• 06 Native Historians Do Stand-up

  • Jun 20 2024
  • Length: 46 mins
  • Podcast

06 Native Historians Do Stand-up

  • Summary

  • Episode Summary:


    In 1977, Charlie Hill became the first Native comedian to perform on a national TV broadcast – a groundbreaking performance in television and cultural history.


    “It was a huge moment,” said Seminole filmmaker Sterlin Harjo, “When Charlie Hill went on national television and simply spoke like a human being... He changed the public perception about what a Native person is.”


    Charlie Hill’s comedic approach to the Oneida story is part of a long lineage of storytellers and historians defying stereotypes that includes Oscar Archiquette, a young Oneida working construction when the Federal Writers’ Project came to Wisconsin in the 1935. Archiquette joined a local unit of the Writers’ Project that sought to preserve the Oneida language and histories by interviewing elders and transcribing their stories. That work – and its blend of activism, culture and disarming humor – inspired later Oneida historians such as Loretta Metoxen and Gordon McLester and continues to inspire tribal historians today.


    Speakers:


    Michelle Danforth Anderson, Oneida documentarian

    Gordon McLester, Oneida historian

    Loretta Metoxen, Oneida historian

    Betty McLester, Oneida elder

    Gerald Hill, Oneida elder

    Jennifer Webster, Council Member


    Links and Resources:


    Oneida Nation Cultural Heritage Webpage


    Charlie Hill's performance on the Richard Pryor Show, 1977


    Oneida Notebooks Rediscovered, 1999


    Human-Powered Podcast, Episode 5, "The Power of Indigenous Knowledge


    Further Reading:


    We Had a Little Real Estate Problem: The Unheralded Story of Native Americans in Comedy by Kliph Nesteroff

    Oneida Lives edited by Herbert Lewis

    Soul of a People: The WPA Writers’ Uncover Depression America by David A. Taylor

    “Indian Humor” chapter in Custer Died for Your Sins: An Indian Manifesto by Vine Deloria Jr.


    Credits:


    Host: Chris Haley

    Director: Andrea Kalin

    Producers: Andrea Kalin, David A. Taylor and James Mirabello

    Writer: David A. Taylor

    Editor: Ethan Oser

    Story Editor: Michael May

    Additional Voices: Scott Nelson Elm, Gerald Hill, Ethan Oser and Marjorie Stevens

    Special Thanks: Christopher Powless


    Featuring music and archival material from:


    The Oneida Singers

    Joseph Vitarelli

    Bradford Ellis

    Pond5

    Library of Congress

    National Archives and Records Administration

    NPR

    MSNBC


    For additional content, visit peoplesrecorder.info or follow us on social media: @peoplesrecorder


    Produced with support from:


    National Endowment for the Humanities

    Wisconsin Humanities


    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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