What is Native American Music?
Native American music encompasses the musical traditions of the indigenous peoples of the Western Hemisphere, with the Americas containing hundreds of native communities, each with its own distinctive history, language, and musical culture. Singing and percussion are the most important aspects of traditional Native American music. Unlike Western musical traditions, Native American music is deeply intertwined with spiritual beliefs and community life, serving specific purposes such as religious ceremonies, hunting, and healing. Native Americans transmit music primarily through oral tradition. To the Native Americans, all music has a strong supernatural element.
Origins & Lineage
Native Americans trace the ultimate origin of their traditional music to the time of creation, when specific songs or musical repertories were given to the first people by the Creator and by spirit beings in the mythic past. Sacred narratives describe the origins of specific musical instruments, songs, dances, and ceremonies. Archaeological evidence shows that musical instruments in North America date to at least the Archaic period (ca. 8000-1000 BCE), with musical instruments and pictographs depicting music and dance dated as far back as the 7th century.
The study of American Indian musics began in the late 1800s with the emergence of a scholarly discipline called comparative musicology. The first ethnomusicological study was a book on Native American music published in 1882 by Theodore Baker. In the early 20th century, research was led by comparative musicologists like Frances Densmore, who was the most prolific of the era, publishing more than one hundred works on Native American music and recording over a thousand songs performed by Native Americans in fifty plus years, beginning in 1907.
Soon after contact, Europeans began teaching American Indians to read, perform, and compose European music. The Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés landed on the shores of Mexico in 1519; within a decade Mexican Indians were learning European music at mission schools. New musical trends emerged in the 1800s as indigenous communities began to develop their own hymn repertories, fiddle traditions, and marching bands. American Indians began publishing their own hymnals for use in Christian worship during the first half of the 19th century.
How It’s Practiced
Native American music integrates multiple elements simultaneously. Native American performances integrate music, dance, spirituality, and social communion in multilayered events. Preparations for performances include musical composition, rehearsal, instrument making or repair, and the assembling of dance regalia. Although the organization of Native American performances may seem informal to outside observers, in actuality each event requires extensive planning, and preparations may extend over months or even years.
Numerous oral traditions refer to drumbeats as the earth’s heartbeat, or the spirit of life. Drumbeats drive all Native American music, so it’s considered essential that everyone listening hears the drum’s sound. Those who play the drums aren’t called drummers, but rather singers. The traditional Native American flute was constructed using measurements based on the body. Historic Native American flutes are generally tuned to a variation of the minor pentatonic scale, which gives the instrument its distinctive plaintive sound.
Many Native American songs employ vocables, syllables that do not have referential meaning. These may be used to frame words or may be inserted among them; when used in collective dance songs, they create a sense of spirituality and social cohesion. A common scheme is a steady fall in pitch during the song, though this is far from universal.
Specific ceremonies include pan-Indian music traditions including powwows and peyote songs. Apache-derived peyote songs, prayers in the Native American Church, use a descending melody and monophony. Rattles and water drums are used, in a swift tempo. The Ghost Dance involved collective singing and dancing without instrumental accompaniment; the songs followed the general musical style associated with the area, using paired-phrase structure, moderate tempos, narrow melodic ranges, and blended unison. In 1890 the U.S. government banned the Ghost Dance.
Native American Music Today
Contemporary seekers encounter Native American music through multiple channels. Powwows are a relatively new ceremony among Native Americans, springing up around the mid-19th century when tribes were being relocated by the U.S. government and began interacting with one another and initiating cultural exchanges. Since 1951, Canyon Records Productions has specialized in the production and distribution of traditional and contemporary Native American music and is one of the oldest independent record labels in the music industry.
In the 21st century it is common for Native Americans to supplement oral tradition with audio and video recordings for teaching, learning, and preserving traditional repertories. In addition to the traditional music of the Native American groups, there now exist pan-Indianism and intertribal genres as well as distinct Native American subgenres of popular music including rock, blues, hip hop, classical, film music, and reggae, as well as unique popular styles like chicken scratch and New Mexico music. In 2001, the first Grammy for Native American music was awarded. In 1998, the Native American Music Awards (NAMA) was founded and annually rewards the achievement of Native American artists.
Prominent contemporary artists include Thomas Commuck (Narragansett, 1804-1855), whose 1845 collection Indian Melodies is considered the first published musical work by an Indigenous person; Louis W. Ballard (Quapaw/Cherokee, 1931-2007), often called the “father of Native American classical music;” Raven Chacon (Navajo, b. 1977), who is the first Native American to win the Pulitzer Prize for music; and Carlos Nakai, who made the Plains courting flute popular through contemporary performances.
Common Misconceptions
First, Native American music is not monolithic. The music of the Plains is the most familiar Native American music to non-Indian peoples due to its use in television and motion pictures. The high, tense vocal style, the descending melodic pattern, the vocables, and the rhythmic drumming of the Plains are immediately identifiable as “Indian music” throughout the world. Because of its familiarity, it is often erroneously used in entertainment venues to represent the musical practices of all Indians, regardless of tribal or cultural identity.
Second, not all Native American music is ancient and unchanging. Native American musicians define authenticity through construction methods, sound quality, and use rather than by outward appearance. These performance styles and contexts provide opportunities to reaffirm core cultural values, to celebrate identity, and to maintain connections to the past.
Third, cultural appropriation is a serious concern. Following Nisg̱a’a protocol, certain lament songs must only be sung by those with the appropriate hereditary rights to do so; to sing these songs in other contexts is to break Nisg̱a’a law as well as release their spirit, which can have negative impacts on the lives of singers and listeners. For over seventy years (1880-1951), Section 3 of the Canadian Government’s Indian Act considered Sun Dances and singing and dancing in potlatch and winter dances a criminal offence. Many ceremonial songs and practices are not intended for public performance or commercial use.
Finally, It is impossible to play American Indian music on an instrument that is limited to the twelve-tone chromatic scale that has played an essential role in European music. It is also impossible to use standard musical notation to record tunes accurately.
How to Begin
For those interested in respectfully learning about Native American music, begin with recordings in the Library of Congress collections, particularly recordings made by Frances Densmore, which are now held in the Library of Congress for researchers and tribal delegations. Canyon Records of Phoenix, Arizona, is one of the oldest independent record labels in the music industry and one of the oldest cultural institutions in the state of Arizona.
Attend public powwows where non-Native observers are welcome—these intertribal gatherings exist specifically to share culture across communities. Study ethnomusicological works by scholars like Victoria Lindsay Levine and Tara Browner, who have documented Native musical practices with community collaboration. If you wish to learn instruments or songs, seek instruction from Native teachers who are authorized to share that knowledge. Remember that Native American song texts include both public pieces and secret songs, said to be “ancient and unchanging,” which are used for only sacred and ceremonial purposes.
Avoid purchasing “Native American-style” products or attending events that use Indigenous imagery without Indigenous leadership or consent. Support Native artists directly through legitimate Native-owned labels and cultural centers.