Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, October 8, 1994 TAG: 9410150009
SECTION: SPECTATOR PAGE: S-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARY CAMPBELL ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: NEW YORK LENGTH: Medium
He got his wish working on the three-part TV documentary ``The Native Americans,'' to be shown on TBS beginning Monday. All six hours will be repeated Saturday afternoon, Oct. 22. The documentary is Indian history, recounted by Indians.
Robertson, best-known as a member of The Band, as a boy visited his mother's relatives at Canada's Six Nations Indian Reservation.
``I went back to the reservation all the time when I was a kid,'' he says. ``I still have relatives there.
``A lot of the core of my ideas came from things I heard when I was a kid, hearing women's voices and drums, a glorious, beautiful sound. This kind of rings all the way through this music.''
For the documentary, Robertson says, ``My job was not to do traditional first-nation music. My job was to do music that would complement the series, emotionally and dramatically. That gave me the opportunity to do something that's been in my heart for a long time.''
Robertson points out that a lot of traditional Indian music is religious and isn't allowed to be recorded or filmed.
``I did not violate any of those restrictions and I never would,'' he says. ``But there is a place in my heart I feel it's a shame that a lot of this music will never be heard by the rest of the world.''
Capitol Records has just released ``Music for `The Native Americans' '' by Robertson and the musicians he dubbed the Red Road Ensemble.
The performers include Bonnie Jo Hunt, a Lakota who is an opera singer, and sisters Rita and Priscilla Coolidge, who told him about a Cherokee song passed down in their family.
``For the most part, these people [Indians] only perform in their own little worlds,'' Robertson says. ``Sometimes they'll go to powwows and sing. It is opening up that they are being invited to sing at more general music venues. Hopefully this project will encourage some of that.
``Ninety percent of the people on the record have Indian connections in their heritage.''
For the first three months after Robertson got the composing assignment, he listened to Indian music. ``I know a lot of people in the Indian community. I sent an all-points bulletin saying I wanted to hear everything. I got hundreds of tapes in the mail.
``A lot of it was traditional. That's where you get the flavor of the region.
``I absorbed things I thought might be beneficial in this project - rhythms, harmonies, melodies and stories. After three months of listening, I felt like the biggest authority on the planet. Of course I'm not.
``The only traditional song is `Ancestor Song.' That was performed by Ulali and the Silver Cloud Singers.''
Over the years, Robertson says, he has gone to Indian powwows.
``People perform together,'' he says. ``Sometimes they are one tribe; sometimes they are not. It is improvising in a sense. You do what you know how to do with what somebody else is doing. It makes these worlds fit together.''
In 1979, Robertson was in and wrote music for the movie ``Carny.'' He also wrote music for the films ``Raging Bull,'' ``King of Comedy'' and ``Jimmy Hollywood.''
``The TBS series doesn't use music wall-to-wall but there's a lot of it,'' he says.
Robertson doesn't have favorite pieces in the series, but, he says, ``On `Ghost Dance' I desperately wanted to express something about what Wounded Knee was about. Things were getting desperate for the Indian nations. In 1800 there were 40 million buffalo. In 1850 there were 20 million buffalo. In 1900 there were 500. Destroying these animals for their skins was overwhelming to Indian people.
``Out of this came a prayer of desperation called `the Ghost Dance.' It came from a Paiute messiah, Wovoka. It was a prayer and dance for the return of buffalo and a better day to come in their lives. It spread across Indian nations like mad.
``Washington didn't like the name of it and told Indians it was against the law to do `the Ghost Dance.' It became apparent that freedom of religion didn't apply to these people.
``They refused to stop doing it. The cavalry attacked the Sioux nation and massacred 300, mostly women and children, at Wounded Knee in the Dakotas and buried them in one big grave. It is such a horror to me. I needed to write a piece of music that expressed something of this event and feeling.
``There are many other pieces of music here that are vital to me, too, stuff I've been carrying around with me all my life.''
``The Native Americans'' will air Monday, Tuesday and Thursday at 8:05 p.m. on TBS.
by CNB