by Paula Conlon. School of Music
University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK 73019, USA
(405)325-1431, pconlon@ou.edu

Abstract

In the backwoods of eastern Oklahoma, far removed from the public eye, all-night Stomp dances keep the Green Corn religion of the Eastern Woodlands tribes alive and well. Participants from the various grounds travel throughout the summer to help out with their voices and their shell shakers at each other’s ceremonies.

I have been privileged to participate as a shell shaker at Creek, Cherokee, Seminole, Seneca, and Yuchi Stomp grounds moved to Indian Territory during the Trail of Tears era in the nineteenth century. My primary initial contact was Linda Alexander, a Creek/Seminole elder well known for her expertise as a dancer. She is a member of the Alligator clan, reflecting her Seminole roots in Florida. Alexander considers powwows to be something that only the “western” tribes do, although she has lived all her life in Oklahoma.

This paper will discuss my involvement with Stomp dancing, and look at the larger issue of living in a cultural mosaic created by government policies put into place to facilitate westward expansion during the colonial period.

1. Background

In his book, Oklahoma Seminoles: Medicines, magic, and religion, James H. Howard states that “all the Northeastern and Southeastern tribes now resident in Oklahoma except the Choctaws have the specific form of dance known as the Stomp, but the Seminoles and Creeks are acknowledged by all to be its most expert practitioners” (1984, p. 157). Since I came to Oklahoma in 1996, I have heard the assertion of the superiority of the Creek/Seminole Stomp dance over and over again. Creek/Seminole Stomp dances have a particular energy and drive that is unmistakable and unsurpassed.

In the years of forced removal from their native lands in the mid-nineteenth century to Indian Territory (later called Oklahoma), Eastern Woodlands tribes brought with them their traditional Stomp dance and their sacred fire. In the twentieth century, however, the number of tribal Stomp grounds among the Creeks and Seminoles of Oklahoma dwindled from 44 to 14. By 1995, fewer than 375 Oklahoma Seminoles under the age of 17 spoke Mvskoke, and fewer than 150 of them lived in Seminole County (Schultz, 1999, p. 219). Fortunately, there has been a resurgence of the Stomp dance in Oklahoma in the past decade, in part due to the increase of intertribal Stomp dances. Choctaw tribal member Gary White Deer discusses the intertribal aspect of these dances:

Although we may not be able to understand one another’s tribal language, most southeastern Indians share an important cultural feature called the stomp dance, along with its associated songs. This particular group of songs are widely sung, and are like a common second language. These shared songs encourage intertribal participation at various ceremonial grounds throughout Eastern Oklahoma. (1995, p. 11)

Much of what has been written about Stomp dance characterizes it as a closely guarded tradition, one that tends to be exclusive and critical of living a modern life. For example, Howard’s position is that “For traditional Seminoles … life revolves around activities at the ceremonial center … the ‘square ground’ or ‘stomp ground’” (1984, p. 104). However, Jack M. Schultz points out that “many Seminoles participate in both arenas (Stomp grounds and Indian churches) concurrently … Howard was either unaware of or ignored the highly salient fact that his ‘ultra-conservative’ informant, Willie Lena, was, since childhood, a participating member of a Seminole Baptist church” (1999, p. 6).

Howard’s definition of what it means to be “traditional” suggests a static reality that does not undergo change. Schultz’s view is that “traditional describes a dynamic social group sharing a history, adapting to changed circumstances, and demonstrating vitality” (1999, p. 4). Cherokee author Charlotte Heth has a similar definition:

‘Traditional,’ as used by many Indian people and scholars, can be an overarching term with varying meanings. Sometimes it refers to the oldest norms: languages, religions, artistic forms, everyday customs and individual behavior. At other times it refers to modern practices based on these norms. (1992, p. 17)

Heth’s view provides for communal change, not dismissing certain activities as unauthentic, but accounting for the community life as a whole. This paper adopts the more inclusive view of tradition advocated by Heth in a discussion of the use of Stomp dancing in the maintenance of the Green Corn religion in Oklahoma, focusing primarily on the Creek/Seminole tribes and the memories of Linda Alexander, member of the Alligator clan of the Seminole tribe.

