NATIVE AMERICAN MUSIC

The ^{Changing Soundscape}

in Indian Country

Thomas Venn um, _Jr.

Music and Change

By

itsvery nature,

music

^isnevertotally statu ;

overtime,even the

most

conservativeof musical traditions have

been

susceptibletochange,

how-

everslight. In "never tobealtered"traditions, suchas

European

classical music,

which depends upon

scores preciselynotated bytheir

com-

posers, each

performer

^appliespersonal

nuances

oftechnique

and

interpretation.

Thus no

two performances,say, ofa

Beethoven

pianosonata, willeverbe exactlyidentical,even by the

same

player,

Change

in

music —

like thatin other kinds of cultural

performance —

^isaresponse to

changes

that

may

occurin

many

areas ofsociety, ranging

from

themigration ofpeoples,to theacceptance

of aparticularreligion, toshiftsincritical

notionsof"authenticity,"tothe stylisticinnova- tionsof

some

creative genius.

Music might change from

within itstradition, ifthe musicians havedeliberately altered their

performance

prac- tices,invented

new

musical instruments, orpur- posely affected thestyleoftheir

music

in

some

otherway.

Change might come from

outside the tradition

through

contactwith another culture,

when

foreignmusicalgenresare

imposed on

a people (Christian

hymns),

or

when

certaintraits

oftheforeign

idiom

(vocal styles) or

whole

gen- res (fiddle

dance

music) are

adopted

willingly.

The

folk

and

tribalmusics oftheworld

—

ⁱⁿ

practice

more

conservative than popular musics

— seem

mostlyaffected by^external change. Clas- sicaltraditions,

on

theother hand, tend to exhibit internalchanges.

Sometimes

the

change

may

represent areturn to earlierpracticesto recover theoriginal intentionof the music. In the pursuitof

more

"authentic" performances, for

example,

the musical instruments of Europe's past haverecently

been

reconstructed accordingtoourhistorical

knowledge

oftheir

former

properties

—

theirexactshapes, sizes

and

materialsof manufacture.

Museum

speci-

mens

of

Baroque

harpsichordsare todaycareful- ly

measured and

copied so thatperformerscan replicate the

sounds

ofthatperiodrather than relying

on

19thcentury pianosto

produce

them, aswas

customary

until recently.

When change

occursin tribal music, the

com-

bination of

new and

old musical traitsresults in hybridstylesof music.

When

Indian peoples

were (sometimes ion

^ibl\) taught tosing Christ- ian

hymns,

missionaries translated thetexts into the Native tongue.

They

allowed the

hymns

tobe

sung

in unison (that is.without

harmonies)

to facilitate learning. In so

doing

theycreateda hybrid

form —

^albeit

one

that waslinguistically unchallenging

and

musicallyacceptableto Native^ears

accustomed

tounison singingof Indian melodies.

Of

^primary

^importance

^tothe

missionaries

were

the musical

and

religious

meanings

expressedin tunes

and

texts

—

^Euro-

pean

in origin

and

foreign to Indiancultures.

These

new. Native

hymns became

apowerful toolin attemptstoconvert Indians toChristiani-

ty.

They were

particularly well received bysouth- eastern tribes forcibly

removed

to IndianTerrito- ry in the 1830s. In a stateof

extreme

^culture shock,

main

of

them abandoned

traditionallife-

"TheChangingSoundscapesin Indian Country,^"co-sponsoredby theSmithsonian Institution'sNational

Museum

ojtheAmerican Indian, will result inanexhibition ⁱⁿbepresentedin 1994atthenewGeorgeGustav HayeCentei oj theNational

Museum

»/^////

AmericanIndian in

New

York City. Tinsprogram ^liashern supportedbythegovernmenta/Nicaraguaanilagenerous grantIrani theMinn Performance Trust Funds.

Above:This setofthree hiderattles oftheOjibway medicine lodge were usedby medicine

men

andmedicine

women

toaccompanysongsininitia- tionandcuringceremoniesofthe Grand MedicineLodge.They were

collectedca.1907ontheRed Lake ReservationinnorthernMinnesota.

