Altered Sound

Hello, and welcome to the third episode of “altered sound”. I’m your host Lu-Ke-Tan, and you’re listening to PRA, portland’s finest pirate music station, streaming live on praradio.com. Podcasts provided courtesy of tablesturned.com, and available at altered sound’s own website, alteredsound.com. Today is nov. 23rd 2006, also known as the fourth Thursday in November, or Thanksgiving here in the United States. A day to give thanks to nature and all her bounty. Back in 1621, when the pilgrims at plymouth celebrated their first harvest, a harvest festival was common to both the Wampanoag already there and the new arrivals. In those early days, before the genocides, the english and Wampanoag celebrated for three days the joyful abundence of nature’s bounty. These days…well things are different these days. The only place you’re likely to see a native american and an immigrant american together on thanksgiving is in the mission line or in a parking lot, waiting for some gringo to come by and pick them up hoping for a days work at less than a days wages. But we’re not interested in today, not interested in the National Day of Thanksgiving, today’s show is about the song and dance that helped conclude the third day of the Thanksgiving festival of the Omaha tribe, recorded on cylinders in 1895.

A lot was going on in the year 1895, or rather the year 1273 on the Persian Calendar. In Holyoke Massachusets, william g. morgan invented the game called Mintonette, which gained it’s current moniker, “volleyball”, a year later. Oscar Wilde’s last play, “the importance of being earnest” debuted in london. John Wesley Hardin is shot to death in a saloon in El Paso, Texas. alfred noble, swedish philantropist and the creator of dynamite, benefactered his ‘noble prize’. And just north of present day omaha, nebraska Alice Fletcher and Francis LaFlesche made some of the very first entries in the field of ethnomusicology by recording and transcribing songs of the omaha tribe.

—–cue indian drum loop.

“On the third day of the Thanksgiving festival the Hae-de-wache or tribal dance took place …. The dance was highly dramatic especially that part wherein the past experiences of the warriors was depicted. The scene was full of action and color, the whole tribe took part in it; every one was in gala dress, there was hardly an Omaha too old or too young not to have upon him some token of this festivity. Fragments of ancient tribal rites are discernible in this dance, as well as bits of tribal history; the music . . . [is] fitted to the movements of the dancing men and women as they pass in a vast circle around a pole, the male singers and drummers sitting at its base(1893, p. 20).”

—–exit indian drum loop

Alice Fletcher, the main recorder of these songs, after living amongst the indians for many years, one day awoke to realize she was a ’stranger in her native land’. Once she was able to feel comfortable again, to recognize the history of every plant, animal, and stone around her, she found herself closer to nature than she had ever been before. Thus was her experience with Indian music. As she tells it:

—– cue in prayer sung as two bearers hold up sacred pipes.

“While studying Indian life and thought through the sharing, as far as possible, of native conditions, I discovered Indian music. In the loneliness that naturally belonged to my circumstances this discovery was like finding a flower hidden in a tangle hard to penetrate. I had heard Indians “singing,” but the noise of the drum, the singers’ stress of voice, so overlaid the little song that its very existence was not even suspected… great was my surpise to hear music… my ears were opened and never again, no matter how confusing the conditions, did I fail to catch the hidden melody. As my appreciation of the value of Indian music grew, I determined to gather and to preserve these wild flowers of song. I wanted them not merely as a contribution to the study of music but that they might help to vibrate chords that belong to a common humanity.”

—– fade out prayer ….

Todays episode contains five samples, gotten from the online repository of omaha indian music at the united states library of congress.
Get out the headphones, listen, and I hope that you enjoy. This is Lu-ke-Tan, and you’re listening to altered sound on praradio.com

Thanks for listening. Obviously I wasn’t around in 1895, and information for this podcast was found online in the wikipedia and at the library of congress website. I also made use of the following books from the moltnomah county library:
Omaha Tribal Myths And Trickster Tales, Roger Welsch
Blessing for a long time, the sacred pole of the omaha tribe, robin ridington & dennis hastings
A Stranger in her native land: Alice Fletcher and the American Indians by Joan Mark
and the following books by Alice Fletcher:
Indian Story and song from north america
Indian games and dances with native songs
You’re listening to PRA, the portland radio authority. The is Lu-ke-tan for altered sound. Find this full text and the podcast at alteredsound.com. Happy X-giving.

 Omaha Indian Music [52:29m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download