This episode features singer-songwriter Thea Hopkins, a member of the Aquinnah Wampanoag Tribe of Martha’s Vineyard, in discussion with staff members of the American Folklife Center. Hopkins adapted songs from the American Folklife Center archive several times. On the first occasion she sang a lullaby recorded by ethnomusicologist Willard Rhodes from a young girl named Margaret at the Haskell Residential School in 1943; the song is known as “Margaret’s Song” or “Creek Lullaby,” and according to Creek elders it was created during the Trail of Tears. For her second challenge, Hopkins wrote new lyrics for the song “Red Wing,” which originally contained damaging stereotypes of Native Americans. The new lyrics paid homage to pioneering Native film actress Lilian St. Cyr, who was known as “Red Wing.” Hopkins discussed her process and the meanings of the songs with AFC staff members Stephen Winick, Jennifer Cutting, and Meg Nicholas; Nicholas is one of the American Folklife Center’s specialists in Native song, and affiliated with the Munsee-Delaware Nation in southwest Ontario. The episode features the field recordings of both songs, as well as Thea’s new versions, and a fiddle tune by Chippewa fiddler Mary Trotchie.
More information on the songs as well as photos of some of the singers and links to all the archival sources, can be found at https://blogs.loc.gov/folklife