Photocourtesy NationalAnthropo- logicalArchives,SmithsonianInstitu- tion

Right: AnOjibway medicine

man

per- formsfuneralsongsforthedeceased enroutetointermentinnorthern Minnesota. Formerlyhis rattlewould havebeen

made

ofbirchbarkor hide;

hereabakingpowdercan hasbeen adaptedforthe purpose.Photoby CharlesBrill

ways.11ifI belief systems, taking

up

the

new

reli-

gion

and

its musictoaddressa spiritual crisis.

Once

in Indian repertoires, however, ^{sonic trans-} lated

European

texts

were

setto traditional Native melodiesoreven

new

tunes created for

them

bv Indian

composers

using Indian tonal systems. In

performing

these

hymns,

Indian peo-

ple i<uitintied to use their

own

vocal sty le.Their

iharacteristicallyflat, nasal deliverywith its glis-

sandiand. to

European

^ears, "imperfect"^intona- tion contrasted

markedly

with the

European

bel

cantoideal ofsinging,with itsvocal vibrato

and

< learattackof musicalpitches. This hybrid tradi- tion ofChristian

hymn

singingin Indian lan- guages continuestoday, especially

among

the

Choctaw, Cherokee, Comanche and

Kiowa,

some performed

without instrumental

accompaniment

in unison orin two- three- or four-part har- monies.

urn, Jr. is curator of the Xativt American

theFestivalojAmericanFolklife. He^is

ologist in tin Center

jm

FolklifePrograms dStudiesandauthoro/The Ojibwa Dance Drum: lisHiston and(lonstruction |1982) andWild

1 ijibwa) People 11988)

The Post-Columbian

Period

European

exploration

and

colonization ofthe

Western Hemisphere

set into

motion changes

that affectedevery aspect of Indianculture including music. Indian

exposure

to

European

music,especially thatofthe church, wasearly. In the

wake

of Cortes'sconquestof

Mexico

in 1519, the Spanish

made immediate

efforts to Christian- izetheNative peoples, buildingcountless small

churches and

cathedrals,importing musical instruments

from

Spain to

accompan)

the Mass,

and

training Indians to sing. Asearly as 1530 a small organ

from

^Sevillewasinstalled in the Cathedra] of

Mexico

Citv to

accompany

Indian choirs.Efforts to train Indiansto playavarietyof

European

instrumentsfor

church

servicesappar- ently

became

so excessive thatin 1561 Phillip ^II

complained

ⁱⁿa cedula (royal decreei about the

mounting

costsof supporting the musicians.

He

cited the large

number

ofplayers of trumpets, clarions, chimirias (oboe-like reed instruments),

flutes, sackbuts

and

other instruments

and

requesteda reductionin the

number

of Indians being paid tor suchservices.As the Spanish

moved northward

intopresent-day

New

Mexico, similar practices arerecorded. At

Hawikuh

MuscogeeCreekStompDancerscompeteina

powwow

inOklahoma. The

woman

ontherightwearsthetraditional turtle shell rattlesbunched aroundtheankle,the

woman

ontheleftthemorerecent variety of anklerattle

made

frommilk cans. Thismodernadaptationispreferred bysomedancersbecausetherattlesarelighterweightandproducea louder sound. Milk canrattlesare usuallyexcludedfrom ceremonialStomp Dances.PhotocourtesyMuscogee(Creek)Nation

(Zuni), the

pueblo

usedas

Coronado's

first

headquarters, inthe 1630saFranciscanwasgiv- ing intensive instruction toIndiansin organ,bas- soon, cornett,

Gregorian

chant

and

counter- point.

Indiansquickly

became

proficientin

making

a wide range of instruments. At first they

began making

flutesbut

went on

toconstruct vihuelas (guitars), lutes

and

even pipeorgans,

under

Spanishsupervision. It

soon became

unnecessary to

import

instruments

from

Spain. In

summing up

the 16thcentury musical ^activitiesof Indians in

New

Spain, Frey Juan^cle

Torquemada

wrote in his

Monarquia

Indiana (Seville 1615):

"The

other instruments

which

serveforsolaceor delight "ii se< iil.n occasionsareall

made

hereb) the^Indians,

who

alsoplay them:rebecs,guitars, trebles,viols, harps,

monochords."

The

English

and French were

equallyactive in their

New World

coloniesin exposing Indian peoplesto theirmusical traditions.

Thomas

Heri- ot in

A

briefe

and

truereport of thenew found^land

(London

1588) wrote of thelocal Indian chief

on Roanoke

Island,that

he

"would be glad

many

times tobe withvsatpraiers,

and many

timescall

vpon

vs bothinhis

owne

towne,asalso inothers whither

he sometimes accompanied

^vs,topray

and

singin Psalmes."

