Post by Okwes on Jul 21, 2006 10:32:16 GMT -5
Dance troupe preserves Nanticoke traditions
The Nanticoke is not one of the 561 tribes recognized by the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs, but its long history in southern Delaware is unquestioned.
Thursday, July 20, 2006
by James Melchiorre
On a sunny, breezy Sunday, Cory Jackson is dressed head to toe in black and white, preparing to dance for an audience of 30 people at southern Delaware's Nanticoke Indian Center.
During the week, Jackson is a college student at the University of Delaware in Newark.
On this, and many other weekends throughout the year, she travels 90 miles south to her home community of Oak Orchard, to perform with a dance troupe called "NDN Stix Chix." The idea for the troupe grew out of a youth group activity at Indian Mission United Methodist Church in nearby Harbeson, Del.
"I like it because it's Christian, which is a big part of me; it's Native American, which is the other huge part of me," Jackson says.
Jackson, whose tribal name is Nightingale, is Nanticoke, a member of a Native American tribe whose history in what is now Delaware dates back thousands of years.
The other members of NDN Stix Chix (NDN is slang for Indian) are also Nanticoke. They are Kayleigh Vickers (Running Brook), 15; Carissa Miller (Little White Dove), 16; Kryssy Johnson (Little Fawn), 15; and Brittany Carney (Dancing Fawn), 13. All of them look up to their college-age friend.
"Cory is like the brains of the bunch," Carney says. "She's like our mom. She tells us what to do."
Raggatha Calentine, an Indian Mission member who is Cherokee, proposed the idea of forming the troupe, which celebrates Nanticoke cultural tradition.
"We thought it might be a good idea to start performing," Vickers recalls.
"In the last three years, we've gotten really close," she adds.
Jean "Princess Laughing Water" Norwood has watched the evolution of Stix Chix with approval.
"These girls have become our leaders," Norwood says. "They have, in a few short years, really been able to go out and express themselves in ways that 10, 20 years ago, our young people would have felt uncomfortable doing."
Norwood has a historical perspective that none of the five young dancers could possibly share. She grew up in Oak Orchard in the late 1940s, an era of racial segregation laws in Delaware. Just as African Americans attended public schools only with other black students, the Nanticoke went to what were called "Indian" schools.
"We were isolated from little children up," Norwood remembers. "We were trained to stay among our own people."
Her childhood memories include going to a dime store with her grandfather and having the freedom to walk about, to look at merchandise, without interference from the clerk. "But if I went in there the next day with one of my friends, she would follow us around because she thought we might steal something."
As a Nanticoke elder, as well as director of historical and cultural affairs for her tribe, Norwood says she's encouraged by the Stix Chix, and she wants Nanticoke youth to feel comfortable and to succeed in the larger society, provided they don't lose their cultural identity as Native people.
"You can never know where you're going if you don't know where you came from," Norwood says.
'We are still here'
Sunday morning services are ending at Indian Mission United Methodist, a congregation established in 1881.
Surrounding the church on three sides are graves of generations of Nanticoke Methodists, their tombstones just as likely to exhibit Native American symbols, such as the feather, as they are to display the Christian cross.
A few miles down the road, at the Nanticoke Indian Center, the Stix Chix are rehearsing for a noon program to observe Native American Ministries Sunday, marked each year by United Methodist congregations.
The rehearsal seems a little desultory, the dancers still in street clothes and moving through their parts half-heartedly.
Not to worry, according to Vickers. "When we practice, we goof up, and act up, and mess up. But when we get out there and perform, we do our best."
Thirty minutes later, her prediction proves accurate.
The audience assembles, a single drum reverberates, and the Stix Chix appear, dressed in a variety of Native clothing, from jingle dresses to traditional robes, and performing a variety of dance styles, including what's known as "fancy" dancing.
The girls perform three pieces, including one they choreographed themselves that ends with the staccato sound of their "sticks" and the simple declaration of Nanticoke determination to survive: "We are still here. We will continue to be here."
This Sunday afternoon program includes original storytelling by Raggatha Calentine, a solo singing performance by Chief James "Tee" Norwood (Tidewater Laughing Wolf), and music by Bo Harris, a Lakota. Harris first plays the woodwind instrument called the "courting" flute, then begins a dance for peace and healing, wearing a dress given to her by Michalene Bigman, a Native American soldier serving her second tour of duty in Iraq.
In the final performance of the afternoon, Harris leads a circle dance which is joined by almost every member of the audience, as well as the Stix Chix.
Saving history
Stix Chix emerged because of an effort by Nanticoke elders to reverse what they believed was the steady disappearance of their tribal traditions. Perhaps the most important single step they took was resuming annual gatherings, called powwows, in the late 1970s.
"For too many years, our people were told they're not Indian," Norwood says.
The Nanticoke is not one of the 561 tribes recognized by the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs, but its long history in southern Delaware is unquestioned.
"There is no doubt that there is a cultural tradition associated with the Nanticoke going back thousands of years," says Jay Custer, a professor at the University of Delaware.
Or, as Norwood puts it: "We were here when Captain John Smith came up the Nanticoke River.
"We're very proud of our ancestors," she says. "All of our history so far has been written by someone else. I just think it's great that we're doing it ourselves."
A responsibility
Cory Jackson will soon begin her sophomore year at college. She loves all kinds of dance and often visits friends near New York so she can see Broadway plays.
She admits the dancer's life appeals to her. But for now, she expects to keep making the pilgrimage to Oak Orchard to perform with her lifelong friends as a member of Stix Chix.
"It's amazing to think that my great-great-great-great-grandfather was on the same land, that they were actually here and they were living their lives in the old traditional ways and yet we're still here trying to keep the ways," Jackson says.
"It's an amazing responsibility."
