May 25, 2008
Dear friends,
Thanks for all your prayers and financial support. We're happy to
report that in this past year, we have spent 8 weeks in school programs
and 2 weeks in summer camps, plus have arranged for almost 50
instruments for kids. We're busy fundraising for our summer camps The
national Episcopal Church Native Ministries just gave us a grant for
$10,000! And various tribal and community organizations in Tanana will
probably be donating $2,000--but we still need at least $5,000 more--so
keep praying and let us know if you have ideas on ways to get there.
Our hearts are aching as we lost Dan Ison, one of our summer camp staff
members this last week. Keep his five young kids, friends and family in
your prayers. We'll be setting up a fund to help his kids with music
and other after-school activities.
My son Mike and I just returned from teaching kids guitar and
fiddle at the Beaver Spring Carnival. There were some great Native
and Athabascan fiddle dances with visitors from Stevens Village. Mike
entered the wood spliting and sawing contests and we tried the
tea-making event. The villagers really laughed to see us trying to
get a fire going under our coffee can of tea water!
I was in Allakaket on the Koyukuk River for Easter. Eighty-two
villagers were packed in their log cabin church. Kids were everywhere
sitting on the steps by the altar and all through the front of the
church. There were 11 baptisms including a set of twins! Afterwards,
the kids and I played music in the tribal council offices and Grandpa
Moses jammed with us on his fiddle.
The week before, my son Mike and I taught guitar, fiddle,
mandolin and banjo in Arctic Village. We sang Hank Williams and
Johnny Cash songs—and Sweet Bye and Bye in English and Gwich'in… I
knew I had arrived when I found myself singing the chorus in Gwich'in
in my dreams.
My son Mike and I were able to spend the month of December in
six villages, teaching guitar and fiddle and helping with church
services. The tour began in Beaver, a small town along the Yukon
River. We flew in a small plane with lots of excess luggage—guitars,
fiddles, mandolins, and a banjo. We were all bundled up in case of an
emergency landing. It was 45 below when we landed in the winter
twilight and loaded everything on snow machines for the short ride to
the school. We were teaching within an hour of our arrival as they
held "Saturday School" in our honor. Here, as in all the villages,
kids were so excited to see us come! It was so great to see their
smiles as they picked up guitars or a banjo… I loved what 7 year-old
Allison Fisher-Salmon told me as I played the fiddle for her. "It
talks," she said, "it talks!"
In Stevens Village, the kids giggled and laughed as they tried square
dancing by themselves. We held church there in the gym right before
the school concert and community square dance. Robert Joseph brought
"church in a box" on his snow machine—two wooden Blazo boxes filled
with prayer books, a bible, and beaded altar decorations. All the
kids played along on the Christmas carols.
In Tanana, Pete Peters traveled with us and brought Native drumming
and language. "Indian Rock and Roll" was the kid's favorite. Dorothy
Jordan, the superintendent, taught the "two-step" and Pete taught "the
jig."
We helped with the big Christmas Concert and dinner at Arctic
Village. Kids played fiddles, guitars, mandolins, and banjos and sang
Jingle Bells, Silent Night, The First Noel, I Saw the Light, and You
are My Sunshine. Outside, it was 40 below and the moon shone on the
snow-covered ground. Elders Gideon James, the Rev. Trimble Gilbert
plus Wilbert Kendi helped my son Mike and I teach music all week.
They are from the Athabascan Indian fiddling tradition of rhythmic
foot stomping and dancing. The kids loved it and many stayed after
school to play just one more tune!
I'm still amazed at how fast all the kids learn. We use color-coding
and simple notation. We made four week-long visits to both Arctic
Village and Tanana this year—and junior high and high school fiddle
students can easily play over twenty-five songs including Amazing
Grace, I'll Fly Away, Liza Jane, Will the Circle be Unbroken, and
Faded Love. The best part is the joy they feel—and the sense of
accomplishment. On the guitar, it only takes a few days to learn the
chords and start flatpicking. The mandolin is great for little
fingers because there are two finger chords. We don't have a lot of
banjos and acoustic basses—but hopefully that will happen soon!
There were fresh wolf tracks along the road as we drove in from the
Allakaket airport… We held Christmas Sunday services at the Tribal
Council offices. There was one bible and one prayer book—and we used
a plastic coffee mug for a chalice… Later, we held a bluegrass
workshop for the kids and that evening hosted a square dance with
Grandpa Moses on fiddle. The next day we flew into Hughes. We hauled
the instruments over the snow by moonlight on plastic sleds to the
community Christmas dinner to teach the kids. Santa came and passed
out presents amid much laughter. Then we had Christmas Eve services
in the warmth of a wood stove at the log church. I'll never forget
the beauty of all our faces reflected in candlelight as we played and
sang Silent Night.
Right after the first of the year, I headed to New York State for a
visit to the Kingston St. John's Episcopal Church arranged by the
Bishop of New York. We did a mini-music camp with four days of 2 hour
sessions for the St. John's youth group—and lots of other young people
who just heard about the camp. Parish musicians and the Hudson Valley
Bluegrass Association helped with the teaching. The Alaskan band Bearfoot and Bishop Mark MacDonald, the new
Indigenous Bishop of Canada arrived to lead the last day of camp—and
visit the Presiding Bishop's staff in New York City. The Rev. Ginny
Doctor, Alaska's Canon to the Ordinary, came in for this meeting to
let the national staff know about Dancing with the Spirit. Check out
our story on the internet! The next day, Bearfoot played to a packed St. John's church. Apache
musician Roland Moussa opened the concert after a Native Alaskan
crafts silent auction. Many thanks to our host, the Rev. Duncan Burns
of the Muskogee Creek Nation, his family and parish—and all the great
people who made these events in New York State so awesome!
In other exciting news, the Presiding Bishop's staff has invited us
to lead a guitar workshop at the Episcopal Youth Event in Texas in
July and we're hoping to help St. John's Kingston with teaching guitar
on their mission trip to Navaho Land. St. John's on Maui is planning
an Hawaiian Bluegrass Camp June 13-22. The Tanana Camp is May 27-June
1, Arctic Village is June 3-8, and Beaver June 10-15.
Keep us in your
prayers! Tax-deductible contributions can be sent to:
Dancing with the Spirit
Episcopal Diocese of Alaska
1205 Denali Way, Fairbanks,
Alaska 99701
Baa'sa, Masik cho, THANKS SO MUCH!!
Love and blessings, Belle
The Rev. Belle Mickelson, Box 1362, Cordova, Alaska 99574
(907) 424-5143 home; (510) 637-8401 (cell)
