There a number of important similarities and differences between the approaches, methods, and attitudes that Curtis, Densmore, McAllester, and the pair of Lafferty and Keillor towards Native Americans, their cultures, and their music. One of the main similarities between the majority of these authors involves the inclusion of the explanation and/or translation of the physical structure of Native American songs. All of these writers were able to successfully incorporate in their own eyes how at least one Native American song might have been composed by making an English language interpretation of the song that, in the form of musical notes arranged in specific patterns on staffs, tried to be an accurate representation of the song in another form. The majority of these writers also managed to include physical translations of the Native American language present in their songs into actual words in the English language and include depict the translations by two columns across from each other; one with words in the English translated form and one with words in the original Native American language from where they came from. One example of a song like this that is present in a text is, "A Buffalo Said to Me," in Densmore's text. This common approach in the writing of their texts shows that each of them saw something significant in the way that Native Americans handled their music that stood out in certain ways from other cultures' music and that they wanted to preserve their compositions in solid concrete form, each for their own distinct purposes, so that they could be studied by future generations of musicologists and/or music fanatics.
Another main similarity between the majority of these authors involves discussions about the significance and important of the symbolism, great purpose, and personal meaning behind lyrics in regards to the Native American songs. These writers altogether addressed a number of important ideas regarding the symbolism and personal meaning in Native American song lyrics in their own separate discussions in their own respective texts. One important fact that is mentioned in Curtis' text is that an individual word in a song could represent a whole entire concept. Another important fact that is present in Densmore's text is that the meanings behind a song can be based off of dreams and/or surreal events that an individual experienced at a specific point in his or her life and that this person will try to incorporate a number of elements from these occurrences into the context of his or her song. One other important idea which is present in Browner's text that can be learned by carefully looking at the text and generalizing on the ideas that it presents is that through the process of creating a meaningful song with meaningful lyrics that, "Through this practice an individual establishes one's own identity and an awareness of one's surrounding world and culture" (Browner 25). This common approach in the writing of their texts shows that the majority of them regarded this topic of discussion as one of the major things for any individual to take into consideration when studying Native American music. Besides this, it makes sense for the majority of these writers to mention things along these lines because by doing so, it would allow outsiders to develop a more accurate representation of how a Native American song is created and some of the deep processes involved in doing so. Besides the common features between the authors in their respective pieces of writing, there are certain differences to be found as well.
The main differences between these authors lies in the specific processes in which they went about gathering information on Native American music and how things went about for them in doing so. One part of this process that shows some differences is how each of them managed to record a performance of a song sung by a Native American that a number of them happened to come across when they were originally doing research on this topic. The other part of this process is how they spoke to the Native American that was interviewed and interacted with that Native American with certain feelings and behaviors. Looking at both of these things, it is important to notice that there are a number of different methods used throughout these texts. In Curtis' text, in one story, it is mentioned that the narrator (might be referencing Curtis or not) records a song sung by the chief of the Hopi Native Americans, named Lololomai, by putting it down on regular writing paper. This process ends up being a bit of a drag and a challenge for the narrator who tries to keep up with what Lololomai is singing. By the narrator taking all the time necessary to write the song as best as possible, it shows that the narrator didn't want to disappoint the Native Americans with a lousy interpretation of the song and that the narrator wanted to impress Lololomai and that the narrator has a lot of respect for the Lololomai and his people. This definitely makes sense, because the narrator mentions that it shouldn't have to come down to the point where Native American songs will be lost and never be heard of by future generations, and the narrator also allows Lololomai inspect the written interpretation of the song on the paper before deciding to go with it and Lololomai says that it was very well done.
One other example is located in the text of "An Apache Fiddle," in which the narrator (being the author, who is David P. McAllester) apparently is able to translate a song played by a Native American named Wooster Kaytogy. Before the author can translate the song, he first observes ,just by naturally observing with his own two eyes, how Kaytogy creates an Apache fiddle by using varioud items. He observed that the fiddle string was made with horse hair and how the rest of the materials, including cow sinew and a mescal stalk (etc.) were used to make the entire instrument itself. It can possibly be said that the author was very patient during this process and interested in it, since he took a careful amount of time to record the entire process and seems to have enjoyed learning how it was done, since he followed Kaytogy wherever he went during this time. In addition, the process of recording the performance of Kaytogy playing a song with the Apache fiddle was done with more advanced technology than mentioned in the previous example, since McAllester was able to record the song with four player devices.
The academic approaches to recording the two songs mentioned in discussion of the differences between the authors of the texts required for reading are significantly different in certain respects. One of the obvious ones is the technological aspect of recording the songs; this involves how McAllester was more conveniently able to record with a player a song without having to ask the Native American performer to repeat and didn't have to worry about writing fast to keep up with the performer, since this took place in the 1950s when this kind of device was around. The opposite can be said for the narrator in the first example who recorded a Native American song during a time when newer technology was not around yet. Another one that can connect to the one just mentioned is the social interaction between the specific Native American being recorded and/or interviewed and the person doing the recording and/or interviewing. In the case of the narrator in Curtis' text, it probably was a little awkward for this person to record Lololomai, since he gave this person a look of confusion when a took awhile for this person to finish recording down the song. The general request and/or process seeking out and asking a Native American to perform a song so it could be recorded for translation and such might have been a little uncomfortable for this person, since the event took place in a time when people of the narrator's race and the Native Americans did not associate themselves with each other that often. It was definitely a different case for McAllester, because during the 1950s, it can possibly be said that English people had had more experience with recording Native American songs for translation and such, and that they had by then possibly been able to establish more friendly relations with certain groups of Native Americans. This can possibly explain how McAllester seemed to be very patient and no feel too out of place when he experienced seeing an Apache fiddle be made and performed by a Native American. The technological advance would also possibly play a role in McAllester not feeling as awkward as the other person when recording the song performed by Kaytogy on the Apache fiddle. In conclusion, all of these authors and their respective texts present an important range of information regarding the Native Americans, their music, and other things, as well.
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