Table Of Content

[TAR HEEL JUNIOR HISTORIAN THE STATE HISTORY JOURNAL FOR INQUIRING STUDENTS Fall 1991 Volume 31, Number 1 TAR HEEL JUNIOR HISTORIAN THE STATE HISTORY JOURNAL FOR INQUIRING STUDENTS Fall 1991 Volume 31, Number 1 CONTENTS State of North Carolina James G. Martin, Governor Department of Cultural Resources Patric Dorsey, Secretary 1 Introduction: So, What Is “Folklife” Anyway? Division of Archives and History Sally Council, Patricia Gantt, and Beverly Patterson William S. Price. Jr., Director Lawrence G. Misenheimer. Assistant Director Museum of History 3 Voices of the Elders John D. Ellington, Administrator Irene Moser Wesley Creel, Assistant Administrator Education and Interpretation Branch Janice C. Williams, Curator Tar Heel Junior Historian Association 6 Voices of Newcomers Doris McLean Bates, Executive Secretary Sally Peterson Tar Heel Junior Historian Staff John Lee Bumgarner, Editor. Designer Melissa Johnson, Contributing Editor Ursula G. Glass and Anna Grantham, 9 Fried Chicken and Tortillas Editorial Assistants Janet Sanner, Photography Researcher Martha Nelson Susan Fender, Illustrator Tar Heel Junior Historian Association 12 Honoring the Masters: Advisory Board Doris McLean Bates, John Lee Bumgarner, North Carolina Folk Heritage Awards Faye L. Freeman, Carolyn Grubbs, Terry Holt, Lesley Williams Lynn Lye, R. Jackson Marshall III. Nancy Mills, Terry Shive, Janice Williams Consulting Editors 18 Put a Nickel in the Piccolo Sally Council, Patricia Gantt, and Beverly Patterson Glenn Hinson THE PURPOSE of the Tar Heel Junior Historian 24 .. I wish you could hear it.” magazine (ISSN 0496-8913) is to present the Michael Luster history of North Carolina for this state's young people through a well-balanced selection of scholarly articles, photographs, and illustrations. 26 Reading Stones It is published two times per year by the Tar Heel Daniel W. Patterson Junior Historian Association, North Carolina Museum of History, 109 East Jones Street, Raleigh, North Carolina 27601-2807. Copies are provided free to association members, along with 32 Lint in Our Veins the association newsletter, Crossroads. Individual Charles G. Zug III and library subscriptions may be purchased at the rate of $4.00 per year. © Copyright 1992, North Carolina Division of Archives and History. 38 Southern Music Comes Home EDITORIAL POLICY: The Tar Heel Junior Michael T. Casey and Beverly Patterson Historian solicits manuscripts from expert scholars for each issue. Articles are selected for publication by the editor in consultation with the managing editors and other experts. The editor 42 “Yo, Dude! What’s Up?” reserves the right to make changes in articles Connie Eble accepted for publication but will consult the author should substantive questions arise. Published articles do not necessarily represent the views of 45 Meet the Authors the N.C. Museum of History, the Division of Archives and History, the Department of Cultural Resources, or of any other state agency. Student 45 Acknowledgments articles are welcomed. Guidelines for student articles are listed in the “Advisers' Supplement." THE TEXT of this journal is available on magnetic recording tape from the Library for the Blind and In memoriam: This folklife issue of the Tar Heel Junior Physically Handicapped. For information call 1-800-662-7726. EIGHT THOUSAND five Historian is dedicated to Walter and Dorothy Auman. who hundred copies were produced at an approximate tragically died in an automobile accident on October 17, cost of $7975.00 or $.94 per copy 1991. Both were beloved members of their community and were active in making North Carolinians more aware of their Front cover designed by Sally Council and Beverly Patterson. folklife heritage, particularly in pottery. They will be missed. PRINTED WITH SOY INK N.C. DOCUMENTS Introduction CLEARINGHOUSE JAN 2 199? N.C. STATE LIBRARY RALEIGH so, what is A definition of folklife In 1976, the United States Congress had to define “folklife.” Its formal definition became part of the law that set up the American Folklife Center in Washington. This is what the defi¬ nition says: American folklife “means the traditional expressive culture shared within the various groups in “folklife” the United States: familial, ethnic, occupational, religious, regional: expressive culture includes a wide range of creative and symbolic forms such as custom, belief, technical skill, language, literature, art, archi¬ tecture, music, play, dance, drama, ritual, pageantry, handicraft; these expressions are mainly learned oral¬ anyway? ly, by imitation, or in performance, and are generally maintained without benefit of formal instruction