The Oneida Hymn Singing Tradition

by Thelma McLester

The following edited excerpts from a talk delivered to a university class in American Indian Studies in 1990 introduces one of the most fascinating examples of an acculturated, or western-influenced musical tradition among the Oneida Indians--the singing of Christian hymns in the Oneida language.

While the melodies and to a large extent the harmonies of the current hymn repertory sung by the Oneidas are derived from the gospel hymn repertory of the 19th century (especially the Moody-Sankey collections), the performance style is distinctively Oneida and the texts often represent free paraphrases of the original English text or are completely new inventions with imagery and symbolism that often relates the texts to older, non-Christian prayers and invocations. Ms. McLester approaches the Oneida hymn singing tradition as both a performer and a scholar. She and other members of her family have been active as singers in this tradition for many years. As an anthropologist, she has also done research into the tradition and has documented various aspects of it.

Born and raised on the Oneida reservation, I live fifteen miles from the city of Green Bay, Wisconsin. I am the second oldest of ten children. My mother is 82 and still makes corn husk dolls and quilts. She is very traditional and speaks the Oneida language. My older sister speaks fluent Oneida as well. My maternal grandmother never spoke English so she and my mother carried on a lot of the traditions. I was born during the Depression era. Today, I am going to speak from a somewhat anthropological viewpoint. I will include some history before I get down to the main topic of Oneida singing. The very first group of Oneida people who moved in 1822 to the territory of what is now Wisconsin came from New York. They brought the Oneida hymns with them. While the Oneidas were still in New York, an Anglican missionary, Eleazer Williams, moved onto what are now Oneida lands in Wisconsin and built a small log Episcopalian church there by 1817. I've already told you a couple of things. The Oneidas were now Christianized and Eleazer Williams was a part of that first group of Christians. Because Williams was familiar with the Mohawk language, he had the opportunity to translate the known hymns of the Oneida into the written word....

From 1822, our hymnal used a mixture of Oneida and Mohawk. For that reason, not everyone has been able to quickly interpret the hymns as they are written. Oral sources state that even before the modern Oneida hymnal was printed [1939], there were those who kept small handwritten books of the songs. Using a phonetic system, they wrote down the songs as they knew them. There have been at least two attempts to change the language in which the hymns are written. The first occurred in or around 1939 by a doctoral student named Floyd Lounsbury who was studying linguistics. He received a grant and came out to the Oneida community. He set about drafting the hymnal in its printed form. This is why we have it the way it is today. The people who had these songs, or were at least knowledgeable about them, worked with Floyd Lounsbury. They had a regular class. This was a major task. An alphabet was drafted that is in the front of the hymnal and has been in use continuously since that time with only some modifications. In 1965 an attempt was made to refine and incorporate more Oneida words into the hymns in place of the Mohawk words in the original. However, not that much changed. The second attempt was spearheaded by a [Oneida] gentleman named Oscar Archiquette. Because people were troubled by some of the alphabet used and some of the sounds, it was necessary to make more changes. The most important element of history that I will mention is that the date when the hymns were first sung is unknown. Oral sources as well as the preface to the hymnal state, "The history of the Oneida Prayer Singers, which was their name as they were called in New York, goes back to the earliest times while settlers of the first formation of the United States were singing religious songs." The Oneidas used to listen to them and began to memorize the tunes. Interfacing with the non-native population during that time, they knew these were religious tunes and put their own Indian religious words into the tunes.

The first question you might ask is, who are the singers? There are four major groups of people that I am aware of. The first group is called the Oneida Indian Singers; the second is the Oneida Singers and Cultural Association; the third is the Oneida Preservation Singers, and the fourth group is the Oneida/Milwaukee Prayer Singers. The first group, the Oneida Indian Singers, is unique because if you are an Oneida Indian and you sing at all, you can automatically belong. The other three groups are a little more restrictive, but they are still very informal. The last three groups are also interrelated in terms of membership with members of the same family often participating in all three. There is a reason for that. In order to preserve the songs, we need to have someone to perpetuate them. That usually happens in families. The second group has been around about ten years, the third group has been around about twenty or twenty-five years, and the final group has been around since Oscar Archiquette began it in Milwaukee. The Milwaukee group took the name that was used in New York. There are no more than 75 singers, if that. We get some new members from time to time, but usually it is very difficult for individuals to make the commitment because of time. The singers are on call a lot, especially the first group. They are called on to perform all over. The other groups are called also, but a lot less. If you are going to be a member, that means you had better make the commitment. You have to learn the songs and expect to be on call. That limits the middle-aged person more than it does an elder who has the spare time. There are definitely a lot more older people who belong. That is probably because it is a social group and some prestige goes along with membership. Today there are more women than men in the groups and the average age is about forty-eight. Many are of retirement age. There are no qualifications for the first group other than the desire and willingness to make a commitment. There is no formal training expected nor does one have to be able to sing on key. If you have an ear for music you can pick up that rather quickly; however, no one cares. It doesn't matter. The practice sessions for the other groups, the second, third, and fourth groups mentioned earlier, are more serious, particularly for the Preservation Singers. Because most of these people have had singing lessons, they have a different feel for it. Their members have to sing on key, know the tune, and know their words. This isn't important for the first group because there are too many people involved. The best way to learn the Oneida hymns is to attend as many singing sessions as possible. By doing so, the singer gets to hear not only the hymns, but also how the words sound. Because there is no written music, one must memorize the tunes. Imagine orchestras playing today without ever looking at sheet music. This is a nearly impossible task. The wording in the hymns is still partially Mohawk and not totally Oneida. It's not always possible to interpret the songs as easily as one might expect. It might not even be easy to say the words. You have to listen. You have to have an ear because even though the words might look a certain way, that might not be the way you pronounce them based on the alphabet. Knowing enough to be able to start on song on the right pitch, to say nothing of remembering how the tune goes or the words, takes a great deal of time and dedication. That's where leadership comes in. Leadership is the key to the music. If all twenty singers were sitting with you right now, probably three could start the songs. The rest could just follow. Even though they know the song once it starts, they don't know how to start it. Normally a leader is the first person asked when a performance is to be held. That is an unwritten "rule."

