The Oneida, Issue 3, Volume 11 April/May 2009

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Hear a Sample of the Song

In the early 1920s Oneida Elsie Elm sang a funeral dirge for famed inventor Thomas A. Edison.

Not much was known of this Oneida woman who lived in Manlius. Even the Edison Museum wasn’t familiar with how the recording came to be. But the line between Elsie and the recording can be easily drawn.

Elsie, who was born on Jan. 6, 1883 to Oneidas Abraham and Margaret (Cornelius) Elm, appears on the rolls in 1886, 1901, and 1922. She never married, had five siblings: Hattie, Elias, Charlie, Horton and Lydia, and a half-brother Simeon Elm.

In November 1920 Elsie, along with Horton, fellow Oneida Bill Rockwell, and other Haudenosaunee representatives, traveled to Rochester for the New York State Indian Welfare’s Society’s semiannual meeting, hosted by the Morgan Chapter of the New York State Archeological Association. The group, created in November 1919, was made up of Haudenosaunee members and friends. During meetings they would discuss mutual tribal needs, and “… statistical records and accounts are given of reservation conditions and progress.”

Elsie was among the group, who joined the Morgan Chapter members and community leaders, who visited Morgan’s tomb at Mount Hope Cemetery. Following an address by a chapter member, Elsie was escorted to the tomb and sang in the Oneida language “Appeal to the Great Spirit” or “Da-ya-la-waj-quat.”

“O sa ya nyel da qua toon dake No na ah ga da lun ni yah Sa na koo wah na gee goon hey Na nah ho ne goont sa ne say La yah da nol lo na Ne yo Ah da wah ga lah goo aha ga Na ah he yah ne duh ta sa Na gee nee yah ska dun hook tanh Da geys tas ah ga ne goo lah Ah gay no lonk quay sa wah na Say snoo gey Oh-Da gey nas was Ga whay nes sa la da na noo wah. Oh Great Sprit, list thou to me When I in prayer call out to Thee My heart, my soul, my life, my all Art Thine because I worship Thee. Oh, great in power art Thou, O God, To those who fear and understand! Thy hand shall guide me to hunting grounds When death does take me from this land. Oh inspire my soul with light anew To love Thy word and learn more of Thee. Thy hand must guide me this day, this hour, Forever and forever more.”

Word of Elsie’s singing in Rochester traveled, landing praise in the Syracuse Post-Standard and in Rochester’s Democratic Union. How did Edison hear of her? According to the Democratic Union, a Rochester lawyer by the name of George P. Decker wrote to Edison, and urged him to record the funeral hymn for educational and historic value.

Edison agreed with Decker, stating that if Elsie would travel to his studio in East Orange, N.J., he would record her singing free of charge for distribution to libraries and to Elsie’s friends. The Morgan Chapter paid for Elsie’s travel expenses, as well as those of a companion’s.

By September 1921, the phonograph recording of Elsie singing “An Appeal to the Great Spirit” was heralded by the Madison County Historical Society. The Oneida Dispatch’s Sept. 23, 1921, edition noted the society’s program as a “unique and interesting entertainment… The phonograph record of an Oneida Indian dirge, entitled “An Appeal to the Great Spirit,” which Elsie Elm sang for the Edison company … furnished a musical section of the evening’s program of rare interest.”

Elsie’s recording is retained by the Edison Museum, which provided a copy to the Nation; a portion of it may be heard here.

(EDITOR’S NOTE: Special thanks to Becky Karst, daughter of Martin Johns, Turtle Clan, for sharing her research on this story, and to Gerald Fabris, museum curator, and to staff members at the Edison National Historic Site, National Park Service, for providing a copy of the recording to The Oneida. To learn more the Edison Site, please visit:http://www.nps.gov/edis/)