The Significance of Native American Music

Music has great significance in Native American cultures. It helps Native Americans continue their oral traditions and it is incorporated into their storytelling. Music is important in ceremonies as it helps them transcend into a different state. Music has allowed Native Americans to hold onto a part of their past and tradition. Their music has evolved though over time to accommodate the tastes of younger generations.

Principles of Native American Religion

Unlike in Western religions, Native Americans believe humans are only a force in nature, there are many more powerful forces. Native Americans do not feel that animals were put on Earth to serve mankind; they believe they should coexist with animals. A common Native American creation myth is that animals dove into the ocean to pull up the continents and died in the process. Another common Native American belief is that the world is supported on the back of the tortoise; these myths teach that animals deserve our gratitude. The Native American view of the world is fundamentally non-Western. All the daily actions of Native Americans involve the environment and exude spirituality.

Wild Horse Powwow at Saxon High School

A powwow is not so much a religious event as a cultural event. Nearly half of Native Americans today are Christian and powwows give Native Americans a chance to reconnect to the past and reclaim their heritage. Powwows are rarely held for one tribe alone; most are hosted by a diversity of tribes from the surrounding areas. Since the 19th century, there has been a Pan-Indianism movement, which was motivated by a need for Native Americans of different tribes to unite against the Europeans. The ramifications of the Pan-Indianism movement are clear today in events such as the Wild Horse Powwow in Torrance.

The actual ceremonial presentations performed at powwows today have changed little in hundreds of years, but their meaning has changed. The religious connotations of these powwows has decreased.

Powwows today are mainly an opportunity for Native Americans to congregate and discuss policy issues. At the 37th annual Powwow at CSU Long Beach, many stands were dedicated to modern policy issues such as increasing allotment of land to tribes and substance abuse programs.

Within powwows, a schism is evident amongst Native Americans. The youth are more progressive and appreciate change in the ceremonies and practices whereas the elders are more dogmatic. Some practices are symbolic of the strain of conservatism amongst Native American cultures such as the use of peyote despite its legal status.

Contemporary Native American Music

Peyote




The use of peyote emerged partly as a response to the increasing popularity of Christianity. The use of a hallucinogenic substance was common for a number of Indian cultures, in order to achieve a spiritual state of consciousness. Today, peyote, to a degree, represents the Native American resistance to assimilation with Western culture and law. It is symbolic of the tribes' protectiveness of their practices and since the use of peyote conflicts with the rules of many Western religions, it forces Native Americans to choose.

Navajo Music

Navajo Rattle

Navajo Flute

Even in contemporary Native American music which often uses English instead of the tribal languages, traditional instruments such as the Navajo rattle and Navajo flute are used. Though recently, younger Native Americans in an attempt to popularize tribal music have merged tribal verses with new musical styles such as hip-hop.