations were keen! culture. We were told that we “had to adjust” I was in the second half of 2nd grade in order to be successful in this new world. when my mother and father left me and my We learned to become bicultural and sister Sherry with our Mamaw and bilingual! We read, wrote, and spoke the Granddaddy Mullins and went north to grammatical structures taught us at school. Chicago to find work. They both got jobs in Then many of us went home and danced, the city and found a little apartment to rent sang, and remembered home in our own

34 Dancing Threads: Community Dances from Africa to Zuni native tongues, accents, and dialects. We farmers, and coal miners. It was obvious to lived in two worlds—or more! me that these old people knew a lot, yet it Children of all different nationalities and appeared that these people were not valued colors played together. The games and by the new “standardized” world I was living dances came from around the world. We all in. sang together, “I was goin’ to Kentucky, I My mother and father kept a bunch of was goin’ to the fair, I met a señorita with a family pictures. On Sunday, when they were diamond in her hair! Oh, shake it, shake it, not at work in the factories, we sat in the shake it, shake it if you can, shake it like a afternoons and we looked at the pictures and milkshake, then shake it once again!” Hands talked about the past. My sister and I wanted held together in a circle, black, white, red, to know the names and stories of the people yellow, and brown found some common in the photographs. How was it to grow up ground in the games and dances from home. in a coal camp? What was it like when Great My family drove the 600 miles from Grandmaw Susanna ran off on that horse Chicago back to Pike County at least once a they gave her for her 13th birthday and month. I have probably been up and down married Great Grandpaw Tan Stewart? How Route 23 and Route 75 about a million did people make a living farming before the times. We left Friday night after my father coal mines ever came into existence? How and mother got off work. We drove all night was it that white people came to settle in to get to the wood cookstoves, warm kitch- Eastern Kentucky? Where did they come ens, and front porches of our kin. My sister from? Which Indians were here before the and I got to play the old games with our white settlers of my own ancestry? How cousins and then, with souls refueled, we come Great Grandmaw Coleman’s skin was headed north on Sunday so that my folks so dark? Stewarts, Colemans, Vances, could get back to work in time for their Mullinses, Blackburns, Hurlys, Justices, shifts in the factories. Spears, Belchers—these are the people I Summers saw me and my sister playin’ come from. Their words and sayin’s, their in my Mamaw Mollie’s yard, sniffin’ the physical features, their “ways” are a part of flowers over in the little orchard as my me. And where did they all come from? Granddaddy sat beneath whitewashed apple Liddy, Nettie, Mollie, Leon, Lena, trees and smoked—his dark, leathered Susanna, Clara—these are women of my hands locked into finger cages as he looked tribe, my clan. These people were part of the out on the blue mountains of that dark land, the mountains where I was born; but holler. their ancestors came from some other Home was the mountains! We lived in country, most of them, so they, too, come the city, but home was Laurel Branch, my from histories of migration. The land they Mamaw’s house, and the strip of land down farmed wasn’t really “their” land, for nobody by the river at Belcher, where my Granny can really “own” land, just as nobody can kept Bleedin’ Hearts and yellow bells and own the moon. But I realized through my peonies on the little scratchy bank down off hunger to know my place that I was a part of under the curve of the road that led to a long history of migration and wars and Elkhorn City and the Breaks of the moun- land deals that goes back—way back! tains between Virginia and Kentucky. I decided at the age of 12 years that I As a “shook-up” hillbilly child tryin’ to would complete my formal education in understand where I belonged and who I was, Chicago, if my family hadn’t moved back to I had a strong desire to look back—back to the mountains, and then I’d return to the mountains; to the pictures, words, and Eastern Kentucky. My high school guidance ways of my mother and father; back to my counselor told me about a scholarship to grandparents, who were old-time poets, Berea College for which I could apply since I

Teacher’s Guide 35 was an Appalachian “transplant.” I applied As I found ways to incorporate the play and was awarded a scholarship from the W. parties into teacher and student workshops, Clement Stone Foundation. I was thankful I got more and more requests for the games for an opportunity to “go home.” on video. Since many people never have the Berea was not exactly the mountains, experience of attending a community dance but it was in Kentucky. Loyal Jones, recent or festival which teaches the old dances and director of the Appalachian Studies Center at play parties, there seemed to be a need to Berea College, says that when he talks about put these old-time community gathering me he says, “Yes, Anndrena was the one who activities into a medium which could be came to Berea and didn’t like it!” He also shared by modern-day folks everywhere. remembers me as being feisty, something I People who dance together, people who never identified myself with. But, alas, sing together, play an important role in dancing! Berea College held regular folk building a new world community. Playing dances and tryouts for the country dancers. I games and dancing in one cultural commu- was not good enough at those dances to be a nity pulls together the individuals in that performing country dancer, but one thing community. People of different cultural that really impressed me at Berea was a communities who get together and learn wonderful folksinger, performer, and Eastern one another’s dances and games are thread- Kentucky songbird named Jean Ritchie. ing together these various world communi- I saw Jean at one of the concerts in the ties into a common, yet distinctly fibrous, chapel. She reminded me so much of the human community weave. This is what singing and of the ways of talking of my Dancing Threads is all about! Mamaw Mollie and my Grannie Leon. She took me home in her songs, and once she and her sister, Edna, got some people up on Arden Kucate stage and they demonstrated a “play party.” I really liked the singing games but I was born in didn’t learn any of them until I moved back Zuni, New Mexico to the mountains in 1976 and started in June of 1956. making the acquaintance of Tom Bledsoe Shortly after, my and Rich Kirby. Tom and Rich traveled grandparents took around together in a band (John me under their care McCutcheon was a part of that band for a because of my while) and taught the play parties they had mother’s poor learned from Jean Ritchie and Edna Ritchie health. Baker. I guess they saw these played at Grandmama and Family Folk Week at Hindman Settlement Grandpapa were living at a nearby farming School in Knott County, Kentucky. Oh, village called Nutria. dancing! Back then, in Nutria, we had no electric- This was dancing to singing accompani- ity and no running water. While I was ment, and this dancing could be done growing up, I saw how everyone was always without a jukebox … and without money … busy—tending to their gardens, cornfields, and without what so many churches named wheat fields, bean fields, and taking care of “the devil’s instrument,” that dreaded tool of their horses and livestock. I can remember frivolity, the fiddle. The dances reminded me my grandmother picking me up on her back of London Bridge, Ring Around the Rosy, and taking me to her garden in the morning. Little Sally Saucer, and Goin’ to Kentucky, I would stay there ’til noon while she and yet I had never heard of them being played Grandpapa worked in their garden. around where I lived, at least not by my family.

