Ethan McDonald with the Kalamazoo Valley Scottish Society focuses on education and fostering a sense of kinship for anyone who is interested in Scottish culture and history.

- Well, today I'm talking with Ethan L McDonald from the Kalamazoo Valley Scottish Society.

Thank you so much for talking with me here today.

- Thank you for having me.

- You know, it was so much fun researching you, and you have initials after your name.

What is it, FSA Scot.

So tell me first what that means.

- That is Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland.

It's an academic fellowship for Scottish historians.

- And you have a motto, the society has a motto.

What is that?

- We carry on the Scottish pioneer spirit by fostering education and kinship.

- And how does that look, how does that look in reality?

- So it's a mix.

So traditional Scottish societies, a lot of them have always been social things and they've done educational programming, and we're kind of flipped on that.

We like to foster social events, but we also like education.

I mean, public education is what we're about because if we don't educate about our culture, especially to younger generations, the culture dies out.

And I know that's weird coming from a younger person, but that's kind of my point is, you know, we have a good mix of people from the ages of like 80 down to 15 in our group right now.

And by doing certain educational events and making educational events fun, we are able to promote kinship, be it among all peoples of different backgrounds, but especially our Scottish Americans that are in our group.

And we welcome anybody who's interested in the culture too, but for us that means monthly outings that are just casual social affairs, just going out to dinner, and then things like supporting our Kalamazoo Scottish country dancers which meet weekly, and we have a lot of fun dancing.

I've been dancing since I was a kid, and I mean, anybody can do it, but it's things like that where it's like you're learning something but you're having fun doing it.

And then we also do do workshops and educational talks like that, so.

- When did your love for your heritage and your history happen, when did it begin?

- Pretty much my whole life.

I've been a history nerd since I can remember, and I've continued onto it.

And I guess the good thing is I've kept it both my, I've been able to make it both my occupation and my passion at the same time.

So you know what they say, if you don't love what you're doing, why do it, you know?

- Yeah, yeah, right, right.

And you've kind of become an expert in a way.

You might be able to tell me this, when did the Scots settle in Kalamazoo River Valley?

- So in the valley itself, most of them came in the 1820s and 30s.

However, we've had Scots in Michigan since the early 1700s.

The first Scot we have was recorded on the rolls at Fort Pontchartrain which would become Fort Detroit.

- And the thing about the Kalamazoo Valley Scottish Society is that you do, you support a lot of these other groups like the Kalamazoo Scottish country dancers.

Tell me a little bit about them.

- Yeah, so Scottish Country dancing is basically the, it is refined in a way, but it's also a lot of fun.

Scottish country dancing came to the United States, and that's what square dancing came out of.

It's very similar.

If you looked at it, you'd think people were square dancing.

And it's a lot of fun.

We have some people whose kids come and we have people who are in their 80s that are dancing still.

And I mean, people credit to a long life.

You know, it's a good workout, but it's a lot of fun too.

And it's social, and it's a social and it's a ballroom thing.

And we go out to balls and things like that in different parts of the state and outta state and do these big dances with, you know, hundreds of people and it's a lot of fun.

Everything we do is open to the public.

Our dinner groups, we post everything on our Facebook page which is at Kalamazoo Valley Scots.

- Why is it so important for you to be able to share this with other people?

- In many ways it's a sense of belonging.

Not trying to get too deep or philosophical there, but it's a good community to have.

I mean, a lot of, back in Scotland, people have their clans, and here they're to a lesser extent, the clans are very present.

I mean, the clan societies are huge.

You go to any Scottish festival or Highland games, you will see dozens of tents from every, you know, from all these different Scottish clan societies and other organizations and things like that.

People have that, but you know, this is not about that.

This is about, we're all Scots or we're all interested in the culture, and so we can all get together and we can all promote it, which means it's not just there for any one group.

It's there for all of the various groups and facets.

- Now in reading about this and researching it, what is, if you had to describe like Highlands culture to me, what does that look like?

- It's very familial based.

Everybody is treated like family.

We don't care what you are.

Once you're with us, you're a Scot now, you know, so that's why it's like, that's why we love, you know, people coming because we are totally okay with people adopting the culture and learning it.

There's nothing wrong with that whatsoever.

- You know, you send along a picture of the KVSS shield, I think that's what it's called, right?

- Yeah, it's a coat of arms, yeah.

- Tell me a little bit about how that was created.

It's beautiful, it's so beautiful.

- A shield is a personal emblem, but it can also represent an organization.

And basically what it is is it represents the water for the Kalamazoo River Valley in base.

And then there's what's called a garb.

A garb is usually a bundle of wheat that is tied together.

It can also be corn.

I think we have a large agricultural base in southwest Michigan, nobody can deny that.

So we have the sheaths of wheat are interlaced with thistles.

So it's just a symbolic, you know, gathering together of multiple people, multiple backgrounds brought together in our valley.

- I mean, there's so many things to talk about when you talk about Scottish culture, and we probably couldn't talk about it without talking about dancing.

How did dancing weave itself into Scottish culture?

- There's two different kinds of dancing.

There's the Scottish country dancing, and sometimes people call it Kaylee dancing.

Then you have what's called highland dancing.

Highland dancing is usually an individual dance, or there's, you know, a few people doing it together but they're each doing the same dance.

They're not really interacting as much, but each dance tells a story.

For example, there's one dance that a lot of people know.

People call it the sword dance.

It's really called Gilly Callum, and it is done over a pair of crossed swords or a sword crossed with a scabbard.

Gilly Callum, you know, before he went into battle, put his sword down on the ground with his scabbard and decided to dance over it.

And if he touched the blades with his foot, you know, he knew he was gonna die, and you know, he was gonna fall in battle.

The other version of that is he won his fight, he won his dual, and he crossed his and his enemy's sword together and danced over it in celebration.

And so you have things like that that have these really rich stories and lore to them.

- [Kim] I'll tell you what, researching, interviewing you, and talking to you, it makes me put Scotland on my bucket list.

- [Ethan] It's beautiful, it's worth it.

- Well, it's a beautiful country.

Ethan, thank you so much for talking with me today and sharing a little bit about your culture.

It's been fascinating learning.

- Thank you for having us.

(gentle music) - [Narrator] Support for Kalamazoo Lively Arts is provided by the Irving S Gilmore Foundation, helping to build and enrich the cultural life of greater Kalamazoo.