By

1648

John

Eliotwas translating metricalpsalms intothe language of

"the praying Indians"at Natickin Massachusetts.

Hymnals

in the Native tongues

continued

tobe published

throughout

the 19th century, particu- larlyby the

American and

the Presbyterian

Boards

of Foreign ^Missions.

An

^Iroquoian

hym-

nal (iaaNali shoh (I860) was createdfor useby the

Seneca

at CattaraugusReservation,while a Siouan

hymnal

Dakota

Odowan

(1879)

went through

several printings.

Asher Wright and

^his

wife,

who

collatedthe Iroquoian

hymns, induced

the Indiansto sing

them

to the

accompaniment

ofa

melodeon, which had been donated

bv a

Sunday

school in Massachusetts.At theIndians' insistence (according to theWrights), theyset the

melodeon up

ⁱⁿ the

middle

ofthe

longhouse

—

the traditional Iroquoian religious structure

—

"where bythe grateful

young

people,

who

loved^it asa

human

being,itwas gorgeously dec- oratedwith

hemlock boughs and

aprofusionof redberries."

Some

ChristianizedIndians

went on

to

become hymnal

collatorsthemselves.

Thomas Commuck,

a Narragansett, publisheda

Meth-

odist

hymnal

in 1845 containing tunes claimed to

be

Nativein origin

and

variously attributed to

famous

chiefs (Pontiac,

Tecumseh)

or such

Oglala Dakota dancersand musicianspauseduringa GrassDance. Indiansfirstencountered marching banddrums inthe militarybands onfrontieroutposts.Photocourtesy NationalAnthropologicalArchives,SmithsonianInstitution

tribesas the Flathead,<)sage,

Algonquin and

others. In the publication themelodies weie sel to

harmonic

a<

companiment

^by

Thomas

^Itast-

ings.

^s

would be

expe<ted,

European

sec ulai music was alsobrought to the

new

^colonies,

and

Indians

had ample

opportunity toheat it.

Marin Mersenne

in his

Harmonie

universelle. . . (Paris

I636) ^c

on

Id state that Indianswere ah<a<l\

singing the songsoi French furtradeis living

among

^them. In 1655

Claude Dablon

(b. 1619) traveled

from Quebec

to Iroquois country

and

brought with

him

several musica! msii

uments

he-

had

mastered asa youth.

Although

ii is not recorded whi(h instrument he played foi them, the Indiansare reported tohave c

rowded

the missionaries' l>.uk hut to hear

Dablon

'make- the

wood

uilk."

The

trader John Adair, living 40 years

among

thesoutheastern tribesin the late

18th century, wasac<

ustomed

to singing such hash tunesas Sheela naguriato his Indian friends.

Song

schools

sprung up throughout New England

foritinerant singing masters to tea< h init iinlycolonistsbut alsoIndians to read music

and

sing in

harmony.

In the 17(i0s, Eleazai

Wheeloc

k at his Indian Charity School in what is

now

(lonnecticut taught hisDelawaie pupils to

perform

in three-part

harmony.

These ^schools quickly

made

fluent sight-singersoi the Indians.

having introduced

them

to the totallyforeign

cone eptsoi musical notation

and

polyphony, wlucIi contrastedwiththe oral tradition ^of uni-

sonsinging they were

accustomed

to.

\ot all

exposure

to

European

music took place in the

New

World, however. Indians

were

brought hac k to Fiance to

perform

in Parisian court entertainments suchasBalletdeInReine

( 1609),

which

^inc hided pastoral

American

scenes. Apparently a sensation wascaused

when

a

naked Tupinamba

Indian was introduced

on

stage in the ^score oi Balletde^I"Aim mi deceTemps

(1620),^<\\\i\ the

famous

c

omposer

Lully inci>ipo-

uted

Indian actors into severalballets per-

formed

befoie ¹,ouis XIV.

Adaptation and Adoption

Through

long

and

constant

exposure

toEuro-

pean

culture, Indian people not onl)

absorbed

foreign vocal repertoires, but

sometimes

^altered

theirmusicalinstrumentsas well.

