1

Glenna Jones

World Music

Dr. Conner

05/3/16

AIC___

Native American Music

Native Americans are a people who largely consider themselves to be extinct. One could

write a paper on Western music and never mention Native Americans once, and it wouldn’t be

considered incomplete. Representations of Native Americans in America majorly consist of the

theme of “other-ing” them. They are “Indians”, Halloween costumes for young children, mascots

for sports teams, characters in traditional childhood games such as “Cowboys and Indians” or as

labels or titles of companies and businesses that happen to lie on a location that used to be

inhabited by “Indians” and so is exploited for the use of a seemingly historically unique,

authentic name. Modern-day representations of Native Americans are not of modern Native

Americans; they are of a people that existed in the past, clad head to foot in animal hyde and

feathers in their hair.

It should be of no surprise that this stereotype extends into music, then, and that when

Native American music is represented in popular media or literature it usually features

something to the effect of spiritually emotive pipes and powwows at fairs, and is often a

spectacle to an audience of Americans. In fact, much of Native American Music can be

understood through its relationship to American culture and music, due to the fact that much of

modern Native American music is the product of the evolution of the slow assimilation of one
 2

culture to another throughout the years. However, although there is a great lack of understanding

of modern Native American Music and therefor a call for its analysis, there is also the

importance of understanding the foundations of any people and culture before one can trace and

fully understand their current situation. Traditional Native American music still plays a large part

in the cultures of indigenous people today.

Traditional music of Native Americans varies slightly by each specific tribe, but for the

purpose of understanding the overall picture of the music created it is of primary importance to

consider the culture and the music as one entity. In many places of the world, such as several

communities in Africa, for example, music is a vital glue that holds the community together. In

America, music can be considered and anthem for the people or a main source of entertainment,

something that is very much valued by society but that is not a driving force to the society. For

Native Americans, music was an everyday occurrence shared by the people, “Most Indian

languages do not have words for “art” or “culture”. The idea that these concepts were separate

from each other was unknown to the native people of this land.” 1

America is a society largely focused on the individual, therefor personal narrative and

preference for specific music or musical artists is the norm. In Native American culture, music

and the individual were inseparable. Music was included in the rituals and ceremonies of each

tribe members life since they were born, and while an individual surely may have personal

special preference for a melody or such, the pieces of music that one member of the tribe knew,

all members were likely to know. Music was ingrained in everyday life, music was a part of

natural expression and allowed the community to feel together and share experiences of the

traditions of life:

1Expressive Culture. 1994. Ithaca NY: Akwe:kon. page 6

 3

People remade their world with each generation. Objects of beauty and power were

important carriers of tradition. Key to this is the concept that the creative process

is in itself a sacred journey. Artistic ability is a gift. The individual art has a

responsibility to the family, clan, and community. Art ties the generations together.2

Art served as the thread of the society, allowing for conservation of traditions and the ease of

necessary progression for the health of the community itself. If we try to think of the politics

within Native American communities in the past, it may be difficult to imagine that there was not

constant conflict amongst the tribes, as there was no set political system. However, when

considering the fact that communities gathered together and shared music constantly allows a

window into the reason why Native Americans could live harmoniously together. Today,

because music is popularly, for the most part, considered purely source of entertainment for the

public, the power of the effect of music in relation to other aspects of life is underestimated.

Group music and performances provided Natives with an outlet for happiness as well as anger,

or grief. Music was sacred, and so highly respected and taken seriously. Although music was

likely sang for fun and as a pastime, much like it is now, when the tribal communities would

come together to partake in a ceremony or celebration, it was not something to be faced with

apathy. The norm was to throw oneself into the music, to fully immerse the emotions. Because

this was the norm, it allowed for the constant confrontation of one’s feelings and a consistent

interaction and relationship with others. And although the music within each tribe varied to

specific usage of particular instruments or slight differences in ceremonies, the basic principles

and the role that music played in each tribe was fundamentally the same. According to the Grove

New Dictionary of Music:

