by Tony Isaacs, 1988. Photo Credit: Tony Recording at United Tribes, Bismarck, North Dakota 1979. Photo by George A. Roth First, the title should be "Collecting Recordings of American Indian Music." You can collect recordings of Indian music, of particular performances, but you can't really collect the music – it's still out there with the people. From a traditional point of view, when you have a recording of a song, that's all you have, you don't have the ceremony that goes with it, you don't necessarily have the feeling that goes with it, and you don't necessarily have the history...

Written by Tony Isaacs, 1990.Photo Credit: PowwowUpon one's first visit to a Plains Indian powwow, all the songs by the different singing groups may "sound the same." While it's true that the compositional form of the songs is the same, and the singing styles of many groups are similar, the songs themselves are quite different. This introduction is designed to help the new listener get into the music, to better understand what the singers and dancers are doing, and enjoy the powwow that much more.First, the most popular form of Plains powwow singing and dancing today is the war dance...

By Tony Isaacs, 2005Photo Credit : Black Foot, Standing Bear, Big Eagle. Three members of the Souix tribe pose in Indian Village, 1898.Historically, “American Indian” was used almost exclusively until the early 1970’s. It was during the Kennedy Administration that a new set of terms began to be used for most of the country’s ethnic groups, such as Mexican American, Afro-American, Japanese American, and Native American. Also, college courses on “Native American studies” began to be offered in response to courses in other departments featuring Afro-American studies, Chinese-American studies, etc. As a result, Indian students taking these courses began to...