Through Native American music, one can understand their history and culture pre-colonization. Music served important spiritual and practical roles, and gender roles were reflected. During assimilation in the 1800s-1900s, some Natives blended styles while others resisted. Today, music expresses identity and past pain while raising awareness of issues. Artists like A Tribe Called Red preserve culture through modern genres. Overall, Native music sheds light on their distinct worldviews and ongoing contributions to American culture.

1. Understanding History
Through Native American
Music
Justin Crocker

2. Narrative of History
This presentation addresses the narrative of American history in which
the indigenous peoples are continually oppressed.
Before the arrival of Europeans, natives had rich cultural values and
traditions. Despite Europeans’ numerous attempts to assimilate,
remove, and erase Indians, their culture lives on today and serves as an
integral part of many people’s identities.

3. Pre-Columbian Music
Roles of music:
• Ceremony/Celebration
• To ask for healing
• To gather strength for war
• To ask for rain
• To ask for a successful hunt
• To invoke spirits
• To communicate with ancestors
• To give thanks to the land for providing
Example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9wSEXyoRbw

4. How this reflects Indian worldview and values
An important principle which this music and its functions reflect is the
view that power is external and resides in nature. Music is one way of
tapping into that power.
Gender Roles: Men and women typically have separate songs and
perform different dances. Men dance around in a circle while women
usually dance in place.
One could interpret this as relating to the tradition that we learned
about in class in which women are in charge of the internal community
(the center) while men are in charge of the external (the circle).

5. 1800s-1900s
Reflects a period of Indian assimilation.
• Many Natives at this time still practiced traditional song and dance.
• However, as the pressure to assimilate increased, some converted to European styles.
• In 1845, Narragansett Indian Thomas Commuck published Indian Melodies, which was
the first collection of hymnals composed by an Indian.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ss1PyWqJlMY&t=49s
• Others blended traditional music with European elements and styles such as harmony
and European instrumentation. Many Europeans were angered by this because they saw
it as a defiling of their music (Browner 56). As a result, some natives used this music as a
form of defiance against assimilation.
• The music made during this time is a scope into the assimilation vs. resistance dynamic
that was very prevalent for Indians at this point in American history.

6. 1800s-1900s
• “Navajo singing is but a succession of grunts and anything but agreeable.” (Matthews, 1896)
• “I have already spoke of Indian dancing and Music. It is perhaps all we could expect from untutored
savages, but there is nothing about it which has ever struck me as either interesting or amusing”
(Schoolcraft, 1821)
These comments outline the ethnocentric perspective of Europeans and give a glimpse into the ways the
white man validated himself as superior.
• “The white man talks about music; we do music” (Herndon 1810)–
This statement shows how Indians viewed their music in comparison to Europeans’, it also reveals
ethnocentric bias.
When combined, these comments shed light on the disinclination and lack of understanding with which
we perceive foreign cultures.

7. Modern Native Music
Roles:
• A way to express identity.
• A way to express the pain from the past that still lingers in the
present.
• A tool for protest
• A way to share stories and emotions
• To spread awareness of and enthusiasm for indigenous cultures.

8. Examples
• Nahko and Medicine for the People– My Country
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYqAfpeH2PI
A sardonic parody of “My Country tis of thee”. Intended to expose the
historical and contemporary wrongdoings of the U.S.

9. Important lyrics
• “Land where my mother cried, land where my father died, sweet land
of genocide, for thee I weep.”– An expression of inherited pain from
the cultural genocide of the past.
“broken treaties, broken promises”, ”paved over graves” – expresses
discontent and spreads awareness for these acts of misconduct by the
U.S
“I consider myself a patriot, but I don’t happen to be a patriot to a flag,
I’m a patriot to a land” – reflects the traditional value of land, not as a
commodity, but as a sacred home.

10. Examples continued
Songs for protest: Standing Rock- Trevor Hall
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DS1ljOBiKU
• In support of the protests against the Dakota access pipeline which
runs through tribal lands.
• Consent from the tribe was not obtained.
• Some members of the tribe consider the pipeline “black snake” a
threat to their clean water and ancient burial grounds.
• The need for protest reflects the continuing struggle for rights of
Native Americans.

11. Examples
• A Tribe Called Red– present traditional Indian music (and dance) in a way
that is more accessible and appealing to the masses, by blending it with
EDM and hip-hop. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdD2ASSyypE
Functions:
• Spread awareness and appreciation for Native culture.
• Address contemporary issues and gather support.
Reflection of Culture: music serves as a way for American Indians to maintain
a distinct identity.

12. Conclusions
1. One can use traditional music to understand Native American way of life before
the arrival of Columbus.
2. Native music from the 1800s reflects Europeans attempts to assimilate Indians as
well as Indians attempts to resist assimilation and intrusion.
Judgements made about another culture’s music can be used to identify
ethnocentrism which is at the root of why Indians were treated so unfairly as well
as why many cultures have been oppressed throughout history.
3. The pain of Native American history lingers into the present. The inheritance of
the past is evident in the art that modern Indians create.
Indians are not separate from Americans nor are they assimilated. They exist as a
distinguished part of the whole that is American culture.

13. Bibliography
• Herndon, Marcia. Native American Music. Norwood, PA: Norwood Editions, 1980. Print.
• Keeling, Richard, ed. Women in North American Indian Music. The Society for Ethnomusicology, Inc,
1989. Print.
• Boyea, Andrea. Native American Music and Curriculum: Controversies and Cultural Issues . Indiana
University Press (1999): n. pag. Web. 4/7/19.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/40327141?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents
• “Native American Music.” Indians.org. N.p., 2015. Web. 4/7/19.
http://www.indians.org/articles/native-american-music.html
• Hudson, Charles M. . Conversations with the High Priest of Coosa. Chapel Hill: The University of North
Carolina Press, 2003. Print.
• Swift, Gabriel. “Indian Melodies by Thomas Commuck, a Narragansett Indian.” princeton.edu. N.p., 9
Dec. 2013. Web. 4/13/19. https://blogs.princeton.edu/westernamericana/2013/12/09/indian-
melodies-by-thomas-commuck-a-narragansett-indian-1845/
• Browner, Tara. Music of the First Nations. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2009. Print.