2Expressive Culture. 1994. Ithaca NY: Akwe:kon. page 6

 4

Traditional music is based on the ritual drama of 25 to 30 ceremonies, or “chants’’,

which re-enact the creation story in a complex web of interrelated episodes. They

are performed to restore harmony between the universe and individuals who have

become ill….The ceremonies tell of the creation in thousands of lines of ritual

poetry recited in prayers and sung in song cycles.3

The passage illustrates an example of traditional music within the Navajo tribe. As mentioned

previously, it is important to always be aware of the fact that all practices of music vary

throughout each tribe, as no one tribe can be the same and because, as we have established,

music is intimately intertwined with the culture of a tribe, each tribes music will vary.

However, although there are slight differentiations of instruments in tribes, the core practices of

music in each tribe feature very similar value of the roles of instruments. For example, the

primary instrument of significance in Native American music is the voice:

In native music, the voice is the most important instrument, with melody and vocal style

paramount. Texture (the layering of parts to create a thick sound) takes the place

of harmony. The singers, performing in native languages or vocables

(nontranslatable syllables), employ solos, responsorial songs, (leader and chorus

taking turns), unison chorus songs, and multipart songs. Most singers accompany

themselves with percussion instruments.4

The importance of the layering of voices as opposed to harmonizing contributes to the communal

aspect of music to Natives. Perfection, or a hierarchy of supporting parts to compliment one

another, is much less existent in traditional Native American music than American music. The

importance of the vocals of songs was the complexity and power of each person’s melody being

3Hitchcock, H. Wiley, and Stanley Sadie. 1986. The New Grove Dictionary Of American Music.
New York, N.Y.: Grove's Dictionaries of Music. page 328.
4Expressive Culture. 1994. Ithaca NY: Akwe:kon. page 34
 5

sung simultaneously. It was for the experience of singing together and the cause they were

singing for, not for the impression made upon an audience.

As mentioned above, percussion instruments commonly accompany vocals. Most

commonly used amongst Native tribes were the various types of drums, and amongst the drums

was the most simplistic and universal, the skin drum, which was the most likely to be commonly

used amongst each tribe, to such variances of drums such as the water drum, the frame drum, the

square drum and the log drum. Most or all of these drums were likely used by the majority of

Native American tribes. There may have been slight differences in preference amongst tribes to

how each drum was made.5 Most importantly to note, however, is that fact that each tribe likely

had specifications to how they played the drums. Such specifics are difficult to trace or be certain

of, but the importance of being aware of the fact that each tribe played their instruments with

varying technique lies in the amateurs potential approach to attempt the playing of Native

American drums. For the purpose of understanding the basics of the instruments, it is necessary

to generalize, as much of Native American history has not been extensively recorded to the point

where one can be certain of very much having to do with the culture. This is especially true when

considering the fact that most books or studies on the subject of Native Americans are not by

Native Americans. This being said, with the knowledge that we do not have all necessary

knowledge of the subject, one can approach the subject of Native American instruments and

modestly take away some basic understanding.

Native American drums bore slight physical differences. The skin drum is considered to

be the most basic of the drums, as it can be as minimal as a skin stretched by the effort of

assisting people while the drummer plays upon it, or the skin can be spread over wooden steaks

which would then be secured into the ground. The frame drum consists of a wooden frame which

5"Types Of Native American Instruments". Udemy Blog. N.p., 2016. Web

 6

then has a skin stretched over its top and sides. The square drum is formed by a sort of wooden

box, which is much larger than the frame drum in size and remains hollow with the skin

stretched over the top. The log drum is similar to the box drum in that it is a hollow structure

with skin stretched over the top, except that the log drum does not have to ben crafted and pieced

together but is taken naturally from the log of a tree which is then hollowed and secured with the

skin. The water drum is perhaps them most unique to the other drums, as it is formed by a hollow

structure, such as a form of bowl or kettle, which is then filled with water and secured with a

skin. The sound produced by the water drum depends upon the amount of water added to the

receptacle. Uses of drums varied from being instruments in ceremonies or rituals or supporting

rhythm for dances6, signals to call the tribe together or other forms of communication amongst

the tribe. Drums were especially unique within each tribe since many drums were painted and

given their own names.7 Rasps, notched sticks or bones which were rubbed against other sticks,

were often used to accompany the drums and to help the drums keep rhythm.The container rattle,

a hard, hollow object formed by natural materials such as reptilian shells or dried gourds or

animal horns and filled with pebbles or beans, was specified for the use of accompanying dances,

or being the instrument of a shaman. The use of rattles varied amongst each tribe. Traditional

Native American music that is most widely associated with Native Americans would be the use

of the flute8, and of the performance of the powwow9.

