Waiting for wovoka, p.4
Waiting for Wovoka, page 4
SNOW GHOST: Snow ghosts are envoys of suicide.
GAZETTEER: Deadly envoys around the world.
SNOW GHOST: Natives are easily lured to suicide.
GAZETTEER: Only deceptions to blame for suicide.
SNOW GHOST: Suicides are not badly burned books.
GAZETTEER: Snow ghosts fear the heart of books.
SNOW GHOST: Authors are the ghosts in libraries.
GAZETTEER: Mockery melts away the snow ghosts.
Truman La Chance created a spectacular catcher of snow ghosts with a huge white glove, and on each finger the names of five native warriors were printed in bold black print, Geronimo, Hole in the Day, Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, and Chief Joseph on the thumb of the glove. The warriors were mustered to defeat the snow ghosts with wise sayings, or at last the essential tease of resistance. La Chance intended to carry out the voices of the five warriors to catch the seductive snow ghosts at the cemetery, but the books with the actual quotations of the warriors were burned and undiscovered in the ashes of the Library of Nibwaakaa.
Bad Boy Aristotle created a hideous demon with a rusted Maxwell House coffee tin and huge coat buttons as black eyes that haunted the snow ghosts and condemned seducers to death in a small funeral pyre near the Beaulieu Family Monument in Saint Benedict’s Catholic Cemetery.
The Maxwell House hand puppet exposed the elusive snow ghosts as secret agents of colonial governments enlisted to seduce natives on reservations with racy suicide stories. Bad Boy slowly raised the demon on his right hand, and the coffee tin puppet denounced the snow ghosts disguised as pure white pompoms, and one by one the demon sentenced the suicide agents to death in a snow ghost pyre.
Bad Boy was the voice of the demon, and Big Rant practiced a lusty whisper for the voice of the pompom snow ghosts. The mongrels cocked their heads and bayed with the words of the demon, and Dingleberry yodeled and danced in circles around the funeral pyre.
Dummy directed the spring puppet parley and Big Rant rehearsed the lines for the new Bunker Boy puppet show at the cemetery. Big Rant was Cinderella, the hesitant and seductive falsetto voice of the snow ghost, and La Chance was the voice of Bunker Boy. The tribute was personal, blunt, and ironic in the elusive manner of the mute puppeteer, and only the most charitable missionaries would bear witness to a strange snow ghost and suicide puppet parley.
Dummy raised Bunker Boy the puppet on her right hand, moved his head down and to the side, a shy gesture, and on the other hand she raised a Little Darling Cinderella Doll dressed in a tattered white evening gown as the snow ghost of suicide.
Trophy Bay, the mongrel coonhound, raised his head and delivered a mellow melancholy baritone bay with the words of Bunker Boy. The bay was all the more emotive that afternoon because the mongrel had been banished from the mission and services at the cemetery for his marvelous baritone bay. Hail Mary, the spaniel and husky mongrel, presented a spirited melodic bark and at the same time she turned and swayed with the motion of the snow ghost Little Darling Cinderella Doll.
CINDERELLA: Hanged at last from a belt in a stable.
BUNKER BOY: Almost smothered in a snow bunker.
CINDERELLA: Hope shows the easy way to suicide.
BUNKER BOY: Hope was always on my mind.
CINDERELLA: Snow seductions, not horse stables.
BUNKER BOY: Treaty reservations are native stables.
CINDERELLA: Snowy nights are romantic operas.
BUNKER BOY: Your voice overcomes nasty teases.
CINDERELLA: Come to me with hope and misery.
BUNKER BOY: Lonely characters of hope and shame.
CINDERELLA: Come sleep with me in the snow.
BUNKER BOY: My snow bunkers were built for you.
CINDERELLA: Shy native cowboy of eternal shame.
BUNKER BOY: Rescued from three winter bunkers.
CINDERELLA: Teases of ransom for more than one.
BUNKER BOY: Saved my neck was the mockery.
CINDERELLA: Better to build weaker snow bunkers.
BUNKER BOY: Promise of snow ghosts in a stable.
CINDERELLA: Native cowboys ride horses of hope.
BUNKER BOY: My saddle burned with the library.
