American Indian Music Traditional Instruments Prepared by Scott Prinzing for Billings Public Schools

The Native American Flute A variety of flutes and other wind instruments have been used all across North America for thousands of years. Flutes and whistles have been made from bone, reeds, stalks and wood. The contemporary Native American Flute can be traced back about 200 years (the Beltrami flute, collected in present-day Minnesota in 1823). It has grown in popularity through the past 30-50 years. The Native American Flute is often carved out of cedar or other wood. These open-hole flutes come in five-, six- or seven-hole varieties. Traditionally used for courtship or prayer; contemporary use includes collaboration with modern instrumentation and genres.

Anatomy of a Native American Flute www.Flutopedia.com

Well-known Native American Flute Performers Joseph FireCrow (Northern Cheyenne) FireCrow Kevin Locke (Lakota/Anishinabe) Locke R. Carlos Nakai (Navajo/Ute) Nakai FireCrow Locke Nakai

Drum and Hand Drum Drums are universal throughout Indigenous North America Materials can be wood, stretched animal hide or ceramic. Many tribes traditionally restrict the playing of the drum to males, but some have relaxed those restrictions to ceremonial usage. Many drummers begin sitting at the drum as youth, slowly learning songs by listening and participating. A large bass drum is played in powwow style drumming; drummers sit in a circle keeping a beat in unison. Hand drums are more often used in smaller spaces and for ceremonies; they are also more commonly used by females.

Well-known Powwow Drum Groups Blackfoot Confederacy (including members of the Blackfeet of Montana) - Young Grey Horse (Blackfeet)

Round Dance Flash Mob - Rimrock Mall, Billings, MT

Hand Drum Women’s a cappella group, Ulali (Apache, Mayan, Taino, Tuscarora, Yaqui)

Rattles / Shakers In addition to drums, various rattles and shakers have and are still being used throughout Indian Country. Shakers are used in Native American Church ceremonies. Natural materials available in each region have been used: rawhide, gourds, turtle shells, sea shells, etc. Deer hooves were often replaced by European trade bells when available; cones made from the lids of tobacco tins create the “jingles” of jingle dresses.

Native American Church songs w/ rattle Whitehawk and Crowe - “Wi`kiwa`m Ahsin (Tipi Rock)”

Fiddle The Métis are known for their fiddle music. Their origins begin in the combining of culture in blended families of primarily Scottish and Irish immigrants and Indigenous First Nations people in territories that became Canadian provinces and northern plains states in the United States. The Europeans introduced elements of their culture including fiddle music. The Fox Family are from the Fort Belknap Reservation in Montana. Jamie Fox is a noted Metis style fiddler.

Fiddle “Duck Dance”

Sources www.Flutopedia.com (2016) Prinzing, Scott (2015). American Indian Music: Even More Than Drums and Flutes. Montana Office of Public Instruction. Wright-McLeod, Brian. (2005). The Encyclopedia of Native Music: More Than a Century of Recordings from Wax Cylinder to the Internet. University of Arizona Press.