Chickasaw

Top row: Young Chickasaw man, Tom Cole, Winchester Colbert Middle row: Holmes Colbert, John Herrington, J. D. James Bottom row: Mary Hightower (Shunahoyah), Ashkehenaniew, Annie Guy
Total population
38,000[1]
Regions with significant populations
United States (Oklahoma, Mississippi, Louisiana)
Languages
English, Chickasaw
Religion
Traditional tribal religion, Christianity (Protestantism)
Related ethnic groups
Choctaw, Muscogee (Creek), and Seminole

The Chickasaw are Native American people originally from the region that would become the Southeastern United States (Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee). They are of the Muskogean language family and are federally recognized as the Chickasaw Nation.

Sometime prior to the first European contact, the Chickasaw migrated from western regions and moved east of the Mississippi River, where they settled mostly in present-day northeast Mississippi. That is where they encountered European explorers and traders, having relationships with French, English and Spanish during the colonial years. The Chickasaw were considered by the United States (US) as one of the Five Civilized Tribes, as they adopted numerous practices of European Americans. Resisting European-American settlers encroaching on their territory, the Chickasaw were forced by the US to sell their country in 1832 and move to Indian Territory (Oklahoma) during the era of Indian Removal in the 1830s.

Most Chickasaw now live in Oklahoma. The Chickasaw Nation in Oklahoma is the 13th largest federally recognized tribe in the United States. They are related to the Choctaw and share a common history with them. The Chickasaw are divided in two groups (moities): the Impsaktea and the Intcutwalipa. They traditionally had a matrilineal system, in which children were considered to be part of the mother's clan, where they gained their status. Some property was controlled by women, and it and hereditary leadership among the tribe passed through the maternal line.

Etymology[link]

The name Chickasaw, as noted by anthropologist John Swanton, belonged to a Chickasaw leader.^[2] Chickasaw is the English spelling of Chikashsha (IPA: [tʃikaʃːa]), meaning "rebel" or "comes from Chicsa".

History[link]

The origin of the Chickasaw is uncertain. Twentieth-century scholars, such as the archeologist Patricia Galloway, theorize that the Chickasaw and Choctaw coalesced as distinct peoples in the 17th century from the remains of Plaquemine culture and other groups whose ancestors had lived in the Lower Mississippi Valley for thousands of years.^[3] When Europeans first encountered them, the Chickasaw were living in villages in what is now Mississippi and some in present-day South Carolina. The Chickasaw may have been migrants to the area.^[4]

Their oral history supports this, indicating they moved along with the Choctaw from west of the Mississippi River into present-day Mississippi in prehistoric times, which may be an extremely ancient account. The Mississippian culture and earlier moundbuilding cultures had territory from the west side of the river to sites in present-day Louisiana and Arkansas, so both accounts may be reconciled. For instance, earlier Native American cultures built monumental mound complexes in northern Louisiana as early as 3500 BCE. The Mississippian culture was building earthwork constructions by 950 CE in complex, dense villages supporting a stratified society, with centers throughout the Mississippi Valley and its tributaries.

Another version of the Chickasaw creation story is that they arose at Nanih Waiya, a great earthwork mound built about 300 CE by Woodland peoples. It is also sacred to the Choctaw, who have a similar story about it. The mound was built about 1400 years before the coalescence of these peoples as ethnic groups.

The second leg of the de Soto Expedition, from Apalachee to the Chicaza.

The first European contact with the Chickasaw ancestors was in 1540, when the Spanish explorer Hernando De Soto encountered them and stayed in one of their towns, most likely near present-day Tupelo, Mississippi. After various disagreements, the American Indians attacked the De Soto expedition in a nighttime raid, nearly destroying it. The Spanish moved on quickly.^[5]

The Chickasaw began to trade with the British after the colony of Carolina was founded in 1670.^{[citation needed]} With British-supplied guns, the Chickasaw raided their neighbors and enemies the Choctaw, capturing some members and selling them into slavery to the British. When the Choctaw acquired guns from the French, power between the tribes became more equalized and the slave raids stopped.

Allied with the British, the Chickasaw were often at war with the French and the Choctaw in the 18th century, such as in the Battle of Ackia on May 26, 1736. Skirmishes continued until France ceded its claims to the region east of the Mississippi River after being defeated by the British in the Seven Years' War.

In 1793-94 Chickasaw fought as allies of the new United States under General Anthony Wayne against the Indians of the old Northwest Territory. The Shawnee and other Northwest Indians were defeated in the Battle of Fallen Timbers, August 20, 1794.^{[citation needed]}

The noted 19th-century historian Horatio Cushman thought the Chickasaw, along with the Choctaw, may have had origins in present-day Mexico and migrated north.^[4] That theory does not have consensus; archeological research, as noted above, has revealed the peoples had long histories in the Mississippi area and independently developed complex cultures.

