{"id":8456,"date":"2024-09-20T09:19:40","date_gmt":"2024-09-20T14:19:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/?p=8456"},"modified":"2024-09-20T13:06:59","modified_gmt":"2024-09-20T18:06:59","slug":"american-artists-and-iroquois-peoples","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/2024\/09\/20\/american-artists-and-iroquois-peoples\/","title":{"rendered":"American Artists and Iroquois Peoples"},"content":{"rendered":"

The credibility and ethics of historical ethnographic work, especially in regards to the Indigenous communities of North America have been questioned next to modern standards. One of the more obvious examples of this is early ethnographers putting Native American songs to Western(Eurocentric) Notation. However, it wasn’t just ethnographers who studied Native American culture. The source below comes from the notes of an artist named Rufus Grider, who was not likely studying these people for ethnographic purposes or with ethnographic standards in mind(for better or worse). The notes study the Iroquois peoples who lived(and live now) mainly in the Northeastern region of the United States. Before looking at the music, Grider\u2019s categorizes this song with \u201cIroquois\u201d which earlier he includes the five tribes that are included under that label which include: The Mohawks(Grider clarifies that their official and proper name is \u201cCaniegas\u201d), Onidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, and The Senecas. He also describes and lists the dances he saw as well as his guesses on celebrations they were attached too, but here he titles it simply \u201cDance Song\u201d 1<\/sup><\/a>. In connection to the music, one of the more curiously inaccurate aspects of this work is that it has a key signature(in what looks to be c minor) as the Indigenous peoples likely did not sing in accordance with western scales and keys.\u00a0<\/span>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It is also possible that Rufus Grider was not the one who created this piece of sheet music as he attributes the work to an \u201cH.M. Converse, a white woman, an adopted Indian\u201d at the bottom of the piece. With further research it is found that this woman’s name is Harriet Maxwell Converse and the name she was given by the Seneca People(who adopted her) meant \u201cBearer of\u00a0<\/span>the Law\u201d because she supported the Iroquois Convention 2<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

The purpose of Graider\u2019s notes was likely for artistic interests or motivations but despite its clear inaccuracies, it is a good tool for people who are more familiar with western notation and who have not experienced the music or culture3<\/sup><\/a>(in addition to the fact that recording devices were not widely used in the late 1800\u2019s when this source was written). If Converse had an intended audience, it would likely have been for audiences like these.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Footnotes:<\/p>\n

\n

1 <\/a>Girder, Rufus\u00a0 A. Ms. Notes and Explanatory Text for Grider\u2019s Artwork on Iroquois Indians]<\/i>. New York, 1890. Accessed September 19, 2024. https:\/\/www.indigenoushistoriesandcultures.amdigital.co.uk\/Documents\/Detail\/notes-and-explanatory-text-for-griders-artwork-on-iroquois-indians\/7028348?item=7028361<\/a>.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

2 <\/a>Merced County Sun, Volume XXI, Number 38, 19 June 1891.<\/em> Merced County Sun 19 June 1891 – California Digital Newspaper Collection. Accessed September 19, 2024. https:\/\/cdnc.ucr.edu\/?a=d&d=MCS18910619.2.47&e=——-en–20–1–txt-txIN——–<\/a>.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

3<\/a> Girder, Rufus\u00a0 A. Ms. Miscellaneous Items Relating to Iroquois Culture<\/i>. New York, 1890. Accessed September 19, 2024.\u00a0 https:\/\/www.indigenoushistoriesandcultures.amdigital.co.uk\/Documents\/Detail\/miscellaneous-items-relating-to-iroquois-culture\/7028388?item=7028401<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The credibility and ethics of historical ethnographic work, especially in regards to the Indigenous communities of North America have been questioned next to modern standards. One of the more obvious examples of this is early ethnographers putting Native American songs … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5299,"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":[1563],"tags":[1376,712,1557,677],"class_list":["post-8456","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fall-24-mus-345b","tag-american-culture","tag-ethnography","tag-eurocentric","tag-native-american"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7jEhR-2co","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8456","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\/5299"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8456"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8456\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8461,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8456\/revisions\/8461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}