The powwow is a gathering within a tribe or amongst other tribes. It is often associated

today with fairs that hold events which Americans can go to. In this way, powwows have

6Heth, Charlotte. 1992. Native American Dance. Washington, D.C.: National Museum of the
American Indian, Smithsonian Institution, with Starwood Pub.
7"Types Of Native American Instruments". Udemy Blog. N.p., 2016. Web
8 http://arizonaexperience.org
9Hirschfelder, Arlene B, and Martha Kreipe De Montaño. 1993. The Native American Almanac.
New York: Prentice Hall General Reference.
 7

become a bit of a voyeuristic activity, much like a lot of Native American traditions. The name

“powwow” itself was a name associated with the ceremony by English colonizers and which

Native Americans grew to use. Traditionally, a powwow was a form of a festival of greeting

amongst tribes and an opportunity to dance together and play music. Different tribes have

different practices of how to perform a powwow, but often times the variations consist of

different dances or placement of drums. The drums are a central part of the powwow, and a

drum is almost always placed in the middle:

The center of a powwow is the drum, which refers to the instrument and to the singers

who play the drum and sing at the same time….on the souther Plains, a single

drum is placed in the center of the dance arena, while in the north, one or more

drums are placed at its edge.10

In the past, various forms of attire were traditionally worn in association with specific dances,

and had to do with what gender or age of people were performing the dances. Because the dances

of the powwow featured the idea of communicating spiritually, often times theatrical masks

would be worn to represent different spiritual states of being beyond what could be externally

seen on the human form. One can hardly talk about the music of Native Americans without

giving mention to the dance that was involved, as dance was an essential aspect of the relation of

Natives to the land and to each other:

The dancing human body appeals to many senses; along with visual symbolism, dancing

sends subliminal signals through sound, smell, and texture, enveloping the

dancers and audience in an empathetic experience.11

10Hirschfelder, Arlene B, and Martha Kreipe De Montaño. 1993. The Native American
Almanac. New York: Prentice Hall General Reference. page 166
11Expressive Culture. 1994. Ithaca NY: Akwe:kon. page 9
 8

The key word to notice in the passage is “empathetic”. In ancient Greece, the theater was placed

next to the houses of government. Artistic performance was considered key to communication

amongst the community. The people depended on the cathartic effect that seeing performances

had, and sitting as an audience member in a theatre requires a person to get out of their own

individual perspective and empathize with others. This inclusion of art in society is cause for an

ease of relativity, of sharing of feelings and ideas, and promotes peaceful conduct amongst

people. The powwow can be understood in this way.

Music and dance were Native American’s politics, ideals, art and therapy all

intertwined.12 Today, powwows between tribes and separate from special events, such as fairs,

still occur on Indian Reservations. Traditionally there would be a specific house for powwows to

take place within each tribe, but today powwows usually take place in the basketball courts of

the schools on the Reservations.13 This is a small example of the effect of colonization on Native

American culture and traditions. Throughout time, Native Americans have been forced to make

many compromises with their ceremonies and traditions. And while Natives are broadly

described as being adaptable14 and creative with the changes that the effects of modern time faces

them with, the fact remains that the sacred traditions, the music and performances of a people

whose culture and daily rituals directly correlates with these things, has been forced to make

sacrifices. Native Americans have been subject to unavoidable cultural assimilation to colonists

