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National Museum of Man National Museums of Canada
Board of Trustees
Dr. Sean B . Murphy Juge René J . Marin M . Roger B . Hamel M r . Michael C D . Hobbs M . Paul H . Leman M r . Richard M . H . Alway M r . Robert G . MacLeod Ms Jane Thompson Edwards Dr. Bohdan Bociurkiw Mme Michelle Nolin-Raynauld Dr. Larkin Kerwin M r . T . Porteous
Musée national de 11 Homme Musées nationaux du Canada
Conseil d'Administration
Chairman Vice-président Membre Member Membre Member Member Member Member Membre Member (Ex officio) Member (Ex officio)
M r . Ian C . Clark Secretary General Secrétaire général
Dr. William E . Taylor, Jr. Director National Museum of Man
Directeur Musée national de l'Homme
A . McFadyen Clark Chief Canadian Ethnology Service
Chef Service canadien d'Ethnologie
Crown Copyright Reserved Droits réservés au nom de la Couronne
NATIONAL MUSEUM OF MAN MERCURY SERIES
MUSÉE NATIONAL DE L'HOMME COLLECTION MERCURE
I S S N 0 3 1 6 - 1 8 5 4
CANADIAN ETHNOLOGY SERVICE
PAPER No. 86
LE SERVICE CANADIEN D'ETHNOLOGIE
DOSSIER No. 86
ISSN 0 3 1 6 - 1 8 6 2
THE MUSICAL LIFE OF THE BLOOD INDIANS
ROBERT WITMER
NATIONAL MUSEUMS OF CANADA MUSÉES NATIONAUX OU CANADA
OTTAWA 1982
OBJECT OF THE MERCURY SERIES
The Mercury Series i s a publication of the National Museum of Man, National Museums of Canada, designed to permit the rapid dissemination of information pertaining to those disciplines for which the National Museum of Man is responsible.
In the interests of making information available quickly, normal production procedures have been abbreviated. As a result, editorial errors may occur. Should that be the case, your indulgence i s requested, bearing in mind the object of the Series. The opinions expressed by the authors do not necessarily reflect those of the National Museum or the Federal Government of Canada.
BUT DE LA COLLECTION MERCURE
La collection Mercure, publiée par le Musée national de l'Homme, Musées nationaux du Canada, a pour but de diffuser rapidement le résultat de travauxqui ont rapport aux disciplines pour lesquelles le Musée national de l'Homme est responsable.
Pour assurer l a prompte distribution des exemplaires imprimés, on a abrégé les étapes de l'édition. En conséquence, certaines erreurs de rédaction peuvent subsister dans les exemplaires imprimés. S i cela se présentait dans les pages qui suivent, les éditeurs réclament votre indulgence étant donné les objectifs de la collection. Les opinions exprimées par les auteurs ne reflètent pas nécessairement celles du Muséenational de l'Homme ou du gouvernement fédéral du Canada.
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ABSTRACT
This study, based on fieldwork done in 1968, is an analytic description of the musical l i f e of the Blood Indians of south-western Alberta. An historical investigation i s provided in addition to a musical ethnography of the current situation. Special attention is given to the impact of Euro-american music and associated values, and to the determinants of the 'white' orientation evident in the musical lives of some Blood. The study challenges some commonly held assumptionsconcerning the imminent demise of traditional Indian music and analyzes the adoption by some Blood of white music performance (e.g., country-western music) as symbolic behaviour.
