Frances Densmore

May 21, 1867 (age 90)

Red Wing, Minnesota, United States

In 1895 Densmore began lecturing in St. Paul, Minnesota, on Indian music using the material of Alice Fletcher, who later helped shape her career. Densmore undertook systematic recording, traveling in 1904 to the St. Louis Exposition to record Philippine music. A tune hummed by Geronimo caught her interest, and she recorded it and other Indian music. The experience led her to the Chippewa of Minnesota and the recording of their music. She was first paid for such work in 1907, when William Henry Holmes of the Bureau of American Ethnology purchased her recordings. She was to become a lifelong collaborator for the bureau, starting with wax cylinders and continuing to tapes. Her first work was among the Chippewa, whose music she described in two volumes published by the bureau. Between 1911 and 1915 Frances traveled to the Dakotas to collect music of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Sioux. She recognized from the beginning that music must be placed in a cultural context, and her description of Sioux religion, mythology, and social life makes Teton Sioux Music (1918) one of the best ethnographies of the Sioux. Nearly every summer between 1920 and 1930, Densmore was recording on a different reservation. She worked among the Northern Ute, Pawnee of Oklahoma, Papago of Arizona, Indians of Washington and British Columbia, Winnebago and Menominee of Wisconsin, Pueblo Indians of the Southwest, and even the Tule of Panama. In addition to eight monographs published during this period, she found time for The American Indians and Their Music (1926), which brought her attention from a wider audience. Besides her technical analysis she described aspects of Indian music for journals ranging from the American Anthropologist to the more popular Nation and Christian Science Monitor. The 1930's were no less productive for Densmore. The Southwest Museum and the Bureau of American Ethnology published her monographs on the Menominee, Yuman and Yaqui, Cheyenne and Arapaho, Santo Domingo, and Nootka and Quileute. She also worked among the Seminole in 1931 and Gulf State Indians in 1932. The following year she recorded Navajo and Sioux music at the Chicago World's Fair and later returned to the Southwest. In between she continued her study of Indians in Minnesota and Wisconsin. In 1943, after fifty years of study, Densmore reduced her fieldwork but remained as active as ever, cataloging the songs and instruments she had collected. A major task was to ensure preservation of her recordings, and a $30, 000 grant from Eleanor Reese enabled her to oversee the proper transcription and transfer of the Densmore-Smithsonian collection, first to the National Archives and finally to the Library of Congress, the only organization adequately equipped to transfer music from her perishable cylinders to service disks. As a pioneer student of Indian music Densmore had to overcome a number of stereotypes. Initially she was much concerned simply to demonstrate that Indian music was as accurate as Western music in pitch, melody, and tempo. As a musician she had intuitively recognized these factors, but she was also able to prove their validity by laboratory analysis using tone photographs taken with a phonodisk. Likewise, she was among the first ethnomusicologists to realize that music must be understood in its cultural context. Although her later volumes tend to document cultures less well than her classic Teton Sioux Music, she developed a standard presentation that included an introductory history, ethnography with emphasis upon folklore and religion, and her own photographs. She continually compared her new recordings with former ones, and the monographs contain numerous tables of comparative analysis, especially by tone, interval, and melodic progression. While recording and transcribing music across the North American continent, Densmore never allowed her need for time to interfere with her relationships with informants. She took pains to ensure they were treated fairly and that they understood her goal of preserving part of their heritage. She was usually accompanied in the field by her sister, Margaret. It was most unusual for white women to reside among Indians for a month or more at that time, yet Densmore seldom mentioned any hardships and never complained of the difficulties that she must have encountered. She "heard an Indian drum" at an early age and set out to preserve that music with notable determination. Seminole Music (1956) appeared in her eighty-ninth year, Music of Acoma, Isleta, Cochiti and Zuni Pueblos the next year, and Music of the Maidu Indians of California (1958) posthumously.

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book

Teton Sioux Music (Classic Reprint)

(Excerpt from Teton Sioux Music The analytical study of ...)

Seminole Music (Classic Reprint)

(Excerpt from Seminole Music The Seminole of Florida are ...)

Chippewa Customs (Publications of the Minnesota Historical Society) by Densmore, Frances (1979) Paperback

(Chippewa Customs by Densmore,Frances. 1979,Reprint. Paper...)

Chippewa Customs (Borealis Books)

(Chippewa Customs, first published in 1929, remains an aut...)

Chippewa Music (Classic Reprint)

(Excerpt from Chippewa Music The purpose of the present w...)

How Indians Use Wild Plants for Food, Medicine and Crafts

( "Learn the natural ways of the Chippewa Indians with th...)

"Learn the natural ways of the Chippewa Indians with this great book from Dover." — Texas Kitchen and Garden and More The uses of plants — for food, for medicine, for arts, crafts, and dyeing — among the Chippewa Indians of Minnesota and Wisconsin show the great extent to which they understood and utilized natural resources. In this book those traditions are captured, providing a wealth of new material for those interested in natural food, natural cures, and native crafts. In separate sections describing the major areas of use, Miss Densmore, an ethnologist with the Smithsonian Institution, details the uses of nearly 200 plants with emphasis on wild plants and lesser-known uses. For those interested in natural foods she gives extensive coverage to the gathering and preparation of maple sugar and wild rice, as well as preparations for beverages from leaves and twigs of common plants, seasonings including mint and bearberry, the methods of preparing wild rice and corn, cultivated and wild vegetables, and wild fruits and berries. On Indian medicines she tells the basic methods of gathering plants and the basic surgical and medical methods. Then she gives a complete list of the plants with their botanical names, uses, parts used, preparation and administration, and other notes and references. Also covered are plants used as charms, plants used in natural dyes, and plants in the useful and decorative arts including uses for household items, toys, mats, twine, baskets, bows, and tools, with special emphasis on the uses of birch bark and cedar. This section will be especially useful for supplying new and unusual craft ideas. In addition, 36 plates show the many stages of plant gathering and preparation and many of the artistic uses. While a number of the plants discussed are native only to the Great Lakes region, many are found throughout a wide range. Those studying the Indians of the Great Lakes region, or those trying to get back to nature through understanding and using natural materials, will find much about the use of plants in all areas of community life. Because of Miss Densmore’s deep knowledge and clear presentation, her study remains a rich and useful source for learning about or using native foods, native cures, and native crafts.