12Kidwell, Clara Sue, and Alan R Velie. 2005. Native American Studies. Lincoln [Neb.]:
University of Nebraska Press. page 127: Scholars suggest that dance represents a window into
cultures; allows view of how members interact and what is valued in the culture.
13Hirschfelder, Arlene B, and Martha Kreipe De Montaño. 1993. The Native American
Almanac. New York: Prentice Hall General Reference.
14Kidwell, Clara Sue, and Alan R Velie. 2005. Native American Studies. Lincoln [Neb.]:
University of Nebraska Press.
 9

from the days of columbus up to the present-day, and the evolution of Native American music is

a direct projection of this:15

One of the means by which traditional knowledge was maintained in spite of the

extensive disruption effected by colonization was to find spaces that were beyond

colonial control….The Innu people, for instance, maintain a hunting

culture that relies on traditional knowledge and relatively private spiritual practices.

Native Americans present a resiliency throughout time which reveals their determination to cling

to their traditions. Conserving ties to hunting as listed above, for example, allowed Natives to

keep keep a spiritual practice that was highly valued to them intact: 16

Songs, dreams, and drumming are all integral to Innu hunting practices….Dreams are the

only source of songs known as nikamuna, (singular, nikamun), and in some areas they are

also the means by which a hunter has the authority to use the teueikan, a frame drum that

is central to Innu cultural identity

Because most traditional practices of Natives and their traditional culture features music, and the

fact that it is of importance to Natives to protect their culture, it is particularly significant that

Native American music can be seen within select forms of modern music today. The

participatory nature of Native music has also been altered, as music performed by Native
17
Americans is no longer always part of a ceremony or tribal practice. This concept is

controversial amongst both Native Americans themselves as well as new Americans. In the

modern average-American eye, there is no place for the identity of a modern American musician.

15Diamond, Beverley. 2008. Native American Music In Eastern North America. New York:
Oxford University Press. page 63
16Diamond, Beverley. 2008. Native American Music In Eastern North America. New York:
Oxford University Press. page 64
17Kidwell, Clara Sue, and Alan R Velie. 2005. Native American Studies. Lincoln [Neb.]:
University of Nebraska Press.
 10

To try and think of where such a person comes from and what it means to be a modern Native

American is not a popularly discussed or widely represented subject in America. All the same,

the reality of Native Americans today is that most tribes were pushed off of their sacred lands

long ago, and have for years resided on the Reservation assigned to their tribe. To remove a tribe

from its land is to strip a large part of its identity. Native Americans, as mentioned, were

spiritually driven and based much of their practices on their connection to their environment and

he lands they lived on. To alter living space of a tribe is to effect their traditions, their culture,

and therefor their music. It should be of no surprise that Native Americans have taken steps into

crossing their culture with that of modern America; Indian Reservations are sectioned off within

a country now dominated with a culture completely separate from the Natives. Studies show that

less than 1%18 of the United States population is made up of Native Americans. This number

varies, however, due to the fact that Natives either refuse to answer census workers due to

distrust of white people, or people do not know whether or not they should identify as Native

Americans. Native American society is divided on the subject of assimilation. Some attempt to

embrace aspects of life off of their Reservation, while others are adamant about conserving

tradition. The modern-day Native American musician is an example of Native Americans

experimenting with interaction with the culture of modern-America.

Many Native American artists have excelled and attained fame through their

accomplishments in modern American society outside of their Reservation19, “For the last three

decades, native musicians have been fusing traditional music with contemporary forms,

18Hirschfelder, Arlene B, and Martha Kreipe De Montaño. 1993. The Native American
Almanac. New York: Prentice Hall General Reference.- Census workers used to be responsible
for deciding wether or not people were Native American. Because census guidelines have
changed over time, the recorded percentages of Native Americans vary. However, these
variations always reveal low numbers, often between 1-13%.
19Expressive Culture. 1994. Ithaca NY: Akwe:kon. page 38
 11

including folk, blues, pop, or more recently rock, country, reggae, and hip-hop”. Not only is this

controversial amongst Native Americans today due to the fact that it is sometimes viewed as

compromising, but even the compromise is something that indigenous peoples had to fight for. A

large part of colonization and re-structuring of Native America was focused around the active

stripping of American Indian culture, “The reservation period likewise took shape incrementally

as the various Indian nations were subordinated to Euro-American designs.”20

Natives were moved from their tribes, and it is commonly known even if not often discussed

that Natives were physically manipulated by the displacement of them from their sacred lands

and movement into assigned areas. What is not commonly acknowledged is the conscious effort

that the government made to assimilate Native Americans through the attempted extinguishing of

their culture.