or institu¬ tional direction.” S By Sally Council, o, what is “folklife” anyway? If you still wonder after reading that official-sounding definition, relax. After 150 years of studying Patricia Gantt, and folklife, we—folklife researchers— still ask that same question. Why? Because we are still learning about folklife. And we invite you to keep Beverly Patterson asking and learning with us. A few things about folklife are use¬ ful to keep in mind. First, because it lives in what people say and do and not in what they write, we have to learn from people themselves. Also, because people pass it among them¬ selves and from one generation to the next, folklife changes. And finally, i folklife is part of group life. When down and go away this must be interpreters. They write about ordi¬ people do things together, they done before sun rise thre morn¬ nary people in different parts of the naturally develop their own ing in Sucesion befor speaking state, from the coast to the moun¬ group customs. to any person tains. They write about different sub¬ Folklife sometimes puzzles us. 4th December 1832 jects, from gravestones of the 1700s It works in ways that are not always to today’s college slang. And they easy to see. For example, two young What is going on? What do such use different methods of reporting: neighborhood friends sang this popu¬ accusations and cures mean? Did interviews, historical accounts, and lar children’s song with a parent at a the church take witchcraft seriously? narratives. All emphasize communi¬ funeral for one of their pets: Did the other family try this cure? No ties because this is where folklife one knows. Too many details are really lives. On top of spaghetti missing. Families, occupational groups, All covered with cheese, Researchers realized after a while ethnic groups, and age groups are I lost my poor meatball that more complete information about among the communities you will read When somebody sneezed. folklife comes directly from people, about. These are only a few of many and they began doing “fieldwork”— possibilities, but they will help you Why did they choose that song? going to people and collecting infor¬ think of others that are part of your What reasons can you imagine? mation from them. In the early own experience. We know that each We found out they wanted to sing 1900s, Olive Dame Campbell invited community we feature represents something, and it was just the first Englishman and music scholar Cecil countless others in North Carolina— song they thought of that they all Sharp to visit the North Carolina all valuable, all creative. knew. To understand their surpris¬ mountains to collect ballads. As Throughout the issue, you will also ing choice, we needed to ask for people sang, Sharp and a co-worker see some individuals highlighted. their explanation. wrote down the tunes and words An article on the Southern Folklife When people first tried to study of their “old love songs.” Sharp Collection in Chapel Hill tells the sur¬ folklife, they often looked for it in old described the region as a place prising story of a young Australian manuscripts and publications. They where “singing was as common whose record collection became the pulled out items like two we find in and almost as universal as speaking.” crown jewel in that North Carolina our state archives. First, one Unfortunately, he never thought to library. Other articles feature winners manuscript dated about 1700 says ask mountain farmers why they liked of North Carolina Folk Heritage that one woman complained to her songs about castles and sword Awards. They won awards because Presbyterian church that another fights and the sad loves of British they and their communities have woman had bewitched her child. lords and ladies. made important contributions to the A second example, this “cure” for Folklorists today want to do more cultural life of the state. cancer, appears in a collection of than just “collect” ballads or blues, What is “folklife” to people like this? family papers: superstitions or tales, quilts or pot¬ For us to know, we must ask what tery. They want to use these things tunes or stories they know. Ask them To Cure A Cancer to learn about the singers, story¬ how to crochet, build a boat, or make Go to a savanah Bush and say tellers, workers, and artists them¬ barbecue. Ask how they learned what did You Come here for to selves. They study folklife because those things and why they do them, Cure a Cancer and brake of a they want to understand the people and listen carefully. Then you will not twigg. Then say who it is on that history and literature books often need a formal definition. You will be brake another twigg then say leave out. learning about folklife firsthand, where the Cancer is brake Our writers in this issue, mostly where it lives. You will be a part of another twigg throw the twiggs folklorists, try to serve as cultural what “folklife” means. □ Definitions Narratives are stories. A cultural interpreter is a person who can thoughtfully explain the beliefs and customs of a group of people. Occupational groups are people who share a body of knowledge and values that develop in their jobs. An ethnic group consists of people who share a par¬ ticular culture and the language and customs common to that group. 