This paper describes the ethnographic context and analyses the structural characteristics of Bella Coola songs. Seventy-three original transcriptions which encompass a broad spectrum of Bella Coola ceremonial and non-ceremonial repertoires are included.

A comprehensive guide to Nuxalk culture and a central document in the study of ethnographic methods.

Between 1922 and 1924, the young Canadian anthropologist T.F. McIlwraith spent eleven months in the isolated community of Bella Coola, British Columbia, living among the people of the Nuxalk First Nation. During his time there, McIlwraith gained intimate knowledge of the Nuxalk culture and of their struggle to survive in the face of massive depopulation, loss of traditional lands, and the efforts of the Canadian government to ban the potlatch. McIlwraith’s resulting ethnography, The Bella Coola Indians (1948), is widely considered the finest published study of a Northwest Coast First Nation. This volume is a rich complement to McIlwraith’s classic work, incorporating his letters from the field as well as previously unpublished essays on the Nuxalk. Vivid and lively, the letters show the human side of the anthropologist, and provide a fascinating insight into the famous Northwest winter ceremonials and potlatch -- events in which McIlwraith was one of the few white men privileged to participate as a dancer and partner. Extensive editorial annotations and striking photographs make this book a pleasurable read that will appeal to anthropologists and historians, as well as those with interests in Northwest cultures and the history of anthropology in Canada.

A study of the interaction between Northwest Coast Indian Strutures and their Functional Context.

This book is a one-stop reference resource for the vast variety of musical expressions of the First Peoples' cultures of North America, both past and present. Encyclopedia of Native American Music of North America documents the surprisingly varied musical practices among North America's First Peoples, both historically and in the modern context. It supplies a detailed yet accessible and approachable overview of the substantial contributions and influence of First Peoples that can be appreciated by both native and nonnative audiences, regardless of their familiarity with musical theory. The entries address how ethnomusicologists with Native American heritage are revolutionizing approaches to the discipline, and showcase how musicians with First Peoples' heritage are influencing modern musical forms including native flute, orchestral string playing, gospel, and hip hop. The work represents a much-needed academic study of First Peoples' musical cultures—a subject that is of growing interest to Native Americans as well as nonnative students and readers.

This edition explores the history of musical contact, interaction, and exchange between American Indians and Euramericans, as documented in musical transcriptions, notations, and arrangements. The volume contributes to an understanding of American music that reflects our cultural reality, depicting reciprocal influences among Native Americans, scholars, composers, and educators, and illustrating consequences of those encounters for American musical life in general. Culled from a published record of over 8,000 songs, the edition contains 116 musical examples reproduced in facsimile. Included in the volume are the earliest attempts to represent tribal music in European notation, archetypal transcriptions in the scholarly literature of ethnomusicology, and recent contributions by contemporary scholars. Some of the notations shown here inspired composers in search of a distinctively American musical idiom to write works based on American Indian melodies. Others captured the imagination of American school children, whose concept of cultural and musical identity came to be linked with American Indians. Indigenous notations, the work of native scholars and educators, and recent compositions by native composers working in the classical vein also appear in this volume. As a compendium of historic materials, the edition illustrates the development of Euramerican attitudes and approaches to American Indian musics, the infusion of native musics into American musical culture, and native responses to and participation in the enterprise.

First Published in 1997. The present volume contains references and descriptive annotations for 1,497 sources on North American Indian and Eskimo music. As conceived here, the subject encompasses works on dance, ritual, and other aspects of religion or culture related to music, and selected "classic" recordings have also been included. The coverage is equally broad in other respects, including writings in several different languages and spanning a chronological period from 1535 to 1995. The book is intended as a reference tool for researchers, teachers, and college students. With their needs in mind, the sources are arranged in ten sections by culture area, and the introduction includes a general history of research. Finally, there are also indices by author, tribe, and subject.