Dennison Wheelock (June 14, 1871 – March 10, 1927) was an
Oneida band conductor, composer, and cornet soloist of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Wheelock was compared to prominent bandleader
John Philip Sousa
John Philip Sousa ( ; November 6, 1854 – March 6, 1932) was an American composer and conductor of the late Romantic era known primarily for American military marches. He is known as "The March King" or the "American March King", to dis ...
, and nominated to be bandmaster of the
United States Marine Band
The United States Marine Band is the premier band of the United States Marine Corps. Established by act of Congress on July 11, 1798, it is the oldest of the United States military bands and the oldest professional musical organization in th ...
.
[Hauptman, P. 122.] At the age of 40 he became an American Indian rights activist and attorney, and within several years was arguing cases for Indian nations at the
United States Court of Claims and
US Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point of ...
.
Wheelock was born in the
Oneida Nation of Wisconsin. He went to Pennsylvania to be educated at the
Carlisle Indian School
The United States Indian Industrial School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, generally known as Carlisle Indian Industrial School, was the flagship Indian boarding school in the United States from 1879 through 1918. It took over the historic Carlisle B ...
, returning later for study at
Dickinson Preparatory School. Wheelock was appointed as the first Oneida bandmaster of the internationally acclaimed Carlisle Indian School Band, which performed at world fairs, expositions, and presidential inaugurals. While at the school, he composed the Sousa-inspired "Carlisle Indian School March." In 1900 he debuted his three-part symphony, ''Aboriginal Suite,'' at
Carnegie Hall in New York City.
In 1911 Wheelock was among the 50 founding members of the
Society of American Indians
The Society of American Indians (1911–1923) was the first national American Indian rights organization run by and for American Indians. The Society pioneered twentieth century Pan-Indianism, the movement promoting unity among American Indians ...
, the first national American Indian rights organization developed and run by American Indians. He had read the law and passed the bar that year, practicing first in Wisconsin. As he represented more Indian nations in his practice, he moved to
Washington D.C.
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, Na ...
, where he represented them in actions against the government in the
United States Court of Claims and the
U.S. Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...
. In 1980, to honor him and the celebrated Carlisle Indian Band, Dennison Wheelock's Bandstand was reconstructed on the site of the original at the
U.S. Army War College
The United States Army War College (USAWC) is a U.S. Army educational institution in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, on the 500-acre (2 km2) campus of the historic Carlisle Barracks. It provides graduate-level instruction to senior military officer ...
in
Carlisle, Pennsylvania.
Early life
![Dennison and James Wheelock](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bf/Dennison_and_James_Wheelock.png)
Dennison Wheelock was born June 14, 1871, in the
Oneida Nation of Wisconsin, second child of James A. Wheelock and Sophia Doxtator. He had an older brother Charles and a total of eight other brothers and sisters, and half-siblings. Dennison grew up in the 1870s and early 1880s in a poor Oneida farm community, which was faced with increasing economic pressures to harvest its timber and a federal push for the
allotment of tribal lands to individual households. The Nation struggled with high alcohol consumption and tribal infighting.
[Hauptman, P. 114.] Dennison took up the
cornet after hearing his older brother, Charles, playing it. He was impressed by a visiting
Tuscarora Tuscarora may refer to the following:
First nations and Native American people and culture
* Tuscarora people
**''Federal Power Commission v. Tuscarora Indian Nation'' (1960)
* Tuscarora language, an Iroquoian language of the Tuscarora people
* ...
musician, who taught the youth music reading and simple composition for several months. In 1879,
Seneca
Seneca may refer to:
People and language
* Seneca (name), a list of people with either the given name or surname
* Seneca people, one of the six Iroquois tribes of North America
** Seneca language, the language of the Seneca people
Places Extrat ...
and Tuscarora musicians won medals of excellence at state fairs.
[Hauptman, P. 115] Dennison also heard the popular band music of
John Philip Sousa
John Philip Sousa ( ; November 6, 1854 – March 6, 1932) was an American composer and conductor of the late Romantic era known primarily for American military marches. He is known as "The March King" or the "American March King", to dis ...
at Wisconsin fairs. Locally, the Oneida Union Band and the Oneida National Band were prominent in community events and throughout the Midwest.
Carlisle Indian School
![Carlisle Tobacco Cloth](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/12/Carlisle_Tobacco_Cloth.1.png)
For more than 100 years, numerous Iroquois children, including Oneida, had been sent away from home to Christian schools for education. It was a tradition Wheelock likely heard about.
Moor's Indian Charity School, now
Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College (; ) is a private research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, it is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. Although founded to educate Native ...
