Two Shields

[clarkkimberling]

Thank you, Bill, for the translation of Song 93 as sung by Two Shields. I wrote to Kenneth Lincoln, the author of Sing with the Heart of a Bear. He has consented to my posting his response here in the Two Shields thread.

Let me be clear. Nowhere in Sing with the Heart of a Bear do I translate the song-line “cante’ mato’kecaca,” attributed to Two Shields in Song 93, “A Wind from the North,” in Frances Densmore’s Teton Sioux Music, as explicitly citing a bear. The inference is from Two Shields in a chant attributed to White Shield, as stated by Densmore in the footnote on page 120 of Teton Sioux Music: “This is an instance of the ‘sacred language’ . . . cante’ mato’kecaca, also translated ‘with a heart that is different,’ but carrying the idea of the fierceness of a bear.”

That quotation is the epigraph which opens my study of Native and American Poetries and is repeated on page 4 of the first chapter. Read the book. The guardian bear seems a respected spirit throughout Native America, specific to Sioux cultures.

I was simply trying to establish a through-line for the study, contrasted with the “makings” of EuroAmerican texts in the twentieth century. The book discusses Native American cultural literacy as the bedrock to contemporary American literature, placing tribal song-poetry in a global context back to Homer. The “fierceness of a bear” implied in chanting “with a heart that is different” comes from Lakota singers via Densmore’s work around the second decade of the twentieth century, some hundred years ago. I am not dubbing her or mistranslating Two Shields, only citing the text. I defer to the noted Lakota expert William Powers in retranslating the lines for Clark Kimberling who initially asked for my assistance in tracking Two Shields.

As noted in the Acknowledgements, Mark Monroe the Lakota activist in my hometown of Alliance, Nebraska, Raymond J. DeMallie, Jr. the linguistic anthropologist and Lakota academic, and Wilbur Between Lodges the respected reservation elder checked my Lakota translations. I am indebted for their generous help.

There is, in fact, another reference to the bear's fierceness in Densmore's Teton Sioux Music. On page 195, under the heading SONGS CONCERNING THE BEAR, Densmore quotes two of her singers, presumably and significantly, through her interpreter, Robert P. Higheagle. The singers were Two Shields and Siyaka (Teal Duck), both of whom are represented by 20 songs in the book. (Next in number of songs were Lone Man and Gray Hawk, both with 18 songs.)

Two Shields said:

The bear is the only animal which is dreamed of as offering to give herbs for the healing of man. The bear is not afraid of either animals or men and it is considered ill-tempered, and yet it is the only animal which has shown us this kindness; therefore the medicines received from the bear are supposed to be especially effective.

In somewhat similar strain Siyaka said:

The bear is quick-tempered and is fierce in many ways, and yet he pays attention to herbs which no other animal notices at all. The bear digs these for his own use. The bear is the only animal which eats roots from the earth and is also especially fond of acorns, june berries, and cherries. These three are frequently compounded with other herbs in making medicine, and if a person is fond of cherries we say he is like a bear. We consider the bear a chief of all animals in regard to herb medicine, and therefore it is understood that is a man dreams of a bear he will be expert in the use of herbs for curing illness. The bear is regarded as an animal well acquainted with herbs because no other animal has such good claws for digging roots.

Clark

[clarkkimberling]

The remarkable photograph of Two Shields taken in 1909 can be seen by clicking


faculty.evansville.edu/ck6/bstud/TwoShieldsFiskePhoto1909C.bmp

I am pleased to identify the photo officially as follows:

State Historical Society of North Dakota 1952-6242.
Used by permission.

The year of the photo was just a few years before Two Shields sang Lakota songs for Frances Densmore. She recorded them on wax cylinders now kept in the Library of Congress.

