Choirs give voice to Indian perspective
Tuesday show takes different approach to Lewis-Clark story
In what turned out to be a two-year musical illustration of the Corps of Discovery's epic journey, Flathead High School choirs will present the closing scenes in concert form Tuesday night.
"Now I Walk in Beauty: Lewis and Clark, the Indians and Us," begins at 7:30 p.m. March 14 in the Flathead High auditorium.
Gloria Johnson will accompany as Kevin Allen-Schmid directs members of the Concert Choir, Dorian Choir and Varsity Choir in retelling the journey from the Indian point of view.
Pend d'Oreille tribal elder Stephen Small Salmon of Ronan will emphasize that vision as he relates his ancestors' experiences with the Corps in his mother tongue, Flathead Salish.
Small Salmon is one of a handful of surviving elders who learned Salish as their first language, Allen-Schmid said, and is passing it along to the next generation through teaching, singing and storytelling.
In effect, this free concert is the completion of what began last year with the Flathead music department's story concert, "Following Lewis and Clark to the Sea."
Tuesday's program includes a mix of original music and tunes from the general body of work which ties in with the theme.
Creative writing teacher 'Asta Bowen wrote the lyrics for the original songs and Allen-Schmid set them to music.
As the evening begins, concert-goers will enter the auditorium to the sounds of birds in the wild, a field recording made by Bowen.
The program opens with a Navajo prayer set to music. "Now I walk in beauty," the choirs will sing, "beauty is before me, beauty is behind me, above and below me."
Hand drumming and Indian song, reminiscent of powwow drum circles, will highlight the program.
Paintings by Charles M. Russell, Robert F. Morgan, Edgar S. Paxson and Harold Von Schmidt will be projected on a screen behind the choirs during several of the songs.
Allen-Schmid said the seeds for this concert began germinating at least a decade ago. With the Lewis and Clark bicentennial in mind, and with a background in writing original musical theater, he began filling boxes full of background material.
Bowen, an avid birder, will speak briefly before the program's second song, "Jefferson's Vision" - explaining Jefferson's instructions to Lewis and Clark to meticulously record the flora and fauna they encountered.
Bowen and Allen-Schmid spent the past year working on the lyrics and music for this program.
Bowen traveled repeatedly to the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center in Great Falls, researching what has been written of tribal encounters with the Corps of Discovery. The center granted permission for her to record the account of Sacagawea meeting her long-separated brother, the Shoshone Chief Cameahwait.
The resulting song, a collaboration between the two Flathead High teachers, is just one example of the way history comes alive throughout Tuesday's presentation.
Authenticity is a cornerstone here, from Small Salmon's songs and speaking to Allen-Schmid's hopes for his students to walk away enriched.
As the white man's name for the Kootenai and Pend d'Oreille, the word Flathead has grown to represent much in this region.
"This is Flathead High School," Allen-Schmid said, represented by the Braves mascot. "I want the kids to know what Flathead means, in specificity."
Reporter Nancy Kimball can be reached at 758-4483 or by e-mail at nkimball@dailyinterlake.com