The girl with the dark hair and tan skin was posing for her first grade school picture. On an impulse, she put a little red feather in her hair. The photographer was aghast.

“You look like a little Indian girl,” she said. “Take that feather out of your hair.”

“I am an Indian,” Sylvia replied, refusing to remove the feather.

Virginia Beach resident Sylvia Nery Strickland has never forgotten that moment. Although her father was from the Philippines, her mother’s people were Cherokee and Cheroenhaka Nottaway, as well as Irish and English. She had always been told to hide her heritage.

From the late 1600s until 1967, Native Americans suffered racially hostile laws and divisions and were not allowed to intermarry since they were considered “colored” in Virginia. Thankfully, times are changing. The 21st century holds a promise that Native women and men will be honored—no longer hidden.

In February, Senators Mark Warner and Jim Webb re-introduced a bill for federal inclusion of the six recognized Virginia tribes: the Chickahominy, the Chickahominy Eastern Tribe, the Upper Mattaponi Tribe, the Rappahannock Tribe, Inc., the Monacan Indian Nation, and the Nansemond Indian Tribe. There are still many Virginia Indians hoping that their stories will turn from memories of pain to attitudes of respect.

In Hampton Roads, we are a mixing bowl for Indians of many backgrounds and geographical homelands, due in part to the military’s presence. Women of many tribal and ethnic backgrounds are involved in every sort of career and life path—without always wearing their identities visibly like moccasins. Around the drum, at powwows and gatherings, they join their voices and dances, celebrating the bonds they share.

SHARING A CONNECTION

Sylvia, artist and project manager for the federal government, is also a proud member of a group called Eastern Sky. Comprised of men and women of various tribal ancestries, members of the group, also called a “drum,” keep the prayers and songs of their native cultures alive.

Recently at Norfolk Botanical Gardens, Sylvia joined other Native men and women to sing and drum at the memorial service honoring the mother eagle that died in April. Hundreds of Tidewater residents came to the gathering, sitting quietly on the ground on a Sunday morning, listening and watching the sky for the male eagle, the mate of the female. Some people took pictures; some closed their eyes and felt the drumbeats and embraced the higher, keening voices of the women.

Michael Cloud Butler, 59, a self-described “urban Indian” who was born on the Ojibwa reservation in Northwestern Wisconsin, also performs with Eastern Sky Indian Drum and is Sylvia’s partner. Michael, an artist and contractor, explained that the way the women sing is a balance for the men, who keep the beat on the great circular drum, a shape that represents the world.

“The men are given the drum so that they could, in their own way, speak to the world, to voice their celebrations, their pain and sorrows,” Michael said.

“In the Ojibwa language there is a term to describe the women’s singing: ‘zhaboway,’ an approximate transliteration,” he continued. “The interpretation of that word is ‘to pierce.’ Women’s voices come in with a higher pitch, and it pierces right through. In my tradition, the songs were given to a woman.”

Along with Sylvia, several other women have found a place to heal, to feel at home with their Indian spirits, and to share their connection. When they come together, the group surrounds a single, large drum, upon which the men play and around which the women sing.

DEEP SPIRITUALITY

Another member of the drum is Jane Price, 49, who was adopted from the Crow Reservation in Billings, Montana. She is of Cheyenne heritage and grew up in Western New York State. She lives in Chesapeake and works at a restaurant.

“My entire life I knew I was Indian,” Jane said, her brown eyes shining. “My mother got anything she could find—and there wasn’t much—for my brother and I to learn about who we are. I would go to pow-wows when I could find them, when I was older.”

When Jane met Sylvia and Michael at the Virginia Beach restaurant where she worked as a manager, she felt an immediate sense of family and connection.

Michael, who founded the drum with a friend, asked Jane if she had any sons because they were recruiting young male drummers. Jane brought herself to the drum meeting instead.

“When we meet together, we celebrate the fact that we’re Indian, or Native American or however you want to put it,” Jane said. “I grew up calling myself American Indian.”

However, Sylvia struggled with her sense of self, and wasn’t sure for a long time how to find a balance between her heritage, ethnicity, and practice.

“I didn’t do ‘Indian’ things until the 90s because I was of mixed race—Filipino and Indian,” she said. “I didn’t have a sense of what group to belong to.” Now Sylvia has found a deep spirituality with Indian culture and feels at peace in her life.

“Coming together now really feels great,” she said. “We accept who we are and know we all have Indian hearts. That’s all that matters.”

PART OF THE CIRCLE

Women bring many talents and skills to life and often find a resonance with Native American themes. Native wisdom offers lessons from the animal kingdom, and some of us are eager learners.