The singers sing for a variety of reasons. I sing for fun and enjoyment. The groups will sing when asked, at weddings, at funerals and at wakes, at graduation exercises, at social events of any kind including birthday parties and definitely at the churches. A person has to have a sincere interest. One has to feel like one is performing as community service. There is some prestige, but a singer can't use that as the basis for joining. More importantly, the singer has the responsibility of carrying on a tradition. That is probably why most join the groups, to preserve the songs. Also, it just makes you feel good. The singing can have a healing effect for a Native American. When an Indian feels bad or stressful, listening to the music lifts their spirits because there is all your heritage coming to you. It's just wonderful. The non-singers in the Oneida community enjoy the singing in time of need, particularly when someone passes away. It can be said that this is the one and only public Oneida tradition that still exists today. As recently as fifty years ago, Sunday afternoons were devoted to the neighborhood singing groups for the sheer enjoyment of it. This would be after church services. In my own family, this was not unusual as my father came from a long line of Oneida hymn singers. His father and mother, Isaac and Melissa Cornelius, were among those who had memorized and retained many of the songs. They were often called upon to attend some of the events just so they could begin some of the songs that were disappearing even then. They were both born in the mid- to late 1800s. Leaders became more important over the last fifty years because of the all-night wakes. When you sing all night, you don't sing every song. You sit in a group and sing slowly. It is not done like powwow music, to the beat of the drum. It is slow so as to be consoling to the family. Different people around the room begin the singing. Other people join in after they have identified the song. They sing all night to watch over the deceased so that no evil spirits can come and snatch his soul away. Usually about midnight, the singers stop for a light lunch and a glass of water so that they can be ready again. Wakes and funerals have changed over the years. They used to hold wakes that would last for ten days. That was eventually changed to three days. Now it is down to one night because it is hard on everyone, not only the family but also those relatives who may have to travel great distances. The wakes are also no longer held in homes but in funeral homes. It has become quite hard to accommodate everyone in your own and there is often a problem with parking. The Oneida Tribe gives its employees the time off to attend a wake or a funeral so sometimes whole communities turn out. There is that flexibility that allows singers the chance to attend some of these rituals without worrying about their jobs.

Over the last fifty years there has been a great change in the singing because fewer people sing and because of the changes in leadership. Sometimes people do not always know what to sing or what not to sing at a particular function or occasion. For instance, it would not be proper to sing a funeral song at a wedding or at Easter Sunday services but this is now occurring because people are forgetting traditions. We sing at funerals because we, the singers, feel that we are fulfilling a need. It is our responsibility, particularly if the deceased is someone who had been poor or unknown. Funerals for the leaders are always well attended.

The first group, the Oneida Indian Singers, began to hold their practice sessions on the first Sunday of every month, in order to practice singing and also to sing to the Oneida Nursing Home. The residents of the nursing home would be wheeled into the cafeteria where the group sang. They would stay for an hour to an hour and a half, no longer than that. These practice session were not as serious as those of the other groups. Once, when my husband and I attended these practice sessions, I asked Ruth Baird, who was the leader at that time, if we could start at the beginning of the book and see how far we could get through it. There were a lot of holes because the people had forgotten the songs they hadn't sung. We've lost a lot of songs in the book because we've gotten into the habit of singing the same songs over and over again. Consequently, we forgot about the rest of the songs in the book. Some of the older members who have already passed away favored certain hymns. Those were know to all members. The group would want to sing everyone's favorites, especially if you were an older member. That custom is dying away, thank goodness, because it encouraged us to sing the same songs repeatedly until we were either sick of them or, when the person died, you wouldn't want to sing them again. You could lose them that way as well. Today, the members say, "Oh, I have too many favorites." When listening to the songs, try to pick up the following:

1. One voice, usually the soprano, will begin, followed by the alto, tenor, and then the bass. Sometimes it will take a whole line before they begin, because they have to identify what key or pitch the soprano is going to start on. Often, if the song is started in too high a key, the alto will not be able to come in as an alto, but will switch over to soprano. On the other hand, if the song is started too low, the tenor will not be able to come in and so will sing with either the altos or the bass, depending on their voices, Audiences can not tell this though.

2. You can identify those who have had formal voice training, particularly if the song is still sung today, such as "Amazing Grace."

3. There is no musical accompaniment so listen for how the group fills in for the drum and everything. Notice how the bass acts as a filler. Many groups travel with a tape recorder because if they happen to hear a song that is unfamiliar or is sung differently, they like to tape that. The Milwaukee singers in particular tape frequently because they don't perform that often. There are also Oneida singing groups in Canada who have a hymnal with not only the words, but also the notes as well. We need to copy that. I don't know of any who perform out of New York. I hope you get the chance to hear the Oneida Indian singers, or any one of the other groups, because it is an enjoyable experience as well as an education.