Blackfeet music facts for kids
Blackfoot music is the special music of the Blackfoot people. In their language, nitsínixki means "I sing," and it comes from the word nínixksini, which means "song." For the Blackfoot, singing is the most important part of their music. It is usually joined only by percussion instruments like drums.
Blackfoot music is seen as a symbol of bravery and challenges in their lives. The way they perform music is very different from everyday talking. Singing is not like speaking, and many songs do not even have words. Songs that do have words often tell important parts of their myths in a short way. Music is also closely connected to warfare. Most singing is done by men, especially community leaders. Learning songs was often linked to difficult tasks, like visions from self-denial. Songs were meant to be learned quickly and sung with great energy. This shows how important and challenging music was.
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Instruments in Blackfoot Music
Blackfoot music is mostly about voices. They use very few musical instruments, which they call ninixkiátsis. This word comes from "song" and is mostly used for instruments from European-American culture. In traditional Blackfoot music, they only use percussion and voices, with few words.
The most important percussion instruments are drums, called istókimatsis. Rattles (auaná) and bells are also used. These are often seen as part of the objects they are attached to, like sticks or dancers' legs, rather than separate instruments.
The Art of Blackfoot Singing
Singing in Blackfoot music mostly uses special sounds called vocables. These are sounds like "h," "y," and "w," along with vowels. They avoid other sounds like "n" or "ts." Older recordings show that songs used to have more lyrics or words.
Blackfoot people believe that having too many words in songs, like in European or African American music, makes both the words and the music less important. They also feel that listening to music just for fun, while doing other things, lessens its meaning. If someone needs to say many words, they should just talk.
Blackfoot music is not about instruments or lots of words. Singing is not supposed to sound like talking. Songs with words are usually short and not repeated much. For example, a song might say: "It's a bad thing to be an old man." Another, longer song might be: "Yonder woman, you must take me. I am powerful. Yonder woman, you must take me, you must hear me. Where I sit is powerful." When a song has more words and fewer vocables, the melodies are often shorter.
In the past, singing alone might have been more common. But now, group singing is very popular. Singing and drumming groups are often called "drums." When a group sings, they don't need to blend their voices perfectly. The leader might start a song's main tune or phrase. Then, another singer might repeat it or "raise" it. In powwows, parts of a song are often called "push-ups."
Blackfoot Vocal Style
The way Blackfoot people sing is similar to other Plains Indigenous nations. It often starts with high-pitched sounds. Singers use a narrow vocal style and some nasality. You might also hear pulsations on longer notes, signs of vocal tension, and some raspiness. There can also be some ornamentation, which means adding small musical decorations.
Blackfoot singing is often more intense and uses a higher tessitura (a higher part of the vocal range) than most Plains Indigenous music. Older people have noticed this change, saying, "These younger fellows, they sing higher and louder than we used to." Sometimes, people try new things with European instruments and harmony, but this is rare. The vocal style is usually kept traditional because it is seen as essential to sound like Indigenous music.
The Importance of Drumming
Singing without drums is very rare and not considered proper in Blackfoot music. The drums play along with the singing. The drumming is often independent of the singing rhythm but in perfect unison. It might be slightly off the beat.
Drumming has become much more important since the 1900s. This might be because of the influence of pan-tribal culture, which means ideas shared across many Indigenous groups. It could also be because rattles and other percussion instruments are used less often, or because songs have fewer words. The term "drumming" for a musician or singer also became more common between the 1960s and 1980s.
When drummers play, they often start by softly hitting the rim of the bass drum. As the drumming moves towards the center of the drum skin, the tempo (speed) increases. Sometimes, a drummer, often the leader, will hit "hard beats" that are loud and off the main rhythm. Beats might even be skipped. Drumming might pause for a short time in the last part of a song and then finish loudly.
When playing the stick game, players drum on a plank. In this game, the drumming is more likely to match the vocal beats. Rattles are not used as much anymore.
How Blackfoot Songs Are Made
Traditionally, Blackfoot people believed that songs were given to them in complete form through visions or dreams. Even though people now accept that music can be created like European music, this traditional idea still strongly influences how songs are seen.
