Ojibway communities straddle the border between Canada and the U.S. In Minnesota, where they are often called “Chippewa” there has long been a little goldmine of musical vitality at Ponemah, a small settlement on the long peninsula that separates Upper and Lower Red Lake. It’s an area, unusual in the U.S., that closely resembles to wilder, remoter, more traditionalist Canadian side of the border. This is where some of the earliest recordings of Ojibway music were made, when Kimiwun’s puberty dreamsongs were recorded, a hundred years ago. Those songs are mostly still alive, though they have evolved in both style and the context in which they are sung. The Ponemah Chippewa Singers carried on the tradition in the 1970s.
I was playing this old tape when my friend Isaac White walked into my apartment, and he immediately recognized the style. He had heard another recording from the region, and taken a liking to it, though he’s a born-bred-and-buttered Torontonian who knows nothing about native music and had never been to a pow wow. I was astonished that his ear was keen enough to spot it, without any preparation. It just goes to show how distinctive the Minnesota / North Western Ontario style is, and how it can speak to an audience outside its backwoods origins.
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