1953: With the Munsee Indian Dancers (boy scouts) there's an unwritten copyright law - no two scouts can wear the same costume or face paint.
Allentown 'Palefaces' Teach Indians
Almost Forgotten Native Traditions
1953, March 16 The Morning Call
Five years ago three Allentown "palefaces" dressed in costumes they made at home and did some Indian ceremonial dances they learned from a book. They hoped it would look real.
It apparently did.
American Indians on reservations, since then, have asked the group to teach their children the almost forgotten native dances.
And old tribal leaders have outbid each other for some of the costumes.
The group now numbers 31. All members of Explorer Post 222, Lehigh Boy Scout Council, they call themselves the Munsee Indian Dancers.
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| 1953, March 16 The Morning Call |
They have made tremendous strides. From their first of a few dozen, they have traveled into at least four states and played to a high as 13,000 people.
Adults and children have applauded them. Educators have called their treasury of lore and asset to education in American history. A TV entertainer has called them the "finest non-professional dancing group I have ever seen."
And then there are the Indians themselves. One Indian leader has implied the Munsee dancers know more about the Indians than the Indians do.
It all started in 1948. One Scout, Clay Bigelow, and two Scout leaders, Carl J Shook and Richard Rau, decided to make their own costumes for a regional meeting at Camp Trexler of a Scouting honor society, The Order of the Arrow. [Click here to read the 1950 article and to see photos.]
The Order of the Arrow is a lodge of campers within scouting. Unlike other loedges and orders, the members in the Order of the Arrow have no voice in choosing their brothers. Members are voted to the order only by non-members who know nothing of the order except that it is an honor group. Proposed members must g through an "ordeal" similar to what young Indian braves were once required to undergo before gaining admission to the tribe. Within the lodge, a member also goes through other ordeals to attain the three degrees.
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| 1954, Oct 17 The Philadelphia Inquirer |
They put on their program. The idea caught on. At first the group grew to seven. Some Explorer Scouts left it as they graduated from high school and went on to college or the armed services. But others joined. Soon there were nearly 30....
The Munsee Dancers' first big show, the "Pan Jan Drumm," was at the Rainbow Ranch of Col. Mahlon Haines....
The 'Thunder Drum'
That is where they first used the giant 'Thunder Drum' they made. A hide - covered cylinder, measuring five feet across, the drum is danced upon by the scouts in a number of their colorful rituals, most notable of which is the Eagle Dance in which the dancers "slay" the "eagle" dancing on the drum to procure the bird's feathers for a brave's war bonnet.
The drum is now the largest of its kind in the world. The only larger one was owned by the Koshare Indian Dancers (a full-blooded Indian group) in Lahuna, Colo., but the head of that one was broken in a dance and never repaired. It is now used as a museum piece.
Like the thunder drum, almost all the other dress and equipment used by the Munsee Dancers is made by them.
In recent years, however, the scouts have acquired genuine Indian trappings by swapping off their home-made equipment for Indian hand-made equipment and costumes.
Cherokee, Pawnee Visits
The scouts have visited Cherokee and Pawnee reservations for tribal ceremonies and the swapping followed as a natural thing.
One piece in particular, a Buffalo head made of buffalo hide and horns, was bid for by four or five tribes. The buffalo headpiece, highly prized even today by the Indians, has become rare. But the scouts found the headpiece hard to come by too. They kept it instead of swapping.
Another tribe tried to by a small scout - made hand drum used in ritual dances. The scouts were told it was one of the finest drums, for tone, that could be found anywhere, that could be found anywhere. The scouts kept that, too.
It is no accident that Indians consider the dress and equipment made by the "palefaces" as authentic.
Into each piece of work made, each dance step learned, goes hours of research by the local scouts. Back of it there is what Shook, the group's adviser, describes as an "honest" -to-goodness interest in the thing."
Into each piece of work made, each dance step learned, goes hours of research by the local scouts. Back of it there is what Shook, the group's adviser, describes as an "honest" -to-goodness interest in the thing."
1000 Hours of Work
The Munsees have spent hundreds of dollars on books, thousands of hours on research and labor. One costume alone, the Kochina costume, used in one of the most detailed ritual dances east of the Mississippi, has more than 1000 hours of work in it.
A detailed ornamental dress, its design was sent to the scouts by Fred Kobote, who today is considered the greatest Indian artist in the world. Kobote conducts a school for the US Government on the Navajo reservation to teach the native art to the Navajos. Proceeds from his work go to the furthering of Navajo education.
Since their first firelight dance, the Munsee Indian Dancers of Allentown have covered an amazing itinerary. They have played in Baltimore; York, Hershey, Danville, Bloomsburg, Nanticoke, and Phidadelphia, Pa; Woodbury, NJ, and on the Cherokee reservation in North Carolina. It was here they teach Indian children some of the steps their grandfather knew...
Biggest Audience at Home
The Munsees played to their biggest audience in their home town. ...
Once, in Philadelphia, they played to an audience of 600 kindergarten children from several Philadelphia schools. The youngsters sat spellbound for two hours.
There have been a lot of comments about the group and its dances. Guy Marriner, television entertainer, who saw the dancers, labeled them as the finest nonprofessional dancing group he had seen.
In another field, George Olaban, who is assigned by the Sioux Nation to perpetuate its ancient arts, said after seeing the group that they knew more of the ancient customs and ritual than 99 percent of the Indians on the reservation today, save, perhaps, for a few older Indians.
One More Dance
.... None of the Munsee dances uses body stain to create an "authentic" impression. They did at one time but quit the practice. The reason? At one of the reservations, they joined in a native dance and found that "many of the Indians we danced with were lighter than we were."
The Munsees do use face paint. Like the Indians themselves, the scout dances watch each other closely so that they do not duplicate a design chosen by one of their number. Among Indians, face-painting designs belong to the individual who first uses them. There is a sort of unwritten copyright law. No two braves use the same design. ...
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| 1953, March 16 The Morning Call |
