Dance and Music

Along with being a major symbol of Plains Indian culture and identity, music and dance are also central to…

Core values of kinship, honor, history, and humor

Plains music characteristics

Tense, high pitched, loud, drumming accompaniment, steady drumbeat, accents (honor beats), singing & drumming simultaneous but two different rhythms, cascading or falling pattern

Men…

Lead songs w/ a female chorus

Women sing an octave _______ than men.

Higher

Women’s roles are greater in…

Children’s songs, lullabies, some game songs

North Plains music

Higher pitched, longer length, longer honor beats, endings are THREE beats

South Plains music

Lower pitched, shorter songs, shorter honor beats, endings are FIVE or SEVEN beats

Vocables

Harmonized, non-lyric syllables

Most songs don’t have names, instead…

They are recognized when the first song is sung

All songs have history and meaning, even without…

Lyrics

Natives value…

The artistic effort of repetition or small incremental change and the ability to convey ideas concisely

English lyrics

Present in some songs (Round Dance, 49’ Songs) for aesthetic appeal, poignancy, but are still in Native structural style

Hand drum

1 or 2 sided

Bass Drum

Rawhide or commercial, not introduced until the reservation

Rattle

Animal hoof, rawhide, metal

• Associated w/ men’s societies

• Dances, doctoring, religious ceremonies

Flute

Cedar

Whistle

Usually eagle bone

Drum

Can refer to the instrument or the group playing the instrument

Drum (group)

1st of multiple concentric circles at an event.

Drum (group traditions and taboos)

Carefully handled, not set on face. Offerings of tobacco made, gifts to the singers placed on drum.

• Treated like living entities, the center/life force of all major social events

Use of music

Facilitates social interaction, homecomings, affirms social status in community, Kinship (dancing, honoring, singing, memorials, invitations), mutual help in singing & other areas, sponsoring events, prestige in ability to sing, economic potential, cultural expectations to help others w/ music.

• Medicinal quality of music has been expressed by many

Semi-professional drums incidence

Occasional as early as wild west shows in 1880s, more common after 1960s

Semi-professional drums

Frequent on powwow circuit, regular part of personal income w/ weekly powwows. Some groups produce commercial CDs.

What makes a good singer?

Requires vast knowledge of many types of songs, when to sing them on demand, the ability to start them, keep steady time.

A ________ voice is considered aesthetically pleasing.

Quivering

Live singing

Valued over recorded forms, but recording is valued to pass on and preserve

Dance originates…

Often in visionary experiences, but may originate w/ imitations of animals and warfare

• Imitative magic to lure animals in hunting, heal w/ powers of animals

Dances can also…

• Re-enact/celebrate war deeds (men’s society, Scalp/Victory Dances)

• Possible role in courtship and attracting women

Emic view

More about receiving song than formally composing- songs come to you.

• May happen quickly or over a long period of time

• E.g. Comanche man (L. Poahway) and the windshield wiper song

Composition

Some songs are requested or composed, and are considered an extension of a person and their life force.

• Frank Kaubin asked to compose a song for 50th anniversary of WWII

Grass Dance diffusion

Omaha → Yankton → Lakota (who then secularized it)

Omaha/Grass/Wolf Dance

Emphasis in gift of frum and songs as dance is given to new tribe. The forerunner of modern War Dance/powwow. Fuses w/ or surpasses many older dances.

Feather bustle and porcupine hair roach

Used in Omaha/Grass dance.

• Roach, as in a horse’s mane

Powwow

Originally Algonquin word for doctor, applied by whites to doctoring performances, later to dances and gatherings of Natives.

Powwow (By 1950)

Applied to any dance festival w/ feasting, gift giving, and other activities.

Dance was the ________ of the emerging powwow by the late 1880s.

centerpiece

Factors of influence in powwow and dance

• Reservations/increased intertribal visiting & proximity

• Changing ecology, sedentary lifestyle

• Changing men’s roles, role of warrior/hunter

  • Dance, song, arts are some of the remaining cultural forms

• Government suppression of native culture

• Increased proximity to other tribes, traders, supplies, etc.

• Emergence of tribal annual dances/powwows

• Fluroescence of dance, music, arts

Factors against dancing

• US government pressures

• Missionaries

  • Decline/loss of Sun Dance and other religious ceremonies

Factors in favor of dancing

• Wild West Shows

• County fairs

• Columbian Exhibitions

• Growing Omaha Dance

• Changes in Plains’ Men’s roles

• Intertribal Proximity

• Increased interaction

• Indian Fairs ca. 1915+

• WWI, WWII, Korea

Society Dances

Tribal Men’s and Women’s societies.

• Ceremonies - tribal focus of songs and dances, often restricted membership, rights, Limited performances, etc.

Community powwows

Smaller, often community or tribal focus, rural or urban

• Graduation, memorial, school, benefit, annual organization

Contest Powwow

Larger, more intertribal, often in urban settings

• Denver March, Gathering of Nations, Red Earth, etc.

Southern Plains dancers

Straight Dance, Fancy Dance, Women’s Buckskin, Women’s Cloth

Northern Plains dancers

Traditional, Fancy Dance, Grass Dance, Chicken Dance, Women’s Cloth, Women’s Buckskin, Jingle Dress

The basis for many powwow dances are the….

Toe-heel step (men) and the toe-heel glide