Indian Story and Song, From North America

Part 1

Produced by David Newman, Linda Cantoni, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net. Music transcribed by Linda Cantoni, Espe (Nada Prodanovic), and the PG Finale Team.

INDIAN STORY AND SONG

FROM NORTH AMERICA

ALICE C. FLETCHER

Holder of the Thaw Fellowship Peabody Museum Harvard University

Boston Small Maynard & Company Publishers

Copyright, 1900, By Alice C. Fletcher

Entered at Stationers' Hall

MY INDIAN FRIENDS

FROM WHOM I HAVE GATHERED

STORY AND SONG

PREFACE.

At the Congress of Musicians held in connection with the Trans-Mississippi Exposition at Omaha in July, 1898, several essays upon the songs of the North American Indians were read, in illustration of which a number of Omaha Indians, for the first time, sang their native melodies to an audience largely composed of trained musicians.

This unique presentation not only demonstrated the scientific value of these aboriginal songs in the study of the development of music, but suggested their availability as themes, novel and characteristic, for the American composer. It was felt that this availability would be greater if the story, or the ceremony which gave rise to the song, could be known, so that, in developing the theme, all the movements might be consonant with the circumstances that had inspired the motive. In response to the expressed desire of many musicians, I have here given a number of songs in their matrix of story.

Material like that brought together in these pages has hitherto appeared only in scientific publications, where it has attracted the lively interest of specialists both in Europe and America. It is now offered in a more popular form, that the general public may share with the student the light shed by these untutored melodies upon the history of music; for these songs take us back to a stage of development antecedent to that in which culture music appeared among the ancients, and reveal to us something of the foundations upon which rests the art of music as we know it to-day.

Many of the stories and songs in this little book are now for the first time published. All have been gathered directly from the people, in their homes, or as I have listened to the earnest voice of the native priest explaining the ancient ceremonials of his fathers. The stories are close translations, losing only a certain picturesqueness and vigour in their foreign guise; but the melodies are exactly as sung by the Indians.

Indian myths embodying cosmic ideas have passages told in song, tribal legends have their milestones of song, folk-tales at dramatic points break into song; but into these rich fields I have not here entered. This collection reveals something of the wealth of musical and dramatic material that can be gleaned outside of myth, legend, and folk-lore among the natives of our country.

Aside from its scientific value, this music possesses a charm of spontaneity that cannot fail to please those who would come near to nature and enjoy the expression of emotion untrammelled by the intellectual control of schools. These songs are like the wild flowers that have not yet come under the transforming hand of the gardener.

ALICE C. FLETCHER.

PEABODY MUSEUM, HARVARD UNIVERSITY.

CONTENTS.

PAGE.

STORY AND SONG OF THE HE-DHU´-SHKA 3

STORY AND SONG OF ISH´-I-BUZ-ZHI 14

STORY AND SONG OF THE LEADER 21

THE OMAHA TRIBAL PRAYER 26

STORY AND SONG OF THE BIRD'S NEST 30

A TRYSTING LOVE-SONG 34

Part 2

STORY AND SONG OF THE DEATHLESS VOICE 39

STORY AND SONG OF ZON´-ZI-MON-DE 45

LOVE-SONG. Poetical Transcription by Miss E.D. Proctor 49

STORY AND SONG OF THE WREN 53

THE OMAHA FUNERAL SONG 57

STORY AND SONG OF THE MOTHER'S VOW 61

A LOVE-CALL 68

A GAME SONG FROM THE NORTH-WEST COAST 70

STORY AND SONG OF THE INDIAN COQUET 74

AN OLD MAN'S LOVE-SONG 77

STORY OF THE WE´-TON SONG. 81

A PAWNEE LOVE-SONG 86

STORY AND SONG OF A WARRIOR 88

THE MOCKING-BIRD'S SONG 94

A SONG OF THE GHOST DANCE 96

SACRED SONGS OF PEACE 101

COMFORTING THE CHILD 108

MUSIC IN INDIAN LIFE 114

THE RELATION OF STORY AND SONG 120

LIST OF SONGS.

PAGE.

