Grove Music Online

Native American music

Bruno Nettl, Victoria Lindsay Levine, Bryan Burton
 and Gertrude Prokosch Kurath

https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.A2251909
Published in print: 26 November 2013
Published online: 16 October 2013

Map of North America showing the culture areas of Native Americans.

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 In this article the term “Native American” is used to refer to the
native peoples who occupied the North American continent above
Mexico before the advent of western European exploration and
colonization in 1492 and their descendants. Similar populations in
Mexico, Central America, and South America are not discussed here
other than occasional references in connection with other groups or
in general discussions of history.

Native Americans appear to have come into the Western Hemisphere

from Asia in a series of migrations across the Bering Strait or a land
bridge that existed during the late Ice Ages. Their common origin
explains the physical characteristics that many Native Americans
have in common, while the several waves of migration are supposed
to account for the many native linguistic families. DNA and linguistic
studies have confirmed their origins as lying in East Asia, with
evidence of additional linguistic connections with Siberian peoples
and a tribal history of the Lenape in Eastern North America has been
interpreted as show origins near Lake Baikal in Siberia. In addition,
rituals among some Athabaskan peoples, including Navajo and
Apache, show striking similarities to animist and proto-Buddhist
practices. There is evidence of the presence of Native Americans in
the Americas for at least 15,000–20,000 years. In pre-Columbian
times the population of the area north of Mexico is estimated to have
been several million.

1. Music.

(i) Terminology.
Native American is but one of many labels employed by scholars to
identify the native peoples of North America. Indian, American
Indian, Amerindian, and Indians of North America, used in academic
and popular writings from the 19th through 21st centuries, derive
from the belief prevalent at the time of Columbus that the Americas
were the outer reaches of the East Indies. Matthiessen suggests that
the use of indios by Columbus, may have be a corruption of the
phrase una gente indios (a people in God), which Columbus and
other early explorers used to describe the idyllic lifestyle of the first
people encountered during their voyages of discovery. Increasingly,
“Indian” and variations of the term have been seen by some as both
inaccurate and racially insensitive; others continue to embrace these
terms. The term “Amerind,” although popular in scholarly writing in
the early 20th century, is now used almost exclusively in reference to
native peoples of Central and South America.

First Nations, First People, Native Peoples, and Original People are
terms used increasingly in contemporary scholarship. Aboriginal
People, although often used in Canada, is seen to carry a connotation
of inferiority of culture by most Native Americans. “Tribe” is also

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 viewed as deprecatory by many Native Americans because of its
association in the popular mind with “primitive.” “Nation” has
gained acceptance for cultural identification, and it has gradually
replaced “reservation” in recent years. In this and other entries,
“tribe” and “nation” will be used interchangeably according to
source usage.

Beginning in the late 20th century, Native Americans began

returning to the use of original tribal names replacing designations
assigned by explorers and settlers. Many of these latter names were
misinterpretations of original names (Crow, for “Children of the Long
Beaked Bird”), derogatory terms used by other groups (Apache, or
“enemy of my people” in Zuni), or names referring to locale or type
of dwelling (Pueblo). A few examples of this trend include:
Inde’ (Apache), Dineh (Navajo), Chattah (Choctaw), Tsalagi
(Cherokee), and Tohono O’odham (Papago). The majority of the
original tribal names translated as “the people,” often qualified with
a distinguishing term to identify a locale of practice: Tohono
O’odham, for example, translates as “People of the Desert,” while
Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) translates as “People of the Longhouse.”
In this and other entries on Native American music, traditional
names and original names will be used interchangeably according to
source usage.

(ii) Music and society.

Music is a central element in Native American culture from the time
before contact with Europeans to the modern era. From birth to
death, music is part of each rite of passage, each celebration, each
social event, and each moment of solemnity. Explorers and settlers
from the 16th century to the 20th century wrote descriptions of
Native American songs and dances, marking the frequency of
musical activities, and noting that, often, a musical celebration
would last an entire night. Journals also noted individuals respected
within a specific tribe as outstanding singers or dancers, often
expressing surprise that warriors and leaders such as Geronimo,
Sitting Bull, and Quanah Parker were as famed within their own
culture as musicians and creators of songs as much as they were for
their leadership in war.

In most cultures, music was intimately connected with religion: it

was the most important element in worship and in rituals such as the
ceremonies of age-grade (peer group) societies and gambling games.
Music was also used to accompany social dances, games, calendar
rituals, and events in the life cycle. Music was also an essential part
of healing rituals. Music evidently symbolized and personalized
supernatural power: it was believed that spirits gave this power to
human beings by teaching them songs, and individuals who were
thought to have a supernatural association had a special relationship
with music. As well as being an accompaniment to ceremonies,

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 music was in many instances a form of prayer, and its presence was
an important factor in religious experience. Music and performance
were judged less by specifically musical criteria than by how well
they fulfilled religious and other functions and were effective in
providing food, water, healing, and so on. Although most Native
Americans had relatively simple material cultures and economic
systems, each tribe had many varied ceremonies, public and private,
which required songs, and native American song repertories often
included thousands of items.

Music and dance are closely related in Native American cultures.

Traditionally, most musical genres accompanied dances performed
during communal ceremonies. These dances, many of which persist,
are thought to unite members of the community with one another,
with the spirits of their ancestors and with supernatural beings.
Although each tribe has its distinctive style, Native American dances
generally move in a circular pattern and feature a dignified style of
frontal body movement. Often dance steps, hand gestures, and
spatial designs have symbolic meaning linked to the ceremony.
Depending on performance context and community practice, dance
outfits range from everyday attire to intricately detailed costumes,
head-dresses, and body paint. Often the dancers also sing and
accompany themselves with hand-held rattles or sound-makers worn
on their bodies or sewn on their outfits. The structure of the music
usually reflects the structure of the dance. Dancers follow the beat
of the rhythmic accompaniment, and the duration of a song is often
determined by the time required for all the dancers to complete a
full circuit of the dance ground.

Similarly, since most Native American poetry is sung, there is a close

relationship between the structures of poems and songs. Song texts
often use verbal structures that do not normally occur in the spoken
language. One typical example is the Plains tribes’ use of non-lexical
syllables, which surround the meaningful text and are interpolated
in it. In the Southwest, archaic words or words borrowed from
neighboring tribes are often used in songs. Indeed a great many
Native American songs have no lexical words, using instead vocables
which may be defined as “meaningful syllables without direct
translation”; in such songs, however, a fixed succession of syllables
constitutes the poetic text. Peyote songs, for example, have a
distinctive musical style and a repertory of fixed non-lexical syllables
and syllable sequences that closely follow the rhythmic patterns of
the melodies. The absence of lexical words, particularly in the songs
of certain Plains tribes, may be connected with the relative lack of
instrumental music; the songs fulfill both vocal and instrumental
functions.

The relationship between music and language in Native American

songs has not yet been fully investigated. There is some indication
that syllabic and melodic elements coincide well, though not
precisely, and that non-lexical syllables may be used to shift
important words of the text to a rhythmically logical position. The

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 Native Americans of the Southwest have elaborate poems set to
music, in which the relationship between musical and textual lines is
very close. In the Great Basin of Nevada, song forms such as
AABBCC are accompanied by precisely the same textual forms. The
content of these song texts varies from simple description of
everyday events to symbolic and philosophical statements. However,
in some Native American cultures, the words and music of a song
are not inextricably bound; indeed, new words may be added to an
existing melody and a new melody may be composed for an old text.

Formerly, Native Americans had few professional musical specialists

or professional training of musicians in the Western sense of these
terms. Nevertheless, certain individuals in each group were
regarded as superior performers or as the originators of music—
composers in Western terms. Because of the close association of
music with spirituality, the ritual specialist, shaman, or medicine
man has usually been the person most involved with music.
However, any member of the tribe may create new songs or dances,
particularly social dances, or individual dances in which
improvisation of music and dance is a central feature.

Historically, men have had a more public role in ceremonial life than
women, leading earlier scholars to assume that music in Native
American cultures is a largely male domain. Recent research has
challenged that assumption, showing how the development of new
performance contexts for traditional repertories has created new
performance opportunities for women. Contemporary researchers
have discovered that there have long been entire genres and styles
of music and dance reserved for women, created by women, or
created for women. Such music was often overlooked because
Native Americans were reluctant to share women’s music and dance
with male researchers. Beginning in the 1960s, women have also
played a central role in the development of syncretic popular music.
Women have also begun to take roles in music formerly reserved for
males. For example, there are now numerous drum groups that
showcase women performers and compete in powwows and cultural
fairs.

(iii) Geographical and cultural style areas.

In certain respects, Native American culture appears homogeneous:
its musical styles are broadly similar throughout the continent, as
are its myths and religious practices, which show similarities to
those of Central and South America. Recent examinations of
traditional beliefs and literature have also shown links with Asian
practices. In other respects, however, the Native American cultures
as they were before the forced moves to reservations may be divided
into distinct areas, coinciding with the physical divisions of the
continent: the Eastern Woodlands (known as Eastern Sedentary in
Canada and subdivided into north-east and south-east in the United

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 States), the Plains, the Southwest and California, the Great Basin,
the intermountain Plateau (largely in Nevada and Utah), the
Northwest Coast, and the far North (subdivided into Western
Subarctic and Arctic). These areas appear to have developed more
or less independently for several centuries: each area had its own
political and economic system, largely shaped by the exigencies of
the natural environment.

Scholars have identified approximately 1000 tribal units, almost as

many languages, and about 60 independent language families in
North America. But the boundaries of the language groups did not at
all coincide with the boundaries of the cultural areas, which shows
that the cultural areas became defined fairly late in Native American
history. There is substantial evidence that Native American cultures
were influenced by cultures outside the North American borders.
Traits from the cultures of Mexico and Central America, for instance,
are found among the Indians of the Southwest, the Southeast, and
the Northwest Coast; the Native Americans of the far North and the
Inuit (Eskimo) share certain traditions with tribal groups of north-
east Asia. Menzies theorizes additional contacts and influences from
Asian cultures (including China) from the early 15th century.

(iv) Regional styles.

A number of attempts have been made, by Roberts, Nettl,
McAllester, and Burton, among others, to indicate the geographic
distribution of musical styles in Native American culture. The main
culture areas are the Plains, the Plateau, the East (subdivided into
Northeast and Southeast), the Southwest (including California), the
Great Basin, the Northwest Coast, and the North; the musical
culture of the Plateau Indians—principally the Flathead and the
Salish—shares traits with the cultures of the Plains and the
Northwest Coast (respectively) and is not separately dealt with here.
In general, stylistic boundaries tend to coincide with cultural
boundaries though not necessarily with language groupings; the
music of a culturally and geographically homogeneous group of
tribes tends also to be homogeneous. Thus the greater cultural
diversity in the western half of the country, resulting perhaps from
its greater geographical diversity and the isolating effect of its
mountain ranges, is reflected in its greater musical diversity.

