Handed Down - Nevada Arts Council

1989–1990
Paiute-Shoshone Songs:
Art Cavanaugh and Steve Kane
With the decline of Native American languages,
the growing influence of pan-Indian pow-wow
drumming and dancing, and the pressures of modern
American life, traditional Shoshone and Paiute singing
is becoming an endangered art. The old songs were
sung in groups to accompany round dances, although
in recent years small hand drums were added to provide
volume since fewer singers knew the songs.
Art Cavanaugh of Winnemucca is one of perhaps
half a dozen traditional round dance singers in Nevada,
and with his powerful voice and extensive repertoire
certainly one of the best. His father was a singer, and
traditional music and stories were an important form
of entertainment when Art was growing up. He says,
“So I listened, I put it in my head, I guess, and it stayed
there. That’s where I learned, all these things from stories,
how to conduct yourself, your life, all these are told
through stories, through the coyote stories that tell you
not to do this, not to do that. That’s how you grow
up, knowing the difference between right and wrong is
what they teach you. You have the ability to determine
your own life, which way you want to go—go bad or be
good.”
When Steve Kane of Reno heard that Art would be
in the area for awhile, he jumped at the chance to spend
time with him learning songs and techniques. Steve’s
mother’s family was from Pyramid Lake and as a child
he listened to an uncle who was a well-known handdrum
singer. “He had the kind of voice that would put
goose bumps on your back,” he says. Steve put his Indian
heritage aside for awhile while he was in college,
but he has now returned to it and renewed
his interest in the culture and
particularly the songs.
Many of the songs are about nature—streams, forests,
birds, stars—although more modern ones have also
been written on such subjects as the American flag, and
Art and his wife Barbara are translating some hymns
into Paiute and Shoshone. Traditional dances start late
in the evening, and often go until sunrise without the
same song being repeated. Steve describes such a dance:
“That’s really a unique experience, it’s like being high
on something, you know, when you sing all night. The
way Art sings his songs, the way they used to do it a
long time ago, is they’d dance all night in a circle. It’s a
fast type of step too, you can imagine doing it all night,
it’s like you get into a trance. You reach a point where
you get so tired, you know, you think that you can’t go
on, but your adrenaline’s going, you just kind of keep
pushing on, and you can go on all night.”
It is sometimes a hard balancing act for Native
American people to maintain their traditional beliefs
and values while still be a part of contemporary life, and
the efforts of people like Art and Steve are crucial in
that task. “Indian people are tough,” Steve says. “I think
the thing that’s kept us different is the songs, the culture,
the language…if we ever lose that, we’re just like
anybody else, we’ve lost our uniqueness.”
Steve Kane
Art Cavanaugh
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