RESUME
On présente une description analytique de la vie musicale des Indiens du Sang du sud-ouest de 1'Alberta, fondée sur des recherches sur le terrain exécutées en 1968. On décrit l'histoire de leur musique et on fait une étude ethnomusicologique de la situation actuelle. Une attention spéciale est accordée à l'influence de la musique euro-américaine et de ses attitudes correspondantes, et aux causes de l'orientation "blanche" qui est en évidence dans la vie musicale de quelques Indiens du Sang. Ce rapport met en question quelques suppositions répondues en ce qui a t r a i t à la disparition imminente de la musique et de la culture musicale traditionelle amérindienne. On y analyse également l'adoption par quelques-uns des Indiens du Sang de la musique "blanche" (e.g.: la musique "country-western") en-tant qu'action symbolique.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER Page
I . METHOD, SCOPE AND AIMS OF STUDY 1
A. THE FIELD SITUATION 1B. OBTAINING THE DATA 2C. QUALITY AND SCOPE OF THE DATA 4D. PURPOSE OF THE STUDY 5
I I . THE CONTEMPORARY BLOOD INDIAN 6
A. THE CONTEMPORARY BLOOD IN THE SETTING OF THE BLOOD RESERVE 6
B. RESERVE ECONOMY 7C. THE PHYSICAL COMMUNITY 8
D. STANDOFF, MOSES LAKE, GLENWOD, AND OTHER INDIAN SETTLEMENTS 8
E. SCHOOLS AND CHURCHES 9F. IMPORTANCE OF THE (NON-INDIAN) TOWN OF CARDSTON
TO THE BLOOD INDIANS 10
G. SMALL NON-INDIAN COMMUNITIES CONTIGUOUS TO
THE BLOOD RESERVE 11H. OTHER COMMUNITIES WITHIN THE PURVIEW
OF MOBILE BLOODS 12I . SUMMARY 13
I I I . BLOOD-BLACKFOOT VALUES AND BEHAVIOR, PAST AND PRESENT 15
A. CHARACTERISATIONS OF THE BLOOD INDIANS IN THE HISTORICAL LITERATURE 15
B. CONTINUITIES WITH THE PAST 16C. PORTRAYAL OF THE BLOOD INDIANS IN THE ANNUAL
REPORTS OF THE DEPARTMENT OF INDIAN AFFAIRS 17D. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 18
IV. STUDYING THE MUSICAL LIFE OF A COMMUNITY 20
A. THE PROBLEM 20B. PRELIMINARY CLASSIFICATION OF BLOOD
MUSICAL LIFE 21
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CHAPTER Page
V. PUBLIC MODERN-TRADITIONAL MUSICAL LIFE ON ON THE BLOOD RESERVE 23
A. OVERVIEW OF SOCIAL DANCING AMONG THE BLOOD 23B. KAINAI INDIAN DAYS: A MODERN POWWOW 24C. POWWOW DANCING 26D. MUSICIANS AND MUSICAL GROUPS 27E. THE STICK GAME 29F. HISTORICAL ANTECEDENTS OF MODERN POWWOW DANCING 29
1. The Victory Dance 302. The Giveaway Dance 30
VI. MODERN-TRADITIONAL GROUP PERFORMANCE IN SEMI-PUBLIC SITUATIONS 31
A. MUSICAL GROUPS AND REHEARSAL PATTERNS 31B. THE FAMILY ORIENTATION OF SOCIAL DANCE
MUSIC ENSEMBLES 33C. DOMESTIC SELF-DELECTATIVE MUSICAL ENSEMBLES 34D. ACCOUNT OF A HOUSE PARTY SINGSONG 35E. THE ROLE OF DRUMS IN DELIMITING GROUP
SINGING ACTIVITIES 36F. THE PARTICIPATION OF WOMEN IN ENSEMBLE PERFORMANCE 37G. THE PARTICIPATION OF CHILDREN IN
ENSEMBLE PERFORMANCE 38H. SUMMARY 38
VII. PUBLIC AND SEMI-PUBLIC TRADITIONAL MUSICAL LIFE 40
A. OVERVIEW OF TRADITIONAL MUSICAL LIFE 40B. THE SUN DANCE 41C. RECENT CEREMONIAL LIFE: BUNDLE TRANSFER CEREMONIES 42D. THE CROW WATER BUNDLE TRANSFER CEREMONY 43E. PROBLEMS OF INTERPRETATION AND EVALUATION 45
VI I I . PRIVATE AND SEMI-PRIVATE TRADITIONAL MUSICAL LIFE 47
A. REVIVALISTIC AND PRESERVATIVE SITUATIONS 47B. LISTENERS AND LISTENING PATTERNS 48C. PERPETUATION OF THE TRADITIONAL REPERTORY:
SONG LEARNING 49D. SELF-DELECTATIVE MUSIC MAKING IN