The usefulness of these groupings is limited by the fact that although

there are perhaps 1000 separate cultures or tribes, in the case of
only about 100 is enough known to make reliable characterizations
possible. Further difficulties arise because the music was collected
at different times: one cannot productively compare a tribe whose
music was recorded in the late 19th century with one whose
repertory is known only from the 1950s, by which time intertribal
contacts and Westernization may have effected substantial changes.
Styles also have been affected by intermarriage between members of

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 different cultures and the disruption of traditional cultural
boundaries by the placement of Native Americans on reservations
which were sometimes far from their original homeland and often
shared with Native Americans from different tribes and culture
groups. Further relocation efforts during the 1950s and 60s may be
seen as an attempt to dilute Native American identity and force a
merger with mainstream American culture. Native Americans have
also adopted musical styles and genres from Western popular music
involving style, genre, and instrumentation. For example: Mohawk
singer Murray Porter, who performs jazz and blues, uses a singing
voice that closely remembers such African American singers as Louis
Armstrong and Ray Charles. Given these influences, drawing an
accurate map of cultural styles becomes an impossible task. The
descriptions and discussions of regional styles below apply best to
archival recordings and scholarly studies of ritual and ceremonial
musics in which authenticity of style is of spiritual importance.

(a) The Plains.

Native American music 1. Music. (iv) Regional styles. (a) The Plains.: Ex.
1 Arapaho song, transcr. B. Nettl. Courtesy of Bruno Nettl

The best-known regional style is that of the Plains culture (including

the Arapaho, Blackfoot, Kiowa, Pawnee, and Sioux tribes), whose
territory extends from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains;
it is largely shared by some Plateau Indians, notably the Flathead.
This style (ex.1 ) is characterized by descending (sometimes

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 terraced) melodic lines, a predominance of pentatonic scales (using
intervals approximating major 2nds and minor 3rds), substantial use
of hexatonic and tetratonic scales (with occasional use of other
scales as well), and a harsh, pulsating vocal production. Among the
differences between men’s and women’s singing is that men make
use of dynamic pulsations, while women usually achieve a similar
effect by slight changes in pitch. Forms are most frequently of the
incomplete repetition type (e.g., AABCDBCD); and often material
from the beginning of the song is repeated an octave lower at the
end (AABCBDCʹBʹCBDCʹBʹ). The words of the songs are often
entirely or largely nonlexical, but if meaningful words are used they
appear at the beginning of the incomplete repetition (i.e., the second
appearance of B in the first scheme given above). Drum and rattle
accompaniment is usual, as elsewhere on the continent, but the
Plains styles are distinguished by the use of slightly off-the-beat
drumming, the drumstrokes sounding just before or after the beats
of the melodic rhythm.

See Arapaho, Blackfoot, Crow , Flathead , Kiowa , Omaha (i) ,

Paiute , Pawnee, and Sioux .

(b) The Eastern Woodlands.

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 Native American music 1. Music. (iv) Regional styles. (b) The Eastern
Woodlands.: Ex.2 Creek ballgame dance-song (Speck, 1911)

The music of tribes who live east of the Mississippi (e.g., the
Cherokee, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole of the Southeast; the
Iroquois (Onondaga, Oneida, Cayuga, Mohawk, and Seneca) and
Wabenaki (Penobscot and Passamaquoddy) of the Northeast; and the
Ojibwe (or Chippewa) of the Great Lakes area) is in some ways
similar to that of the Plains tribes. Descending melodic lines, a
pulsating singing style, and the incomplete repetition form are
common. The phraseology of their songs is more even and
symmetrical; whereas Plains songs often consist of phrases of
varying length and seem to have a blurred rhythmic structure, songs
of the eastern tribes tend to have phrases of the same length and a
readily distinguishable rhythm (ex.2 ). In addition, some tribes of the
Southeast, as well as the Iroquois of the Northeast, may use
antiphonal and responsorial singing, consisting of short, alternating
phrases. A simple type of polyphony naturally arises from the
overlapping of phrases that sometimes occurs in this technique. The
singing style of the East is somewhat more relaxed, and singers do
not use the high part of the register as regularly as do Plains
singers. Percussion accompaniment coincides with the melodic
rhythm. Scales are more frequently anhemitonic pentatonic, the
tetratonic scales appearing less frequently than in Plains music.

Generally speaking, the music of the Southeast appears to have been

more complex than that of the Northeast, perhaps because the
Southeast formerly had some relationship with the complex musical
styles of native peoples from Mexico and Central America through
extensive trade routes. The Northeastern tribes, largely Algonquian-
speaking, are more closely related musically to the Native peoples of
the Plains, perhaps because certain Plains tribes (e.g., Blackfoot,
Cree, Arapaho) are also Algonquian-speaking. Some tribes in the
Great Lakes region (e.g., the Winnebago and Menomini) have music
very similar to that of the typical Plains tribes.

See Cherokee, Choctaw , Creek , Iroquois, Ojibwe , Seminole ,

and Wabenaki .

(c) The Southwest and California.

The Indians of the Southwest exhibit great diversity in their cultures
and languages. Notable among the area’s inhabitants have been the
Pueblo (including the Hopi, Zuni, Taos, and Tewa tribes), who
created tiny city-states with the most complex societies to be found
north of Mexico; the seminomadic Apache and Navajo, related to

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 other Athapaskan-speaking tribes in western Canada, whence they
probably migrated before 1500; and desert-dwelling tribes such as
the Yuma, Pima, and Tohono O’odham (formerly Papago). These
groups have had much cultural interchange, so that Yuman songs
can be found in the Pima repertory and substantial Pueblo influences
in Navajo music.

Native American music 1. Music. (iv) Regional styles. (c) The Southwest
and California.: Ex.3 Laguna Pueblo corn-grinding song (Herzog, 1936)

Pueblo music is the most complex and varied among Native

Americans: lengthy melodies use a variety of pentatonic, hexatonic,
and heptatonic scales, and many songs show the incomplete
repetition principle. The large variety of Pueblo songs and styles is
due to the complexity of the tribal religion, with its many-sided
public and private ceremonial life. The singing style has vocal
tension and pulsation, but, different from Plains music, the Pueblo
sing in a low, growling voice. Melodic contours tend to be series of
broad, sweeping, descending lines, though occasionally the terraced
melodic descent prevalent in the Plains is used. The most complex
music exists among the western groups, mainly in Arizona, including

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 the Hopi and Zuni. The music of the eastern Pueblo, in New Mexico
(e.g., the Taos), is somewhat simpler and more closely related to that
of the Plains peoples (ex.3 ).

Native American music 1. Music. (iv) Regional styles. (c) The Southwest
and California.: Ex.4 Gift-song from the Navajo Enemy Way ceremony
(McAllester, 1954)
Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology

The music of the Navajo and Apache has several distinctive

characteristics, in particular a singing style that is nasal, light, and
relatively free of pulsations. The Navajo normally prefer the high
vocal register, while the Apache sing in the middle of the vocal
range. Both tend to use intervals approximating 3rds (more so than
do other Indian cultures), which gives a triadic sound to their songs.
The Navajo have some songs with a large range and others with a
range of only a 5th. Apache songs generally have smaller ranges and
less complex forms than those of the Navajo. It may be that Navajo
music was once almost identical stylistically with that of the Apache,
but that it became increasingly more complex (though using the
same general principles), possibly through increased contact with

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 the Pueblo Indians. Many forms in Navajo and Apache music consist
of alternation between melodic elements at different pitch levels.
Some Apache songs alternate two phrases, one slightly higher than
the other but otherwise melodically related. At the other extreme,
some Navajo songs consist of alternation between a low, repeated
note and a flowing melody sung falsetto at a much higher pitch level.
The rhythms in Navajo and Apache songs usually employ only two
note values (notated in ex.4 as quarter- and eighth-notes).

Native American music 1. Music. (iv) Regional styles. (c) The Southwest
and California.: Ex.5 Yuma song, part of myth-telling (Herzog, 1928)

The third style found in the Southwest belongs to speakers of the

Yuman language family, and is shared with at least some of the small
tribal groups in southern and central California. It is characterized
by a more relaxed singing style and in many cases a special melodic
form, similar to that of the Navajo and Apache songs described
earlier. A melodic unit (a phrase or a more complex tune built of
several phrases) is repeated many times, occasionally interrupted by
a slightly higher-pitched melody, resulting in such schemes as
AAAABAABABAAABAAB. Section B, the higher, is referred to among
some Yuma as the “rise” (ex.5 ), and in dances it is accompanied by a
raising of the hands.

Throughout the Southwest, songs are set to intricate texts, often

arranged strophically, whereas those of the Plains Indians frequently
employ vocables, that is, meaningful syllables without direct
translations. Flutes are among the most important melodic
instruments in this area.

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 See Apache, Navajo (Athapaskan groups); Cahuilla , Chumash ,
Diegueño , Havasupai , Maidu , Mojave , Paiute , Pima , Pomo ,
Shasta , Tohono O’odham , Wintun , Yaqui, Yokuts , Yurok
(California-Yuman); and Hopi , Picuris , Pueblo, eastern , Taos ,
Tewa , and Zuni (Pueblo).

(d) The Great Basin.

Native American music 1. Music. (iv) Regional styles. (d) The Great
Basin.: Ex.6 Ute song (Herzog, 1935)

The desert plateau (Great Basin) region of Utah and Nevada,

extending into Northern California, was inhabited by tribes who had
simple hunting and gathering cultures (including the Paiute and the
Shoshone). Their music was also relatively simple and consisted of
short songs with small range sung in a vocal style substantially like
that of the Plains but with less emphasis on the high register. Many
of the songs were cast in a form that Herzog identified and called
the “paired-phrase” pattern (ex.6 ): single, consecutive repetitions of
each phrase occur in such combinations as AABB and AABBCC, or in
the more complex (and perhaps Plains-related) AABBCCBBCC.
Scales are typically tetratonic but sometimes pentatonic, using
major 2nds and minor 3rds. The Great Basin style was the basis of
the much more widespread Ghost Dance style, which was diffused
throughout the Plains near the end of the 19th century.

See Paiute , Shoshone .

(e) The Northwest Coast.

