{"id":2436,"date":"2017-10-30T23:23:22","date_gmt":"2017-10-31T04:23:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/?p=2436"},"modified":"2017-10-30T23:23:22","modified_gmt":"2017-10-31T04:23:22","slug":"sioux-indians-a-cowboy-chant-oh-the-irony","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/2017\/10\/30\/sioux-indians-a-cowboy-chant-oh-the-irony\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;Sioux Indians (A Cowboy Chant)&#8221;&#8230; Oh the Irony"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe title=\"Spotify Embed: Sioux Indians (A Cowboy Chant)\" style=\"border-radius: 12px\" width=\"100%\" height=\"152\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/track\/2Ahi1yAjuxFCSytWcx3q6k?utm_source=oembed\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>This week, amidst the vast shelves of St Olaf Libraries, I stumbled upon a track on the album\u00a0<em>Back in the Saddle Again: American\u00a0<\/em><i>Cowboy Songs<\/i>. I was intrigued by the adjective &#8220;American&#8221; to describe the songs on that record. Does this album answer the question we&#8217;ve been asking all semester? Spoiler alert &#8212; No.<\/p>\n<p>One song on the LP caught my eye. It was titled &#8220;Sioux Indians&#8221;. Nervously, I took a listen, only to hear more slander and racism which has been called-out in so many other blog posts. \u00a0The cowboy singing the song tells the story of the folklore and encounter with a tribe of Sioux Indians.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">&#8220;We heard of Sioux Indians all out on the plains<br \/>\nA-killing poor drivers and burning their trains,&#8211;<br \/>\nA-killing poor drivers with arrows and bow,<br \/>\nWhen captured by Indians no mercy they show.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>These lyrics depict the Sioux Indians as savages! They are upset with that they are burning the trains and killing the drivers&#8230; but did do they remember who&#8217;s land they built the train tracks through in the first place? The song continues, and the cowboy himself encounters some Sioux Indians.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;While taking refreshment we heard a low yell,<br \/>\nThe whoop of Sioux Indians coming up from the dell;<br \/>\nWe sprang to our rifles with a flash in each eye,<br \/>\n&#8216;Boys,&#8217; says our brave leader, &#8216;we&#8217;ll fight till we die.'&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The complete other that the cowboys have created when describing. They limit the Native Americans to primitive sounds like a &#8220;yell&#8221; or &#8220;whoop&#8221;. When the song itself begins with the cowboy introducing himself and how he is going to &#8220;sing&#8221; you a song.<\/p>\n<p>For me, the worst part is when the cowboys and the Indians duel.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;They made a bold dash and came near to our train<br \/>\nAnd the arrows fell around us like hail and like rain,<br \/>\nBut with our long rifles we fed them cold lead<br \/>\nTill many a brave warrior around us lay dead.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>&#8220;Fed them cold led&#8221; is such a demeaning drastic image. The verb &#8220;fed&#8221; used as if it was a service or kindness. They also poke fun at the fallen Native Americans mockingly calling them &#8220;warriors&#8221;. This piece &#8220;Sioux Indians&#8221; by Marc Williams continues the racism behind turning Native Americans into others &#8211; in this case savages.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">Citations<\/p>\n<p>Recorded Anthology of American Music, Inc. (1983). <i>Back in the Saddle Again : American Cowboy Songs.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n<p>William, Marc.\u00a0<em>Sioux Indians (A Cowboy Chant)<\/em>. Spotify. <a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/track\/2Ahi1yAjuxFCSytWcx3q6k\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">link<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This week, amidst the vast shelves of St Olaf Libraries, I stumbled upon a track on the album\u00a0Back in the Saddle Again: American\u00a0Cowboy Songs. I was intrigued by the adjective &#8220;American&#8221; to describe the songs on that record. Does this &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/2017\/10\/30\/sioux-indians-a-cowboy-chant-oh-the-irony\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2566,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[901,565,900,719,902],"class_list":["post-2436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-cowboy","tag-lp","tag-marc-williams","tag-sioux","tag-st-olaf-libraries"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7jEhR-Di","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2436","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2566"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2436"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2436\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2476,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2436\/revisions\/2476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}