SOLITARY SITUATIONS 51
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CHAPTER Page
IX. ATTITUDES AND VALUES IN TRADITIONAL AND MODERN-TRADITIONAL MUSICAL LIFE 52
A. INTRODUCTION 52B. THE POWER OF MUSIC 52C. THE ROLE OF MUSIC IN PRESERVING THE
MEMORY OF THE PAST 55D. MODERN-TRADITIONAL INDIAN MUSIC AS AN AGENT OF
SELF-ESTEEM AND ETHNIC PRIDE 59E. ATTITUDES TOWARDS FIELD COLLECTING 59F. BELIEFS REGARDING SINGING AND THE
IDENTITY OF SONGS 61G. THE EVALUATION OF SONGS 62
X. TRADITIONAL AND MODERN-TRADITIONAL MUSIC 70
A. INTRODUCTION 7 0
B. SONG DESIGNATIONS AND ASCRIPTIONS OF INFORMANTS 70C. COGNIZANCE OF ABSTRACT MUSICAL STYLE
CHARACTERISTICS 71D. PROBLEMS OF TYPOLOGY AND CLASSIFICATION:
THE USES OF MUSIC 72E. FUNCTIONAL INTERCHANGEABILITY OF SONGS 76F. A PROBLEM FOR MUSICAL ANALYSIS 77G. THE MORPHOLOGY OF BLACKFOOT MUSIC: PROBLEMS IN
STUDYING STABILITY VERSUS CHANGE IN ORALLY TRANSMITTED MUSIC 77
H. ACCULTURATIVE PRESSURES ON MODERN-TRADITIONAL BLOOD INDIAN MUSIC 81
XI. MUSICAL ACCULTURATION 90
A. EARLY CONDITIONS OF CONTACT WITH EUROPEAN MUSIC 90
B. THE INDIAN SCHOOL MUSIC PROGRAM IN THE EARLY RESERVE PERIOD 91
C. THE BLOOD INDIANS AND EUROPEAN INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 92
D. THE BLOOD INDIANS AND EUROPEAN INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY 94
E. THE BLOOD RESERVATION BRASS BAND 95F. SELF-DIRECTED INVOLVEMENT WITH WHITE
MUSIC AND SOCIAL DANCING 95G. THE IMPORTATION OF WHITE SOCIAL DANCE
MUSIC ENSEMBLES 96
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CHAPTER Page
XII. SOURCES OF WHITE MUSIC AVAILABLE TO RESERVATION BLOODS 98
A. INTRODUCTION 98B. RADIO AND TELEVISION 98C. JUKEBOXES AND PERSONAL SOUND SYSTEMS 99D. LIVE PERFORMANCES 100E. MUSIC EDUCATION 100F. PRINTED SOURCES 101
X I I I . BLOOD INDIAN HOBBYIST PRACTITIONERS OF WHITE MUSIC 102
A. COMMON MUSICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF BLOOD PRACTITIONERS OF WHITE MUSIC 102
B. ENSEMBLE MUSIC-MAKING 103C. PUBLIC PERFORMANCE BEHAVIOR 103
XIV. MUSICAL PERCEPTIONS AND PERFORMANCE PRACTICES 105
A. THE SOUND IDEAL 105B. VOCAL PRODUCTION 105C. TREATMENT OF TEXTS 106D. RHYTHM AND TEMPO 106E. MELODY AND HARMONY 106F. FORM 107G. LEAD GUITAR STYLE 107H. COHESION AND ENSEMBLE PLAYING 108I . THE LEARNING SITUATION 108J . MUSICAL SELF-AWARENESS 109K. THE CURRENT REPERTORY 109
XV. NON-INDIAN MUSICAL VALUES AND BEHAVIOR IN THE CONTEXT OF RESERVATION LIFE . . . . I l l
A. EXTRA-MUSICAL RESEMBLANCES AMONG BLOODS ACTIVE IN WHITE MUSIC 111
B. CULTURAL DETERMINANTS OF MUSICAL VALUES AND BEHAVIOR 112
C. ATTITUDES ABOUT WHITE MUSIC (MUSIC AS SYMBOLIC BEHAVIOR 113
D. SUMMARY 114
XVI. SUMMRY AND CONCLUSION 116
A. THE VARIETY OF BLOOD MUSICAL LIFE 1 1 6
B. PERSISTENCE OF TRADITIONALISM 116C. TRADITIONALISM AS A REGENERATIVE PHENOMENON 117D. THE FUTURE OF TRADITIONAL MUSIC IN THE
BLOOD COMMUNITY 119
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APPENDIX
I . CLASSIFIED INDEX OF TRADITIONAL AND MODERN-TRADITIONAL MUSIC COLLECTED DURING THE SUMMER OF 1968 ON THE BLOOD RESERVE, ALBERTA, CANADA 121
I I . CLASSIFIED INDEX OF BLOOD INDIAN RENDITIONS OF NON-INDIAN MUSIC COLLECTED DURING THE SUMMER OF 1968 133
I I I . MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS USED IN TRADITIONAL AND MODERN-TRADITIONAL MUSIC 136
