https://blogs.loc.gov/folklife/2013/11/indigenous-american-cylinder-recordings-and-the-american-folklife-center/ Library of Congress * Ask a Librarian * Digital Collections * Library Catalogs The Library of Congress > Blogs > Folklife Today > Indigenous American Cylinder Recordings and the American Folklife Center Search [All Formats ] [ ] Go [folklife-blog-banner] { subscribe_url:'//blogs.loc.gov/share/sites/ library-of-congress-blogs/folklife.php' } Indigenous American Cylinder Recordings and the American Folklife Center November 27, 2013 by Stephanie Hall La_Flesche200 Francis La Flesche, the first professional American Indian ethnologist. Courtesy of the National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution. Photograph No. 4504. As November is Native American Heritage Month, it seems a good opportunity to talk about some of the services the American Folklife Center provides for American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians, and for those who wish to learn more about them. The archival collections of the Library of Congress include the largest body of early recordings of indigenous American music recordings in the United States: about ten thousand wax cylinders of songs and stories. The majority document American Indian cultures. Among these are the earliest known ethnographic field recordings, documenting Passamaquoddy songs and narratives by Noel Josephs and Peter Selmore, recorded by Jesse Walter Fewkes in Calais, Maine, in March 1890. An example of a song preserved on a wax cylinder is from the Menominee story of the culture hero Manabus, who tricks ducks into dancing with their eyes closed so that he can kill and eat them. It is sung by Louis Pigeon and was recorded by Frances Densmore in 1925. The ethnographers making recordings in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries sometimes indicated their belief that they were preserving aspects of cultures soon to disappear. Various circumstances, including widespread programs intended to assimilate Indian children, were expected to create future generations of native peoples who spoke only English. These predictions did not entirely come true, but some American Indian languages are no longer spoken, or are spoken by very few people. An example of a recording in a language no longer spoken today is this lullaby in Konomihu, a language related to Shasta, sung by Ellen Brazill Grant in California in 1926. Although early recordings on wax may be scratchy and the sound may be faint, they nevertheless provide an invaluable resource for the preservation and revitalization of indigenous cultures and languages. Even though the majority of the cylinder recordings contain songs rather than spoken language, they still can provide valuable information about language. Some languages that were no longer spoken are now being spoken again, owing to recorded and written documentation of languages by ethnographers and linguists in the past and the diligent efforts of native people who wish to bring back their languages. The Library has hosted meetings sponsored by the American Folklife Center and other archives in the Washington D.C. area especially for indigenous archivists and researchers, in the United States and elsewhere, wishing to locate and preserve such archival holdings or to do further research on native languages and cultures. Providing access to early collections, particularly the wax cylinder recordings, proved to be a huge undertaking. In 1979 the Center launched the Federal Cylinder Project, which transferred fragile cylinder recordings onto preservation tape in cases where that had previously been done, and (in one of the earlier efforts of what is now described as "musical repatriation") also sought to make copies available to tribal archives so that the members of the groups represented on those recordings would have an opportunity to hear them close to home, as well as at the Library of Congress. Efforts to make recordings available continue today. Because of cultural sensitivities among indigenous Americans about the sacred nature of many songs and stories, appropriate use of the recordings, and appropriate audiences for them, it is not possible to present the majority of these archival recordings online. The American Folklife Center has worked with several American Indian nations, however, to select items that can be presented online with appropriate contextual information. The largest presentation is Omaha Indian Music, featuring songs from wax cylinder recordings made by an Omaha ethnographer, Francis La Flesche, and Alice Cunningham Fletcher between 1890 and 1910, along with a performance by the Hethu'shka Society at the Library of Congress in 1985, and documentation of a 1983 annual powwow in Nebraska. Interviews with tribal elder Rufus White, conducted in 1999, provide further cultural information about the recordings. Francis La Flesche, who lived from 1857-1932, was the first professional American Indian