Omaha Indian Music - Native American

Omaha Indian Music features traditional Omaha music from the 1890s and 1980s. The multiformat ethnographic field collection contains wax cylinder recordings collected by Francis La Flesche and Alice Cunningham Fletcher between 1895 and 1897, songs from the 1983 Omaha harvest celebration pow-wow, and songs from the 1985 Hethu'shka Society concert at the Library of Congress.

This presentation is made possible by the generous support of The Texaco Foundation

Digitizing the Sound Recordings:
The wax cylinder recordings presented in the collection were taken from the Omaha Indian Music: Historical Recordings from the Fletcher/La Flesche Collection (AFC L71) preservation tape copy recordings. The cylinders were played back onto magnetic tape using a modified Edison Home Phonograph. The analog preservation copy tapes were recorded in a half-track format at 7.5 ips. These preservation tape copies served as the source for the digital audio tape (RDAT) copies which were, in turn, used to produce the digital files presented.

The original recordings for the 1983 Omaha harvest celebration pow-wow sound recordings are analog recordings made on Nagra tape recorders, generally in a stereo mode and recorded at 7.5 ips. At the pow-wow, a variety of microphone configurations was used. The original 1985 Neptune Plaza Library of Congress recording is also analog, recorded at the concert on ten-inch open-reel tape. Each of these analog recordings was transferred to digital audio tapes (RDAT) that served as the source for the production of the digital files presented here.

Some background noise may be apparent on the recordings, especially when the original is a cylinder. The transfers from the cylinders to analog tape were carried out by the Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division laboratory, using their customary and conservative professional practices regarding adjustments of level, equalization, and noise reduction. The transfers from the originals were made by the American Folklife Center. No further adjustments or enhancements were made when the RDAT tapes were used to produce the MP3 versions provided for each selection.

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