Travels with Frances Densmore: Her Life, Work, and Legacy in Native American Studies

463 Pages·2015·83.314 MB·English

by  Joan M. Jensen, Michelle Wick Patterson

TRAVELS WITH FRANCES DENSMORE

Travels with
Frances Densmore
Her Life, Work, and Legacy
in Native American Studies
EDITED BY JOAN M. JENSEN AND
MICHELLE WICK PATTERSON
University of Nebraska Press | Lincoln and London
© 2015 by the Board of Regents of
the University of Nebraska
Acknowledgments for the use of copyrighted
material appear on pages 299, 361, 382, and 404,
which constitute an extension of the copyright page.
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Travels with Frances Densmore: her life, work,
and legacy in Native American studies / edited by
Joan M. Jensen and Michelle Wick Patterson.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978- 0- 8032- 4873- 1 (cloth: alk. paper)
ISBN 978- 0- 8032-7 494- 5 (epub)
ISBN 978-0 -8 032-7 495-2 (mobi)
ISBN 978- 0- 8032- 7496- 9 (pdf)
1. Densmore, Frances, 1867– 1957.
2. Ethnomusicologists— United States— Biography.
3. Ethnomusicology— United States. 4. Densmore,
Frances, 1867– 1957—E thnomusicological collections.
5. Indians of North America— Music— History and
criticism. 6. Indians of North America— Material
culture— Collectors and collecting. I. Jensen,
Joan M. II. Patterson, Michelle Wick, 1973–
ML423.D36T73 2015
781.62'970092— dc23
[B]
2015004843
Set in Lyon by Lindsey Auten.
Designed by N. Putens.
CONTENTS
List of Illustrations .................................... vii
Preface ...............................................ix
Introduction: Traveling with Frances Densmore ...........1
JOAN M. JENSEN AND MICHELLE WICK PATTERSON
Part 1. Frances Densmore’s Life and Work
1. She Always Said, “I Heard an Indian Drum” ............ 29
MICHELLE WICK PATTERSON
2. Becoming Two White Buffalo Woman .................. 65
MICHELLE WICK PATTERSON
3. By Train, by Boat, by Model T .........................118
JOAN M. JENSEN
4. Getting the Depression Blues ..........................175
JOAN M. JENSEN
5. Cut, Paste, Delete, Preserve .......................... 202
MICHELLE WICK PATTERSON
6. Gone but Not Quite Forgotten ........................ 242
JOAN M. JENSEN
Part 2. Conversations
7. Miss Densmore Meets the Ojibwes: Frances
Densmore’s Ethnomusicology Studies among
the Grand Portage Ojibwes in 1905 .................... 287
NANCY L. WOOLWORTH
8. Songs of Healing: Music Therapy of Native
America, a Medical Ethnomusicology Study ........... 302
STEPHANIE THORNE
9. Familiar Faces: Densmore’s Minnesota Photographs .... 316
BRUCE WHITE
10. Collection with a Mission: Frances Densmore’s
Chippewa Artifacts ...................................351
CAROLYN GILMAN
11. An Archival Dilemma: The Densmore Cylinder
Recording Speeds ................................... 362
JUDITH GRAY
12. Frances Densmore’s Chippewa Music .................. 384
THOMAS J. VENNUM JR.
Conclusion: A Picture Is Worth Deconstructing ........409
JOAN M. JENSEN AND MICHELLE WICK PATTERSON
Note on Sources: How to Continue Traveling
with Densmore ...................................... 421
Index ............................................... 425
ILLUSTRATIONS
1.1. Promotional pamphlet .................................35
1.2. Frances and Margaret Densmore with Capt. and
Mrs. Herman Finger, 1905 ............................. 43
1.3. Frances Densmore and Ojibwe informant
Maingans, 1908 .......................................51
2.1. Robert Higheagle, ca. 1908 ............................ 74
2.2. Robert Higheagle, ca. 1908 ............................ 75
2.3. Red Fox with sunglasses ............................... 83
2.4. Margaret Densmore at campground in Minnesota ....... 92
2.5. Northern Ute interpreter Fred Mart with his family ......97
2.6. Northern Ute leader Red Cap with his family ...........100
2.7. “Ute Using Morache” ................................108
3.1. Young Doctor, 1923 ...................................125
3.2. Dabac, 1923 ......................................... 126
3.3. Hazel Parker Butler .................................. 127
3.4. Josie Billie ..........................................146
3.5. Densmore photographing at Everglade Camp, 1931– 32 .. 148
3.6. Camp at Black River Falls, Wisconsin, ca. 1929 ..........155
3.7. Ho- Chunk (Winnebago) women, ca. 1929 ............. 159
3.8. John Thunder, 1929 .................................. 161
4.1. Densmore in the 1920s ............................... 177
4.2. Densmore family house in Red Wing .................. 186
4.3. Densmore and Ojibwe singers and drummers
at radio station ......................................190
4.4. Densmore with Susan Windgrow ..................... 193
5.1. Densmore’s eraser, slide rule, and pitch pipe ........... 203
5.2. Densmore at home .................................. 218
9.1. Densmore holding box camera ........................323
9.2. Interior of Little Spruce’s home ....................... 324
9.3. Wadena and Charette, 1907 .......................... 326
9.4. Women’s Dance, 1907 ............................... 327
9.5. Mary Warren English, ca. 1910–2 0 .................... 328
9.6. George Big Bear, ca. 1910 ............................ 330
9.7. Noodinens, ca. 1918 ..................................335
9.8. Mary Razer draws her gill nets, 1917 ................... 337
9.9. Mary Razer inspecting and mending her nets ...........338
9.10. Big Bear family ...................................... 343
9.11. Big Bear family and Razer pounding rice, 1922 .........344
11.1. Densmore’s graphophone ............................ 373
12.1. Odjibwe, dressed informally .......................... 393
13.1. Mountain Chief interpreting with Densmore, 1916 .....408
13.2. Mountain Chief at the Trans- Mississippi
International Exposition, 1898 ........................414
13.3. Photograph of Mountain Chief, 1903 .................. 415
viii Illustrations
PREFACE
It all started in a typically western way. We were attending the 2009
Western History Association conference in Denver. After a long day of
listening to others talk about their work, we were at the bar drinking beer
and talking about our lives and work. It was one of those fragmented
talks when people who have not seen each other for a while are catching
up. Joan was sitting next to Margaret Jacobs, who had recently left New
Mexico to teach in Nebraska. She missed their frequent lunches where
they talked about their research. Joan was telling Margaret that after
finally finishing her latest book project, which had taken Joan almost
fifteen years to complete, she was sorting leftover scraps to fashion into
articles. A short project was what she needed now. Joan had a leftover
file on Frances Densmore, material that had not made it into her book
on Wisconsin women. Densmore had been one of her sources, not a
major one, but one that had intrigued her. Joan was interested in what
women had said about other women in Wisconsin and why. Densmore
had visited Ojibwe women in the region in the 1910s and written about
them, not as a historian, but as an anthropologist, and Joan thought she
might write an article on how Densmore looked at the Native women
she visited and why. Suddenly Margaret said she was going to move
because Joan should talk to the person who was sitting on her other
side as she was also talking about the anthropologist named Frances
Densmore. That person was Michelle Patterson, and nearly five years
later we are still talking and writing about Densmore.
ix