Back in April I made wrote a post (here) about understanding the drumming and songs you hear at a pow-wow. I recently read something in the notes of Douglas Spotted Eagle's music cd "Closer to Far Away" that I thought would add a little more to that understanding. Often people attending a pow-wow wonder about meaning of the songs, since so many of them seem to sound the same. It may come as a surprise to learn that a lot of the songs are actually wordless vocalizations and have no "lyrics".

Douglas Spotted Eagle explains:

There are two forms of singing heard at powow or intertribal social gatherings. "Straight" songs without words and "word" songs. Those sung with lyrical meanings. Straight songs are very powerful, as they depend primarily on the emotional delivery of the singers. If the singers are unable to convey their passion, then the song carries little strength. The vocals expressed in Straight songs are similar to humming or "la la la" in English.