Native American

Powwow

A social and ceremonial gathering featuring Native American music, dance, food, and crafts. It often includes competitive dancing and drumming.
📍 Common among Plains and Woodland tribes; widespread across North America.

Water Drum

A small drum partially filled with water, giving it a distinctive resonant sound. Used in various Native American ceremonies.
📍 Used by tribes such as the Iroquois, Anishinaabe, and in the Native American Church.

Vocables

Non-lexical syllables used in Native American songs instead of actual words. Focuses on sound and emotion rather than meaning.
📍 Used across many Native American music traditions.

Nightway

A nine-day Navajo healing ceremony involving chant, dance, and sand painting. It’s performed by a medicine man to restore harmony and health.
📍 Navajo Nation (Southwestern U.S., especially Arizona, New Mexico, Utah).

Enemyway

A Navajo healing ceremony for returning warriors to cleanse harmful spirits and restore balance. Involves mock battles and singing.
📍 Navajo Nation (Southwestern U.S.).

Ghost Dance

A spiritual movement and circle dance aiming to bring peace and the return of ancestors and buffalo. Suppressed after the Wounded Knee Massacre in 1890.
📍 Originated in the Great Basin; spread widely among Plains tribes.

Medicine Man

A traditional healer or spiritual leader who uses herbs, rituals, and ceremonies for physical and spiritual healing.
📍 Found in many Native cultures across North America.

Eskanye

Women's shuffle dance songs of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois). Performed in social settings with call-and-response singing.
📍 Northeastern U.S. and Eastern Canada (Iroquois Confederacy).

Native American Church

A religious movement blending Native traditions with Christian elements. Central practice involves sacramental use of peyote in ceremonies.
📍 Primarily in the U.S. Southwest, but practiced widely across North America.

Regalia

Traditional clothing and adornments worn during ceremonies or powwows. Includes beadwork, feathers, and symbols of identity or status.
📍 Varies by tribe; seen across North America.

Aboriginal

Term used in Canada and Australia to refer to Indigenous peoples. In Canada, includes First Nations, Inuit, and Métis.
📍 Canada (also used in Australia with a different cultural context).

Ojibwa (or Ojibwe/Chippewa)

An Anishinaabe-speaking Native American/First Nations people. Known for birch bark canoes, wild rice harvesting, and intricate beadwork.
📍 Great Lakes region (U.S. and Canada).

Yuchi/Creek

Yuchi: A Southeastern tribe originally from Tennessee/Georgia. Now mostly integrated into the Muscogee (Creek) Nation in Oklahoma.
Creek (Muscogee): A Southeastern tribe, one of the "Five Civilized Tribes," known for stomp dances and mound-building heritage.
📍 Southeastern U.S.; many relocated to Oklahoma.

Iroquois/Haudenosaunee

A confederacy of six nations: Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, and Tuscarora. Known for longhouses, matrilineal society, and political influence.
📍 Northeastern U.S. and Southeastern Canada.

Navajo

One of the largest Native American tribes. Known for weaving, silverwork, and a rich ceremonial tradition (e.g., Nightway, Enemyway).
📍 Southwestern U.S. (Arizona, New Mexico, Utah).

Women’s Shuffle Dance

Haudenosaunee (Iroquois)

New York
Eskanye

Stomp Dance

Creek/Muscogee

South Eastern
Ceremonial Grounds”
– Social Dances
– Stomp Dance Songs
• Antiphonal
• Call and Response
– “Eastern Way” of music making
– Asymmetical repetition

Navajo Yeibichai

Navajo

South Western
Physical and Spiritual Healing (beauty, blessedness, harmony),
• Yeibichai Song
(gods-their-grandfathers)
Nightway ceremony

Shizhane’e

 Navajo ( circle dance)

South Western

Enemyway
Ceremony
• Ndáá’ (War
Dance) repertoire
• Clever and
humorous poetry

Hymn of Native American Church

intertribal

Established during
the 19th century
• Music as prayer
• Christian hymnody
• Peyote meetings

Straight Up

intertribal

Northern Plains Singing Style
• Great Plains
– Blackfeet, Crow, Lakota,
Dakota
• Unison singing
• High-pitched, tense, loud
vocal production
• Terraced, descending
melodic line
• Steady drum beat – “Big
Drum”
• No fixed or stable tonal
centers

Gizbehs

Great Plains
– Blackfeet, Crow, Lakota,
Dakota
• Unison singing
• High-pitched, tense, loud
vocal production
• Terraced, descending
melodic line
• Steady drum beat – “Big
Drum”
• No fixed or stable tonal
centers

Thuggin and Snuggin

Powwow Dancing
• Intertribal,
competitions, and
specials
• Dance styles and
footwork
• Round Dance Song –
Triple-meter

Origins

Flute solo sound. Spiritual and Ceremonial Use, connection to nature, Storytelling and Oral Tradition, cultural identity/ preservation

Navajo /South Western

Reservation of Education

Political statements
• Blending of styles
• Indians of All Tribes

Acapella

Metis. Native American Popular Music
• Lyrics: Political
statements
• Blending of styles
• Indians of All Tribes

Devil Come Down Sunday

12 bar blues

Lyrics: Political
statements
• Blending of styles
• Indians of All Tribes