One

oi the hallmaiksc>l Native music in the

Western

^Ilemi- sphere ^isthe almost universal

accompaniment

oi

unison singing to

pen

ussion provided by the singersordancers.

Of

all percussion, ⁱallies

and drums

have always

been

the most

commonly

used. (lontac^t with

European

culturesalleeled both typesoi

pen

ussion, but in different ways, as Indian people

adapted

material items

from

^the foreignculture. In the case oi rattles, thegieat- est e

hange

was in the natureoi thevessel

and

the loose nialeiial insidethatstruck the eontainei to

produce

the sound.

An example

of thiskind oi

change m

^{c inred}

^sometime

^{earl) in the 20th cen-}

turyin the western Great Lakesarea. Formerly,

Red LakeandOntarioOjib-

way

singersperform witha marchingbandbassdrum in thebackofapick-up truck in a July4thparade(1969).The boxesofsoftdrinkshave been donated bylocalmer- chantsaspartof thisreen- actmentofthetraditional Ojibway Begging Dance.

PhotobyCharlesBrill

the rattleusedinreligious

ceremonies

ofthe

Ojibway (Chippewa) medicine

lodgewas

made

ofbark or hide

formed

into acylindricalvessel, filledwith pebbles

and sewn

shut with spruce roots beforea

wooden handle

wasinserted.

Once Euro-American canned goods became

available toIndians, however, iteventually

became commonplace

^{to substitutemetal con-}

tainers,usually abaking

powder

can, fornatural materials. Insteadofpebbles,buckshot

might

be used to

produce

the sound.

The

shape ofthe rat- tle

remained

thesame, but the materialsusedin its

manufacture and

the resultant

sound

changed —

apparently not

enough

tobereject- ed aesthetically.

(The Winnebago, Ojibway

neighborstothe^south,continue touse tradi- tional

gourd

rattlesin their

medicine

lodge

and

jokinglyassert thatthe Ojibway have

abandoned

tradition

and

are

now

usingbeer cansforrat- tles!)

Rattles

accompany

the

Stomp Dance, com-

mon among

southeastern tribes. Traditional

Stomp Dance

music iscast inacall-and-response pattern: theleaderofalineofdancers singsa brief

melodic

phrase,

and

thedancers repeat it

exactlyor

answer

^itwitha similar phrase.

Although

the leadercarriesarattlein his hand,

most

ofthe percussion in the

Stomp Dance

^is

produced

byvessel rattles

made

ofturtle shells tied in

bunches around

^the calvesofthe dancers.

Theirstomp-like

dance

steps

produce

the rat- tling

sound from

pebblesinside the turtle cara- paces. In thiscentury, however,

many Stomp

dancers have

begun

to substitutemilk cansfor the turtleshells; they are easierto

come

by

and

simplerto

make

^rattlesfrom,

and many

feel that the

sound

^iseven

enhanced

in

volume and

quality.

Pre-contact

drums were

usually

made from

logs

hollowed

by charring

and

scraping,withani-

mal

skinsstretchedover their

openings

for

drumheads. To

besure, thistypeof

drum

contin- ues ^tobe

made —

the large,

two-headed

^cotton-

wood drums

^of

Pueblo

peoples, for instance. But

when

the Crass Daneewith itsrituallvpi estribed large

drum

spread to northernPlains Indiansin the late 1800s, they

found

^itexpedient simply ^to substitute thecommerciallyavailable

marching band drum,

longfamiliarto

them from

military

bands on

frontier outposts.

To perform

Indian music usingthis

drum,

they merely turned ^it

on

itssideso that the singerscould

surround

it.

Today

such

drums

^with their plastic

heads

are

commonplace, and

Indian singing

groups

usual- lydecorate

them

by painting Indian designs ^or motifs ofthe

name

^ol the

group on

the

exposed

head. But. in yetanother change, a rejectionof the

marching band drum and

areturnto build- ing

drums

the traditional way appearstobepart ol ageneral musical revitalization inIndian Country.

Adoption and

Juxtaposition

One European

folkinstrumental tradition

adopted

by Indian people

throughout North

America

wasfiddle music.

The

Indians learned fiddle-playing

and

step-dancing

from French

fur

Fiddleandguitarplayers entertaininanOjibwayberry- picking

camp

innorthernMinnesota, September^1937.

