The healing Power of American Indian Music and Dance

Every music style has a certain type of syncopation. The different types of Jazz, for instance, and Brazilian samba, have their own unique type syncopation that is not easy for many musicians of the world to play. As an example: many musicians that might be excellent readers, but mechanical when reading a piece by, say, Count Basie, that requires, still another type of musical ability. Indian music has a very special way too: just like other music of the world, it may sound just like chanting to the average ear. But there is a definite syncopation and tonal quality that is required in order to execute, what seems so simple to an average ear. Indigenous peoples of the world have their own, and very unique sounds. Native American music is used, both, as part of Celebration and Healing music. The healing part is very interesting because in a healing ceremony, a musician and singer are, almost always present. Modern science has concluded, after long arduous and reluctance, that music has certain healing powers. It would have been such an easy process if they had consulted with any of the 554 different American Indian Nations on a matter that Indians have known for hundreds of years. Just as the blood flows through ones veins, music does the same, and when heard by anyone, it flows through your body in such a way that it gives you a multitude of sensations; you feel like dancing, singing, happy and full of energy. The reactions are countless. Many white people that come to Pow Wows today come to listen to the drum and singers. Some say that they don’t know what it is, but the drum and singers make them, not only feel like a part of, but like they belong to the earth. The sound is
infectious, entrancing and at times overwhelming, but still simple. It gives a person a feeling of sadness, happiness, enjoyment and belonging. It has a Spiritual Healing Power that is hard to escape, yet not easy to describe. When you first enter the grounds of a Pow Wow, you hear it strong and powerful in an engaging manner, and after a while it becomes so much a part of you that you forget it is there, because it is within you and has become a part of your Spiritual being. Tapes and CDs do not give one the same sensation as when experiencing it “live”. However, in the absence of a live performance, I would recommend, especially American Indian flute music. If you ever have an opportunity to go to America, try to go during Pow Wow season. You’re in for an unforgettable and enlightening experience. Then you will also realize why Indians follow the Pow Wow circuit so ardently. It is a necessary ritual to the spiritual existence of a majority of Indians today. For one weekend, individuals in attendance come closer together and become a part of Mother Earth. Many white people too, join and convert into a part of it, using it as a cleansing, sometimes to try and calm the memory of the terrible injustice, committed by people of their own race against the original peoples of the land. They come and find in the Indian, a human being that is friendly and loving. The singing, the music, the dancing has a Spiritual Power that is Healing, and Indians in America have been using it for ages, to help them, not only memorialize pre-European times, but to help in the forgiveness process and to soften the pain of the horrific ordeal suffered for hundreds of years after their encounter with the white peoples from across the sea. In America today, Indian music along with dance and chanting is bringing Indians and whites together to celebrate more like brothers and sisters, the way it was always intended by the Creator.



