Corette (sometimes she signed Coretti) Alefred, not Alfred, was born in New York in 1881. She arrived in Russia in 1903 as a member of the all-black Louisiana Amazon Guards. She stayed through the revolution while the other girls returned. In 1920 she married Boris Bonsowitsch Tietz, her accompanist at the piano. Her repertoire also included spirituals (for instance “Little David Play On Your Harp”, and “Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child” (MusTrest 73701). I would like to know whether she also recorded any of her concert repertoire in Moscow. “By the waters of Minnetonka” is a Native American (Red Indian) melody which was collected around 1910 by Thurlow Lieurance (1878-1953). J. M. Cavanass wrote the words. I guess Alefred learned it from Sam Wooding and the Chocolate Kiddies revue which came to Moscow in 1926 (they had recorded it in Berlin the previous year). Alefred sang with the Frank Withers orchestra, which toured Russia at the same time (and can briefly be seen in Vertov’s film “Schestaia chast mira”. Alefred died in 1951 and is buried at Nowo-Dewitschnij cemetery, next to her husband.
By the way: How should на негритянском яз be best translated into English?

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By the way: How should на негритянском яз be best translated into English?

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It must be "на негритянском языке" that is translated as "On Negro language".