Parktracks: Sounds of the Kiowa Nation Buffalo Songs
Air Date: Week of July 31, 2020
The Kiowa Gourd Dance ceremony usually is performed in a circle with a drum placed at the center. Men beat the drums and women stand or sit behind them. Both sing and dance in place, raising their feet in synchronicity with the drumbeats and swinging metal rattles from side to side. (Photo: Donovan Shortey, Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0)
The Natural Sounds and Night Skies Division of the National Park Service has compiled hundreds of sounds from parks all over the country. In this recording, members of the Kiowa Nation of the southern Great Plains sing traditional Buffalo Songs.
Transcript
CURWOOD: The Natural Sounds and Night Skies Division of the National Park Service has compiled more than 150 sounds from parks all over the country.
[SFX SOUNDS]
CURWOOD: In this recording members of the Kiowa Nation of the southern Great Plains sing the Buffalo Songs, traditionally rendered at the end of the Kiowa Gourd Clan ceremony.
[SFX SOUNDS]
CURWOOD: The ceremony comes from a legend in which a Kiowa warrior encountered a red wolf who was dancing and singing this song. The wolf encouraged the warrior to share the song with his people.
[SFX SOUNDS]
CURWOOD: The songs were identified by Dennis Zotigh, the Cultural Specialist at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian.
[SFX SOUNDS]
Links
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Click here to learn more about the Kiowa Gourd Clan Ceremony
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