Molly Spotted Elk
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Molly Spotted Elk was the stage name of Molly Nelson Dellis, a Native American actress and dancer born on November 17, 1903 in the Penobscot reservation in Maine and died on February 21, 1977.
In the 1920s Spotted Elk performed in New York nightclubs, she starred in The Silent Enemy, a 1930 silent docu-drama of native America life. In the 1930s she moved to Paris where she found an audience for traditional native American dance. While there she met and married French journalist Jean Archambaud. At this time she began the researching folktales and traditions of the native American north-east. She and her family, which by then included a daughter, moved to the United States at the outbreak of World War II.
[edit] Bibliography
- Bunny McBride (1997) Molly Spotted Elk: A Penobscot in Paris, University of Oklahoma Press, ISBN 0-8061-2989-1.
- Molly Spotted Elk (2003) Katahdin: Wigwam's Tales of the Abnaki Tribe and a Dictionary of Penobscot and Passamaquoddy Words with French and English Translation, Maine Folklife Center, ISBN 0-943197-29-5.
[edit] External links
- The Maine Folklife Center hold a collection of Molly Spotted Elk material.
- Molly Spotted Elk at the Internet Movie Database