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 Native American music 1. Music. (iv) Regional styles. (e) The Northwest
Coast.: Ex.7a Drum rhythms found in Northwest Coast music

The music of the Native Americans of the Northwest Coast—in the

United States the Nuu-chah-nulth (Nootka), or Makah, and Salish—is
among the more complex styles in North America, as might be
expected from their highly developed social and economic system
and their achievements in wood sculpture and textile design. One
possible reason for this flowering of the arts is the presumed contact
with Mexican cultures, evidence for which is seen in some design
motifs and musical instruments. Music of the Northwest Coast native
peoples is characterized by the use of small intervals such as minor
2nds, a large variety of complex forms built from short phrases, and
a frequently complex rhythmic accompaniment. Whereas the
percussion rhythms in most Native American music rely on the
repetition of a single note value (or sometimes the simple alternation
of two, such as quarter- and eighth-notes, producing a 6/8 effect),
some songs of the Northwest Coast have accompaniments with more
complex structures (ex.7 ). These characteristics are also found to a
lesser degree in the music of the Salish tribes, who live south of the
main Northwest Coast culture area.

See Nuu-chah-nulth , Coast Salish.

(f) Arctic and Subarctic.

The northernmost inhabitants of North America are the Inuit
(Eskimo), living largely near the sea, and the northern Athapaskan-
or Nadéné-speaking tribes who inhabit the inland area of Alaska and
western Canada (e.g., the Dogrib, Kutchin, Slavey, and Tlingit). The
music of the Athapaskan tribes is related to those of the Athapaskan-
speaking Navajo and Apache but incorporates melodic contours and
singing style akin to Plains practices.

Despite the substantial cultural and racial difference between Native

Americans and the Inuit, Inuit music belongs stylistically with that of
Native Americans. It is a music of considerable variety, including
songs in a simple style consisting of short, repeated, and varied
melodies of three or four notes. Other songs are more complex,
using pentatonic scales with and without semitones; their melodic
contours may have an undulating and arc-shaped form or a terraced
descent reminiscent of Plains melodic types. The simplest Inuit
songs appear to have much in common with those of the Palaeo-
Siberian groups in eastern Siberia, but in other respects Inuit music
shows apparent Plains and Athapaskan relationships. The relatively
complex rhythms sometimes found in Inuit drum accompaniments

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 may stem in part from the practices of Northwest Coast tribes. In its
use of pulsations on long notes, Inuit singing style has much in
common with a large proportion of Native American culture.

See Canadian first peoples , Inuit, and Tlingit .

(g) Intertribal.
During the 20th century, the intermingling of Native Americans from
varied cultural groups at powwows, cultural fairs, and so on, as well
as the impact of intermarriage, and Western influences led to an
intertribal style (sometimes referred to as pan-Indian in earlier
studies and publications). Characteristics of the Plains style form the
core of intertribal music with elements of other styles integrated on
a broad regional basis. Contemporary Powwow performances
feature a mixture of traditional and intertribal styles.

(v) Musical instruments.

Native Americans have a great variety of instruments, many of them
used in a percussive role. The main melodic instruments are flutes;
other melody-producing instruments, now known only from
descriptions in the ethnographic literature, appear to have served
mainly as drones. The Apache violin and other violin-like instruments
are used primarily in the Southwest United States. In some cases,
instruments are used purely for their tone-color; sometimes they
imitate sounds of nature (e.g., animal cries and birdcalls) or suggest
the voices of supernatural beings. Instruments of indeterminate
pitch are often associated with ceremony and ritual, often as a
background to singing. An example is the bullroarer, whose non-
melodic sonorities serve both to accompany singing and to
mesmerize when they help to induce the shaman’s state of trance.

(a) Idiophones.
The most widespread Native American instruments are those that
vibrate when struck, shaken, rubbed, or plucked. Among the
simplest are those that are rhythmically struck with sticks: boxes
and poles have been used for this purpose on the Northwest Coast
and by the Salish tribes; bark idiophones are found among the tribes
of the north-east; baskets have been used similarly by the Yuma and
Apache tribes of the Southwest and in southern California; and turtle
shells were once important rhythmic instruments in southern
Mexico. Among the Plains Indians, a suspended piece of unmounted

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 hide (technically a membranophone, not an idiophone) was beaten
by several singers simultaneously; one might well regard this as an
ancestor of the drum. (This instrument is more fully described under
membranophones.) Finally, the “foot drum,” a plank or log
rhythmically stamped upon, was known in California, the extreme
Southwest, and possibly also on the Northwest Coast.

Among the more complex idiophones, the log drum was evidently
diffused from central Mexico to cultures on the West Coast of North
America; in a simplified form (without a slit), it became an important
instrument of the Northwest Coast tribes.

The most frequently used idiophone was the rattle, which still exists
in innumerable forms; most prominent is the container rattle,
essentially a handle and a closed container holding pebbles or seeds.
Most, if not all, Native American cultures had some form of
container rattle, but the materials used varied from area to area, and
the different ceremonial uses in each tribe gave rise to a great
regional variety of decoration. Many Native American rattles are art
objects as well as sound-producing instruments.

The most widespread containers were gourds (found throughout the

United States but particularly in the eastern half of the country) and
leather spheres sewn from rawhide (used in the Plains). Basket
rattles were used on the West Coast, coconuts in parts of the south-
east, and cocoons in California. Turtle shells were used for container
rattles in the Eastern Woodlands and the Southwest and horn in
isolated spots throughout the country. After the coming of Europeans
and the introduction of metal, bells (sleigh bells) came to be used as
container rattles among some Apache groups and have since spread
to other tribes, where they are sometimes worn on ceremonial
costumes, enhancing the dance with rhythmic jingles.

The other important rattle, particularly in the West, is the

suspension type, consisting of a series of perforated objects that are
strung together and shaken. Among the objects used are deer-
hooves (particularly in the Great Basin area of Nevada and Utah);
rattles taken from rattlesnakes (in the Southeast and California);
bird beaks, bones and animal claws (on the Northwest Coast);
animal shells (by the Pueblo of the Southwest); and, in more recent
times, metal (in many different areas).

Finally, there are split-stick clappers, played in California and on the

Northwest Coast, and the rasp, a notched stick placed on a basket or
an inverted piece of pottery for resonance and scraped with another
stick. The rasp is used in the Great Basin, the Plains, and in the area
round the Gulf of Mexico. On the northeast coast of the United
States and the Canadian maritime provinces, an instrument in which
the wood is split in a fan-like pattern may be used to strike the palm
of the hand or “strummed” to produce a rippling sound effect.

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 (b) Membranophones.
Membranophones are, with idiophones, the only type of instrument
widely used by Native Americans. Most widespread is the single-
headed frame drum, held in one hand and struck with the other. Its
one skin is attached to a frame typically about 12 to 24 inches in
diameter, with four thongs (or sets of thongs) tied on the opposite
side from the skin into a massive knot that is used as a handle for
the instrument. This type of drum is found in the vast majority of
Native cultures; the only important exception appears to be the
California culture area. Contemporary Native Americans have begun
to substitute artificial skins to create more durable and reliable
instruments. Snare drum and bass drum heads such as used by US
marching bands are employed by a number of performers, while the
Orff Studio 49 hand drums, originally intended for educational use in
music classrooms, have been observed in powwows and hand
drumming competitions. A larger drum is used in social dances and
powwow settings. This drum, often the size of a small bass drum,
may be single- or double-headed and is typically suspended in a
frame and played by multiple performers. The instrument, the
players, and singers around it are referred to collectively as “The
Drum” and strict protocols are observed in its playing. Modern
drums may use artificial heads such as are used on Western bass
drums.

Double-headed drums are found aboriginally in only a few places:

isolated spots in the Great Lakes area, the Gulf Coast, the Great
Basin, and New England. They may be of recent origin, influenced by
European bass and snare drums. In any event, drums with two
heads, particularly large drums capable of being beaten by several
players, became widespread throughout the eastern two-thirds of
the United States during the 20th century.

Water-drums held and beaten by one player are found in much of the
United States, from the East Coast to the Plains. They are filled with
water to permit tuning and to effect a distinct sonority. Among
Apaches and Navajo, a coal is placed inside the drum to manipulate
the tension through heating and cooling. Plains Native America
employ the Water-drum for the Peyote ritual. (See Peyote drum and
Peyote rattle .)

Throughout the United States, drums are generally beaten with

wooden sticks whose ends are sometimes padded with rawhide. The
beating of drums with hands or fingers has been relatively
uncommon and is restricted to a few tribes in the Great Basin and
California.

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 (c) Chordophones.
Chordophones were infrequently used among Native Americans. The
only documented instruments are the Tsli’edo’a’tl (Apache violin or
Navajo fiddle) and other violin-like instruments in the Southwest
United States and northern Sonora, and the musical bow; scholars
do not universally agree whether such instruments are truly
indigenous or result from the influence of Western cultures.

Made of the century plant (agave) stalk, the Apache violin is used in
social, ritual, and healing music of the Apache and related tribes in
the Southwest. The instrument has one or two strings made of
horsehair and played with a bow made from a thin branch of wood
and horsehair. In most modern instruments, standard violin strings
have been substituted for horsehair for the purpose of increasing
sound projection. Because the Apache violin is made from a plant
stalk, scholars have difficulty documenting the instrument prior to
the 19th century. However, Apache musicians and instrument
makers cite traditional beliefs that the instrument has been with
them in perpetuity. Supporting this view are one-string box violins
from Siberia that could be ancestors of the modern instrument. Best
known among makers of the Apache violin include Geronimo, Amos
Gustina, and Chelsey Wilson. Instruments by these makers are found
in museum collections throughout the Southwest as well as the
Peabody and Smithsonian museums. Another single string violin is
found among the Seri of northern Sonora.

The use of homemade violin-like instruments by the Yaqui,

Tarahumara, Tohono O’odham, and related tribes is traced to the
16th century when Native Americans observed Spanish musicians
playing in church services. Although these instruments are derived
from Western models, the handmade nature of the instruments and
their use in social and ceremonial functions is now a centuries-old
Native American tradition. The instruments are irregularly shaped
and strings are made from a variety of materials including animal
gut, horsehair, baling wire, and discarded guitar strings. The violin is
added to other instruments including Western-derived homemade
harps and guitar-like instruments, rattles, rasps, and drum to form
ensembles playing Chicken scratch (waila) music. Contemporary
musicians sometimes use commercially produced violins, guitars,
and other chordophones, but often turn to handmade instruments,
which feature a lower, flatter bridge, variable tunings, and against-
the-chest playing position.

Other Western-derived fiddle traditions are found among the Metis

and Micmac of Canada. The instruments are based on standard
European violin and the repertoire combines Scottish fiddle tunes,
French voyageur and folk songs, and Native American songs. Drums,
rattles, and rasps are sometimes included as part of the fiddle band
ensemble.

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 The musical bow was used by Native Americans prior to European
contact, though this simple instrument is not substantially
documented: its existence can be inferred only from reports, and
hardly anything is known of its music. The musical bow appeared
only in the Southwest, California, and (sporadically) the Great Basin.
In most cases, it appears to have been a simple hunting bow,
occasionally adapted to musical use. Among the Apache it was fitted
with a resonator, and in California bows were sometimes built
specifically for music. Information about the music produced on the
musical bow is suggested by the music of certain Indian tribes in
South America, where it has been used as a solo instrument or to
accompany singing, normally with a range of two or three notes
within an interval of a 4th.

