Heartbeat of the People: Music and Dance of the Northern Pow-wow

Tara Browner

University of Illinois Press, Mar 17, 2004 - Music - 200 pages

The intertribal pow-wow is the most widespread venue for traditional Indian music and dance in North America. Heartbeat of the People is an insider's journey into the dances and music, the traditions and regalia, and the functions and significance of these vital cultural events. Tara Browner focuses on the Northern pow-wow of the northern Great Plains and Great Lakes to investigate the underlying tribal and regional frameworks that reinforce personal tribal affiliations. Interviews with dancers and her own participation in pow-wow events and community provide fascinating on-the-ground accounts and provide detail to a rare ethnomusicological analysis of Northern music and dance.

About the author

Tara Browner is a professor of ethnnomusicology at the University of California, Los Angeles. She is the editor of Music of the First Nations: Tradition and Innovation in Native North American Music. She is Oklahoma Choctaw and dances in the Women's Southern Cloth tradition.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Heartbeat of the People: Music and Dance of the Northern Pow-wow; Book collections on Project MUSE; Music in American Life
• Author: Tara Browner
• Edition: illustrated, reprint
• Publisher: University of Illinois Press, 2004
• ISBN: 0252071867, 9780252071867
• Length: 200 pages
• Subjects: Music / Ethnic; Music / General; Music / Genres & Styles / Folk & Traditional; Performing Arts / Dance / Folk; Performing Arts / Dance / Regional & Ethnic; Social Science / Ethnic Studies / American / Native American Studies; Social Science / General