IROQUOIS MUSIC AND DANCE: CEREMONIAL 

 ARTS OF TWO SENECA LONGHOUSES 



By Gertrude P. Kurath 



PART 1. DESCRIPTION AND ANALYSIS 



INTRODUCTION 

 THE LONGHOUSE AND THE PEOPLE 



Centuries of impact have completely metamorphosed the external 

 life of the once powerful Iroquois tribes. Wliite encroachment has 

 shrunk the New York holdings of the Seneca to three small tracts in 

 the western part of the State, namely, Allegany, Cattaraugus, and 

 Tonawanda Reservations. The last two are within 25 miles of 

 Buffalo, and Allegany Reservation follows a well-traveled highway, in 

 a narrow strip of land along the Allegheny River from Salamanca 

 south beyond Quaker Bridge. The modest framehouses could belong 

 to any White community; the wooden longhouse could be a rural 

 grange hall; the pedestrians and the occupants of the latest models of 

 automobiles could be ordinary farmers or laborers but for their swarthy 

 complexions. Only the initiated would know that these people are 

 gathering for a celebration stemming from this soil. 



In the longhouse, they are seated on wooden benches along the 

 wall, but they are grouped according to their ancestral custom, with 

 sexes and moieties separated. Singers occupy a plain wooden bench, 

 but they beat ancient rhythms with instruments that for the most 

 part are of traditional construction, and they sing melodies of un- 

 known antiquity. Feet tramp on wooden floors around two iron 

 stoves, but they trace the patterns of rounds that were not brought 

 overseas by the White invader. 



At this point I shall say no more about the structure of their 

 ceremonialism and its social implications, but shall refer to past 

 descriptions (Morgan, 1901 ; Fenton, 1936, 1941). I shall introduce the 

 chief artists and then proceed to the special problem — the songs and 

 the dances, at their own value. 



During contact with Coldspring ceremonials, one gifted family 

 was indispensable in longhouse festivals and in private sessions for 



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634-599 O — Q4 2 