United States relations[link]

George Washington (first U.S. President) and Henry Knox (first U.S. Secretary of War) proposed the cultural transformation of Native Americans.^[6] Washington believed that Native Americans were equals, but that their society was inferior. He formulated a policy to encourage the "civilizing" process, and Thomas Jefferson continued it.^[7] The historian Robert Remini wrote, "They presumed that once the Indians adopted the practice of private property, built homes, farmed, educated their children, and embraced Christianity, these Native Americans would win acceptance from white Americans."^[8] Washington's six-point plan included impartial justice toward Indians; regulated buying of Indian lands; promotion of commerce; promotion of experiments to civilize or improve Indian society; presidential authority to give presents; and punishing those who violated Indian rights.^[9] The government appointed agents, such as Benjamin Hawkins, who became Superintendent of Indian Affairs for all the territory south of the Ohio River. He and other agents lived among the Indians and to teach them, through example and instruction, how to live like whites.^[6] Hawkins married a Creek woman and lived with her people for decades. In the 19th century, the Chickasaw increasingly adopted European-American practices, as they established schools, adopted yeoman farming practices, converted to Christianity, and built homes in styles like their US neighbors.

Hopewell (1786)[link]

A sketch of a Chickasaw by Bernard Romans, 1775.

The Chickasaw signed the Treaty of Hopewell in 1786. Article 11 of that treaty states: "The hatchet shall be forever buried, and the peace given by the United States of America, and friendship re-established between the said States on the one part, and the Chickasaw nation on the other part, shall be universal, and the contracting parties shall use their utmost endeavors to maintain the peace given as aforesaid, and friendship re-established." Benjamin Hawkins attended this signing.

The Colbert legacy (19th century)[link]

In the mid-18th century, a Scots trader by the name of James Logan Colbert settled in Chickasaw country and lived there for the next 40 years, where he married three high-ranking Chickasaw women in succession.^[10] Chickasaw chiefs and high-status women found such marriages of strategic benefit to the tribe, as it gave them advantages with traders over other groups. Colbert and his wives had numerous children, including seven sons: William, Jonathan, George, Levi, Samuel, Joseph, and Pittman (or James). Six survived to adulthood (Jonathan died young.)

The Chickasaw had a matrilineal system, in which children were considered born into the mother's clan; and they gained their status in the tribe from her family. Property and hereditary leadership passed through the maternal line, and the mother's eldest brother was the main male mentor of the children, especially of boys. Because of the status of their mothers, for nearly a century, the Colbert-Chickasaw sons and their descendants provided critical leadership during the tribe's greatest challenges. They had the advantage of growing up bilingual.

Of these six sons, William Colbert served with General Andrew Jackson during the Creek Wars of 1813-14. His brothers Levi and George Colbert also had military service in support of the United States. In addition, the two each served as interpreters and negotiators for chiefs of the tribe during the period of removal. Levi Colbert served as principal chief, which may have been a designation by the Americans, who did not understand the decentralized nature of the chiefs' council, based on the tribe reaching broad consensus for major decisions. An example is that more than 40 chiefs from the Chickasaw Council, representing clans and villages, signed a letter in November 1832 by Levi Colbert to President Andrew Jackson, complaining about treaty negotiations with his appointee General John Coffee.^[11] After Levi's death in 1834, his brother George Colbert succeeded him as chief and principal negotiator, because he also spoke English.

Removal era (1837)[link]

Historic Marker in Marion Arkansas for the Trail of Tears

Unlike other tribes who received land grants in exchange for ceding territory, the Chickasaw held out for financial compensation: they were to receive $3 million U.S. dollars from the United States for their lands east of the Mississippi River.^[12] In 1836 after a bitter five-year debate within the tribe, the Chickasaw had reached an agreement to purchase land in Indian Territory from the previously removed Choctaw. They paid the Choctaw $530,000 for the westernmost part of their land. The first group of Chickasaw moved in 1837. For nearly 30 years, the US did not pay the Chickasaw the $3 million dollars it owed them for their historic territory in the Southeast.

The Chickasaw gathered at Memphis, Tennessee on July 4, 1837 with all of their portable assets: belongings, livestock, and enslaved African Americans. Three thousand and one Chickasaw crossed the Mississippi River, following routes established by the Choctaw and Creek.^[12] During the journey, often called the Trail of Tears by all the Southeast tribes that had to make it, more than 500 Chickasaw died of dysentery and smallpox.

When the Chickasaw reached Indian Territory, the United States began to administer to them through the Choctaw Nation, and later merged them for administrative reasons. The Chickasaw wrote their own constitution in the 1850s, an effort contributed to by Holmes Colbert.

After several decades of mistrust between the two peoples, in the twentieth century, the Chickasaw re-established their independent government. They were federally recognized as the Chickasaw Nation. The government is headquartered in Ada, Oklahoma.

