Standards
Collection Overview
Omaha Indian Music features traditional Omaha music from the 1890s and 1980s. The multiformat ethnographic field collection contains 44 wax cylinder recordings made in the 1890s, 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.
Special Features
These online exhibits provide context and additional information about this collection.
Historical Eras
These historical era(s) are best represented in the collection although they may not be all-encompassing.
- Development of the Industrial United States, 1876-1915
- Emergence of Modern America, 1890-1930
- Contemporary United States, 1968-present
Related Collections and Exhibits
These collections and exhibits contain thematically-related primary and secondary sources. Also browse the Collection Finder for more related material on the American Memory Web site.
Other Resources
Recommended additional sources of information.
- 1983 Pow-Wow Fieldnotes
- Folklife Center News Essays, 1981-1985
- Map of the Region
- Research Materials
- Resources in Ethnographic Studies from the American Folklife Center, Library of Congress
- Selected Bibliography from Blessing for a Long Time
- Selected Bibliography from Omaha Indian Music Album Booklet
- What is an Ethnographic Field Collection? from the American Folklife Center, Library of Congress
Search Tips
Specific guidance for searching this collection.
To find items in this collection, search by Keyword or browse by Music, Photographs, Spoken Word, Events, or Pow-Wow Audio in Sequence For help with general search strategies, see Finding Items in American Memory.