Oneida Tribe's Hymns Keeping Heritage Alive

It is official: According to the National Endowment for the Arts, the Oneida Hymn Singers are "national living treasures."

The singers, members of the Oneida Tribe of Indians of Wisconsin, perform Christian hymns a cappella in the Oneida language. With a repertoire of more than 100 songs, such as "Amazing Grace," "Jesus Loves Me," and "Abide With Me," the Hymn Singers were scheduled to take the stage at the Music Center at Strathmore in Bethesda last night during the National Heritage Fellowships Concert.

With 10 other groups or individuals, they are recipients of a 2008 NEA National Heritage Fellowship, the highest honor that the nation bestows on folk and traditional artists.

The group is bringing to Washington a tradition that dates to 1795 when the Oneida, then living in New York state, and Christian missionaries began translating the hymns of the tribe's new religion into their native language, embedding them with Native concepts and phrases.

Now the Oneida singers perform up to four times a week at tribal and family events, including funerals and wakes, but also at social gatherings, baptisms, sickbeds -- even birthday parties.

In 2004, they performed at the grand opening of the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian on the Mall.

"The singers feel a sense of responsibility," said retiree Gordon McLester, 69, a longtime member along with his wife, Betty. "These are songs that our creator has given to us."

But the group's role extends beyond religion and music. They have kept their endangered native languages from dying away, according to Gerald Hill, president of the Indigenous Language Institute in Santa Fe, N.M., and an Oneida tribe member.

Tribes on the North American continent once spoke as many as 300 languages, Hill said. But only 175 of them have survived and are often spoken only by elderly tribe members.

"One of history's ironies," Hill said, is that the imposition of Christianity on Native Americans "has been crucial in slowing the loss of indigenous languages."

Only a few of the Oneida Hymn Singers are fluent in the Oneida language, McLester said. But most of the group, which ranges in size from a dozen to 50, have memorized all songs in the hymnal.

The hymnal contains no musical notations, so members must memorize the melodies as well. Some melodies are familiar ones from the white Christian tradition, while others were composed by Native American musicians in the preceding decades.

The 34 members coming to Washington say the trip will be grueling but rewarding.

"The singers don't look at themselves as entertainers," McLester said. "They are sharers of gifts because these songs are gifts."