The Meaningful Teachings Of The Drum.

The Meaningful Teachings Of The Drum.

As First Nation’s People, we have always been told that the first drum beat we hear, is when we are inside our mother. That drumbeat we hear is known as the heart of our mom. In cultures all over the world, there is known to be a drum that is significant to them.

Drums have always been apart of human life since the beginning and have great importance in First Nation culture. There are many stories as to how the drum came to be but for now, we will focus on just a few for today.

So in honor of Mother’s day here The Meaningful Teachings Of The Drum.

Origin.

Among Native Tribes all across the United States and Canada drums have a powerful and significant spiritual importance. It is believed that the drum is used to reconnect an individual back to his/hers spiritual self.

There are many kind of different drums all over North America and all over the world. This is just one of them that used in ceremonies such as Round Dances, Sweat Lodges, Sun Dances and much more.

Elders have said that long before the drum came to be, that the tribes only had rattles for their ceremonies. To pay respect to the heartbeat of mother earth, a drum was made. When this drum was it first actually given to a society, this society was called the grandmothers society.

Since all things revert back to mother earth the drum was given to the woman. So at one point the drums actually belonged to the woman.

The Big Drum.

Often Called the grandfather drum it is said that the reason why this drum was made was to bring people together and share information among each other. Just like the Hand Drum, this big drum has huge cultural importance to the tribes all over North America.

This big drum originally came from the Sioux people and was later adopted by many other tribes in North America. Now a days this drum brings together people from all over the world to watch and spectate the dancers who dance to it.

The Origin Story.

There are many different stories of the origin story of them drum this is a famous Ojibwe legend of how the powwow drum came to be.

It is about a Sioux woman named Tailfeather Woman.

The Dance Drum began with a vision. To escape the white soldiers who were massacring her camp, Tailfeather Woman, a Dakota Sioux, hid in a lake under the lily pads. She hid there for 4 days. While she was hiding, the creator came to her in a vision and instructed her to make a large dance drum.

In her vision, she learned the songs and rituals to go with the drum, and when she came out of the water she taught them to her people. The Drum would be part of a ceremony that would promote peace and brotherhood from then on and would bring an end to the bloodshed.

It was said that the drum would not stay with the Sioux, however. It was “meant to be copied and passed on to other tribes” and promote a long-lasting peace, even with the white men.

It was said that the progress of the big drum was enabled by the earlier spread of the Men’s Grass Dance. This dance was significant in that it featured a single, large drum that singers would beat in unison as they sang.

Before this time, the singers usually at hand-drums, “one to each singer” The spread of the Grass Dance drum paved the way for the Dance Drum, which caught on right away with the Ojibwe when it was brought by the Sioux.

People from neighboring tribes not only brought drums to their people but also painstakingly taught the neighboring tribes how to properly make their own drums, the rituals, and dances associated with the drum.

European Style Bass Drum

Other times you may see a European style bass drum being sung with at some powwow celebrations. The reason some of these drums are seen at some celebrations is that long ago after battles with the European settlers most of the drums the had brought overseas were still on the battlefield and they took these drums at trophies from battle.

A short while after that when the Native American tribes were outlawed from practicing their culture a-lot of their drums were taken away as a result and they couldn’t sing songs so they ended up singing on these white man made bass drums.

The stick used on these drum are made to look like a cotton tail plant but are made from furs and other materials of today.

The Cree actually didn’t use this big drum long ago they used smaller drums and to see a drum of this size was once rare among the Cree tribes. Whenever the Cree people did things like Round dances and other ceremonies. When they would give tobacco to this person who had this big drum and they would use it on special occasions. Nowadays finding these drums is pretty easy.

How Is It Made?

Many hand drums and powwow drums are made from hides of animals such as deer, elk, moose, bear, buffalo, or even beaver. Many of these drums are made similarly the same, first, they hunt and kill the animal, the next they skin its hide.

After that, they then tie up the hide with rope or twine onto a large wooden frame then begin to scrape it with various metal scarping tools.

After all the fur has been scraped off the hide is then thrown into a large bin of water then weighed down with large rocks. This process softens the hide making it easier to cut and mold to one’s desires.

Long ago the rim of the drum is made out of hollowed-out tree stumps, Now today they are made mostly out plywood or sometimes fiberglass. So how does one even bend wood into a circle? Simple, Hot water. when one puts wood into hot water for an extended period of time the wood becomes flexible much like a living tree with moisture still inside of it.

It is then wrapped around a hard round object like a bike tire or a large log. Then it is then glued then screwed into place then left to dry for a couple of days. After it is done drying it is then left over a fire for a full day into to strengthen the wood of the rim so it doesn’t crack and removes all of the moisture from the wood to make it nice and solid.

When it comes time to put the hide onto the rim, one must cut out long skinny strips of hides, and then 1or 2 large circle pieces of hid must be cut (depending on the type of drum your making) for the middle area to go around the rim.

