Newspaper Page Text
Page 16
— Griffin Daily News Thursday, August 11,1977
Despite scorn
Kickapoos cling to freedom
By Tom Tiede
EAGLE PASS, Texas -
(NEA) — The Apaches are
tourism entrepreneurs, the
Crow lease land to coal com
panies. the Sioux are heavy
into politics But there is one
Indian tribe that has refused
to go the way of the 20th cen
tury: the Kickapoo. perhaps
the most traditional and in
dependent Native Americans
left on the continent
Kickapoos 9 Fictionalized by
cartoonist Al Capp as drunken
bums with a crazed eye for
the ladies of "Li'l Abner," the
tribe in fact lives in a
Dogpatch of sorts. The In
dians are migrant workers
who camp here during the
harvest months in a card
board shantytown under the
international bridge;
Moonbeam McSwine would
love the filth
Yet if their campsite is soil
ed, their heritage isn't. The
Kickapoo have constituted a
sovereign nation since before
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MANY EAGLE PASS residents deplore the annual
immigration of the Kickapoos. They point with contempt to
the tribe's cluttered, substandard campsite, and residents
periodically petition authorities to have it leveled.
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the birth of the United States.
Even now they're not
recognized as U.S. citizens,
nor are they subjects of Mex
ico. where they spend much of
their time. They are
autonomous, self governing —
"free." as they put it.
The freedom did not come
easily. Though the Kickapoo
began as Algonquian stock in
the area of America’s Great
Lakes, wars and aggression
forced them into a nomadic
life. Tribal historians say
many of the aggressors were
frontier white men; at the
time of the American Revolu
tion. Kickapoos were so dis
gusted with settlers they sided
with the British
Defeated by greater
numbers, the Kickapoo tried
to put permanent roots in the
Oklahoma of a century ago.
But they did not meld with
other Indians who were for
saking the past as a concilia
tion to suspicious whites. The
Kickapoo say they were told
to change their primitive
religious beliefs; instead, they
found their way to Mexico.
It was a raw time in Mexico
then The Texas revolution
had just ended, the govern
ment changed virtually with
the bed sheets, and the
northern plains were wild and
unprotected. Thus the
Kickapoo formed a contract
with the functionaries; in
return for 9,000 acres of land
in the state of Coahuila, they
would stand guard against
U.S raiding parties.
But the tribe did not wholly
abandon its native land Even
then members would regular
ly migrate north looking for
better wages. Today they
come up each spring, in
numbers approaching 500, to
work on farms from Califor
nia to Florida; they use the in
ternational bridge as a staging
area, and return home again
in late September.
Not everyone appreciates
the annual coming of the
Kickapoo. Eagle Pass
merchants belittle them as
moochers. Others here
deplore the fact that many of
them are eligible for food
stamps Also there is extreme
contempt for the tribe’s
fragile campsite; it is a
festering eyesore and
residents are forever asking
that it be leveled
Unwelcome as they may be,
however, the Kickapoo can’t
be barred from the U.S. Both
this country and Mexico have
granted the tribe eternal
rights of passage" over the
border. When they cross,
often in long caravans of an
cient pickup trucks, they are
not required to submit to any
formalities; even Customs
will not normally detain them.
Once here, the Kickapoo are
expected to observe criminal
laws, but not civil ones.
Workers need no social securi
ty cards, new babies are not
recorded by the bureaucracy,
children are not required to
attend school. “The govern
ment leaves them alone,"
says Eagle Pass welfare of
ficer John Stockley, “and
that's how it should be."
Alone, the Kickapoo prac
tice religious and social
customs that date to antiqui
ty. Stockley says they have a
monistic theology tied to
nature. "Religion permeates
their lives. Even when they
build a house their religion
tells them when to do it, how
to do it. and where; the
specifics of it. however, are
known only to them."
The Kickapoo keep their
secrets for good reason Chief
George Whitewater says the
tribe would deteriorate if it
advertised. So all cermonies
are off limits to non-Indians
actually, whites may not visit
Kickapoo camps at anytime
without permission; also,
mixed marriage is forbidden;
Kickapoos must be at least 75
per cent pure.
The Kickapoo are not ab
solutely opposed to moder
nization They own vehicles,
some wear sunglasses, and if
electricity were available the
tribe would no doubt be
watching television As for
Chief Whitewater, he is not a
chief bul a retired Air Force
sergeant from Kansas whose
title is given in recognition of
his formal education.
And too. the Kickapoo may
be about to undergo additional
updating The state
legislature has recently
recognized the Indians as the
"Traditional Kickapoo Tribe
of Texas.' which means
money will now be ap
propriated for their seasonal
welfare. Some observers fear
that regular aid will spoil the
independence of the obscure
people.
But for now. particularly in
matters of the spirit, the
Kickapoo remain remarkably
like their fathers. Most speak
only Indian dialect, the tribe
has an official shaman, and
the old ways are iron law.
Also, says Chief Whitewater,
the white man is kept at bay,
because: "If they get close,
we will be absorbed, and if we
become like them we ll be
lost.”
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MR. AND MRS. GRIFFIN
Couple celebrates
64th anniversary
Mr. and Mrs. J.M. Griffin
were honored by their children
with an informal open house in
celebration of their 64th wed
ding anniversary. Mr. and Mrs.
Griffin were married August 10,
1913 at Pell City, Ala.
At the celebration, the table
was covered with a white lace
cloth and was decorated with an
arrangement of red and white
carnations and red candles.
Spring flowers were used as
decoration throughout the
receiving room.
