High-school band plays ancient song

Native American school band rocks the oldies–and the ancients

Standing Rock High School visits the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian in NY to perform an ancient Lakota warrior song, “The Land You Fear”

By Kara BriggsOn June 5 at 1 p.m., the Standing Rock High School Band will perform a free concert at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian in New York. For details, visit www.americanindian.si.edu.

The museum appearance is part of a tour on which the band will play an ancient Lakota prayer song called “The Land You Fear.” Cournoyer spent the spring transcribing it from the oral tradition and arranging it for the band.More on the song:"The Land You Fear” is old, probably from before Columbus landed in the Americas. It was recorded in the early 1900s by anthropologist Frances Densmore (1867-1957). But like most indigenous music, it had not been written down before.

“That song was meant for a warrior to go off to war and not have any fear,” Yellow Fat said. “In contemporary times, we put out a warrior who must be a well-rounded person, who must be a warrior for the people.”Below:  "North Dakota’s Standing Rock High School Band, which will perform at the National Museum of the American Indian in June, doesn’t march. Instead, as band director Kim Cournoyer likes to say, it floats on the back of a flatbed truck." (Courtesy of Kim Cournoyer)