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MUSIC: Julia Keefe, 19, who is Nez Perce, performs the hits of chart-topping 1930s singer Mildred Bailey to a standing-room only crowd at the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian.
By Kara Briggs In 1929, a Spokane and Coeur d'Alene Indian vocalist joined Paul Whiteman and his Orchestra to become the breakthrough big-band "girl singer" who opened doors for many who followed.
Mildred Bailey's crystal-clear voice rang out from bandstands and radios everywhere in the '30s and '40s. Known as "Mrs. Swing," she topped the charts three times between 1938 and 1940. Among her many hits were "Rocking Chair," "Says My Heart" and "Darn that Dream," the latter recorded with Benny Goodman and His Orchestra. Bailey died of a heart attack in 1951, and until recently, her music was largely forgotten. Now Julia Keefe, a young jazz singer from the Nez Perce Tribe, is among those reviving Bailey's repertoire. On April 11, Keefe debuted a program titled "Thoroughly Modern: Mildred Bailey Songs" in a performance at the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian. The Rasmuson Theater was standing-room-only when Keefe and the Jerrol Pennerman Octet took the stage. "Mildred Bailey made each song her own, emoting them in ways that other people didn't," said Keefe, 19, a student at the University of Miami's Frost School of Music. "She didn't have sheet music, so she memorized from recordings. If she couldn't remember a note, she improvised it." Keefe, who grew up in Kamiah, Idaho, on the Nez Perce reservation, and in Spokane, Wash., has been singing professionally since age 15. In 2007, she won the outstanding vocal soloist award at the Lionel Hampton International Jazz Festival. She turned to Bailey's music as a way of "paying homage to my roots as a female Native American jazz vocalist." Bailey's cultural identity has long been debated by jazz aficionados. "She was an early hipster and she talked a lot of jazz slang," said Jim Price of Spokane, who is writing a biography of the singer. Bailey described herself in a recording of "St. Louis Woman" as "a little, short, fat squatty mama." Her appearance led to the occasional conjecture that she had African-American ancestry. More often she was categorized as a white artist who was influenced by her friend, the African-American blues singer Bessie Smith. Even Bailey's age was a matter of dispute; she claimed to have been born in 1907—which would have made her 44 at her death—but other accounts indicate her birthdate may have been 1900. "She and her brothers were about 7/16s Indian, or just under half," Price said. Bailey had an allotment on the Coeur d'Alene reservation and her family had also lived on the Spokane Indian reservation. She grew up in Tekoa, Wash., near Spokane. "As a girl, she was exposed to tribal music," Price said. "Her mother was a fine musician who played the piano and who also took part in tribal music." Bailey called traditional Indian singing "a remarkable training and background" for a singer. "It takes a squeaky soprano and straightens out the clinkers that make it squeak; it removes the bass boom from the contralto's voice," she said. "This Indian singing does this because you have to sing a lot of notes to get by, and you've got to cover a lot of range." Bailey was also noted for her sense of rhythm in her jazz phrasing, in which she emphasized the unexpected word. Her influence is strong among performers like Frank Sinatra, Rosemary Clooney and Bing Crosby. Crosby, who grew up in Spokane and sang with Bailey's brother, Al Rinker, in the Rhythm Boys, credited Bailey with giving him his start in the music business and later wrote that she had a heart "as big as Yankee Stadium." "Mildred Bailey is overlooked as a pop singer and as an influence on other jazz singers," said composer Tom Molter, who arranged the music for Keefe's performance at the museum. Since 2001, when Mosaic Records released "The Complete Columbia Recordings of Mildred Bailey," a 10-disc career retrospective, her music has enjoyed a resurgence on jazz stations and among women jazz singers. She is currently featured in an exhibition at the Iroquois Indian Museum in Howes Cave, N.Y., titled "Native Americans in the Performing Arts: From Ballet to Rock and Roll." Hear some of Bailey's hits at www.jazz-on-line.com/Mildred_Bailey.htm. For Keefe, who comes from a neighboring tribe to Bailey's, the connections are deep. Keefe's family researched Bailey's lesser-known songs, like "Bluebirds in the Moonlight," which Keefe wants to make her own. Hear Keefe perform "Rocking Chair," written for Bailey by Hoagie Carmichael, at www.juliakeefe.com/music/index.php?p=video At first Molter wanted to put a more modern take on the tunes for Keefe. But they settled on the original arrangements, which he transcribed from recordings by the likes of Goodman. The effect is that of the 1920s and '30s pre-swing era—but then, Bailey was swinging ahead of her time. Keefe hopes to spread the jazz world's resurgent interest in Bailey to Native circles through her recent performance at the National Museum of the American Indian. "I put these songs together," she said, "to make sure people don't forget about Mildred Bailey." |
CULTURE: Wampum shows its continuing power to draw people together with the program "Waters That Are Never Still: The Way of the Wampum." By Kara Briggs
