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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