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 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 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 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.