Argus-Leader from Sioux Falls, South Dakota • Page 21

Id Farm Houses Need Not Die SIOUX FALLS ARGUS-LEADER SECTION Sunday, May 26, 1963 WOMEN YOUTH BOOKS BROOKINGS, S.D. An example of what can done with a conventional square farmhouse is the Orlando Tangen farm home near here. Mrs. Tangen she had the enjoyment of planning the remodeling as well as the work of finishing woodwork which included 36 doors to be done by hand. She explained that the most difficult part of the job was re-finishing old woodwork to match that in ah addition which Is accessible either from an upstairs bedroom or up a spiral staircase from the ground.

The family enjoys eating breakfast on the sun deck. "I can't stand little crackerbox houses," said Mrs. Tangen, "and I wouldn't trade my house for one of the new ranch-type houses for She pointed out that although remodeling wasn't inexpensive, it would be im- possible to build a new house the size of theirs for anywhere near the same price. By ROBERT REXSIIAW Argus-Lutfor Plwogrhtr Heportw which provided a new leisure room and two more bedrooms. Now the family lives in a modern 11-room house with two bathrooms, and a multitude of closets which were included in remodeling plans.

Above a third entrance to the house, into the leisure room, a sundeck was built 9 3 mm 11 r4 i i i it -J I 4 I -I i 5 THIS REMODELED LIVING ROOM is in the old por- tlon of the house. The fireplace which faces into the lei- START OF THIS FARMHOUSE was the standard quare house found on many South Dakota farms. In the addition at the left are two bedrooms upstairs and a lei- sure room below. The sun deck may be entered from the bedroom or up the spiral stairs, 4 141.. 4 i 'If, 5 1 0' sure room also is constructed marble.

ylK I1 tr and his brother, CI 1 REMODELING throughout the Tangen house provid- this bedroom with plenty of built-in space for David MRS. ORLANDO TANGEN sits in the spacious lei- sure room which was added when her house was re- of Tennessee and Georgia 1 XV If! 5 i CUNA WOMAN welcomes home 41 1 WEDS INDIAN MISSIONARY Woman Danger to Aid Islanders 1 SWA 74 i i I I mmmmmmm modeled. At left is the living house. chores is more than offset by the advantage of living on tropical islands that are free of malaria carrying mosquitoes, snakes, jungle animals and other mainland hazards. At last I found a place where I could go barefoot and be in style and a place where money grows on trees! Coconuts are the coin of the realm.

Taxes and fines are paid in coconuts. A coconut boat from Colombia cruises the area, taking the big nuts in exchange for a few necessities. The chiefs on Malatuppu, and the other islands, are selected because of their wisdom and knowledge of Cuna tradition. One of them had to borrow the cactus billy club of the local police and use it on a couple of women who had got into a Other leaders are the "neles" (diviners) the "kan-tules" (priests) the "inatules" (medicine men), I held in my arms a tiny baby who had her nose punched for a nose ring when she was only a couple of days old her small ears already dangled rings and the black witch mark had been painted down the bridge of her button-of-a-nose. PAINT BABY BLACK At anothet thatched hut I held a toddler who had been painted black from top to toe to keep away evil spirits that might bring childhood diseases.

When this girl reaches puberty, she will again be painted all black. After that, she can no longer be a tomboy and climb trees, but must beHave like a lady! I visited the medicine man's hut often, to sit crossleggcd on the clay floor and watch him mix prescriptions. The following "cures" went into one: pulverized shells, scrapings from a whitened skull, herbs and the broken neck of a 7-Up bottle! The glass, ha indicated, was for Marjori Vandervelde of Emmetsburg, Iowa, to her Island Vndrvtlcl Photo. room in the old part of the MARGARET and Claudio Mulatuppu mission. sharp pains.

Sometimes he used an old flash bulb. And there was a broken record which he ground up, to give one a lovely singing voice also dried leaves he gives to little girls (in potion) who don't get along with their mothers! A clay urn sent up a spiral of smoke from burning coco beans to make the cures more potent. Each time I visited the medic's hut I took his ring-nosed lady a gift to cement friendship. She felt so sorry for me because I didn't have a nose ring, or beads. But when I showed up with my knees painted with mercurochrome (scratches) she thought I was, at long last, wearing some fitting decor Before we left I stopped In to say goodby, and it turned into a solemn occasion.

