Big Drum Tradition Native Canada Conto2014

Mike  Conto   A Short Essay on Native Canadian Big Drum Tradition

Professor:Dr.  Mark  Laver   Wednesday, March 12, 2014

 

Native Canadian Big Drum (Powwow Singing) The Big Drum and dance music of Aboriginal North America – also known as Powwow Singing - is as diverse as any music culture found in the world today and is as multifaceted as the great land from which it comes. Elaine Keillor attributes this diversity to, "the need for music to accompany almost all activities, each community develop[ing] a wide range of musical expressions” (44). I already appreciated this cultural feature as I began to investigate the practice, and still was astonished by a vast history of lost and living traditions, commonly absent in history books. The Big Drum song and dance of Native Canadians living in Toronto, Ontario, will be the focus of this essay. In particular, we will examine the cultural meaning of Big Drum for those who participate in Big Drum settings. This will include a concise history of the style as well as its social and spiritual significance, performance aesthetic, and a sample transcription of a Big Drum song. Much of the first-hand information will come from interviews conducted with Steve Teekens in February of 2014, who is a Native Canadian performer and teacher in the drum and song tradition. From there we will explore how Native drumming has been exposed to the mechanics of commerce, and how this relationship has affected the tradition and the people who keep it alive. This will illuminate the nuances of the modern Powwow (a relatively young inter-tribal Native tradition) and how it has been changed by the competitive format. To the Native American, the drum is much more than just an instrument among many, simply to be employed for entertainment or leisure. The drum is, in fact, seen as

the symbolic center of all things earthly and spiritual, aptly called “the heartbeat of Mother Earth” (Teekens), and is intrinsically analogous as, “the heartbeat of the tribe” (Lucas 8). Traditionally, it is believed that when a child is in the womb of its mother, the first thing it hears is the beating of her heart. Thus, when children hear a drum at a Native ceremony, they are already familiar with the sound and naturally soothed (Cook). Used in both sacred and secular music, presence of the drum at most Native events is essential for bringing people together and pleasing the Spirits, as the drum, “makes the Creator’s favorite music” (Teekens), and so fosters the connection from man to the spirit world. There are a great many ways that the drum can be played within Native culture, as well as many different sizes used, but the basic construction of the drum is somewhat standardized. Typically, a drum consists of a properly tanned deerskin (or moose-skin) stretched over a circular wooden frame or hollowed-out log, and held tight with interlacing strings made of animal sinew. Using animal skin is important as it also signifies man’s connection to nature and the spirit of the animal from which it came from. Drums can have 1 or 2 heads; the Big Drum is a large 2-headed drum that is played horizontally while it sits flat on a small stand on the ground. The diameter of these drums is typically 26” to 32”, which produces a thunderous sound when played by a group in unison. There is a dual function for its large size, as it needs to be loud enough to be heard by everyone, especially dancers trying to keep time with it, and it needs to be able to accommodate multiple drummers who sit in a circle around it (Teekens), which is equally symbolic, as we will see later. The Big Drum is meant to be played by a group of men (or boys), with the underlying principal being that, “it brings people together as opposed to separating them”

(Teekens). Regardless of your heritage or experience, when attending a Big Drum class at the Toronto Native Canadian Centre, you will be invited to sit at the drum and play (and sing if you wish). The inclusory personality of the drum circle is not as common in other musical traditions, where one needs experience and practice to ‘sit in’ and join the band (ie. Jazz jam, classical ensemble, choir). This non-exclusive ideology of the Big Drum practice was forged in the times when the drum emerged in Native culture for the purpose of community and tribal healing. Most historians trace the roots of Native gatherings to the male warrior societies of the southern plains (Diamond 119). Similarly, Teekens’ account tells of the drum coming from a time when the Ojibway people in the West were fighting with the Dakota people over many generations. As such, the warrior’s had forgotten about their responsibilities to their families and loved ones. A young girl was then given the gift of the drum and told to go out to the warriors in the field and share the drum with them, which she did. The sound of that Big Drum (which was a new creation and bigger than those before), made the warriors remember their families because the sound reminded them of the sound of their own mother’s heartbeats and of their hunter-gatherer responsibilities. The Drum Circle is a descendant of that drum, and is meant as a peacedrum to celebrate the coming together of people. At the Native Canadian Centre in Toronto, I was fortunate to participate in several Big Drum classes during the winter of 2014. These classes consist of approximately 6 to 10 men or boys gathered around a Big Drum, striking it in unison with a leather-tipped beater, while singing in the Plain Natives style. After a practice session, there follows a Big Drum ‘social’ where everyone is invited to come eat and dance while the Big Drum

group plays. Based on my observations and participation at the Centre, a typical Big Drum song performance unfolds as follows: i. ii. iii. iv. v.

vi. vii. viii.

ix.

x. xi. xii.