36 Dancing Threads: Community Dances from Africa to Zuni When I was about 4 years old, Nowadays, in our modern environment, Grandpapa would take me to the corn or I continue to carry on traditional practices in wheat fields on horseback or by wagon. He our family. In order for our children to would explain to me that every crop we grew recognize and appreciate these traditional had a meaning and that these plants should values, they must see them within our family be cared for just as we would take care of a structure. This structure seems to diminish baby—talking to them to help them grow as among the younger generations due to the we took care of them. We always had a modern influence. Then again, there were prosperous crop. prophecies indicating the earth would During our wheat harvest, we would become old when children of every ethnic round up several horses. We would place race would no longer care for the world. wagon loads of wheat on a nice clean round I always am involved with traditional sandstone area. The horses would go around activities like my forefathers were. I teach and around until the wheat was cleaned young people who really want to learn about from the chaff. These crops could be used to their culture and religion so that they, too, barter for things we needed. can walk in beauty with a clear sense of their Of course, in the winter time we would identity. go back to Zuni during the winter solstice I’ve come across opportunities to go out for our religious ceremonies. The elderly and give presentations to schools. My most people used to congregate after supper back recent trip was to Kentucky and Virginia, then. I can remember sitting nearby, where we did cultural presentations for listening to the grandpas talk about every Appalachian communities. I have a full-time aspect of life they had endured and the job here in Zuni, while I continue practicing ongoing changes that would come about for traditional life. I am also a fetish carver when the land and its people. I have time to sit down and work at it. Other This is where I learned a lot of ancient than that, I like to go hunting and fishing philosophy. To this day I feel very fortunate with my kids. that I was able to grow up among the elderly people (some of them actually lived to be more than 100 years old) to learn my Paula Larke culture and religion deep within my soul. When I was about 6, my mom came out Paula Larke to Nutria and told my grandparents that it describes herself as was time for me to go to school. That meant “a witness to the I had to move to Zuni. This was the hardest scripture: ‘The part of my life, since I was so used to living harvest is great but out in the country. The very worst part was the laborers are that I had to go to a school where almost few.’” And, she every aspect of what I learned from my adds, “It’s time to elders was forbidden. Anything relating to train up some more our Native American religion and belief was laborers.” considered bad, from their perspective. We Whether using rap to stop violence and would be punished if we didn’t abide by their self-destructive attitudes or stand-up comedy man-made rules. to tease a stubborn citizenry out of age-old As I grew into my teens, I went with my prejudices, Paula is running at full speed, grandfather on trips to other tribes to barter spending time and money in every direction. for items with his fetishes. Grandpa could In Lexington, KY, she is advising a team never pick up English, but he was able to of young people interested in starting and speak at least four other languages. running an ecumenical, intercultural

Teacher’s Guide 37 coffeehouse—though coffee is not the artists able to put it across to children and substance but the concept; they will prob- adults alike. There is a hunger for common ably serve juices or herb teas. sense and exhortations to righteous living. Not satisfied with the model of adult-run But few people, it seems, have contemplated youth activities, Paula is forming a team of the difference between righteousness and business and education community volun- being self-righteous.” teers to teach and monitor the operation. Whatever the reasons, Paula is on the Parents are major players in the design, but road more than she would like, taking the only as aware and involved supporters. The love and joy found in her journey and young people are running the show; sharing the pain and frustration all people grownups are the helpers. feel in their daily efforts just to “get along” In addition, she is “Mama” to a teen with each other. tutoring center, recommending tutors and “My family in Alabama rarely sees me,” holding “attitude-adjusting” culture circles Paula says. “But we talk frequently thanks to of discussion and learning for the teen the telephone. That’s more than my grandfa- participants. ther could do with his family back in the A native of North Carolina, Paula teens and ’20s.” spreads herself thin, monitoring programs and performing throughout the country for Christian youth groups, schools, community centers, museums, and festivals. “My popularity is God-given,” says Paula. “It amazes me that so many people agree with my message, yet find so few

38 Dancing Threads: Community Dances from Africa to Zuni Teacher’s Guide 39