photo / Robert Lisak
photo courtesy Hugh Foley
that the specific combination of chant-like vocals with line-singing became popular in 17th century England and Scotland and still resonates today with the Free Church Psalm Singers of the Isle of Lewis, Scotland. The music had traveled to colonial America with the first Scottish settlers and explorers and over time diffused throughout African, Native American and other Anglo communities. Ruff discovered two more groups still singing this music: the Indian Bottom Old Regular Baptists from southeastern Kentucky and the Sipsey River Primitive Baptist Association from Alabama. So he did what any musician would do — he set up a jam session, bringing all three groups together at Yale University in 2005 for the first international conference on line-singing and the creation of a documentary, A Conjoining of Ancient Songs. National Public Radio broadcast a story about the event, and when a Tulsa listener recognized the songs were similar to those in some Indian churches, she
introduced Ruff to OSU alum Hugh Foley, professor of Native American studies at Rogers State University in Claremore, Okla. Foley, ’00, Ph.D., English, had been researching the sacred songs of the Muscogee Creek Nation for his book Oklahoma Music Guide. Even more serendipitous, his wife, Geri Wisner-Foley, ’01 political science, grew up in the Hutchee Chuppa Indian Baptist Church near Weleetka, Okla., where these hymns are still sung in the Creek language. As Foley interviewed members of the congregation for his book, he noticed a correlation between physical and spiritual journeys and with spiritual renewal and enlightenment not only in the words but also in the songs’ very existence. “The songs were a vehicle for cathartic expression over the sorrow and sadness of their condition,” says Foley, referring to hardships Native Americans experienced while traveling the Trail
of Tears from southern states to Indian Territory. Ruff says the music was a source of comfort for his ancestors, also. “These songs create a sense of fellowship that encircles and protects you through hard times. “Among all types of music, nothing impresses me like the power of line hymns sung by marginalized people like my parents and grandparents who were descendants of slaves,” Ruff says. “Line hymns are slow, chanted songs, yet when we sang them we felt like kings and queens.” In spring 2007, the Hutchee Chuppa congregation and a few singers from neighboring “sister” churches attended Yale’s second international conference on linesinging, and Ruff traveled to OSU to debut the new portion of his documentary that features the Muscogee singers. Despite the attention, the songs remain intensely personal (continues on next page)
Left, the Hutchee Chuppa Indian Baptist Church from Oklahoma (also shown above and on next page singing in Yale University’s Battell Chapel (photo by Vincent Oneppo). The background is a composite of images showing the countryside near Scotland’s Eilean Donan Castle (bigshowbag.com), a Scottish church (Paddy Patterson) and Oklahoma singers. Lower left, the Indian Bottom Old Regular Baptist Association from southeast Kentucky.
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