Remnants of the South Carolina Chickasaw, known as the Chaloklowa Chickasaw, have reorganized their tribal government. In 2005 they gained official recognition from the state of South Carolina as a Native American tribe. They have their tribal headquarters at Indiantown, South Carolina.

American Civil War (1861)[link]

The Chickasaw Nation was the first of the Five Civilized Tribes to become allies of the Confederate States of America.^[13] As noted they held slaves, so had something in common with the people of the Confederacy. In addition, they resented the US government, which had forced them off their lands and failed to protect them against the Plains tribes in the West. In 1861, as tensions rose related to the sectional conflict, the US Army abandoned Fort Washita, leaving the Chickasaw Nation defenseless against the Plains tribes. Confederate officials recruited the American Indian tribes with suggestions of an Indian state if they were victorious in the Civil War.

The Chickasaw passed a resolution allying with the Confederacy, which was signed by Governor Cyrus Harris on May 25, 1861.

At the beginning of the American Civil War, Albert Pike was appointed as Confederate envoy to Native Americans. In this capacity he negotiated several treaties, including the Treaty with Choctaws and Chickasaws in July 1861. The treaty covered sixty-four terms, covering many subjects such as Choctaw and Chickasaw nation sovereignty, Confederate States of America citizenship possibilities, and an entitled delegate in the House of Representatives of the Confederate States of America.^[14] Because the Chickasaw sided with the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War, they had to forfeit some of their land afterward. In addition, the US renegotiated their treaty, insisting on their emancipation of slaves and offering citizenship to those who wanted to stay in the Chickasaw Nation. If they returned to the United States, they would have US citizenship.^[12]

Government[link]

The Chickasaws were first combined with the Choctaw Nation and their area was called the Chickasaw District. Although originally the western boundary of the Choctaw Nation extended to the 100th meridian, virtually no Chickasaw lived west of the Cross Timbers. The area was subject to continual raiding by the Indians on the Southern Plains. The United States eventually leased the area between the 100th and 98th meridians for the use of the Plains tribes. The area was referred to as the "Leased District".^{[citation needed]}

Treaties[link]

Post-Civil War[link]

Fred Tecumseh Waite, a cowboy and Chickasaw Nation statesman

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

Because of their siding with the Confederacy, after the Civil War the US government made a new peace treaty with the Chickasaw in 1866. It included the provision that they emancipate the slaves and provide those who wanted to stay in the Chickasaw Nation with full citizenship; they and their descendants became known as the Chickasaw Freedmen. Many of their descendants continue to live in Oklahoma. Today the Choctaw-Chickasaw Freedmen Association of Oklahoma represents their interests.

The Chickasaw Nation never gave citizenship to the Chickasaw freedmen. The only way blacks could become citizens at that time was to have Chickasaw parents or to petition for citizenship and go through the same process as any other race to gain citizenship, if they were of known Chickasaw descent. Because the Chickasaw Nation had working relations with the Confederacy and did not adopt their freedmen after the Civil War, they were penalized by the U.S. Government. It took over half of their lands, with no compensation, although the territory had been negotiated as Chickasaw property in previous treaties for their use after Removal.

Culture[link]

The suffix -mingo (Chickasaw: minko) is used to identify a chieftain. For example, Tishomingo was the name of a famous Chickasaw chief. The towns of Tishomingo in Mississippi and Oklahoma were named for him, as was Tishomingo County in Mississippi. South Carolina's Black Mingo Creek was named after a colonial Chickasaw chief, who controlled the lands around it as a hunting ground. Sometimes the suffix is spelled minko, but this most often occurs in older literary references.

In 2010, the tribe opened the Chickasaw Cultural Center in Sulphur, Oklahoma. it includes the Chikasha Inchokka’ Traditional Village, Honor Garden, Sky and Water pavilion, and several in-depth exhibits about the diverse culture of the Chickasaw.^[23]

Notable Chickasaw[link]

• Bill Anoatubby, Governor of the Chickasaw Nation since 1987
• Charles David Carter, Democratic U. S. Congressman from Oklahoma^[24]
• Levi Colbert, Chickasaw language translator
• Tom Cole, Republican U.S. Congressman from Oklahoma
• Molly Culver, actress
• Hiawatha Estes, architect
• Bee Ho Gray, actor
• John Herrington, astronaut; first Native American in space
• Linda Hogan, Writer-in-Residence of the Chickasaw Nation
• Miko Hughes, actor
• Wahoo McDaniel, pro wrestler, Pro Football
• Leona Mitchell, opera singer
• Rodd Redwing, actor
• Jerod Impichchaachaaha' Tate, composer and pianist
• Fred Waite, cowboy and Chickasaw Nation statesman
• Jack Brisco and Gerry Brisco, pro-wrestling tag team
• Travis Childers, U.S. Congressman from Mississippi

See also[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Chickasaw

• African-Native Americans
• Chickasaw Nation
• Chickasaw language
• List of sites and peoples visited by the Hernando de Soto Expedition
• Chickasaw Wars

References[link]

Additional reading[link]

• Calloway, Colin G., The American Revolution in Indian Country. Cambridge University Press, 1995. see google.com
• Daniel F. Littlefield Jr., The Chickasaw Freedmen: A People without a Country, (Westport: Greenwood Press, 1980).