The photograph was taken by Frank Bennett Fiske (1883-1952). For information about Fiske, including a photo, visit the North Dakota Cowboy Hall of Fame:

www.northdakotacowboy.com/Hall_of_Fame/Entertainment/fiske_frank.asp

Also North Dakota Online Artist Archive:

www.nd.gov/arts/online_artist_archive/images-pdfs/F/Fiske_FrankBennett.htm

Clark

[pineridgeporcupine]

Although I would like to begin immediately with a translation of Densmore's Song 152 "I Look for Him in Vain" sung by Two Shields, I feel it necessary to address myself to Clark's preceding post.

I think if he wants to intercede in the discussions of other contributors the public should know the contents of the query he made, in this case, to Kenneth Lincoln re: fierceness of the bear. The response appears to put Kenneth on the defense and for no reason at all. I have known Kenneth as a scholar of utmost integrity, of great erudition and literary wisdom. We first met in 1980 in Rome at the American Indian Workshop. I was privileged to review his remarkable book "Native American Renaissance" (University of California Press, 1983), regarding it as the first book to actually create a canon of Native American literature and by inference, art. To be clear about any illusions as to who translated Lakota/Dakota songs in his book, it was Densmore and Higheagle. There are many problems in Densmore's orthography and translations that will create problems that never will be solved except with astute conjecture, some of which can be attributed to me. My only question is how could three experts allow Kenneth to proceed without advising him of Densmore's linguistic limitations? If they were aware of them.

Next, there's no need to bring up other references to the fierceness of the bear. It's like beating a dead--well--bear. If one wants to start a blog on bears, there is a mountain of information outside Densmore's book. If one accepts that the bear, mato, does not appear in Song 93, let's allow mato to hibernate in peace and move on.

Now about Song 152 which Clark informs me "has found its way into mainstream American literature" by being published in The Heath Anthology of American Literature, second edition, volume 1. I cannot account for the reasons it appears in Heath, but I can say something about its translation. Densmore's reads:

As the young men go by,
I was looking for him.
It surprises me anew
that he is gone.
It is something
to which I can not
be reconciled.

Although we have never been advised about Densmore/Higheagle's translation procedure (eg, who made the final choice of words, etc), the above poem is based on Two Shield's Lakota indexed by her as "I Look for Him in Vain." Lakota songs during that period had no titles; Densmore created them for purposes of classification which is significant here because the title assumes that a woman is looking for someone and can't find him. It also is a war song which implicitly sets the scene. Anyway, the translation (ignoring diacritics and stress marks which are in the book) is:

koskalaka kin ahiyaya canna as the young men go by
awatonwan helo I was looking for him
tohanni ake it surprises me anew
iyaya hunse that he has gone
taku (it is) something
canzemaye to which I can not be reconciled

My orthography is minutely different:

Koskalaka kin ahiyaya cana
Ewatunwanhe lo
Tohanni ake iyaya hunse
Taku canzemaye

My translation:

When the young men passed by
I was looking around
For sure, he never left
Something that makes me mad

I welcome criticisms of the above because in fact it is definitely conjectural. Why? Because we don't know if any important words or enclitics were left out. For example, in Densmore's second line. awatonwan helo (ewatunwanhe lo) cannot mean 'I was looking for him'. In order to "look for someone" one would have to use the verb "ole" ' to search for, seek, look for'. Ewatunwan means 'to look away from the speaker' but unless the preposition "el" precedes it (I am looking at him), there is no reference to 'him'.

Her third and fourth line, the key word is hunse 'no doubt about, for certain, for sure, etc'. There is no doubt in her mind that "he" is not in the group, but the verb tells us that they're going to war not returning. Consequently, she is mad. The verb canze 'to be angry, mad, is strong. There is an implication that he is not going off with the war party.

Since going to war in those days was considered a major manly virtue, not going was cowardly. The only other cowardly acts were coming back alive when the entire party was wiped out, or leaving a living or dead comrade on the battlefield and returning.

