ABSTRACT
This chapter considers indigenous musics in North America from several perspectives. The connection between music and settler colonialism, in particular, is profoundly important and explored at length. Another means of thinking about these musical traditions is to gain some understanding of indigenous instruments and musical materials, and the chapter offers a broad introduction to both. A final approach is to think about the extent to which indigenous music making is about the establishment, regulation, and maintenance of relationships. A series of musical examples, including contemporary performances by artists such as A Tribe Called Red and Jeremy Dutcher, genres like katajjait or the Ojibwe drum dance, and contexts such as powwows, are mobilized to illustrate these perspectives and approaches.