CINDERELLA: Snow ghosts are never cowboys.
BUNKER BOY: Pray for me as the cowboy of hope.
CINDERELLA: Outriders of hope are easy to seduce.
Three pious acolytes of the nearby mission observed the puppet parley at a distance and remained detached to avoid the suicide back talk of hand puppets and the seductive primal moans of the mongrels. They carried out once more customary shuns of native mockery. The missionaries prayed in silence that suicide was a mortal sin, not a talky hand puppet, and the churchy spectacle of the body was owned in monotheistic creation stories. No dream songs, native reveals, mockeries, or ironic puppet parleys would convince the righteous mission scouts that native suicide stories were not blasphemy. Native suicide was the absence of irony and maybe the confessions of churchy shame, but not a curse or sacrilege.
The King James Bible must have survived the fire at the Library of Nibwaakaa. No one ever found a burned copy in the ruins, but all the same, with even a slightly burned copy of the Holy Scriptures in hand Truman La Chance, Big Rant Beaulieu, and Bad Boy Aristotle would have created a more winsome sense of native presence, chance, and liberty at the Theatre of Chance. Puppets would be saluted as obvious trickster spirits, mongrels would become healers, martyrs would be honored with mockery, hope, shame, and separation. Suicide would be reversed with the mercy of native teases, ridicule, and ironic native stories. The overstated biblical commandment, “Thou shalt not kill” would never again betray the presence of totemic animals or excuse the mercenary fur trade in the burned pages of the new scriptures at the Theatre of Chance.
Trophy Bay, the mongrel coonhound, was exiled from the mission and cemetery because of his poignant baritone bay at services, and puppet parleys about native chance, snow ghosts, and the mockery of hope and suicide were rightly condemned as ungodly, yet the priest and churchy censors scarcely mention the great operas that celebrate suicide as tragic entertainment.
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MADAMA BUTTERFLY
Dummy Trout printed a notice on the outside chalk board that the soprano aria “Un bel di, vedremo” of Madama Butterfly by Giacomo Puccini would be performed after dark at the Theatre of Chance. She created two new dream songs about the opera and copied phrases of the aria on note cards for the stowaways. The mongrels raised their wet noses and were ready to bay, moan, and bark with the recorded opera performance.
geisha butterfly
renounced traditions for love
married a cocky american lieutenant
waited three years with her son
betrayed by a naval officer
La Chance, Big Rant, Bad Boy, Master Jean, and Poesy May Fairbanks waited side by side with the mongrels to hear the great Japanese soprano Tamaki Miura sing the most famous aria “Un bel di, vedremo,” One fine day, in Atto Secondo of Madama Butterfly. The second act was recorded in the Capital Record Symphony Series and played that spring night on a Silvertone hand crank record player from Sears, Roebuck & Company. The diva Tamaki Miura sang in Italian and her compassionate soprano voice reached into the white pines near the shore of Spirit Lake.
Un bel dì, vedremo
One fine day we will see
Levarsi un fil di fumo sull estremo
A thread of smoke rising
Confin del mare
On the sea in the far horizon
E poi la nave appare
And then the ship appears
Poi la nava bianca
And then the white ship
Entra nel porto
Sails into the harbor
Romba il suo saluto
The thunder of cannons
Hail Mary delivered a melodious soprano wail with slight barks at the start of the aria. Trophy Bay carried out his usual melancholy bay during most of the opera. George Eliot cocked her head with sensational soprano moans near the end of the aria when the diva sang “Entra nel porto” as the ship sails into the harbor. Daniel raised his head, turned to the side, and delivered several hesitant dulcet barks. Dingleberry danced around the wood stove in silence.
benjamin franklin pinkerton
sails back with a greedy american wife
petitions for his son
geisha cio cio san is shamed
stages harakiri with a short sword
Madama Butterfly was a geisha girl who waited three years for the return of Benjamin Franklin Pinkerton, a lieutenant in the United States Navy, but the scoundrel was already married and wanted custody of his son. Cio Cio San was crushed by the deception but consented to the paternal possession and the boy was given an American flag to wave when his father arrived at the house. Madama Butterfly thrust a short sword into her stomach at the end of the opera.