, was founded in 1755 by
Eleazar Wheelock
Eleazar Wheelock (April 22, 1711 – April 24, 1779) was an American Congregational minister, orator, and educator in Lebanon, Connecticut, for 35 years before founding Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. He had tutored Samson Occom, a Mohe ...
, a
Puritan
The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to purify the Church of England of Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should become more Protestant. ...
minister. He established the school to train Native Americans as
missionaries. Dennison's surname was adopted by an Oneida ancestor as a tribute to Wheelock.
[Hauptman, P. 116.] Hamilton-Oneida Academy, now
Hamilton College
Hamilton College is a private liberal arts college in Clinton, Oneida County, New York. It was founded as Hamilton-Oneida Academy in 1793 and was chartered as Hamilton College in 1812 in honor of inaugural trustee Alexander Hamilton, following ...
, was a seminary founded in 1793 by Presbyterian
Samuel Kirkland
Samuel Kirkland (December 1, 1741 – February 28, 1808) was a Presbyterian minister and missionary among the Oneida and Tuscarora peoples of present-day central New York State. He was a long-time friend of the Oneida chief Skenandoa.
Kirkland ...
as part of his
missionary
A missionary is a member of a religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thomas Hale 'On Being a Mi ...
work with the Oneida in New York State, their traditional territory.
The
Oneida people
The Oneida people ( autonym: Onʌyoteˀa·ká·, Onyota'a:ka, ''the People of the Upright Stone, or standing stone'', ''Thwahrù·nęʼ'' in Tuscarora) are a Native American tribe and First Nations band. They are one of the five founding ...
from Wisconsin and New York constituted one of the largest Indian nation's contingents at Carlisle Indian School. Only the
Lakota
Lakota may refer to:
* Lakota people, a confederation of seven related Native American tribes
*Lakota language, the language of the Lakota peoples
Place names
In the United States:
* Lakota, Iowa
* Lakota, North Dakota, seat of Nelson County
* La ...
,
Chippewa and
Seneca
Seneca may refer to:
People and language
* Seneca (name), a list of people with either the given name or surname
* Seneca people, one of the six Iroquois tribes of North America
** Seneca language, the language of the Seneca people
Places Extrat ...
had more students enrolled. Between 1885 and 1917, more than 500 Oneida students attended Carlisle.
In January 1884 at age 13, Wheelock wrote to Captain
Richard Henry Pratt
Brigadier General Richard Henry Pratt (December 6, 1840 – March 15, 1924) was an American military officer who founded and was longtime superintendent of the influential Carlisle Indian Industrial School at Carlisle, Pennsylvania. He is associa ...
, Superintendent of the Carlisle Indian School, referring to his "limited musical education" and his musical awakening.
In 1885, Wheelock enrolled in the Carlisle Indian School to study under Pratt.
Dennison excelled in the classroom, and as a champion debater; he also was a fine tenor in the choir and cornetist ''extraordinaire'' in the band. In June 1890, Dennison graduated from Carlisle.
He returned to
Oneida, Wisconsin
Oneida is an unincorporated community and former census-designated place (CDP) in the Town of Oneida, Outagamie County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 1,070 at the 2000 census. At the census, part of the CDP lay within the Town ...
, where he started teaching and was appointed as a
justice of the peace. But within a year, Wheelock returned to Carlisle. With Pratt's recommendation, he enrolled in the nearby Dickinson Preparatory School. Dickinson College provided Carlisle Indian students with access to college-level education through the Dickinson Preparatory School ("Conway Hall"). Only a select few of Carlisle students were recommended to this institution. Dennison attended Dickinson Preparatory school from 1891 to 1892.
[Hauptman, P. 123.]
In 1892, Pratt appointed Wheelock as assistant clerk, working directly for him at the School. Later that year, Pratt appointed the young man as bandmaster, a position he would hold for more than eight years, until 1900.
Music at Carlisle
During the
Progressive Era
The Progressive Era (late 1890s – late 1910s) was a period of widespread social activism and political reform across the United States focused on defeating corruption, monopoly, waste and inefficiency. The main themes ended during Am ...
, from the late 19th century until the onset of World War I, Native American performers were major draws and money-makers. Millions of visitors at world fairs, exhibitions, and parades throughout the United States and Europe saw Native Americans portrayed as the vanishing race, exotic peoples, and objects of modern comparative anthropology. Reformers and Progressives fought a war of words and images against the popular Wild West shows at world fairs, expositions and parades. They opposed theatrical portrayals of
Wild Westers as vulgar heathen stereotypes. In contrast, Carlisle students were portrayed as a new generation of Native American leadership embracing civilization, education and industry.
Music was an important part of the Carlisle curriculum. Every student took music classes, and many received private instruction. Captain Pratt had three goals for the Carlisle musical program: to acculturate Indian school children to majority European-American culture; to use music to promote discipline, with emphasis on the drills of the popular marching bands; and to generate favorable public attention, in order to win continued political and philanthropic support and financing for the school.
