WhoMe

What is your opinion about Indian women who compose powwow songs?

I just got a call from one of the women who is listed several times in the "whose your favorite women singers" thread. She is wanting to give our drum another song that she had composed. The first song she gave us made it to the Gathering of Nations compilation CD. She is an awesome composer and has shared her songs with other well known drums.

My sister also made a fantastic "southern fancy dance" song. We use it quite a bit.



Should women even be making songs? What's your take on this?

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"Today, recognizing and respecting the origins of powwow aids in our Cultural Survival. If enough people break the rules because they are not satisfied...."We will have no culture."

WhoMe

Niwiwan2005

My Vote is a big 10-4!! Some things should remain to tradition, however, some things are open for innovation. Women composers are something I see as a positive and exciting development!!

It has been said that women bring a balance to our lives--I believe this to be true in the singing world. This is also true to the world of pow-wow composition---women have a unique take on what their male counterparts may be oblivious to! Go ladies--I can't wait to hear those fine songs for the people!

mountaindew

As they use to say on "American Bandstand", as long as "It's got a good beat and easy to dance to", I'd say more power to women composers.

Str8Dancer49

Women composers aren't exactly "new." Take some of those keen Ohoma Society songs - several were made by Jeanette Berry Mopope in the 1940s and 1950s. Those are serious songs, not things that were made for "social" or fun dances, but for ceremonial use.

I think the key thing to consider for ANY person, male or female, who's making a song is whether they have the "rights" to do so. Jeanette Mopope's husband was in Ohoma, and at least one of the songs she made was for a cousin (one of the Palmer boys - Lyndreth, if I remember right), and she had been the "princess" of the Kiowa-Apache version of the Ohoma, plus she was always singing. So, from just about any angle, she had the "right" to make the songs she did.

Same thing could be said for WhoMe's sis - comes from a family of singers, has been backing up the guys at the drum for ever, has been around the arena for ever, so she knows how to make a song that gets people moving, and nobody can really claim that she doesn't have the "right" to make a fancy dance song.

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