Dummy printed a message on the inside chalk board that “Madama Butterfly was only one of more than a hundred opera suicides in the past four centuries. So, how do suicides become fancy operatic performances?”
“Bunker Boy Beaulieu should have staged his suicide as an opera because an abandoned horse stable is not the best story,” whispered Poesy May.
“Bunker actually rehearsed more than once the opera of his suicide in a snow bunker,” said Big Rant. “Belts around the neck or buckshot in the mouth are not as romantic as snow ghosts and a caved in bunker under the white pine.”
“Opera suicides are showy tragedies, imitations of a ghastly death, and never a real escape from the miseries of a reservation,” said Bad Boy Aristotle. “Bunker Boy was a shy library cowboy, a solitary outrider, but the crafty snow ghosts were out of season and hardly seductive in a stable.”
Bad Boy grieved for the death of Bunker Boy, and at the same time he was inspired by the aria “Un bel di, verdremo” and moved to tears by the tragic story of Cio Cio San. The next morning, over an everyday bowl of coarse oatmeal and dark maple syrup, Bad Boy created an ironic native opera at the Theatre of Chance.
The Madama Butterfly tragic opera was rescripted as the Ojibwekwe Memengwaa, or the Ojibwe Butterfly. Ojibwekwe, a comely young native woman, was beguiled by a young courtly Lieutenant in the United States Third Infantry. Thomas Jefferson Dunbar arrived at Leech Lake, Minnesota on October 5, 1898 to subdue native resistance, but the unversed immigrant soldiers under his command were hesitant and outmaneuvered by elusive natives and lost the gratuitous war.
The Ojibwekwe opera was staged two weeks later in the abandoned horse stable near the old Leecy Hotel. The lobby in the stable was simulated with heavy chairs, a broken chest of drawers as a desk, and a wooden ladder was the hotel stairway. The actual horse stables were numbered as hotel rooms and decorated with tattered curtains. Big Rant was perched on a pork barrel in the stable lobby and slowly read out loud the scenes of the opera to a small audience of students and teachers from the government school and natives on the reservation.
Ojibwekwe was visiting relatives nearby when the cocky officer warned her about a risky situation with a cagey native warrior named Hole in the Day. She lowered the umbrella and enlightened the lieutenant that the warrior was her favorite uncle, an honorable native, not a risky adventurer. She started to back away with feigned disdain but could not resist his blue eyes and military gaze, and later they were married in the country way.
The Third Infantry was dispatched the next year to the Philippines, and Dunbar was promoted to captain. Ojibwekwe pretended in a letter that she had given birth to a son and then waited four years for the officer to return to the reservation, but the greedy officer had properly married the barren daughter of a general and insisted on the sole custody of his native son.
Ojibwekwe staged an ironic paternal custody celebration at the Leecy Hotel. Duncey Bass was an orphan, and her native foster mother agreed that the talkative child with the evocative soprano voice of a diva would play a role in the ironic opera Ojibwekwe Memengwaa. Duncey was six years old at the time and pretended in the opera to be the daughter of Ojibwekwe.
Poesy May Fairbanks played the assured role of Ojibwekwe. Truman La Chance played the arrogant role of Captain Dunbar, and Dummy Trout carried out the silent and showy gestures of Elizabeth Rose. Master Jean Bonga played a few steady notes on the bugle to honor the presence of an officer.
Brevet Captain Dunbar and his elegant wife Elizabeth Rose arrived at the nearby Ogema Train Station and were ushered by horse carriage to the Leecy Hotel. The captain was in uniform, and the brevet missus wore a white tailored blouse, hobble skirt, and a round straw hat with a huge red bow. The three huge suitcases carried to the stable suite contained either the costumes of gratuitous vanity on a reservation, or the uniforms for an entire platoon of soldiers.
Elizabeth Rose waved to the audience and guests seated in heavy leather chairs. She swished through the lobby and side stepped to the most spacious horse suite in the stable hotel that overlooked the mission pond, telegraph pole, newspaper office, and a native sundries store in the distance.
Elizabeth Rose posed behind the stable bars, removed the straw hat, waggled her long white hair, wiggled her shoulders, pretended to neigh in silence, and then touched a tear on her face with a lacey handkerchief.
