Omaha Indian Music

From the American Folklife Center, Library of Congress

Omaha Indian Music features traditional Omaha music from the 1890s and 1980s. The multiformat ethnographic field collection contains 44 wax cylinder recordings collected by Francis La Flesche and Alice Cunningham Fletcher between 1895 and 1897, 323 songs and speeches from the 1983 Omaha harvest celebration pow-wow, and 25 songs and speeches from the 1985 Hethu'shka Society concert at the Library of Congress. Segments from interviews with members of the Omaha tribe conducted in 1983 and 1999 provide contextual information for the songs and speeches included in the collection. Supplementing the collection are black-and-white and color photographs taken during the 1983 pow-wow and the 1985 concert, as well as research materials that include fieldnotes and tape logs pertaining to the pow-wow. This presentation is made possible by the generous support of The Texaco Foundation.

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The Library of Congress presents these documents as part of the record of the past. These primary historical documents reflect the attitudes, perspectives, and beliefs of different times. The Library of Congress does not endorse the views expressed in these collections, which may contain materials offensive to some readers.

Understanding the Collection

About the Collection

Map of the Region

Research Materials

1983 Pow-Wow Fieldnotes

Omaha Indian Music Album Booklet

Folklife Center News Essays, 1981-1985

Selected Bibliography
from Blessing for a Long Time

Selected Bibliography
from Omaha Indian Music Album Booklet

Collection Connections