There are a few aspects of Native American culture that I learned throughout elementary and middle school. I got a few of the more graphic descriptions in APUSH, but the common theme all through my experience with learning about native culture in school is that it's mainly about the European findings. I had never seen the dances or really heard any of their songs. So when I figured out there were a lot of things I had no idea about I decided to take a deeper look into the music culture of native Americans.
Native American Indigenous Flute (šiyótȟaŋka)
Now we briefly discussed that there was a flute used in native music, but never really went further than that. After assuming there were just drums and shakers this really caught my interest. A simple Google search pulled up a variety of articles from Wikipedia and people trying to sell flutes, which wasn't what I was looking for. So when I found a cultural magazine talking about the flute I decided it was worth a read. This is where I discovered Kevin Locke (Hunkpapa Lakota). For one he has some beautiful songs on the Native Indigenous Flute, but beyond that during his travels he goes beyond demonstrating performances. His interview in Folklife magazine is what lead me to my main point: The Native American Indigenous Flute is NOT the same as "The Native American Flute." Now to be perfectly honest I had to read that a few times to even see a difference, but now I do believe it is a significant distinction. While modern natives play "The Native American Flute" it is actually not the flute from their culture. For starters the popularized "Native American Flute" was invented by Michael Graham Allen, who is white European American. Allen invented the flute as a way to spread flute music to a more diverse audience, but the flute has a completely different tuning and usage. In fact, Locke reported that he even after getting a "Native American Flute" he found it impossible to play the traditional songs he knew and loved. Now for the music part here are two clips of two different native men playing two different flutes. The first video is of Kevin Locke playing the Native American Indigenous Flute. The second video is R. Carlos Nakai with the "Native American Flute", who is responsible for popularizing the "Native American Flute" with his platinum album on the instrument.
Now I'm not sure about you, but I can hear a difference in the timbre of the flute. I think that's the term anyways, basically one sounds different than the other. When I searched up the flute I certainly was not expecting this, but it was way cooler than what I was expecting so I am not disappointed. So remember that flutes are different. I wonder what other instruments differ like this? Anyways ONWARD!
Wiílowaŋ
Now this is a word I had to copy and paste because how the heck do I get my keyboard to do that? I found this as a result of the previous search for flutes. When I saw the word I clicked on the link and boom it turns out its related to music. This was again not something I was looking for or expecting, but what I found was fairly interesting. While looking at the Lakota Language Consortium website, for more information I found a short, but detailed description of just what this particular custom means. Basically, wiílowaŋ was commonplace prior to the reservation system because of the separation of genders. Once young men and women had mastered their traditional skills they were allowed to marry, which is where wiílowaŋ comes into play. Wiílowaŋ exists in both vocal and instrumental forms and signifies the bridging of the gender gap. Basically, the wiílowaŋ is a courtship song. Kevin Locke (remember him from the last thing?) referred to them as songs meant for serenading women. Additionally, wiílowaŋ is the basis for all native flute music. They were once so common place that there were different songs for lots of different emotions from coveting to embarrassment. The songs were created by the Elk Dreamer society, who believe that if an elk appears in their dreams they are destined to give others the gift of music and dance. The link that was on the website is no longer available for whatever reason, but lyrics in both the Lakota language and English can be found in the linked article. This video is the best I could find because there really isn't much about it, but I think the man captures the purpose of the song: to woo a woman.
So there were two things about flutes alone! Who knew flutes could be so cool? Anyways, now that we've covered an instrument and a type of music, I think the final aspect of native culture should definitely step away from flutes. Been there done that now.
Sunrise Ceremony
Now I just saw this video on Youtube and thought it looked cool. Fair warning its a little long, but I'll try to cover everything here so you don't have to watch it. To start off, the Sunrise Ceremony is the Apache Rite of passage for women that occurs once a girl enters puberty. Now when I first started watching the video and reading the article from the Arizona Natural History Museum, I thought this was a little sexist. Basically the ceremony consists of a four day long metaphorical journey from baby, to child, to teenager, to woman. In those four days the girl must prove that she has the skills that a woman should in order to serve her family. I was most certainly wrong though as a man explains in the video that the women are viewed as more spiritually important so they must be protected and valued above men. Now how does music come into play? Well during the ceremony there are blessings, food, and LOTS of music. A specific example of this is when the girl is given a curved staff. A blanket is laid in front of the girl and music is played, her job is to keep beat with the staff and dance in place. According to the natural history museum there are an average of 130 dances with an average of 700 to 1,200 beats per dance throughout the entire ceremony. If you have the time or are just feeling frisky the video is really cool to watch, but if you don't want to I think I gave you the gist of it. So here is the video about a young girls Sunrise Ceremony.
