Molly Spotted Elk born - November 17, 1903

On this day, Penobscot dancer, writer, and actress Molly Spotted Elk was born.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This Day in History Class is a production of I
Heart Radio. Hello Hello again. I'm Eves and you're listening
to This Day in History Class, where we examine the
past from the present. Today is November Seen. The day

(00:23):
was November sevent nineteen o three. Mary Alice Nelson, also
known as Molly Spotted Elk, was born on the panop
Scott Indian Island Reservation in Maine. Molly was a dancer, actress,
and writer. The poop Scott Reservation was near Old Town, Maine.
The pop Scot are people's indigenous to the northeastern United

(00:44):
States and Maritime Canada. They are a federally recognized tribe
in Maine and are part of the Wabanaki Confederacy. Traditionally,
their subsistence was rooted in hunting, fishing, and collecting wild plants.
They moved seasonal to have access to food, but, as
with other indigenous peoples in North America, life changed for

(01:06):
the panop Scott when Europeans arrived on the continent. Disease
reduced their population and Europeans dispossessed them of their land.
By the time Molly was born, tourism and entertainment were
a big part of the panop Scott economy. Molly Dellis
was the name that her parents called her. Her mother

(01:26):
was a basket maker and practice traditional medicine, and her
father was a political leader. He was also the first
pop Scot to attend Dartmouth College, and both of her
grandfathers had been tribal leaders. Molly had seven younger siblings,
whom she helped raise. She and her siblings sold their
mother's baskets in tourist towns, and Molly learned traditional dances

(01:49):
to help support her family. Tourists often gave panop Scott
children changed to dance. Molly enjoyed dancing, and she took
jobs cleaning houses so she could have Ford ballet lessons
in Bangor. When she was thirteen years old, she completed
her last year at Old Town Junior High and over
the next few years she worked as a governess, joined

(02:11):
a vaudeville company, and worked as a counselor at a
summer camp for girls. She was in and out of
high school over the years, but after going to live
with Frank Speck, a University of Pennsylvania anthropologist, she was
able to go to Swarthmore Preparatory School and audit classes
at the University of Pennsylvania. She contributed to spec study

(02:33):
of the Panop Scott called Pannop Scott Man The Life
of a Forest Tribe in Maine. It's not entirely clear
whether she graduated from the university, but when she left
she joined an Old West show, touring the country and
working at a ranch in Oklahoma. It was around this
time when she started going by the name Molly Spotted Elk,

(02:54):
but soon Molly turned back to dancing. To gain notoriety
and success, she moved to New York, saying that once
she became famous, her mother would no longer have to
make baskets. There, she worked as a nude model for artists,
gave dance lessons in modeled footwear. All the while, she
saved money for school, sent money back to her mom,

(03:15):
and read a lot. She joined the Foster Girls chorus
Line and worked with an all Native American troupe that
performed on the Keith Albie Vaudeville circuit. Between shows, she
wrote poetry and stories. Eventually, she began doing solo performances,
mixing traditional indigenous dances with contemporary ones like the Charleston
and the Black Bottom. In Night, Molly landed a big

(03:39):
role in the silent film The Silent Enemy, which was
released in nineteen thirty, but it wasn't as big of
a financial hit as she hoped it would be, and
it didn't make her a huge star, even though it
helped her by her family a new house. The year
after the film was released, she went to France as
a part of the ballet core of the International Colonial
Exposition and part of a Native American jazz band called

(04:01):
the United States Indian Band. She stayed in Paris for
a while, working with anthropologists, attending lectures at the Sorbonne,
and she taught ballet there. She met John Aschambeaux, whom
she later married. After the Great Depression hit and the
couple had trouble keeping work, a pregnant Molly moved to
the United States without John. She had her daughter there,

(04:24):
and she landed roles in several Hollywood films, including Last
of the Mohicans and The Charge of the Light Brigade.
In nineteen thirty eight, she and her daughter went back
to Paris to reunite with John, but her family's time
there was turbulent. Work was scarce. Her second child died
as an infant, in World War Two was beginning. Molly

(04:45):
went back to the US and got a job dancing
and maintaining costumes for a touring company, but her husband's
health was declining, and he died in October of nineteen
forty one. In the States, Molly went back and forth
between Indian Island and New York take king small jobs.
She spent time in a mental institution, and she wrote
stories and made dolls. By the early nineteen fifties, she

(05:08):
had settled in Indian Island, where she remained for the
rest of her life. She died in nineteen seventy seven.
Molly left behind her diaries, a book of traditional panop
Scott stories, and the Dictionary of the panop Scott Language.
I'm Eve Jeff Coote and hopefully you know a little
more about history today than you did yesterday. To learn

(05:30):
more about Molly, you can listen to the episode of
Stuff you Missed in History Class called Mary Alice Nelson
a k A Molly Spotted Elk. The link is in
the description. I want to impress your Internet crush, show
them your history smarts by sharing something you learned on
the show. Don't forget to tag us at t d
I h C podcast, or you can go the old

(05:52):
fashioned route and send us an email at this day
at i heart media dot com. Thanks again for listening
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