The reading by Rayna Grass and Howard Bass, entitled Heartbeat: Voices of First Nations Women, basically explains how Native American females have been able to make important contributions to the music industry and/or other things in their respective culture(s). This text basically states that women are a significant part of the Native American culture and music business, despite seeming to be inferior to men in certain cases. The general idea of Native American women specifically not being equally involved in the musical business in their respective cultures definitely makes sense to me, due to the fact that most of the musical pieces by Native Americans that we were assigned to analyze for homework generally had male voices being heard through their entireties. One part of the Native American culture that women play key roles in is ceremonial events. The text mentions that females are distinct in their own special ways from males in these events by being head workers a good portion of the time in healing processes and have certain vocal abilities that make them the only ones capable and/or suitable for singing certain songs that males usually would not be as good for. Another part of the Native American culture that women play active roles in is glorifying relatives, clan, and tribe. One thing that the Native American women usually do in this case (along with men) is perform vocal musical pieces that glorify their elders. One other part of the Native American culture that women play a specific role in is the playing of musical instruments. It is mentioned that in more relevant times, some Native American females including Geraldine Barney and Lillian Rainer have been able to properly handle the flute, which certain Native American groups have used as a major tool in the overall structure of their musical pieces. One last part of the Native American culture that women play important roles in is companionable dances and plays. The text mentions that in these events, women usually tend to perform romantically and passionately themed musical pieces. It is also mentioned that due to the fact that these specific songs have a certain amount of promiscuous language within them that they are handled by both females and males. In conclusion, it definitely seems to me that in Native American culture, like other cultures, that women are labeled as the inferior race. This is especially true to me since some of the practices in the Native American culture and/or music industry (like some of the ones mentioned above) mandatorily require women to work in alliances with men, whether they may like or not, and they end up preventing individual women from working independently and/or without help in these certain tasks and/or situations.
