The Bach & Beethoven Experience performs The Story of Pa I Sha. Performers (L to R): Leighann Daihl Ragusa, Rachael Youngman, Brandi Berry Benson, Kiyoe Matsuura, Erica Rubis, Michaela Marchi. (Photo: The Bach & Beethoven Experience).
The first piece Brandi Berry Benson ever composed was Where the Creek Meets the River: a folk-inspired duet between violin and double bass, written for her junior recital at the University of North Texas. “I just felt like I was on cloud nine… I never forgot that feeling” reflects the Chicago-area composer and violinist.
That assignment shifted the trajectory of Benson’s life. She always considered herself a violinist foremost, but slowly continued composing. She composed while in grad school at Indiana University, and after forming the Bach and Beethoven Experience.
Then, the pandemic hit.
With other projects on hold, Benson decided to record her music, including a piece called the Chickasaw Suite, a first foray into exploring her family heritage. She has since composed a suite incorporating both Chickasaw and Choctaw traditions, telling her family’s story — starting with her ancestor, Pa I Sha — as well as stories of the Chickasaw and Choctaw nations in the following generations.
WFMT invited Brandi Berry Benson to talk about her work The Story of Pa I Sha ahead of its May 15 performance at Northwestern University.
Portrait of Pa I Sha (Photo: The Bach and Beethoven Experience)
WFMT: Let’s start at the beginning… Who is Pa I Sha?
Brandi Berry Benson: Pa I Sha is my fourth great-grandmother. We had a portrait of her in the living room of my parents’ house growing up. Just looking at her, you can see that this woman is so strong, and has been through a lot.
Four is very significant for the Chickasaws for a number of reasons (i.e the seasons, etc), so I wanted this story to be written in four parts. That first story is about her. She walked what a lot of people call the Trail of Tears: the Chickasaws call it “The Removal”, when they were forcibly removed from their homelands in Mississippi.
The second story is about my third great-grandmother. She met a Civil War soldier on the banks of the Red River; he promised her that he would come back and marry her, which he did at Bloomfield Academy as soon as the war was over.
The third story is about my second great-grandmother Rosa Ella. She lived through the transition of Indian territory becoming Oklahoma. There was a lot of fear, especially if you were of a certain blood quantum, that you would have restrictions placed on your citizenship. So she lied about her blood quantum.
After she had my great-grandfather, they moved to the Texas Panhandle and declared white in every census since. So that third story talks about the struggle of First Nations peoples who lost indigenous territory, and why they felt the need to conceal their identity.
The fourth story is about my great-grandfather: the last relative of mine on the Dawes Rolls [census used by five Native Nations from 1898-1914 to determine eligibility for tribe membership]. He married a woman that came by train from Southern Illinois. Together, they made it their life mission to find out all they could about his Chickasaw lineage. He did a lot of genealogy research the old-fashioned way: meeting people, going to various places to see records. He left a good bit for me to expand on.
WFMT: The story combines influences from two different tribes: the Choctaw and the Chickasaw. Why is that?
Berry Benson: At one point, the Choctaw and the Chickasaws were one tribe led by two brothers, Chikasha and Chahta. The story goes that as they migrated together from the west to the east, they had a pole from the Creator directing them where to go. Every night they would plant the pole, and in the morning go in the direction that the pole was leaning. One morning, after crossing the Mississippi River together, the pole seemed to be leaning in different directions. Chahta interpreted the pole to be standing straight up, and that this was where they should settle. Chikasha interpreted that the pole was leaning a little bit, and that they should keep going. So the people were divided. Some stayed with Chahta, and some ventured a little farther east with Chikasha. When they were removed from their homelands in Mississippi and moved into Indian territory in Oklahoma, they actually ended up next to each other.
The Chickasaw and Choctaw languages and music are very similar. When it comes to the music, the Chickasaws adopt a lot of the Choctaw hymnal into their canon. That source is actually used pretty interchangeably between the two tribes.
I got really interested in the music as I was researching more of my family line. I was also inspired by some really great conversations with Chickasaw composer Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate.
Another inspiration was a photo at the Council Museum in Tishomingo, the Chickasaw Nation’s capital, that showed a class of about a dozen Chickasaw women at the Bloomfield Academy where my 3rd great grandmother got married. They were holding violins, guitars, and mandolins. As a fiddle player myself, seeing that picture just filled my heart and made me wonder how music could tell the stories of my family.
WFMT: Is the hymn book entirely in the Choctaw language?
Berry Benson: It’s a mix of both. There’s the Choctaw language hymns and there are some English translations, and also a pronunciation guide for the Choctaw language.
WFMT: How does your research into Choctaw and Chickasaw traditional music manifest in the story?
Berry Benson: I wanted to keep as many traditional elements as possible. There’s a role for Choctaw narrator and vocalist; Rachel Youngman, a citizen of the Choctaw Nation, has been performing the role beautifully. My co-director of the BBE, Leighann Daihl Ragusa, plays both the Native American flute and the Traverso: a predecessor to the modern flute. With the Chickasaw, the flute is like a greeting, so I’ve used that motif to introduce new chapters in the story. It also comes back when things are changing.
There’s also Indigenous percussion. Michaela Marchi, who is on staff at the Center for Native American and Indigenous Research at Northwestern University, has been a part of this project from the very beginning. She brings the hand drum, a variety of rattles, and striking sticks, so that I’m still keeping those Native voices. Turtle shell shakers are a really important part of Chickasaw dance and culture, and there are sacred elements to that as well. As a nod to the shakers, we have turtle shell rattles at different points where it would be appropriate.
This whole piece is like a representation of the assimilation happening in the 19th century; there were lots of changes to music and traditions with removal, even within different tribes. Not everybody had the same experiences, nor were they able to retain the same traditions.
I’ve tried, as much as possible, to be true to some of those traditions while showing the changes that were happening throughout. That includes strings, which are not traditional, but have very much become a part of the Chickasaw culture. That’s how the instrumentation is kind of worked in: to show those changes.
Composer and violinist Brandi Berry Benson at WFMT.
WFMT: What most surprised you over the course of your research?
Berry Benson: I supposed the changes within the tribe itself, and also with respect to the missionaries… You know, we’re quick to point out the negative impacts of the missionaries, but the missionaries had a very positive impact as well. Things like having a first Native newspaper published, and the ability to have records in the first place.
It’s incredibly nuanced because there were certainly experiences with missionaries that were not good. I actually met a Choctaw woman who was shipped off to a boarding school, and found other children to speak Choctaw with secretly. But then, there were missionaries that were very good for the tribe, and walked the Removal with them. The Indian Church actually, in a lot of instances, became a safe haven for the language; even though government agents were trying to have everybody speak English, the church was one place they could freely speak their native language. There’s good and bad, but history is very nuanced, and I think that is something that could be applied everywhere.
WFMT: When thinking about your journey with this piece, what would you say you are the most proud of?
Berry Benson: Honestly, this whole work was a stretch for me in a good way. Going through the process of creating this work, I learned not just about my family, but the music. I found it held such a deep meaning for me.
But what I’m most proud of is bringing the Native communities together. Every time we perform this work, I have audience members come up to tell me about their families. The fact that it has that reach, that it causes people to think of their Native roots, or share how it’s made them think of family stories… I think that’s what I’m most proud of.
The Story of Pa I Sha will be coming to Northwestern University on May 15 at 7:30pm. For ticketing and information, visit bbexperience.org.
