INDIAN MUSIC — DENSMORE 529 



reservation. The Chippewa are excellent singers, the costumes were 

 picturesque, and the green of the prairie was a lovely background to 

 the picture. Hour after hour I sat beside the dance circle, becoming 

 more and more impressed with the idea that I must record Chippewa 

 songs as Miss Fletcher had recorded the songs of the Omaha. Two 

 years later I recorded Indian songs for the first time, from some of 

 the same singers. The June 14 celebration was attended again, in 1907, 

 and afterward, using a borrowed recording phonograph, I recorded 

 songs sung by Big Bear and other Chippewa friends. Later I 

 stopped at Onigum, on the Leech Lake Reservation, and the visit was 

 at an opportune time. Flat Mouth, the chief of that band of Chip- 

 pewa, lay dying, and the medicine men were treating him according 

 to the customs of the Grand Medicine Society (Midewiwin) of which 

 he was a member. This took place about a mile from the agency 

 and I was the only white person present. The Indians knew I was 

 there but made no objections, and I heard songs that were sung only 

 on such an occasion. 



Prof. William H. Holmes, then Chief of the Bureau of American 

 •Ethnology, Smithsonian Institution, in 1907 allotted $150 for the 

 recording of Indian songs. I bought an Edison Home Phonograph, 

 the best recording equipment available at that time, and returned to 

 the Chippewa agency at Onigum to begin my work. The Indians 

 remembered my presence there at the time of Flat Mouth's death, and 

 the medicine man who was in charge of the ceremony recorded many 

 of his best songs. Several others recorded songs of the Grand Medi- 

 cine and drew the pictures that represent the words of these songs. 

 I tested the accuracy of this system of mnemonics by showing the 

 pictures to members of the Grand Medicine Society at White Earth, 

 a few weeks later, and they sang the same songs. 



Later in the same year, with a further allotment of funds, I went 

 to White Earth, Minn., and continued my work. One of the most 

 important informants was an aged man named Maingans (Little 

 Wolf) , a member of the Midewiwin. 



A few weeks after this work at White Earth I went to Washington 

 for the first time, and gave a lecture on Indian music before the 

 Anthropological Society of that city. Maingans and several other 

 old Chippewa were in Washington on tribal business and consented 

 to enact a portion of a Grand Medicine ceremony, singing the songs. 

 They did this in all sincerity and it was received with respect, but 

 Maingans was severely punished when he returned to the reserva- 

 tion. He was not allowed to enter the lodge when the Midewiwin 

 held its meetings the following June. His wife died, and this was 

 attributed to his enacting part of a native religious ceremony for 

 the pleasure of white men. The Indians did not blame me, and the 



