Picturing Red Lake circa 1946

I don't regularly read the obituaries in the Star Tribune, but the one in Thursday's paper for Monroe Killy caught my eye.  Killy, who died Jan. 16 in Edina at age 99, befriended and photographed members of the Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians, and other Minnesota tribes, in the 1930s and 40s.  His photos were published in numerous books on American Indian culture; some photos can be viewed online through the Minnesota Historical Society's photo database.  Others are posted on the Red Lake Net News site.

I'd never heard of Killy, but after reading about him, I wished I could have talked to him about his experiences.  I also would have liked to ask him if he knew of my great-grandfather, G. Oliver Riggs, who briefly directed a band at Red Lake High School on the Red Lake Indian Reservation in northern Minnesota.

Riggs came out of retirement in the fall of 1945 to organize the high school's first band, composed of white and American Indian boys and girls.  He rented a room at the Hotel Markham in Bemidji and traveled by bus to Red Lake, 25 miles away, to instruct the students two days a week.

 This article is from the Jan. 11, 1946 issue of the Bemidji Sentinel.

In letters to his son Ronald (my grandfather), Riggs wrote that because the band attracted more interest than anyone expected, the school was short on instruments – only 26 for the 47 band members.  He was hoping to convince the school board to buy enough to supply one to each student.  But before could present his case, he died of a heart attack on Jan. 25, 1946 (exactly 64 years ago this Monday).

We'll never know what the band might have accomplished if Riggs had had more time.  Given his track record, it's likely that the band would have become well-known for its musicianship and discipline.  And although a person could argue that encouraging the Indian kids to learn their tribe's own musical traditions might have been more appropriate than having them join a symphonic band, it appears, to Riggs' credit, that he cared more about his students' musical abilities than the color of their skin.

"I have 1 girl (Indian) on clarinet who is very musical and also equally intelligent.  One Indian girl on trombone of Tom Pederson type," he wrote, referring to Pullman "Tommy" Pederson, a St. Cloud Boys' Band member who became a famous trombonist.  "I have 1 big husky Indian boy on bass, and he is a dandy. ... We have white children also, but so far the Indian children are doing the best work."

I have a few newspaper articles about the band, but I haven't been able to determine if any photos were ever taken.  If so, I would love to see them.  I'd also like to track down former band members and ask them what they remember.  Did any of them continue in music?

If I could travel back in time, I'd have all kinds of questions for my great-grandfather: What it was like to live during the time period when the government was trying to force American Indian tribes to assimilate into white society?  What was it like to be a young boy in the 1870s, performing at dances for white settlers of the Kansas prairie?  What was it like to travel to Chicago in 1912 with the Montana Cowboy Band to perform with a group of Blackfeet Indians from Glacier?  What was it like to spend the last days of his life teaching white and American Indian kids to play music together?

Of course, neither pictures nor words could ever adequately capture those experiences.  I guess you just had to be there.