IV. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF TRADITIONAL MUSICIANS 140
V. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF MODERN-TRADITIONAL MUSICIANS 148
VI. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF BLOOD INDIAN PRACTITIONERS OF NON-INDIAN MUSIC 151
VII. MUSICAL EXAMPLES 158
LIST OF REFERENCES 163
MERCURY SERIES PUBLICATIONS/PUBLICATIONS DE LA COLLECTION MERCURE 168
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PREFACE
This study has been made possible by the help and encouragement of manyindividuals. A grant provided by Miss Doris Duke, and administered by the University of I l l i n o i s Department of Anthropology, financed two months of fieldwork on the Blood Indian reservation in Alberta, Canada. This support is gratefully acknowledged. Deepest thanks are due to Dr. Bruno Nettl for his help in planning the study, and for his advice and encouragement along the way to i t s completion. I am grateful to my wife, Betty, for preparing typewritten copy from my handwritten field notes, and for general clerical assistance.
I wish to express my thanks to the many residents of Cardston, Alberta, and the Blood Indian reservation who facilitated my fieldwork in one way or another. Special thanks go to Blood Indian Agency personnel Allen Tailfeathers,Philip Mistaken Chief, and Leslie Healey for access to sta t i s t i c a l information and for overall cooperation. I am happy to acknowledge the commendable work and enjoyable companionship of Philip Aberdeen, Reggie Black Plume, and Mrs. Diane Hellson, my field assistants and interpreters, and a l l valuable informants in their own right. Among the white residents of the area, I am especially grateful to Glen Atwood, Father Dennis Chatain, John Hellson, Morris Shields, and Tom Troy — not only for their friendliness, but for generously allowing me to benefit in many ways from their own experience and personal relationships with residents of the reservation. My deepest gratitude, of course, is extended to the several dozen Blood Indians who acted as my principal informants. They are mentioned by name throughout the text, and many of them are the subjects of short biographical sketches appended to this study.
This study is a revised version of the author's Master's thesis, "The Musical Culture of the Blood Indians" (M.M., musicology, University of I l l i n o i s , 1970). For this Mercury Series edition chapters 12-15 have been substantially revised, and there have been a number of small changes throughout.
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CHAPTER I
METHOD, SCOPE AND AIMS OF THE STUDY
A. THE FIELD SITUATION
The majority of the data for the present study was obtained by the writer on the Blood Indian reserve in Alberta, Canada, where fieldwork was conducted from June 13 to August 3, 1968. The general aims of the fie l d -work were: (1) to survey the contemporary musical activity occurring on a fa i r l y large and populous Canadian Plains Indian reserve; (2) to obtain recordings of a representative sampling of music available on the reserve; (3) and to investigate the possible relationships between an individual's musical values and behavior and various extra-musical factors such as his age, social position, economic level, and so on.
