Molly Spotted Elk

Born November 17, 1903, on Indian Island, a Penobscot Reservation near Old Town, Maine, Spotted Elk was christened Mary Alice Nelson by a Catholic priest, but the Penobscot pronounced her first and middle names Molly Dellis,{{cite book|first=Susan|last=Ware|title=Notable American Women: A Biographical Dictionary Completing the Twentieth Century|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WSaMu4F06AQC&pg=PA606|year=2004|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=978-0-674-01488-6|pages=606–607}} which was often shortened to Molly Dell or Molly.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EtDwH7IGJF8C&pg=PA336|title=Molly Spotted Elk: A Penobscot in Paris|last=McBride|first=Bunny|publisher=University of Oklahoma Press|year=1997|isbn=978-0-8061-2989-1|pages=14–19, 26–32, 285, 355}} Her parents were Horace Nelson, a Penobscot political leader, and her mother Philomene Saulis Nelson (1888–1977), an artisan basket maker who sold her crafts to tourists.{{cite encyclopedia|title=Spotted Elk, Molly|editor-last=Henderson|editor-first=James S.|encyclopedia=Maine: An Encyclopedia|location=Harpswell, ME|publisher=Publius Research|year=2012|url=http://maineanencyclopedia.com/spotted-elk-molly/|accessdate=November 27, 2016}}{{citation|title=Asticou's Island Domain: Wanbanaki Peoples at Mount Desert Island 1500–2000|work=Acadia National Park Ethnographic Overview & Assessment, Volume 2|publisher=The Abbe Museum, Bar Harbor, Maine and Northeast Region Ethnography Program, National Park Service|year=2007|edition=2nd printing|first1=Harald E.L.|last1=Prins|first2=Bunny|last2=McBride|url=http://abbemuseum.org/downloads/Asticous%20Island%20Domain%20vol2.pdf|accessdate=November 28, 2016|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20160623231038/http://www.abbemuseum.org/downloads/Asticous%20Island%20Domain%20vol2.pdf|archivedate=June 23, 2016}} Her father was the first Penobscot to go to Dartmouth College. There, he studied for a year and became a governor of the tribe. Molly was the oldest of eight children. All of them helped their parents sell the famous baskets Philomene made in tourist towns. In addition to that, Molly learned traditional dances and performed for tourists who stayed at hotels.{{Cite web|url=http://www.newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/molly-spotted-elk-from-poverty-old-town-maine-fame-paris-back/|title=Molly Spotted Elk, From Poverty in Old Town, Maine, to Fame in Paris - and Back - New England Historical Society|website=www.newenglandhistoricalsociety.com|date=22 November 2014 |language=en-US|access-date=2018-11-25}}

Spotted Elk was involved in Vaudeville shows at various times interspersed with her early education. She attended the University of Pennsylvania under the sponsorship of Frank Speck.McBride. Molly Spotted Elk p. 57-59 Due to a lack of funds, she was only able to attend the prestigious college for two years, and then returned to touring, and dancing her tribe’s native dances.“Molly Spotted Elk.” Penobscot Cultural & Historic Preservation, www.penobscotculture.com/index.php/molly-spotted-elk. Accessed November 25, 2018. Although she had returned to her life as a performer, she did not let this crush her spirits and she began to write and create her own music and costumes. Her family is said to have described her as “A happy and completely free spirit.”

Spotted Elk's career is marked by a tension between her desire for fame and success as an actress and performer, and the racist expectations of White American and European society that forced her to don skimpy buckskin costumes and act out stereotypes in order to do so. Returning to rural Maine after living in New York City and Paris, wrote her biographer, "was like an old pair of moccasins that one dreamed of during years of high-heeled city life—only to find, upon slipping into them, that they felt less comfortable than remembered because the shape of one's feet had changed."

Molly wrote the book Katahdin: Wigwam’s Tales of the Abnaki Tribe and a Dictionary of Penobscot and Passamaquoddy Words with French and English Translations which includes traditional Penobscot stories in English and a dictionary of the Penobscot language.

Her granddaughter is the Penobscot artist, activist and basketweaver Theresa Secord.

She performed with Miller Brothers' 101 Ranch both on tour and in Oklahoma. It was as a result of winning a dance competition of Natives Americans in Oklahoma that she was adopted by the Cheyenne and given the name of Spotted Elk.McBride. Molly Spotted Elk p. 69-70

In 1926, Elk moved to New York looking for opportunities, fame, and fortune. She had different jobs to save money for school such as a nude model, dance teacher, and more.

After a lot of practice, she won a role in the chorus line of the Foster Girls. They traveled to San Antonio for eight months to perform at the Aztec. There, she decide to pursue a writing career, so when she was not dancing, she was writing poetry, adventure stories, literary fiction, and more. After the tour was done, she went back to New York where she continued working.

She starred in The Silent Enemy, a 1930 silent-film drama of American Indian life. Sometimes she worked as an artist's model; among the artists for whom she modeled was Bonnie MacLeary.McBride. Molly Spotted Elk p. 305-306

In 1931, she arrived in Paris to perform at the International Colonial Exposition. In Paris, she found an enthusiastic audience for traditional Native American dance.{{Cite web |title=Overlooked No More: Overlooked No More: Molly Nelson, Steward of Penobscot Culture |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/14/obituaries/molly-nelson-overlooked.html |last=Dudding |first=Will |website=New York Times |date=September 16, 2023 |access-date=February 17, 2025}} She wrote in her diary:

Maybe I am foolish, with no money, but hopes galore. But I DO want to do something with my Indian dancing here in a serious artistic way. And I’m willing to take a great chance to accomplish it.

While there, she met and married French journalist Jean Archambaud. At this time she began researching the folktales and traditions of the Native American northeast.{{cite news |last1=Dudding |first1=Will |title=Molly Nelson |work=New York Times |date=September 18, 2023}} [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/14/obituaries/molly-nelson-overlooked.html online]

In 1933, the Depression affected Paris. As a result she had less opportunities to dance, and Archambaud was fired from his job. In 1934, she moved to New York where she had a few jobs; she was pregnant and gave birth there. In 1938, Elk and her daughter moved back to Paris to be reunited with Archambaud. However, their happiness lasted only a short while; the Nazis invaded and she and her daughter were separated from Archambaud. They never saw him again. Together mother and child crossed the Pyrenees Mountains on foot to Spain. From there they returned to the United States, where Elk spent the rest of her life on the Penobscot Reservation.

• 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}}.

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• {{cite book |last=McBride |first=Bunny |title=Molly Spotted Elk: A Penobscot in Paris |year=1997 |publisher=University of Oklahoma Press |location=Norman, Oklahoma |isbn=978-0806129891}}

• The collection of Molly Spotted Elk material formerly held at the Maine Folklife Center was transferred to [https://ursus.maine.edu/record=b6770598~S1 Raymond H. Fogler Library at the University of Maine] in 2017.
• {{IMDb name|id=0819492}}

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Category:1903 births

Category:1977 deaths

Category:20th-century Native American people

Category:20th-century Native American women

Category:20th-century American dancers

Category:American film actresses

Category:Native American actresses

Category:20th-century American actresses

Category:American silent film actresses

Category:American female dancers

Category:Native American dancers

Category:Native American female dancers

Category:Dancers from Maine

Category:People from Penobscot Indian Island Reservation

Category:Penobscot people

Category:Native American Roman Catholics

Category:Catholics from Maine

Category:University of Pennsylvania people

Category:American expatriate actresses in France

Category:World War II refugees

Category:Native American people from Maine