Development of the music program at Carlisle was supported largely by private philanthropy, rather than federal funds.
[Hauptman, P. 118.] Around 1879, a visiting philanthropist from Boston reported hearing "tom-toms" and Indian singing in the dormitories. Pratt preferred that the "tom-toms" stopped, but said,
It wouldn't be fair to do unless I can give them something else as good, or better, on the same line. If you will give me a set of brass instruments, I will give them to the "tom-tom boys" and they can toot on them, and this will stop the "tom-tom."
Pratt soon received a set of musical instruments: cornets, clarinets, and pianos from Boston.
While classical European music was emphasized at Carlisle, the students also sang and drummed traditional tribal music in their dormitories. They played samples of such music at assembly and local community programs. Later, Wheelock featured American Indian music with classical European music in his opera, ''Aboriginal Suite''.
Carlisle Indian Band
![Roosevelt Inauguration Parade](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/05/Roosevelt_Inauguration_Parade.jpg)
Pratt established the Carlisle Indian School band in 1880. By the time Wheelock entered the school in the mid-1880s, musical programs were a common feature of the school. Band members mastered
Greig,
Mozart,
Rossini,
Schubert
Franz Peter Schubert (; 31 January 179719 November 1828) was an Austrian composer of the late Classical and early Romantic eras. Despite his short lifetime, Schubert left behind a vast ''oeuvre'', including more than 600 secular vocal wor ...
and
Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most op ...
. They frequently performed at school assemblies, holiday festivities and at the Carlisle Opera House, delighting the students, teachers and administrators at the school and gaining favorable attention among the local white townspeople.
[Hauptman, P. 123.]
In 1892, Dennison was appointed bandmaster of the Carlisle Indian Band, a position he would hold for over eight years, until 1900. Wheelock was the first American Indian bandmaster at Carlisle. After his tenure, his brother James took up the baton. Under the leadership of Dennison Wheelock and James Wheelock, the Carlisle Indian Band earned an international reputation of musical excellence. The Carlisle Indian Band performed at world fairs, expositions, concert venues and at every national presidential inaugural celebration until the school closed. Taking over the reins of the Carlisle Indian School Band, he recruited new members. Dennison continued to perform at as a solo cornetist and his younger brother James, a student at the school, became a fixture on the "E-Clarinet. "
Wheelock's commitment to music extended beyond the classroom and the bandstand the Carlisle. Throughout the 1890s, he was also composing songs, popular "fluff", band music, as well as the symphony, which he finally completed in 1900.
[Hauptman, P. 125.]
By 1894, the band and the Carlisle Women's Choir, performed throughout the East. On April 15, 1894, ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' did a feature on Wheelock with his portrait and band, reviewing their performance at the city's Lenox Lyceum. The review noted "few metropolitan bands can boast of greater care and accuracy in the execution of their music." "Among other offerings, the band played Mozart and Wagner as well as two selections compose by Wheelock himself: "The Carlisle Indian School March" and a piece entitled "American Medley." "The concert's patrons read as a "
Who's Who" of New York's elite families, including Mrs.
J. Pierpont Morgan, Mrs.
Russell Sage
Russell Risley Sage (August 4, 1816 – July 22, 1906) was an American financier, railroad executive and Whig politician from New York. As a frequent partner of Jay Gould in various transactions, he amassed a fortune. Olivia Slocum Sage, his se ...
, Mrs. James Harriman and Mrs.
Elihu Root.
Marriage
Louise LaChapelle (Wheelock), a
Chippewa from the
White Earth Reservation
The White Earth Indian Reservation ( oj, Gaa-waabaabiganikaag, "Where there is an abundance of white clay") is the home to
the White Earth Band, located in northwestern Minnesota. It is the largest Indian reservation in the state by land area. ...
in northwestern Minnesota, arrived as a student at Carlisle two years earlier than Dennison. They met, courted, married and had four children. Richard Edmund Wheelock, Paul Wheelock, Leeland Lloyd Wheelock and Louise Frances Wheelock. Their first two children were born in Carlisle.
