Sioux Culture Before European Contact
Traditional Sioux of the last cent
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Traditional Sioux of the last century û or the centuries before û would have found the entire idea of putting on their best clothes and going to a concert hall to listen û as relatively passive observers û to a musical performance extremely odd. For them, as for other native peoples of the Americas (and arguably other native peoples throughout the world before the onset of industrialization) music was something that was integrated into the fabric of ritual and everyday life. It was not something apart. Music and dancing were nearly always integrated into either ceremonial or celebrative activities of personal and communal life (Hassrick, 1964, p. 140). Such a degree of integration is hard for citizens of the almost-21st century to imagine. Even for a professional musician, for example, music is something that stands apart from the rest of his or her daily activities and is distinctly recognizable as an activity that can be isolated from other activities.Like so many of the native peoples of this continent, the Sioux lost much of what marked their sense of cultural identity with the coming of the Europeans to what is now the United States, and because music was integral to so many other cultural activities, they lost much of it as well. However, the Sioux did not go quietly into the good night of colonization, and they used their music and dancing (in particular in the form of the Sun Dance and the Ghost Dance) to help them successfully resist cultural genoci
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used more elaborate drums, such as that used in the Grass Dance. The Grass Dance Drum was about the size of a bass drum and was adorned with musical rasps of bone and tinplate resonators (which most likely replaced aboriginal ones of gourd). It is unclear whether the Ogala Sioux used such a drum, which the Northern Sioux probably borrowed from one of the Indian groups that had always lived on the Plains and so would not have been seen as appropriate by some Sioux to use within ritual or traditional contexts (Howard, 1984, p. 12).
Drumsticks, when they were used, were made by wrapping the end of a stick with buckskin (Grant, 1990, p. 115). The Sioux also used a an ôLö-shaped stick sometimes, especially with water drums. This stick was probably not wrapped to produce a softer head and therefore may have produced a sound less like that of a human hand striking a drum (Howard, 1984, p. 133).
Notched Sticks and Bells
Notched sticks are used in traditional Indian music û including but not limited to the music of the Siouan tribes û nearly as often as are drums and are used for the same basic purpose of establishing rhythm as well as simply for making noise û for example, in an attempt to attract the attention of certain gods or
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Approximate Word count = 10862
Approximate Pages = 43 (250 words per page)
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