This book and an accompanying compact disk offer a rare glimpse into Native American sacred traditions of song and dance. Arising from a unique exhibit and live performance at the Northwest Folklife Festival, Spirit of the First People is a collection of personal narratives, stories, and essays on the music of the First People in the region that now encompasses Washington State. From tribe to tribe and reservation to reservation across the state, a wide range of musical genres and individual styles have developed, including social dance songs, game songs, and hymns.
Skagit elder Vi Hilbert, a principal adviser to the tribal council and the one who gave the book its name, introduces the collection. Contributors include Bruce-Subiyay Miller (Skokomish), Cliff Sijohn (Spokane, Coeur d’Alene), Jeanette Timentwa (Okanogan) and Rebecca Chamberlain, Virginia Beavert-Martin (Yakima), Brycene Neaman (Yakama), Linda Goodman and Helma Swan (Makah), Loran Olsen, and Willie Smyth. Their narratives provide rich detail about tribal music and its significance, past and present. Roberta Haines (Wenatchee) establishes the historical and political background, noting how spiritual traditions were nurtured by dance and song under conditions of government suppression. Song traditions in the Indian Shaker Church are explored by Pamela Amoss and James Everett Cunningham. Appendixes by Laurel Sercombe, Judith Gray, and William Seaburg outline the work of past ethnographers and describe current efforts to preserve and disseminate the music.
This book and compact disk are the result of a multi-year collaboration among the members of Washington State’s tribes, Jack Straw Productions, Northwest Folklife, and the Washington State Arts Commission’s Folk Arts Program.
Originating at the Northwest Folklife Festival held in Seattle in 1992, this book uses oral histories, photographs, and a compact disc of musical recordings to bring to life the traditional music of many tribal groups in Washington State. The ten articles, collaborations between academics and tribal elders (representing tribes such as the Spokane, Skokomish, Yakima, Makah, and more), document many aspects of music's role in prayer, honoring, healing, and celebration. A generous number of color plates and historical photographs illustrate associated musical instruments and dance regalia, and a bibliography, index, and discography of recorded ethnographic music in the state contribute to the book's reference value. An important contribution to the field of Native American music that belongs in larger public and all academic libraries.ANancy Turner, New Mexico State Univ. Lib., Las Cruces
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