From the late 1800s through the establishment of the Indian Reorganization Act in 1934,

Native Americans were actively robbed of their daily practices and their values were assaulted.

Traditional dance and song was banned, and sacred tribal instruments were confiscated. The

people most directly affected by the enforcement of assimilation were the Native American

youth, who were required to attend specialized boarding schools with the purpose of educating
21
them separately from their culture, “Most reservation agents and boarding school super-

intendants associated what they called ‘Indian music’ with ‘savagery,’ and associated Euro-

American art music with ‘civilization’”. However, despite constant oppression Native Americans

consistently pushed up against the forces and continued to practice their traditional songs and

20Cornell, Stephen E. The Return Of The Native. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988.
Print. Page 87
21BERGLUND, JEFF, JAN JOHNSON, and KIMBERLI LEE, eds.. 2016. Indigenous Pop:
Native American Music from Jazz to Hip Hop. Edited by JEFF BERGLUND, JAN JOHNSON,
and KIMBERLI LEE. University of Arizona Press.
http://www.jstor.org.muhlenberg.idm.oclc.org/ page 1
 12

dances when possible. The fight for celebration and practice of traditional Native music was

greatly lead by the youth, and by the early 20th century the assimilation laws and bans on

performance were refuted.

At the same time that Natives were given back the right to their own music, the

possibility of other forms of music had come to rise at that time, and Natives became interested

in music separate from their own traditions, “many Native musicians and singers, interested as

well in the newly emergent strains of jazz and other popular music genres in the United States,

began touring the country professionally, often in “all-Indian” bands.”22 Native Americans had

fought back against assimilation and the attempted wiping-out of their music. And while some

see it as tragedy and others as opportunity, Natives did not come out of the situation unaffected.

Complete assimilation was not successful, a great feat for indigenous people. But it was not

without consequence. As a group, Natives stronghold on their own culture had been loosened.

Their culture had been infiltrated by the colonists, and could never go back to its traditions

exactly as they were. Americans had tainted their ways, and so for better or worse, Native

Americans began to embrace new ideas and to sing new songs.

Buffy Sainte-Marie is a Cree Native American woman from Canada. 23 She was adopted

as a child, and taken from her reservation to a new home in Massachusetts. Sainte-Marie spent

most of her life growing up in Massachusetts, and attended the University of Massachusetts,

Amherst. Today, Sainte-Marie is a renowned musician who blends aspects of folk and rock

music with lyrics largely concerned with issues of indigenous people. Sainte-Marie is an

22BERGLUND, JEFF, JAN JOHNSON, and KIMBERLI LEE, eds.. 2016. Indigenous Pop:
Native American Music from Jazz to Hip Hop. Edited by JEFF BERGLUND, JAN JOHNSON,
and KIMBERLI LEE. University of Arizona Press.
http://www.jstor.org.muhlenberg.idm.oclc.org/ page 18
23"Buffy Sainte-Marie's Highly Anticipated Brand New Album Power In The Blood Is
Available In Stores Now!". Buffysainte-marie.com. N.p., 2016. Web. 27 Apr. 2016.
 13

example of a Native American who does not fit in a designated group of people; she is difficult

to categorize. She identifies strongly with both her identity as a Native American person, but also

embraces her existence as a member of modern American society. A. Paul Ortega is another

Native American musician who has become well-known for his mixing of musical genres with

traditional Native American music, “In the early 1960’s Mescalero Apache musician, A. Paul

Ortega created a sound that influenced the early roots of contemporary Native American music

as we know it today”.24

Although he greatly influenced Native American musicians and the mixing of Native