(d) Aerophones.
The most important melodic instrument is the flute, found in many
different forms over much of the country, but especially in the West
and South. Flutes are almost always solo instruments, though in
some cultures, such as that of the Plains, the flute repertory appears
to have consisted largely of music that could also be sung.

The most important materials used to make flutes have been wood,
cane, or bark. Pottery flutes have been sporadically used in the
Southwest, and bone flutes on the Northwest Coast, in California,
and on the Plains. The number of finger-holes in flutes has varied
from three to six. The majority of Native American flutes are end-
blown, but there are also duct flutes, in which a hole is drilled into
the side of the flute, a plug inserted, and the hole partly covered by a
separate, often elaborately sculpted piece of wood that is tied to the
instrument. Occasionally (in the Great Basin and among the Salish-
speaking tribes of the plateau of Washington and Idaho), side-blown
flutes have been used, and nose flutes appear to have been known in
the Great Basin. Single-note bone and wood whistles were widely
used, for musical and ritual purposes, in the West; in California, they
were sometimes tied together in groups to form panpipes.
Contemporary flute makers have produced instruments made from
synthetic polymers, ceramics, crystal, and metal. Electronic adapters
have been attached for performances in large venues.

Multi-tubed whistle flutes are also found in the Northwest Coast

cultures. Bone flutes, either without finger-holes or having up to six,
were used as a courting instrument in Plateau cultures and have also
been located in archaeological sites in Newfoundland. Whistles made
out of quills or goose feathers had ceremonial uses in the Inuit
cultures of Baker Lake and the Mackenzie Delta. The willow flute,
with one to six finger-holes, occurred in cultures as widely separated
as the Mi’kmaq (Mi’kmaw; Micmac), Nlaka’pamux (Thompson),
Caribou Inuit, and the Slavey. The most distinctive type is the
vertical whistle flute with a sliding external block and gasket to
cover the tone-hole. In Canada this instrument was used by Eastern

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 woodlands groups, both nomadic and sedentary, in the Northern
Plains, the Plateau, and some of the Northwest Coast cultures. It
uses a whistle mechanism to produce the sound, with the
“block” (also referred to as saddle, bird, or rider) forming the
windway for the air located on the outside of the flute. It may vary in
length (13 to 33 inches) and diameter (0.75 to 2 inches). Its mouth
end may be blunt, tapered, or a small tube. Many examples are
beautifully carved from wood and decorated with leather, beading,
or feathers. Usually there are six open finger-holes but both the
literature and examples found in museums indicate that these varied
from four to seven holes. The ideal flute was one that produced a
full, vibrating sound when all of the holes were closed. Its main
traditional use was as a courting instrument by young men, but it
could also be used for signaling in wars. (See also Native American
flute.)

Reeds have occasionally been used for producing sound, and there
have been trumpets of various sorts—gourd, shell, wood, and bark.
Little is known about these instruments, but they appear to have
been used ceremonially and to have played only single notes. In the
Maritime provinces of Canada and the Northeastern United States, a
trumpet-like instrument made from birch bark was used primarily in
hunting, perhaps as an animal call. This instrument resembled a
small megaphone and was played by buzzing the lips using the small
end of the “megaphone” as a trumpet mouthpiece.

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 Captain John Smith engraving of Native American musicians with
container rattles, 1624.

Wilson Special Collections Library, UNC Chapel Hill

The bullroarer consists of a flat piece of bone or wood with serrated

edges, which is attached to a string or rawhide thong and whirled
rapidly through the air. It has been used most widely in the West,
extending eastwards into the Plains. Shamans used the bullroarer
when seeking to control the weather (as in the Great Basin area of
Nevada and Utah) or to invoke a trance; sometimes it was a signal
for the assembly of the tribe, and in recent times it has been a toy. A
similar instrument, the bone buzzer, consists of a rounded piece of
bone with holes; two pieces of twined string are attached and as
they are pulled apart the buzzer rotates rapidly, producing a low,
whining sound. Similar to both the bullroarer and bone buzzer is the
bird roarer, which may be made from wood or bone with notches and
slits in the body of the instrument to produce a bird-like chirping
sound when the instrument is whirled through the air.

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 Anonymous North American Indian courting flute, 19th c.

Dayton C. Miller Flute Collection, Music Division, Library of Congress

Native Americans along the Gulf of Mexico, as well as in Mexico and

the Caribbean, used shells as trumpet-like instruments. The end of a
large shell, such as the conch shell, is cut open to produce a hole to
be used as a mouthpiece. Occasionally, other holes would be drilled
so several pitches could be produced. These instruments were used
primarily for signaling and in ritual music. Cowhorn whistles and
gourd ocarinas were used by Iroquois nations.

(vi) Composition, learning, and rehearsing.

Native American attitudes to musical composition contrast with
those found in other cultures. Generally speaking, human beings
were not considered to be the active originators of music, but rather
the recipients of music imparted to the tribe by spirit beings, either
through dreams and visitations or, more directly, at the legendary
time of the tribe’s origin. Plains tribes, for example, believed that
songs could come to a tribe either through its members’ visions or as
borrowings from other tribes, although a few songs are traditionally
thought to have been with the tribe from its beginning. The Pima,
according to George Herzog, seem to think of songs as having an
independent existence, and a person to whom a song appears in a
dream is said to have “unraveled” the song. Many Native Americans
believe that music exists all around and melodies are “caught” by
individuals. Thus, those who Western culture would label as
composers are frequently called songcatchers. Zuni musician and
dancer Fernando Cellicion refers to the composition process as
“remembering” a song from its creation at the beginning of time.
Other Native American cultures believe that a song is made from the
elements provided by the Creator and nature. Contemporary Apache
instrument maker and performer Chesley Wilson explains that he
makes songs and credits earlier songmakers for traditional
repertoire.

Song learning is accomplished by rote, and the accuracy with which

it is done reflects the degree of the culture’s interest in precise
reproduction. On the Northwest Coast, for example, and among the
Navajo of the Southwest, a single lapse in accuracy of performance
may invalidate a ritual, so a fairly stable tradition can be assumed.
The Plains tribes, by contrast, do not expect great precision, so that
one might expect that their songs have changed substantially over a
period of time. The idea of learning songs from human beings is
related to that of learning songs from guardian spirits in dreams or
visions; in the latter case, a visionary was thought to be able to learn
a song in a single hearing, and Native Americans have maintained
that they are able to learn a song very rapidly, perhaps after having

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 heard it only once, even where visions are not involved. Rehearsing
of songs is found in a few cultures, such as those of the Northwest
Coast or Pueblos; generally, however, systematic musicianship is
unusual. During the late 20th century, culture camps were developed
by a number of southwestern and Plains tribes in which young
children, particularly those living away from the reservation, gather
to learn songs, dances, instrument making and performance, and
other skills from master musicians.

Native Americans have developed several different modes of

communicating about music, most of which involve gestural and
cosmological systems rather than musical notation. However, some
tribes have developed graphic notations as mnemonic aids, for
example, song-counting sticks of Osage singers, roll-call canes of the
Cayuga Condolence Council ritual, and Ojibwa birchbark rolls or
music boards. Among some Native Americans, markings on
instruments provide aids to recalling a particular song or set of
songs.

Native Americans believe that the best way to learn and appreciate
music is through direct experience, and traditionally most singers do
not verbalize about music theory. In fact, almost all theoretical
writing and terminology about Native American music has been the
product of Western ethnomusicologists. Nevertheless, clearly formed
musical thought, values, aesthetics, and concepts of musicianship
underlie all Native American performances, and compositional
guidelines as well as details of form and design are articulated by
experienced musicians. The ability to perceive melodic difference
and to distinguish hundreds of songs within a stylistically
homogenous and sometimes narrow repertory is highly developed.
Typical of respected tribal musicians of all Nations, Wilson has a
memorized repertoire of over 1000 songs and dances for use in
specific ceremonies and social occasions. In repertories of recent
origin, such as intertribal music, names for sections within a song
form and for types of drumbeat are common.

(vii) Developments after European contact.

Native American musics, like all other musical traditions, have
continually changed, reflecting native concepts of history and
underlying attitudes towards change itself. Many groups believe that
history proceeds along a recursive spiraling path rather than a linear
chronology. Therefore, Native Americans tend to adapt historic
repertories to new social realities, blending older styles with fresh
components and merging the genres of one community with those of
another. Western influence has sometimes resulted in more abrupt
musical change. Entire tribes were obliterated through disease and
war brought by contact with Europeans. Conversion to Christianity
and the Westernization of native social and economic patterns
prompted the adoption of new repertories and the creation of new

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 performance contexts. In the 20th and 21st centuries, tourism has
also played a significant role in the development of Native American
music and dance. Through adaptation, blending, and merging,
Native Americans have adapted European musical values, styles, and
instruments to enrich and diversify their own traditions.

(a) Early influences.

The first substantial contact that Native peoples had with European
music occurred in Mexico and the southwestern United States as
early as the late 15th and early 16th centuries with the arrival of
missionaries (sacred) and explorers (secular). The first mass was
sung in Mexico City (Tenochtitlán) in 1521 with musical training in
performance, composition, and instrument making established in the
Tiripitio monastery by 1533. Also in the 16th century, Taqui and
Tarahumara Native Americans observed violins used in religious
services in northern Sonora and began hand crafting violins, harps,
and guitars that were used in a unique syncretic music. Similar
patterns continued in the southwestern United States. One
description tells of an early 17th-century incident in which friars
taught the Pueblo Indians to sing and to play instruments; a Navajo
chief came to visit the Santa Clara Pueblo, and the friars, who
wished to convert him to Christianity, had bells rung and trumpets
and shawms played, which evidently impressed him greatly.

Throughout the continent, the teaching of Western church music to

Native Americans was a major missionary activity. Nevertheless,
Native Americans usually maintained a separation between their
knowledge of Western music and their traditional music. Until the
late 20th century, they did not develop the kinds of mixed styles that
arose in Africa, in black cultures of the New World, in India, and in
the Middle East. This lengthy stylistic separatism is probably due to
the great differences between the Native American styles and those
of the European music known to them.

The greatest degree of integration occurred in the Southwest, where

Spanish became a common language. The Pueblo have many rituals
of Hispanic origin that exist side by side with their Amerindian
traditions. An example is the Tewa Pueblo Matachines dance, which
has acquired a respected place in Pueblo ceremonial repertories.
Some of the tunes are European in origin, with guitar and rattle
accompaniment, but some are probably of Native American origin.
Pueblo music, with its variety of scales and melodic forms, evidently
lent itself better to the creation of mixed styles than did other North
American styles.