Another linguistic note. The last sentence in Lakota would sound better as "taku un canzemaye" which would render it more properly 'that is the reason I am angry'. The word may not have been included, ignored, or elided with the 'taku'. Taku un means 'this/that is the reason...'

If my conjecture is correct, the whole scenario changes from a woman mourning for a lost warrior, to a woman condemning a man for not going on the war path in the first place.

Let me just end this section by say that between Songs 93 and 152, the first is much easier to translate and be sure that the words (but not always the meaning) are the way they should be. Sacred songs with respect to translation are more formulaic than songs based on real events such as is Song 152. War songs are historic and have great significance to the people who created them or learned them from others along with the story, a point we can't ignore. Like pictographic paintings, many songs are mnemonic devices that require exegesis by the people and singers who were there. I'll discuss this later if anyone wishes.

Mato, hanhepi waste. Toksa ake wanciyakin kte. Goodnight, Bear. I'll see you again.

Bill Powers

[Dietmar]

Clark and Bill,

although I can´t contribute to your topic I´d like to take the opportunity to welcome you to the message boards and thank you for your contribution here. Very interesting stuff.

Bill, I got your Yuwipi book once from a Lakota friend. Great to have you here.

Greetings

Dietmar

[pineridgeporcupine]

Aug 22, 2010 14:25:08 GMT -5 clarkkimberling said:

Two Shields really meant what he sang. So, as a keeper of the old ways, he had plenty of reason to sing for Frances Densmore and her Lakota interpreter, Robert P. Higheagle, thereby leaving a permanent record. Now, nearly a century later, the "old ways" are especially important for reasons of cultural identity, and so we should ask: What did Two Shields really mean in his songs?

William K. Powers addresses the question of real meaning in a review of Densmore's Teton Sioux Music and Culture, first published by the Smithsonian Institution in 1918 and republished by the University of Nebraska Press in 1992. Powers writes, "Even though all the words in the songs are glossed separately, there are no free translations at all, which makes it impossible to comprehend what the songs are about..."

I invited Bill to translate the song "A Wind from the North," sung by Two Shields, in order to compare his translation with the Densmore/Higheagle translation (appearing above in Reply #9). Here is Bill's reply:

Regarding Song 93, Densmore (and Higheagle) have a peculiar way of presenting the texts of the song in vertical columns, the right one (presumably) being a translation of the left; however, the two frequently are juxtaposed in such a way that the individual words are chopped up out of whole sentences. Thus, at first glance, one may "see" the word mato as a single word where in fact it is a part of a sentence. Mato 'bear' does not appear in the song at all.

Densmore writes the first three lines (repeated five times throughout the song) as:

cante .............................. my heart
matokecaca ..................... is different
wanmayanka yo ................ behold me

Now forget the stress marks and the footnote alluded to--they're not necessary.

The above three lines are a full sentence chopped up into syllables that are disconnected.

The full sentence is "Cantematokeca ca wanmayanka yo." Cante correctly means heart, but when conjoined with tokeca forms cantetokeca which should be translated "special person." In spoken Lakota cante plus many different types of modifiers are common--cantewaste 'happy'; cantesica 'sad', etc.

The ma represents the first person singular of what is now the verb " to be a special person" hence "I am a special person;" mato 'bear' does not appear in the sentence. It is the first person ma injected between cante and tokeca that makes it misleading.

Similarly, Densmore has added ca to matokeca as if it were one word. Ca is a separate conjunction meaning "so, therefore." However, Wanmayanka yo is correct as written. The full sentence then is translated:

I am a special person so look at me.

So much for nonexistent bear. But--I am curious about your reference to "sing like a bear." I never heard it before and it definitely not a Lakota idea. Where did it originate or better where does one hear this expression?

Well, as you see, Bill's translation differs from Densmore/Higheagle's. Bill's translation, I trust, gives a clearer understanding of what Two Shields meant by his song. I hope others will share their wisdom as relates to Song 93 and other songs sung by Two Shields and other keepers of the old ways.