2 Voices of the elders By Irene Moser I n the beginning of the world, smiled pleasantly at him. And the daughter back from the Ghost country 1 when people and animals Sun was jealous. She planned to kill if they wanted the sun to come out 1 were all the same. . .So all the people. She sent down such again. They chose seven men to go begins a Cherokee myth collected hot rays that people died by the hun¬ to the Ghost country and capture the in North Carolina by James Mooney dreds from a fever. Sun’s daughter. around 1890. Even today, native “The people feared that no one “When they found her, they put her American communities in the state would be left. They went for help to in a box and started home. She are familiar with this myth’s view of the Little Men who said the only way pleaded so hard for air that they lifted nature and the world. In this view, all people could save themselves was to the lid a little. As they did, they heard of nature is interrelated, like a family. kill the Sun. The Little Men made a fluttering sound inside. Something All of the two-legged animals, the medicine and changed some of the flew past them and they heard a four-legged animals, the plants, the men into snakes and sent them to redbird cry in the thicket. They shut earth, the sky, and the winds affect watch near the door of the daughter the lid and went on to the settle¬ each other. As a result, what humans of the Sun. The snakes planned to ments. But when they got there and do affects the earth and sky, and bite the old Sun when she came for opened the box, it was empty. So we what animals do affects humans. We dinner. know the Redbird is the daughter of can see those ideas in a tale that “But the Rattlesnake was so quick the Sun. Mooney heard about the Sun and and eager that he sprang up and bit “When the men came back without her daughter. the Sun’s daughter when she opened her daughter, the Sun grieved and “The Sun’s daughter lived in the the door to look out for her mother. wept until her tears made a flood middle of the sky. Every day as the And she fell dead in the doorway. upon the earth. The people were Sun climbed along the sky arch to the “When the Sun found her daughter afraid the world would be drowned, west, she used to stop at her daugh¬ dead, she went into the house and and they sent their handsomest ter’s house for dinner. grieved. The people did not die any young men and women to amuse “Now the Sun hated the people on more, but now the world was dark all her. They danced and sang their the earth because they could never the time because the Sun would not best songs for her, but she paid look straight at her without screwing come out. no attention. up their faces. Her brother the Moon “The Little Men told the people that “The drummer suddenly changed liked them because they always they would have to bring the Sun’s the song. She lifted up her face and 1 Adapted from James Mooney, "Myths of the Cherokee," in Nineteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, 1897-1898, by J W. Powell (Washington. D C.: Government Printing Office, 1900). 3 was so pleased at the sight that she forgot her grief and smiled.”1 Native American communities in North Carolina also have historical tales about the experiences of their own people. The Lumbees, for example, remember and tell legends of Henry Berry Lowry. Lowry is known to many North Carolinians through the outdoor drama, Strike at the Wind. The play shows his resist¬ ance to being forced to work for the Confederate army. It is based on tales that are told in the Lumbee community. In a 1985 interview, an elderly Lumbee man told a university student how he learned about Henry Berry Lowry. He had listened to “old- timers” talk. “On weekends,” he said, “my daddy and them would sit up after twelve o'clock at night. And I was a little boy and would sit right down there beside my daddy and Gray-Eyed Jim and them other old men. . . . And that’s all they would talk about—Henry Berry Lowry. And I Native Americans continue traditions begun generations ago. (Previous page) Some prepare foods in traditional ways. Many native Americans go to pow-wows to experience native American traditions (Above). Others learn skills like how to use a blowgun (Next page. top). defending their community. His see him. We’ve got him covered up friends “had a plan for Henry Berry in a sheet. No, don’t move that to get away, to escape from being sheet over.’ And they had put some an outlaw.” blood on that sheet from that goat. “Henry Berry and his brothers had And people swore that Henry Berry planned what to do. They took had killed himself. some long oak poles and made them “And he was out yonder in that a set of stretchers. And [they] had buggy. [A man] took him out of killed [a] goat and put him on that North Carolina and put him on a stretcher. And [while people were train. So that’s what ended Henry partying], Henry Berry left them all Berry being an outlaw. That was the around in the front yard, and went end of it. Yeah, that is a true story around to the side of the house. about Henry Berry Lowry,” said the And when he went around back of storyteller. “He is a great man.” 2 that barn, he threw his gun up and In telling the tales of his own com¬ shot the corner of the barn. And you munity, this storyteller was partici¬ learned most of that stuff from them could see that load of shot at the pating in an ancient tradition. old wise fellers.” corner of the barn. Ancestors of modern native One of his stories was about “They all went a’hollering and cry¬ Americans came to North Carolina Lowry’s mysterious fate. During ing and going on that Henry Berry about 10,000 years ago. Today, 1865-1874, Lowry had led a group of had killed himself. And people went each native American community young men who used violence in running around there said, ‘You can’t takes pride in its particular traditions. 2 From an unpublished paper, "Tales of Henry Berry Lowry," by Betsy Burrows, 1985. 4 community elders often teach their young people. Before tribes had writing, skilled members of the tribe taught by performance, practice, and oral instruction. They still do that today. A nationally known Cherokee basketmaker, Eva Wolfe, learned her art from her mother and her aunt when she was quite young. Another, Emma Taylor, who can identify Cherokee basketmakers by their unique patterns, now teaches her own daughters how to make beautiful baskets. Other community elders work hard to strengthen ancient and endan¬ gered ceremonial arts and customs. Walker Calhoun, for example, is a Eva Wolfe Walker Calhoun respected medicine man and spiritu¬ These communities have much in al leader. From his uncle, he And they learn how to make common besides tale-telling tradi¬ learned much about Cherokee histo¬ traditional breads from beans and tions. Like their ancestors, they share ry, lore, religion, and herbal healing. chestnuts and how to make fried a sense of personal responsibility for And when his uncle died, Calhoun hominy. From their elders they can family and community. They share a began teaching ceremonial dance also learn games like stickball and practical regard for nature as a and medicine songs to the younger skills like how to use a blowgun. source of knowledge and health. generations. Most of all though, they learn that And they share respect for traditional Young Cherokees still learn from understanding their past can ways of life. their families which wild herbs will strengthen them for living in the We see such respect in the way take the gamy taste from venison. present. □ Definitions A myth is a tale of unknown origin that serves to Legends are tales told as the truth about particular explain the natural world and human origins and people, places, or events. customs. 5 Story cloths—a new type of paj ntaub—show in pictures recent history of the Hmong. Can you think of any other things like story cloths in North Carolina? This story cloth, made by Sao Doumma. from Thailand, was made about 1989. She tells her story in words beneath the pictures. Can you match these words to the pictures? “This is the story of a ex-nurse and ex-soldier. The nurse is Hmong. The soldier is American. / The soldier fight in the river where the girl went to wash in its red water. / The soldier fight in the village where the temple stand for 30 years. / The soldier fight in the rice [field] where the men work with the water buffalo. / The soldier fight in the mountain. / [T]he soldier fight because the [cjommunist come and bomb the people. / The soldier see the nurse go through the village everyday. The nurse see the soldier too but nobody say nothing. / All the enemy live in hole. They kill