2. Linda Alexander

Linda Alexander is an example of an individual who has upheld her Creek/Seminole cultural ties while living and working away from Creek/Seminole cultural centers. Linda was born near Sasakwa, Oklahoma on March 21 in 1917, and grew up in what she refers to as the “Indian Cultural Life.” Raised on a 160-acre land allotment outside of Sasakwa, Linda’s chores included the preparation of corn for bread and soup by mashing it in a hollowed-out stump of wood using a wooden pole, a method of grinding corn that was brought over with the Florida Seminoles. She told me about going to school in Eufaula, Oklahoma: “I was the only Indian in that class, or in that school – there was just a two room school, and it went to the sixth grade” (Alexander, 1998). Linda’s father encouraged her to learn English, but told her to never forget her own language. Speaking virtually no English when she started school, Linda used a form of sign language to communicate; her classmates would show her photos of objects for word association. Often she would invite her white friends to her father’s house to eat traditional Indian foods. After her marriage, Linda lived in various small communities in eastern Oklahoma, and has lived in Norman since 1962. She retired from her housekeeping job at Griffin Memorial Hospital in Norman in 1984 after 27 years of service, and went on to teach Creek languages courses at the University of Oklahoma from 1992 to 1995 and at Oklahoma State University from 2000-2004, and co-author a book on learning the Creek language (Innes, Alexander, & Tilkens, 2004). I have been privileged to accompany Linda to Stomp dances throughout eastern Oklahoma for the past 10 years and as her companion have been permitted to participate as a dancer.

Linda began Stomp dancing as a child, even though her older brothers didn’t choose to dance very much. Her father encouraged her to dance, and she says that he was a good dancer and singer. “My father was on the committee and a planner for the Stomp grounds, and he cared” (Alexander, 1998). Stomp dances are traditionally non-competitive, but competitions sometimes occur at powwows where competition is more accepted as the norm. Linda has won first prize at such contests in the Camper Arena in Kansas City and Stroud, Oklahoma. She remained active with her Stomp dance group that recorded Stomp Dance Songs of the Muskogee Nation (2000), whose purpose was to reach a wider audience and advance the Stomp dance’s current popularity. The Tahlahvse Stomp Ground has presented programs throughout the United States, including invitations from the Seminole community that stayed in Florida. Linda notes that these and other performances allow young people that live away from tribal life to have a greater chance to keep their language and culture alive.

Linda believes that indoor intertribal dances are also very helpful for teaching young people about the Stomp dance. Stomp dancing has steadily increased in popularity in the last decade, and at the present time there is usually a Stomp dance somewhere in Oklahoma almost every weekend throughout the winter months when the outdoor grounds are closed. Linda notes that a major benefit of the indoor Stomp dances is that “it keeps the young people off the streets” (Alexander, 1998).

3. Stomp dance form

The form of Stomp dance songs is a song cycle, usually with a series of four songs for each leader. In the introduction, the leader-chorus unison pattern is set up, which will characterize the rest of the piece. Only the men sing. Some songs are sung purely in vocables (syllables without dictionary meaning), while some songs have vocables and translatable words. The use of vocables in a particular manner is consistent between different renditions of the same song, so songs are often identified by their vocables along with their melodies (Heth, 1975, p. 119). Shouts delineate certain sections in the song cycle, such as the close of the introduction and at the end of each song in the song cycles of most leaders (Heth, 1975, p. 117).

