McCullough Recordings of O'odham Songs

A stream runs through Sabino canyon
Sabino Canyon, Arizona

 

Location: Sacaton, Arizona
Date: 1938
Format: Aluminum disc
Accession Number:54-046-F 

While a graduate student at Columbia University, Doriane Woolley conducted field research at the Gila River Pima Indian Reservation, where her mentor and advisor, George Herzog, had carried out his own research in 1927 and 1929. During a three-month period, Woolley recorded the major Pima song series on 268 twelve-inch aluminum discs and eventually produced over 800 pages of song texts, translations, and music transcriptions. The collection includes eagle songs, flute songs, tati’a’an songs, ant songs, cow songs, dead people songs, curing songs, and girls’ puberty songs. The name, "Akimel O’odham" which means "River People," is now preferred by the group over the term "Pima." This collection was digitally preserved as part of the Sound Directions project.

Sample 1: Girls' Puberty Song. Sung by Charles Whitman with rattle accompaniment. 1938. Lower Santan, Arizona.

Sample 2: Pascora (Pascola) dance song. Played on fiddle by Opsi. 1938. Sacaton, Arizona.