Wampum—tiny, beautiful ground-down shell beads—for centuries wielded an intrinsic power far beyond its size and scale. Sacred to the Native peoples of the Northeastern United States, wampum was essential in many of life's most profound exchanges, such as negotiating marriages and paying tribute to other powerful nations. Created from the purple growth ring of quahog clam shells and the inner whirl of whelk shells, these beads—less than an inch long and about an eighth of an inch thick—traveled along the Hudson River trade routes from the Atlantic Ocean hundreds of miles west to the Great Lakes and beyond with the beaver trade. The fascinating subject of the wampum trade will be explored in a program at the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian in New York on Saturday, April 25. "Waters That Are Never Still: The Way of the Wampum" is a hands-on program in recognition of the 2009 Hudson-Fulton-Champlain Quadricentennial, the 400th anniversary of Hudson and Champlain's voyages along the river and lake now bearing their names. The museum program will feature artists and historians from Indian nations, which continue to use wampum in their art and sacred practices. Among the participants are Perry Ground, Onondaga; David Martine, Shinnecock and Apache; Yvonne Thomas, Seneca; Ken Maracle, Cayuga; Allen Hazard, Narragansett; and Jonathan and Elizabeth Perry, Aquinnah Wampanoag. Wampum has been made for centuries by the Indian nations in New England and New York using quartz drills. Production increased exponentially with the introduction of European tools such as metal drill bits, said Martine, director of the Shinnecock Nation Cultural Center and Museum in Southampton, N.Y. The value of the beads to Indian nations even prompted the Europeans to get involved in their production. "The Dutch realized there is a natural resource that the Native people desire, so why ship things across the ocean," said Ground, who teaches in the Native American Resource Center of the Rochester (N.Y.) City School District. "Why not set up a factory, pick them up off the beach and trade for beaver furs?" It's hard to imagine the economic muscle of trade goods such as wampum or beaver pelts in 1700s New York. "We look at lists, like you could trade 100 beaver pelts for cows or a house," Ground said. "The beaver pelt wasn't as valuable to a Native person as wampum beads, which they could get by the hundreds and hundreds for beaver pelts." Wampum continued to be used by the nations even after the beaver were depleted and the large-scale production of wampum ended. Many people from wampum-making cultures found themselves in need of other kinds of work by the 1800s, said Martine. The Shinnecock, for example, who had been whalers, joined the commercial whaling industry. Although the practice of wampum-making diminished, its use continues today. In contrast to the more modern rainbow of glass beads used by Indian nations in other parts of North America, Native people from the Northeast use white and black or purple wampum almost as a signature design. "It has warmth to it because the shell work has a rich quality to it," Martine said. "The color is rich and the feeling is rich. Real wampum is still rare and valuable." Each bead is worth $5 to $6. Ground believes it is important for Native Americans to continue to use wampum. Among the Haudenosaunee, each of the 50 chiefs in the Grand Council has a string of wampum that shows their position. "As one chief passes away and another is put in that position, that wampum is passed to that person," Ground said. "It is still an emblem of their authority." |
NEWS: The National Museum of the American Indian is awarded national accreditation following a four-year evaluation.
American Indian News Service
The Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian received national accreditation from the American Association of Museums this month. The four-year process is a rigorous evaluation of the museum's ethical and professional practices. It assesses how well each museum achieves its mission, using self-assessment and peer review, and drawing on collective wisdom. Less than 4 percent of the 17,500 museums in the United States achieve this prestigious accreditation. "This is tremendously good news," said National Museum of the American Indian Director Kevin Gover, who is Pawnee and Comanche. "Through the dedication of our board of trustees, staff, volunteers and members, we have achieved something extraordinary—accreditation from the American Association of Museums in less than five years since opening our museum on the National Mall." The Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Museum of the Seminole Tribe of Florida also learned it was receiving this accreditation on the same day as the national museum. It is the first tribally run museum to earn this honor. Tina Osceola, executive director of Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki, is a member of the national museum's board of directors. The honor comes in the year that the national museum celebrates four landmark anniversaries—the signing of the legislation that created the museum 20 years ago; the 15th anniversary of the museum's branch in New York City; the 10th anniversary of the state-of-the-art collections facility, the Cultural Resources Center in Suitland, Md.; and the fifth anniversary of the opening of the museum on the National Mall in 2004. "The National Museum of the American Indian is an esteemed institution, with deep significance for all Americans," said Ford W. Bell, president of the American Association of Museums. "Accreditation confirms that it is also one of the finest museums in the nation." |
FILM: Documentaries and shorts by teens, including work from a Seattle company that trains filmmakers, draw attention at the Native American Film + Video Festival.