During the 19th century, Native American schools, both tribal and
governmental, created curricula giving music a prominent role in the
daily life of the school. During the 1840s and 50s, both instrumental
and vocal music instruction were offered through the Indian
Territory (Oklahoma and parts of Kansas). Instrumental and vocal

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 ensembles primarily Western-style works, but programs included
arrangements of Native American melodies (in a Western style).
“Indian” bands were featured at performances throughout the
Midwest including the St. Louis World’s Fair.

(b) Peyote music.

Peyote meeting of Comanche Indians, c. 1923: Marcus Poco (center) and

Chebahta (extreme right) hold gourd rattles; the body of the drum (left
of center) is an iron pot and its skin is fastened by rawhide thongs
wound around stones.

Roger Cunningham/Photo courtesy Research Division Oklahoma Historical Society

The peyote cactus, whose buttons are chewed for hallucinogenic

effect, was the basis of a religious cult in central Mexico several
centuries ago. By the early 18th century, the cult had penetrated to
the southwestern United States, where it was practiced by the
Apache. After that time, it spread to many tribes, particularly those
of the Plains and the West, bringing with it a special religious cult
and a peculiar musical style. By the middle of the 20th century the
Peyote religion—officially the Native American Church, with
headquarters in Washington, DC—was the most important religious
movement among Native Americans, and Peyote music perhaps their
most prominent musical style.

Peyote meetings consist largely of singing, and Peyote songs may be

sung outside the religious context. The tenor of the religion is
conciliation with non-Native Americans, and it has Christian
overtones. The rapid spread of the religion has given many tribes a
new musical style and repertory, which have accompanied or

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 sometimes supplanted older traditions. This religious and musical
phenomenon is primarily a result of modernization, arising from the
greater need for mutual support and friendly contact among Native
Americans facing the problems resulting from Westernization.

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 Native American music 1. Music. (vii) Developments after European
contact. (b) Peyote music.: Ex.8 Comanche Peyote song (McAllester,
1949)

The style of Peyote music probably derives from Apache and Navajo
styles. It has long tunes made up of short phrases, frequently using a
single main rhythmic motif and closing with a standardized final
formula (ex.8 ). The form is frequently the incomplete repetition
form of the Plains. The melodic contour may be undulating or
descending in the terraced fashion common in Plains music. The
singing style is more relaxed and gentler in tone than Plains singing
and, indeed, is different from all other known Native American
singing styles. Contemporary Peyote music singers, such as
Primeaux and Mike, often add a second melodic line, creating a
sound reminiscent of Christian plainsong. The tempo is quick, and
the accompaniment uses a gourd rattle and a small kettledrum
partly filled with water. The texts are frequently non-lexical but use
characteristic configurations of syllables such as ‘he yo wi ci na yo’
or ‘he ne yo wi ci ne’. Such syllabic combinations are employed by all
Amerindian tribes using the Peyote ceremony and are thought by
each tribe to have originated in another. Occasionally words in the
Amerindian vernacular are used and sometimes English words with
Christian content as well.

See Peyote drum , Peyote rattle .

(c) The Ghost Dance.

In contrast with the Peyote religion, which has a history of several
centuries and finally became a movement of reconciliation with non-
Native Americans, the Ghost dance was cultivated for only a short
time, representing a final attempt by some Native Americans to rid
themselves of the effects of Westernization. Like the Peyote religion,
its practice became an intertribal movement and gave rise to a
peculiar musical style that was adopted by various tribes and
provided diversification. It began in 1870 among the Paiute of
western Nevada and spread rapidly during the 1880s, particularly
among the Sioux, culminating in the “Sioux Outbreak” of 1890, after
which it was outlawed. The musical style that accompanied it was
derived from that of the Great Basin of Nevada, whence the
movement came, and consisted of relatively simple songs with a
small melodic range and a characteristic form in which each phrase
was repeated (e.g., AABB, AABBCC, or AABBCCAABB). The phrases
are short and unequal, and the singing style relatively tense and
pulsating. The Ghost Dance was revived during the 1970s as part of
civil rights activism of such groups as the American Indian

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 Movement. Contemporary Ghost dance practice has neither the
influence nor significance of the 19th-century movement, and few
new songs have been added to the repertoire.

(d) New Native American musics.

In addition to adapting Christian hymnody and developing pan-tribal
styles such as the Ghost Dance and Peyote music, Native Americans
have adopted styles and repertories from other American ethnic
groups. Many tribes in the Northeastern United States and Maritime
provinces of Canada have developed fiddle traditions based on those
introduced by their European neighbors in the 18th and 19th
centuries, while Southwestern Native Americans continue to
transform the popular “chicken scratch” (waila) music. Native
composers and performers participate in the full range of popular
idioms, including rock and roll, folk rock, jazz, gospel, and country
and western music.

Contemporary bands such as Xit and keith Secola ’s Wild Band of

Indians write song lyrics that comment on current sociopolitical
concerns and issues, or reflect the realities of contemporary Native
American life. Individual performers, including singer buffy Sainte-
marie and saxophonist jim Pepper , achieved renown in mainstream
circles. The vocal group Ulali has explored inter-ethnic musical and
historical connections by combining southeastern Native song
genres, English lyrics, and African American vocal harmonies.
Walela , formed by Rita Coolidge, a popular rock singer of the 1970s,
has combined Cherokee music with gospel and blues. The Plains
courting flute has become an icon of the New Age movement
through the success of figures such as r. carlos Nakai and Robert
Tree Cody. The newest generation of Native American popular
musicians includes Derek Miller, Susie Morningstar, Annie
Humphrey, and Red Thunder. To recognize musical achievement
among Native Americans across many musical genres, the Native
American Musicians Association created the Native American Music
Awards in 1998. See also AlterNATIVE music and Native american
popular music .

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 Zuni musicians performing on wooden flute, pueblo cottonwood drum,
and deer-toe rattles, Albuquerque.

Nativestock.com/Marilyn Angel Wynn

Since the 19th century, Native Americans have also composed in

European genres using European notation. Thomas Commuck
(1805–55), of the Narragansett tribe, wrote and published a
collection of 120 hymns for the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1845.
More recent Native American composers include Jack Kilpatrick
(Cherokee), louis Ballard (Cherokee-Quapaw) and brent michael
Davids (Mohican). Davids, who has been commissioned by the
Joffrey Ballet, the Kronos Quartet, and the National Symphony
Orchestra, composes music that draws on images and concepts from
contemporary Native American life and also incorporates musical
instruments and instruments of his own design into the European
symphony orchestra, string quartet, and other traditional ensembles.
Nakai and Secola have composed television and motion pictures
scores, and Nakai has teamed with non-Native American composer
James Demars to compose a series of works for Native American
flute and orchestra. Other contemporary Native American
composers, including george Quincy (Choctaw), jerod
impichchaachaaha’ Tate (Chickasha), and Steven Alveraz (Apache),
create works that combine traditional themes and instruments with
Western orchestral traditions.

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 (viii) Research.
Native American music has been much studied by American scholars
because many groups have been readily accessible and because
most Native Americans have been able to speak English for several
generations. Other causes have included the growth of American
musical nationalism during the late 19th and early 20th centuries
and the growing interest of Americans in the cultures of minority
groups. More recently, Native American operated schools, museums,
and tribal centers have actively promoted a renaissance of cultural
traditions including music. Profits from tribally owned casinos have
provided funding for not only these efforts but also to sponsor
performances, offer grants for the study of Native American culture,
and commission compositions (often film scores for Native American
produced motion pictures).

Scholars have published transcriptions of Native American songs in

Western notation, comparative studies covering the entire continent,
monographs on individual tribal styles, and investigations of special
historical and theoretical topics. Among the most enterprising and
distinguished have been Frances Densmore, who recorded,
transcribed, and published songs of many tribes for the Bureau of
American Ethnology; Alice C. Fletcher, Theodore Baker, and
Benjamin Ives Gilman, who were early pioneers in this field; Willard
Rhodes, who made large numbers of recordings and published a
number of studies; David P. McAllester, whose work focused mainly
on music of the Southwest, especially the Navajo tribe; Gertrude P.
Kurath, who made significant contributions in the area of Native
American dance; Alan P. Merriam, who in his monograph on the
music of the Flathead tribe gave equal attention to the
anthropological and structural aspects of their music; and Bruno
Nettl, whose work on Blackfoot music and ritual drew on
ethnohistory and mythology as well as contemporary fieldwork. Nettl
is also known for his contributions to mapping the musical areas of
the Native Americans (1954). The ethnomusicologists Hornbostel,
Stumpf, and Otto Abraham, and the anthropologist Franz Boas,
though their main work lay elsewhere, also made important
contributions to the study of Native American music.

Scholars of the next generation include Charlotte Frisbie, who has

focused on the Navajo; Leanne Hinton, who has studied Havasupai
music and language; William Powers, Orin Hatton, and Tara
Browner, who have emphasized the Plains region; Thomas Vennum,
whose work centers on the Ojibwa; Richard Keeling, who has
focused on northern California; Judith Vander, who has studied
Shoshone music and the Ghost Dance; Charlotte Heth, Marcia
Herndon, David Draper, and Victoria Lindsay Levine, who have
focused on the Southeastern region; Richard Haefer and Brenda
Romero, whose work emphasizes the Southwest; Virginia Giglio, who
has worked with southern Cheyenne singers; Beverly Diamond,
whose work focuses on Native Americans of Canada and eastern
North American, and who has written arguably the most

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 comprehensive text on Native American instruments; and Bryan
Burton, who has researched Western Apache music traditions, the
Native American flute, and Native American popular music.

While 20th-century Native American music is fairly well known,

scholars have only recently begun to develop methods to research its
earlier history. Some tribes used graphic notations, but these were
not widespread, and tended to convey information about song texts,
and their number and sequence in ceremonies, rather than melodies
or rhythm. Archaeology has not contributed greatly to music
research as most Native American musical instruments were made
from natural materials subject to deterioration. Scholars interested
in historical processes have often worked with ethnohistorical
materials, sacred narratives, and oral history, combined with what is
known of the movements of tribes and the geographic distribution of
stylistic features. Therefore, most scholars have concentrated on the
period since 1890, when sound recording began. Extensive
collections of recordings have been deposited at various archives—
notably the Library of Congress (Washington, DC) and the Archives
of Traditional Music, Indiana University (Bloomington). Many
historic and contemporary recordings are available commercially
from the Library of Congress Archive of American Folk Culture,
Smithsonian/Folkways Recordings, Indian House and Canyon
Records.

2. Dance.

(i) Introduction.

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 Members of Comanche tribe perform War Dance, Inter-Tribal Indian
Ceremony, Gallup, New Mexico.

