Chapter 2 Native American Music Sioux Grace Dance The name Grass Dance comes from the braids of grass that dancing warriors used to wear in their waistbands to symbolize the enemies they had killed in war It is sometimes called the Omaha Dance after the Omaha people of the western plains McAllester relates that this music was among the earlier non Western music to be heard on recording by Europeans in the early 20th century and initially in the late 19th century At that time he says they thought it represented an early or primitive strain in music That is they thought it was what all music must have started out sounding like and then different cultures developed differently from that point and this one stayed the same way Reasons the early European hearers thought what they did also a list of typical features vocables almost exclusively vocal instruments primarily drums and rattles made of gourds tree bark carved wood deer hooves turtle shells spider nests there are some flutes and one stringed fiddles but these are comparatively rare McAllester makes the point that a notion of delayed evolution is actually ludicrous because survival requires complex wide ranging knowledge Knowledge begets knowledge and the spirit of inquiry required to build knowledge in the first place makes it virtually impossible that a culture would not continuously develop When music does not contain some element that only means that we are wasting our time analytically to look for that particular element But that gives us the opportunity to lavish our attention on other elements which is what the makers of the music must themselves be doing Close Listening CD 1 3 Grass Dance p 36 The song is fast and does not have regular meter It usually follows 3 beat patterns but occasionally has a 4 beat phrase At the times the meter goes into four the melody always has the same downward dip Though this is just one regional style among hundreds of different Native American traditions many non Plains Indians have learned this style in order to compete in song contests this style has become popular at such events Zuni lullaby CD 1 4 is a Zuni lullaby recorded in 1950 in western New Mexico The song has only two notes The text is translatable rather than being vocables Close Listening CD 1 4 Zuni lullaby p 40 The aesthetic of this music is centered on repetition with slight variation Iroquois River Dance Also called a Stomp Dance or Warrior Stomp Dance The Stomp Dance is a favorite recreational dance among Woodland Indians who live in eastern North America It usually takes place in a longhouse Dancers form a line behind a leader and imitate his actions The onlookers join the dance gradually as it unfolds In call and response form The dancers sing responses to the leader s calls The singing style is relaxed compared to the Sioux style In the Iroquois style regular pulsation happens only at the ends of phrases whereas in Plains style pulses are articulated throughout Navajo Yeibichai About 290 000 individuals In cities and on a 25 000 square mile reservation in New Mexico Arizona and Utah Agricultural activity weaving silversmithing and natural resources such as coal uranium oil natural gas and lumber Also funding from the Department of the Interior Refers to ancestor deities who come to dance at a major ceremonial called Nightway Masked dancers impersonate them bringing supernatural power and blessings to help cure the sick Example CD 1 6 Uses vocables as text Close Listening CD 1 6 p 47 Three musical modules A B and C form is roughly A B C A B C A Ceremony features all night singing and dancing with singers organized in teams The teams make costumes and masks and perform a dance of the gods while singing Prizes are given to the teams judged best by the family giving the ceremony Ceremony lasts for nine nights and includes purification by sweating and vomiting prayer offerings and sand painting as well as singing and dancing Organized and directed by a ceremonial practitioner who memorizes every detail Song and Dance event Emerged in the 90s Essentially a dance competition with all sorts of songs including Nd War Dance songs from the Enemyway ceremony Shizhan a Circle Dance song CD 1 8 Triple meter Humorous text relating to drunkenness and amorous doings Enemyway Ceremony A curing ritual like Nightway To cure illness caused by the ghosts of non Navajo Performed for those who return after being away for a long time thus having been exposed to such ghosts Features two groups of participants home camp and stick receiver s camp Latter represent the enemy and have a stick decorated with symbols of the warrior deity Stick brought from home camp along with gifts of yarn First night features men and women dancing together women choose their partners Texts of songs from this dance are in the book The two camp format resumes and there are further singing exchanges that also involve small gifts The competition symbolizes war but also reconciliation since the camps reciprocate each others gifts There is also a mock battle and a ceremony in which the person being cured is dressed for battle and shoots at an effigy of the enemy Sacred Chants from the various way ceremonies Chants may be brief or extended depending on the needs of the person to be cured May be a few hours or as long as nine nights This is based on belief in a condition of harmony between the person and the other elements of nature which directly influence human life As a result they prayers invoke at their conclusion Conditions of harmony have been restored No one person knows the entire corpus but there are at any one time several hundred active practitioners Most singers feel that these songs are too sacred to be made public But there is an example on the disc CD 1 9 A translation of the text is on p 61 This is from a ceremony called Shootingway in which a hero Holy Young Man goes in search of supernatural power It restores harmony between people and snakes water or lightning During the Holy Young Man s journey he married four snake wives and was thus given their power Native American Church Roots in ancient Mexico in the southwest several cultures used the peyote cactus as part of religious rituals for the hallucinations that consuming it caused Developed in the 19th century By the 1950s its membership was 20 000 Makes heavy use of peyote a hallucinogenic cactus A deity of the religion is Father Peyote Worship is conducted before a crescent shaped earthen altar with