Talk:Indigenous music of North America

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This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 19 January 2021 and 7 May 2021. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Willace01.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 00:26, 17 January 2022 (UTC)

WikiProject Countering systemic bias
This article appears to be Western anthropocentric in much of its language. Later writers, after Nettl, abandon "primitive" references to American Indian peoples and music altogether, and opted for "exclusively oral" as a substitute. Much of this article appears to be couched in anthological and not contemporary understandings of the history and pedagogy of American Indian music. I will endeavor to add more information and references, and clean up the outdated biased language. It may take awhile, but i will work on it. --Brent Michael Davids 18:47, 19 November 2006 (UTC)


 * There are contemporary anthropologists. It would also be great to have other perspectives in addition to those provided by anthropology or ethnography. Hyacinth 06:40, 20 November 2006 (UTC)

Canada
It is my understanding that Canadians refer to their Native Americans as being of the "First Nations". Should there be a redirect from First Nations music (treating it as an airplane/aeroplane difference) or should we move it Native American and First Nations music? And the Inuit are included here, but they are sometimes classed as separate... maybe that should be changed. Tuf-Kat 07:37, Jan 2, 2004 (UTC)
 * I have boldly decided to treat this as a difference in Canadian/American English. Thus, First Nations music will redirect here and the American term will be used throughout. Tuf-Kat 07:43, Jan 19, 2004 (UTC)


 * I can tell you a fact that redirecting First Nations music to this page was an error although understandable. The music on the reserves around here are decidely different to tribal music from south of the border.  Northern style powwow music is easily distinguishable from southern style.


 * Besides - First Nation people are NOT Native Americans. They are Aboriginal Canadians and to lump them into the same category is a little rude and ignorant and quite offensive.  Hence the reason why I will remove the redirect as soon as I find out how to. Kind regards Othellobloke (talk) 08:00, 20 May 2009 (UTC)


 * The "American" in "Native American" (and "American Indian") traditionally refers to the entirety of the American continents (North America, South America, and if you consider it separate, Central America), not just to the United States. That plus the fact that a number of nations have members on both sides of the U.S./Canada border makes this a baffling accusation, even if it is 14 years old. This isn't an objection to removing the redirect, just a clarification about the English language for the young and ignorant. 173.18.56.34 (talk) 18:33, 20 August 2023 (UTC)

Delisted GA
There are no images. slambo 17:47, 23 October 2005 (UTC)

Terminology
According to the Oxford Guide to Canadian English Usage, Inuit (and Métis for that matter, although they aren't listed here for some reason) are not considered "Native American" or "First Nations". They can only be correctly described as "First Peoples" (comprising Inuit, Métis, and First Nations) or "Inuit". Muckapedia 18h42, Apr 3, 2006 (EST)

How to categorise "Indigenous Australian music" or "Native American music"
See the discussion at Talk:Indigenous music. Paul foord 10:58, 25 June 2006 (UTC)

Notes on organization

 * Characteristics and role in society - 4
 * Academia - 2
 * Song - 3


 * Instrumentation - 3
 * Regions - 1
 * Northern Canada - 2
 * Northwwest Coast - 2
 * California - 2
 * Great Basin - 2
 * Southwest - 2
 * Great Plains - 2
 * Great Lakes - 2
 * Southeast - 2
 * Northeast - 2
 * Pantribalism - 3

History

 * However, their historical authenticity can not be verified by western standards, and thus written histories of Native American music are scarce (Crawford, pg. 3 Crawford refers to the "historical knowledge valuable to a Native musician" as falling "more readily into the category of myth than of fact").