Strength of the Earth: The Classic Guide to Ojibwe Uses of Native Plants

(From techniques for tapping maple trees and harvesting wi...)

Frances Densmore Edit Profile

anthropologist ethnographer ethnomusicologist

Background

Frances Densmore was born on May 21, 1867, in Red Wing, Minnesota. She was the daughter of Benjamin Densmore, a surveyor and civil engineer, and Sarah Greenland.

Densmore's first memory of Indian music dated from her childhood, when Sioux Indians sang and drummed nearby well into the night. Her mother encouraged an appreciation of the music, which many considered simply as noise.

Education

Frances attended the Oberlin Conservatory of Music from 1884 to 1886. Individual study of the piano followed under Carl Baermann in Boston; and in 1889 and 1890 she studied counterpoint at Harvard with John K. Paine. Although she again studied piano, with Leopold Godowsky in 1898, she ended formal performances in 1893 for the study of American Indian music.

Career

In 1895 Densmore began lecturing in St. Paul, Minnesota, on Indian music using the material of Alice Fletcher, who later helped shape her career. Densmore undertook systematic recording, traveling in 1904 to the St. Louis Exposition to record Philippine music. A tune hummed by Geronimo caught her interest, and she recorded it and other Indian music. The experience led her to the Chippewa of Minnesota and the recording of their music. She was first paid for such work in 1907, when William Henry Holmes of the Bureau of American Ethnology purchased her recordings. She was to become a lifelong collaborator for the bureau, starting with wax cylinders and continuing to tapes. Her first work was among the Chippewa, whose music she described in two volumes published by the bureau.

Between 1911 and 1915 Frances traveled to the Dakotas to collect music of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Sioux. She recognized from the beginning that music must be placed in a cultural context, and her description of Sioux religion, mythology, and social life makes Teton Sioux Music (1918) one of the best ethnographies of the Sioux.

Nearly every summer between 1920 and 1930, Densmore was recording on a different reservation. She worked among the Northern Ute, Pawnee of Oklahoma, Papago of Arizona, Indians of Washington and British Columbia, Winnebago and Menominee of Wisconsin, Pueblo Indians of the Southwest, and even the Tule of Panama. In addition to eight monographs published during this period, she found time for The American Indians and Their Music (1926), which brought her attention from a wider audience.

Besides her technical analysis she described aspects of Indian music for journals ranging from the American Anthropologist to the more popular Nation and Christian Science Monitor.

The 1930's were no less productive for Densmore. The Southwest Museum and the Bureau of American Ethnology published her monographs on the Menominee, Yuman and Yaqui, Cheyenne and Arapaho, Santo Domingo, and Nootka and Quileute. She also worked among the Seminole in 1931 and Gulf State Indians in 1932. The following year she recorded Navajo and Sioux music at the Chicago World's Fair and later returned to the Southwest. In between she continued her study of Indians in Minnesota and Wisconsin.

In 1943, after fifty years of study, Densmore reduced her fieldwork but remained as active as ever, cataloging the songs and instruments she had collected. A major task was to ensure preservation of her recordings, and a $30, 000 grant from Eleanor Reese enabled her to oversee the proper transcription and transfer of the Densmore-Smithsonian collection, first to the National Archives and finally to the Library of Congress, the only organization adequately equipped to transfer music from her perishable cylinders to service disks.

As a pioneer student of Indian music Densmore had to overcome a number of stereotypes. Initially she was much concerned simply to demonstrate that Indian music was as accurate as Western music in pitch, melody, and tempo. As a musician she had intuitively recognized these factors, but she was also able to prove their validity by laboratory analysis using tone photographs taken with a phonodisk. Likewise, she was among the first ethnomusicologists to realize that music must be understood in its cultural context. Although her later volumes tend to document cultures less well than her classic Teton Sioux Music, she developed a standard presentation that included an introductory history, ethnography with emphasis upon folklore and religion, and her own photographs.

She continually compared her new recordings with former ones, and the monographs contain numerous tables of comparative analysis, especially by tone, interval, and melodic progression. While recording and transcribing music across the North American continent, Densmore never allowed her need for time to interfere with her relationships with informants. She took pains to ensure they were treated fairly and that they understood her goal of preserving part of their heritage. She was usually accompanied in the field by her sister, Margaret. It was most unusual for white women to reside among Indians for a month or more at that time, yet Densmore seldom mentioned any hardships and never complained of the difficulties that she must have encountered. She "heard an Indian drum" at an early age and set out to preserve that music with notable determination. Seminole Music (1956) appeared in her eighty-ninth year, Music of Acoma, Isleta, Cochiti and Zuni Pueblos the next year, and Music of the Maidu Indians of California (1958) posthumously.

Achievements

Frances Densmore is best known for her studies of Native American music and culture. During her life she recorded music of all major tribes, including the Chippewa, the Mandan, Hidatsa, the Sioux, the northern Pawnee of Oklahoma, the Papago of Arizona, Indians of Washington and British Columbia, Winnebago and Menominee of Wisconsin, and others.