With a little advance preparation, bout thirty years ago, educational philosophy and practice in the United States began moving away from the "melting pot" notion (the idea that different cultures and ethnic groups within the United States would gradually blend together) toward "multiculturalism" (the idea that the many different subgroups or minorities within this country and the world must be acknowledged and granted status equivalent to that of the dominant culture).
The Education Amendments Act of 1972 (PL 92-318) made multicultural education a legal requirement.1 While multicultural education was certainly not a new idea for music educators, this legislation spurred increased interest in inclusion ofdiverse music in the curriculum. The mandate was clear: To afford to students opportunities to learn about the nature of their own cultural heritage, and to study the contributions of the cultural heritages of the other ethnic groups of the Nation. (Title IX, PL 92-318)2 music educators can teach American Indian music from a culturally appropriate perspective.
Oklahoma is home to 67 American Indian tribes, each of which has its own cultural heritage. The result is a wealth of parallel traditions, from powwows deriving from Plains warrior societies to stomp dances of Woodland tribes that were forcibly removed to Indian Territory (present Oklahoma) in the 19th century. Song and dance around the powwow drum contrast sharply with the stomp dance tradition, where all-night singing and dancing around a sacred fire, accompanied by the percussion of the female dancers wearing turtle or can rattles strapped around their lower legs, form the backbone of the Green Corn religion. This chapter will compare and contrast the powwow and the stomp dance in their historical cultural contexts as symbols of Native identity, and examine how these parallel dance traditions continue to reinforce a sense of ethnic pride for Native American communities in Oklahoma.
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