UI Press | Tara Browner | Heartbeat of the People: Music and Dance of the Northern Pow-wow

Heartbeat of the People

Music and Dance of the Northern Pow-wow

The intertribal pow-wow is the most widespread venue for traditional Indian music and dance in North America. Now in paperback, Tara Browner's Heartbeat of the People is an insider's journey into the dances and music, the traditions and regalia, and the functions and significance of these vital cultural events.

"This book fills a gap in accessible academic reference material on historical roots and contemporary practices associated with a uniquely North American cultural phenomenon -- the powwow. . . .Browner brings an insider's view to her research. Ideal for use as a textbook in a college level class in anthropology or music, this book keeps an even balance between respect for the topic and friendliness toward the reader. . . .Essential for all public, academic, and tribal library collections."--Choice

"As a dancer herself, [Browner] had immediate access to the community of pow-wow participants, and as a scholar she brings a historical and critical analysis to a politically sensitive subject. . . . This is an accessible work for both Native and non-Native, nonspecialist audiences."--Library Journal

"Of Choctaw blood and an ethnomusicologist at UCLA, Browner is uniquely qualified to provide this glimpse into the cultural environment of the pow-wow. . . . It is in the voices of her interview subjects that [the book] really shines. "--John Nettles, PopMatters.com

"A truly significant contribution to the field . . . promises to be the most comprehensive and detailed source available on the pow-wow, including an excellent compilation of information on its origins as well as its various styles of music and dance."--Victoria Lindsay Levine, author of Writing Indian Music: Historic Transcriptions, Notations, and Arrangements

"[Heartbeat of the People] is crucial because it subverts simplified stereotypical interpretations, demonstrating that pow-wow culture is multifaceted, sometimes conflictive, and always in process, shifting, transmuting. The book is a window, in effect, to a major contemporary cultural expression emanating from the Native communities of the North."--Inés Hernández-Avila, member of the Nez Perce nation from Nespelem, Washington, and associate professor of Native American studies at the University of California, Davis.

Tara Browner is an associate professor of ethnnomusicology and American Indian studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. She is a contributor to I See America Dancing, and has given papers (with demonstrations in costume and regalia) on pow-wow at the Society for American Music and other organizations. She is Oklahoma Choctaw, and currently dances in the Women's Southern Cloth tradition.

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