With the end of August comes a close to most of the gathering season: powwows over in time for back to school; feast days and dances on hold until fall. Here in this place, the people are at this moment participating in their own gathering of sorts, the annual pilgrimage, but it is not one for outsiders in any way. Soon, the village will begin gearing up for the next big gathering, the annual feast of San Geronimo, the patron saint that the Spanish invaders appointed for the “mission,” an event that has been adopted and coopted into the Pueblo’s largest indigenous gathering outside of its powwow (and, in some years, the Christmas Eve festivities).
As with the earlier feast days of summer, the dancing and singing on the powwow circuit, the occasional one-day dance or other event, such days pass to the tune of a gathering heartbeat: the sound of the drum that is the voice of this place. Until now, our features for this month have focused on hand drums, but today, we highlight the final two drums in our inventory, ons that are wholly Pueblo in origin, design, and use.
I wrote about these drums in this space about two and a half years ago, in a post that explored their unique character. Because these drums are different: They are both voice and heartbeat of the earth, of this land, of this ancestral place and sacred space. As I said then of their very specific method of construction:
Truly traditional drum makers also adhere to another practice: They make the drum itself out of the trunk of a tree, hollowed out and unbroken. This means that, unlike with many other types of Native drums (including most hand drums), there are no fitted pieces in the frame — indeed, it’s not really precisely a “frame” at all, with the fitted nature that the word implies, but a body. It makes for a different sound, even in the smaller drums, and it has one other benefit that I find especially beautiful: It allows the tree that provided the body a voice. What you see, when you look at one of these drums, is a segment of a tree’s actual trunk, its own body, with all of the angles and variable surface (and sometimes even natural branch handles) that were a part of the tree in its natural state. They’re hollowed out, the exterior stripped of bark, and the surface lightly sanded, of course, but it’s one of the few instances where the tree that provided the gift of sound is allowed to sing in its own voice, in a manner of speaking.
And today, on this final Friday of August, we have two such traditional works on offer. The first is the large one shown above; from its description in the Other Artists: Drums gallery here on the site:
A Pueblo drum gives voice to the heartbeat of the land. Master drum maker Lee Lujan (Taos Pueblo) created this large traditional upright drum from a length of cottonwood trunk, a whole and unbroken circle of old wood. He stretched tanned rawhide over top and bottom to create a dual-sided instrument with spectacular resonance, then hand-laced both covers together across the drum’s circumference using sturdy sinew. Once the drum was bound together, he used the remaining lace to create one handle on each side, top and bottom, by spiraling the sinew tightly together in an arc and then tying it off at either end. Another small length of sinew forms a loop at one handle to hold the beater, a rough-hewn length of wood chosen for balance, pads one end, and wraps it in buttery soft white deerhide. Drum stands 21.5″ high by 18.25″ across at its widest point. Another view shown below.
Cottonwood; rawhide; sinew; deerhide
$495 + shipping, handling, and insurance
Note: Size and weight require special handling; extra shipping charges apply
The second is smaller, sized more personally for smaller figures and hands, but to my mind, it is the more beautiful of the two: The knots in the wood and stubs of the erstwhile branches, the variation in its form and texture and color, all speak in unique harmony to my spirit. From its description in the same gallery:
Taos Pueblo master drum maker Lee Lujan gives voice to the earth’s own heartbeat with this small traditional Pueblo drum. Made in the old way, it’s summoned from a single unbroken length of cottonwood trunk, whole and complete with no fitted pieces. each side is covered with rawhide, tanned, stretched, and dried in the old way, the two covers laced together by hand with lengths of heavy sinew. The excess lace is used to fashion a pair of traditional handles, one at either side, top and bottom, and a small loop to hold the beater. The beater itself is made from a slender branch, stripped of bark and chosen for balance, one end padded, covered in soft white deerhide, and laced securely together. Drum stands 15.25″ high by 10″ across at its widest point.
Cottonwood; rawhide; sinew; deerhide
$210 + shipping, handling, and insurance
Note: Size and weight require special handling; extra shipping charges apply
Of course, there is a gathering heartbeat of another sort common to this season, too — in the drums that accompany raining season in the form of thunder. It truly is the pulse of this place, certainly in this time of the rain. Even when the rain passes us by, as occurred today, the thunder lends its voice to our world here, its drumming heavenly heartbeat.
There will be gathering a bit longer, and praying and ceremony, too. But very soon, the work begins anew, and with renewed intensity. After all, autumn is early this year; winter will not be far behind, and there is much to do. For now, the earth’s heart beats insistently, inspiring us to work, to feast, to gather, to pray — beneath the sun, and amid the rain.
~ Aji
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