Preserving American Indian Culture

I have been watching segments of Joe Rogan’s interview of Shannon O’Loughlin, the executive director and attorney for the Association on American Indian Affairs and a citizen of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. In the podcast interview Rogan and O’Loughlin discuss numerous important issues of how the U.S. government treated and still treats American Indian tribes.

A blog post cannot do justice to the podcast’s information. Watch interview segments on YouTube and watch the full interview on Spotify (need to be logged into a free Spotify subscription).

And this reminded me of how I first learned about American Indian culture.

In my hometown of Elgin, Illinois (in the 1960s we would say “Population 50,000 if you count the Elgin State Hospital”), the annual Hiawatha Pageant was a big deal. Started by Carl Parlasca (Par) at scouting encampments, it grew over the years to a full outdoor production at Camp Big Timber of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s THE SONG OF HIAWATHA.

According to the May 5, 1985, article in the Daily Courier-News, in the beginning …

… Par began teaching the Scouts the intricate and symbolic Indian dances he had first learned from Eddie Little Chief, a Rosebud Sioux, when they were together in the 101 Ranch Wild West Show.

The Pars many years of friendship with Indians and help with their problems led to tribal adoptions. To their Indian friends, he became known as Wanbli-wan-ka-tu-ya (High Eagle) and [his wife’s] name was Wa-wo-ki-ye-win (Helping Woman.)

By the early 1960s boys would join through Scouts while girls would try out when reaching high school, which then started in 10th grade (junior high was 7-9th grades).
I went with my friends to the series of sessions for about 100 girls from both Elgin high schools in which we learned to perform one of the dances before participants were chosen. My cheerleading friends expected to be chosen; of course I did not.

Surprisingly I was chosen with approximately 15 other girls and the cheerleaders were not. I realized that my father’s Zimbler family members (my father’s parents were first cousins) were excellent dancers – I must have inherited those genes. We then had weekly dance practice to learn the Indian Summer dance, and we worked on beading our own headband and sewing (or having sewn) our Indian squaw dress.

The following summer we Indian Summer Dancers performed the Indian Summer dance. We had the privilege in the opening scene, wrapped in blankets, of walking through cow pastures trying to avoid stepping on the cow pats.

An undated newspaper article (probably spring 1965) has the headline: “Kwo-Ne-She Ceremony: Indian Dancer Girls Advance.”

The article begins: “The annual Kwo-Ne-She Adoption Ceremony was held for 14 Hiawatha Indian Dancers this week in Marie Grolich Lodge at Camp Tu-Endie-Wei.”

The article includes this information: “Parlasca said the adoption ceremony was based on authentic American Indian tradition.” The article gives our names and the Indian names we were given at the ceremony — mine was Silver Birch.

As Kwo-Ne-She Dancers we learned the complex Kwo-Ne-She dance, which we danced the following summer. (According to the May 5, 1985, newspaper article, Kwo-Ne-She dancers were added in 1948).

The last pageant was held in 1979, and Par died at the the age of 97 eight months later.

Because of participating in the Hiawatha Pageant, I became interested in American Indian culture, and subsequently I taught my two children to appreciate this culture. Thus it is no surprise that my younger daughter brought Joe Rogan’s podcast to my attention.

In a fitting postscript, an exhibit on the Hiawatha Pageant is one of seven permanent exhibits of the Elgin [Illinois} History Museum:

Hiawatha Pageant celebrates the long-running annual pageant staged by Carl Parlasca. The colorful exhibit features authentic Native American costumes as well as costumes created for the pageant itself.