That’s true for Pearl Beamer, 47, who lives in Norfolk. Pearl is especially connected to the women of Eastern Sky because she is passionate about caring for the creatures that fly. She’s been caring for young owls and a red tail hawk this month, as a Category 2 Wildlife Rehabilitator. Pearl grew up on a farm in Minnesota with a father who always took in injured animals, nursed them, and released them when they were strong enough to live in the wild again.

Pearl does the same thing in her work.

“It’s just the way it is,” Pearl said. “When you spend your life raised around nature, it’s just what you do.”

Though she was comfortable in her rural life, Pearl says she grew up with a feeling of being out of place, a feeling that something was missing. She always liked to be with animals and work with beads. Two weeks before her father passed away, while Pearl was visiting with her three month old daughter, Noel, her dad shared something very important: the  family’s Lakota heritage. At the time, it wasn’t necessarily good news. Pearl saw segregation in Minnesota, and if you were Indian, you were still guarded about where you went and whom you told. These days, Pearl acknowledges that being Indian is considered “cool” by many people, while some folks who are “no more Indian than a mouse” wish they had Indian ancestry and connections, she said.

Now married to a man with Cherokee ancestry, Pearl says she feels glad being part of the circle, helping at events and performances, learning more traditions and stories. Her deep relationships with the hawks, owls, and other birds create a link to her own Indian background, and the women of Eastern Sky value her knowledge and support.

KEEPERS OF THE CULTURE

The drum unfies women of many paths and backgrounds. Anita Harrell, manager of the Phoebus Branch Library in Hampton, remembers the first time she heard a pow-wow drum.

“I had a very powerful reaction to it, physical and emotional. It seemed to be something I needed,” she said.

“Though the men play the drum, and though they keep the background of our songs and traditions, women are usually the keepers of the culture,” Anita said. “Mothers, grandmothers, and aunts in most cultures keep the stories alive for the children.”

Since 1990, Anita and several other people, including her husband, Hugh, have been keeping the legacy of Africans who came to North American with an a capella performing group called “Legacy Of Weyanoke.” Much of their work celebrates the history of “Red-Black” people, Indians who intermarried with Africans.

Anita’s family background is Shoshone, Cherokee, and African American. Anita stresses the importance of not holding stereotypical images of Native Americans and delights that the drum she plays with is truly intertribal. No one could say who is a “real” Indian from the outside.

“In North America, there were over 500 Indian nations, from Maine to Central America,” she said. “You can’t expect people from all over the continent to look the same.”

As she stands with the women around the drum, Anita brings a beautiful vocal presence and experience as a performer, along with her passion for knowledge and cultural understanding.

BALANCE OF LEADERSHIP

In the twenty-first century, with rights for women expanded and many other people still stretching for equality under the law, it is interesting how men and women in Native American culture relate. One of the most noticeable aspects involves the balance between men and women and leadership. Learning about how a drum operates, sometimes with an elder woman sitting in honor at the side of the men, and how the men play the drum while the women sing brings up discussions and laughter about who does what.

In the Virginia Indian tribes, a man still occupies the position of chief, though there are many strong women among them. In the Cherokee and Iroquois nations, which are matrilineal, women occupy positions of great power. Michael explained that in Ojibwa culture, women are the keepers of all ceremonies related to water.

The women of Eastern Sky joked that they let the men think they are in charge, but if there is something important that has to be said, the women speak. There are frequent exchanges, friendly banter, and light-hearted teasing among the members of their drum. However, Michael Cloud Butler says that in Ojibwa society, if a man is deemed unfit to sit in the leader’s place at the drum, the women in the community have the power to “tip the drum” and remove him from power.

“I gotta tell you, just like in any other culture, if we need to put our foot down, we do it,” said Jane with a smile.

Ideally, around the drum, there is an opportunity for men and women to share their talents, their rhythms and sacred songs, their bond as members of the American Indian community. Blending their tones, language, heartbeats, and breath carries forward an ancient healing tradition uniquely different from Western or European culture. For those of us whose families are more recent immigrants to this land, hearing the drum and the sacred syllables of healing songs touches something deeper than our own last names. These are the ancient rhythms of our North American soil, held and shared.

As Sylvia, Jane, Anita, Pearl, and their friends gather, they weave together pieces of their history, the parts that haven’t already been lost to time. As they sing and drum, they strengthen their spirits and offer a common gift to those who listen—and to the generations to come. 

To learn more, visit Eastern Sky American Indian Drum on Facebook.