By Kara Briggs Longhouse Media, a production company that trains young Native filmmakers, brought two Aleut teens and their film to the 2009 Native American Film + Video Festival at the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian in New York City last month. The festival, produced by the museum's Film + Video Center, marked its 30th anniversary this year with 14 feature films and 43 shorts by indigenous directors from the Western Hemisphere. One festival trend has been the screening of more work from filmmakers from training programs for Native media makers. Longhouse Media, based in Seattle, had a critical success this year with "March Point," a documentary in collaboration with three teens from the Swinomish Indian Tribe about environmental threats from two oil refineries near their reservation. Longhouse Media also debuted two short films, "Canoe Pulling: A Lummi Way of Life," directed by Sara London and edited by Talia London, both Aleut; and "FIFTEEN" co-directed by Cody Cayou, Swinomish, and Travis Tom, Swinomish/Lummi. Tracy Rector, Longhouse Media's executive director, said the festival brought the young directors' work to an impressive audience, including some of the best-known Native filmmakers. "This generation has grown up with so many different forms of media," she said. "Our kids are a texting generation and a cell-phone generation. I am not entirely sure how to pinpoint it, but I know the way we communicate… is different because of social networking and cell phones." Many young filmmakers now shoot first for YouTube, or for viewing on cell-phone screens, both of which require quicker editing and tighter focus. It's fascinating, Rector said, when emerging artists turn these new mediums to the oral tradition of their nations. To view a trailer from "March Point" go to http://www.marchpointmovie.com/. To view other video from Longhouse Media go to http://www.longhousemedia.org/. The festival also showed a growing number of Native-made feature-length films for theater and TV. Among these were Cheyenne/Arapaho director Chris Eyre's "We Shall Remain: Trail of Tears." The film is an "American Experience" production in association with Native American Public Telecommunications for WGBH in Boston. "We Shall Remain" presents key stories about Native nations from U.S history. To view a sneak peek, go to http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/weshallremain/the_films/episode_3_peek_1. In connection with the series, WGBH launched Reel Native, a short film project that trains Native Americans of all ages to produce personal video stories. To view these shorts, go to http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/weshallremain/reel_native. The festival was a transformative moment for the young Longhouse Media filmmakers, Sara London and Talia London, Rector said. "They were in New York for the first time and they presented their film for the first time," she said. "It is an incredible piece, and it was heightened by being in New York and in the Smithsonian before a pretty large audience." |
TRAVEL: American Indian News Service ForbesTraveler.com, a popular online magazine, named the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian one of America's 25 most-visited museums of 2008. More than 1.5 million visitors saw the museum's collection of art and cultural objects, which covers 10,000 years of Native art from North and South America. The museum tied for 11th most-visited museum with Museum of Science, Boston. Smithsonian museums dominated the list, which had a first-place tie for attendance between the Air and Space Museum and the National Museum of Natural History with an estimated 7 million visitors each. The overall Smithsonian Institution, comprising 19 museums, had 25.2 million visitors, up 2 million over 2006, the previous year surveyed by the magazine. Others included regional museums, many of which focus on natural history and hands-on science. Among them were the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago with 1.4 million visitors and the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry with 1.21 million. Museums with a strong appeal to children, such as the Children's Museum of Indianapolis (1.03 million), also fared well in popularity. |
Go to www.nmaie-newservice.com to access high resolution photo page or add editor@nmaie-newservice.com to your address book to receive the HTML Version of this news service The Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian is located in Washington, D.C., New York City and Suitland, Md. View online exhibitions at www.AmericanIndian.si.edu The American Indian News Service is edited by Kara Briggs, a Yakama and Snohomish journalist. She owns Red Hummingbird Media Corp., which is contracted by the National Museum of the American Indian to provide this service. Contact her at editor@nmaie-newservice.com or by phone at 503-577-0012. We’re interested in how the American Indian News Service is used. We welcome copies of newspapers that contain news service material, or e-mailed links to online postings. Please forward to Red Hummingbird Media Corp., 8825 34th Ave. NE, Suite L, 154, Tulalip, WA 98271; or e-mail to editor@nmaie-newservice.com. Kara Briggs, Editor National Museum of the American Indian George Gustav Heye Center Cultural Resources Center To opt-out to this publication, please email editor@nmaie-newservice.com. ©Copyright 2009, Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian, All Rights Reserved
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