Then you must place the large circle piece of hide onto the rim to measure if it will fit or not. If it is big then you must trim off the excess until it fits perfectly. After that, you must punch holes or cut holes in the outside perimeter of the hide, each of these holes must be equally spaced in order to have a nice even stretched out hide.

Then once that is done you must lace the skinny pieces of hide into the four directions. When you first begin lacing the hide you must start on one side (South) of them then go directly to the opposite side (North)then pull it through. Then once that is done one must connect the hide in the middle of the drum by wrapping around the previous piece of hide then go towards the east. Once you lace it through you must go towards to west. The repeat the process until the holes are filled with hide. Like the direction of the sun, you must tie on the hide clockwise direction.

Then after your done tying the drum you must leave it out to dry in the sun for a day or two. When it’s done trying you must test out the sound of the drum but softly hitting it with your hand.

In order to tune your drum, you can either do it with water or fire. If your drum is to tight and has a loud tinging sound like a coffee can then you simply plus a tablespoon of water onto the drum and rub it into the hide in a clockwise circular motion. This should make your drum a little bit more loss and sound a little bit better.

If the hide of your drum is to loose and doesn’t have the loud powerful sound that you want then you must find a source of heat like a fire or element from a stove then proceed to place the drum near to heat source at a safe distance.

Not to close or it might burn the hide, and not too far that it will take longer to heat up. When doing this it’s important to extra vigilant not to burn the hide of the drum. Always staying beside it and keeping on an eye on it.

To get a nice even distribution of heat you can proceed to rub the hide of the drum in a clockwise circular motion. Then when you feel like it’s been heated enough, go ahead and hit with your hand or with a drum stick to test out the sound. If your not sure how a drum should simply go onto youtube and look up Round Dance song or Powwow Songs in order to try to replicate the sound they are using.

Drum Portocol’s

Before the use of any of these drum one first must smudge either with sweetgrass or sage. Then the drum must be smudged after that.

Because the drum is a sacred ceremonial tool, nothing impure must touch it. So when we smudge any negative energy is then replaced by good energy and thoughts.

Drugs or Alcohol

No drugs or alcohol are allowed at the drum ever. If someone is found to be under the influence while singing with one of these drums the person would be removed from the ceremonies. At powwow competitions, the use of these kinds of substances could result in disqualification of that group for the remainder of the powwow or from singing at the powwow ever again.

Tobacco.

Before using the powwow drum, one must put down tobacco onto the drum and then into the four directions of the drum. This is a prayer that gives thanks to the drum and the spirits for giving us another day to sing with it. It is also a blessing for the singers to sing strong and be protected as they sing.

After the prayer, the drum is then hit four times in honor of the four directions.

Sometimes during a song people will throw cigarettes or tobacco onto the drum, this is a way of honoring that song and drum they are singing. It often used as a way of saying thank you for singing so good and making me feel good.

It is also used as a way to give prayers to the drum in different ceremonies like a community smudge, a whistled song(prayer song), or memorial special.

Tobacco can also be used when you have a question the pertains to ceremonies, many elders ask for tobacco when being asked such things.

Women and The Drum

Depending on your teachings, will sometimes hear elders or singers say that it is wrong for a female to touch the drum, even though the female was the first to receive it, the female ended up giving the drum to the male.

Because of this many tribes believe that if a female touches a drum or singing with the drum then it’s almost like they are taking it back.

But at most ceremonies, the women do have a special place to sing as well and that is behind the singers. This protects the men and helps the men sing during those harder high pitched parts of the song.

There is also those women who are also given the right to touch the drums, Again based on the teachings of those people.

To say whether its right or wrong is not for us to say, many tribes and people have different beliefs and values. All that matter’s if that culture is kept alive.

There is also a time when women are not allowed to be around the drum or around any ceremonies and that is called “the moon time” also known as a Woman’s Period.

During this time of purification, the woman is said to be in a powerful state and is told by elders not to enter in all lodges or ceremonies until that time is done.

Spiritual Teachings

Because of its shape and importance, the drum is sometimes referred to as a medicine wheel, Much of the teachings from the medicine wheel are very similar to that of the drum.

When asked about the teachings of the medicine wheel many First Nation’s People take the drum along with them to display the different parts of the medicine circle, often used to represent this thing we call life.

It is often said as well that the drum is made from female energy and when hit with the drum stick its meant to symbolize the man but when they come together it creates life, and the life is sound of the drum. When the men and women sing its meant symbolizes the crying of the baby when the first come out of the womb.

There are many different types of songs for the drum, such as friendship songs, sneak ups, crow hop, crow bells, foot slide, necklace breaker, just name a few.

Much like the drum these songs have a special origin and meaning at to why they exist. Some must be sung at a certain time as well. Some you can record while others you cannot record due to the sacredness of that song.

If you ever have questions about the drums of Native American culture just go ahead and make sure to give an elder some tobacco and ask in a good way they will tell you the meaning of something.

Have We Left Anything Out?

Let us know in the Comments below, we will continue to update this as more info comes in.