The fiel d project was not long under way before I realized that the Blood reserve was a considerably more complex community, musical and otherwise, than I had anticipated, and that i t would prove in some ways to be a somewhat problematic field situation for ethnomusicological study. The exigencies of the research field imposed several limitations on the amount and kinds of work that could be done. One limiting condition was the low level of proficiency in English among the Bloods; some older Bloods spoke no English whatsoever, and among most adults Blackfoot was preferred over English as the language of everyday discourse. For much of the fieldwork, a native interpreter-assistant was essential, not only because of my inability to speak Blackfoot, but also because I was unfamiliar with the physical community of the Blood reserve and would have had difficulty locating potential informants — who were scattered over an area of some 540 square miles — without the guidance of a resident of the area. Competent interpreter-assistants were not easily engaged, and the fieldwork schedule had to be arranged around the availability of the few individuals I found who were both linguistically competent for the job and interested in doing i t . These conditions reduced the potential for conducting interviews with a large sample of the reserve population, and i t was decided to concentrate on those individuals who were acknowledged in the Blood community as musical experts, and to deal only incidentally with individuals who were self-acknowledged non-specialists in music. Another deterrent to attempting a survey of the overall reservation population regarding musical activities was the unsatisfactory results obtained from casual preliminary work along these lines. From contact with Bloods claiming no active involvement in music i t became evident that a broad survey of the general populace would not have yielded much cogent data on music, had such a study been carried out. The general populace did not seem very interested in talking about music, at least not to the extent of consenting to discuss i t with me, even when an interpreter was on hand. Most of them knew, however, who the musicians were in their community and they were willing to divulge this information. There was a considerable degree of unanimity as to who the 'musical' individuals on the Blood reserve were. The names of several dozen individuals known as musicians were obtained, a substantial number of whom were contacted at least once. Twelve of these individuals became major informants,1 participating in one or more extensive recording sessions and submitting to (more or less) formal interviews.
1See appendices 4,5, and 6.
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B. OBTAINING THE DATA
The usual method of obtaining interviews and recordings of music was to appear unannounced at the home of an individual deemed to be a potentially valuable informant, have the assistant explain in Blackfoot the purpose of our v i s i t , and hope that an interview or recording session would result then and there. This method of 'organizing' recording sessions was quite effective. Of the nine musical events solicited by, or occurring expressly for my recording purposes, five transpired during such unannounced v i s i t s . Other contacts with potential informants were made in Cardston, the town frequented by the Bloods, and a number of interviews were conducted at the writer's motel cottage on the outskirts of Cardston, and in the town's restaurants.
It was discovered that informants were more verbal and informative during non-directive casual conversations than during more structured interviewing situations ( i . e . , those in which a tape recorder, notebook, or prepared question sheets were u t i l i z e d ) . Accordingly, the formal taped interview was eschewed in favor of the informal conversation interview. 1
Interviews were conducted without consulting prepared notes, and note-taking during interviews was done discreetly and minimally, and sometimes not at a l l . The non-directive approach sometimes yielded extremely discursive and repetitive interviews. Nevertheless, the potential for receiving spontaneous and candid verbal testimony from informants was f e l t to be at i t s optimum in this type of interview, a consideration which overshadowed i t s disadvantages.
In collecting recordings of music, an attempt was made to keep to a minimum the suggestions and instructions given to informants as to the types of songs to perform. The object was to collect whatever the informants themselves chose to sing, acting on the presumption that musical items volunteered without prompting would be more representative of the actual state of the repertory than songs or song types rendered in answer to specific requests. In cases where informants evidenced difficulty in recalling repertory or requested some sense of direction, they were given only vague general points of departure (i.e., "Sing the songs you have grown old with; sing your favorite songs," etc.).
The music recording sessions were characterized by a considerable amount of discussion and bantering among the participating musicians, most of i t in Blackfoot. Dialogue between the informants and myself during recording sessions was usually conducted through an interpreter and was restricted to brief question and answer exchanges regarding song designations and other aspects of musical material being taped. When conversation among the informants became animated, my interpreters were usually unable to translate rapidly enough to keep me informed of the gist of the dialogue. The interpreters themselves frequently became involved in these conversations as participants, usually forgetting their interpreting duties in the process and leaving me in complete linguistic isolation for several minutes at a time.
Extensive taped interviews were obtained from only three of the twelve major informants.