Captain Richard Henry Pratt
Captain Pratt was Dennison's mentor and school father, and Carlisle, Pennsylvania, was Dennison's second-home. Wheelock corresponded with Pratt for over 35 years and confided in each other throughout their lives. Wheelock had affection for Pratt, his wife and Carlisle. Wheelock shared Pratt's views. Both saw federal Indian boarding schools as a temporary educational formula to "uplift" the Indians, and called for the abolishment of Indian reservations and the Bureau of Indian Affairs. They focused upon the release of Indians from federal control, full citizenship, equal opportunity and education in public schools. Wheelock and Pratt had little faith in the efficacy of the
Society of American Indians
The Society of American Indians (1911–1923) was the first national American Indian rights organization run by and for American Indians. The Society pioneered twentieth century Pan-Indianism, the movement promoting unity among American Indians ...
to make real changes, since they believed that the organization had too many BIA bureaucrats, naïve reformers from the
Indian Rights Association
The Indian Rights Association (IRA) was a social activist group dedicated to the well being and acculturation of American Indians. Founded by non-Indians in Philadelphia in 1882, the group was highly influential in American Indian policy through ...
another "paper shooters." From 1921 to 1922, Captain Pratt lobbied President
Warren G. Harding
Warren Gamaliel Harding (November 2, 1865 – August 2, 1923) was the 29th president of the United States, serving from 1921 until his death in 1923. A member of the Republican Party, he was one of the most popular sitting U.S. presidents. A ...
to nominate Wheelock to be Commissioner of Indian affairs.
James Riley Wheelock
![Chief Wheelock's Indian Band](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c6/Chief_Wheelock%27s_Indian_Band.png)
Under the leadership of Dennison Wheelock and James Wheelock, the Carlisle Indian Band earned an international reputation of musical excellence. James Riley Wheelock was a younger brother of bandmaster Dennison Wheelock and graduated from Carlisle in 1896. Like Dennis, James attended the prestigious Dickinson College Preparatory School after completing his Carlisle studies. When Dennison resigned as Bandmaster in 1900, James succeeded him. In 1903, James studied music and his specialty, clarinet, in
Leipzig, Germany
Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...
.
In 1909, James clashed with Superintendent Moses Friedman, Pratt's successor. Wheelock recruited Carlisle students to tour with his professional band during the summer, believing the experience would fit into the parameters of Carlisle's outing program. Superintendent Friedman refused, but several boys from the band attempted join Wheelock's band and had their trunks taken to the train depot. Friedman discovered the plan and the boys were locked in the guardhouse as punishment for their actions. The rest of the Carlisle Band was so resentful at these measures, they refused to perform during that evening's "salute to the flag, " a daily ritual at Carlisle. James was infuriated by Friedman's actions and charged in newspapers that the Superintendent was jealous of his band's success, was the cause of disciplinary problems at the school and that the students were illegally held in a "dungeon." Friedman responded that he had refused permission because in the past, "students indulged in the kind of dissipation and debauchery during the summer which taints and brings about an unhealthy condition in the fall when they return to school." The story made local headlines and embarrassed both Carlisle and the Office of Indian Affairs. After several weeks and an official investigation, the matter was dropped. The students who forged resistance through the flag controversy rebelled because of their intense desire to perform beyond the campus.
In 1914, the ''Harrisburg Telegraph'' reported that James Riley Wheelock, director of the
Enola Band, was performing in clarinet solos and was one of the best clarinet players in Pennsylvania. During World War I, Wheelock was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Army, where he conducted a black regimental band. After the war, he conducted the famous U.S. Indian Band and others well into the 1920s.
Wheelocks at Carlisle
The Wheelocks were likely the first family of Carlisle Indian School, because there were so many of them, and they were mentioned prominently in Carlisle publications.
The
Oneida people
The Oneida people ( autonym: Onʌyoteˀa·ká·, Onyota'a:ka, ''the People of the Upright Stone, or standing stone'', ''Thwahrù·nęʼ'' in Tuscarora) are a Native American tribe and First Nations band. They are one of the five founding ...
from Wisconsin and New York was one of the largest contingents of Indians at Carlisle, and only the
Lakota
Lakota may refer to:
* Lakota people, a confederation of seven related Native American tribes
*Lakota language, the language of the Lakota peoples
Place names
In the United States:
* Lakota, Iowa
* Lakota, North Dakota, seat of Nelson County
* La ...
,
Chippewas
The Ojibwe, Ojibwa, Chippewa, or Saulteaux are an Anishinaabe people in what is currently southern Canada, the northern Midwestern United States, and Northern Plains.
According to the U.S. census, in the United States Ojibwe people are one of ...
and
Senecas
The Seneca () ( see, Onödowáʼga:, "Great Hill People") are a group of Indigenous Iroquoian-speaking people who historically lived south of Lake Ontario, one of the five Great Lakes in North America. Their nation was the farthest to the west ...
had more students. Between 1885 and 1917, over five hundred Oneida students attended Carlisle.
