This paper examines both what the Sioux culture û or rather, cultures û was like before European contact as well as what that culture has evolved into with a focus on the music of this people set within a broader artistic and cultural and even political context. It is probably true that no musical tradition can informatively be discussed in the absence of such a context, but this seems especially true for Native American music, which was learned and performed and understood within a context that included dance and ritual and religious meaning û which in turn included political implications for the colonized people.

After providing some cultural and historical background on the Sioux and on the role of music in American Indian cultures, this paper focuses on the music of the Sioux, relating it to other musical traditions of the regions where the Sioux lived as well as discussing its unique attributes. The final section of this paper examines the Sun Dance and the Ghost Dance as the two most important single types of m

Eastman, C. (1990). Wigwam evenings: Sioux folk tales retold. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska.

Notched sticks have several disadvantages over drums: they certainly do not have the ability to be heard as well and they lack the resonance that both American Indians and Westerners appreciate about the playing of a drum. They also lack the musical authority (which can be seen as the affective side of resonance) that a drum possesses. One can imagine the gods speaking through the voice of a drum, for example, but not through a notched stick.

Music and Dance as Political Protest

During ceremonies dancers followed the beat of the drum [although not necessarily of other instruments], which usually differed from the rhythm of the song being sung. The beat of the drum was supposed to govern the movements of the legs, body, and arms, while the song, in a different rhythm, had to do with the feelings. At times there were as many as three rhythms, or a rhythm within a rhythm in the singing, and a different rhythm for the drum (Grant, 1990, p. 293).

Densmore, F. (1918). Teton Sioux music. Smithsonian Institution Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 61. Washington DC: Government Printing Office.