The audience burst into laughter, and a stooped boilerman at the government school raised his hand and shouted out his affection for the mute puppeteer, “Dummy, say a word, any word, we want to hear your beautiful voice.”
Dummy smiled and pitched the straw hat out of the stable suite. Trophy Boy raised his head and delivered a marvelous bay that echoed in the lobby. Hail Mary simulated a bark and wailed softly. George Eliot faced the old boilerman and moaned. Daniel turned and barked with mercy, and Dingleberry danced around the pork barrel in silence.
The lonesome military wife hunkered down behind the sheer stable curtains, a shadowy figure sidetracked by the heavy scent of straw and wood fires, insistent raven rebukes, the shouts of children near the mission pond, shouts at the telegraph office, and the constant bark of distant mongrels. The opera of tragic custody was an ironic reservation cession of native liberty to the fancy wife of a military officer.
Elizabeth Rose waved once more from behind the sheer curtains, the silhouette of the capricious wife of a military officer in search of a ready family. The capture and adoption of a native child on a treaty reservation was once made easy by the church, state, and military for the poseurs of enlightenment. The curtains moved in the warm summer breeze and the gauzy silhouette of a solitary woman slowly faded away. Dummy created a dream song about the scene in the stable hotel suite. Big Rant turned toward the stable and chanted the dream song.
infantry wives
pose in the wispy light
rehearse the stories of shame
solitary deference
forsaken on a reservation
Bad Boy created three sensational dream song arias for Ojibwekwe. The dream songs were printed in five lines each in the signature style of Dummy Trout. Big Rant sang two of the arias that night in the stable, and the third and last aria was sung by the foster child Duncey Bass. Dummy leaned out of the stable suite, carried out the operatic gestures of hand puppets, and then mouthed the dream songs in silence at the same time.
ojibwekwe is a heart story
consort of pretense
spirit over tradition and temptation
trade beads and leather
dances with an eagle feather
Big Rant delivered the sentiments of a lost romance in the dream song arias with a clear soprano voice. Trophy Bay raised his head and delivered a marvelous melancholy bay. Hail Mary pranced around the pork barrel in the stable and barked left and right with slight hesitations, and the audience applauded the lovely euphony. George Eliot moaned and soughed and raised the straggly white hair on the head of the boilerman. The scene was set for the second dream song aria of the ironic opera.
my child is a girl not your boy
named hole in the day
honored among totemic bears
favors of memory
dream songs in the clouds
Duncey the child entered the opera scene with the name of the warrior Hole in the Day. She wore a black cloche and gray cloak, bright red shoes, and slowly circled the brevet captain.
Elizabeth Rose reached out from the stable suite to touch the native child as her own. Hole in the Day resisted the covetous gestures of the barren military consort, circled the horse stable, and in the company of the magical mongrels sang the aria in a steady soprano voice.
native daughters
stay away from homey hearsay
cozy names and games
soldiers march away to play
chance of memory
Hole in the Day danced around the heavy chairs and pork barrel in the stable and waved at the audience as she slowly sang the last dream song aria and then twice repeated the lines cozy names and games, soldiers march away to play. Dummy raised her hands and shouted brava, brava, brava in silence, and the audience was moved to tears by the final aria and the gentle soprano voice of Duncey Bass.
Ojibwekwe waved the golden eagle feather in the last scene of Ojibwekwe Memengwaa. Hole in the Day bowed twice, danced in her red shoes around the pork barrel and leather chairs once more, and then ran out of the back of the stable. Captain Dunbar and his brevet missus were shamed by the arias, shamed by their own conceits, and she never understood the tease of an ironic native opera.
Elizabeth Rose was downcast, shamed and desolate with fright that desolate night. She swallowed several poison capsules and was dead by dawn, a showy reservation suicide in the comic tradition of the opéra bouffe.
Dummy stumbled out of the stable suite and collapsed near the pork barrel. She slowly raised her hands to praise the dream song arias in Ojibwekwe Memengwaa. The audience moved closer to the opera players, and the mongrels moaned, soughed, barked, and with dreamy bays pranced with the stowaways around the stage in the old stable of the Leecy Hotel.