Haga Library/Lebrecht Music and Arts

Native American dances embody and dramatize core spiritual,

social, and cultural values through organized, patterned movement
accompanied by music. Regional ecologies, numerous distinctive
tribal languages, and individual or collective creativity have
produced marked differences in Native American dance styles; this
diversity is reflected in dance terminology, which includes many
tribe-specific terms in Native languages as well as English and, in
the Southwest, Spanish. Little historical documentation exists for
Native American dance prior to contact with Europeans, although
archaeological evidence suggests that genres such as Pueblo
kachina dances and Eastern Woodlands stomp dances have existed
for at least 800 years. This deep history is corroborated through
tribal origin narratives and oral histories. European explorers and
missionaries left written descriptions of Native dance that reveal
historical continuity in many genres as well as adaptations and
innovations through time. Despite oppressive efforts by the US and
Canadian governments to suppress Native dance through legal bans
as well as assimilationist policies, particularly from the late 19th
through the mid-20th century, Native people throughout North
America continue to perform traditional dances, which have been
fundamental to their cultural survival as well as the preservation and
ongoing renewal of their unique identities.

(ii) Social contexts.

Native Americans perform traditional dances in the context of
collective, communal ceremonies that seek healing, mark the
passage of seasons, or celebrate life cycle events. A strict division
between sacred and secular is not part of the traditional Native
North American world view. Therefore, although most communities
categorize dances as either sacred or social, both of these categories
may be performed in ceremonial contexts at ritually prepared dance
grounds. Sacred dances are often performed by separate groups of
either men or women during the daytime, while social dances are
mixed and take place at night. Following colonization, some Native
peoples indigenized ceremonial dances of European origin,
augmenting their traditional repertories through the creation of
innovative hybrid genres. In addition, since the early 20th century,
Native people have developed new social contexts for the
performance of traditional dance, focused on general affirmation of
tribal and intertribal Indian identities rather than on specific
ceremonies. Native communities thus sustain a rich variety of social
contexts for the performance of traditional dance, and Native dance
events occur every week throughout the year in both rural and

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 urban communities. Some dances are open to community members
only, but outsiders are welcome at many events, as long as they
conform to Native ceremonial etiquette.

Curing ceremonies focus on a particular patient but involve as many

as several hundred participants from a given community. Spiritual
healing is the main goal of these ceremonies; the patient derives a
sense of well-being from all of the relatives and friends who attend
the event to offer their prayers and support. Therefore, the social
functions of the ceremony, including dance, play an integral role in
the healing process. Examples include the Navajo Nightway and
Enemyway ceremonies. On the ninth night of the Nightway, which
may be performed during the winter months, teams of 14 dancers
each impersonate ye’i or spirit beings. The dancers represent the
presence of the yeis at the ceremony and help to bring their healing
power to the patient. They wear hide masks and dance in a double
file, shaking gourd rattles while singing intricate yeibichai songs. At
the conclusion of the dancing, the patient’s family gives a special gift
to the dance team that has presented the most impressive
performance in terms of outfits, singing, and dance. On the second
and third nights of the Enemyway, which may be performed during
the summer months, participants perform social dances such as the
Two-Step and Skip Dance. These are couples dances in which ladies
choose their partners; the man and woman dance side by side,
sometimes with a blanket draped over them. The Two-Step involves
a trotting step with lifted feet, while the Skip Dance features a
skipping step. At the conclusion of the dance, the man pays his
partner a token coin to represent goods obtained through a raid; this
is a symbolic reference to the sacred narrative dramatized by the
Enemyway as a whole.

Ceremonies that mark the passage of seasons celebrate the first

ripening of wild fruits, as in the Ute Bear Dance. In addition,
seasonal ceremonies may invoke spiritual assistance or give thanks
for the agricultural cycle, observe the winter and summer solstices,
or honor game animals during hunting season. Pueblo peoples of
New Mexico celebrate each phase of the agricultural cycle, from the
preparation of irrigation ditches through the growth, maturity, and
harvest of the crops. Ceremonies associated with agriculture are
also widely practiced among Eastern Woodlands tribes. The
Seminole, Creek, Cherokee, Yuchi, and some other Southeastern
peoples perform the Green Corn ceremony during the summer
growing season. Some daytime dances performed during the Green
Corn ceremony include the Feather Dance, performed only by men,
and the Ribbon Dance, performed only by women. Stomp Dances
belong to the nighttime part of the event and include men and
women dancing together. (See Stomp dance .) In the Northeast,
Haudenosaunee women perform summer ceremonies to honor their
staple foods: corn, beans, and squash. For example, the society of
women planters welcomes the growing season with round dances,
while they perform the Women’s Shuffle Dance at harvest festivals.

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 Seasonal ceremonies often include ritual elements that affirm
relationships between humans and other beings; therefore, these
events may feature specialty dances designed to honor and give
thanks to animals and plants that provide for the needs of human
life. Some of these dances involve mimesis, such as the Ojibwe and
Menomini Fish Dance in which men imitate fish by flapping their
hands like fins, or the Eastern Cherokee Bear Dance, in which men
and women imitate bears while dancing in a circle. Men and women
tread heavily in the Cherokee and Haudenosaunee Buffalo Dance,
whereas in the Yuchi Buffalo Dance, men lean on sticks to simulate
walking on four legs. The Pueblo tribes perform many variants on
the Buffalo Dance. In some versions, two men disguised with buffalo
heads dance with one or two buffalo maidens, or there may be
double files of buffalo men and women. In other versions, a large
assembly of dancers dressed as game animals, including elk,
mountain sheep, buffalo, and deer, all wear appropriate antlers and
lean on sticks to enhance the realism of their movements. Native
Americans perform many kinds of Deer Dances, including the
version performed by the Yaqui of southern Arizona and northern
Mexico. Other animal dances honor small game, such as rabbits, as
well as several bird species. In the Pueblo Eagle Dance, a pair of
dancers wearing feathered wings on their arms circle, swoop, and
hop, imitating the eagle’s soaring flight. Women imitating swans or
wild geese sway and flap their arms in performances by Great Lakes
tribes who live on the migration routes of these birds. Among the
Eastern Woodlands tribes, the Robin Dance, Duck Dance, and
Passenger Pigeon Dance are entertaining social dances performed
during the nighttime portion of seasonal ceremonies.

Life cycle ceremonies, also known as rites of passage, articulate

transitions in a person’s life from one social status to another
through a symbolic enactment of transformation. Dance figures
prominently in life cycle ceremonies; for example, the Mescalero
Apache girl’s puberty or Sunrise ceremony incorporates several
genres of dance. The girl at the center of the ceremony dances for
many hours over the four-day event, in a demonstration of her
physical and spiritual preparedness to become a mother of her
people. While much of the ritual dancing takes place in private,
public genres include Mountain God dances and social dances. The
Mountain God dancers perform at night, using a trotting step as they
perform a series of dips while circling the central fire. Each dancer
personifies a Mountain Spirit, who brings blessings and spiritual
protection to the girl undergoing the ceremony. As the Mountain
Gods dance, women from the community dance in support of them.
Social dancing takes place late at night, after the Mountain Gods
have completed their performance. In addition to Apache ceremonial
dances, powwow dancing may take place in an adjacent area
throughout the duration of the girl’s puberty ceremony.

Some tribes have adapted European dances, creating hybrid genres

that fuse Native and non-Native steps, forms, and symbolism. For
example, in 1881 the Salish of Puget Sound introduced other
northwestern tribes to the Shaker Church, a Christian sect that

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 practiced an ecstatic round dance. Some two centuries earlier,
Catholic missionaries introduced a dance-drama to the Yaqui and
Pueblos that became the Matachines dance. Matachines dances
differ from indigenous dances in that they are accompanied by
guitars and fiddles, using tunes that resemble European dance
music. The exception is Santa Clara Pueblo, where the
accompaniment for Matachines dances is provided by singers and
drum. The choreography includes Native stomping steps with
European dances such as the polka and pas de basque. Although the
Matachines dance represents a blending of Native American and
European elements, it constitutes a genre of traditional dance
among the peoples who perform it. Often it is a Christmas pageant in
New Mexico and part of Catholic feast days among the Yaqui, where
the Matachines represent soldiers of the Virgin Mary. Other
examples of hybrid genres include Yaqui Easter fiestas, in which the
pascola dance, accompanied by a flute and drum, symbolizes the
blending of Native and Spanish spiritual and cultural elements.

Native Americans began to develop new social contexts for the

performance of traditional dance in the early 20th century. These
include performances at fairs, non-ceremonial community
celebrations, folkloric demonstrations, and commercial shows.
However, powwows are the best-known and most widespread
example. Based on older ceremonial dances conducted by men’s
warrior societies among the Plains tribes, the powwow emerged
during the late 19th century and became widely popular throughout
Native North America by the 1950s. The focal point of powwows is
the War Dance. For men, the War Dance demonstrates physical
prowess, while for women, the dance demonstrates agility and
grace. Older men tend to dance in the dignified Men’s Traditional
style, in which the dancer holds his back straight and flexes his arms
close to his torso, subtly tilting his shoulders and turning his head as
he progresses around the dance circle with a slow double step.
Younger men and boys may perform the Men’s Fancy or Grass Dance
styles, in which the performer can twist and flex his torso, bob his
head vigorously, cross or twist his feet, or twirl in place. Women’s
Traditional dancers circulate around the arena singly or in groups of
twos, threes, or fours, moving with a graceful step-bend.
Alternatively, Women’s Traditional dancers may bend their knees
rhythmically while standing in place. Younger women and girls in
Fancy Shawl or Jingle Dress regalia employ a more energetic style of
movement with spins, turns, and athletic footwork. Each dancer
improvises combinations of his or her favorite steps, but all
movements must be in time with the drumbeat and end exactly on
the last beat and last note of the song.

In addition to War Dances, social dances and exhibition dances are

usually performed during powwows. Social dances include the Two-
Step (also called Rabbit Dance or Owl Dance), Round Dance, Snake
Dance, and Buffalo Dance. The Two-Step is a partners dance in
which the couple holds hands in the skater’s position. In the Round
Dance, participants dance in a clockwise circle, stepping sideways
and sometimes holding hands. The Snake Dance is a follow-the-

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 leader dance with a running step. The leader guides the line of
dancers in a counterclockwise direction, then meanders, winds into
a spiral, unwinds, and continues to meander. Several variants can be
performed on this basic pattern. To represent the snake sloughing its
skin, the first two dancers in line may form an arch by holding up
their arms for the other dancers to pass through; subsequent pairs
join the arch after passing through it, creating a progressively
longer tunnel for dancers who are farther back in the line. The
Snake Dance may be followed by the Buffalo Dance, where dancers
mime the movements of bison. The most popular exhibition dance is
the Hoop Dance, in which a performer dances with several hoops,
stepping through them and passing them over his or her body to
create complex shapes. Another social dance, the Forty-Nine, takes
place late at night after the powwow has ended. In this dance, which
is mainly for young people, participants dance in concentric circles
around the singers.

