Meg Siner, Westminster College
Humanities
I would like to present my research on the 1913 Utah opera The Sun Dance Opera, written and directed by Lakota activist Zitkala-Sa. The opera, score, libretto are found in the L. Tom Perry Special Collections of the Harold B. Library at Brigham Young University. The opera premiered to rave reviews but has since fallen into obscurity.
In the Early nineteenth century Native Americans were oppressed largely y the US government and were not allowed basic rights like the freedom to practice religion. The Sun Dance Opera, while set as a traditional love-triangle love story, had elements of the Yankton Dakota and Ouray and Uintah traditions. Since federal regulations did not permit for the Ute “Sun Dance” to be performed, The Sun Dance Opera showcased the traditional “Sun Dance” within the opera. Thereby, circumventing those federal regulations and allowing the Natives involves to practice their religion.
My research has also encompassed a small staging of select songs from The Sun Dance Opera, which was performed at the 2nd Annual Native American Research Symposium on November 1, 2013 at Westminster College.
My research includes a decolonized view of the work Zitkala-Sa, William F. Hanson, and the cultural relativism of performing and studying the opera today.
I am able to do an oral presentation and I am also able to perform the selected songs if there is a space available.