External links[link]

• The Chickasaw Nation of Oklahoma (official site)
• Chickasaw Nation Industires (government contracting arm of the Chickasaw Nation)
• "Chickasaws: The Unconquerable People", a brief history by Greg O’Brien, Ph.D.
• Encyclopedia of North American Indians
• "Chickasaw History" by Lee Sultzman
• John Bennett Herrington is First Native American Astronaut (on chickasaw.net)
• Tishomingo
• Pashofa recipe
• Tanshpashofa recipe
• Some Chickasaw information in discussion of DeSoto Trail
• Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture - Chickasaw

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (August 2010)

Roberta Lee Streeter (born July 27, 1944), professionally known as Bobbie Gentry, is an American former singer-songwriter notable as one of the first female country artists to compose and produce her own material.^[1] Her songs typically drew on her Mississippi roots to compose vignettes of the Southern United States.

Gentry shot to international fame with her intriguing Southern Gothic narrative "Ode to Billie Joe" in 1967. The track was fourth in the Billboard year-end chart of 1967^[2] and earned her Grammy awards for Best New Artist and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance in 1968. Gentry charted eleven singles on the Billboard Hot 100 and four singles on the United Kingdom Top 40.^[3] Her album Fancy brought her a Grammy nomination for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. After her first albums, she had a successful run of variety shows on the Las Vegas Strip. She lost interest in performing in the late 1970s and has since lived privately in Los Angeles.

Early life[link]

Gentry was born Roberta Streeter and is of English and Portuguese ancestry.^{[citation needed]} She was born in Chickasaw County, Mississippi, to Robert and Ruby (Bullington) Streeter. She has an older brother, Robert Streeter, Jr. Her parents divorced shortly after her birth, and her mother moved to California. She was raised on her grandparents' farm in Chickasaw County. Her grandmother traded one of the family's milk cows for a neighbor's piano, and seven-year-old Bobbie composed her first song, "My Dog Sergeant Is a Good Dog". She attended school in Greenwood, Mississippi, and began teaching herself to play the guitar, bass, banjo, and vibes.

At 13, she moved to Arcadia, California, to live with her mother. Gentry graduated from Palm Valley School in 1960. She chose her stage name from the 1952 film Ruby Gentry about a heroine born into poverty but determined to make a success of her life and began performing at local country clubs. Encouraged by Bob Hope, she performed in a revue at Les Folies Bergeres nightclub of Las Vegas.

Gentry then moved to Los Angeles to enter UCLA as a philosophy major. She supported herself in clerical jobs, occasionally performing at nightclubs. She later transferred to the Los Angeles Conservatory of Music to develop her composition and performing skills. In 1964, she made her recording debut in two duets – "Requiem for Love" and "Stranger in the Mirror" with rockabilly singer Jody Reynolds. She continued performing in nightclubs until Capitol Records executive Kelly Gordon heard a demo she had recorded in 1967.

Professional career[link]

In 1967, Gentry produced her first single, the country rock "Mississippi Delta"; however, it was the flipside, "Ode to Billie Joe" with its sparse sound and controversial lyrics that started to receive airplay in the U.S.^[4] Capitol's shortened version added to the song's mystery. Questions arose among the listeners: what did Billie Joe and his girlfriend throw off the Tallahatchie Bridge, and why did Billie Joe commit suicide? Gentry herself has commented on the song, saying that its real theme was indifference:^[5]

The track topped the Billboard Hot 100 for four weeks in August 1967 and placed #4 in the year-end chart.^[2] The single hit #8 on Billboard Black Singles and #13 in the UK Top 40^[3] and sold over three million copies all over the world.^[1] Rolling Stone magazine listed it among the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time in 2001.

	"Ode to Billie Joe" noicon Sample from "Ode To Billie Joe".
Problems listening to this file? See media help.