Humor plays an integral role in American Indian dance events, in

public jokes told by a master of ceremonies, in more private
interactions among family and friends, and in the performance of
dancers known in English as clowns. Operating through symbolic
reversals, ceremonial clowns reinforce social expectations by
displaying incorrect behavior. Humor lifts the spirits of ceremonial
participants who strive to maintain a cheerful, cooperative attitude
throughout physically and emotionally demanding events in order to
preserve the social harmony necessary to achieve a positive
outcome. Among the Onondaga of New York, clowns wearing masks
made of corn husks parody their own sacred ceremonies, evoking
awe as well as laughter. Among the Pueblo peoples of the Southwest,
ritual clowns parody the behavior of outsiders including mainstream
pop stars as well as certain ethnic groups as a whole, such as Anglo-
Americans and other Native peoples.

(iii) Choreography and music.

Dance and music are strongly interconnected for Native Americans.
In Native languages, the same word may refer to both music and
dance, and typically, many different songs in one category bear the
same generic title of the dance they accompany. Each tribe has its
own distinctive choreographies, but common features include a
dignified, elastic style of frontal body movement, a slightly
downward gaze, knee flexion, and agile footwork. Posture is usually
erect or slightly bent forward from the waist. For the most part,
dancers use a relatively narrow range of motion in the arms, hands,
shoulders, and head. Torso movements may be more expressive than
arm gestures in some dances. For example, male powwow dancers
tilt their heads and twist, flex, and bend their torsos in time with the
drum beat. Perhaps most importantly, Native American dancers
remain close to the earth, avoiding large leaps and acrobatics, in

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 part to express respect for and a profound spiritual connection to
the earth, and in part to maintain the stamina required for dancing
outdoors all day or throughout the night.

Directionality and repetition play an important role in Native

American choreographies. In many cases, sets of movements must
be repeated four times to express cultural concepts of balance and
completion. For example, Pueblo peoples emphasize their sacred
number four by repeating a dance four times, once in each of the
cardinal directions, over the course of one day. This pattern also
governs rain and animal dances, which are performed in the
Pueblo’s central plaza. Southeastern peoples dance
counterclockwise, which is the metaphorical direction of spiritual
growth in Eastern Woodland thought. The cardinal directions guide
practices of the Plains and western Great lakes tribes, but the
direction is clockwise—east, south, west, and north—the customary
ritual direction for these peoples. Repetition and directionality in
Native American dance embody traditional concepts of time and
space through the physical, kinesthetic representation of cyclic
recurrence and emplacement. In addition, since community
members evaluate traditional dances primarily on the level of
participation, repetition in choreography enables everyone present
to join the performance, regardless of prior knowledge or
experience.

Most traditional dances move in a circle, symbolizing cultural

metaphors for continuity, wholeness, and unity. In many cases, the
spatial arrangement of the dance ground itself is conceptualized as a
series of concentric circles. For example, Native Southeastern
peoples build a sacred fire at the center of the ceremonial ground;
dancers spiral around the fire and men’s ceremonial arbors mark the
cardinal directions on three sides of the ground. Those who are not
dancing sit on folding chairs on a berm that articulates the ground’s
periphery; a dirt road rings the ground, and family camps surround
the road. Similarly, Lakota powwow spaces are organized as
concentric circles, with dancers at the center, surrounded by drum
groups. Audience members sit on folding chairs on the periphery of
the dance area, and vendors set up stalls in the ring beyond. Some
Native people feel the presence of spirit beings at traditional dances,
who may make their presence known either at the center or the
outermost circle of the dance ground.

A fundamental dance step throughout Native North America is

known by the English term “stomp.” It features a shuffling trot that
may be varied in several ways. The step may involve a single or
double stomp, and the stomp may be light or heavy. The step may
involve a forward shuffle or a quick, graceful back-and-forth shake
just before the foot is placed. For some ceremonials, a line of
Eastern Pueblo dancers moves in place, using a foot-lifting step
called antege. The antege steps coordinate with the characteristic
duple pulse of most American Indian dance music, but some Pueblo
ceremonial dance songs briefly shift from duple to triple meter at
certain points. This produces a patterned pause in the dance step,

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 called a ta’a, in which the dancer holds his right foot suspended on
the third beat. In the Northwest Coast, the Nootka use the term
quoqaccupita to refer to a similar change of meter; they refer to
steady, even steps as xaeskaanal, and to short, fast steps as
tsaxailala. Plains Indian social dance songs employ a triple beat, in
which dancers step on the first and third beats. Some Native
American dances employ mimetic movements to enact activities such
as corn husking or grinding among the Cherokee and
Haudenosaunee.

The relationship between the singers’ melody and the drumbeat can
be complex in Native American music, but dancers synchronize their
movements with the drum. In powwow music, for example, the
singers’ beat and tempo may correlate loosely with the drum, but the
dancers follow the drum beat. The dancers’ relation to the music is
most intimate when they accompany themselves either with a rattle
or a sound-maker attached to the body or dance outfit. The dancers
may provide the sole accompaniment, or they may fit their rhythms
to the sounds made by a separate group of musicians. Suspension
rattles made of deer hooves may be worn behind the knee or
attached to a belt, apron, or robe. Yaqui dancers wrap strings of
dried cocoons filled with gravel around their legs. Alaska Native
dancers wear gauntlet gloves decorated with amulets made from
bone, ivory, shells, and other materials that rattle gently during the
performance.

Hand-held container rattles provide the most common form of self-

accompaniment. Rattles are often made of gourds, which are readily
available in various shapes and sizes. These containers, which are
considered female, may be filled with their own dried seeds, corn
kernels, chokecherry seeds, or even buckshot. Pueblo people believe
that dancers enhance their rain-bringing power by thrusting flat
gourd rattles toward the earth as they sing and dance. Male buffalo
dancers also shake large, round gourd rattles. In the
Haudenosaunee Eagle Dance, performers shake small egg-shaped
gourds in time with their movements. The Haudenosaunee also use
other natural materials for rattles, such as a section of cow horn
with a wooden handle, used by special singers or for self-
accompanied dances. For introductions and interludes the dance
leaders shiver the rattle; during the dance they alternately strike it
on the palm of the left hand and shake it in the air. False-face
dancers pound large rattles made of snapping turtle shells, while
women of the planter’s society shake small tortoise-shell rattles.
Rawhide formerly provided the material for the cylindrical rattle
used by Ojibwe shamans and for various spherical and disc-shaped
rattles of Plains peoples. Wooden rattles, often elaborately carved in
animal or bird images, serve shamans in Northwest Coast
communities.

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 Hopi Indians performing Antelope Dance, c. 1920.

Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LC-USZ62-102175, J246061 U.S.

Copyright Office, No. 86.

One masterly combination of movement and music occurs in the

Yaqui Deer Dance. The maso (deer impersonator) accompanies his
sensitive, quivering mime of a hunted deer with passive and active
instruments. As his feet strike the ground, the cocoon leg rattles
whisper and the deer hooves clatter; he shakes two large gourds, the
right one with a vertical impulse, the left one with a rotary swish. At
the same time, an accompanist scrapes a notched stick on a gourd
resonator and a singer strikes a special kind of water drum (actually
a struck idiophone), consisting of a half-gourd floating in a tub of
water. Three shaman-clowns, called pascolas, pursue the deer. Their
grotesque, angular shoulder jerks and leaps fit the uncanny black,
bearded mask of the pahko’ola (old man of the fiesta). Their cocoon
anklets swish, but the bronze bells on their belts clang more harshly
than the deer hooves, and their sonazo (sistrum) makes a sharply
metallic sound. The sonazo, an ironwood frame to which brass discs
are attached by nails, is struck against the palm of the left hand to
produce syncopated rhythms. At the same time, musicians play a
notched stick and a one-man flute and drum combination.

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 (iv) Regalia.
Native American dancers refer to their clothing and personal
adornment, including the paraphernalia and musical instruments
they carry, as regalia or outfits rather than costumes. Most dancers
make their own regalia by hand and may assemble an outfit over
several years. Dancers also inherit or receive pieces of regalia as
gifts from relatives or friends, and they sometimes purchase pieces
from skilled artisans. In this way, each dancer’s regalia becomes a
unique expression of individual taste, style, identity, and personal
history. Native American dance outfits extend movement patterns
through the fringes, feathers, and other mobile parts that are
incorporated into the clothing and headdresses; they also enhance
the musical accompaniment through sound-makers worn on the
dancer’s outfit or body.

Dance regalia varies by tribe and performance context. For example,

among the Pueblo peoples of New Mexico, women usually wear a
knee-length dress, called a manta, woven from wool or heavy cotton,
with a shawl pinned on the right shoulder, a woven sash around the
waist, deerskin moccasins, and jewelry made of silver, turquoise,
spiny oyster, coral, or stones. Depending upon the dance, women
may wear painted wooden headdresses called tablitas and may carry
evergreen sprigs or ears of corn in their hands. Men usually wear
white woven kilts with their chests bare or painted, a woven sash
and bells around the waist, and moccasins. They carry sprigs of
evergreens and a gourd rattle, and may wear feathers in their hair
(Sweet, 1985/R). By contrast, Choctaw dancers wear outfits derived
from the clothing worn by Anglo-American southerners during the
19th century. Women wear a long, solid-colored cloth dress with a
rectangular yoke, long sleeves, and one or two ruffles near the hem.
The ruffles and yoke feature appliqué in a contrasting color, using
designs such as diamonds, half-diamonds, the Saint Andrew’s cross,
or reversed spirals, which carry symbolic significance. They wear a
white apron over the dress, a beaded collar at the neck, and
moccasins or street shoes. Some women wear a silver comb on the
crown of the head from which they suspend a bunch of long, colorful
ribbons; others pin ribbons on the dress at the nape of the neck.
Choctaw men wear a solid-color cotton shirt with a rectangular yoke
and long sleeves, featuring appliqué trim in a contrasting color on
the sleeves, yoke, and hem. They wear black slacks or jeans, street
shoes, a beaded medallion or baldric, and a black felt hat, sometimes
with a beaded or ribbon hatband and feather. Some men wear a
bunch of long, colorful ribbons fastened at the waist on one or both
sides (Howard and Levine, 1990).