[Hauptman, P. 116.] Of Wheelock's nine brothers, half-brothers, sisters and half sisters, only two-his oldest brother Charles, who also played the cornet, and his youngest half-brother, Harrison did not attend. In addition, several of his first and second cousins were enrolled at the school. Dennison's younger brothers Hugh Wheelock and Joel Wheelock, who attended Carlisle, were also accomplished musicians, and later directed their own all-Indian bands. Sister Ida Wheelock was active in school organizations such as the Susan Longstreth Literary Society, and
Martin Frederick Wheelock, a cousin of Dennison, played American football for the
Carlisle Indians
The Carlisle Indians football team represented the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in intercollegiate football competition. The program was active from 1893 until 1917, when it was discontinued. During the program's 25 years, the Indians compile ...
from 1894 to 1902.
In August 1914, Dennison wrote Oscar Lipps, Acting Superintendent at Carlisle: "My sister, Martha Wheelock, aged twenty years, whose term expired at Flandreau, South Dakota last June, and is now with me in West De Pere, desires to be admitted to the Carlisle Indian School as a pupil. I am very anxious that she shall go if possible. She is in eighth grade. My son, Edmund is also very anxious to have the benefit of a diploma from Carlisle on account of the prestige it carries with it throughout the West." Edmund, who was born in at the Carlisle Indian School in 1896, had been attending public school in Wisconsin and doing well, but Dennison was concerned about the environment. "Unfortunately, however, De Pere is a city of less than five thousand inhabitants, yet has in the neighborhood of twenty-two, or twenty-four saloons, and on account of what is falsely termed liberal sentiment, the saloon keepers do not hold strictly to the law of the land, and as a result we see young boys very frequently under the influence of liquor." Within a month, both Edmund and Martha were attending Carlisle and active in school life and literary societies.
International fame
Carlisle Indian Band
![Carnegie-hall-isaac-stern](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/09/Carnegie-hall-isaac-stern.jpg)
In the early years of the 20th century, Wheelock was compared to
John Philip Sousa
John Philip Sousa ( ; November 6, 1854 – March 6, 1932) was an American composer and conductor of the late Romantic era known primarily for American military marches. He is known as "The March King" or the "American March King", to dis ...
, and even nominated to be his successor as bandmaster of
United States Marine Band
The United States Marine Band is the premier band of the United States Marine Corps. Established by act of Congress on July 11, 1798, it is the oldest of the United States military bands and the oldest professional musical organization in th ...
.
[Hauptman, P. 122.] Wheelock relished Sousa's music, known for
American march music
American march music is march music written and/or performed in the United States. Its origins are those of European composers borrowing from the military music of the Ottoman Empire in place there from the 16th century. The American genre devel ...
.
[Bierley, Paul Edmund, "The Incredible Band of John Philip Sousa". ]University of Illinois Press
The University of Illinois Press (UIP) is an American university press and is part of the University of Illinois system. Founded in 1918, the press publishes some 120 new books each year, plus 33 scholarly journals, and several electronic proje ...
, 2006. Sousa organized a band the year he left the U.S. Marine Band, touring from 1892–1931 and performing at 15,623 concerts
On October 10, 1892, the 400th anniversary of Columbus landing in the New World, Wheelock's thirty-one piece Carlisle Indian Band, along with 300 Carlisle boys and girls, marched on Fifth Avenue in New York City past Washington Square.
[Hauptman, P. 124.] The nation's newspapers praised the boys and girls for their "intelligent faces and dignified bearing."
"But the one that caught the crowd was the Indian band that had the delegation from Carlisle. With the smoothest harmony and in most perfect time, this band played a marching anthem as it passed the reviewing stand. Both the melody and spectacle or so when usual that the people rose to their feet and cheered again and again. The Indian boys marched with perfect step, and they came opposite President
Benjamin Harrison
Benjamin Harrison (August 20, 1833March 13, 1901) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 23rd president of the United States from 1889 to 1893. He was a member of the Harrison family of Virginia–a grandson of the ninth pr ...
's stand with the military precision that no pale faced organization equaled."
In 1893, by the time the Carlisle contingent reached Chicago for the beginning of the
Columbian Exposition, newspapers nationwide reported about Pratt and his Carlisle Indian students. Upon his return to Carlisle, Wheelock began a nationwide effort to recruit for Carlisle the most promising young Indian musicians from other boarding schools for the best talent. He also started to teach music, now being referred to as "Professor. "
In 1894, Wheelock along with the Carlisle Women's Choir performed throughout the East.
In 1896, Wheelock published the ''Carlisle Indian School March''. Also, he presented a composition ''From Savagery to Civilization'' for the 17th anniversary celebration of the founding of Carlisle. Dennison performed as a soloist with the band, and the schools newspaper reported that the "sounds produced led up from the wild tom-tom, to curious and intricate twists and turns to the sweet and classic streams of civilized horns."
[Hauptman, P. 126.] The composition was a prelude to Dennison's ''Aboriginal Suite'', which he debuted in 1900 at
Carnegie Hall.
