美国国家公共电台 NPR Plymouth Plantation Museum Showcases Music Of Pilgrims And Native Americans

Plymouth Plantation¹ Museum Showcases Music Of Pilgrims And Native Americans

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We know some of the foods that people tasted at the very first Thanksgiving in 1621, but what did it sound like in Plymouth Colony when Pilgrims and Native Americans gathered together? Was there music? NPR's Neda Ulaby met some historical re-enactors who have explored that question.

NEDA ULABY, BYLINE³: In the year of our Lord 2016, the Native Americans wore hawk⁴ feathers and soft brown deerskins. The pilgrims - plain white caps and homemade shoes. They came together on stage at Washington, D.C.'s, very modern National Museum of American History to sing their own holy music in counterpoint.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: (Singing) High heart and fearfully (unintelligible) I boldly trust in this.

ULABY: Some of these singers are actual Mayflower descendants; others Wampanoag Indians. Their ancestors celebrated⁵ together at the first Thanksgiving. But did they sing or dance together?

RICHARD PICKERING: Not that I know of.

ULABY: Richard Pickering is deputy director of Plimoth Plantation. It's a living history museum in Massachusetts where re-enactors tell about the Pilgrims' original colony and the native people who lived there first. Pickering's used to talking about the original Thanksgiving.

PICKERING: During the course of the three days, they feasted, they played sports.

ULABY: But there's no record of people singing. The Pilgrims have a dour⁶ reputation, but Pickering says they loved music.

PICKERING: Loved music, it's very much a musical culture. Doesn't matter whether your voice was good or bad, everybody liked to sing.

UNIDENTIFIED CHOIR⁷: (Singing) Never weather-beaten sail.

ULABY: However, women could not sing in public alone, and harmonizing in church was seen as frivolous⁸. Still, the first book published in North America was a book of hymns⁹.

UNIDENTIFIED CHOIR: (Singing) And take my soul to rest.

ULABY: Some sounds from 1621 can be recreated. Others are beyond our reach.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: (Vocalizing).

ULABY: The language of the Wampanoag very nearly slipped away. About two-thirds of the tribe was killed, enslaved or died of illness or starvation during King Philip's war about 50 years after that first Thanksgiving. Darius Coombs, who's one of the native re-enactors, also works for the Wampanoag Indigenous¹⁰ Program.

DARIUS COOMBS: We still live here.

ULABY: Coombs told the audience he grew up on a Wampanoag reservation not too far from Boston, so his accent might sound familiar to fans of Car Talk.

D. COOMBS: As a nation, we date back over 12,000 years and are located in Massachusetts and parts of Rhode Island.

ULABY: Coombs' wife, Tootie, says performing with people dressed as Pilgrims is less awkward than you might expect.

TOOTIE COOMBS: Well, outside of it, we are so cool together.

ULABY: Inside it, they're telling the same story from different perspectives.

T. COOMBS: You know, the struggles, the happiness, the sadness, the religion, the growing.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #2: (Vocalizing).

ULABY: The youngest performer at the National Museum of American History was 22-year-old Keon Jackson. He's part Cherokee, part African-American and part Wampanoag.

KEON JACKSON: I still live on our reservation in the town of Mashpee on Cape¹¹ Cod¹².

ULABY: Where he says Thanksgiving is not really a big deal.

JACKSON: I celebrate it just like everybody else does. So I'm going to have turkey and things like that, but we're in time of mourning because that's when a lot of things changed for our people, downhill for the most part.

ULABY: During the days of the Pilgrims, there were around 100,000 Wampanoag. Now, the tribe numbers around 5,000 or 6,000.

JACKSON: A lot of people don't know it was my people from Thanksgiving because a lot of people always teach about the Pilgrims and the Indians, not really the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag. And that's what Thanksgiving's about to me is that we're still here.

ULABY: This is a holiday that makes us think about who counts as Americans, he says, and who gets to sit at the table today. Neda Ulaby, NPR News.

1 plantation   

n.种植园，大农场

参考例句：

• His father-in-law is a plantation manager.他岳父是个种植园经营者。
• The plantation owner has possessed himself of a vast piece of land.这个种植园主把大片土地占为己有。

2 browser   

n.浏览者

参考例句：

• View edits in a web browser.在浏览器中看编辑的效果。
• I think my browser has a list of shareware links.我想在浏览器中会有一系列的共享软件链接。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 hawk   

n.鹰，骗子；鹰派成员

参考例句：

• The hawk swooped down on the rabbit and killed it.鹰猛地朝兔子扑下来,并把它杀死。
• The hawk snatched the chicken and flew away.老鹰叼了小鸡就飞走了。

5 celebrated   

adj.有名的，声誉卓著的

参考例句：

• He was soon one of the most celebrated young painters in England.不久他就成了英格兰最负盛名的年轻画家之一。
• The celebrated violinist was mobbed by the audience.观众团团围住了这位著名的小提琴演奏家。

6 dour   

adj.冷酷的，严厉的；（岩石）嶙峋的；顽强不屈

参考例句：

• They were exposed to dour resistance.他们遭受到顽强的抵抗。
• She always pretends to be dour,in fact,she's not.她总表现的不爱讲话，事实却相反。

7 choir   

n.唱诗班，唱诗班的席位，合唱团，舞蹈团；v.合唱

参考例句：

• The choir sang the words out with great vigor.合唱团以极大的热情唱出了歌词。
• The church choir is singing tonight.今晚教堂歌唱队要唱诗。

8 frivolous   

adj.轻薄的；轻率的

参考例句：

• This is a frivolous way of attacking the problem.这是一种轻率敷衍的处理问题的方式。
• He spent a lot of his money on frivolous things.他在一些无聊的事上花了好多钱。

9 hymns   

n.赞美诗，圣歌，颂歌( hymn的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• At first, they played the hymns and marches familiar to them. 起初他们只吹奏自己熟悉的赞美诗和进行曲。 来自英汉非文学 - 百科语料821
• I like singing hymns. 我喜欢唱圣歌。 来自辞典例句

10 indigenous   

adj.土产的，土生土长的，本地的

参考例句：

• Each country has its own indigenous cultural tradition.每个国家都有自己本土的文化传统。
• Indians were the indigenous inhabitants of America.印第安人是美洲的土著居民。

11 cape   

n.海角，岬；披肩，短披风

参考例句：

• I long for a trip to the Cape of Good Hope.我渴望到好望角去旅行。
• She was wearing a cape over her dress.她在外套上披着一件披肩。

12 cod   

n.鳕鱼；v.愚弄；哄骗

参考例句：

• They salt down cod for winter use.他们腌鳕鱼留着冬天吃。
• Cod are found in the North Atlantic and the North Sea.北大西洋和北海有鳕鱼。