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Omaha Indian Music - Hethu'shka Songs (2-CD Set)
Omaha Indian Music
Omaha Indian Music - Hethu'shka Songs (2-CD Set)
Genre: Folk
 
  •  Track Listings (44) - Disc #1

Timeless Echoes of Original Omaha Indian Musical Heritage: In 1976 the American President signed the American Folklife Preservation Act for the establishment of the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. ...  more »

     
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CD Details

All Artists: Omaha Indian Music
Title: Omaha Indian Music - Hethu'shka Songs (2-CD Set)
Members Wishing: 0
Total Copies: 0
Label: A2ZCDS.com
Release Date: 10/31/2006
Genre: Folk
Style:
Number of Discs: 2
SwapaCD Credits: 2
UPC: 882012001332

Synopsis

Product Description
Timeless Echoes of Original Omaha Indian Musical Heritage: In 1976 the American President signed the American Folklife Preservation Act for the establishment of the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. The Center was charged with helping to preserve and present American folklife, defined as the "traditional, expressive, shared culture" of various groups in the United States. In the words of Public Law 94-201, "it is in the interest of the general welfare of the Nation to preserve, support, revitalize, and disseminate American folklife traditions and arts. In its first few years, the Center began carrying out documentation projects in several locations, including amongst the Omaha Indians in Nebraska. The staff conceived a project to work with materials already in the Library's Archive of Folk Culture by ways of the unique wax cylinder recordings placed in the Library of Congress over the years since the mid-1930s. The Federal Cylinder Project was inaugurated in 1979 to preserve, document, catalog, and disseminate the information contained in these early field recordings. In the case of the Omaha Indians, the antique recordings were made by Francis La Flesche, the son of an Omaha chief and the 19th century historian Alice Fletcher. The ultimate objective of this exercise in cultural preservation was to return these recordings to their source - this was finally done, and today the Omaha Indians are in possession of the oldest surviving recordings of their rich and varied music. The Wax Cylinder (1895-1897) Hethu shka Songs 2-CD Set features 44 renditions by the honored warrior class of the Omaha Indians, first immortalized by the earliest sound recording technology known to man - the Edison phonograph.

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CD Reviews

Very Early Native American Recordings
Deacon | America | 11/27/2006
(5 out of 5 stars)

"The songs on this set are interesting for a variety of historical reasons.



First off, in the late 19th century, sound recording of any type was a very new technology. People didn't really know what to do with it. This was before records or radio and people didn't really understand the process of sounds not being organic and live.



Thomas Alva Edison had only recently created sound recording technology and it was only just starting to find public acceptance. Also, without a recording industry, nobody knew what types of recordings people would want to buy, so they recorded all types of things and then put it out into the marketplace.



These recordings are one example of that. For people in the city - which was most of the population - Native Americans were an exotic species that was read about but never seen, heard or otherwise encountered.



So, Edison decided to record Native Americans in Omaha, while they presented war songs.



Therefore you can look at these reocordings as interesting from a historical technological perspective.



But, that's not the only reason to give them a spin. They were also recorded at a time when Native American culture still existed, but was dying out.



The Indians didn't yet own casinos and had not been memorialized by Hollywood. So, when you listen to these recordings you are hearing one of the last historical records of what Native Americans really sounded like when they were performing their own native rituals.



It's an example of a culture that will never rise again and overall, it's a window to the past.



I highly reccomend it."