Here are a few footnotes:

1. You can actually hear Two Shields himself sing! Just find a copy (ask an interlibrary loan librarian) of Music of the American Indian: Songs of the Sioux, Recorded and Edited by Frances Densmore, ISBN: 1-57970-044-6, an A-FM Recording from Audio-Forum, a division of Jeffrey Norton Publishers, Inc. This recording includes songs sung by 14 Sioux Indians (Lakota and Dakota): Kills-at-Night (4), Two Shields (4), Brave Buffalo (3), Red Bird (3), Fray Hawk (2), Teal Duck [Siyaka] (2), Used-as-a-Shield (2), Bear Eagle (1), Eagle Shield (1), Lone Man (1), Wita'hu [Kills-at-Night's wife], Holy-Face Bear (1), Little Conjuror (1), and Moses Renville (1).

2. Powers's review of the Densmore book is published in Ethnohistory, vol. 41, no. 2 (Spring 1994), Duke University Press, pages 335-339. Here is the concluding paragraph:

Teton Sioux Music and Culture is a must for the student of Lakota and of the anthropology of music. Not only a sensitive portrayal of the past, it is an inspiration to all who seek the Lakota experience.

3. For more about Marla and Bill Powers, visit these sites:
www.lakotabooks.com/
home.netcom.com/~powersmw/LakotaFieldSchool.html

Clark

[Crazy hunter]

where do u find lakota music ? i wonna listen to it too

[clarkkimberling]

Here's a representation of Lakota and Dakota music, including, in some cases, free downloadable audio clips:

drumhop.com/

www.olc.edu/~tbrave/culture/songs/music.htm

Kevin Locke, Native American flute:
www.kevinlocke.com/kevin/recordings.html[/url]

Lakota Music Project:
Orchestra + Native singers/percussionists.

(Be patient, the singing starts after two minutes of tuneup and orchestral introduction.)

Be sure to search Google Images for Porcupine Singers.

Possibly all the recordings mentioned on those sites were first made after 1950. Although some of that music is called "traditional", if you really want to hear Lakota music as sung by Two Shields and ohers in 1911-1914, you may have to ask your interlibrary loan librarian to find Music of the American Indian: Songs of the Sioux, Recorded and Edited by Frances Densmore, ISBN: 1-57970-044-6, an A-FM Recording from Audio-Forum, a division of Jeffrey Norton Publishers, Inc. This recording includes songs sung by fourteen Sioux Indians (Lakota and Dakota): Kills-at-Night (4), Two Shields (4), Brave Buffalo (3), Red Bird (3), Gray Hawk (2), Teal Duck [Siyaka] (2), Used-as-a-Shield (2), Bear Eagle (1), Eagle Shield (1), Lone Man (1), Wita'hu [Kills-at-Night's wife], Holy-Face Bear (1), Little Conjuror (1), and Moses Renville (1).

[clarkkimberling]

Replies 20 and 21 bring up the subject of Lakota music. From a historical point of view, it is natural to distinguish between Lakota music for which the name of the composer is known and Lakota music which is more than one-hundred years old and which I shall call traditional Lakota music.

A treasury of traditional Lakota music is the book Teton Sioux Music by Frances Densmore and the associated recordings she made of Lakota singing, now kept at the Library of Congress. Perhaps the foremost representative of traditional Lakota music in Densmore is the singer, Two Shields, an expressly staunch proponent of the old ways, including traditional Lakota music.

The oldest Lakota songs recorded by Densmore comprise "the first group," sung almost without exception by men 65 to 80 years of age. "These men said they learned the songs or received them in dreams when they were young... The first group contains 147 songs believed to be from 50 to 150 years old."