A 2-tiered, white cake was
trimmed with red roses and
featured a bride and groom in a
love seat on top.
Cake, punch, nuts and mints
were served to the many friends
who called.
Mr. and Mrs. Griffin have 2
surviving children, Albert E.
Griffin and Mrs. Dan Harris,
Prizewinner
looks back
on career
NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) -
Robert Penn Warren, the only
Pulitizer Prize winner in both
fiction and poetry, says he gets
little benefit from critiques of
his work — even the good ones.
“I’ve been in this business a
long time. Bad reviews are
never useful and some are
counterproductive. I don’t mind
them; they’re more of a nui
sance than anything else,” he
said.
“A good one can provoke just
as much contempt if it’s writ
ten by a stupid simpleton,” he
added. “They’re just more con
venient, that’s all.”
Warren, a professor emeritus
at Yale University with homes
in Fairfield, Conn., and Ver
mont, discussed his work
recently in conjunction with the
publication of his novel, “A
Place to Come Home To.”
The Kentucky-born author,
now 72 .ays he doesn’t build
up challenges to meet in his re
maining years.
“I don’t think that way. I just
think about the next poem or
the next novel and when I’ll be
able to get to it.”
He said he had written two
poems in the past three weeks.
Writing has been an uneven
activity for him. He said he
had scrapped many story ideas
because they were unmana
geable and left three novels un
finished after he “lost contact
with them.”
Many younger writers lack
the perseverance to stick with
an idea until they either have
given it their best or have re
jected it, Warren said.
“Too many writers today are
more concerned with the cock
tail circuit and fat bank ac
counts than with the actual
writing,” he claimed. I
both of Griffin, They also have 8
grandchildren and 5 great
grandchildren.
The Facts
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Griffin Federal
Pays
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Open Your Account With
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Griffin Federal
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10th & Taylor St. South Mulberry St.
Griffin Jackson
Records
Listeners wild about Eubie
By MARY CAMPBELL
AP Newsfeatures Writer
Eubie Blake, the ragtime pia
nist and composer, knows how
to wow an audience. He tells
them he wrote “The Charleston
Rag” in 1899 and then he plays
it, showing it’s no slouch of a
song and he’s no slouch of a
player. Then he announces
some song he wrote just a week
or two ago and he plays it, and
it’s no slouch of a song either.
He writes songs every day,
even now at 94, Blake says. “I
don’t know how to do anything
else. My mother used to say,
'Little Wally’ that’s what she
called me, ‘do such and such —
oh, never mind, you’d do it
wrong! ’ All I knew was to play
the piano.”
But Blake doesn’t sit at the
piano to write songs; he thinks
of melodies in his head and
writes them down. Then he
works out orchestrations on the
piano. “My teachers taught me
that if you go to the piano to
write melodies you’ll write
them pianistically. And it has
got to be very smooth.”
On a recent evening, Blake
and his wife Marian took anoth
er couple to see “Unsung Cole”
off-Broadway in New York and
then on to supper at Michael’s
Pub where trumpeter Ruby
Brass was playing. Brass,
seeing them come in, imme
diately swung into Blake’s
“You’re Lucky to Me.”
Blake recalled that when he
and lyricist Andy Razaf were
working on “Blackbirds of
1930" for Broadway, Razaf
gave him that title and told
Blake to write the melody. “He
thought I’d go to the piano, but
I never do that. I bet him I
could write the melody in half
an hour. It took me 40 minutes
—a 64-bar verse and 32-bar
chorus.”
His long-time lyricist and
partner, Noble Sissle, was col
lege-educated and could read
music, Blake says, but Razaf
couldn’t. “I’d play a melody for
him, with one finger, on the pi
ano, four bars at a time. He’d
write the lyrics down. I never
saw him, in my lifetime, to rub
a line out. He might have with
Fats Waller (as on ‘Honey
suckle Rose’), but not with
me.”
The first of five Broadway
shows for which Blake wrote
music was with Sissle. The two
had been partners since 1915 in
Blake’s native Baltimore. Sissle
had come there from In
dianapolis and replaced Frank
Brown, whose wife thought he
was just too handsome to trust
to the vaudeville stage and ef
fected his retirement.
Blake calls Sissle “a great
singing actor,” although he be
came better known later as a
lyricist. Blake moved to New
York to join conductor James
Reese Europe, who wanted a
pianist who could play any song
that might be requested. Eu
rope wanted Sissle and Blake to
write a show for Broadway. A
drummer stabbed Europe in
the neck and killed him. Sissle
and Blake continued without
him.
Their show, “Shuffle Along,”
opened in 1921. Blake says,
“Ever since 1915 we were up
and down Broadway trying to
get our music published. We
only wrote three songs for
‘Shuffle Along’ — ‘Love Will
Find a Way,’ ‘lf You’ve Never
Been Vamped by a Brown Skin’
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and Gypsy Blues.’ You wrote
28 songs for a show. We just
put in 25 songs they said wasn’t (
good enough to publish all those
years.”
One of those songs was “I’m
Just Wild About Harry." (
“Shuffle Along” became
Broadway’s first long-running
all-black musical.
Blake also wrote the music ’
for “Chocolate Dandies” and
“Elsie” in 1924 and “Black
birds of 1930.” “The next one
was a flop and I ain’t going to *
tell you what it was. But Victor
Herbert wrote a flop, too, you
know.”
Other Blake songs are “Love
Will Find a Way,” “Memories
of You” and “You Were Meant
for Me.”
He continues to make records
and sells them by mail.
Blake’s first wife died in ,
1939; they had been married 31
years. He married his present
wife, Marian, in 1945.
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