ethnologist and a member of the Omaha Nation. He published several books on the Omaha and the Osage. He had relatives who used the same "English" name as he did, and he documented some of his own family members as part of the work he did with Alice Cunningham Fletcher. This example is a recording of the ethnologist Francis La Flesche's uncle, Francis La Flesche, Sr., whose Omaha name was Minxa'ska, and Minxa'ska's son, Francis La Flesche, Jr., performing a Hethu'shka Society song and dance (the Hethu'shka society is an Omaha warriors' society). These cylinder recordings of indigenous Americans' songs and stories are used by both native and non-native researchers. Their greatest value lies in the the cultures and languages they help preserve, and they also provide a trip back in time, allowing us to hear voices of the past. Finally, they have another kind of value: they have become a symbol of the durability and resilience of indigenous cultures. Resources The American Folklife Center, an Illustrated Guide Gray, Judith A., 1996. "Returning Music to the Makers: The Library of Congess, American Indians, and the Federal Cylinder Project," Cultural Survival: Partnering with Indigenous Peoples to Defend their Lands, Languages, and Cultures, Volume 20, no. 4. Hall, Stephanie, "Narratives of Women and Girls: the Center for Applied Linguistics Collection," Folklife Today, March 26, 2014. Hall, Stephanie, "Omaha Hethu'shka Society Songs and Dances," Folklife Today, November 26, 2014. Hall, Stephanie, "A Sampler of Caribbean American Recordings," Folklife Today, June 19, 2014. Hawaiian Song, an essay that forms part of the presentation The Library of Congress Celebrates the Songs of America. Native American Heritage Month and Asian and Pacific Heritage Month, 2013 include additional information on American Indian, Alaskan Native, and Native Hawaiian collections and resources with links. Saylor, Nicole, "Moving Day and a Major Anniversary," Folklife Today, March 13, 2015. Taylor, Lisa, "American Indian and Alaskan Native Veterans Served Proudly Too," Folklife Today, November 24, 2014. Posted in: Alice Cunningham Fletcher, Folk Music, Folksong, Frances Densmore, Francis La Flesche, Languages and Dialects, Native American History Add a Comment >> Add a Comment Click here to cancel reply. This blog is governed by the general rules of respectful civil discourse. You are fully responsible for everything that you post. The content of all comments is released into the public domain unless clearly stated otherwise. The Library of Congress does not control the content posted. Nevertheless, the Library of Congress may monitor any user-generated content as it chooses and reserves the right to remove content for any reason whatever, without consent. Gratuitous links to sites are viewed as spam and may result in removed comments. We further reserve the right, in our sole discretion, to remove a user's privilege to post content on the Library site. Read our Comment and Posting Policy. Required fields are indicated with an * asterisk. * Name (no commercial URLs) [ ] * Email (will not be published) [ ] * Comment [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [Add a Comment] [Clear] Search [ ] Go About This Blog ISSN 2692-1731 Special Category * World War I Categories * 1965 * A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens * Aaron Copland * Acquisitions * AFC 40th Anniversary * AFC Awards * AFC Events * AFC History * AFC Publications * AFC Reading Room Visitors * Afghanistan War * African American History * African American History Month * African Americans * Alan Jabbour * Alan Lomax * Alice Cunningham Fletcher * America Works * American Folklore Society * Animals * Appalachia * April Fool's Day * Archie Green * Archival Practice * Archive Challenge * Arkansas * Armenian Americans * Asian American History * Asian Americans * Austin Fife * Austrian Americans * Battle of the Bulge * beliefs * Benjamin A. Botkin * Benjamin Botkin Folklife Lecture Series * Bess Lomax Hawes * Black History Month * Black Panther Party * Blanton Owen * Bluegrass * blues * Bob Dylan * Bob Moses * Botkin Folklife Lectures Plus * Bourbon * Burl Ives * Candlemas * Caribbean Americans * Carita Doggett Corse * Caught My Eye * Charles Lafayette Todd * Charles Lafayette Todd and Robert Sonkin * Charles Seeger * Charles Sherrod * Chicano/a * chinese americans * christmas * Civil Rights * Civil Rights History Project * Clothing * COVID-19 pandemic * Cowboys * Crafts * Croatian Americans * cuban americans * Cultural Heritage * Czech Americans * D-Day * Dance * Danish Americans * Dia de los Muertos * dia de muertos * Disablity * Don Yoder * Drama * Duncan Emrich * Easter * Easter * eggs * England * ethnomusicologists * Exhibits * Father's Day * Fieldwork * Film * Finnish Americans * Fiona Ritchie * Folk Art * Folk Drama * Folk Medicine * Folk Music * Folklorists * Folksong * Foodways * Frances Densmore * Francis La Flesche * freedom struggle * Freedom