Among these traditional songs is one to which Densmore gave special attention. It is No. 125, "Those Are Not My Interest," sung twice by Two Shields. This is the only song in the book which occupies a full page (page 334). The drum part, in its persistent 3-beat character, contrasts to the melody, providing a distinctive rhythmic combination. "The time in the five-eight and three-eight measures was absolutely exact." On page 336, the same warrior song is shown again, pitched a step lower.

The distinctive five-eight and three-eight measures in both versions have that mysterious melodic magic that arouses composers. In the context of the rest of the melody, these two measures express the sort of musical theme which Aaron Copland (known as the dean of American composers) said "comes from heaven" - or in Lakota understanding, is received in a dream. A modern arrangement of the melody can be seen and heard online. Start by accessing "Historical Notes...American Indian Melodies" at

imslp.org/wiki/User:Clark_Kimberling/Historical_Notes_9.

When you get there, click SOLOS 9 near the top of the page to see the melody, or click Those Are Not My Interest, near the end, to hear the arrangement played on a tenor recorder.

However, a Lakota melody by itself played on a Western instrument is a far cry from the real thing. For a Lakota song, text and context are essential. Following are the Lakota and English words for "Those Are Not My Interest," sung by Two Shields, interpreted by Robert P. Higheagle, and recorded by Frances Densmore:

kola'pila		friends
epe'con		I have said
ti i'kceya		in common life
wico'han kin		the customs
o'ta yelo'		are many
kola'		friend
he'na		those
e sni		are not (do not interest me)
yelo' epe'lo		I have said

[clarkkimberling]

In Songs of the Sioux, from the Archive of Folk Song, Recorded and Edited by Frances Densmore, the song "Those Are Not My Interest," is included. Here, Densmore tells us a bit more about the song than is found in her book, Teton Sioux Music:

This song expresses the detachment of a warrior from the affairs of common life. Such songs were sung in the gatherings before the departure of a war party. This song was recorded by Two Shields at Fort Yates, N. Dak., in 1911. He is a leading singer at the drum during every tribal gathering. Such drummers often elaborate their part, especially in songs of this kind. The drumbeat is continuous between the three recorded renditions of the song.

The translation appears with punctuation (unlike the translation given in Reply 22 as it appears in Teton Sioux Music):

Friends,
I have said
in common life
the customs
are many;
friend,
those
are not (do not interest me)
I have said.

Initially, the song is addressed to "Friends" - can someone explain whatever significance there may be in the shift to the singular right after the semicolon?

Thanks!

Clark

[lgarcia]

Clark:
Without the Lakota words one can't answer your question.
What semicolon?
Kola=one friend, kodapi = plural friends.
LouieG

[lgarcia]

Clark:
It is me again.
I went back to message 22 to see the Lakota words.
Kolapila = dear friends.
The "la" means you are familiar with the male person.
Sometimes the words are contracted to fit the melody.
So changing from singular to plural may not change the meaning.
As you say playing Densmore's music on western instruments is impossible. Most people I know laugh at the sounds produced.
In most cases the drum is struck between the words or vocables.
Later,
LouieG

[clarkkimberling]

Thank you, Louie. It's nice to hear fom you again - last time, in June, you were anticipating a big birthday, and I send you belated congratulations. I'm a couple of years behind you. Sometimes, when I feel old, Two Shields comes to mind. He was seventysomething when he sang for Densmore, and he lived many more years.

When I wrote "a Lakota melody by itself played on a Western instrument is a far cry from the real thing," I had in mind a melody as sung, for example, by Two Shields. Wind instruments, indeed, even non-Indian singers, could never do justice to such singing. That's why Densmore emphasized the importance of the sound recordings she made at Standing Rock and elsewhere.

Aside from the recordings, when it came to representing such a melody in Western notation, Densmore had to "round" notes up or down to nearby pitches available on instruments (e.g., the black and white notes on a piano, without any notes in-between). Likewise, she also had to "round" rhythms to fit metrical notation. As a result, her representations of Lakota melodies, although a far cry from the original, are playable. Some of them have caught the attention of composers (and a mathematician).

