Caddo Lullaby is a song recorded by Alice Cussen. The style of this song is Native American. This song is accessible to us because it was documented and taped by Willard Rhodes. He was a Columbia University professor who decided to record around 1,000 Indian songs to analyze how traditional Native American songs are still being used as noted in Music of the American Indian: Southwest (Puget Sound). He started recording the different sounds between 1939- 1952. There is not much information on the songwriter or artist because the traditional song is more representative of the Native American group, The Caddo, as opposed to its performer. While the recording might feature Alice Cussen singing, Caddo Lullaby is a traditional song sung by many as it becomes passed down. This is also why I couldn’t find an exact year as to when it was created. The lullaby recording has no instruments and is solely a vocal recording. The lullaby is meant to be sung when putting a baby to sleep or to comfort them as is custom with all lullabies.
Ahead of the background research, here are the lyrics: (repetitions are left out.)
ma ma ma ma ma ma
ma ma ma ma ma ma
ma ma ma ma
ma ma ma ma
hai iki he, hai iki he
[Go to sleep, go to sleep]
gai yo ti si, gai yo ti si
[My baby, my baby]
he iki he, ma ma
[Go to sleep, ma ma]
Other examples that represent the Caddo tribe include the Caddo’s Flag Song and Peyote Song. I have also included a video of the Caddo tribe dancing to provide a visual understanding of how they interact with music.
Assuming the song was created around the tribe’s inception, I would say that it was representative of its time because during that age tribes focused on music not as entertainment but as a spiritual and a communal idea. If I were to go based on its recorded time (when Professor Rhodes captured it) I would say the song is not representative of its recorded time–1950’s started focusing on Rock N ‘Roll. Traditional Native American music remains consistent within its own parameters. Listening to this song with contemporary lenses may provide for an unclear understanding of what this song stands for. The lullaby is a traditional song that follows the Indian musical recipe of having repetition and a single melody. It is simple in sound but complex in what its meaning is. It is representative of heritage as it is passed down from generation to generation. Rhodes also attributes that Indian music is monophonic in nature and typically has a vocal part over a rhythmic part
The Caddo tribe was originally based in the Lower Mississippi Valley and spread along with the river’s geographical areas such as Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana. They then spread out to present-day Texas among other locations.
The spread to Texas was a result of the Anglo-American Indian Conflict. They had to leave their homelands of Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma forcibly. In 1859, according to Britannic, the Caddo Tribe fled to east-central Oklahoma and lived on the banks of the Washita River. This forced moved was because this tribe was receiving “threats of a massacre” by anti-Indian groups. Another source, Nacogdoches Convention and Visitors Bureau, notes that only 1,000 Caddo Indians remained at this time. The Caddo Indian Tribe currently live in western Oklahoma in Caddo Country, according to the Texas State Historical Association. The National Park Service adds that they differed from other groups in Texas because they had territorial stability. In addition, according to the Texas State Historical Association, they were a sedentary group so they could carry “complex musical instrumentals.” This helped them to developed ceremonial and traditional music. There is also evidence of flute playing figures. The Texas State Historical Association concludes that “the Native American musical repertoire in Texas appears to be limited to percussion and wind instruments of relatively simple construction but of immense ceremonial importance.” In short, how the group moved geographically allowed for them to utilize materials around them and create a blueprint for traditional Native American music in Texas.
Sources:
“American Folklife Center Audio Recording Albums.” American Folklife Center Recording Albums (The American Folklife Center, Library of Congress), www.loc.gov/folklife/LP/.
Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. “Caddo”. Encyclopedia Britannica, 30 May. 2019, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Caddo. Accessed 10 October 2021.
“Caddo Indians of Texas.” Nacogdoches History & Culture, www.visitnacogdoches.org/about/history/caddo-indians/.
“Early Caddo History.” National Parks Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, www.nps.gov/elte/learn/historyculture/caddo-early-history.htm#:~:text=The%20Caddo%20originated%20in%20the,Neches%20rivers%20and%20adopted%20agriculture.
Howard Meredith, “Caddo (Kadohadacho),” The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture, https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=CA003.
Rae Korson, and Joseph C. Hickerson. “The Willard Rhodes Collection of American Indian Music in the Archive of Folk Song.” Ethnomusicology, vol. 13, no. 2, University of Illinois Press, 1969, pp. 296–304, https://doi.org/10.2307/850151.
Rhodes, Willard. Music of the Northwest Indian: Puget Sound. https://www.loc.gov/folklife/LP/AFSL34_MAI_Northwest.pdf
Rhodes, Willard. Music of the American Indian: Plains: Comanche, Cheyenne, Kiowa, Caddo, Wichita, Pawnee. https://www.loc.gov/folklife/LP/AFSL39Plains.pdf
Perttula, Timothy K. “Caddo Indians.” TSHA, Texas State Historical Association, www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/caddo-indians
