Monthly Archives: May 2018

Dead Man’s Trail/Thief’s River Falls

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: St. Paul, Minnesota
Performance Date: 4/23/18
Primary Language: English

Many years ago, a young Chippewa warrior was wanted for murder. He was exiled from his tribe and took up residency in the surrounding forest. One day, a young Chippewa mother was walking in the forest, carrying her baby, when the man appeared. The woman began to run and he followed suit. As the woman ran, she realized that carrying her child was slowing her down. She stopped by bend in the river and placed her baby nearby so that she could escape, vowing to return for her child. Once she had successfully escaped the warrior, she returned for her child, but found that the baby was gone, swept away by the river. 

She cursed the river, calling it “Thief’s River,” for it had stolen her child from her. She states that some even claim to hear the mother’s cries in the sound of the river and that there have been reports of hikers seeing a young Indian woman in the woods, walking along the river, in desperate search of her baby.

This story was related to me by my friend K, who has lived her entire life in Minnesota, where the Thief’s River is located. She and her family often go camping up near the river and have visited it many times. She remembers first learning the story when she stopped by the Visitor’s Center. One of the employees was giving a presentation on the Chippewa tribe and included this story as part of it. K likes the story, although she admits it is quite sad. I saw it as the ongoing hardship of motherhood, and how in nature survival of the fittest was a harsh reality for Native Americans back then. That’s why her ghost was reported near the river, because it would be a constant reminder for those alive not to do the same mistake she did.

The Barrel Maker

Nationality: American
Age: 57
Occupation: Real Estate Agent
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: 4/24/18
Primary Language: English

This story is central to my own background. I asked my dad about this story recently. It’s one that always comes up at any Jewish family gathering. He told me that his dad (my grandpa) told him, and that my grandpa’s dad told him this story. In Minsk, Russia, our family was very orthodox Jewish. It was around the turn of the century when this story occurred. This story is a long running one too because my family has always been taught to have a firm handshake, also known as “Levine Hand Strength.” My great-great grandpa was coming from work in Russia one day and a Russian Cossack soldier, typically known to be anti-Semitic, stopped him. After stopping him, he yanked his beard very hard and called him a Jewish slur. Apparently, my great-great grandpa was a prideful man who admitted humility, so his way of showing this, he thanked the Cossack and put his hand out to shake. According to my dad’s grandpa, the barrel maker crushed the Cossack’s hand and blood came out of the finger tips. My dad likes sharing this story because it’s something that helps him reconnect to his heritage and I feel the same way whenever I hear this story at a family gathering. It’s also important to our Jewish background and to remember not let people be bigoted towards a specific group of people. We also reflect on this story of how lucky we are to have gotten out of Russia during this time because if we had stayed, we would’ve endured the Holocaust and other acts against Jews. My dad still doesn’t know if it’s a true story but it’s still a powerful one to tell.

The Game

Nationality: American
Age: 22
Occupation: Writer/Producer
Residence: Thousand Oaks, CA
Performance Date: 4/11/18
Primary Language: English

This informant explained a game that she and her family do around the Oscar’s Awards season. “It’s this thing in my family called ‘the game,’ it was started by my godfather and mom and dad.” The informant explained that basically you lay out a certain number of movies and to decide which one you are going to watch you play this game.  It requires a coin and once you have the coin in your hand and you say, “If you choose it you are not eliminated,” and you keep going down until you have an order to pick the movie.  And then you pick in order which movie you don’t want to see.  After that, then it’s the most democratic way to pick a movie. This one is very specific to the informant’s family since the informant’s father is in the Academy and they get the movie screeners for all the films that have come out in the past year and have to watch them and vote for the nominees. The key thing that the informant noted is that everyone eliminates one movie per round so that by the end, it’s a movie that no one DOESN’T want to see. The joke is kind of that no one ends 100% with what they wanted, but no one can complain because they could’ve taken the movie out. The informant mentioned that she hopes to continue this game and that hopefully she’ll have an Academy Award one day so she can continue to get the movies. She does feel that the game is a really long process and at times, tedious, “so it’s annoying sometimes, but it brings us together,” the informant said with a smile on her face. If I were the informant, I’d be happy about playing this game since I love movies, and I think it’s a fun family tradition that’s very unique to them.

We Say “Yay”

Nationality: American
Age: 22
Occupation: Writer/Producer
Residence: Thousand Oaks, CA
Performance Date: 4/11/18
Primary Language: English

A family ritual this informant has is to say “yay” instead of saying “grace.” Informant explained it as so: “Every time we sit down to eat, we all join hands and yell ‘1 2 3 yay’ as loud as we can and then we start eating.” Informant mentioned that her mother grew up very Catholic. As a result, when she left home she decided to rebel and that instead of saying “grace,” she’d say “yay.” Doing this is supposed to be a symbol for pure positive energy with no political or religious connotations and supposed to bring together the informant’s family for a moment of gratitude and love. The informant mentioned that she and her brother were both going to pass along this ritual, and that she likes how anyone can enjoy doing this ritual since it is so non-denominational. This ritual is always done when friends or family come to the informant’s house for a sit-down meal. The reaction to this is positive from all that have done it with the informant and her family. Doing this ritual makes the informant feel closer to her family and happier, since it is something unique to her family. I think this is a great way of remaining unbiased about religion and a good way to raise children. It is not specific enough to really focus on any sort of deity or religion but it is also wholesome and teaches children good morals and how to have gratitude for things in life; it’s not about thanking a higher being but appreciating the things that are present in your life, and this is something I greatly respect and think overshadows most premises of religion.

Tikkun olam

Nationality: Israeli
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Tarzana, CA
Performance Date: 4/10/18
Primary Language: English
Language: Hebrew

The informant told of story passed down from her great grandpa. The great grandpa lived in Iran, but his name was Israel. He was a doctor and his family was very poor, and so was the whole village. His family was ostracized for being Jewish in a very anti-Semitic part of Iran, that was mostly Muslim. However, he was the only smart enough guy there to become a doctor. Even though he faced tons of judgement from his neighbors, he was still always there to help the sick, despite how rude they might have been towards him, and despite how they might have always treated him. Israel would still help if they couldn’t pay him anything too, even though he and his family was poor and needed money too. But he believed in helping others because of Tikkun olam, a fundamental Jewish belief… the informant paused at this part of the story to define it as, “a means to repair the world.” This story was told to informant who is no 19 when she was only ten. At such a young age, she understood the moral of it immediately but thinks the story is more impactful now because there seems to be even more hatred than there was in the past, and perhaps “I am just more attuned to hatred now and am much more familiar with it; so confronting malevolence with such kindness is really amazing and inspires me today.” The informant is proud of her family and proud of her Jewish heritage and thought it was beautiful to help others who had acted abhorrently towards Israel and to be the bigger person proves a sense of benevolence that is the real cure to metaphorical diseases of apathy and hatred. Being Jewish, I related to this piece a lot and found it to be truly inspiring with the current state of events going on between Israel and Palestine. I hope that the informant’s grandfather can shed some light on how human beings ought to be treated and something of peace comes one day amongst all religions at war.