“Indigenous Musicians of Pittsburgh” documents, analyzes, and contextualizes the sound worlds of Indigenous musicians performing in and around Pittsburgh. The project documents the oral histories of these musicians and pairs them with the larger histories of Indigenous presence and migration. The sound worlds of these musicians include the sound practices of these musicians (such as song-writing, rehearsals, recordings, and performances), stories they tell, and the soundscapes of their creative spaces. Their sound practices are contextualized within historio-geographic narratives that address the past and present of Indigenous nationhood, self-determination, and land-based sovereignty in this region. Each musician emerges from a complex history of diasporic migration, urban-based indigeneity, and assimilative policies of the settler nation-state.
“Indigenous Musicians of Pittsburgh” begins with powwow drum group Thunder Nation. One outcome is a studio album created in the School of Music at Carnegie Mellon University. Read this CMU story about the album.
Pennsylvania has no reservations, and no Native American tribe/nation has official state or federal recognition within Pennsylvania. State and federal funding prioritizes officially recognized tribes/nations, which results in the erasure of Indigenous peoples in Pennsylvania. This project will challenge this attitude within our CMU, Pittsburgh, and Allegheny County communities.
Thunder Nation in the Vlahakis Recording Studio in the School of Music at CMU. Recording was completed by CMU students under the supervision of Riccardo Schulz.