1
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As a consequence of these circumstances many tapes ended up containing a substantial amount of dialogue in Blackfoot for which no English equivalent was received. With the help of two patient assistants, the Blackfoot dialogue recorded on the field collection tapes was translated into English; later, a typewritten English transcript of the verbal content of almost the entire tape collection (including taped dialogue i n i t i a l l y delivered in English) was prepared from the manuscript transcripts. The transcripts are the source of much of the data presented in the present study, and their existence enables the testimony of informants to be quoted verbatim. For example, a quotation followed by the citation, "52/14/p.7," would indicate that the item being referred to appears on page 7 of the transcript prepared from tape 14 of collection 52.1 Individual songs referred to in the text of this study are identified according to their location in the field collection tapes. For example, the seventh song on tape 14 i s referred to as "52/14/7." Statements, phrases, or terms appearing in quotation marks but minus a citation are drawn from field notes made during or immediately after non-taped interviews. (Of course, f i e l d notes and the quotations drawn from them are not guaranteed to preserve the words of informants vertatim.) To avoid confusion, single quotation marks are used in this paper for some of the functions normally served by double quotation marks, e.g., to draw attention to an uncommon word or technical term, or to a word or usage different in style from the context ( i . e . , slang, ironic usage).
The collecting of music and concomitant verbal testimony was the primary goal in most dealings with informants, and the music sound material, once obtained, i t s e l f provided a means of eliciting additional testimony, i.e., bymeans of tape playback interviews. 2 Song designations were received from the musicians contributing songs, both during the recording sessions and during subsequent tape playback interviews. In addition, several informants submitted to tape playback interviews involving recordings in which they had not participated. Various opinions on performance quality and song
The writer's collection of field tapes, field notes, tape dialogue transcripts, and miscellaneous fiel d materials (maps, pamphlets, newspaper clippings, etc.) are deposited in the University of I l l i n o i s Ethnomusicology Archive, where they have been accessioned as Collection 52. (The accession numbers for duplicate copies of these materials in the Ottawa Museum of Man collection had not been determined at the time of writing.)
2The term tape playback interview i s used throughout this study to refer to interview situations in which informants were requested to auditio(or reaudition) tape recordings of their own singing, or that of other informants, and to verbalize about what they heard. These sessions were intended to provide a means of cross-checking song designations and related data, and to unearth evaluations of performance quality. Since many of the tapes of the field collection were recorded in situations where i t would not have been proper or possible for me to continually remind the musicians to 'announce' their selections, some tapes ended up containing l i t t l e or no documentary information pertaining to their musical contents; tape playback interviews were necessary for even an i n i t i a l identification of the items on such tapes.
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designations were also received from interpreters, translators, and othernon-specialists who auditioned the tapes. 1
C. QUALITY AND SCOPE OF THE DATA
Some rather specific and detailed information on individial songs was received from informants. When informants were asked i f they knew how old a song was, or i f they recalled the occasion when they f i r s t heard i t or learned i t , or i f any memories were brought back by the song, or i f the song belonged to a particular society or ceremony, they usually obliged by providing f a i r l y precise dates, designations of song function, and various miscellaneous data. To what extent this detail represents merely an overzealous attempt on the part of informants to provide information which this investigator, by the nature of his questioning, may have implied was desirable, i s d i f f i c u l t to ascertain. There i s also the matter of the reluctance of some informants to reveal even occasional lapses of knowledge in an area in which they are reputed to be knowledgeable. As Madge (1965:272) put i t : "A question i s a powerful stimulus, and i t i s emotionally unsatisfying not only to admit that one does not know the answer, but also to lose an opportunity to give i t in the most striking, least qualified form." Rare was the occasion when a singer could not offer at least one piece of historical or anecdotal information about a song, even when my questions were posed in what I thought was a non-directive and nonchalant way. I like to think that there were very few instances when informants gave fanciful testimony in order to present themselves in a favorable light, or to meet what they thought were my expectations as a fieldworker. Where i t i s suspected that data were strongly influenced by these factors they have been devalued accordingly. In general, my informants impressed me as being truthful and trustworthy, which i s only to say I believe that the information they gave was — to the best of their knowledge — 'true.' Informants were therefore taken at their word unless there was conflicting evidence; and unless otherwise indicated the data presented in this study are drawn either from the testimony of informants or the personal observations of the writer. The testimony of informants was cross-checked, wherever possible, and to the extent that several distinct sources gave identical or similar answers to many questions, a body of 'truth' was collected. On the other hand, a considerable body of conflicting and garbled testimony was received.
Verbal testimony received during tape playback interviews or other situations in which individuals auditioned the tapes has been extracted from the manuscript fie l d notes and entered at the appropriate positions in the above-mentioned dialogue transcripts. The dialogue transcripts are thereby transformed into "tape translation and commentary reports," which were obtained from various informants under a variety of circumstances during the course of fieldwork.
