Old-time Indian songs

Old-Time Song Instrumentals up to 1909

Hiawatha--A Summer IdylCharles N. Daniels [as Neil Moret] (M) and James O'Dea (L)--1902/1903: This is the great-grandaddy of the Native America-themed intermezzo, the predecessor of all the Indian Idyls and tone poems to follow, and... well, it wasn't even intended as such. The story behind this song is not that it was derived by some deep inspiration from the famed poem/novel by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, now so much a part of American culture that it was even featured in a comic moment in Meredith Willson's The Music Man. In reality, Daniels, a Kansas City resident for much of his life, was on a train trip to the town of Hiawatha, Kansas in 1901. He was inspired by the relentless rhythm of the wheels against the rail joints, and came up with a melody that he named after the town once he arrived. But the association with the legendary Indian fable of Hiawatha and Minnehaha was inevitable--if for no other reason than as a good marketing strategy by the publisher.Red Wing (Song)Frederick Allen (Kerry) Mills (M) and Thurland Chattaway (L)--1907: Mills, who has been credited with writing the first compositions that set the standard format for published cakewalks, spent twenty years trying to keep up with current musical trends and fads. With this piece he was addressing a craze for Native American (Indian)-themed compositions established in 1902 by the publication of Hiawatha by Charles N. Daniels (as Neil Moret). So Mills composed a standard pop tune and titled it with a Native American name, supplying a cover to match the theme (with the squaw wearing authentic lipstick and rogue, of course, and sporting a male Indian headdress in American patriotic colors).

It should be noted that the year following Red Wing's publication (1908), a 24 year old Native American girl from the Winnebago reservation started to break into films, eventually making some with the venerable D.W. Griffith. She was also a star in the first silent adaptation of the novel Ramona. Her name just happened to be Princess Redwing (one word). There is no definitive evidence either way as to any connection with the titling of Mills' composition, but the timing was, perhaps, fortuitous for both.Comment:  I suspect the portrait below was influenced by the Indian Head penny. At least it depicted a semi-realistic Indian girl.

For more on the subject, see Indians in Pop Music.