Recordings Keep Musical Legacy Of Nez Perce Alive

PULLMAN - It's 1921 and three young Nez Perces, recently returned to Lapwai from an Indian boarding school, break out a fiddle and begin calling a square dance.

That moment can now be heard on CD.

"It's just hilarious," said Loran Olsen, a retired professor from Washington State University.

Olsen has assembled a Nez Perce Music archive containing over 1,000 pieces. Olsen taught music and Indian studies at WSU.

The square-dance recording belongs to the Sam Morris collection, one of the most recent and significant additions.

Born in Lapwai in 1861, Sam Morris recorded the sounds of social gatherings, visitations from outside the area, worship activities, ceremonies, recreational activities and the appearance of women among the war dancers and singers.

The collection stands out because it is the only one Olsen is aware of that was made by an Indian on his own Edison recording machine from 1909 to 1912.

"This was someone who lived right there," Olsen said. Several non-Indian ethnographers recorded Indian voices during the same period.

Most of the songs recorded by Sam Morris have introductory remarks and comments along with the singing. Particularly significant is the presence of women's voices singing along and commenting during songs.

"Come out and dance. Women, make the men dance with you ..." is among the recorded commentary.

Morris was a half-brother to the famous Nez Perce warrior Yellow Wolf, but did not participate in the Nez Perce War of 1877.

Morris' Indian name was Sik'em Tsitskani meaning Horse Blanket.

He married Annie Corbett, and they lived together in the Lapwai area all their lives. Morris died in 1944.

It wasn't until his son Jim's death in 1987 that the collection surfaced. Jim also made some of the recordings.

The wax cylinder recordings wound up in the hands of Indian artifact dealers who offered them to various Idaho agencies. They also had the Edison machine Morris used to create them.

Introduced in the U.S. in 1908, the Edison standard phonograph model D was the first system for recording and playing back sound. A thin diaphragm vibrates in response to sound waves while a chisel-like needle attached to the diaphragm etches grooves on a rotating wax cylinder.

To play the recorded sound, a lighter needle rides the grooves and a large metal horn amplifies the vibrations.

Morris' Edison machine is now owned by Washington State University. Olsen and Allen P. Slickpoo Sr., a longtime tribal leader, verified the collection's authenticity.

Of the 69 wax cylinders, 61 were preserved.

Since 1941, the recording laboratory at the Library of Congress has converted over 5,000 cylinders to disc or magnetic tape.

"They had the technology, and they did it for nothing," said John Guido of the WSU Libraries' manuscripts, archives and special collections.

But in return, the Library of Congress kept the wax cylinders.

"We still own them," Guido said, "but they're kind of on permanent loan."

A California laboratory used computer technology to clean up the sound and rerecord the Nez Perce voices on CD. The grant also provided for a Nez Perce apprentice to work in the California lab to learn the computer applications.

Arthur Taylor, administrative assistant for the Nez Perce Tribe's cultural resources program, completed the task this year.

The tribe has specified that the recordings are intended for educational use.

"I think the projects are important in the sense that they keep us apprised that we are the newcomers," said Olsen, who now lives in Port Angeles.

The overall theme of the collection, Olsen said, is demonstrating how the Nez Perce people had fun.

"They use music as a very special gift to enjoy and share with their neighbors," Olsen said.

The collection recorded on two CDs is available for $24.95 plus shipping and handling through Northwest Interpretive Association, 909 First Ave., Suite 630, Seattle, Wash. 98104-1060, or telephone (206) 220-4140.