As custom, the men shake hands, choose a beater to use, seat themselves around the drum and reconnect with casual conversation Depending on the time required/remaining, the Lead (singer) will tell everyone how many times they will play through the entire melody If there is any history or spiritual meaning relevant to the song that the Lead feels is important, he will talk a short while about it in a very calm and open manner The Lead sings the entire song softly in a low octave, while lightly striking with the beater in quarter notes, so the other singers can either learn it, or remember it The Lead sings the ‘lead’ part, in high voice, which is the opening theme (sometimes short, sometimes long) while everyone in the circle plays the drum in unison quarter notes Melodies are terraced downward typically in pentatonic scales using complex rhythmic patterns that do not always move directly with the pulse of the drum The group joins the melody after the Lead finishes the opening theme (* marked on the Transcription) Nearing the end of each song cycle, one person will play accented back-beats (on beats 2, 4, 6…) that are very loud. Who plays the back-beat is sometimes spontaneous, or sometimes indicated by the Lead with a nod or wave When the group has reached the end of the melody, the Lead restarts depending on how many repeats he has planned, or invites another singer in the circle to restart the melody by a hand-gesture, in an open and upward facing fanning motion, and the cycle begins again If no one jumps in, he gladly restarts the song When the song is on its last round, the leader gestures using a fanning motion with a sideways-facing hand for the song end For the climactic end of the song, everyone plays the accented back-beats very loudly

The following is a transcription of Big Drum/Powwow Singing


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Although the drum itself is held in very high regard, it is uncommon for Native music to involve pure instrumental arrangements, with almost all drum music being accompanied by Native singing. As Arlie Neskahi explains, “In some regard, it is even considered bad manners to the animal spirit of the hide to beat the hide without a song... A song is seen as what you have to offer for the privilege of using that animal's skin” (“Drumming”). Great care is taken when storing and unpacking the drum for performance, and when a drum-head breaks, they must find a nice hide and skilled maker to replace it. According to Teekens, “The drum has a Spirit inside of it and you have to take care of that Spirit”, and so it is used and stored with great care. Steve Teekens is a drum teacher and drum-maker, and has been teaching Native Drumming and Powwow Singing for almost 20 years. He was drawn to the drums as a child as he felt it was “calling him”. Teekens recounts that after hearing the story of the drum and the teachings, he made a decision to change aspects of his life he was not happy with and, “follow a spiritual path”, by focusing his energies on drumming. For the past 5 years, Steve has run his own drum class at the Native Canadian Centre, and his impetus for creating it was to provide the community with a Big Drum element that adhered more closely to the teachings of the Grandfathers, namely The Seven Grandfather Teachings. These teachings are meant to unify the life of the community, and observance of them is thought to make the ancestral Spirits happy that their traditions are being kept alive.

The Seven Grandfather Teachings i. ii. iii. iv. v. vi. vii.

Respect – treat all our relations the way we want to be treated Humility – always be humble, consider our insignificance, and know how you fit into each other Love – others and yourself Truth – always be truthful Courage – be courageous in what you believe in Wisdom – look for signs from nature so you can pick up wisdom Honesty – to know the other teachings Certainly, there is strong meaning attached to how music is performed in this