American music with other genres, Ortega actually did not begin his music career with

performance of Native American music, but played in a country western band as a bassist. His

shift of musical focus occurred in the 1950s with an experience he had at a concert where a man

was mocking Native American music in an uninformed and incorrect manner, and from that

point onward Ortega decided to do his best to represent and introduce aspects of traditional

Native American music to the public. In a recent interview with Ortega in which he explained

the encounter25, he described his interaction with the man mocking Native music and how he

responded:

“I said, 'You're talking about tradition. You're talking about religion. You're talking about

beliefs. And, this is what we live. This is what we're about. It's not something we just

talk about.' So, the guy says 'Show me.' So, for the next five years I worked to get

24"Final Curtain: A. Paul Ortega’S Last Concert For Indian Country". Indian Country Today
Media Network.com. N.p., 2016. Web. 25 Apr. 2016. Article
25”We were in Chicago during the late '50s and I was playing bass for a western band. There
was this one guy, he gets up and puts Indian clothes on and he's jumping around, making fun of
Indian music. He throws a cup of water in the air and gets underneath and he says I am now
called Rain in the Face.” (Paul Ortega, Interview with Indian Country Today Media Network)
 14

some background for the music I was talking about. That's how my music came to

be.”26

Both Buffy Sainte-Marie and A. Paul Ortega represent examples of the modern-day existence of

Native Americans that are not commonly associated with the indigenous people of America. It

may be of special interest to note that modern creations of the merging of Native American

traditional music and other genres of music may be referred to as “contemporary Native

American music”, as stated above, which seems to imply that the music of Native Americans

which includes modern American influences is considered the most evolved and up-to-date form

of Native American music. While this notion may not have been the explicit intention of the

writer, the statement exemplifies the fact that even today; Native Americans are not respected as

separate from American society and as the original inhabitants of the land, but as something of

the past which is forever in a process of assimilation. This is why Native Americans are depicted

in popular media purely in the traditional form; doing so allows them to exist only in the past,

and denies their right to present existence and avoids acknowledgement of the fact that the

modern Native American exists in the limbo between mainstream American culture and their

own.

Buffy Sainte-Marie and Paul Ortega could perhaps be viewed as more progressive than

the traditional Native American, since Native Americans as a people are in fact quite

conservative in the most traditional of ways. This could be credited to the fact that Native

Americans had their culture and traditions ripped out of their hands without warning, for since

colonization Natives have majorly made a main priority of preserving their rituals and sacred

values. Most Native Americans want to retain what remnants of their culture that they have left;

26"Final Curtain: A. Paul Ortega’s Last Concert For Indian Country". Indian Country Today
Media Network.com. N.p., 2016. Web. 25 Apr. 2016.
 15

they do not welcome change. People such as Sainte-Marie and Ortega push the boundaries

between groups and challenge the comfort and ideals of both. Both find it important to

communicate with and try to create understanding between modern Native Americans and the

modern America which serves as the land closest to the original home of their people.

It is interesting to trace what is considered the original music of America, or where

American music began. Due to the course of history and the separation of Native peoples,

modern Americans do not naturally identify with Native American Music. Scholars of the past

even do not consider Native American culture to be significant part of the formation of

American history and culture, since, factually, the culture was approached with the mission to

reject it and master it. American history is instead taught from the days which colonists arrived,

“The history of American music, meaning the music of what is now in the United States, should

logically start with the psalm singing of the New England colonists” 27. Music that is “now in the

United States” is assumed to be what is majorly represented in the United States, which was not

Native American music at the time that the above passage was written, in 1965, and is still not

today. This quote represents the mind set of the many in America who do not consider Native

Americans to be significant contributors to the shaping of the country, and they cannot be

blamed, since this opinion is basically factual considering it was made impossible for Natives to

contribute in any way to the United States throughout history since they have been the subjects

of genocide, abuse and oppression. They have been manipulated through being on the less

privileged end of a power struggle, controlled by the government which claimed the land they

live on and is responsible for the allotment of their healthcare and their food. Native Americans

voices have not been able to be loud enough to be heard in a way effective enough to cause

significant change.

