4/17/2009:
On this date in 1930, Emma Zuger received a check for $121.10 from the warden of the State Penitentiary. The money comprised donations from prisoners in appreciation of the many times the Sakakawea Junior Club had entertained them with operettas and cantatas.
The Sakakawea Junior Club was the only study club in the nation made up entirely of American Indian girls. These girls were from the Bismarck Indian School and represented nine different tribes and were known for their musical skills.
Lyric soprano Clara Peltier often landed the leading roles. Four years earlier, the club performed a two-act operetta called “Feast of the Red Corn” in the Bismarck City Auditorium. Peltier played the role of Queen Weeda Wanta. A review published in the Bismarck Tribune reported: “Miss Peltier possesses a strong, clear voice, and her tones are beautiful and smooth. She sings with remarkable understanding and technique, and many of the audience were heard to say that she would be one of the outstanding singers of the country in a few years.”
Indeed, a striking portrait of Clara, dressed in Native costume, appeared in papers as far away as Alaska just four years later – which brings us back to 1930 and that contribution of $121.10.
The inmates at the penitentiary took up the collection to help the girls’ club cover travel expenses to Denver, where they were slated to perform at the 20th Biennial convention of the General Federation of Women’s Clubs, a 10-day gathering of up to 15,000 women.
Eighteen club members, with their director, Mrs. Hermann Scheffer, and other chaperones, left Bismarck by bus on June 5, arriving in Denver four days later. The Sakakawea Junior Club was the only Native American group in attendance, and according to newspaper reports, they attracted a lot of attention. Among other activities, they were invited to banquets and luncheons held in their honor, including one hosted by a New York woman, Mrs. Joseph Linden Smith, who had donated $300 to the girls’ travel fund.
On the evening of the 10th, the girls performed Mon-dah-min, an operetta written by composer Paul Bliss. The piece was based on a 1918 article by Hen-Toh titled: “Mon-dah-min, and the Red Man’s World-Old Uses of Indian Corn as Food.” It appeared in The Journal of Home Economics and explained the legend of how American Indians received corn through a spirit guide who wrestled a boy during his rite of passage into manhood.
In the operetta version, Clara Peltier portrayed a chosen Ojibwa maiden who needed to walk through fields of young corn alone at night to magically protect the sprouts from “beetle, bug and crow.” The performance was a success.
Dakota Datebook by Merry Helm
Sources:
Archive description: Emma H. Zuger Papers, 1930-1985. Historical Society of North Dakota. Web.
Hen-Toh (B.N.O. Walker). Mon-Dah-Min, and the Red Man’s world old uses of Indian corn as food. The Journal of Home Economics. Vol 10 #10: P 444-451. October 1918.
The Bismarck Tribune. May 8 1926; June 5, 10 1930.
Daily News-Miner. (Fairbanks, Alaska) June 10, 1930:7.