View source for Arapaho music

{{NativeAmericanmusic}}
The [[Arapaho]] are a tribe of [[Native Americans in the United States|Native Americans]] from the western [[Great Plains]], in the area of eastern [[Colorado]] and [[Wyoming]].  Traditional '''Arapaho music''', described by [[Bruno Nettl]] (1965, p. 150), includes [[sacred music|sacred]] and secular songs. Traditional music uses [[terraced descent]] type [[melodic motion]], with songs consisting of two sections, each with a range of more than an [[octave]] and [[scale (music)|scales]] of four to six tones.

==Sun Dance==
{{main|Sun Dance}}
The Arapaho Sun Dance, performed in the summer when the Arapaho bands come together for the occasion, is a ceremony performed in order to guide warriors on a [[Vision (religion)|vision]], receiving a guardian spirit.  The vision is inspired by intense self-torture.

There are also Arapaho [[folk music|folk]] songs taught by guardian spirits, which are only supposed to be sung when the recipient is near death.

==Secular music==

Secular Arapaho songs include a wide variety of [[round dance]]s in triple [[metre (music)|meter]], the [[snake dance]], the [[rabbit dance]] (a [[partner dance]] introduced after European contact) and a [[turtle dance]], along with [[lullaby|lullabies]], [[children's song|children's]], [[war song|war]], historical, and [[courtship]] songs.

==Ghost Dance==
{{listen |filename=PiuteGamblingSong.ogg |title=Ghost Dance and gambling song from the Piute and Arapaho Native Americans |description="From the Library of Congress: ''Emile Berliner and the Birth of the Recording Industry Collection''; performed by James Mooney (possibly along with Charles Mooney) on July 5, 1894; neither are believed to be [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Native Americans]]  }}
{{main|Ghost Dance}}
The Ghost Dance was a [[religion]], introduced from tribes further west than the Arapaho in the 1880s.  In 1891, the religion was outlawed by the United States, leading to a rebellion among the adherents and culminating in the [[Wounded Knee Massacre]].  Music was an integral part of the Ghost Dance, and included folk songs that were retained long after the movement ended (ibid, 151).

==Peyote songs==
{{main|Peyote song}}
[[Peyote]] is a [[cactus]] found natively in [[Mexico]].  The buttons of the cactus, when chewed, act as a [[psychedelic drug|hallucinogen]] used in the ancient [[Aztec]] religion and continued by area tribes to the present.  Peyote ceremonies spread north and east, reaching the [[Apache]] tribes in the 18th century and then spreading to most every tribe in North America, along with some [[Apache music]] and Plains-[[Pueblo music|Pueblo]] characteristics.  Peyote songs accompany the peyote ceremonies, and are mostly the same throughout the area of peyote's [[entheogen]]ic use.  These songs are most similar to traditional songs of the Plains area, but are characterized by a rapid rhythm composed of two note values, transcribed as quarter and eighth notes.  [[Vocable]]s, or non-lexical syllables are used, as are cadential and closing formulas.

==References==

*Nettl, Bruno (1965). ''Folk and Traditional Music of the Western Continents''. Prentice-Hall, Inc.

==Further reading==
*{{cite book|title=Cheyenne and Arapaho Music|author=Densmore, Frances|year=1964|publisher=Southwest Museum|isbn=0-916561-12-7}}
{{Folk music|state=collapsed}}
[[Category:Arapaho]]
[[Category:Plains Indian music]]
[[Category:Folk music genres]]