The LP replaced Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band at the top of U.S. charts. It also reached #5 of the Billboard Black Albums charts. Gentry won three Grammy Awards in 1967, including Best New Artist and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. She was also named the Academy of Country Music's Best New Female Vocalist.^{[citation needed]}

In February 1968, Gentry took part in the Italian Song Festival in Sanremo, as one of two performers (alongside Al Bano) of the song "La siepe" by Vito Pallavicini and Massara. In a competition of 24 songs, the entry qualified to the final 14 and eventually placed ninth.^[6]

Bobbie Gentry's second album, The Delta Sweete, released in 1968, did not match the success of her first. It yielded a Billboard top-sixty hit "Okolona River Bottom Band". She also collaborated on the album Bobbie Gentry & Glen Campbell, which earned a gold record certificate. Gentry made numerous guest appearances on TV shows hosted by Glen Campbell, Tom Jones, Andy Williams, Carol Burnett and Bobby Darin. Among them was her performance of the Cajun number "Niki Hoeky" on The Summer Smothers Brothers Show.^[7][8] In 1969, she released Touch 'Em with Love, her most critically acclaimed album, which gave her a number-one hit in the UK with "I'll Never Fall In Love Again" written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David. In January 1970, it became a number-six hit on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart for Dionne Warwick. Gentry hosted her own series on BBC-TV in London, which was later widely shown in Germany, the Netherlands, Australia and elsewhere.

In 1970, she received recognition for her composition "Fancy", which rose to #26 on the U.S. Country charts and #31 on the pop charts.^[1] Gentry's personal view on the song:^[9]

The album, as was the case with the rest of her post-"Ode to Billie Joe" recordings, had little commercial success. However, it brought Gentry an Academy of Country Music Award and a Grammy nomination, both in the category of Best Female Vocalist.^[10]

Stage performances and television work (1971-1981)[link]

Gentry continued to write and perform, touring Europe, generating a significant fan base in the United Kingdom. She signed a million-dollar contract to headline in her own $150,000 nightclub revue in Las Vegas for which she produced, choreographed, and wrote and arranged the music. She said,^[5]

In 1974, Gentry hosted a short-lived summer replacement variety show, The Bobbie Gentry Happiness Hour, on CBS. The show, which was her version of Campbell's hit series The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour, also on CBS, was not renewed for a full season. That same year, Gentry wrote and performed "Another Place, Another Time" for writer-director Max Baer, Jr.'s film, Macon County Line. In 1976, Baer directed the feature film Ode to Billy Joe, which was based on her hit song ^[11] and starred Robby Benson and Glynnis O'Connor. In the movie, the mystery of the title character's suicide is revealed as a part of the conflict between his love for Bobbie Lee Hartley and his emerging homosexuality. Gentry's re-recording of the song for the film hit the pop charts, as did Capitol's reissue of the original recording; both peaked outside the top fifty. Her behind-the-scenes work in television production failed to hold her interest. After a 1978 single for Warner Bros. Records, "He Did Me Wrong, But He Did It Right" failed to chart, Gentry decided to retire from show business. Her last public appearances as a performer were on Christmas Night 1978 as a guest on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and on 10 May 1981 on All-Star Salute to Mother's Day.^[12] After that, she settled in Los Angeles and remained out of the public eye.^[1]

Personal life[link]

Gentry has been married three times. Her first marriage was to casino magnate Bill Harrah in 1969 and lasted only weeks. She married singer and comedian Jim Stafford on October 15, 1975; they divorced a few years later after the birth of their son Tyler. She has since remarried.^[13]

Artistry[link]

In the hectic atmosphere of 1967, Bobbie Gentry's "Ode to Billie Joe" stood out with its simplicity and integrity.^[14] Gentry is one of the first female country artists to write and produce her own material.^[1] Typically her songs have autobiographic characteristics.^[14]

Legacy[link]

Bobbie Gentry charted 11 singles in Billboard Hot 100^[1] and four singles in the Top 40 of the UK Singles Chart. ^[3]

Beth Orton recorded a song entitled "Bobby Gentry" featured on her The Other Side of Daybreak album. Similarly, Jill Sobule recorded "Where Is Bobbie Gentry?" for her album California Years. Gentry's 1969 composition "Fancy" provided a top-ten country hit for Reba McEntire, who covered the song in 1991.

Producer and singer Joe Henry, in a 2011 interview, cited "Ode" as "an incredibly deft bit of writing in the way that that story is unfolded. ... [I]t places the character in a moment, and then the story just starts to unfold around it", and was a song that influenced him early in his life listening to music on the radio.^[15]

In May, 2012, BBC Radio 2 in the UK broadcast a documentary entitled 'Whatever Happened to Bobby Gentry?', presented by country music artist Roseanne Cash.^[16]

Discography[link]

Albums[link]

Singles[link]

B-Sides[link]

References[link]

Southeastern turtleshell shackles, c. 1920, Oklahoma History Center

The Stomp Dance (Caddo: Kaki?tihánnakah^[1]) is performed by various Eastern Woodland tribes and Native American communities, including the Muscogee, Yuchi, Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Delaware, Miami, Caddo, Ottawa, Peoria, Shawnee, Seminole,^[2] Natchez, ^[3] and Seneca-Cayuga tribes. Stomp Dance communities are active in North Carolina, Oklahoma, Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida.

