Original pgs 68-75. Alcheringa 1-3

dan_hanna_leanne_hinton-_havasupai_medicine_song_pages_from_alcheringa_1-3_winter-1971.pdf

This Havasupai medicine song was passed down to and sung by Dan Hanna. This Alcheringa entry was collected and translated by Leanne Hinton. She was helped with the translation by the singer Dan Hanna. The setting that the song describes in detail is the Grand Canyon, which is the region where the Havasupai have lived for generations.

The original dreamer of this medicine song is unknown, but the song was passed down from an older relative to Supai Shorty, who had then passed the song down to Dan Hanna from whom it was collected, translated by, and later transcribed for this Alcheringa entry.

The Havasupai tribe inhabited the Grand Canyon in an area called Havasu Canyon for around 800 years. The tribe name, Havasupai, means “blue-green water people” (“havasu-” = blue/green water, “-pai” = people), referring to the waters flowing through The Grand Canyon. They have now lost most of their land to the U.S. Grand Canyon National Park and now inhabit the Havasupai Indian Reservation.

Havasupai medicine songs, sung by a few who dream their own songs, are not composed with the goal of sharing them with others, but are almost always intended as the singer's personal song for their own healing. However, this particular song that was passed down to Dan Hanna was heard by many and was well-known because it was used in the Havasupai tribe's sweathouse curing ceremony, which was a social event and an affair that involved the whole community.

Many Havasupai songs, including this one, appear as long, descriptive poems. The singing of these songs can last for up to an hour due to some improvisation within the rhythm, notes and even the words used or repeated by the singer. The choices the singer makes during their recitation of their song depends on the singer's mood at the time of the 'performance.'

The original version of this song was sung in the Havasupai–Hualapai language, which has two main dialects. One dialect is the Hualapai dialect, spoken along the Southern rim of the grand canyon, and the other, Havasupai, is spoken at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. The original dialect of this song was likely Havasupai, since the song was composed by someone living within the canyon.

Another example of a Havasupai song, though not a medicine song, can be found here and was also transcribed by Leanne Hinton. This example is a translation and transcription of the Farewell Song of the Havasupai and also features the repetition of lines and words throughout the piece.

This song, which appears as a long poem with regularly repeating lines, describes the Grand Canyon that the Havasupai tribe inhabits. The first seven lines, each repeated with a “hey, heya” following them, describe the grand canyon as “the land they always wanted” and described as their “home.” Following those first seven repeated lines are four lines that are not repeated and continue to describe the walls of the canyon around them, how it is their home, and how the spring that runs through the bottom will always flow there. The poem continues to describe the quality of the stream running through “the land that is ours” and describes its green-blue coloring, which contributed to the tribe's very name. The singer of the song continues describing his surroundings including the foam forming on the river, a beetle making his way across the water, the grasses weaving to-and-fro under the pressure of the water's flow, and even the pebbles on the bottom of the riverbank.

on page 70 we see the poem shift toward the singer himself. He says “the song brings us here hey, heya the song brings us here hey, heya”

and goes on to describe how his “body is bleeding,” which likely refers to whatever his illness was at the time of the song's composition, which was the sole reason this medicine song was written. The next lines also remind the reader/listener of why the song was composed, with the singer's purpose of healing himself.

“Medicine spirit hey, heya Medicine spirit hey, heya

Man who is a shaman hey, heya Man who is a shaman hey, heya

I am just like him. hey, heya I am just like him. hey, heya”

The comparison the singer makes of himself to a shaman or “medicine spirit” once again refers to the idea that these medicine songs were written by the sufferer of the illness themselves and performed for their own healing. Instead of having a shaman or medicine man visit and heal the sick, they would perform this ritualistic singing to heal on their own.

The singer repeats the descriptions he previously sang about the walls of the grand canyon, their various colors, and the spring that runs through it. He also includes mention of horses that belong to him at the top of the canyon on a mesa and his journey back toward the canyon, his home. He says:

“Red rock wall hey, heya Going down the canyon hey, heya

They are right there hey, heya Down in the canyon hey, heya

Many red rocks hey, heya Not very tall hey, heya

I am right there hey, heya I have arrived hey, heya

I go along hey, heya This is what I'm thinking hey, heya”

In this section of the song it seems that the singer is returning his attention from his imagination of the beautiful scenery of his home, both above and below the canyon walls, back to his home and (presumably) his thoughts and the subject of his song returns to his ailment. he finishes his song with

“Now my bleeding ends hey, heya It ends right there hey, heya

This is what I'm thinking hey, heya This is what I'm thinking hey, heya”

This ending of the song mentions that the bleeding, which was assumed to be connected to his ailment at the start of the song, had ended and it can be assumed that he is hoping that by finishing his song he will be healed of his ailment. By channeling the words he is repeating and his thoughts of healing he intends to cure himself of whatever his affliction may have been. Following the song's end in the Alcheringa entry there is a brief description of how medicine songs came about and why this one was so well-known.

Perhaps this Havasupai medicine song was chosen for the community curing ceremony because of the vagueness of the description of the illness of the original composer of the song. It may have resonated with each member of the tribe that attended the sweathouse curing ceremony no matter their reason for being in need of healing. Without the exploration and comparison of other healing songs of the Havasupai it is difficult to surmise why this was the chosen song for the community ceremony.

Havasupai Tribe, Supai. “Official Havasupai Tribe Website.” Official Havasupai Tribe Website, https://theofficialhavasupaitribe.com/.

“Havasupai.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 4 Oct. 2021, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Havasupai.

“Havasupai–Hualapai Language.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 15 Oct. 2021, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Havasupai%E2%80%93Hualapai_language.

Hinton, Leanne. “The Farewell Song of the Havasupai.” Havasupai Farewell Song, University of California, Berkeley, http://www.ralphlevy.com/quotes/havasupais.htm.

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