If you watch the video it was pretty cool right? Especially the big tree structures those were sick! Just trying to add a littler personality so it's at least interesting to read. Music is a form of entertainment so a dry blog about it seems disrespectful.
Now then...
I actually learned a lot with this blog. Flutes, romance songs, and celebrations of womanhood alike really capture the values and range of the Native American cultures. There is a lot more to a culture than just drums and shakers! And for easy access here's a quick list of all the links again in case you missed any:
I think the sunrise ceremony is interesting. I find it a little sexist too because why were only the girls expected to serve for their family? Overall I think the way the ceremony set up is pretty cool. I ended up watching more of the video than I expected to.
I personally see some of the sunrise ceremony in some Hispanic families i hang out with. This may not be so to say up to date with times of today but they make their women set up things around the house and get food and whatnot but the men work hard. I think the flute skills they need in what you were writing to serenate a girl is pretty impressive learning instruments is hard for me but if i had to do it to marry someone like they have to i would learn.
The sunrise ceremony seems pretty cool and pretty awesome on how it explains how the men feel about the women. A ceremony that makes people appreciate women more is what we need in this world, and to see if women have the skills to be a real woman is pretty unique.
I also focused on the Native American Flute as I found it to be a beautiful instrument and I further focused on R. Carlos Nakai and his amazing music which I could listen to for hours at a time.
Oh wow! There's a lot that I learned from this blog post. The Wiílowaŋ ceremony was something I had never heard of and it was super interesting to learn about. I found the video you shared about the sunrise ceremony was really interesting, I learned a lot about the ceremony and the customs of the Apache and their history.
For starters Before jumping into my interview and the collection of stories and commentary I got from it, I'd like to introduce my mom. She grew up in a small town in Georgia and her favorite time period is the 1980s (this will be evident). She was not happy to be recorded, but I've heard all these stories before because she loves talking about her concert experiences, mainly Rick Springfield. I'll also include a little bit of commentary from my dad, who came in at the end of the interview. He was very jealous he wasn't the one interviewed, but he is a self proclaimed "audiophile." This basically translates to asking him about music= a whole novel. So to backup his comments and additions a little about him is, he spent most of this time growing up in Seattle and went to college at Georgia Tech. Now that that's out of the way let's get into the meat of the blog. The Interview Me: So tell me about music and your childhood. Mom: *laughing* what ...
To begin Another place another blog! Here we go again on an explorative journey to learn more about other cultures. Now this was a tough one for me. And you're probably thinking "literally how you have a whole continent to work with" and you're right. The only thing is I don't know where to start. So of course in my struggle to think after a long, stressful week I just started googling and found some pretty cool stuff that I think you'll enjoy. Mbira Now I had zero clue this was a thing and the reason I picked it was because I saw the word "xylophone" in the description on a website called Culture Trip while I was looking for some kind of instrument to look into. My reason being I had no clue there were xylophone like instruments. I mean was I just supposed to assume that lots of people strapped metal to wood and decided to hit it? How to heck did we get to the xylophone? But I digress, let's get into just what the mbira is and how it ...
I think the sunrise ceremony is interesting. I find it a little sexist too because why were only the girls expected to serve for their family? Overall I think the way the ceremony set up is pretty cool. I ended up watching more of the video than I expected to.
ReplyDeleteI personally see some of the sunrise ceremony in some Hispanic families i hang out with. This may not be so to say up to date with times of today but they make their women set up things around the house and get food and whatnot but the men work hard. I think the flute skills they need in what you were writing to serenate a girl is pretty impressive learning instruments is hard for me but if i had to do it to marry someone like they have to i would learn.
ReplyDeleteThe sunrise ceremony seems pretty cool and pretty awesome on how it explains how the men feel about the women. A ceremony that makes people appreciate women more is what we need in this world, and to see if women have the skills to be a real woman is pretty unique.
ReplyDeleteI also focused on the Native American Flute as I found it to be a beautiful instrument and I further focused on R. Carlos Nakai and his amazing music which I could listen to for hours at a time.
ReplyDeleteOh wow! There's a lot that I learned from this blog post. The Wiílowaŋ ceremony was something I had never heard of and it was super interesting to learn about. I found the video you shared about the sunrise ceremony was really interesting, I learned a lot about the ceremony and the customs of the Apache and their history.
ReplyDelete