Tlie medic ran to put on his hat, to add dignity. His spouse polished her nose ring. Then she took off the strings of alligator teeth and old coins that covered her bosom, to give me! I indicated this was TOO much (are you 1 I. Av 1 By MARJORIE VANDERVELDE Special Corropomfwit remain hostile to Jhis outside influence. To understand about the Iglesias work (now sponsored by Southern Baptists) you must meet the Cunas.

Let me duce you. Cuna women wear heavy gold rings in their' noses gold ear plates big as saucers beaded bands around arms and legs-necklaces that cover the bosom with old coins," alligator teeth, and beads plus an occasional old key or pink diaper pin. The fine handwork on their "mola" blouses (appliqued, multilayers of rainbow-colored fabric) would put most fancy-work enthusiasts to shame.They wear a knee-length sarong that is wrapped around, with the two loose ends tucked in. Small girls who have not as yet developed hips are forever losing their sarongs. But they simply re-wrap with a deft, quick turn of the wrist.

I think the men gave up long ago trying to compete with the gay plumage of the women. And the little boys have no use for clothes at all. Family clans are matriarchal and live in two thatched huts. One is the sleeping room which holds all the hammocks. The other is the kitchen where logs are arranged on the clay floor like spokes of a wheel, with small cooking fire at the hub.

It's quite a functional arrangementexcept that the nearest water tap is some two miles away! ROW FOR WATER The women row their hand-hewn cayucas to the mainland rivers at least twice a day to get water. Gourds serve as pails. The Indians also farm small plots on the mainland. Any inconvenience in having to row back and forth for these Margaret Geiger's girlhood was spent in Minnesota and South Dakota (Raymond) where her father, the Rev. Charles F.

Geiger, held Presbyterian pastorates. Margaret is now Mrs. Claudio Iglesias who, with her husband, is prominent in mission, educational and linguistic work with the sometimes dangerous Cuna Indians of the San Bias Islands along the Atlantic coast of Panama. Margaret met her husband, Claudio, when they both were students in the linguistic college at U. of Oklahoma.

Claudio is a Cuna Indian from a prominent San Bias family whose father was a tribal medicine man with foresight enough to want his children educated. Claudio's eldest brother was turned on and killed by the oth- er Cunas because he promoted certain tribal reforms. The tribe still takes a dim view of outside Influences. I visited Margaret and Claudio on Malatuppu Island (San Bias) recently. Malatuppu, only a few city blocks long, is almost thatch-to-thatch with the bamboo-walled homes of the Cu-; nas.

rs-AR riRAGON-DEVTL When the Islesias' were asked to start a mission and school by a few progressive islanders, there was only one uncrowded spot-it was in a lovely coconut palm grove, with an ocean beach. There was a reason for the vacant spot. A dragon-devil was said to live in the ishl tree in the midst of the palms! Everyone avoided the dangerous spot. When Margaret and Claudio erected a two-story block mis-sion and home under the palms, the Indians sat back to see the fireworks. But so far, the dragon devil hasn't bothered.

There have, however, been other complications, and many islanders lv if Iglesias and son David, in the coin collectors wincing?) However, when she offered me a wooden medicine idol and tied it around my neck, I was. highly honored. MANY ALBINOS There is among the Cunas a genetic jnigma many true albinos. Upon the islands we vis ited, there averaged one-plus per hundred. The Indians call them moon children and medicine men prescribe charcoal to expectant mothers in an aU tempt to avoid having a moon child.

The mission school on Malatuppu, and those on several other islands, have the first six Margaret and Claudio Iglesias are teacher, preacher, doctor, dentist, and a myriad of other public servants all WTapped in one pair. They dispense the mysterious "needle medicine." Claudio removed the poison barb of a ray fish from one Indianand a fish spear from the scalp of another. He is kept so on the run, serving his people, that Margaret bus trouble Cl'NA WOMAN drying coco beans In front of her San Bias home, getting him to stop long enough enemy of yours and have even There was an urgency in their to eat! One of the Cuna nwdi- threatened you, I am now your reply, "Some of these sixth- cine men has become a patient friend." grade graduates MUST, some of his. And an old chief, on of lhe Wwidrn MmalB way or other, got Jurtb educa- his dying hammock, sent for howevr r. T.lr Claudio.

thcir POOP1 "I want you to know," he I asked Margaret and Claudio The future of San Bias may said, "that though I've been an what is their greatest concern, binge on Just that..