Stuggle * Freedom Summer 1964 * French American History * Games * Geographical Guides * George Korson * George Pickow * Georgia [Country] * German Americans * Gerry Parsons * Glen Pearcy Collection * Greek Americans * Green Man * Groundhog Day * Haiti * Halloween * Halloween Songs * Halloween Stories * Hawaiian Americans * Herbert Halpert * Hidden Folklorists * Higher Education * Hispanic American History * Holidays * Home * Homegrown Concert Series * Homegrown Plus * Hunting * immigration * Independence Day * Intangible Cultural Heritage * Internship program * Iraq War * ireland * Irish Americans * Italian Americans * Jacob Grimm * James Madison Carpenter * japanese americans * jazz * Jean Ritchie * Jewish American History * Jewish Americans * John Henry Faulk * John Lomax * John Wesley Work III * Juan B Rael * Juneteenth * Kentucky * korean americans * Korean War * La Llorona * labor day * Languages and Dialects * Lead Belly (Huddie Ledbetter) * Legends * LGBT Pride Month * LGBTQ * Lithuanian Americans * Live in the Archive * Louisiana * Macedonian Americans * Marshall W. Stearns * Martin Luther King * Martin Luther King * Mary Hufford * Maryland * Massachusetts * Material Culture * May Day * Medieval Folklore * Memorial Day * Michigan * Millennials * Mother's Day * Myths * Narratives * Native American History * New Year's Day * No Depression's Roots in the Archive * Norwegian Americans * obituaries * Occupational Folklife Project * Ohio * Open Mic * opossums * Oral History * Pacific Islander History * Pacific Islands Americans * Persian Gulf War * Pete Seeger * Photographs * Pic of the Week * Podcasts * Poetry * Polish Americans * popular culture * Practical Jokes * Preservation * Proverbs * Puerto Rican Americans * Purple Heart * quilts * Radio * Religion * repatriation * riddles * Robert Sonkin * Robert Winslow Gordon * Rosanne Cash * Ruby Terrill Lomax * russian americans * Sam Eskin * Scotland * Selma to Montgomery Voting Rights March * Serbian Americans * Shirley Sherrod * Sidney Robertson Cowell * Slovak Americans * Slovenian Americans * SNCC * snow * Southwest Georgia Project * Spiritual music * Staff Finds During Difficult Times * Stetson Kennedy * story map * StoryCorps * Storytelling * Student Interracial Ministry * students * Swedish Americans * teachers * Teaching * Textile arts * textiles * Thanksgiving * Thistle & Shamrock * Thomas Jefferson Building * Tony Barrand Interview * Tourism * Toys * U.S. Congress * U.S. Revolution * Ukrainian Americans * Uncategorized * Vernacular architecture * Veterans Day * Veterans History Project * Vietnam War * Voices of Civil Rights Project collection * Volunteer * Weddings * Willard Rhodes * Willis Laurence James * WIPO * Wisconsin * Women's History * Woody Guthrie * Working Together Apart series * World War I * World War II * Yom Kippur * Zora Neale Hurston * zydeco Archives * 2022 + January (5) + February (10) + March (12) + April (5) * 2021 + January (3) + February (8) + March (9) + April (7) + May (8) + June (10) + July (11) + August (8) + September (11) + October (11) + November (8) + December (9) * 2020 + January (8) + February (7) + March (11) + April (12) + May (17) + June (14) + July (12) + August (9) + September (7) + October (6) + November (5) + December (11) * 2019 + January (12) + February (13) + March (12) + April (13) + May (9) + June (9) + July (11) + August (8) + September (6) + October (6) + November (8) + December (4) * 2018 + January (10) + February (14) + March (12) + April (8) + May (10) + June (9) + July (6) + August (7) + September (9) + October (12) + November (12) + December (11) * 2017 + January (11) + February (9) + March (8) + April (6) + May (11) + June (10) + July (10) + August (8) + September (10) + October (12) + November (11) + December (8) * 2016 + January (5) + February (7) + March (12) + April (8) + May (6) + June (9) + July (8) + August (7) + September (9) + October (6) + November (9) + December (7) * 2015 + January (9) + February (8) + March (7) + April (7) + May (8) + June (9) + July (7) + August (7) + September (10) + October (10) + November (8) + December (7) * 2014 + January (7) + February (8) + March (6) + April (9) + May (8) + June (8) + July (12) + August (9) + September (11) + October (12) + November (9) + December (12) * 2013 + October (1) + November (6) + December (8) Disclaimer This blog does not represent official Library of Congress communications. Links to external Internet sites on Library of Congress Web pages do not constitute the Library's endorsement of the content of their Web sites or of their policies or products. Please read our Standard Disclaimer. Connect with the Library All ways to connect Find Us On Facebook Twitter YouTube Flickr Subscribe & Comment * RSS & E-Mail * Blogs Download & Play * Podcasts * Webcasts * iTunesU (external link) Questions * Ask a Librarian * Contact Us About | Press | Jobs | Donate Inspector General | Legal | Accessibility | External Link Disclaimer | USA.gov Speech Enabled