27Howard, John Tasker. Our American Music. New York: T.Y. Crowell Co., 1965. Print. page 3
 16

The only time throughout history when Natives voices have been valued is when they

have been a source of profit to those appropriating or manipulating them, “….a new opportunity

for Native entertainers existed in the early twentieth century, an opportunity borne from what

appeared to be an obsession by white Americans to consume performances of racial and ethnic

diverseness rendered in musical terms.”28 this obsession of white Americans with exoticising

Native Americans shifted the relationship between Native Americans and white americans in the

way that Natives were now desired for their musical and performative talents and so became in-

demand. However, the relationship shift was not a positive one. The relationship was still the

same in that Native Americans were the playthings of other people, they were subjected to

manipulation. The dynamic of the relationship perhaps took on a characteristic of even more dire

circumstances of misunderstanding between people, because at least when Native Americans

were being abused and initially stripped of their music and performance traditions, they were

being separated, rejected. With the newfound fascination and opportunity for benefit that was

found in Native American practices came a form of deranged idealization and mislead value, and

the only time when an aspect of Native American existence was debated about being identified

as part of United States it came from this place of mislead derangement:

“The notion of Indian music as a component of nationalism nevertheless persisted well

into the twentieth century. It would seem that composers’ attraction to such

music suggests not nationalism—or at least not nationalism exclusively—

but a powerful curiosity about difference and a sensibility toward seeking

a musical language that would express degrees of otherness within American

28BERGLUND, JEFF, JAN JOHNSON, and KIMBERLI LEE, eds.. 2016. Indigenous Pop:
Native American Music from Jazz to Hip Hop. Edited by JEFF BERGLUND, JAN JOHNSON,
and KIMBERLI LEE. University of Arizona Press.
http://www.jstor.org.muhlenberg.idm.oclc.org/
page 19
 17

society”29

Native American music became a source of inspiration for white composers and musicians, it

was an opportunity to give America a touch of the diverse to identify with. America could be

considered more well-rounded, more of a mixed-pot of people and experiences, and more

artistically varied. Many probably began to see themselves as not so different from Native

Americans, and perhaps even identified with them as fellow-Americans. Others may have simply

accepted Native American music as a worthy form of art to be contributed to Americas already

existent genres. In the process, Native Americans were “other[ed]”. Native American culture

became not just pushed away into specialized corners where they could exist separately from

American society, but were made into props for white american society, and something existent

for conversation and the objectifying of by white people. An example of this is the evolution of

the powwow over time. The powwow was a tradition for Native Americans for the purpose of

gathering and celebrating together. Over time, it became an occurrence of interest to settlers and

ultimately a form of entertainment exploited by them. Today, powwows30 are performed at fairs

which are thrown as sources of entertainment, and the costumes worn even show emblems of the

American Flag. A tradition that was sacred and intimate between a particular people is now

exoticized and presented for a voyeuristic society.

However, it is of utmost importance while considering the emergence of Native

American performance within society not to merge all forms of performance together, and not to

take for granted the agency of Native American performers and musicians. It is true that many

may choose to perform for financial purposes, as Reservations often do not offer great financial

29PISANI, MICHAEL V.. 2005. Imagining Native America in Music. Yale University Press.
http://www.jstor.org.muhlenberg.idm.oclc.org/stable/j.ctt1npzd3. page 187
30Hirschfelder, Arlene B, and Martha Kreipe De Montaño. 1993. The Native American
Almanac. New York: Prentice Hall General Reference.
 18

opportunities, and so people are pushed to take advantage of the opportunity to perform for

society. But an especially interesting and important aspect of the evolution of Native American

participation in music within the United States is the switch from the collective participation in

music within traditional music of Native Americans to the individual pursuit of music created by

oneself. Both Buffy Sainte-Marie and A. Paul Ortega are examples of Native Americans taking

their dual existences as Americans into their hands and shaping them into something new. And

even though America has a very long way to go in terms of respectful and accurate

representation of Native Americans and the acknowledgement that they do not only exist in our

caricatures of their traditional past, American scholars and studies of indigenous people are

slowly improving:

