Suzanne Stewart
Staff Writer
In celebration of the Nation’s upcoming 250th birthday, the Pocahontas County Opera House opened its doors Sunday to storytellers and performers who presented the history of this land – from the first residents who helped settlers find their footing in the wilderness, to the men who fought for a free nation from British rule, to the women who were behind the men, helping them form the new nation.
Poet Kirk Judd was narrator for the event and introduced each storyteller and musician in a lyrical way.
Judd opened the event with a poem he wrote, inspired by the petroglyphs in the southern part of West Virginia.
“Down in the southern part of the state there are some petroglyphs and rock carvings,” he said. “This country has been populated for thousands of years, no one really knows where these artifacts came from. There are objects; there are animals; there are birds and the most impressive thing, there is a full blown, six-foot-six figure of a man, standing on a rock with braids across his chest and his hands are out, the palms facing forward which is a sign to say, ‘I’m holding no weapons. We are a peaceful people here.’”
The poem was written from the perspective of this man. It is titled, “Voyager, Petroglyphs at Salt Rock.”
Judd also performed his poem, “My People Was Music,” later in the event.
Throughout the afternoon, Jane Birdsong performed several songs and led the crowd in singing along with her. The song list included “The Earth is My Mother,” “When I First Came to This Land,” “Kisses Sweeter Than Wine” and “Yankee Doodle.”
As he introduced each storyteller, Judd did a variation on the beginning of the Declaration of Independence.
“We the People have a perfect union with Great Spirit, Mother Earth,” he said. “We honor all our ancestors, the animals, the plants and the spirits of the land.”
Native American folklorist Larry Jent then took the stage and welcomed the crowd with a Cherokee greeting. He played a song on his cedar flute and shared two tales he was taught as a child.
The first was about how the animals and wilderness helped the “two leggeds” learn how to survive in the mountains. The animals prayed to the Creator and asked for something to keep the two leggeds warm. There was a great bolt of lightning and it lit a hollow sycamore on fire.
The animals tried hard to get the flames to the people and finally succeeded and that was the first fire ever made.
The next tale was about how the wilderness noticed the people were susceptible to disease and so the trees and plants made sure they had ingredients to be used for medicine, as well as food to nourish them and keep them healthy.
The grandmothers of the tribes would teach young girls which plants were safe and how to harvest them properly to make medicine for their people.
Jent closed with a performance, playing the Cherokee National Anthem on his flute. He said the tune should sound familiar and indeed, as the notes filled the Opera House, it was impossible not to start singing along in your head.
The tune is known to many as “Amazing Grace.” After playing his flute, Jent sang the Cherokee words as he turned to face each of the four directions – north, south, east and west.
“We the People seek new beginnings,” Judd said. “We left our Homelands to start a new life in a new world.”
Next, Bob Sheets, of Green Bank, took the stage, dressed as a militia man, complete with a muzzleloader drawn.
Sheets was in character as his ancestor, Abram Burner, who fought in the Revolutionary War before settling in what is now known as Bartow.
Sheets spoke about fighting in the war and traveling to Philadelphia with the militia to meet George Washington, then down to the Carolinas, all in the hopes of freeing the colonies from British rule.
After the success of the war, Burner married Mary Magdalene Hull and they had 11 children.
As Burner, Sheets told those in the crowd that when they celebrate the 250th anniversary of American independence, he knows they will surely think about George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and other notable men who helped shape this country, but he said to not forget men like him – Abram Burner – whose names may not be as recognizable, but who fought and gave their lives to help form this country.
“We the People arrived in ships, wagons, on horseback,” Judd said. “Many walked across mountains and valleys to get here. We were young; we were old; we had courage.”
Judith Clister, dressed as a typical pioneer girl, performed as Ruby, a 12-year-old girl who was given a big task by her father, who was a militiaman stationed at Fort Warwick.
Ruby’s father told her that he needed her to warn the Native American village near them that some of the militiamen were preparing to attack them. He said he couldn’t go and her mother – who was seven months pregnant – could not go, so it was up to her to help.
Ruby and her family were friends with the chief and his family. Ruby was friends with the chief’s daughter Doe Eyes so Ruby took a basket of food her mother prepared and went on the arduous journey to the village.
She was met by Doe Eyes’ older brother, Little Turtle, who was painted and ready for battle. He said he and his friends were joining the British, who had promised them they would keep settlers from taking over the land.
Ruby said she had to get to the village to warn the chief of incoming militia, so Little Turtle took her to his father. She relayed her father’s message, and the chief thanked her and told her she could never come back to the village.
Saddened to know she would never see her friend again, Ruby was led by Doe Eyes to the top of the ridge, where the two friends said their goodbyes.
“We the People prospered, held fast to our dreams, but hungered mightily for freedom,” Judd said.
Dressed in a royal purple ballgown, Linda Durrett took on the persona of Deborah Read Franklin. Deborah was not just any Quaker who lived in Philadelphia with her family. She was a Quaker who went on to marry Benjamin Franklin.
The two met when they were teens and got engaged against her parent’s wishes. Then Ben went to England to work with the illustrious printmakers there and he called off their engagement.
Deborah went on to marry a man from England whom her parents approved of, only to find out he had a wife and child in England. She was distraught knowing she would never be able to marry and have a normal life.
After her husband fled, never to be heard from again, Deborah reconnected with Ben Franklin when he returned to Philadelphia and he said he didn’t care about the other marriage, he wanted to marry her. The pair made a declaration “We’re married,” and that was that.
They settled into their home and soon Deborah was left raising a child Ben brought home and said was his. They later had two children of their own, a son and daughter.
When Ben was in Philadelphia, he created so many things, including the first post office and the first free library. When he returned to England and France – staying away for 10 years – Deborah became the country’s first postmistress and made sure the free library operated well.
She kept the home fires burning and kept Ben’s businesses afloat, but really all she wanted was for her husband to come home. When he did, he was engrossed in politics and helping form the nation we know today.
“The stage was set, the people grew weary and angry,” Judd said. “They longed for the right to be represented fairly, to make their own decisions and choices, to live free.”
On July 4, 1776, The Declaration of Independence was adopted by the Second Continental Congress. It severed the colonies’ political ties to Great Britain and asserted the universal principles of human equality, self-determination and rights of the people.
Judd read the opening paragraphs from the Declaration, as follows:
“The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen United States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to affect their Safety and Happiness.
“We, therefore, the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States.”
Closing Sunday’s event, the cast of storytellers and musicians led the audience in singing “America the Beautiful.”
