A vast majority of ethnomusicologists working in the academy have at one point or another been beset with an aching antipathy toward their “world music” survey course, forced in a given academic term to frantically weave in and out of musical cultures with the urgency of a criminal fleeing a crime scene. The Global Music Series, of which Native American Music in Eastern North America is a part, seeks to bring some sanity to the world music survey enterprise, delivering multiple volumes comprising case studies on specific cultures and discrete geographic locales. Instructors can choose any number of volumes from the series, constructing “world music” courses that avoid the rigors of the world music travelogue, allowing for a deeper engagement with musical cultures. In this sense, Beverley Diamond's book is well situated. Acknowledging the futility of trying to produce a comprehensive Native American music textbook that covers the musical cultures of over 500 Native Nations, Diamond expresses some measure of relief at being asked to focus on her area of research, Northeastern and, to a lesser degree, Southeastern indigenous musics. Not content to rely solely on her perspective as an outside researcher, however, she has solicited the input of three indigenous advisers: Sadie Buck, Haudenosaunee arts and culture specialist, educator, and renowned singer; Stephen Augustine, author, museum curator, and hereditary chief of the Mi'kmaq nation; and Karin Kettler, chairperson of the Inuit Throat Singers Association. By creating a dialogue out of these multiple perspectives, both indigenous and nonindigenous, Diamond seeks to offer more than the standard “univocal authoritative text” (xiii).

In an effort to elevate Native American ontologies, Diamond wraps each chapter around three central themes: “Traditional Indigenous Knowledge,” “Encounter,” and “Indigenous Modernity.” She begins Chapter 1 with the difficult task of dispelling entrenched stereotypes of Native Americans as mythic figures relegated to an earlier era (1). It is an appropriate way to introduce the topic, because college students are rarely asked to consider the notion that they share the present with Native peoples. After elaborating on her three themes, each serving to counter to some extent the long history and large body of ethnographic works in which the indigenous voice is absent, Diamond explores “traditional ways of knowing” rooted in direct experience. She points out that there is often no distinction between knowledge and ways of knowing in Native praxis, as the “process of transmission is part of the knowledge itself” (9). From there, Diamond interrogates varying concepts of “traditional indigenous knowledge,” citing the term's homogenizing effect when used in the singular. Accepting that there are important parallels to be found among indigenous communities the world over, she asserts that, in the end, knowledge is inherently local (10). Recognizing the place of oral tradition and oral narratives in indigenous epistemologies, Diamond addresses the “great texts of Native American communities” (12). By emphasizing creation stories and other narrative texts, Diamond demonstrates her (as well as her advisers’) understanding of the interdependence of expressive cultural and spiritual elements found within Native communities, where standard binaries such as traditional/contemporary and secular/sacred often bleed into one another.

The next three chapters, “Inuit Communities,” “The Wabenaki and Other Eastern Algonquian Nations,” and “Haudenosaunee Music Culture with Occasional References to Cherokee Traditions,” serve as case studies with a local and regional focus. Chapter 2 begins with an Inuit drum dance song genre that plays an important role in “preserving traditional knowledge” (39). In addition to serving as a record of local experiences and mediating disagreements, the drum dance songs (known variously in different regions as pisiit or ajaja) are tied to the landscape, creating what might be called a sonic geography. From there, Diamond pulls our attention indoors, focusing on games created primarily by women and children, including juggling games and vocal games (widely referred to as “throat singing”). Differing in style between the regions of Nunavik and Nunavut,Footnote ¹ throat singing has been popularized and appropriated by artists such as Björk, causing concern among traditional throat singers that the integrity of their art form may be at risk (56–58). Beginning with an historical overview of Indian/white relations in the Northeast, Chapter 3 considers “ways in which song and dance traditions were used for renewal, mediation, and survival” (62). Focusing on genres historically “beyond colonial control,” Diamond discusses the role of songs, dreams, and drumming in Innu hunting practices. After exploring the mediating qualities of the stick game (an earlier form of lacrosse) and the dice bowl game, Diamond investigates the indigenization of Christian hymns, acknowledging Indian agency in the formation of localized expressions of Christianity. Of particular interest here is the role of indigenous women as the primary mediators between Jesuits and their communities (80).Footnote ²

Chapter 4 begins with an ethnographic account of an Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) “Sing,” highlighting women's shuffle dances known as Ehsgá:nye, a “genre of social dance-music that is actively composed today” (97–99). Using the history of the great League of Iroquois as a backdrop, Diamond moves from the Haudenosaunee prophet Handsome Lake to the contemporary Longhouse religion, the center of numerous annual ceremonial cycles of the Six Nations (100–102). Featuring the powerful Longhouse singer Gordie Buck, Diamond discusses “earth songs” (synonymous with “social dance songs,” a label that diminishes the sacred qualities inherent in the repertoire), before returning to Ehsgá:nye, a genre of earth songs central to the Sing that embody both “traditional and contemporary” elements (109). Recent adaptations of earth songs by artists such as Robbie Robertson and Joanne Shenandoah serve as a segue to the final chapter, “Contemporary Intertribal and Cross-Cultural Native American Music.” Finding a gap in powwow histories related to the Northeast, Diamond traces the powwow from the southern Plains in the early twentieth century to the northern territories “after the 1950s,” after which it was established in the Northeast a few decades later (119). Following a rundown of “powwow fundamentals” in which the reader is introduced to aspects such as the grand entry, northern versus southern singing styles, men's and women's dance categories, and the basic forms of powwow songs, Diamond moves to popular music and theater. A wide array of artists spanning many genres are featured here, including Mi'kmaq fiddler Lee Cremo, Trurez Crew, the Innu duo Kashtin, Joy Harjo, and Ulali. Several of these artists as well as many others from Native American Music in Eastern North America appear on the accompanying CD, a thoughtful selection of recordings that informs the subject in ways the text alone cannot.

Diamond's book represents a step forward in collaborative studies between cultural insiders and outside researchers, privileging indigenous epistemologies while striving to maintain a cohesive dialogue. As can be expected, at times Diamond and her indigenous advisers threaten to talk past one another during their multivocal encounter. Both have something to offer, however, one of the reasons why Diamond's book is so important. By consciously avoiding a unilateral approach Diamond has enabled a discourse that is long overdue. Still, one can hope for many more univocal texts on the horizon, written by a wave of Native scholars intent on reframing what we think we know with indigenous ways of knowing.