Structure and function of a Stomp Dance Society[link]

The Stomp Dance is a ceremony that contains both religious and social meaning. To the Muscogee Creeks, Cherokees, and other Southeastern Indians the Stomp Dance is affiliated with the Green Corn Ceremony.

The term "Stomp Dance" is an English term, which refers to the "shuffle and stomp" movements of the dance. In the native Muskogee language the dance is called Opvnkv Haco, which can mean "drunken," "crazy," or "inspirited" dance.^[4] This usually refers to the exciting, yet meditative effect the dance and the medicine have on the participants. In the native Shawnee language, the dance is called Nikanikawe which refers to a dance involving friends or nikane. It is also called the Leading Dance by many Shawnees, but most simply call it the "Stomp Dance."

Among Muscogee Creeks and Four Mothers Society members, the Stomp Dance Grounds contain an elevated square platform with the flat edges of the square facing the cardinal directions. Arbors are constructed upon the flat edges of the square in which the men sit facing one of the four directions. This is formally referred to as the Square Ground, which is encircled by a ring-mound of earth. In the center of this is the ceremonial fire, which is referred to by many names including "Mother" fire. Ceremonially, this fire is the focus of the songs and prayers of the people and is considered to be a living sacred being.

Outside of the circle of earth, surrounding the Square Ground are the community's clan-houses. These houses are casually referred to as 'camps' and depending on the traditional level and financial situation of the community may be relatively nice cottages, shanties or in between. Prior to the dance dinner is prepared in these family camps. Throughout the night guests that arrive are welcomed to help eat up the leftovers. The foods eaten at Stomp Dances are typical southern delicacies such as corn bread, mashed potatoes as well as certain specialized Indian dishes such as sofkee, dumplings, hominy, frybread, and numerous traditional dishes.

Kituwah stomp dance grounds are encircled by seven clan arbors. These are influenced by the traditionalist revival among Cherokees during the late 19th century, inspired by Redbird Smith.^[5] In 1907, 22 ceremonial grounds were active on Cherokee lands in Oklahoma.^[6]

Stickball games are often played at stomp dance grounds.^[7] Yuchi stomp dances are held in conjunction with their ritual football games.^[8] Especially in Oklahoma, different tribes will participate in each other's dances.^[9]

Leadership[link]

Turtleshell rattle made by Tommy Wildcat

A traditional Stomp Dance grounds is often headed by a male elder. In the Creek and Seminole traditions the Meko or "king" is the primary ceremonial authority. The Meko is assisted by his second in charge called a Heniha, the chief medicine man called a Hillis Hiya and speaker called Meko Tvlvswv or Meko's tongue/speaker. It is important to note that Mekos are not supposed to publicly address the entire grounds and as such that responsibility falls often on Meko Tvlvswsv. A traditional Creek grounds also employs four Tvstvnvkes (warchiefs/generals/police), four head ladies and four alternate head ladies.

Ceremony[link]

A night of dancing typically starts well after dark and continues until dawn of the next day, with many rounds of dancing throughout the night. Participants who are making a religious commitment to the ceremony will begin fasting after midnight, "touch medicine" at four different times during night, and are obligated to stay awake the whole night. The medicine is made from specific roots and plants which have been ceremonially gathered by selected "medicine helpers" and prepared by the Heles Haya at dawn of the morning of the Dance. This medicine is intended for the physical and spiritual benefit of the members of the dance at the ceremonial ground.

One of the male members of the community is given the job of calling out each song leader and all other participants to dance for each round. Each round is led by a selected man who has developed his own sequence of songs from the multitude of variations on traditional rhythms, melodies and lyrics, sometimes with personalized content in the mix. The songs are typically performed in call and response form, in the native language. Every dance must have at least one woman with shakers, who falls into step immediately behind the song leader, to carry the rhythm. The remaining dancers follow, alternating male-female in a continuous spiral around the central fire, with visitors, then young children, and the odd numbers trailing at the end. The dancers circle the fire in counterclockwise direction with deliberate stomping steps set to the rhythm created by the women with their shell shakers.^[2] Depending on the size of the community and the number of visitors in attendance, the number of people joining the circle may range from less than ten up to several hundred. Usually a round of dancing continues until at least four songs are completed by the dance leader, and then everyone returns to their seats until another singer is called on to "lead out." There is usually a few minutes of rest between each leader, but the breaks may stretch longer if there are fewer people present to participate. The Stomp Dance is not meant to be a grueling and physically challenging event, but almost every participant on the grounds will dance most of the night.