The male vocal leader is also the dance leader. A male chorus follows him in a counter-clockwise direction around a fire. Once the men have circled the fire, the women join in alternating male and female. The Stomp dance movement is comprised of three types of steps: a natural walk, a flat-footed “stomp,” and a flat-footed hopping or jumping in place that occurs from three to 10 beats before the end of each song (Heth, 1975, p. 87). The texture of the Stomp dance songs can be described as responsorial or antiphonal (based on the call and response format) with some multi-part singing and overlapping parts, along with rhythmic accompaniment.

Turtle shell rattles, worn on the women’s lower legs, highlight the percussive nature of the rhythmic accompaniment to the men’s singing. “Shell shakers,” as the women are referred to, wear long skirts over their leg rattles. Women not wearing shells, or the modern equivalent using condensed-milk cans, join in after those wearing rattles, with children at the end of the line. Heth stresses the historical importance of the shackles, noting that turtle shell rattles were found in burials of young adult females made circa A.D. 1300 in North Carolina (1975, p. 98). Gary White Deer describes the role of the shell shakers:

Women create the rhythm and pulse of the stomp dance … Turtle shells are cleaned, perforated and fastened in rows upon leather anklets. River pebbles placed inside the shells bounce and shake to highly-skilled double step movements … The constant rhythm helps move the dances and songs forward through the long night. (1995, p. 11)

4. Green Corn

The Green Corn ceremony is the focal point for traditional religious life of numerous Northeastern and Southeastern tribes. Green Corn takes place outdoors on tribal ceremonial ground, where worship and dance occur simultaneously. The Creek/Seminole Green Corn religion involves four dances at the ceremonial ground, one held in April/May, another in May/June, Green Corn in late June or July (at the beginning of the corn harvest, when it is not totally ripened), and another dance in August/September. Each of these events includes Stomp dancing around a sacred fire. The first all-night dance is the opening ceremony to renew and purify the fire, or as Linda puts it, “to bring the fire alive” (Alexander, 1998). The second ceremony is another all-night Stomp dance. The third all-night dance occurs at the four-day Green Corn ceremony, which provides the purification required before the members are permitted to eat the newly ripened corn (hence the English name for the ceremony). The fourth all-night Stomp dance is the closing ceremony for that year.

The week before Green Corn, the men on the planning committee come to the Stomp ground to clean and repair the four arbors that frame the dance arena, and clear the ground for dancing. The following Friday is “Women’s Day,” when the Ribbon dance is performed. This is primarily a women’s dance in four rounds. Each round can be rather lengthy, so many will rest between each round. In single file, the shell shakers dance around the perimeter of the arena in a counter-clockwise direction. They generally wear colorful dresses with ribbons attached to their clothing. Linda says that she encourages the girls to wear the ribbons, but sometimes they put ribbons in their hair instead.

Saturday is the climax of Creek/Seminole Green Corn activities. Fasting begins in early morning, and an herbal tea is prepared by the medicine man. This medicinal drink is designed to cleanse the system, and nothing can be eaten that day until it is ingested. Vomiting frequently occurs; the medicine also acts as a purgative. Women and children are served first; even babies may be given small quantities. Then the men partake. Ritual scratching, designed to insure a healthy life, takes place at this time, with four scratches on each of the upper and lower arms and the lower legs; medicine is then poured on the scratches. Medicine is also used on the fire, as noted by Robert Wolfe: “The fire at the Stomp ground must be gentled at the Green Corn. That’s why we pour medicine on it at that time. If it isn’t gentled periodically it will become too powerful and destroy us” (Howard, 1984, p. 244). Linda stresses that the medicine is crucial to the life of the Stomp ground. She cites the example of her father’s old Stomp ground, Tallahasutci: “It is not an active one anymore. My Dad’s old ground is gone. They don’t have a medicine man; they don’t have any management people. They tried it two or three times and it kind of failed” (Alexander, 1998).