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D. PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
From interviews with informants and from personal observations i t became apparent that there was considerable diversity on the Blood reserve in economic and social levels and in the values and behavior of the inhabitants. An important factor in this diversity was the extremely wide spread in the range of acculturational levels in existence on the Blood reserve. The diversity was also ascertainable in the sphere of music: a wide range of musical values and behavior was encountered. I t i s the purpose of this study to examine the musical values and behavior of the contemporary Blood Indian against the background of reservation l i f e , and where possible, in the framework of non-musical values and behavior, both past and recent.
CHAPTER I I
THE CONTEMPORARY BLOOD INDIAN
A. THE CONTEMPORARY BLOOD IN THE SETTING OF THE BLOOD RESERVE
The Blood or Kainai Indians are a division of the Blackfoot 1 Indians, a people who throughout the nineteenth century were the most powerful and most numerous of the nomadic equestrian buffalo hunters of the northwestern plains (Ewers 1944:7). The depletion of the buffalo herds during the late nineteenth century, culminating their virtual extermination in the early 1880s, signalled the end of the traditional Blackfoot way of l i f e . The threat of starvation compelled the Blackfoot to settle on reservations which had been allocated to them by treaty with the Canadian and American governments, and to attempt to learn a new and alien way of l i f e . The Siksika (North Blackfoot, or Blackfoot proper), Piegan, and Blood Indians each have separate reservations in southwestern Alberta, and there i s a large Blackfoot reservation in northwestern Montana, inhabited mainly by South Piegan Indians.
In 1968, when fieldwork for this study was conducted, a l l but 421 of the 4046 Blood Indians lived on their reserve (Statistical Report 1968-69).2
The Blood reserve, as succinctly described by Indian Agent R.N. Wilson in 1911, i s "situated between the Belly and St. Mary's Rivers and from the forks of these streams runs in a southern direction for about 40 miles to within 14 miles of the international boundary. I t contains an area of 540 square miles, or some 354,000 acres of spendid land. 3 The two rivers form the boundary lines on the north, east and west sides, and furnish an abundant supply of fresh clear water" (Annual Report 1912: 167-68).4 (The south boundary i s presently demarkated by Alberta highway 5.) The reserve i s situated in an area which "in the winter . . . . i s subject to cold, dry masses
In this study, the designation "Blackfoot" i s used to refer to any or a l l of the Blackfoot speaking peoples. The geographic and principal Band divisions will be referred to as follows: North Piegan, South Piegan, North Blackfoot, and Blood. The spelling "Peigan" will appear only when quoting British and Canadian sources in which that spelling i s used. The designation "Blood-Blackfoot" appears occasionally to refer to general Blackfoot t r a i t s when they are being discussed with particular reference to the Bloods.
2Unless otherwise indicated, a l l s t a t i s t i c a l data on the Blood and the reserve presented in this chapter are drawn from the 1968-1969 Statistical Report, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, Indian Affairs Branch, Alberta Region.
3A few thousand acres of the land have since been disposed of. The 1968-1969 Statistical Report gives the Blood reserve area as 351,575 acres (in two tracts, 346,780 and 4,795 acres respectively).
4Throughout this study, the citation "Annual Report" i s used to refer to quotations from the Annual Reports of the Department of Indian Affairs of the Dominion of Canada. See the List of References for complete bibliographical information.
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of continental polar air, moderated at times by the chinook winds. Summers are warm with abundant sunshine but ra i n f a l l is meagre ... and i s extremely variable with periodic droughts ... irrigation projects have been developed" (Canada 1968:17).
