In order to understand the manner in which song and dance move from one tribe to the next, sometimes undergoing radical change, it is best to underscore a fundamental distinction between tribalism and intertribalism. Tribal music and dance are always traditional in structure and function, that is, they are associated with one tribal origin. Intertribal music and dance are always traditional in structure but not always so in function. Tribalism deals with a classification of things;   intertribalism deals with a classification of processes. Tribalism and intertribalism occur in a dialectical relationship. They are essentially two systems operating coterminously;   individuals may participate in both systems. In the past we have regarded them as a single system, leading to our inability to explain the persistence of tribal music and dance, and our exaggeration of the importance of assimilation of tribal traits.

Tribal music and dance represent historical continuity. There is, of course, historical change within each tribe, but the rate of change is slower than in intertribal music and dance exchange, which represents rapid trait diffusion. Tribal music and dance may persist for decades or even centuries. Intertribal music and dance change almost annually. The relationship between the two is dynamic;   intertribal changes reflect and synthesize tribal changes. The two systems seem to exhibit the characteristics of an inverse proportionality:   the more rapid the change at the intertribal level, the more constant the continuity at the tribal level. The goals of the two systems are quite distinct. Tribalism reinforces ethnic identity, and relates music and dance to other social and cultural categories which are meaningful within individual tribes. Intertribal music and dance reinforce American Indian identity at a higher level where this identity is directly threatened by non-Indian influences. The two systems often operate in the same arena.

Thus at northern powwows, the announcer distinguishes between traditional and "intertribal" dances and songs. The structure and function of the songs are often identical, for example, the War dance of intertribalism and the Omaha dance of Lakota tradition. The distinction, however, is not structural but conceptual and classificatory. We find that at the same time intertribal events burgeoned during the mid-1950's, on the Southern Plains there was a "revitalization" of the Ponca Hethuska and Osage Helushka societies, the Black Legging Society of the Kiowa and Kiowa-Apache, and the Gourd dance "clan" among the western Oklahoma tribes. On the Northern Plains, at the same time Southern Plains dance style was beginning to inundate the South Dakota reservations, we find a renewed interest among the Pine Ridge Lakota and North Dakota Plains Ojibwa in the immolative form of the Sun dance.

Tribal music and dance are of enormous quantity and would require massive collaboration in order adequately to describe and analyze tribal variation. Intertribal music performance, however, is more limited. The essential feature of intertribalism is that its components - music, dance, and material culture - diffuse rapidly not only throughout the whole Plains area but also beyond it. There are essentially three methods of diffusion which generate four types of diffusion models. Music and dance diffuse through (1) direct contact, where members of one tribe learn music and dance forms from direct observation of members of another tribe;   (2) stimulus diffusion, where musical and dance concepts of one tribe give rise to similar concepts in other tribes based largely on memory but not on conscious efforts to learn the music or dance form (for example, the Snake dance of the western Oklahoma tribes, which may be Southwest or Southeast in origin), and (3) mechanical diffusion, in which modern recorders and cameras aid in the diffusion of music from one reservation to the next, or snapshots, journal photographs, or films provide inspiration for designing dance costumes which have lost currency for several generations.

Types and Methods of Diffusion

Four types of diffusion exist.

Intratribal Diffusion

In this category, the War dance song is so tribalized through consistant use of word-songs, or unusual tribal variations of the song structure, that while it is widely distributed throughout the districts or linguistic community, it rarely leaves the reservation. Although it is thus restricted, the War dance song may be modified within the reservation boundaries. The most common way is by changing the words. Because of the interrelationship between vocable and language, this kind of modification may have an effect on the vocable structure. However changed, the War dance song retains its true tribal identity and significance as a tribal function. A good example of intratribal diffusion is found among the Lakota of North and South Dakota, which together form a linguistic community. A Lakota song which originates on the Pine Ridge reservation, while retaining its incipient melody and rhythmic structure, may well receive a new set of words as it moves through the Rosebud, Cheyenne River, and Standing Rock reservations.

Most often, the songs within this category are sung in the "classic" tribal style.

Homostylic Diffusion

As the name indicates, diffusion of songs in this category is limited by the style in which they are sung. Therefore, songs sung in the "northern style" may diffuse rapidly through the Lakota, Cree, Blackfeet, and Three Affiliated Tribes but do not leave the north. They are most often composed of vocables only, and retain the characteristic northern voice, drum style, and, most important, the extremely high pitch. Some classic songs may also be included in this category;   however, in diffusion, words are, for obvious reasons, replaced by vocables.

In this category, there is more freedom of adapting Round dance and other secular songs into War dance songs, but there is little or no modification of War dance songs themselves.

Intracultural Diffusion

In this category, we find War dance songs which have broken through the homostylic barrier but remain geographically and functionally within their related cultural area. Northern-style songs infiltrate the Southern Plains (but the reverse is not as pronounced) and in the transition undergo a series of modifications affecting the pitch, tempo, vocable, and drum technique. These specific changes will be noted further along.

There are less "classic"-style songs found in this category;   and all songs contain vocables. In essence they, coupled with some songs of the homostylic type, form the nucleus of intertribal music.

The tenuous line which separates the homostylic and the intracultural categories may well be based on the singer's ability to reproduce the exotic sound, or to sing in ranges and play in tempos which are incongruous with his opinion of esthetic value. This is a matter of conjucture which warrants further investigation and analysis.

Transcultural Diffusion

In this type of diffusion, brought on in recent times through the Indian's adaptation to modern transportation and communications, the War dance song may well transmigrate beyond its cultural delineations. In the process it is not only severely modified - sometimes beyond recognition - but also ceases to exist as a true War dance song. While it loses its original function, it may acquire new functional responsibilities.