Songs are sometimes thought of like objects. They can be made of different parts, but once finished, they become a whole. Songs can also be "given" or even sold. Some songs belong to everyone, while others belong to just one person but can be sung by others. Some songs are saved by individuals for times of great need. Two songs that sound the same might be considered different if they came from different visions.
Most songs, except for gambling songs, follow a pattern called "incomplete repetition." This means a section is often a variation or a shorter version of the first part. However, in the past, there was more variety in song forms. Songs sung with medicine basket openings and gambling songs often use steady rhythms or shorter note lengths.
Songs typically begin in a high-pitched falsetto voice before singers move to their normal head voices. It seems that if a part of a song is repeated, it might be sung an octave lower (which is the same note but higher or lower). It can also be sung a perfect fourth or perfect fifth lower. Songs start with a "head motif" (a main musical idea) that is repeated by a second singer. This motif then helps create the rest of the song in ways that Blackfoot listeners can often predict. This makes it easier to learn songs after hearing them just once.
Types of Songs and Music
Children do not usually have their own special songs or game songs, except for "Mice Songs" used in one game. They also have lullabies sung to them by their mothers. In the past, women had their own small collection of lullabies, laments (sad songs), and other songs, but many of these have been lost. Some "manly-hearted women" who took on roles usually done by men would also sing alone using a men's singing style.
Understanding Blackfoot Music
In Blackfoot music, the basic unit is the song. People who sing and drum are called "singers" or "drummers." Both words mean the same thing and refer to both activities. Women are becoming more equal participants, but they are not usually called "singers" or "drummers." It is also seen as a bit improper for women to sing loudly or alone. The word Páskani means "dance" or "ceremony." It often includes music, even for ceremonies with little dancing and lots of singing.
Blackfoot musical ideas are more about listing things than about putting them in a strict order, like in European music. Songs are mainly different based on how they are used. For example, they might be used in ceremonies, linked to specific objects (especially in medicine bundles), ideas, dances, or actions. They might also be used during gambling (like the hand game) or for other purposes. Songs are also different if they are linked to a person, and less often, if they are linked to a story or event. There are no types of music that are considered more or less "music."
Music, or singing, is not thought to be like speech or any other sound. There are no spoken introductions or endings to songs. There are also no "in-between forms" that are partly speech and partly singing.
Rehearsing songs is happening more often now. This is probably because of the influence of European ideas about performing and how songs are made. It also shows a change in the purpose of music, from talking to the supernatural to talking with other humans.
Studying Blackfoot Music
The Blackfoot are one of the most studied Indigenous groups in America. Because of this, there are many collections of Blackfoot music. The largest collection is at the Archives of Traditional Music at Indiana University. We can compare old and new recordings because the earliest Blackfoot music was recorded on wax cylinders.
The first recordings were made by George Bird Grinnell in 1897. He recorded about forty songs sung by James White Calf and others in the Blackfeet Nation. The second set of recordings was made by Clark Wissler in 1903 and 1904. This collection has 146 cylinders and was part of his larger studies. The third set was made by J.K. Dixon in 1909. It includes several songs sung mostly by Chief Bull.
Later, in 1938, Jane Richardson Hanks and her husband Lucien Hanks recorded music in Gleichen, Alberta, among the Canadian Blackfoot. They recorded Spumiapi ("White-Headed Chief"). After the tape recorder was invented, thousands more songs were recorded by Indigenous people, music experts, hobbyists, students, and record companies.
Even though there are many recordings, there are gaps in the timeline (from 1910 to 1950). Music and culture changed quickly during these times. Also, different Blackfoot groups were not studied equally. There are also few studies about the musical culture itself; most recordings were made as part of bigger studies about their way of life. Most of these music studies were done by Bruno Nettl.
Public interest in Blackfoot music grew, and two records were released in New York in 1914. Starting in the 1950s, professional singing groups began to form.
Current Blackfoot Musical Groups and Musicians
- Black Lodge Singers
- Heart Butte Singers
- Young Grey Horse Society
- Two Medicine Lake Singers
- Troy De Roche
- Jack Gladstone (Montana's Traubadour and Blackfeet poet singer)
Further Listening
- An Historical Album of Blackfeet Indian Musie. Smithsonian Folkways Recordings: FE 34001.