THE INSIGNIA OF THUNDER (Omaha) 6

THE WARRIOR'S PRAYER (Omaha) 9

THE LAUGH (Ponka) 13

ISH´-I-BUZ-ZHI. Dance Song (Omaha) 18

THE LEADER'S SONG (Omaha) 24

TRIBAL PRAYER (Omaha) 29

THE BIRD'S NEST (Pawnee) 33

Part 3

TRYSTING LOVE-SONG (Omaha) 36

THE DEATHLESS VOICE (Dakota) 42

ZON´-ZI-MON-DE (Omaha) 46

LOVE-SONG. Poetical Transcription by Miss E.D. Proctor (Omaha) 50

THE WREN (Pawnee) 54

SONG TO THE SPIRIT (Omaha) 58

THE MOTHER'S VOW (Dakota) 66

A LOVE-CALL (Omaha) 69

GAME SONG (Vancouver's Island) 72

THE INDIAN COQUET (Omaha) 75

AN OLD MAN'S LOVE-SONG (Omaha) 78

WE´-TON SONG (Dakota) 84

LOVE-SONG (Pawnee) 87

A WARRIOR'S SONG. Mi´-ka-thi (Ponka) 92

MOCKING-BIRD'S SONG (Tigua) 95

SONG OF THE GHOST DANCE (Arapaho) 98

CHORAL. Sacred Song of Peace (Omaha) 105

THE GIFT OF PEACE (Otoe) 107

KAWAS, THY BABY IS CRYING (Pawnee) 109

THY FATHER IS COMING (Pawnee) 111

LOOK UP (Pawnee) 113

PRAYER FOR RAIN (Mexico) 123

KWAKIUTL SONG (British Columbia) 123

INDIAN STORY AND SONG

STORY AND SONG OF THE HE-DHU´-SHKA.

It had been a warm September day; and I was resting in my hammock, swung from a wide-spreading tree that stood near the tent of my Indian host. We had partaken of our evening meal beside an outdoor fire. The mother was busy clearing away the supper dishes, the men had gone off to look after the horses, the children had fallen asleep, and I lay watching the shadowy darkness come out of the east and slowly pursue the glowing trail of the retreating sun, thinking of the Indian's imagery of night ever haunting and following upon the track of day, seeking to gain the mastery. I was aroused from my musings by hearing the mother say, "It is chilly!" for the fire had died down, and the deep blue of twilight was all about us.

She dropped beside the embers, blew them into a feeble blaze, threw on fresh wood, that crackled and sent up a shower of sparks and soon bright yellow flames illumined the under side of the branches beneath which I was swinging.

The call of the fire summoned one tall form after another out of the dusky surroundings, and around the blazing logs robes were spread here and there, on which the men reclined. By and by the women came and dropped down near the fire, and added the treble of their voices to the deep tones of the men, as the chat of the day's occurrences went on.

Part 4

It was a peaceful, picturesque scene upon which I looked; and by very contrast my thoughts reverted to the preceding evening, when I had attended a meeting of the He-dhu´-shka, society composed of warriors. The gathering had been in a large tent; and, as the night was warm, the bottom of the tent cover had been lifted to let the breeze blow through. This had given an opportunity for the crowd outside to look within and watch the ceremony and the dramatic dance. To the right of the door, in two circles around the drum, sat the choir of men and women, all in their gala dress. Each member of the society, wrapped in his robe, with measured steps entered the tent, and silently took his seat on the ground against the wall. The ceremony had opened by the choir singing the ritual song which accompanied the act of charring the elder wood with which the face of the Leader was afterward to be painted. As memory brought back the scene in vivid colours,--the blazing fire in the centre of the wide circle of muffled warriors, the solemn aspect of the Leader awaiting the preparation of the elder wood, and his strange appearance after the painting of his face,--I pondered wonderingly as to what it all might signify. In my perplexity I spoke from my hammock to one of the elder men in the group before me:--

"Grandfather, I wish you would explain to me the meaning of what I saw yesterday at the He-dhu´-shka Society. Tell me why the Leader put black on his face."

My friend was accustomed to my questionings, and all eyes were turned toward him as he replied:

"The Leader put the black cloud over his face, because the black cloud is worn by Thunder when it comes near to man. The song sung while this is being done tells that the Leader is making ready and impatiently awaits the commands of the approaching god of war."...

This is the song which accompanied the preparation and the putting on of the insignia of the thunder god. The music is expressive of the tremulous movement of the leaves, of the flying of the birds, of the stir of all nature before the advancing storm, typifying the stirring of the heart of man when summoned to fight the enemies of his people.

Omaha. He-dhu´-shka.

Harmonized by PROF. J.C. FILLMORE.

Non-g'dhe dhe-te hi-dha-ki-un te dhon-hi-de, Non-g'dhe dhe-te hi-dha-ki-un te dhon-hi-de, Non-g'dhe dhe-te hi-dha-ki-un te dhon-hi-de, Non-g'dhe dhe-te hi-dha-hi-un te dhon-hi-de, Non-g'dhe dhe-te hi-dha-ke-un te dhon-hi-de.]

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