UC Merced Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology

Title Vander: Ghost Dance Songs and Religion of a Wind River Shoshone Woman

Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2pt652d3

Journal Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology, 8(2)

ISSN 0191-3557

Author Reynolds, Mary Stephanie

Publication Date 1986-07-01

Peer reviewed

eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California 284 JOURNAL OF CALIFORNIA AND GREAT BASIN ANTHROPOLOGY several ways to strengthen this kind of standing of past cultural systems. It cer­ study. It is an approach well worth consid­ tainly indicates a trend toward new direc­ ering in addressing the interpretation of tions in ceramic studies-something that is other ceramic assemblages in the Great greatly needed in the Basin. Basin. Griset's concluding paper is primarily methodological. She notes that the analysis of ceramics includes two distinct, but related Ghost Dance Son^ and Religujn of a Wind processes-description analysis and interpre­ River Shoshone Woman, Judith Vander. Los tive analysis. The former is concerned with Angeles: Program in Ethnomusicology, the description of artifacts, in this case Department of Music, University of Cal­ pottery, through the use of typologies. She ifornia, Los Angeles, Monograph Series in rightly points out that a typology is a tool Ethnomusicology No. 4, 1986, 76 pp., to achieve some research objective, not an $9.95. end in itself. Different typologies will Reviewed by: answer different kinds of problems. Griset MARY STEPHANIE REYNOLDS argues that different kinds of approaches to Program in Comparative Culture, Great Basin ceramics are appropriate, and Univ. of California, Irvine, CA 92717. this volume demonstrates that such is indeed beginning to take place. She also empha­ The songs and beliefs of Emily Hill are a sizes the need for standardization of termi­ principal focus for this examination of the nology and measurement so as to facilitate Wind River Shoshone interpretation and de­ intersite and interregional comparison. velopment of the Ghost Dance religious Interpretive analysis, on the other hand is movement. Emily Hill may be the only con­ concerned with the explanation of how the temporary practitioner of the Naraya, or descriptive data relate to the cultural whole. Wind River Shoshone Ghost Dance religion, Ceramic data can and should be used to ex­ and this study is unique in the literature in amine particular research problems. considering the largest number of songs from Perhaps one of the most useful aspects of one singer. An examination of idiosyncratic this volume is an annotated and indexed features of individual songs, rather than a bibliography on Great Basin ceramics and sole focus on shared common traits, yields a those of adjacent regions. Although not rare depth of analysis in which many dimen­ comprehensive, it is far superior to anything sions of general cultural and historical available on this topic to date, and should significance are brought to bear. Vander serve those interested in the study of goes beyond a technical interpretation of ceramics in the Great Basin well. musical and poetic style to identify roots of On the whole, this volume is an impor­ artistic form in a general Shoshone ideology tant addition to the study of ceramics in the and world view. Great Basin. It reflects an intensified From interviews with EmUy Hill, as well interest in pottery studies which usually as an examination of song texts, Vander have had a very low priority, and presents a identifies primary foci of the Naraya as the number of new approaches to pottery analy­ prevention and remedy of illness and disas­ sis (for the Great Basin anyway), and the ter, and the maintenance and revitalization implications of such analysis for the under­ of good health and the fruitful cycles of REVIEWS 285 nature. She identifies an erosion of Plains concerning spirit life after death. She influence as she traces the beliefs and pur­ relates these similarities to elements poses of the Naraya to the cultural concerns reported in earlier Wind River Shoshone which shaped them. These concerns reflect beliefs, although the extent to which these an older Great Basin culture and behef com­ beliefs have been maintained by the Sho­ plex, as well as contemporary issues. She shone, as opposed to being re-introduced points out that Shoshone adaptation of through Great Basin, Paiute forms is not Plains culture elements occurred between the established here. relatively brief period extending from the Vander begins her musical analysis by early eighteenth century acquisition of the confirming the results of Herzog's (1935) horse to the mid-nineteenth century onset of study of the Plains Ghost Dance songs, the reservation period. No longer able to which he traces to Great Basin Paiute hunt and forced to undertake farming as a origins. Herzog's overview of musical style, way of life, the Shoshone were beset by based on an examination of selected para­ illness and community misery, which became meters of shared traits, emphasizes an es­ primary concerns of all modern Shoshone sential simplicity and symmetry of form; religious institutions (Shimkin 1942). Vander narrow melodic range, phrases ending on the states that the Naraya is no exception, and tonic, and symmetrical sections in which she observes key differences between the every phrase is repeated. Vander finds Plains and Wind River Shoshone interpreta­ these features in Emily Hill's songs, but tions of the Ghost Dance. Unlike the Plains proceeds further to focus on a detailed study Ghost Dance songs, the Naraya songs express of unique features in each song. With this no open hostility to whites or belief that major methodological shift, she uncovers whites will perish, and there is no descrip­ patterns of complexity and asymmetry in the tion of the return of the buffalo and recrea­ songs, revealing "another truth to their na­ tion of the Plains way of life. Citing pro­ ture and essence, one that balanced this bable Great Basin origins for Shoshone cul­ first truth in an opposing and yet comple­ ture, with foraging for food a central con­ mentary manner" (p. 17). Complexity and cern, Vander notes that the Shoshone song asymmetry, accomplished through slight vari­ texts refer to a past of hunting and gath­ ations from a symmetrical framework of ering, expressed in a dependence on nature. paired repeated patterns, are not presented Nature images predominate, and the concern as merely logical variants of simplicity and with the renewal of nature is congruent with symmetry, but as artistic principles in their contemporary farming and gardening as well own right. Vander identifies these proper­ as older patterns of foraging. Vander shows ties with Witherspoon's (1977) concept of that the Shoshone Naraya, as expressed in "dynamic symmetry," in which asymmetrical Emily Hill's songs, adheres strongly to and symmetrical elements are integrated Wovoka's Great Basin Paiute version of the through inexact and unequal pairing and Ghost Dance religion, including the concern balancing. These properties are present in for relief from illness and the belief that the textual as well as musical structures, but Indians and whites would live together in are manifested differently in the various harmony. She illustrates a great similarity songs: in one song rhythms may be slightly between Emily Hill's songs and Paiute Ghost varied, while in another song there may be Dance songs, seen for instance in texts incomplete repetition of texts in a repeated 286 JOURNAL OF CALIFORNIA AND GREAT BASIN ANTHROPOLOGY phrase. The shift in focus from a more n.d.). This concept of the universe as ani­ dogmatic coding of shared traits (such as, mate extends beyond a belief in the presence "phrases ending on the tonic") to unique of spirit in natural objects such as water features in each song to arrive at a more and rocks. Northern Utes say, for instance, subtle and more complete explication of that a dance itself has its own developing underlying artistic properties illustrates the life form. Andrus (1979) described tribal value of intensified fieldwork in producing a religions in general as viewing the world as deep and sensitively articulated analysis. In a continuing process of creation, with truth an examination of any art form, it is rea­ constantly realized in ceremonial experience sonable to presume that on many levels aes­ as opposed to being embedded in dogmatic thetic principles will be accomplished laws. This means that philosophy itself is a through an unending variety of devices, with living process. The omnipresent behef in the principles rather than the specific means animism may relate to the "dynamic" aspects of their production being carried over. of artistic form which Vander expUcates, and Vander notes Witherspoon's use of the the "continuing" nature of tribal religions flow and flux found in nature as a paradigm may bear on instances where she finds for dynamic symmetry, and she proposes changing meanings for text translations nature as a model for the dynamic integra­ given by one informant over time or between tion and interrelation of elements which she informants at one time. She reports a sense identifies in all of the songs. Beyond the that "much of the meaning of the text still predominance of nature themes in the texts, hes locked inside" (p. 39). Jorgensen (1972) Vander cites the interrelatedness seen in quoted Northern Ute as saying that no one aspects of nature as a major binding force person knows the complete meaning of the in artistic form. For instance, gradual shifts Sun Dance. The continuing development of of tonal centers occur between song sec­ religious dance forms as a living process tions, and elements of music and text are yielding truth allows for changes in meaning carried over between sections. That Indians and partial realization of the whole as the themselves hold the interrelatedness of all process unfolds; multiple meanings may be parts of nature as a critical part of their held in suspension and resolved at a later cultural world view is expressed by Deloria, date. Jr. (1979:299) whom she quotes in another Overall, the sensitivity of the author, context, "All things are related. This developed in intensive fieldwork with one fundamental Premise undergirds all Indian subject, makes this a superb study of Wind tribal religions and determines the relations River Shoshone Ghost Dance songs and be­ of all parts of creation one to another." I liefs. Additional benefits include transcrip­ applaud Vander's identification of essential tions of the Ghost Dance songs which appear ideological principles operating in Shoshone in the monograph. religious art, and my own fieldwork with the Northern Ute suggests an additional funda­ REFERENCES mental premise which may address some of Andrus, Cecil D. Vander's findings; the belief in the animate 1979 American Indian Religious Freedom Act nature of all things appears ineluctably in Report. Federal Agencies Task Force. forms of American Indian art and thought Public Law 95-341. (see, for instance, Romeo 1985 and Reynolds REVIEWS 287

Deloria, Jr., Vine ings of the All-UC Invitational Confer­ 1979 God Is Red. New York: Dell Publishing ence on Race, Ethnicity, Gender and Company. Class. University of California, Santa Cruz, 1986. Herzog, George 1935 Plains Ghost Dance and Great Basin Romeo (Reynolds), Stephanie Music. American Anthropologist 37:403- 1985 Concepts of Nature and Power: Envi­ 419. ronmental Ethics of the Northern Ute. Environmental Review 9(2):150-170. Jorgensen, Joseph G. 1972 The Sun Dance ReUgion. Chicago: Uni­ Shimkin, Demitri B. versity of Chicago Press. 1942 Dynamics of Recent Wind River Shosho­ ne History. American Anthropologist 44: Reynolds, Mary Stephanie 451-456. n.d. The Role of Women in the Conservation of Culture; Gender Constraints in Ton- Witherspoon, Gary gan and Northern Ute Dance Forms. 1977 Language and Art in the Navajo Uni­ Social Cleavages in American Society: verse. Ann Arbor: University of Mich­ Comparative Studies in Race, Ethnicity, igan Press. Gender and Class. Published Proceed­