| Volume 1 : Native American Music |
| Chapter 12. A Historial Introduction to Blackfoot Indian Music |
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Beaver Medicine Song
Sung by James White Calk and recorded by George Bird Grinnell at Piegan Agency, Montana, October 17, 1897. (Smithsonian Folkways Recordings album #34001 track # 1) |
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Sun Dance Song Sung by Spumiapi (White-Headed Chief) and recorded by June Richardson Hanks at Gleichen, Alberta, ca. September 17, 1939. (Smithsonian Folkways Recordings album #34001 track # 1) |
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Lullaby Lullabies are known to most American Indian tribes and are still sung to small children. Typically, they have no words, and do not differ very much from other songs in their style. Sung by Calvin Boy and recorded by Bruno Nettl at Calvin's home in Browning, Montana, July 27, 1966. (Smithsonian Folkways Recordings album #34001 track # 1) |
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Night Love Song Love songs were associated with ceremonies using special secret medicinal formulas, different not in nature but in scope from the medicinal bundles, that were taken by lovers whose advances had been repulsed. They are part of a widespread North American Indian repertory whose style differs somewhat from that of typical songs of most tribe, being short and simple. More recently, songs with English words used at social dances and dealing humorously with relations between the sexes are referred to as love songs by the Blackfoot. Sung by Chief Bull and recorded by Joseph K. Dixon at Crow Agency, Montana, September 12, 1909. (Smithsonian Folkways Recordings album #34001 track # 1) |
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Fast War or Grass Dance Song Social dances such as this were evidently always important in Blackfoot life. In the nineteenth century and before, they seem to have been associated with religious events such as the Sun Dance. When these religious practices lost much of their significance, the social dances replaced them as the most important avenue of traditional Indian musical expression. Today almost all Blackfoot music performed consists of social dances and songs are sung for large audiences by singers who are truly musical specialists. Sung by Calvin Boy and recorded by Bruno Nettl at Calvin's home in Browning, Montana, July 27, 1966. (Smithsonian Folkways Recordings album #34001 track # 1) |
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Notes for these examples were written by Bruno Nettl and published as liner notes in the 1979 Smithsonian Folkways Recordings album titled An Historical Album of Blackfoot Indian Music. |
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