Hosts John Fenn and Stephen Winick Discuss the work of Agnes Vanderburg, a Salish elder from Montana who began an outdoor school to teach traditional native American ways, including Salish language, food preparation, crafting with porcupine quills, making tipis, and traditional medicine. They interview Stephanie Hall, who researched Vanderburg for the Folklife Today blog, Trelani Duncan, who did further research for this podcast, Carl Fleischhauer, who knew and photographed Vanderburg in the 1970s, Judith Gray, who gives an overview of Native American field recordings in the Library of Congress, and Oscar-winning filmmaker Marjorie Hunt, who worked with Agnes Vanderburg in the 1980s. They play and discuss Kay Young’s interviews from 1979 with Agnes Vanderburg and Vanderburg’s student Rachel Bowers. Vanderburg stands out as an important example of the passing of traditions between generations and between members of different communities. Incidental music is provided by the fiddling of Mary Trotchie, also recorded in Montana in 1979.
For full audio of items excerpted in the podcast, and more great folklife content, visit the Folklife Today blog.