Page:Natalie Curtis - The Indians' Book.djvu/39

 The singing of the Plains women is less violent in its accent and more legato than that of the men, and its mellow nasal quality suggests the rustic note of the oboe.

The song of the Plains Indian has its fitting surrounding in the fire-lit lodge or the open prairie. The drum-beat, vibrant in the crisp, cold air of a winter night, adds its throb to the life-pulse of this music which is exciting, exhilarating, and inspiring through its spirit and vitality.

Strikingly different is the song of the Pueblo Indian. The shrill coyote cry of the Plains warrior is unknown to the Southwestern tiller of the soil. The song of the Pueblo men is a strong, clear outpouring from full lungs, while the note of the ceremonial chant is deep and solemn. The women of the Rio Grande and Zuñi Pueblos have high and flutelike voices; but the gentle Hopi women sing with veiled tone of peculiar feminine charm, and the long-drawn slurring of their phrases gives to their singing a certain vagueness of quality and intonation that is altogether alluring in its suggestion of the surrounding empty desert.

The sacred songs of the Navajos and Apaches are chanted with low nasal swing, but the dance-songs are sung with lusty vigor, and the call of the shepherd on the mountain-side echoes in clear-cut beauty through cliffs and cañons.

Like all folk-music, the music of the Indian is the spontaneous and sincere expression of the soul of a people. It springs from our own continent, and is thus, of all music, distinctively American. If Indian song be encouraged with Indians, and recognition of it awakened among our own people, America may one day contribute a unique music to the world of art. Not that the musical art of America can ever be founded on Indian melodies; for the art of the Aryan must be Aryan to be the true expression of his race. But the folk-music of any land is a soil from which genius draws sustenance for fresh growth, and the stimulus to the creative mind through contact with this native art should give to America a new and vigorous art impulse.

The drawings in this book are all made by the Indians, many of whom had never held brush before. Teachers in Indian schools say that Indian children in the first grade draw as well as white