By K.E. MacPhie

The Imnížaská intertribal drum group is familiar with performing for and educating students about Tribal traditions and the history of drumming. They have been actively educating in schools and community groups for nearly three years as a family-based intertribal drum group. They began the group to bring families together to learn and share the drum, and have performed at the State Fair, solstice celebrations, powwows, and various schools. But when the choir director of Bloomington Kennedy High School had an idea, it became something brand new.

Niccole Goulet-Jordan, the choir director of the award-winning competition choir from Kennedy, was looking for a multicultural focus for the choir’s trimester two concert and talked with two of the Native students in class, Michael Johnson (Leech Lake Ojibwe) and Natalie Skinaway (White Earth Ojibwe) about the possibility of a Native-focused musical lesson. They loved the idea and helped her get connected with Amy Nelson, the coordinator of Imnížaská, and they collaborated on an idea to not only perform for the students but to perform with them.

Amy and the drum group recorded a song the kids could sing that incorporated both the traditional vocables of the drum, but also had English words for the kids to learn harmonies to sing with the drum and be part of the performance. They spent weeks ahead of the concert learning their part and learning about the unique sound and meaning behind Native drums.

On the day of the concert, Imnížaská arrived during the class period to talk to the kids and rehearse together. They had a discussion about the history of the Dakota and Ojibwe people in the Bloomington area and how important it is that they chose to be an intertribal group. They also shared a history that most non-Native students did not know – that traditional singing and drumming were banned as recently as 1978. Groups like Imnížaská could not exist or perform publicly within the lifetime of many parents and grandparents of the students.

As the session was also based on music education, they also learned some of the techniques of the singers, types of drums and methods that can be used for traditional drumming, and the different components of language and vocables used in their drumming. The students were clearly impacted, asking questions and staying rapt to the group.

After the course time planning, the group and the choir made a plan for the concert format: they spoke to the audience with the help of an emcee, Tribal member, and Kennedy parent, Kirsten Wittmann (Leech Lake Ojibwe) then performed one song traditionally while the two Native seniors danced traditional two-step male and female styles.

For the second song, they played while some of the choir students participated in a potato dance, showing that drumming is not always sacred and somber, but can be fun and light-hearted as well.

For the third song, all the choirs came on stage on both sides of the drum and sang a song with Imnížaská. Drummers, students, and audience members all said the visual of a sea of students supporting the drum, the sound of drummers starting on their own and escalating to a full choral backing, and the energy of love and support in the room was so impactful they were crying and feeling the heartbeat of the drum through them. It was a unique and impactful experience that we hope to see more of in future Tribal collaborations.  Imnížaská will be performing around the Twin Cities and beyond.

You can contact them on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100089561893664.