The Washburn times. [volume] (Washburn, Wis.) 1896-1976, 1906-01-11

asticaliy Approved by Old Chiefs.
FRyOrite Song of "a Squaw.
Indian Commissioner Leupps recon-
mendatiOn in his annual report to con-
gress that Indian music be taught in
the government schools for Indians is
receiving the enthusiastic approval Of
the old chiefs on the reservations, but
the younger Indians know scarcely
more about Indian music than the av-
erage white man Of the west. says a
Yankton Is. d. correspondent Of the
Cincinnati Enquirer.
NO suggestion more to the liking of
the grIzzled warriors, who spend much
Of their time mourning over the depar-
ture OF happy days when they could
dance, sing and fight, has been made
by an Indian commissioner in recent
years. With the revival Of the Indian
music there is certain to be an awak-
ening OF the Indian spirit, the heritage
OF centuries of wild life on the plains
| and in the forests, and with these there
is sure to come some restoration Of the
| manlineSS for which the race was noted
and for lack of which the Indians are
struggling with disease and inebriety.
Few, indeed, have any idea of the
real Indian music. The reds do not pa
rade their national songs or their mu-
steal instruments. Whatever their prac
tice in wild life, Indian music cannot be
heard now except at long intervals,
when the tribes are engaged in some
impressive ceremony. But there is real
Indian music, as tuneful and as sweet
as the American songs which they have
| learned TO sing III recent years. There
are joyous, fanatical Or warlike songs
| Of the dance, the solemn or strangely
weird song of lamentation and the self
satisfied song of work. The words of
| many of the songs have a beauty all
their own. A mystic sort of fervor
runs through them, and some of them
are fairly thrilling even when robbed
| Of their picturesqueness by translation
| Old Indians are now looking forward
| TO the day when their songs will be
commonly sung on the reservations and
| again give them an opportunity to pour
out all the disappointed hopes Of years,
the heartaches and inconsistencies. They
! formerly sang of all the white men sing
of and begged the Great Spirit to pity
their desolation. They sang until the
| mind ruled the poor starved body, and
| then in trance the old Indians could
see all for which they yearned.
| Again they are to sing the songs, and
they are rejoicing that they are to be
left forever in the minds of the younger
generation; that they may see, as their
fathers have seen many time, the
home scenes of years Of plenty; watch
again the making of the pemmican;
hear again the wind whistling through
the tepee poles, while within the fire
burned brightly and the games went
merrily on.
Old Indian women on the South Da-
kota reservations remember when they
were expecting visits from friendly
tribes, and when they offered the hos
pitality of their wigwams to the way
farers, and this was the simple song
they would sing:
They say travellers are coming on the
march
stir the berries round; I stir them
around:
! take them up with a spoon of buffalo
horn
And / carry them. carry them to the
strangers.
While the men remember times on
the hunt when they sat on the backs of
their ponies waiting for the return of
the runners who had been sent out to
locate the buffaloes, and In their ioneli-
ness they would sing:
sfIe! They have come back racing.
Why, they say there is to be buffalo
hunt here.
Make arrows. Make arrows
Says the father, says the father
Stretched on the grass in front Of her
wigwam an aged squaw was asked
what she considered her favorite song,
and she explained that she always sang
about her mother She said she relncm-
bered when girl she would see visions
of her dead mother, and she would
sing:
Mother, come home; mother, come
nome,
NV little brothers go all about crying.
MY little brothers go always about cry
Mother, come home; mother, come
home.
Such songs as Rock of Ages" and
"Blest Be the. Tie That Binds are ia
vorites among the Indians, while a song
written by western man called "Loy-
atty in which there is the line ACROSS
the western plain there comes joyful
strain" is known to almost every H.
dian of the church.
Besides the religious songs Of the In
dams there are songs Of hunting, songs
of war and of work, which are gayer
than the religious songs The Indians
love to sing while they are at work,
and many of their best songs were
those sung by young girls, who do much
of the work about the lodge.