One Woman’s journey as she presents her People’s journey

Keeping Tradition Alive: One Woman’s journey as she presents her People’s journey

PAWHUSKA, Okla. (August 25, 2015)—It was a perfect fit, Randy Tinker-Smith explained as she referred to her ballet, Wahzhazhe, and her professional background. She had been a musician, a manager in her father’s fast food business, and studied interior design. She was a parent of a daughter who studied ballet. She had worked on a professional production of Swan Lake with Rotaru International Ballet. Another project involved assisting with the writing and production of an international ministry musical. But the conception of Wahzhazhe, an Osage ballet, was subtle. She was not looking to create a ballet. She uttered one sentence which took her on an unexpected, but amazing journey.

In 2000, Randy was working at what is now called the Osage Nation Museum preparing 4,000 old photographs of Osages which she would later upload to their webpage. She worked ten hour shifts, 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Lou Brock, senior researcher at the museum, who resigned this summer, was composing music for an upcoming exhibit at the Arkansas Historical Museum in Little Rock. The name of the composition was The Journey. It told the story of the Osages’ relocation from present-day Missouri to Kansas and then their final removal to the Osage Reservation in Oklahoma.

“On breaks and stuff,” Randy said, “he’d play me bits and pieces and I could just picture it. And I said, ‘you know, that really needs to be a ballet.’ And that’s where it all started.”

Wahzhazhe is the way Osages pronounce their name. Randy who is of Osage and Cherokee descent, wanted to present the history of her people accurately and with respect. She interviewed fifty Elders. She listened to everything they told her. And as someone who had not grown up culturally in the Osage districts of Grayhorse, Hominy or Pawhuska, this journey of creating a ballet about Osage history was a learning experience few will ever get.

It would take Randy Tinker-Smith a year to put the storyline together. She decided what would be included in the one-hour story from pre-contact to present day.

One episode of Osage history was a little trouble-some though. During the early 20th-Century, the Osages received substantial revenues from the oil discovered on their reservation. This brought all forms of turmoil upon the Osages. A central figure stood out during this period of time and Randy did not want this individual in the ballet. But her daughter Jenna had an idea. This character would wear a mask. Randy said of her daughter, “It was brilliant what she did. And little things like that … I realized afterwards it had to have been choreographed by an Osage.”

Jenna Smith did the choreography. She grew up participating in the annual InLonSchka, the Osages’ sacred dances held in June. Jenna incorporated steps and movements from those dances. Only an Osage would know to do that and this made the ballet uniquely Osage.

“This is the Osages’ story,” Randy said. “It needed to be done by Osages.”

There was no question that Randy Tinker-Smith’s Wahzhazhe, would be presented as a ballet. She laughed as she shared that from 2010 up to today, “Every single person I’ve met from another tribe has asked me why on earth are you doing a ballet? Everyone. I’ve never had an Osage ask me that question. Because of Maria and Marjorie Tallchief, not one Osage has asked me—ballet?”

In an earlier press release from her office, Randy said, “I sought to continue the legacy of two Osage women, the late Prima Ballerina Maria Tallchief and her sister, Marjorie Tallchief—following the path paved by them, by telling the story of the Osage people through ballet seemed natural.”

It was not easy to get Wahzhazhe, an Osage ballet, seen at first. The Tulsa Performing Arts Center did not become interested until after Wahzhazhe was invited to perform at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian in Washington D.C., in March of 2013.

And over time, the ballet has reached another honor as it prepares to perform at the Festival of Families on September 26, 2015 in Philadelphia. The Pope, who is visiting New York and will be speaking at Congress in Washington D.C., will also be making a stop at this festival. The Prayer Scene, the first scene of the ballet, is what will be performed.

Randy pointed out there was something significant about that too. This was the first time for this festival to be held in the United States. But many of the headlining performers will be coming from other countries such as Italy and South America. It was appropriate that a presentation such as The Prayer Scene, which was performed by Native Americans the first people of the Americas, be there. Also keeping to tradition, prayer is a big part of the Osage people’s life. One may witness praying at an Osage ceremony, event or even a workplace meeting. Throughout the development of the ballet, Randy too relied on prayer.

It has been exciting and exhausting for Randy Tinker-Smith, her family and her ballet family as everyone gets ready for the festival in September. She recalled something the first Elder she interviewed told her. The late Leonard Maker, she said stated, ‘There’s a kid in California, an Osage kid, and in about 30 years he’s going to look in the mirror and wonder what does it look like to be Osage. And he can watch your ballet and say, that’s what it looks like.’

Tinker-Smith feels a commitment to getting the ballet done correctly because it is for her people. Randy said, “If we help promote the tribe and show the world that we’re a strong, thriving, great nation and have any part of that, that’s why we’re doing this. And because it’s beautiful and it’s art.”

For more information about Wahzhazhe, an Osage ballet, visit them at www.dancemaker.net. If anyone is interested in helping send the company to the Festival of Families, one can visit www.gofundme.com/osageballet or contact the Arts and Humanities Council of Tulsa at www.ahhatulsa.org. For more information about the Festival of Families visit their website at www.worldmeeting2015.org