Dance grounds[link]

Although not as widespread as they were in the past, there are still many Ceremonial Grounds, or Stomp Grounds, located in what is now the southeastern United States and Oklahoma, where so many of the southeastern peoples were forced to move during the 1800s. Stokes Smith Stomp Dance Ground, which is located in an isolated area of the Cherokee Nation tribal lands, is one of approximately seven active Cherokee grounds. The Eastern Band Cherokee stomp grounds is currently located in Raven's Roost, North Carolina, on the Qualla Boundary. The Creek tribe today has 16 active ceremonial grounds located throughout northeast Oklahoma. One of which is Flat Rock, located west of Eufaula and south of Mill Creek. Other active communities include Hossossv Tvlvhvse Ceremonial Ground on the Poarch Creek Indian Reservation near Atmore, Alabama, Kvnfvske Etvlwv in Fountain, Florida, and the White Oak Shawnee Tribe's grounds.

Music[link]

Men sing stomp dance songs in a call-and-answer format. A leader is chosen for a song and the other men provided a chorus.^[2] For some dances, the male dance leader carries a handheld rattle – commonly made from box turtle shells, gourds or coconuts. Women provide the primary rhythm accompaniment with shakers worn on their legs, which are traditionally made from turtle shells as well, but may also be made from condensed milk cans. During certain dances, a water drum can be used.^[2] Ethnomusicologist Victoria Lindsay Levine writes that, "Stomp dance songs are among the most exhilarating and dramatic musical genres in Native America."^[10]

Attire[link]

detail of a stompdance skirt made by Ardina Moore (Osage-Quapaw), featuring rattlesnake-patterned ribbon work

The dress of most Stomp Dancers is casual but nice. Most Stomp Dancers keep special attire for ceremonial occasions, but the physical nature of the dance and summery, outdoor conditions of the dance make comfort more important than flair. Women wear skirts and blouses that usually incorporate traditional patterns. The men wear blue jeans or slacks and hats, which are usually cowboy or ballcap styles, usually with a single eagle, hawk or crane feather in the hatband. The ribbon shirt is the standard ceremonial attire for both men and women, which consists of a loose-fitted tunic decorated with ribbons. Cherokee women typically wear full cotton skirts featuring ribbonwork in a rattlesnake pattern.

The women wear turtle shell shakers, or shackles, on both legs^[2] (typically 6 to 12 on each leg).^[11] The shakers are hollowed out shells which have holes drilled in them and are filled with rocks, shot, soda can lids or anything else that will make them rattle. The traditional Creek and Seminole shell shakers are made of terrapin or box turtle shells. Lydia Sam, a Natchez-Cherokee traditionalist, was the first to dance with tin, condensed milk can leg shackles in the 1920s. Some ground leaders insist on the use of the terrapin by head lady shell shakers. This tradition continues today and most women start out with a set of "cans" before moving up to having their own set of shells. Women stomp dancers are called "Shell Shakers" or "Turtles."

Etiquette[link]

Participants and visitors to a stomp dance ground cannot be under the influence of alcohol or drugs. Depending upon the grounds, they cannot have partaken of either for a prescribed period of time before or after the dance. Photography is not allowed at ceremonial dances. The ceremonies are religious, and many participants do not feel comfortable discussing details with non-Indians, particularly in regards to medicine.^[12] Pregnant or menstruating women do not enter the dance circle at ceremonial grounds. Depending on the ground, they may or may not touch medicine.

Secular stomp dances[link]

During the off-season, Stomp Dances are sometimes performed indoors to avoid the winter cold. Some societies incorporate Stomp Dance into pow wows or as educational demonstrations. Caddos,^[13] Delaware, and other Woodland and Southern tribes have a secular or social stomp dance tradition. The Chickasaw Nation and Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma currently maintain non-ceremonial grounds for stomp dances and stickball.

See also[link]

• Native American music
• Turkey dance

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Howard, James H. and Willie Lena. Oklahoma Seminoles, Medicines, Magic and Religion. Norman: University of Oklahoma, 1984. ISBN 978-0-8061-2238-0.
• Hudson, Charles M. The Southeastern Indians. University of Tennessee, 1976. ISBN 978-0-87049-248-8.
• Lewis, Jr., David and Ann T. Jordan. Creek Indian Medicine Ways. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico, 2008. ISBN 978-0-8263-2368-2.
• Maudlin, Margaret McKane and Jack B. Martin. A Dictionary of Creek/Muskogee. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2000 (retrieved through Google Books, 6 July 2009). ISBN 978-0-8032-8302-2.
• Sturtevant, William C., general editor and Raymond D. Fogelson, volume editor. Handbook of North American Indians: Southeast. Volume 14. Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution, 2004. ISBN 0-16-072300-0.
• Thomas, Robert K. "The Origins of the Redbird Smith Movement." Graduate thesis.
• Weisman, Brent Richards. Unconquered People: Florida’s Seminole and Miccosukee Indians. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1999. ISBN 978-0-8130-1663-4.
• Wright, Jr., J. Leitch. Creeks and Seminoles: The Destruction and Regeneration of the Muscogulge People. Lincoln: University of Nebraska, 1990. ISBN 978-0-8032-9728-9.