The difference, then, between intracultural and transcultural diffusion is that in the latter category the song ceases to function in that capacity for which it was originally composed.

In the case of diffusion of War dance songs into urban areas of Indian relocation, the difference between these two categories may be confusing. When the song leaves its original environment, if its function is still retained, it is still intracultural (or possibly even intratribal or homostylic). To illustrate, let us imagine that a War dance song, originally composed by Lakotas in South Dakota, diffuses to the American Indian Center in Chicago. The song will retain the characteristics of an intratribally or homostylically diffused song. If the Lakota singers leave the Center to return to the reservation, the melody may very well linger on - to be sung by Winnebagos, Chippewa, or other tribes who are also relocated in Chicago. At this point the song will lose its words, and automatically fall out of the intratribal category, but may well stay in the homostylic category if the new singers favor the northern or classic Lakota style. Since the song still retains its form and is sung for War dancing, it is also intracultural. In essence, not only the song but the entire Plains culture has diffused to Chicago. Only when this same song, under scrutiny by a lonely Navajo or Mohawk, leaves the Center and goes back to Arizona or New Yourk, where it is sung as a "Western Indian song" for the amusement of non-Plains listeners, does it truly become transcultural. At this juncture the song has lost its words, usually its form, and always its original purpose.

Process of Diffusion

The methods and channels through which the War dance song is diffused are best understood if we begin at the point where the song is composed.

From inception, the song, if composed on a reservation, moves intratribally in the following way:

1. The composer teaches the new song to another individual or his song group. This is an educative process effected through repetition.

2. Alternatively, the composer may save the new song and introduce it at a celebration or powwow. As he sings the song once or twice through, his group learns on the spot. After completing steps 1 and/or 2, the song is then established.

3. The song group travels from district to district on the reservation, introducing the song. Or a second group assimilates the song and in turn introduces it at other district celebrations. In a short time, the song makes the reservation circuit of dances.

4. The composer and his group, or another group, attend a dance on a neighboring reservation and introduce the song, whereby through step 3 it is diffused throughout the new reservation, and so on ad infinitum.

Steps 1 and 2, given that the song is composed on a reservation and has the characteristics of a tribal song, are the only reliable steps. Once the song has been introduced to the public, a number of variables make it unpredictable as to how and in what direction the song will diffuse. This is especially true on the Southern Plains, where there is an absence of reservations.

Today there is more and more travel between reservations, and songs may diffuse rapidly in all directions after they are composed. There is a general tendency for songs to diffuse southward, as has been noted. Both Northern and Southern Plains songs also go east and west to urban areas. In addition, more and more singers have acquired tape recorders and to some degree exchange songs by mail (and today even electronically through the internet). And, of course, there is that ever present phenomenon relative to Indian music that makes it impossible to prevent an Indian singer from "catching" a song. Whether he makes it a point to learn a new song or not, he will invariably return home from a dance to find himself singing a song he unconsciously "learned" several days past. How accurately he remembers it and passes it on to other singers greatly accounts for the modification of songs in the process of diffusion.

To better understand the diffusion of music and dance within the Plains area, it is perhaps beneficial to make still another distinction between music and dance music.

This higher level of distinction deals with universals of Plains music and dance. Of essential importance, music is primary and dance is secondary. Music is not neccessarily older than dance, but empirically the two categories of exprssive culture occupy asymmetrical positions in all Plains (if not all) tribes. The outstanding distinction is that music, even dance music, may be performed without dance accompaniment, but dance can never be performed without proper musical accompaniment. This distinction has many implications which may be applicable to general theories of music and dance.

The distinction allows one to disregard, at least temporarily, that rather overworked anthropological notion that all American Indian music and dance is "functional." Of course, if everything is functional, the term "functional" itself is hardly significant in attempting to explain or analyze any sociocultural category. To limit one's discourse to the function of music and dance is to guarantee that these domains will never be associated with others or undergo change. In the past, music and dance have been regarded as functional with respect to each other, but to hardly anything else. Music also has been regarded as functionally related to other cultural categories (for example, work songs, religious songs, and riding songs), but the relationships between these categories have never been studied in the larger context (such as politics, economics, kinship, etc.).

Given the primacy of music over dance, anthropologists and ethnomusicologists can begin studying the two categories more rewardingly. For example, at the level of the relationships between song and dance, we find music more bound to cultural or tribal context. In Oklahoma, a number of specialty dances have been imported from other tribes:   the Snake dance, done in conjunction with the Buffalo dance;   the Stomp dance, from the Southeast (and Eastern Oklahoma);   the Hoop dance and Eagle dance from the Southwest. However, songs composed by the original owners of these dances have not been imported - new or traditional songs from the recipient tribe have been adapted and used. Even within the context of esoteric dance form, such as the War dance or Round dance, Northern and Southern Plains variations are marked by a similar variation in song style (but not the structure of the song, which is identical) are drum tempo and duration. Categorically - and this is a subject critically evaluated by American Indian singers and dancers - in the north, War dance songs are slower and longer;   in the south, they are faster and shorter.

Again looking at the distinction between music and dance, and remembering the former's primacy, music is more flexible, more open to improvisation, elaboration, and individual style than dance. A single musical concept, whether melodic or textual, may be structured to accommodate a variety of musical genres. Among the Lakota, a love song may be converted into a dance song or a flageolet melody. The same text of the love song may be used in Omaha or Round dance songs. A ritual song may be based on a popular dance melody. There seems no end to the number of variations a single musical idea may generate. On the other hand, dance patterns are rather static. Once incorporated into the choreographic inventory of the tribe or region, dances rarely undergo structural changes - they persist in both structure and function over long periods of time.