“American Indian music and dance has been the object of fascination for scholars and

tourists alike for decades, but early and even fairly recent scholarly studies were

generally done either from an anthropological perspective or from a purely

musicological perspective. Contemporary scholarship on expressive culture focuses on the

individuals who produce the expression rather than simply cultural content.”31

The history of the relationship between American settlers and Native Americans is a complicated

and ugly one, and the complexities and slow breaking down and compromise of Native

American culture is directly projected in the changes in Native American music over time. The

Native Americans have had their voices and sacred instruments taken from them, and fought for

them back to receive them during a time when the land directly tied to their music and culture

was dominated by new voices and new music. Native Americans exist in an unresolved state,

stuck between the decision of taking advantages of opportunities in modern American society

31Kidwell, Clara Sue, and Alan R Velie. 2005. Native American Studies. Lincoln [Neb.]:
University of Nebraska Press. page 127
 19

and holding strictly to their own culture within life on Indian Reservations. Some may challenge

the integrity of those who explore outside of their own culture, especially one long oppressed for

the society who did the oppressing. Moral judgements aside, modern Native American musicians

have taken the voices of their past and the present, and reclaimed them as their own in a whole

new form of music.

 20

Works Cited

Cornell, Stephen E. The Return Of The Native. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988. Print.

Howard, John Tasker. Our American Music. New York: T.Y. Crowell Co., 1965. Print.

Patterson, Michelle Wick. Natalie Curtis Burlin. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2010.

Print.

PISANI, MICHAEL V.. 2005. Imagining Native America in Music. Yale University Press.

http://www.jstor.org.muhlenberg.idm.oclc.org/stable/j.ctt1npzd3.

BERGLUND, JEFF, JAN JOHNSON, and KIMBERLI LEE, eds.. 2016. Indigenous Pop: Native

American Music from Jazz to Hip Hop. Edited by JEFF BERGLUND, JAN JOHNSON, and

KIMBERLI LEE. University of Arizona Press. http://www.jstor.org.muhlenberg.idm.oclc.org/

stable/j.ctt19jcghr."Types Of Native American Instruments". Udemy Blog. N.p., 2016. Web.

Diamond, Beverley. 2008. Native American Music In Eastern North America. New York:

Oxford University Press.

 21

Expressive Culture. 1994. Ithaca NY: Akwe:kon.

Heth, Charlotte. 1992. Native American Dance. Washington, D.C.: National Museum of the

American Indian, Smithsonian Institution, with Starwood Pub.

Hightower-Langston, Donna. 2003. The Native American World. Ebook. 1st ed. Hoboken: J.

Wiley. http://web.a.ebscohost.com.

Hirschfelder, Arlene B, and Martha Kreipe De Montaño. 1993. The Native American Almanac.

New York: Prentice Hall General Reference.

Hitchcock, H. Wiley, and Stanley Sadie. 1986. The New Grove Dictionary Of American Music.

New York, N.Y.: Grove's Dictionaries of Music.

Irwin, Lee. 2000. Native American Spirituality. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.

Kidwell, Clara Sue, and Alan R Velie. 2005. Native American Studies. Lincoln [Neb.]:

University of Nebraska Press.

Lincoln, Kenneth. 1983. Native American Renaissance. Berkeley: University of California Press.
 22

Pisani, Michael V. 2005. Imagining Native America In Music. Ebook. 1st ed. Yale University

Press. : http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1npzd3.

"The Arizona Experience - Landscapes, People, Culture And Events". Arizonaexperience.org..

N.p., 2016. Web. 12 Apr. 2016.

"Final Curtain: A. Paul Ortega’S Last Concert For Indian Country". Indian Country Today

Media Network.com. N.p., 2016. Web. 25 Apr. 2016.

"Buffy Sainte-Marie's Highly Anticipated Brand New Album Power In The Blood Is Available

In Stores Now!". Buffysainte-marie.com. N.p., 2016. Web. 27 Apr. 2016.