Memphis Minnie (June 3, 1897 – August 6, 1973^[1]) was an American blues guitarist, vocalist and songwriter. She was the only female blues artist considered a match to male contemporaries as both a singer and an instrumentalist.^[2]

Career[link]

Born Lizzie Douglas in Algiers, Louisiana, Minnie was one of the most influential and pioneering female blues musicians and guitarists of all time.^[1] She recorded for forty years, almost unheard of for any woman in show business at the time and unique among female blues artists. A flamboyant character who wore bracelets made of silver dollars, she was a very popular blues recording artist from the early Depression years through World War II. One of the first generation of blues artists to take up the electric guitar, in 1942, she combined her Louisiana-country roots with Memphis blues to produce her own unique country-blues sound; along with Big Bill Broonzy and Tampa Red, she took country blues into electric urban blues, paving the way for Muddy Waters, Bo Diddley, Little Walter, and Jimmy Rogers to travel from the small towns of the south to the big cities of the north.

According to some reports she was married three times, each time to an accomplished blues guitarist: Kansas Joe McCoy later of the Harlem Hamfats, possibly Casey Bill Weldon (though there is little if any evidence for this), and Ernest "Little Son Joe" Lawlers.^[1] Paul and Beth Garon's 1992 biography on Memphis Minnie, Woman With Guitar: Memphis Minnie's Blues, makes no mention of a marriage to Weldon, but only says that she recorded two sides with him, in November 1935, for Bluebird Records. It does describe the relationships and marriages to McCoy and Lawlers.^[3]

After learning to play guitar and banjo as a child, she ran away from home at the age of thirteen. She travelled to Memphis, Tennessee, playing guitar in nightclubs and on the street as Lizzie "Kid" Douglas. The next year, she joined the Ringling Brothers circus. Her marriage and recording début came in 1929, to and with Kansas Joe McCoy, when a Columbia Records talent scout heard them playing in a Beale Street barbershop in their distinctive 'Memphis style,' and their song "Bumble Bee" became a hit.^[4] In the 1930s she moved to Chicago, Illinois with McCoy. She and McCoy broke up in 1935, and by 1939 she was with Little Son Joe Lawlers.^[2] In the 1940s she formed a touring vaudeville company. Some of her most potent and enduring work was made in the early 1940s, such as "Nothing in Rambling," "In My Girlish Days," "Looking The World Over" and "Me and My Chauffeur Blues".^[2]

Later in the 1940s Minnie lived in Indianapolis, Indiana and Detroit, Michigan, returning to Chicago in the early 1950s.^[2] From the 1950s on, however, public interest in her music declined, and in 1957 she and Lawlers returned to Memphis. Lawlers died in 1961.^[5]

Death[link]

Memphis Minnie's grave (2008)

After her health began to fail in the mid 1950s, Minnie returned to Memphis and retired from performing and recording. She spent her twilight years in a nursing home in Memphis where she died of a stroke in 1973.^[6] She is buried at the New Hope Baptist Church Cemetery in Walls, DeSoto County, Mississippi. A headstone paid for by Bonnie Raitt was erected by the Mt. Zion Memorial Fund on 13 October 1996 with 35 family members in attendance including her sister, numerous nieces (including Laverne Baker) and nephews. The ceremony was taped for broadcast by the BBC.

Her headstone is marked:

Lizzie "Kid" Douglas Lawlers
aka Memphis Minnie

The inscription on the back of her gravestone reads:

"The hundreds of sides Minnie recorded are the perfect material to teach us about the blues. For the blues are at once general, and particular, speaking for millions, but in a highly singular, individual voice. Listening to Minnie's songs we hear her fantasies, her dreams, her desires, but we will hear them as if they were our own."^[7]

Selective discography[link]

Legacy[link]

Minnie lived to see her reputation revived in the 1960s as part of the general revival of interest in the blues. In 1980, she was inducted into the Blues Foundation's Hall of Fame.^[8]

Songs[link]

"When the Levee Breaks", a 1929 Memphis Minnie and Kansas Joe McCoy song,^[9] was later covered (with slightly altered lyrics and a different melody) by Led Zeppelin and released in 1971 on their fourth album.

"When the Levee Breaks" was played in the film Ghost World, and Minnie was mentioned several times throughout the film.

Other songs by Memphis Minnie include: "Bumble Bee Blues", "Hoodoo Lady", "I'm Gonna Bake My Biscuit" and "I Want Something For You".

References[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Memphis Minnie

External links[link]

• Listen to "When the Levee Breaks" at the "Internet Archive" (archive.org)
• Delta Blues Bio and Samples of "Bumble Bee Blues" and "Soo Cow Soo"
• Find A Grave Memorial
• [1] Mount Zion memorial Fund