PhotobyRussellLee,courtesyPrintsandPhotographs Division,LibraryofCongress

traders

throughout

the (.real Lakes region

beginning

in the 1600s. Later, settlers

from

Ire-

land

and

Siotland,

who

did trapping in the 1700s

and

lumberjackingin the L800s, brought their fiddle repertoiresasfarwest asthe

Athabaskan

interiorofAlaska,

where

Indianpeo- plemaintain

them

today.Intermarriage

between Europeans and

Indians accelerated theaccep- tance of

European

instrumental

and dance

tiadi-

licins.

The

Saturday night square

dame began

to challenge Indian aswell asChristian religious ideals. TraditionalOjibwav

medicine

lodge i ere- monies, customarilylasting several days,

found

then attendance dwindlingaspeople took time

oil toattend local square dances.

A

Catholic inis- sionarytothe

Menominee

was reported tohave

chopped

^topiecesafiddle belonging to

one

of hisparishioners, telling

him

that

he would

never play "thedevil'sinstrument" another Saturday night.

Manv

Indians

developed

theirfiddle talents while

working

in lumberjack camps.

Others were

self-taught,

spending

spare

moments

in the

woods

practicing. In all-Indian logging camps, square-dance callers

would perform

in the Native tongue,

and

the repertoire ol fiddletunes often included Indian compositions

whose

titles

were

derived

from names

ofIndian settlementsoi activities. Fiddlersat the west

end

ol lake

Huron,

forexample, played "Manitoulin Island Wait/,"

named

alteran island reservation in that lake;

Algonquian

speakers

on

the St.

Man's

River

had

a tune "Whitefish

on

the Rapids,"

referringtothegreatfishery

between Lake

Supe- rior

and Lake Huron, which

lorcenturies provid-

ed

an important subsistence staple forIndians living nearby.

Most

Indian fiddles

were

of

European manu-

facture, but

some were homemade from

cigar

boxes and

fishline,

and

others

were

modified in

some way

to

make them

"Indian." Inhisfilm

"Medicine

Fiddle" (1901) Michael

Loukinen

interviewed a

number

of western Great Lakes performers,

who

provided

some

ofthe rich lore sin

rounding

their fiddle traditions.

One man

told ofhis

deceased

father

who

converted a store-boughtSI"' fiddle to Indian use; to

make

it

louder he put

porcupine

quillsinside the fiddle's both

and

attached a

deerbone

to itsneck. Hav- ing applied his "Indian

medicine"

tothe instru-

ment, he

allowed

no one

to touch it.

Some

Indi- ans interviewed <>n film told storiesabout

chance

encounterswith

horned

people playing fiddles in the

woods

or

abandoned

cabins.

Because

drawings of

horns on human heads

in Great Lakes pictographvtraditionally signified spiritual power, the

horned

performers

may

be under- stoodasspirits,although in thisinstance there

may

alsobe the concept ol the fiddle .is the

"devil's instrument."

A number

ofdistinct Indian fiddle traditions

began

with thiscullure contact.

Thus we

find Indian fiddling contests toda\

among

the

Chero-

kee of

Oklahoma and among

^interior

Athabaskans

^{ol Alaska, a metis} ("mixed") French- Ojibway-(Iree style

on

theTurtle

Mountain

Reservation in

North

Dakota,

and

aslightlydif- ferent

Red

Riverstyle furthernorth in

Manitoba among

^theSaulteaux,

where

fiddlersjigwith their feetwhile playing.

There

are also fiddlers

among

^the

Houma

of Louisiana

and

the

Apache

of Arizona,

which

isthe onlytribe also to have an indigenousone-string fiddleol itsown, totally unrelatedto the

European

variety

and

used for plaving traditional

Apache

music.

Another

tradition of

Euro-American

^culture that

was adopted

by Indian people was^the sym-

phonic

(mostlybrass) band. This wasa late 19th century emulation of

Anglo

culture:assmall towns

had

athletic teams

and marching bands

to

perform on

[uly fill in paradesor

under

pavil- ions, sodid

main

reservations. Justasbaseball supplanted lacrosse' in

many

Indian

communi-

ties, so the

marching band grew

in

importance

at the

expense

ofNative musical events.

Many

learned toplaytrumpets,

trombones and

clar- inetsbyattending primarily

Anglo

schools; oth- ers, in all-Indian boardingschools,

had band performance imposed upon them

aspartoftheir

programmed

acculturation to deprive

them

of