''The Aboriginal Suite''
In 1897, Wheelock traveled around the country recruiting musicians for a 70-piece, all-Indian student band to expand the Carlisle Indian Band as a new U.S. Indian Band. During this time, he completed his ''Aboriginal Suite'', a full symphony in three parts: "Morning on the Plains", "The Lovers Song" and "Dance of the Red Men."
[Haupman, P. 126.] Wheelock planned to perform this symphony at the
Paris Exposition of 1900
The Exposition Universelle of 1900, better known in English as the 1900 Paris Exposition, was a world's fair held in Paris, France, from 14 April to 12 November 1900, to celebrate the achievements of the past century and to accelerate developmen ...
and the
Pan-American Exposition of 1901 in
Buffalo, New York
Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from Sou ...
.
Wheelock was thought to be influenced by the music of European composer
Edvard Grieg
Edvard Hagerup Grieg ( , ; 15 June 18434 September 1907) was a Norwegian composer and pianist. He is widely considered one of the foremost Romantic era composers, and his music is part of the standard classical repertoire worldwide. His use of ...
.
On March 28, 1900, Wheelock and the U.S. Indian Band performed his ''Aboriginal Suite'' at
Carnegie Hall, a prestigious venue in New York City. A reviewer for ''Metronome'' reported that the concert was part of "a series being given by the organization prior to its departure for Paris, where it will demonstrate a new development in Indian civilization."
The band also played selections from
Gounod
Charles-François Gounod (; ; 17 June 181818 October 1893), usually known as Charles Gounod, was a French composer. He wrote twelve operas, of which the most popular has always been ''Faust (opera), Faust'' (1859); his ''Roméo et Juliette'' (18 ...
's opera ''
Faust (opera)'' and
Meyerbeer
Giacomo Meyerbeer (born Jakob Liebmann Beer; 5 September 1791 – 2 May 1864) was a German opera composer, "the most frequently performed opera composer during the nineteenth century, linking Mozart and Wagner". With his 1831 opera ''Robert le d ...
's ''The Huguenots.'' The response to the concert was overwhelmingly positive: "A large and genuinely enthusiastic audience greeted the reservation musicians, forcing them to respond to repeated encores."
[Hauptman, P. 127.]
Wheelock said in an interview,
The original Indian music is a strange thing. It is devoid of harmony, but the melody and time are there, and it is easily harmonized. Some great critics say that our aboriginal music is the same as played by all primitive people world over. Chinese music itself is built on the same principle and I am planning out the composition called the evolution of music. I hope to show the growth of harmony. First, so many musicians will come out in Indian costume, play some primitive melody. Others will follow playing something more advanced, and so on until the whole band is on stage and we are rendering the best grand opera.[Hauptman, P. 128.]
Six weeks later, Wheelock's 10-month-old son Paul died in Carlisle. he and Louise were grief-stricken, and the school canceled the band's appearance in Paris. In tribute to Wheelock, the National Band of France played the ''Aboriginal Suite'' for him.
Haskell Indian School
In 1900, after his son died at Carlisle, Wheelock resigned his post to move his career elsewhere. He worked as a newspaperman in
Green Bay, Wisconsin, and then a disciplinarian at the U.S. Indian School at
Flandreau, South Dakota
Flandreau is a city in and county seat of Moody County, South Dakota, United States. The population was 2,372 at the 2020 census. It was named in honor of Charles Eugene Flandrau, a judge in the territory and state of Minnesota. He is credite ...
. Wheelock performed as guest bandmaster at
Willow Grove Park
Willow Grove Park was an amusement park located in Willow Grove, Pennsylvania (the part which is in Abington Township), United States, that operated for eighty years from 1896 until the 1975 season. It was generally an alternative to the Woods ...
, near
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
. This premier venue featured Sousa and his band at the music pavilion every year but one between 1901 and 1926. On one occasion, Wheelock drew 70,000 people to a concert. He was later awarded a gold medal and a silver cup for his brilliant conducting.
In 1903, Wheelock was appointed bandmaster of
Haskell Indian School in
Lawrence, Kansas, where his efforts were nationally acclaimed.
In March 1904, a review in ''
Metronome
A metronome, from ancient Greek μέτρον (''métron'', "measure") and νομός (nomós, "custom", "melody") is a device that produces an audible click or other sound at a regular interval that can be set by the user, typically in beats pe ...
'' called the band an "up-to-date aggregation of capable musicians trained in every respect for high-class concert work." "Besides performing "their own quaint Indian songs they played Gounod, Mendelssohn, Mozart and Wagner".
In 1904, Wheelock's Haskell Indian Band performed at the
Louisiana Purchase Exposition, known as the
St. Louis
St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...
