From the Archives: Leonda Hardison

Belonging(s): “A close relationship among a group and personal or public effects”

“Asco wequassinummis, neetompooag” (Hello my friends)!

Leonda, Woman in the Sun, Epic Records, 1968. Tomaquag Museum Archives

Leonda, Woman in the Sun, Illustration by Billy Hardison. Epic Records 1968. Back Cover. Tomaquag Museum Archives

Hello and welcome to the fourth installment in the Belongings Blog’s new series, From the Archives where our Archivist, Anthony Belz shares some of the interesting things he has found in the Tomaquag Museum’s collections. In this installment, we’ll see how a worn vinyl record in the archives led us to discover the music of Leonda Hardison and her performance at the dedication of the “New Tomaquag Indian Memorial Museum” in 1972.

This story begins a few years ago when Narragansett Tribal Elder Dawn Dove donated her own personal signed copy of a vinyl record by a recording artist Leonda entitled, Woman in the Sun (1968). A wonderful donation for the collection-not only because the archive does not have very many vinyl records (another being just a gatefold sleeve of the Redbone’s debut album-also released in 1968) but it is also signed by the artist, which as something an archivist who is trying to build a archive here at the Tomaquag made this record unique and immediately worth preserving. 

Leonda Hardison (Cherokee) was a recording artist on Epic Records and only released one album in her career, entitled Woman In The Sun (BN 26383). [The album was reissued and on compact disc for the first time by the defunct UK label Fallout in 2007 (FOCD2072)].

What I find particularly interesting about her sole album is that it was was produced by Elliot Mazer, who by the end of the 1970s literally worked with some of the biggest names in rock music and is most famous for producing such artists as The Band, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Linda Ronstadt, Alice Cooper, Pink Floyd, KISS and U2. In addition to working with who was soon to be a in-demand producer, Epic Records managed to get photographer Bob Cato- who was already well known for his album cover work and graphic design- to shoot the beautiful cover photo. Some of the other album cover photography and/or design on Bob Cato’s extensive resume are: The Byrd’s, Turn! Turn! Turn!, Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits (for which he won a Grammy: Best Album Cover, Photography in 1967), Simon and Garfunkel, Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme, and most of The Band’s albums in the 1970s, including the Last Waltz.

With a top notch creative team in place, including engineers Fred Catero (who worked with Bob Dylan, Santana and Al Kooper) and Roy Segel (who’s resume included Big Brother and the Holding Company, Redbone, Sly and the Family Stone and Laura Nyro) and backed by a group of rock solid musicians- Skip Prokop, drums, Brad Campbell bass guitar, Teddy Irwin, lead guitar and long-time Muddy Waters sideman Sammy Lawhorn (also on lead guitar) with additional musicians Adam Mitchell (organ on Peace and Pipes) and Kermit Moore, (cellist on When I Lived in My Grandmother’s House); Leonda’s Woman in the Sun is a wonderful album with a strong dose of blues influences and psychedelia (Peace and Pipes) with hints of country, folk and rock intertwined into a collection of songs that truly showcase Leonda’s deep, rich bluesy singing voice as well as her strong songwriting skills. I highly recommend listening to this album! Woman in the Sun is placed into the Folk-Rock category, and I suppose it does have that late 1960s “Hippie” vibe, it being a product of the time, but to my ears I hear a strong blues influence more than anything. She reminds me of Janis Joplin quite a bit. A very enjoyable listen and apparently a rare record to own!

The connection Leonda had to the Tomaquag Museum was not immediately known, as the record was a single donation and was near the beginning of my time here at the museum, so I wasn’t sure of the significance until I began organizing the archive and found a number of photographs of Leonda. From the archival evidence in the photographs, and documents such as the itinerary below, it is known that Leonda made multiple visits to the Tomaquag Museum in the early to mid 1970s, including the dedication ceremony of the “New Tomaquag Indian Memorial Museum” located on the Dovecrest property here in Exeter, Rhode Island where the museum is located today.

Dedication of the New Tomaquag Indian Memorial Museum, page 2. Tomaquag Museum Archives.

The dedication ceremony was a twofold event, to welcome the Tomaquag to its new home from where it was originally established in the Tomaquag Valley in Ashaway in 1958; to Ferris and Eleanor Dove’s Dovecrest Restaurant and Trading Post property in Exeter as well to honor and memorialize Eva Butler, the Tomaquag’s founder and first Director who died in January 1969. The dedication of the new museum was well attended by Eva Butler’s colleagues and friends, who gave various speeches, poems and performances dedicated to her memory. (The dedication event on its own could spawn several more blog posts, which as I am writing this are now planned for the future!)

Leonda Hardison “Cherokee singer and T.V. star (in blue) attended the dedication and sang.” The Leonda Hardison Collection in the archive includes the autographed vinyl record, photographs from the dedication ceremony as well as promotional materials and a signed photograph dedicated to Princess Red Wing as well as a few other photographs from her multiple visits to the museum in the 1970s.

Archival images such as those featured in this blog post facilitate conversations about Indigenous traditional lifeways, art, representation/stereotypes and pervasive historical and cultural misconceptions in modern society, as well as equity and sovereignty issues. Archival materials also aid greatly in research, exhibit development, publications, films and other collaborative projects.

If you would like to support the care of archival documents, photographs, maps & more at the Tomaquag Museum please Donate Now. If you have any ideas for what you would like to see as part of this blog series, please comment below. Thank you for reading and we hope to see you at the museum in the future!

Anthony M. Belz, Archivist/Collections Manager

This project is made possible in part by Rhode Island State Council for the Arts. and the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities, an independent affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

“Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this (publication, program, exhibition, website, etc.) do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.”