			“The Healing Power of Native American Music” Taken from Articles written for Wellness Magazine and from Excerpts of the TIPI Seminars held at: Europa Akademie Dr. Roland, Neubaugasse 43 in Vienna by: Mr. J. Reuben Silverbird, Nednhi Apache/Cherokee/Navajo
	Native American Musical Instruments have only come into the foreground of the Anglo/American music listening audience as of late, with the Flute, Drumming and Chanting taking precedence. However, it has been part of the American Indian since the beginning of time. Every American Indian celebration and Healing Ritual that has to do with song and dance, has always included the use of special musical sounds to help create the cadence for chanting or singing; The sounds come from musical instruments created from Earth elements, for which prayers and special offerings are always made with much respect to Mother Earth: Gourds with pebbles or seeds; Animal Hoofs and antlers, leather, bone, Cedar wood and many other materials, although plain by European standards, but with much earthen spiritual energy. Finally today comes the Drum, chanting and Flute music, which is instantly recognized, as American Indian music by people from all over the world.
The musical sounds the world tends to select for listening leasure will always be inclined to reflect, mold and influence behavior. Unknowingly and subconsciously, it will command the personal way in which one acts. Many individuals change with the mood of the music they listen to. They will act according to the music that is playing as if to leave one world for another, sometimes that world, more pleasant than the one that surrounds them or visa-versa. It is the hypnotic power of music and its way of removing ones mind to many new and distant places in conjunction with our imagination. Studies have been made of patients in hospitals, where certain types of musical instruments or musical sounds played a big part, and helped speed their recovery. The flute is one instrument that has that type soothing, gentle and quieting melodious sound. It will always help to calm the body, mind and even slow the beat of ones heart to a certain extent. If you close your eyes while listening to a Native American flute sound, it will actually help you meditate and some have been known to go into a trance like stage, if the concentration is strong and focused enough. However, it can be harder for those who are not attuned to music, or even if they are, there is a certain degree in which the brain accepts music. There are individuals, for instance, whose ear is only tuned to a certain type of music, whereas, others may find a certain melodic sound from various different rhythms. Still others will find certain music totally repulsive, not being able to understand it at all. Lucky for the world’s music makers, this is not the most natural reaction by the general public. There is such a thing as learning to understand music in general, yet there is some music today that I, myself find, somewhat, hard to digest. Then you have the genius musician, such as John Philip Sousa who not only taught about every marching band instrument, but could also play it. Although his forte was Marching type music, he thoroughly recognized many other type musical styles. Many private teachers will accept a child, at the insistence of the parents, even though the teacher is fully aware the child has no musical ability or ear whatsoever. As much as they will try to teach the child the fundamentals of music, it is hard for the child to grasp it, for there is no aptitude for rhythm. However, if the person is taught to read thoroughly, it is possible for that individual to play by reading every note that is written on a musical sheet, but the heart of the musical piece will most likely be missing. Of course, this in no way means that an attempt should not be made to teach a child music, because the learning of an instrument itself, in a way, could become a therapeutic or even a psychological outlet throughout that individual’s life, as music has the ability to do that in a special kind healing way.


		Every music style has a certain type of syncopation. The different types of Jazz, for instance, and Brazilian samba, have their own unique type syncopation that is not easy for many musicians of the world to play. As an example: many musicians that might be excellent readers, but mechanical when reading a piece by, say, Count Basie, that requires, still another type of musical ability. Indian music has a very special way too: just like other music of the world, it may sound just like chanting to the average ear. But there is a definite syncopation and tonal quality that is required in order to execute, what seems so simple to an average ear. Indigenous peoples of the world have their own, and very unique sounds. Native American music is used, both, as part of Celebration and Healing music. The healing part is very interesting because in a healing ceremony, a musician and singer are, almost always present. Modern science has concluded, after long arduous and reluctance, that music has certain healing powers. It would have been such an easy process if they had consulted with any of the 554 different American Indian Nations on a matter that Indians have known for hundreds of years. Just as the blood flows through ones veins, music does the same, and when heard by anyone, it flows through your body in such a way that it gives you a multitude of sensations; you feel like dancing, singing, happy and full of energy. The reactions are countless. Many white people that come to Pow Wows today come to listen to the drum and singers. Some say that they don’t know what it is, but the drum and singers make them, not only feel like a part of, but like they belong to the earth. The sound is infectious, entrancing and at times overwhelming, but still simple. It gives a person a feeling of sadness, happiness, enjoyment and belonging. It has a Spiritual Healing Power that is hard to escape, yet not easy to describe. When you first enter the grounds of a Pow Wow, you hear it strong and powerful in an engaging manner, and after a while it becomes so much a part of you that you forget it is there, because it is within you and has become a part of your Spiritual being. Tapes and CDs do not give one the same sensation as when experiencing it “live”. However, in the absence of a live performance, I would recommend, especially American Indian flute music. If you ever have an opportunity to go to America, try to go during Pow Wow season. You’re in for an unforgettable and enlightening experience. Then you will also realize why Indians follow the Pow Wow circuit so ardently. It is a necessary ritual to the spiritual existence of a majority of Indians today. For one weekend, individuals in attendance come closer together and become a part of Mother Earth. Many white people too, join and convert into a part of it, using it as a cleansing, sometimes to try and calm the memory of the terrible injustice, committed by people of their own race against the original peoples of the land. They come and find in the Indian, a human being that is friendly and loving. The singing, the music, the dancing has a Spiritual Power that is Healing, and Indians in America have been using it for ages, to help them, not only memorialize pre-European times, but to help in the forgiveness process and to soften the pain of the horrific ordeal suffered for hundreds of years after their encounter with the white peoples from across the sea. In America today, Indian music along with dance and chanting is bringing Indians and whites together to celebrate more like brothers and sisters, the way it was always intended by the Creator.