UMNS. Melchiorre is a freelance producer based in New York City.
The Nanticoke is not one of the 561 tribes recognized by the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs, but its long history in southern Delaware is unquestioned.
Thursday, July 20, 2006
by James Melchiorre
On a sunny, breezy Sunday, Cory Jackson is dressed head to toe in black and white, preparing to dance for an audience of 30 people at southern Delaware's Nanticoke Indian Center.
During the week, Jackson is a college student at the University of Delaware in Newark.
On this, and many other weekends throughout the year, she travels 90 miles south to her home community of Oak Orchard, to perform with a dance troupe called "NDN Stix Chix." The idea for the troupe grew out of a youth group activity at Indian Mission United Methodist Church in nearby Harbeson, Del.
"I like it because it's Christian, which is a big part of me; it's Native American, which is the other huge part of me," Jackson says.
Jackson, whose tribal name is Nightingale, is Nanticoke, a member of a Native American tribe whose history in what is now Delaware dates back thousands of years.
The other members of NDN Stix Chix (NDN is slang for Indian) are also Nanticoke. They are Kayleigh Vickers (Running Brook), 15; Carissa Miller (Little White Dove), 16; Kryssy Johnson (Little Fawn), 15; and Brittany Carney (Dancing Fawn), 13. All of them look up to their college-age friend.
"Cory is like the brains of the bunch," Carney says. "She's like our mom. She tells us what to do."
Raggatha Calentine, an Indian Mission member who is Cherokee, proposed the idea of forming the troupe, which celebrates Nanticoke cultural tradition.
"We thought it might be a good idea to start performing," Vickers recalls.
"In the last three years, we've gotten really close," she adds.
Jean "Princess Laughing Water" Norwood has watched the evolution of Stix Chix with approval.
"These girls have become our leaders," Norwood says. "They have, in a few short years, really been able to go out and express themselves in ways that 10, 20 years ago, our young people would have felt uncomfortable doing."
Norwood has a historical perspective that none of the five young dancers could possibly share. She grew up in Oak Orchard in the late 1940s, an era of racial segregation laws in Delaware. Just as African Americans attended public schools only with other black students, the Nanticoke went to what were called "Indian" schools.
"We were isolated from little children up," Norwood remembers. "We were trained to stay among our own people."
Her childhood memories include going to a dime store with her grandfather and having the freedom to walk about, to look at merchandise, without interference from the clerk. "But if I went in there the next day with one of my friends, she would follow us around because she thought we might steal something."
As a Nanticoke elder, as well as director of historical and cultural affairs for her tribe, Norwood says she's encouraged by the Stix Chix, and she wants Nanticoke youth to feel comfortable and to succeed in the larger society, provided they don't lose their cultural identity as Native people.
"You can never know where you're going if you don't know where you came from," Norwood says.
'We are still here'
Sunday morning services are ending at Indian Mission United Methodist, a congregation established in 1881.
Surrounding the church on three sides are graves of generations of Nanticoke Methodists, their tombstones just as likely to exhibit Native American symbols, such as the feather, as they are to display the Christian cross.
A few miles down the road, at the Nanticoke Indian Center, the Stix Chix are rehearsing for a noon program to observe Native American Ministries Sunday, marked each year by United Methodist congregations.
The rehearsal seems a little desultory, the dancers still in street clothes and moving through their parts half-heartedly.
Not to worry, according to Vickers. "When we practice, we goof up, and act up, and mess up. But when we get out there and perform, we do our best."
Thirty minutes later, her prediction proves accurate.
The audience assembles, a single drum reverberates, and the Stix Chix appear, dressed in a variety of Native clothing, from jingle dresses to traditional robes, and performing a variety of dance styles, including what's known as "fancy" dancing.
The girls perform three pieces, including one they choreographed themselves that ends with the staccato sound of their "sticks" and the simple declaration of Nanticoke determination to survive: "We are still here. We will continue to be here."
This Sunday afternoon program includes original storytelling by Raggatha Calentine, a solo singing performance by Chief James "Tee" Norwood (Tidewater Laughing Wolf), and music by Bo Harris, a Lakota. Harris first plays the woodwind instrument called the "courting" flute, then begins a dance for peace and healing, wearing a dress given to her by Michalene Bigman, a Native American soldier serving her second tour of duty in Iraq.
In the final performance of the afternoon, Harris leads a circle dance which is joined by almost every member of the audience, as well as the Stix Chix.
Saving history
Stix Chix emerged because of an effort by Nanticoke elders to reverse what they believed was the steady disappearance of their tribal traditions. Perhaps the most important single step they took was resuming annual gatherings, called powwows, in the late 1970s.
"For too many years, our people were told they're not Indian," Norwood says.
The Nanticoke is not one of the 561 tribes recognized by the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs, but its long history in southern Delaware is unquestioned.
"There is no doubt that there is a cultural tradition associated with the Nanticoke going back thousands of years," says Jay Custer, a professor at the University of Delaware.
Or, as Norwood puts it: "We were here when Captain John Smith came up the Nanticoke River.
"We're very proud of our ancestors," she says. "All of our history so far has been written by someone else. I just think it's great that we're doing it ourselves."
A responsibility
Cory Jackson will soon begin her sophomore year at college. She loves all kinds of dance and often visits friends near New York so she can see Broadway plays.
She admits the dancer's life appeals to her. But for now, she expects to keep making the pilgrimage to Oak Orchard to perform with her lifelong friends as a member of Stix Chix.
"It's amazing to think that my great-great-great-great-grandfather was on the same land, that they were actually here and they were living their lives in the old traditional ways and yet we're still here trying to keep the ways," Jackson says.
"It's an amazing responsibility."
UMNS. Melchiorre is a freelance producer based in New York City.