World's Fair. The band performed a mixture of classical and popular music, and Wheelock's ''Aboriginal Suite.'' This included Native dances and war whoops by band members. The Carlisle Indian Band also performed at the Pennsylvania state pavilion.
That year Captain Pratt was forced out of his post as superintendent at Carlisle by BIA officials. His network of philanthropists stopped donating to American Indian music, and Wheelock faced a financial struggle. He was supporting an aging father, numerous siblings, wife and son. He resigned from Haskell to seek better-paying employment.
Society of American Indians
![The Quarterly Journal of the American Society of Indians](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/35/The_Quarterly_Journal_of_the_American_Society_of_Indians.png)
Wheelock was among the 50 founders in 1911 of the
Society of American Indians
The Society of American Indians (1911–1923) was the first national American Indian rights organization run by and for American Indians. The Society pioneered twentieth century Pan-Indianism, the movement promoting unity among American Indians ...
(1911-1923), the first national American Indian rights organization developed and run by American Indians. The Society pioneered 20th-century
Pan-Indianism
Pan-Indianism is a philosophical and political approach promoting unity, and to some extent cultural homogenization, among different Indigenous groups in the Americas regardless of tribal distinctions and cultural differences.
This approach to ...
, the philosophy and movement promoting unity among American Indians regardless of tribal affiliation. The Society was a forum for a new generation of American Indian leaders known as Red Progressives: they were mostly prominent professionals from the fields of medicine, nursing, law, government, education, anthropology, ethnology and ministry. They shared an enthusiasm and faith in the inevitability of progress through education and governmental action. The Society met at academic institutions, maintained a Washington headquarters, conducted annual conferences, and published a quarterly journal of literature by American Indian authors. The Society promoted an "American Indian Day", and led the fight for Indians to have United States citizenship. It lobbied to have
U.S. Court of Claims available to hear cases of all tribes and bands in United States.
[
The Society of American Indians was the forerunner of modern organizations such as the ]National Congress of American Indians
The National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) is an American Indian and Alaska Native rights organization. It was founded in 1944 to represent the tribes and resist federal government pressure for termination of tribal rights and assimilati ...
. It anticipated important Indian reforms: a major reorganization of the Indian school system in the late 1920s, the codification of Indian law in the 1930s, and the opening of the U.S. Court of Claims to all Indian nations in the 1940s.[ Hazel W. Hertzberg, ''The Search for an American Indian Identity: Modern Pan-Indian Movements'', Syracuse University Press, 1971, p. 117.]
Petition to President Woodrow Wilson
In October 1914, Wheelock hosted the Society's 1914 annual convention in Madison, Wisconsin
Madison is the county seat of Dane County and the capital city of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of the 2020 census the population was 269,840, making it the second-largest city in Wisconsin by population, after Milwaukee, and the 80th-lar ...
.[Hauptman, P. 130.] In December 1914, the Society met in Washington D.C, where its members received a first-class reception from the federal government. Commissioner of Indian Affairs Cato Sells
Cato Sells (October 6, 1859 – December, 30 1948) was a commissioner at the Bureau of Indian Affairs from 1913 to 1921.
Life and career
He was born in Vinton, Iowa on October 6, 1859. He lost his father when he was young. He entered Cornel ...
welcomed them to the nation's capital where they toured the Bureau of Indian Affairs. He arranged for a visit to the White House to meet with President Woodrow Wilson
Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856February 3, 1924) was an American politician and academic who served as the 28th president of the United States from 1913 to 1921. A member of the Democratic Party, Wilson served as the president of ...
.
Wheelock presented the president with the Society's petition asking for appointment of a three-member commission to gain US citizenship for American Indians, and for broadening jurisdiction of the U.S. Court of Claims so that it could hear all Indian nation claims against the United States. He said to Wilson, "We believe that you feel, with the progressive members of your race, that it is anomalous permanently to conserve within the nation groups of people whose civic condition by legislation is different from the normal standard of American life." The outbreak of World War I impeded federal enactment of remedial Indian legislation.
As an attorney, Wheelock later represented Indian nations before the U.S. Court of Claims and the U.S. Supreme Court.
Law career
In 1910, Wheelock decided to go into law. He took up the study of law by returning to Carlisle, Pennsylvania, where he had a wide professional network. He "reading the law" as an apprentice at the office of John Miller, head of the Cumberland County Bar Association. He served as a legal apprentice to Miller.
In 1911, after completing his training, Wheelock returned to Wisconsin, and completed requirements to be admitted to the Bar. He established his residence and practice in De Pere
De Pere ( ) is a city located in Brown County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 25,410 according to the 2020 Census. De Pere is part of the Green Bay Metropolitan Statistical Area.
History
At the arrival of the first European, J ...
