Native American Culture Areas
The culture areas of the Native Americans referred to the "geographical region where the different Indian tribes had similar ways of life" (Waldman, 1999: 281). Culture areas are used to determine and differentiate the various tribal societies. In other words, culture areas refer to the territorial lands owned by a particular tribe. This section of the unit will classify the culture areas with regard to their musical and dance heritages.
Southeast Culture Area
The Southeast culture area tribes that will be studied include the Alabama, Choctaw, and Coushatta. The territories for this group of Indians ranged from the Eastern Woodlands south to the Gulf Coast and from the East coast west to the Mississippi River.
The Alabama Tribe
The Alabama tribe's ancestry and culture was similar to the Creek and Choctaw. The language spoken was the Muskogean dialect. "They were allies to the Creek in what is called the Creek Confederacy" (Waldman, 1999:6). This tribe lived near the upper Alabama River. During the eighteenth century, the Alabama tribe became allies to the French. Mobile was founded on Mobile Bay in 1710. Later Fort Toulouse was established within the Alabama. In 1763, France lost the Fort Toulouse to the British. This event occurred after the French and Indian War. As a result, many of the Alabama tribesmen left their homeland. Some of the tribe united with the Seminole tribe in Florida. Still others relocated to "the north of New Orleans on the banks of the Mississippi River" (Waldman, 1999: 6). Later this group resettled in the western Louisiana region. Later, the majority of this band relocated in Texas. Today, the Alabama-Coushatta Tribe has continued their tribal traditions on the reservation located in Polk County, Texas.
The Coushatta Tribe
The Coushatta tribe lived in Alabama near the Coosa and the Tallapoosa Rivers join to form the Alabama River. The cultural attributes are related to the Creek and the Alabama tribes. These tribes belong to the Creek Confederacy. All three of these tribes are classified as apart of the Southeast Culture Area. Contacts began with the Spanish explorer, Hernandez de Soto's expedition traveled this region from 1539 to 1543. After the expedition of René-Robert Cavelier de la Salle in 1682, the region of the Alabama River became a French settlement. The French expedition "founded the settlement of Mobile on the Gulf of Mexico in 1710" (Waldman, 1999: 72). More importantly, the French established themselves as allies and trading partners with the tribes residing in the area. In 1763, the French lost their settlement in the French and Indian War against the British. As a result, the Coushatta was divided and relocated to other regions. Some of the tribesman relocated to Louisiana while others united with the Seminole in Florida. Some of the bands moved to Texas.
The bands remaining in Alabama united with the Creek. During the Trail of Tears in the 1830s, they traveled on foot, pushed out of their homelands, to the Indian Territory known as Oklahoma. Today, many of the descendants
the Creeks are living in Oklahoma as part of the Alabama Quassarte Tribe. The descendants of the Coushatta who relocated to Louisiana, reside near Kinder. This is a non-reservation community. The bands residing in Texas are living on a reservation in Polk County. These bands are known as the Alabama-Coushatta Tribe.
The Creek Tribe
"The Native Americans, known as the Creek, received their tribal name from the early English traders because they built most of their villages on woodland rivers and creeks" (Waldman, 1999: 75). The Creek tribe consisted of several bands. Each band had different names. Most of the Creek bands resided in villages "along the banks of the Alabama, Coosa, Tallapoosa, Flint, Ocmulgee, and Chattahoochee rivers" (Waldman, 1999: 75). Their tribal regions were "Alabama, Georgia, in addition to, parts of northern Florida, eastern Louisiana, and southern Tennessee" (Waldman, 1999: 75). The Creeks were divided into two bands. They are the Upper Creeks and the Lower Creeks.
The Creeks were very powerful. Their language was derived from Muskogean family. The Muskogean tribal families includes the Alabama, Coushatta, Chichasaw, Choctaw, and Seminole. The Alabama, Coushatta, and other Muskogean bands joined together to form the Creek Confederacy.
Tribal Ceremonial Rituals
The tribes of the Creek Confederacy belonged to the Southeast Culture Area. The tribes of this culture area have similar attributes or characteristics in ceremonial rituals. Many of the tribes' ceremonial rituals are performed with specific instruments categorized as aerophones, idiophones, or membraphones. These instruments have specific functions that are parallel to the instruments of the West African culture. The aerophone instruments are classified as non-western wind instrument such as the cane flute. In other words, the aerophones are wind instruments existing in cultures that are not from Europe. Another group of instruments used in ceremonial rituals are the membraphones. Membraphones are classified as instruments made using a combination of stretched animal skins and some other materials. Examples of these instruments include "drums using animal skins as heads" (Hamm, 1983:10). Other tribal instruments used in ceremonial rituals are categorized as idiophones. Idiophones are instruments that produced sounds but may be made from wood or metal. Examples of this type of instruments are the striking sticks (sometimes called the claves and used by the Mississippi and Louisiana Choctaws), drums, bells or rattles (today, the gourd rattles are obsolete).
