ABSTRACT
American Indians/First Nations peoples comprise a variety of social, linguistic, and musical groups, from the Choctaw living in the great swamp lands of the southeastern United States to the Inuit of the newest north Canadian territory, Nunavut; from the powerful six-nation Iroquois confederacy located in western New York and southern Ontario to the scattered villages of the Eskimo (as the Inuit are called in the United States) of Alaska. First Nations peoples in Canada also include the Metis, ofIndian and predominantly French heritage, who form a separate social group with their own language as well as their own cultural and musical identity. Despite a wide variety of languages, physical environments, and musical cultures, however, most American Indians and First Nations peoples share a common history of European interaction and of rapid social and economic change brought about by European immigration and expansion. Various revivals of traditional musics, such as accompanied the Longhouse tradition in the early nineteenth century, and the development of much music and ritual over the past one hundred years, such as that associated with the Ghost Dance religion and the Native American Church, address these concerns, while contemporary musical forms such as rock and country and western music have also attracted Native mUSICians.