drum tradition, including the spatial relationship of those involved. We come back again to the Circle. Unlike countless musical traditions involving performers on a stage with an audience located in front, Big Drum music is invariably performed and enjoyed in a circle. The symbolism of the circle is paramount in that, “Native Americans contend that trees, plants, animals, and people all have a place in the circle of life” (Lucas 10). In a Big Drum setting, there are four circles that group all the participants of a session (see Fig.1). The first inner circle is composed of the men surrounding the drum who lead/sing the melodies, beat the drum and take requests. Behind them is the second circle consisting of the women and children, the women often learning and singing the melodies up an octave during the group sections of the song. The reason that men are traditionally the drummers is due to their belief that women innately hold a higher spiritual power than the men, and in order to attain this strength, men must drum (Diamond 133). The third circle is the domain of dancers who wear colorful regalia as well as personal items, which are reflections of their spirit. It is through dance, that prayer to the Spirits is invoked for any number of things, be it for healing someone or good favor. The beat of the drum is essential in providing the dancer with a consistent pulse to

move, and the Spirit with music it wishes to hear. The fourth circle is where the Spirits themselves are believed to reside and listen as, "music serves to join the natural with the supernatural" (Burton 22).

Fig 1 (Illustration by Mike Conto)

Traditionally, drum music was not considered a way to earn a living, rather it was thought of as a part of everyday life, and if one should be called to drum, sing or dance, it was simply part of one’s social responsibility. However, this has changed quite drastically over the past 50 years with the advent of the competitive Powwow. Christopher Scales remarks, "Powwows, generally speaking, are one of the few venues in which drum groups and singers expect to be monetarily compensated for their singing" (119).

The idea of musical competition is not an entirely foreign one to the Native community. Throughout their history, Native cultures have made use of music as a way to resolve disputes, as with the ‘song duels’ of the Iglulik Inuit (Browner, 2009: 13). Traditional Powwows do still exist which are more in line with a Big Drum social, however, the impact of commercialism on the Powwow tradition cannot be understated, as most Powwows are now competitive events (Diamond 120). Traditional Powwows are still valued with Native communities, as they involve few if any competitions and primarily the friendly sharing of drum music, dance and food. However for the purposes of this essay we will focus on the competitive form in order to illuminate several aspects of the intersection of this tradition with commercialism. The early days of what is now called a Powwow, came out of necessity to facilitate better Intertribal relations as different tribes of Native Americans were being moved off of Native land and onto reservations from the 1940’s through to the 1960’s. The rapid growth of the population on these reservations and Intertribal sharing led to, “a format that was more or less standardized” (Diamond 119). Diamond describes the basics of a Powwow: All events featured a large horizontal frame drum, played by a group of singerdrummers, often called "the heartbeat" of the nations. All events included elements of regalia and dance steps that are similar, and there is a great deal of repertoire swapping on the powwow circuit. (119-120) While early tape recordings of Powwow music in the 1950’s were meant primarily for Native consumption, by the 1980’s the packaging and distribution of CDs was genuinely, “directed at a broader market” (Diamond 133), with some of the more successful Plains groups having released upwards of 20 CDs each. Record companies

such as Canyon Records, Indian House and Sunshine Records now list hundreds of Powwow CDs in their catalogues. Driven by the influx of capital from reservation-based casinos, the 1980’s and 90’s saw the transformation of the Powwow into a competitive event. With invited contestants, huge cash prizes and concession stands, some events were drawing, “thousands of participants from across North America” (Scales 29). These “megapowwows” required a greater amount of time and organization in order to judge all of the contestants, which gradually reduced the flexibility of the event to accommodate noncompetitive traditions. So congested are modern programs that, “if a category has fewer than 8 dancers it will more than likely only be allowed one song" (Browner, 2002: 90). Clearly, the competitive Powwow has a homogenizing effect on the diversity of Native drum and dance music, or at least the public’s perception of it, as competitors borrow and refine each others repertoire in the effort to impress the judges. The very process of running a competition of this size will inevitably force the judges to arrive at specific and common expectations based on, “personal aesthetic standards and relationships with those whom they will assess” (Browner, 2002: 89). Scales corroborates this saying, “Singing contests at competition powwows have had the effect of formalizing and concretizing many aspects of Northern-style singing" (70). Still, standardization is a given at any competition, as is the shrinking allocation of time for unique traditional events such as more exotic inter-tribal dances (Browner, 2012: 88). If the only down side of Powwow commercialization was a stylistic conformity, it would hardly be worth mentioning in an essay such as this, when the associated benefits of Kinship and intercommunity ties are undeniable (Diamond 121). The deeper and more