I find the above unclear. Does it mean that written histories of Native American music scarce because Native American's created and recreated oral histories and thus didn't create written history or that Europeans didn't bother to create written histories because Native Americans hadn't? Hyacinth 06:50, 20 November 2006 (UTC)
 * Well, both, kinda (but the first is what I was going for). I'll see if I can clarify in a minute. Tuf-Kat 00:25, 21 November 2006 (UTC)
 * Doesn't the first go without saying? Hyacinth 01:06, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

Northwest Coast
This section needs a bit of work. I corrected spelling errors for misnomer names. But some added information on it. Coast Salish music differs from the northern Kwakwaka'wakw and other nations, but I'm not sure about who Nettl is, or why it's important what he says. I'm not sure if there is much writen on the Northwest Coast music, but it does need help. OldManRivers 09:29, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

This article should be renamed !
This article refers to North Ameriacan music. While other American nations (Sub-Rio Granden-America) and their Natives are left unspoken of and their ancient traditions and Music are catorized as Latin American even dough they are Native Americans. --82.134.154.25 (talk) 18:09, 24 September 2009 (UTC)

A question
Hi, this isn't a comment, it is a question. I want to know how important music was to the N.American Indians, in terms of time spent. For example D.Werner in 1984 book about Mekranoti Amazon tribe, finds they spend about 2 hours per day per person musicking (average). That is (atypically?) huge. I want a number for the N.American Indians. (Based on the fact that songs were sung at various annual festivals I think the number is of order 1% or more of waking hours for at least some tribes.) Please email me answers: warren.wds AT gmail.com Thank you. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.47.43.225 (talk) 00:52, 11 April 2010 (UTC)

More on percussion.
I think that the section 'native american drums' should be replaced with 'native percussion', because 'drums' leaves other percussive instruments out. I noticed that there was a picture of a turtleshell rattle in the section on 'eastern woodlands' but there was absolutely nothing on the rattle as an instrument itself. Since I was looking for information on the rattles, I was disappointed. However, I think that I wouldn't do a very good job of adding that info, so if someone with better literary skills could try to write something of the sort, I'd be pleased. Yea55 (talk) 20:45, 7 December 2012 (UTC)Yea55

Variant not needed
There is no need to add "American Indian music" as an alternative term, see over 2 million hits versus fewer than 150,000 hits, many to "Native American Indian music" or other uses of "Native American.". While there are a few places that use "American Indian," it is the less common term and there is little likelihood of confusion. Montanabw (talk) 22:07, 3 April 2013 (UTC)

Why not "United States Music" or "North American Music", or "American Indian Music"?
The first sentence states, "Native American music is the music that is used, created or performed by Native Americans in the United States". That would be music associated with anyone born in the United States. If Canada is also to be included, that would more broadly be North American music, though by rights that should include music of Mexico, as well.

It seems that "Native American music" would more properly describe the music of anyone born in any of the Americas, including North, South, and Central America.

As I read the article, what is actually being described here is North American Indian music and more specifically, American Indian music of Canada and the United States -- Mexico is barely mentioned.

The article needs a more accurate title. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.95.43.249 (talk) 19:22, 15 April 2014 (UTC)


 * The article includes Inuit and Alaska Native music, too, not just American Indian. Yuchitown (talk) 19:04, 20 February 2016 (UTC)Yuchitown


 * I agree with the first comment, 99% of this article is just focused on the music of the United States. Even the Inuit music discussed is from Alaska, when the majority of Inuit live in Canada and Greenland. Either the title of the article should be changed or the whole article expanded and reorganized. Inter&#38;anthro (talk) 15:58, 30 October 2017 (UTC)

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More sound clips maybe?
This article is fairly long and describes many sub-genres of the broad category "Indigenous music of North America." Despite this, it has only two audio clips available on the page -- are there any other copywrite-safe audio samples that one could add to the page? I feel this would be a much better article if there were an audio sample for each of the sub-sections of the "Music areas" section. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.221.67.126 (talk) 07:10, 6 December 2017 (UTC)

Wiki Education assignment: Human Rights of Indigenous Peoples
— Assignment last updated by Carwil (talk) 16:46, 3 November 2023 (UTC)