Teton Sioux Music and Culture

by Densmore, Frances

• ISBN13: 9780803266315
• ISBN10: 0803266316
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-04-01
• Publisher: Univ of Nebraska Pr

Summary

"Frances Densmore's modestly titled Teton Sioux Music and Culture is one of the many volumes that resulted from her prolific life-long project to record and transcribe the traditional music of American Indian peoples. The book explores the role of music in all aspects of Sioux life, and is a classic of the descriptive genre produced by members of the Smithsonian's Bureau of American Ethnology. Music serves as the vehicle for organizing this detailed account of traditional religion, warfare, and social life, enriched by first-person narrations by the Lakota men and women who worked with Densmore from 1911 to 1914 to preserve their songs by means of a wax cylinder recorder, the modern technology of that period. The evident quality of the narratives (translations from Lakota) as well as the complete transcription and translation of all the Lakota lyrics to the songs, resulted from Densmore's close collaboraton with Robert P. Higheagle, who shared her dedication to the project and was an exceptionally capable translator and cultural mediator. The material recorded here on such topics as dreams and visions, healing, the Sun Dance, and buffalo hunting -- all with appropriate musical transcriptions and song lyrics -- makes Teton Sioux Music and Culture one of the most significant ethnographic works ever published on the Sioux, as well as an important landmark in the study of ethnomusicology." -- Raymond J. DeMallie, author of The Sixth Grandfather: Black Elk's Teachings Given to John G. Neihardt (1984), also available in a Bison Books edition. Book jacket.

Table of Contents

List of songs	xiii
Arranged in order of serial numbers	xiii
Arranged in order of catalogue numbers	xix
Names of Singers	xxvi
Phonetic key	xxviii
Introduction	1	(1)
The Teton Sioux	1	(4)
Method of work and of analysis	5	(7)
Tabulated analysis of 240 Sioux Song	12	(10)
Melodic analysis	12	(10)
Comparison between old and comparatively modern Sioux song	22	(4)
Tabulated analysis of 600 Indian songs (chippewa and Sioux)	26	(14)
Melodic analysis	26	(9)
Rhythmic analysis	35	(5)
Analysis of Sioux and Chippewa songs	40	(23)
Graphic representations or ``plots''	51	(3)
Comparison between analysis of Chippewa and Sioux songs	54	(2)
Teat of pitch discrimination among Chippewa and Sioux	56	(2)
Music as a cultivated art among Chippewa and Sioux	58	(5)
Ceremonies	63	(89)
The White Buffalo Calf pipe (Ptehincala Canon'pa)	63	(5)
The Alo'wanpi ceremony	68	(9)
The ceremony of Spirit-keeping (Waki'cagapi)	77	(7)
The Sun dance	84	(68)
The Sun dance of the Teton Sioux	87	(11)
Description of a Teton Sioux Sun dance	98	(54)
Old song	152	(5)
Ceremonial songs	152	(5)
Dreams and their obligation	157	(127)
Heyo'ka Ka'ga (Fool Impersonation)	157	(15)
Dreams concerning animals	172	(32)
Dreams concerning the buffalo	173	(3)
Dreams concerning the elk	176	(3)
Dreams concerning the wolf	179	(5)
Dream of the crow and owl	184	(11)
Song concerning the bear	195	(9)
Plots of song (dreams about animals)	204	(1)
The sacred stones (tug kan')	204	(40)
Plots of songs (the sacred stones)	244	(1)
Treatment of the sick	244	(40)
Narrative of a vigil and prayer for the sick	274	(9)
Plots of songs used in treatment of the sick	283	(1)
Societies (oko lakiciye)	284	(144)
Dream societies	285	(26)
Buffalo society	285	(8)
Elk society	293	(5)
Horse society	298	(13)
Military societies	311	(64)
Fox society	314	(4)
Kangi'yuha (Crow-owners)	318	(2)
Cante'tinza (Strong heart)	320	(5)
Badger society	325	(1)
Miwa'tani	326	(3)
White horse Riders (Sunk'ska-akan'yanka)	329	(3)
War songs (Ozu'ye olo'wan)	332	(43)
Personal narrative by Red Fox	375	(4)
Personal narrative by Eagle Shield	379	(8)
Song accompanied by native drawings	387	(25)
Old Buffalo's war narrative	412	(6)
Plots of song of war	418	(1)
Analysis of war songs	419	(9)
Comparatively modern songs	428	(8)
War songs	428	(8)
The Buffalo hunt (Wana'sapi)	436	(12)
Council and chief songs	448	(20)
Council songs	448	(4)
Chief songs	452	(16)
Plots of chief songs	461	(7)
Songs connected with dance and games	468	(24)
Dances	468	(17)
The grass dance	468	(9)
Shuffling-feet dance	477	(2)
Night dance	479	(2)
Begging dance	481	(2)
Plots of grass-dance songs	483	(2)
Games	485	(7)
The moccasin game (Han'pa ape'ecunpi)	485	(4)
The game of hiding a stick	489	(3)
Miscellaneous songs	492	(36)
Children's songs	492	(2)
Songs connected with legend	494	(3)
Legend of the maiden sleep	494	(2)
Legend of Ghost Hill	496	(1)
Songs in honor of an individual	497	(12)
Love songs (wio'weste olo'wan)	509	(3)
Sioux songs recorded at Sisseton, S. Dak	512	(16)
Plots of songs of sadness	519	(9)
Rhythmic units	528	(23)
Bibliography	551	(4)
Index	555