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Table of Contents
Havasupai Medicine Song - Dan Hanna & Leanne Hinton
Original pgs 68-75. Alcheringa 1-3
dan_hanna_leanne_hinton-_havasupai_medicine_song_pages_from_alcheringa_1-3_winter-1971.pdf
Overview
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.
Context
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 are not composed with the intention of sharing them with others, but are almost always the singer's personal song for their own healing. However, this particular song by Dan Hanna was heard by many and was well-known because it was used in the sweathouse curing ceremony, a community affair.
Many Havasupai songs, including this one, appear as long, descriptive poems and the singing of the song can last for up to an hour due to some improvisation within the notes and even the words used or repeated, depending on the singer's mood at the time of the 'performance.'
