The Woman Who Saved Native Song

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November 10, 2022

a project of ServiceSpace

We understand the people better if we know their music, and we appreciate the music better if we understand the people themselves.

- Frances Densmore -

The Woman Who Saved Native Song

"In the early twentieth century, the U.S. government continued its assault on Native Americans by demanding they relinquish their tribal languages and belief systems, teach their children English, and enter the American mainstream. As a result of this concerted erasure campaign, the average American came to see indigenous peoples as living fossils on the brink of cultural extinction. Frances Densmore -- a young music teacher from Red Wing, Minnesota -- was appalled. In consonance with the eternal truth that the best way to complain is to create, she set out to singlehandedly preserve a vital aspect of indigenous culture, the one art that is the heartbeat of every culture: music." Maria Popova shares more. { read more }