Hmong when they go to work in the rice [field], [Then one] come and kill all the sold[i]er who make a road. / The nurse care for the dieing [dying] American[s] and Hmong. The great sold[i]er is sad because his friends are dead. And the nurse sees this but they don't speak the words that are important. / But now the sold[i]er tell the Hmong general I show you how to kill communist. The nurse run after the sold[i]er but he go to[o] fast. / He go to the place they make a road and with a big car [bulldozer] he cut the land where the enemy hide in holes. In 4 holes hundreds of communist die. / Then one day the sold[i]er lay in the street of the village for 2 days the children cry and say to nurse to make well. / The nurse care for the American for 30 days. They learn all about each other. / Now they said those things that are important. Goodby nurse. Your and your people. I never forget. Goodby American, my eyes all ways see you. My mouth all ways speak your name. I’m not forget you. You will see. / The nurse name is Sao Doumma and the American name is Don. Sao live in American now. Yuba City." 6 L o Ma climbs a low ridge that they can once again raise their own marks the border of his property food and animals. And they are in the rolling hills near working hard to develop skills that will Morganion, in Burke County. He allow them to be self-reliant in their gazes past his split-level brick home, new country. beyond the vans and cars in the Lo Ma and his family are good driveway, the large kitchen garden, examples of how the Hmong con¬ the chicken coop. His eyes rest on tribute to North Carolina. Lo Ma the blue hills and mountains in the works to help other Hmong newcom¬ west. “If you look at the mountains ers solve their problems and become and all, the trees, the nature is almost successful citizens of the state. His like our country,” he says softly. wife, Nia, believes it is important for Lo Ma and his family are new to Hmong people to demonstrate their North Carolina. They are Hmong traditions and to explain their culture (pronounced mong), and they came to their new neighbors. She has Voices of here from the mountains in a country trained her daughters in traditional called Laos, in Southeast Asia. Like dances and encourages them to per¬ other southeast Asians, they fled their form for Americans. newcomers homeland in 1975 after the Vietnam Nia also continues to sew the paj War (1964-1973). ntaub (pronounced pan dow), the The United States accepted over embroidery that decorates traditional 80,000 Hmong for resettlement, and clothing. A new kind of paj ntaub, several thousand have chosen to called “story cloths,” allows Hmong make their homes in North Carolina. women to embroider scenes from Most have found work in textile mills their recent history. and other industries. Many of them Hmong share their traditions with By Sally Peterson share a dream of owning land, so fellow North Carolinians in other ways. Recently, a group of Hmong and some local folklorists started a project at Clemmons Elementary School in Clemmons, Forsyth County. Several hours each week for two months they taught fourth graders about Hmong traditions. They taught them about gardening, house building, artwork such as batik, cooking, dances, games, reli¬ gion, and social life. They also built a replica Hmong house made from bamboo found in the North Carolina hills. After two months, the students planned a two-day festival to teach their schoolmates about the Hmong way of life. The Hmong teachers enjoyed the fourth graders’ work. In the years to come, the Hmong in North Carolina will find ways to be both Hmong and American. They hope to blend their traditions from their past with their new life in North Carolina. They want to make a suc¬ cessful future for themselves and their children. They know that as Americans they are free to celebrate their Hmong folk heritage. □ 7 The Hmong want to share their folklife with North Carolinians. Several visited students at Clemmons Elementary School in Clemmons (Above, left) and explained Hmong folklife. Those students then shared what they learned with the students in their school. For example, they explained how Hmong built bamboo houses (Above, right), taught Hmong games, and with help from the Hmong, taught others how to make batik (Left). Definitions A coop is a small cage or building for holding animals, Batik (pronounced bah teek) is a method of making like chickens. designs on cloth by covering it with wax in a pattern, coloring the exposed parts with dye, and removing the People who are self-reliant depend on themselves. wax. Paj ntaub means “flower cloth.” A replica is a copy. 8