OCR Text |
Show by CAROLYN GONZALES Lift Every Pawnee Voice The music and language of the Pawnee Indians, once heaid across (he Gnat Plains, might be extinct today if it weren't far some tribal eiden and Evan Tonsing, a semirctirrd music professor it Oklahoma Scut University. More than 10,000 Pawnees lived along Nebraskas Noah Plant Rivrr before choices and smallpox epidemics reduced their numbers to about 600 by the mid-19- th fell into century. The tribe was relocated to Oklahoma, and in songs and language Pawnee. decline. Today, only a handful of people can speak Tonsing learned of this in 1998 during a homecoming of die Pawnee nation at its headquarters in neaiby Pawnee, Okla.,(pop. 2,230) about 20 miles from campus. Tribal members now numbering about 2,500 gather every July from all over the been country to celebrate traditional Pawnee food, dance, and music. Song has always cold Pawnees the was but an important pan of ftwnee culture, thought the Tonsing been lost. voices of their early siqges had cultures all over the He knew better. A specialist in music from Pawnee those of collected singers. He offered world, loosing had very eady recordings wanted them. for who his own expense, to make copies, at anyone an ADVERTISEMENT What is PILATES? (pronounced puh-LAH-tee- z) In the 1920s by fefendsiy Omen trainer Joseph H. PSsIri, AM body and praram baaed on tot print in hannony to achieve total fitness. FWeHSscoveivdby at dance Die over Pitatos world now is practiced professional dancers, studtos, healdi dubs, and untoenidei as weS as by sccras of Holywood CBHWPH Ml IDOOnS Developed a oimMM . AVery Different Kind Of Exercise Program Is different bom any other eieiciic program. Unite the todtaus repetitions in most workouts, Pilates involves fewer, more precise movements perforated to a raaciiconfci malrink a much mors edfclmf way to atransften,buid and Bratton ' body. Ik unique focus Ison I rated because k is your boM cental some of power, bsknee, and mowmenL The sod of Pantos is to your hesSh wShoul ifckta tojuy to yoin borfy. Hales ' How PiUtea May Hep Your Back You have four hyen of stomach muscles foal, together, support ! oora muscles arerft raong, yow bath bdn pmner support. Ihe issw anen poor pasaa muscle naaiBnca, at back pain. The Plan peogitn Is qnctoky denpird to hefo you develop a apeMtiong badt and ood poitow by WJa uul a nKMyiciHMjWB pRmangiiMMcteDianceiriMmiiipiomonmooMy,anQiKfcinnMinKsr. ci1 wlftifrwlitaWilfftinw. Pwptf cf iW IhfH pumtj fry pif of aS uses, to maty dSfcierl lank of fitness. Certified Pltoes cqwrt Jennlfcr tries rtwws you bow to do S with simple, atophy step insnuedon. toduded era two ISinbe bo woikouts and a yoaabased gMnbaae worftou foil teribiliy. Older todayim Color. (0 Maudes. fatooducScn ecrifoMne lessons hr upper and tower internes aKkhbu and dasdeal dance for knpravsd FREE BONUS PILATES VIDEO When You Order By Phone "Get Hi cofnpwion FMIcs vMoot wMdi covers sbengBi tabling, cwdto toms aid sheas mfcidni yoga A SIUS value. Ss yours FREE plus SUS v alsai milrairifort wtunysinrrtrr by phone. VHS. Colot. SO min. CALL TOLL-FRE- E youd lie to mal hi your osder, send yew name, adfoeas, dp code and check toe Madras Choice', Boa 4174, Drat TOMA, HundnraonSufon, NY lt74liPflBles Video Onfo $1U5 plus SUSpth for eochrfdeaCA and NY mridenk phase add ades tsa. Phase conauk your phyridsn before be0Mn He or asy other esradse propssn. SsBrfacSori Guaranteed Mnollotrfydefirfaed. you nay setan yosa purchase for a prompt idwid of yowpunliese nriHtt. a 4 'w iirVtJ rf ,rr ' ' r rorwiywwmwi fr-- rimSsiuba u then that I was being presented with an opportunity to help save a culture, says Tonsing, 64. "I wanted to return to them their intellectual and spiritual property," he says. Most of the music I shared with my Wodd Music dasres was extinct, and there was nothing I could do about it. But I could at least tty to heptoerve a musical culture that was only some 20 miles from my home. In 1999, he found a huge collection of Pawnee music at Indiana Universitys Archive of Traditional Music. The recordings were made hum the late 1890k through 1930. Tipping into that collection, Tonsing has made hundreds of copies for tribal memhets. Marilyn Gtaf, an archivist at Indiana University, says it is a remarkable effort. I dont know of anyone else who is doing, or has ever done, repottiatioQ to the extent that Evan loosing has." Tonsing's interest in music branched into , spoken language after he got a call from Maude Chisholm, 91- - Chisholm, one of four remaining Pawnee Indian elders who speak the tribes ancient toague fluently, asked if I was trying to make money;' on the tapes, Tonsing says. He explained his only interest was in preserving culture. Later that year, he met Chisholm and convinced her to teach Pawnee. "I didn't realize it was so late, Chisholm says. T didnt know there were so few speakers left." (Though eight fluent speakers were living in 1998, four have died since Tonsing began working with Pawnee language dasxsji "But Evan pointed that out and convinced me I needed to help. Shannon Sletto, 14, attends the classes with her parents. She says a lot of kids aren't interested in the culture. I'd like to lam enough to teach those who are, she slays. Loosing believes Pnvnee culrure has much to teach modem American society Pawnees, for instance, place a gnenr Ail nf emphasis rw irtyndud family involvc- ment in child rearing and experts say a large part of preserving a culture is saving a language. Within a generation, many of the languages spoken by small numbers of tribal speakers will be extinct, says Dr. Raymond DeMallie, director of the Indiana University American Indian Studies Research Institute. "When this happens, we lose an entire way of seeing the world and a diversity of vision and wisdom accumulated over centuries. Chisholm says Tonsing's energy and enthusiasm have won him many Pkwnee friends. He's taken up die Indian way faster than any white man Ive even seen, and he's been a tremendous help to our people, she says. Evan has found his religion. 1 knew . . ..... Carolyn Gonzales is afmUna writer in Stillwater, Ohio. rwmmp tos fri Vfr f WliLimiU rfi ilmit . |