Mohawk Singer and the Book of Mormon

MOHAWK SINGER AND THE BOOK OF MORMON

To thousands of music-loving ears in Great Britain the mention of Os-ke-non-ton immediately conjures up echoes of vocal melody that comes only from a master. Os-ke-non-ton is a world- famous baritone singer who not long ago completed an engagement in London’s Royal Albert Hall (seating capacity nearly 10,000). He has appeared in Albert Hall in concert 150 times, and is famous throughout Europe and America for his roles in Charles Wakefield Cadman’s Indian opera, Chanewis, and Faribairn’s Hiawatha. Besides in London, he has thrilled audiences in Milan, Berlin, The Hague, Paris, Amsterdam and in other European cities.

Recently the “Mohawk Singer,” as he is familiarly known, visited Salt Lake City in the course of a tour through western America. On July 31 he was shown through Temple Square, and in the museum there the Indian relics were pointed out to him. Then the guide related to him the story of the Book of Mormon, giving the account of his forefathers—for he is a full-blooded Iroquois Indian of the Mohawk tribes of New York State. He was told that his forbears had come to America from across the sea, that there were three migrations: one from the Tower of Babel about 4,000 years ago, and two others from Jerusalem approximately 1,400 years later (that is, about 600 B.C.).

The noted singer with flowing black hair listened attentively, and then summarized his conclusions something like this: “Of the many anthropological explanations of the origin of the American Indian the Mormon one impresses me as the briefest and most feasible.”

While in Salt Lake City, Os-ke-non-ton expressed his regret in not renewing an old acquaintance with the famous Mormon singer, Emma Lucy Gates Bowen, who was out of the city at the time. From Utah he motored to Santa Fe, New Mexico, to appear at the concert at the city’s centennial (August 4).