Following is Densmore's representation of "Those Are Not My Interest" - the kind of "rounded" melody that can catch a composer. Louie, if we ever meet, I'd like to play this melody for you on a Western instrument.



At least seven composers have based pieces on Densmore representations of Indian melodies, including Sioux. Five of them are listed in Michael V. Pisani's website, A Chronological Listing of Musical Works on American Indian Subjects, Composed Since 1608

indianmusiclist.vassar.edu/

Here are the five: Charles Cadman, Heinrich Hammer, Alberto Bimboni, Carl Busch, and Frances Jennings

Pisani's website and the associated book, Imagining Native America in Music,, Yale University Press, 2005, probably offer the grandest account of its kind, but there are many indicators of the influence of American Indian music, stemming from the notations of ethnomusicologists into the world of Western music. One of them is Writing American Indian Music: A Musicological Odyssey, edited by Victoria Lindsay Levine: To view the site, just click -

www.areditions.com/rr/embellish/2002_18/feature.html#Victoria Lindsay Levine

The website tells about a book of the same name, by Professor Levine, published by A-R Editions for the American Musicological Society, 2002.

Another site is MUSIC: 'Indianist' composers rediscovered by pianist, scholar -

www.americanindiannews.org/2010/10/composers-rediscovered/

Now, shifting the subject somewhat -

It is ironic that Western music doesn't seem to include American Indian music - which is about as "Western" as you can get. In any case, there is a Western American Indian instrument, not only native American but native Sioux, which was played by Two Shields, known as the Dream Dance Drum or Sioux Drum. Can someone tell us more about this instrument - its history, significance, current usage, photos?

Clark

[lgarcia]

Clark:
I don't feel I am old even though I have seen 70 winters.
To answer your question about the drums I suggest you Google Tail Feather Woman and Powwows.com
These two among many will give you insites about the working of the drum.
Naturally or hopefully you can attend an Indian gathering and observe the workings of a plains style singing group.
Later,
LouieG

[clarkkimberling]

Thanks again, Louie. I found Bruce White's page, "Honoring Wiyaka Sinte Win / Tail Feather Woman and her vision":

minnesotahistory.net?page_id=882

The article includes a description of at least one modern (1970's) drum similar to that played by Two Shields more than 100 years ago:

This particular Big Drum was Huge, with four staffs in the four directions, hanging from the staffs were painted hands in different colors representing the direction...

"According to a traditional account..., Tail Feather Woman or Wiyaka Sinte Win, the visionary Dakota woman who originated the big drum, went to Mille Lacs Lake around 1880 to teach Ojibwe people about the construction of the drum and the vision and the songs that went with it..."

That would be less than thirty years before the picture shown here was taken by Frank Bennett Fiske:



I am pleased to give official credit for the picture:

State Historical Society of North Dakota:
1952-0463 Two Shields and Robert Grass drumming on Dream Dance Drum
Fort Yates, North Dakota 1900-1905
Used by permission.

Is is fair to say that an authentic Dream Dance Drum must have those four staffs seen in the photo and mentioned above in connection with the four directions? Are such drums still in use at pow-wows and/or other gatherings?

Clark

[lgarcia]

Clark:
The Dream Dance Drum is used today only at certain places. I don't know where this Religion is still practiced, but I know it still exists. Others on this website perhaps can fill us in on locations.

The big drum in the photo taken at Standing Rock Rez is a typical drum used years ago. The Dakota/Lakota adopted part of the religion that is why you see the four Drum Legs. Also note the feathered staff the badge of office for the Drum Keeper / Grass Dance Chief.

In the modern setting the big drum is used but not the legs. Only drum groups here and there still consider the drum sacred and practice some rules but most by and large treat it as a musical instrument without the using the drum rules.

There is a book recently republished "The Ojibwa Dance Drum" which hopefully fill you in on some details.
LouieG