, near the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin. Wheelock became one of the most successful attorneys in Brown
Brown is a color. It can be considered a composite color, but it is mainly a darker shade of orange. In the CMYK color model used in printing or painting, brown is usually made by combining the colors orange and black. In the RGB color model us ...
and Outagamie counties. He represented both Indian and non-Indian clients, although in this period, anti-Indian sentiments were rising in North Central Wisconsin. In 1915, Dennison also led the Green Bay Concert Band, which was composed largely of non-Indian musicians.
During the next decade, Wheelock expanded his practice well beyond Wisconsin. By 1923, he was specializing in representing tribal nations, ranging across the country from those in Washington State to New York, including the Nisqually, Menominee
The Menominee (; mez, omǣqnomenēwak meaning ''"Menominee People"'', also spelled Menomini, derived from the Ojibwe language word for "Wild Rice People"; known as ''Mamaceqtaw'', "the people", in the Menominee language) are a federally recog ...
, Mohawk Mohawk may refer to:
Related to Native Americans
* Mohawk people, an indigenous people of North America (Canada and New York)
*Mohawk language, the language spoken by the Mohawk people
* Mohawk hairstyle, from a hairstyle once thought to have been ...
, and Stockbridge-Munsee Band. As he was increasingly representing these nations in claims and actions related to the federal government, he moved his law practice to Washington, DC
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan ...
. There he argued appellate cases before the US Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point of ...
and the US Court of Claims.
Later years
In 1921, Wheelock served as general manager and bandmaster of the Oneida Indian Centennial Celebration, commemorating the 100th anniversary of the tribe's migration to Wisconsin. His band performed Bizet
Georges Bizet (; 25 October 18383 June 1875) was a French composer of the Romantic era. Best known for his operas in a career cut short by his early death, Bizet achieved few successes before his final work, '' Carmen'', which has become o ...
's '' Carmen'' and Western classics. The American Indian nations of Wisconsin set up a traditional-style village, where they sold traditional baskets and other crafts, as well as Indian foods. A special grandstand was used for Indians to perform and celebrate Menominee and Oneida music and dancing.
Wheelock continued his practice in Washington, DC until his death on March 10, 1927, at the age of 56. He was buried in a Masonic
Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities ...
funeral at Woodlawn Cemetery, Brown County, Wisconsin
Brown County is a county in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of the 2020 census, the population was 268,740, making it the fourth-most populous county in Wisconsin. The county seat is Green Bay, making it one of three Wisconsin counties on La ...
. His wife Louise LaChapelle Wheelock died on January 16, 1931. She was buried next to him.
Legacy and honors
*In 1980, Dennison Wheelock's Bandstand was reconstructed on the site of the original at the U.S. Army War College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania. The Carlisle Barracks complex was designated a National Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...
(NHL) in 1961 because of its significant history and many uses.
*On August 14, 2003, the Green Bay Concert Band played Wheelock's ''Aboriginal Suite'' at the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin. The symphony had not been performed in more than 75 years.
Sousa on the Rez
''Sousa on the Rez: Marching to the Beat of a Different Drum'' is a half-hour documentary that explores the vibrant but little known tradition of brass band music in Indian country. The phrase "Native American music" may not suggest tubas and trumpets to many outsiders but, popularized by the Wheelock brothers, march music by composers such as John Philip Sousa
John Philip Sousa ( ; November 6, 1854 – March 6, 1932) was an American composer and conductor of the late Romantic era known primarily for American military marches. He is known as "The March King" or the "American March King", to dis ...
has been adopted and played by Native American cultures for more than a century.
References
Further reading
* Troutman, John William, "Indian Blues: American Indians and the Politics of Music 1879–1934", University of Oklahoma Press, 2009.
External links
* ''Band and Battalion of the U.S. Indian School,'' (1901), a silent film documentary, was made by American Mutoscope and Biograph Company
The Biograph Company, also known as the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, was a motion picture company founded in 1895 and active until 1916. It was the first company in the United States devoted entirely to film production and exhibition ...
at the Carlisle Indian School. The cinematographer Arthur Marvin
Arthur Weed Marvin (May 26, 1859 – January 18, 1911), was an American cinematographer who worked for the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company in which his brother Harry Marvin was one of the four founders (the others being Herman Casler ...
features a mass-band parade drill, led by the renowned Carlisle Band.
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wheelock, Dennison
1871 births
1927 deaths
People from Brown County, Wisconsin
Oneida people
American male composers
American composers
Native American composers
Native American activists
Members of the Society of American Indians
Carlisle Indian Industrial School alumni
People from Carlisle, Pennsylvania
Musicians from Wisconsin
Lawyers from Washington, D.C.
Wisconsin lawyers
People from Oneida, Wisconsin
19th-century American lawyers