The Seminole Green Corn ceremony includes the performance of the Buffalo dance. The lead singer begins the characteristic song of the dance to a steady beat and the dancers, two by two, alternating male and female pairs, begin circling the stickball pole in a counterclockwise progression. (Playing stickball is also part of the Green Corn ceremony.) Linda told me that the side-to-side gestures of the dancers’ heads indicate the movements of the buffalo. Howard discusses the dance movements: “Their step, both men and women, is a double pat of the left foot followed by a double pat of the right. Often the tremendous noise of the women’s leg rattles accentuating this duple beat and the whooping of the dancers almost drowns out the singer” (1984, p. 146).

After the Buffalo dance, supper is served. Four calls are then made to announce the last Stomp dance of Green Corn. This dance lasts all night until sunrise. For those who choose to fully participate and take medicine, one is not allowed to sleep; this goes back to the origin story when the corn used to ripen overnight until someone fell asleep. The next morning, breakfast is served in the camp. This breakfast marks the end of Green Corn for another year, and some choose to sleep after the meal is over before returning home.

5. Green Corn and Christianity

At all the ceremonial dances associated with the Green Corn religion, there is a Stomp dance around a sacred fire. Linda’s explanation of the fire is that “the smoke takes our prayers up to the Creator. The missionaries thought that we were worshiping the fire, but that’s not it at all” (Alexander, 1998). Seminole Stomp ground speaker Robert Wolfe stated that: “The fire is the earthly manifestation of the sun … It was given to the Indians by … God. The Indians don’t need a Bible, since they have the teachings of the ancients passed down at the Stomp ground” (Howard, 1984, p. 244).

At Green Corn, the women frequently wear red skirts with distinctive Seminole patchwork, and a number of the men wear red vests with various Indian designs. Linda explained the use of the color red: “That’s one of our ceremonial things – ‘red.’ And from what I understand, when our Savior died on the cross, he bled. So that’s one of our ancestors’ beliefs, and [it is] handed down to us. We wear red for our ceremonial dances and Green Corn dances” (Alexander, 1998).

I asked Linda how this meshed with the time before the white man came and she said it is an example of how the two religions joined together. She discussed the conflict between the Stomp dance religion, considered by the missionaries to be “devil worship,” and the Christian church:

Some of the younger preachers preach against our Indian Stomp dance, which is not at all sinful in any way because we observe it just like the churches do. We fast and we lecture on believing our Creator and do the things that need to be done. Some of them [Indians] are not educated, but they know that there is God and they know the ways of life. (Alexander, 1998)

Fortunately Linda’s experiences were positive. She never lost touch with her Creek/Seminole traditions although she attended a Seminole Baptist church west of Sasakwa, Oklahoma when she was growing up. She has actively participated in the Green Corn religion throughout her life, and she continues to go to Ribbon dances each year throughout eastern Oklahoma.

6. The future

The Creek/Seminole Stomp dance in Oklahoma is thriving. I have been privileged to participate in numerous Green Corn ceremonies throughout eastern Oklahoma. Each time I have come away with much the same sense of having connected with a higher power that I have encountered at the close of Catholic Holy Week at Easter. When I asked Linda about this feeling, she described it as “being lifted up” (Alexander, 1998). Green Corn enables families to come together at an annual reunion while getting reconnected and renewed through the spiritual elements of the ceremony, and sharing a sense of unity as they participate in the communal night-long Stomp dance.

Seminole/Creek tribal members are creating new ways of maintaining their cultural life, such as making recordings and holding indoor dances, combining the old with the new as a way of redefining tradition. Their ability to adapt to change, while holding onto their sacred Stomp dance ceremonies and keeping them intact, bodes well for the continuance of the Green Corn religion in the years to come.1)

Notes

1. For further reading on the Green Corn religion, see Densmore (1956); Fairbanks (1973); Gouge (2004); Laubin (1977); Lewis (2002); Martin & Mauldin (2000); Swanton (1928/2000); Swanton (1929).

Acknowledgements

The author wishes to thank Linda Alexander for introducing me to Stomp dancing.

References

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