The Art of Tradition

The Art of Tradition documents the complexity of Native life and culture at a critical juncture in Native American history, where the rekindling of pride in Native cultures characteristic of the later twentieth century met the generation of elders who spent their early years speaking Native tongues but who came of age in boarding schools and amid strong pressures of assimilation. The songs, dance steps, and stories collected here are evidence of the artful work of maintaining and breathing new life into traditions, often in contexts that seem anything but traditional, by indigenous elders and artists.

Gertrude Prokosch Kurath (1903-1992) graduated from Bryn Mawr College and studied music and dance at the Yale School of Drama. Between 1923 and 1946 she taught, performed, produced, and choreographed modern dance. In the mid-1940s, she began to study the dance and associated musical traditions of the Anishinaabe and other Native peoples. She performed under the name of Tula. From 1958 to 1972 she was dance editor for the journal Ethnomusicology.