B. RESERVE ECONOMY
The vegetation covering two thirds of the reserve i s wild grass, which makes the area ideally suited for ranching. By the late 1960s there were over 11,000 head of cattle on the reserve and many Bloods were employed in some aspect of the stock-raising industry. With over one-third of the reserve land under cultivation (120,000 acres) various agricultural pursuits were also a common source of income among the Bloods.1
Somewhat fewer than 100 Bloods had steady salaried employment in a position involving some aspect of maintaining the reserve community. The following figures were received: 2
Blood Indian Agency approximately 35 Blood employees Civ i l Service " 20 " "Road Crew " 10 " "Blood Band Enterprises Store " 10 " "School Bus Driver (co-op) " 13 " "
The housing program, reservation schools, and the Blood Indian hospital also provided employment for several dozen Bloods. Other sources of income on the Blood Reserve were very limited. Sawmills, o i l and gas, fishing and trapping, and harvesting wild crops — activities which provide considerable income for some Alberta Indians — were of l i t t l e significance on the Blood reserve. Other income was sought off the reserve. Seasonal agricultural employment (haying, plowing, fruit picking, etc.), was available during the summer months over a wide area of the western states and provinces, as were seasonal ranching occupations such as branding and fence mending. A small number of Bloods obtained employment as labourers and tradesmen in the white communitiesbordering the reserve, but this employment did not usually become established or regular. I f i t did, the employee often found i t more practical to emmigrate to the town where he was employed, thereby relinquishing his status as a treaty (reservation) Indian.
At the time of my fieldwork the Blood were far from economically self-sufficient. During the period April 1, 1967 to March 31, 1968, an average of 1,735 Bloods required social assistance each month (almost one-half of the population), and the total cost of the social services for the year was $333,980.00. In addition, close to $70,000.00 was paid out for child care (federal government Mother's allowance).
1The amount of acreage under cultivation gives a somewhat exaggerated picture of the number of Bloods engaged in agricultural pursuits: a substant i a l amount of this land i s leased to white farmers. The leasing i s i t s e l f a steady but minor source of income for the Bloods.
2Interviews with Blood Indian agent Peter Fisek, and Blood Band manager Allen Tailfeathers.
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C. THE PHYSICAL COMMUNITY
In 1968 the 3,625 reservation Bloods occupied a physical community comprising 526 housing units, almost a l l of which were accessable to each other by automobile; there were also good road connections from the reserve to the surrounding white communities. Alberta highway 2, one of the province's main north-south arteries, runs through the Blood reserve for 20 miles of i t s length, and the 'Glenwood Road' i s a 15 mile stretch of good paved road branching to the western portion of the reserve from highway 2. Alberta highway 5, as mentioned previously, runs adjacent to the southern boundary of the Blood reserve for 14 miles of i t s length. In addition to these 49 miles of paved provincial highway, there were 180 miles of gravelled roads and 25 miles of graded-ungravelled roads on the reserve, owned and maintained by the Blood Band.
Most of the 526 housing units were located in the southern and western portion of the reserve. Highway 2 demarcates the approximate eastern boundary of the population concentration. 1 Most of the dwellings were grouped into settlements, varying in size from a few family units, up to communities of one hundred or more inhabitants, of which there were three on the reserve: Standoff., Moses Lake and Glenwood.
D. STANDOFF, MOSES LAKE, GLENWOOD, AND OTHER INDIAN SETTLEMENTS
The settlement of Standoff, the largest community on the reserve, is located on the Belly River where i t i s crossed by Alberta Highway 2. Althoughprimarily an assemblage of dwellings, Standoff offered some community f a c i l i t i e s . There were churches, a school, and the Blood Band Enterprises store — a general store/post office/ souvenir shop/gas station. Public recreation f a c i l i t i e s were also present. Red Crow Memorial Stadium, with sufficient bleachers to accomodate several hundred spectators, was available for the rodeo sports, so popular among the Bloods. Across the highway from the rodeo stadium was an open-air dance compound equipped with overhead l i g h t s , an announcer's booth, and provision for a public address system. Thedancing compound was specifically intended for use during the annual Kainai Indian Days, but presumably i t would have been available for other outdoor entertainments, i f the need had arisen. Two of Standoff's main public recreation f a c i l i t i e s , a small community hall and a modern recreation arena, were in a state of disrepair and were not being used, as of the summer of 1968.2
About three-quarters of the reserve area i s located to the east and northeast of highway 2. This portion of the reserve i s given over to grazing land and large lease farms, and i s sparsely populated.
2The recreation arena appeared to be a total loss, i t s roof collapsed by a heavy load of snow in the winter of 1968. According to several informants, the building was apparently not insured and the Blood Band sustained a loss of over $100,000.00. The prospects for restoring the arena for use in the near future were not thought to be very promising.
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