saddening side of this reality is that for many, the competitive Powwows are riddled with politics, cheating and in some case, outright animosity, which essentially contravenes the reason the Powwow was created in the first place. For this reason, Teekens no longer attends competitive Powwows, feeling that they, “stir up jealousy and competitiveness”, some taking it so far as to be physically hostile. Scales comments that throughout his many interviews, there is also a common thread of contention about favoritism amongst judges based on family connections and reputation (53). “We are told by our elders that singing contests are not proper … that gathering is to make you feel good. It's to make you feel happy. To be healed…” (Andy White interview, Scales 70). This contradiction is self-evident if we keep in mind the Seven Grandfathers Teachings that Teekens speaks of, and the necessity to “make room” for them. Browner also relates a revelation on her part, having attended many Powwows, that many dancers, “are in the arena for one thing only: money” (2002: 93). From the high bleachers she watched as some dancers moved from judge to judge, putting on a great show for each, and did nothing for the audience in between. In a large part, this attitude is driven by the fact that performers on the Powwow circuit don’t make a lot of money (Teekens), unless of course, they win. Most of the drum groups will not turn a profit unless they place in a singing competition. In their defense, Scales points out that the groups depend on the income just to keep going, "making economics a constant source of concern and tension within the drum group" (122). Furthermore, it certainly wouldn't be fair to say that these commercial side-effects are even surprising or isolated to the Native community. It is suffice to say that,

unfortunately, despite the wholistic cultural aesthetic that is often associated with Native life, it also suffers from the same growing pains as any of its Euro-Western counterparts. There also is an inclination, likely due to modern beliefs of a spoiled Western pop culture, that the effects of commercialism on Native arts would lessen their authenticity. However, proponents of the drum, song and dance forms insist that, despite the compelling artifacts of commerce, the tradition is still undeniably credible. As Scales asserts, "Labeling competition groups, who regularly make recordings, as somehow less ‘authentic’ than traditional drums, who rarely record, would be highly misleading, and I suspect that very few singers or dancers would ever make such a statement" (252). Don Jobawaum, a Toronto-based veteran and now-retired dancer from the Powwow circuit, insists that the professional dancers are some of the only ones left who know the real dance-steps well, adding, “they’re good and they know they’re good”. Unfortunately, an exploration of whether or not this kind of egoism is beneficial to these artists and their art-form is beyond the scope of this essay, but worth exploring at a later time. As far as traditional Big Drum music is concerned, clearly the positive spin-offs for participants are many. When asked what the Drum means for the community, Teekens’ reply was that it provided, “a pride in culture” and for himself, “a healing, personally”. This is especially pertinent for the growing number of young Natives who are discovering their heritage and the history of their people. In drawing people together, this tradition re-affirms not only a shared connection to the earth, but also, the importance of open communication between cultures requiring mutual healing. There is significance in the fact that many popular Western music traditions, while deeply engaged in mass marketing, lack this cultural nuance and may be overdue for reform in this respect.

References Browner, Tara. Heartbeat of the People: Music and Dance of the Northern Powwow. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press. 2002. Print Browner, Tara. Introduction. Music of the First Nations: Tradition and Innovation in Native North America. Ed. Tara Browner. Urbana & Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2009. Print. Burton, Bryan. Moving Within the Circle: Contemporary Native American Music and Dance. Danbury: World Music Press. 1993. Print Cook, Roy. “Drum is the Heartbeat. Song is the Prayer.”. soaringeagles.americanindiansource.com. Web. 1 Mar. 2014. Diamond, Berverly. Native American Music in Eastern North America. New York: Oxford University Press. 2008. Print Keillor, Elaine. Music In Canada: Capturing Landscape and Diversity. Quebec & Kingtson: McGill-Queens University Press, 2006. Print. Jobawaum, Don. Personal conversation. Jan. 30, 2014. Lucas, David M. Ph.D. "Leaves, Fruit and Trees: Spiritual Messages of a Pow Wow." Ohio University Southern, n.d. Web. 1 Mar. 2014. Neskahi, Arlie. “Drumming.” (circle). RainbowWalker.net. Web. 27 Feb. 2014. Scales, Christopher, A. Recording Culture: Powwow Music and the Aboriginal Recording Industry of the Northern Plains. Durham and London: Duke University Press. 2012. Print Teekens, Steve. Personal interview. 25 Feb. 2014.