Powwow dancers wear regalia derived from 19th-century Plains

Indian ceremonial attire, but contemporary powwow outfits often
incorporate fluorescent colors, iridescent synthetic fabrics, and
references to popular and foreign cultures. For example, a teenaged
Fancy Dancer incorporates the comic book character Spider Man
into his outfit with a red and blue color scheme and spider appliqué;
an adult Grass Dancer wears a beadwork medallion replicating a

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 professional football team logo; and a college student sews rows of
Indonesian coins onto her Women’s Traditional dress to
commemorate a meaningful study abroad experience. A powwow
dancer’s regalia reflects the dance style he or she performs. The
main categories include Men’s and Women’s Traditional Dance,
Men’s and Women’s Fancy Dance, Men’s Grass Dance, and Women’s
Jingle Dress Dance. Men’s Traditional dancers usually carry a
feather fan and wear a long shirt and leggings, a bone breastplate,
and a feather bustle with cloth trailers on the lower back. Women’s
Traditional dancers wear a long dress or skirt and blouse with a belt
and a neck scarf; they carry a fringed shawl and a feather fan. Men’s
Fancy dancers wear a large feather bustle on both the upper and
lower back, as well as a small feather bustle on each arm. They carry
spinners and wear beaded yokes and aprons. Women’s Fancy or
Fancy Shawl dancers wear a dress or skirt and blouse with a fringed
shawl over their shoulders, moccasins, and leggings. Grass Dancers
wear shirts and aprons with thick, long fringes made of yarn or
chainette; they carry a feather fan in one hand and mirror or small
shield in the other. Jingle Dress dancers sew rows of tin cones onto
their dresses, which they wear with leggings, moccasins, and a neck
scarf. Male dancers in all categories wear roach headdresses with
feather spinners, while women dancers wear feathers and ermine
wraps tied in their hair.

For some tribes, masks constitute an important part of the regalia

worn for ceremonial dances. Navajo yeibichai dancers wear masks
made of ritually harvested deerhide, painted and decorated to
represent spirit beings who possess healing powers. Similarly,
Apache Mountain God dancers perform during the girl’s puberty
ceremony; they wear a black head covering with holes for the eyes
and mouth, topped with an elaborate wooden headdress. A Hopi
kachina dancer becomes one with the spirit he represents when he
dons his mask. In one Haudenosaunee curing ceremony, dancers
wear carved and painted wooden masks with grotesque features,
representing spirits of wind and disease. In a different ceremony,
Haudenosaunee dancers wear masks made of braided corn husks.
Among the Makah people of the Pacific Northwest, ceremonial dance
masks are considered animate and they constitute an important part
of a family’s property. Makah dancers use sleight of hand to change
masks in the midst of a performance, enhancing its dramatic impact
(Goodman and Swan). Several Northwest Coast tribes use
transformation masks in ceremonial dances. These transformation
masks represent animals or other beings on the outside, but may be
opened by the dancer during performance to reveal an inner mask.

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 Johnson Jimerson of the Seneca Nation performs Smoke Dance, New
York State Fair, 2010.

NICHOLAS LISI/The Post-Standard /Landov

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 Native American dancers honor their relationships with other people
by wearing or carrying pieces of regalia they have inherited or
received as gifts from relatives and friends. Similarly, they honor
human relationships to plants, animals, and the earth itself by
wearing materials such as feathers, sea shells, animal fur, buffalo
horns, deer hooves, antlers, elk teeth, porcupine quills, turtle shells,
cocoons, plant greenery, gourd rattles, beads (to represent seeds),
paint made from clay or pulverized minerals, and metal bells or tin
cones. Vanessa Brown, a Navajo powwow dancer, explains that
“When I dance with all my regalia on—animal skins, feathers, shells,
ermine furs … I feel like all the living beings of the world are with
me. There are the wingeds, the four-leggeds, the ocean beings, and
the fur-bearers; when you dance surrounded by them, it makes you
feel majestic” (Toelken, 2003, 80).

(v) Theatrical productions.

In the late 19th century, some Native American peoples began to
perform staged dances based on traditional choreographies for
theatrical productions. These included Wild West shows, traveling
carnivals, fairs, expositions, Chautauqua presentations, and “Indian
Detours,” tours of Pueblo communities offered to travelers in New
Mexico. Thousands of Native people supported themselves through
these kinds of performances between 1880 and 1930. At a time when
government policies banned American Indian dances in ceremonial
contexts, participation in theatrical productions provided an outlet
for both the preservation of tribal customs and the public expression
of ethnic identity. Furthermore, performance in theatrical
productions created opportunities for Native people to travel both
domestically and internationally, and many relished this opportunity,
although considerable debate about these shows took place at the
time among Indian reformers as well as Native people.

Most early 20th-century theatrical productions were organized and

sponsored by Anglo-American promoters, but within a few decades,
some Native communities had begun to organize their own events.
Among the best known was the Puye Cliffs Ceremonial sponsored by
Santa Clara Pueblo in New Mexico from 1957 until 1981. A similar
event, the Nambe Falls Ceremonial, has been held nearly every year
since 1961. The Nambe Falls Ceremonial includes dancers from the
Pueblos of Nambe, San Ildefonso, San Juan, and Santa Clara. Native
American theatrical productions of traditional dance took a new
direction in the 1980s, with the emergence of the American Indian
Dance Theatre, founded in 1987 by Barbara Schwei and Hanay
Geiogamah (Kiowa). This company, described as “the high-water
mark of Native American tribal dancing performed on stage” (Jones,
1992, 172), presented traditional and modern dance in highly
choreographed, professionally produced concerts featuring some of
the top Native performers in North America.

Native Americans also participate in European genres of dance, and

by the early 20th century some began to achieve international
acclaim, most notably the Osage ballerinas Marjorie and Maria

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 Tallchief. By the late 20th century, Native American composers and
performers working in diverse European musical genres
incorporated elements of indigenous dance into their work. These
elements include traditional dancers in full regalia, elaborate sets
and lighting that reference ritual contexts, and dance pieces inspired
by Native myths and legends. Examples include the Powwow
Symphony (1998) by the Mohican composer Brent Michael Davids
and the multimedia show Music from a Painted Cave (2001) by the
Taos Pueblo rock singer, poet, and Native flute player Robert
Mirabal. BONES: an Aboriginal Dance Opera also premiered in
2001, produced and directed by Sadie Buck (Seneca) with David
DeLeary (Anishnabe). This project grew out of the Aboriginal
Women’s Voices and Chinook Winds Aboriginal Dance programs at
the Banff Centre for the Arts in Canada. The choreography blends
music, modern dance, and indigenous aesthetics to challenge
operatic conventions while it transforms intercultural relationships
(Diamond, 2011).

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G. Herzog: Research in Primitive and Folk Music in the

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 W. Rhodes: “North American Indian Music: a
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 P. Matthiessen: In the Spirit of Crazy Horse (New York,
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C. Heth, ed.: Native American Dance: Ceremonies and

Social Traditions (Washington, DC, 1992)

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 Regional studies
F. Densmore: Chippewa Music (Washington, DC, 1910–13)

F.G. Speck: Ceremonial Songs of the Creek and Yuchi

Indians (Philadelphia, 1911)

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 L.D. Koranda: “Music of the Alaskan Eskimos,” Musics of
Many Cultures: An Introduction, ed. E. May (Berkeley and
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Grande: History, Music, and Choreography (Lincoln, 1983)

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L. Evers and F.S. Molina: Yaqui Deer Songs/Maso Bwikam:

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Shoshone Women (Urbana, IL, 1988)

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Perspectives (Kent, MD, 1989)

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(Norman, OK, 1990)

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Cosmovision (Albuquerque, NM, 1991)

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Northern Baffin Island Area: a Study of their Structures
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 R. Keeling: Cry for Luck: Sacred Song and Speech among
the Yurok, Hupa, and Karok Indians of Northwestern
California (Berkeley, 1992)

C. Mishler: The Crooked Stovepipe: Athapaskan Fiddle

Music and Square Dancing in Northeast Alaska and
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OK, 1994)

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Communicative Practices (Toronto, 1995)

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Was Like New: Western Apache Songs and Stories
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Mountains, We’ll Be in your Songs: a Navajo Woman Sings
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Meaning, and Tradition in a Contemporary American
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 B. Diamond: Native American Musics in Eastern North
America (New York, 2008)

For further bibliography, see entries on individual

regions and groups.

Developments after European contact

J. Mooney: The Ghost-dance Religion and the Sioux
Outbreak of 1890 (Washington, DC, 1896, 2/1965)

L. Spier: “The Sun Dance of the Plains Indians: its

Development and Diffusion,” Anthropological Papers of
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D.P. McAllester: Peyote Music (New York, 1949)

W.N. Fenton and G.P. Kurath: The Iroquois Eagle Dance

(Washington, DC, 1953)

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Esthetic Values as Seen in Navaho Music (Cambridge,
MA, 1954)

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Monthly, 8 (1955), 215

J.G. Jorgensen: The Sun Dance Religion: Power for the

Powerless (Chicago, 1972)

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Blood Indians of Alberta, Canada,” Yearbook for Inter-
American Musical Research, 9 (1973), 64

T. Hatton: “Performance Practices of the Northern Plains

Powwow Singing Groups,” Yearbook for Inter-American
Musical Research, 10 (1974), 123

B. Black Bear Sr. and R.D. Theisz: Songs and Dances of

the Lakota (Aberdeen, SD, 1976)

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 C.J. Frisbie and D.P. McAllester, eds.: Navajo Blessingway
Singer: the Autobiography of Frank Mitchell, 1881–1967
(Tucson, AZ, 1978)

J.H. Howard: “Pan-Indianism in Native American Music

and Dance,” EM, 27 (1983), 71

W.C. Wickwire and W. Cochrane: Cultures in Contact:

Music, the Plateau Indian and the Western Encounter
(diss., Wesleyan U., 1983)

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Sharing a Heritage: American Indian Arts (Los Angeles,
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D. Whitehorse: Pow-Wow: The Contemporary Pan-Indian

Celebration (San Diego, 1988)

W.K. Powers: War Dance: Plains Indian Musical

Performance (Tucson, AZ, 1990)

D. Zotigh: Moving History: Evolution of the Powwow

(Oklahoma City, 1991)

R. Jones: “Modern Native Dance: Beyond Tribe and

Tradition,” Native American Dance: Ceremonies and
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B. Burton: Moving Within the Circle: Contemporary

Native American Music and Dance (Danbury, CT, 1993,
2/2008)

T. Browner: Heartbeat of the People: Music and Dance of

the Northern Pow-wow (Champaign, IL, 2002)

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Southern Plains (Lawrence, KS, 2003)

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(Lincoln, NB, 2005)

B. Diamond: “Decentering Opera: Early Twenty-First-

Century Indigenous Production,” Opera Indigene: Re/
presenting First Nations and Indigenous Cultures, ed. P.

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 Karantonis and D. Robinson (Surrey and Burlington,
2011), 31–56

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