In addition to this, ceremonial rituals are accompanied by special music. The most significant ceremonial ritual was the Green Corn Ceremony which always performed at the end of summer after the last corn crop had ripened. This ceremony usually continued for several days.
One of the traditions practiced during this time were the specific preparations made before the performances. For example, for the Green Corn Ceremony, the men of the tribe would complete all of the maintenance work for the buildings. The women of the tribe would do chores similar to that of spring cleaning. In addition to this, the upper class officials such chief, elders, and others would give up eating for a specified time period. The fasting was broken when they participated in the feast and started the ceremonial fire. Afterwards, the Green Corn Dance would be performed.
Other performance practices will be discussed through a comparison of dance genres in this unit.
The Choctaw Tribe
"The Choctaws are one of the largest southeastern tribe in America" (Howard and
Lindsay, 1990:xxi). The tribe was originally located in Mississippi near Noxapater. "According to tribal legends, they originated from Nanih Waiya which is translated to mean the Mother Mound" (Waldman, 1999:64). This tribe occupied the largest region or territory of the New World. During the time of the early European settlement, the Choctaws resided in the region from southern and central Mississippi to territory in Alabama, Georgia, and Louisiana. Today, this tribe lives near Durant, Oklahoma.
Tribal Musical Traditions
The Choctaws had many different tribal traditions that included music. Among these traditions were song writing competitions. The competitions would include tribesman from more than one village. In other words, the song competitions would be presented as a song festival. The titles and lyrics of these songs would have a variety of texts and subjects such as songs about animals or people. One example is a song and dance entitled, "Stealing Partners Dance". During the performance of both the song and dance, the men and women have specific roles while singing and dancing.
The Choctaw dance songs repertoire is passed down to the next generation through oral traditions. During the performance, "sometimes improvisation techniques used will not change the continuity of fixed musical materials" (Howard and Levine, 1990:67). In other words, the titles and lyrics will not change. Only musical embellishments are used in the melodies. These techniques occur frequently in the dance songs repertoire.
The Choctaws' musical heritage is divided into two groups. The groups are classified as the Oklahoma Choctaws and the Mississippi Choctaws. After analyzing some of the transcribed musical scores, one of the traditions of the most of the music was performed using a call-response pattern or form. In other words, the soloist or leader will sing a phrase followed by the group. This performance sequence is continued throughout the duration of the song. Listed below is an example of this form using a rhythm pattern.
Example 1. Call-Response Pattern
In other words, another way to describe the above performance sequence is "a musical question" and "answer" pattern. In my research, the song leader is always a male singer.
Although women participate in both dances and songs, there are some songs sung exclusively by the men. The responses in most of the songs include only men. Examples of these styles are the War Dance, Double Header, and the Jump or Stomp Dance. The females participating with the group do not sing the responses. However, they are participating as dancers only. Although the music is sung, the stylistic characteristic is antiphonal singing and chants.
The formal organization of many of the songs form this tribe is in a strophic form. In other words, in this form the all verses or stanzas are performed using the same repeated melody without any variations. An example is listed below using a chart.
| Melodic Pattern: | A | A | A | A | A1 | A |
| Chant: | Verse 1 | Chorus | Verse 1 | Chorus | Verse 2 | Chorus |
Example 2. Strophic Form
The titles of dance-songs using this form are Stealing Partners Dance performed by the Mississippi Choctaws. In this version, the meter signature continuously change from 5/4 to 4/4 by the leader in first chant. In the Stealing Partners Dance performed by the Oklahoma Choctaws, the meter signature does not change until the second chant begins. Other songs performed in this style include Hard Fish Dance (Chickasaw), Drum Dance (Oklahoma), and the Double Header Dance (Mississippi and Oklahoma).
The musical style of the dance songs melodic structure consist of an anhemitonic scale. In other words, the melody rarely uses half steps. This scale will include four to six tones each. The songs' rhythm is in repetitive pattern with frequent meter signature changes. Listed below is an example of this concept using pitch names with rhythm.
Example 3. Anhemitonic Scale
Example of the dance song melodies employing this technique are the Jump Dance, Drunk Dance, and the War Dance.
Example 4. Anhemitonic Scale on Piano Keyboard
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