TOWER — The acoustics in the Lake Vermilion Cultural Center brought the drumming of the Night Sky Singers alive, as the drum group led by Jordan Gawboy gave a concert in late August to an almost full house. The music and rhythms resonated throughout St. Mary’s Hall, the old church that has become the centerpiece of Tower’s new cultural center building.
“These songs were sung here on this land for three hundred-plus years,” said group member Ryan Bajan, who is also a board member and treasurer for the LVCC.
The group played a selection of songs often heard at pow wows, as well as telling the stories about the songs and the drum.
“The drum represents life,” said David Morrison. “We offer food to our drums before playing. They are our grandfather or grandmother.”
Morrison said drum keepers treat their drum like an elder in their family.
“We don’t leave it in a closet,” he said. “I keep my drum in my living room. I treat it like a grandparent.”
“The drum is our helper,” explained Chaz Wagner. “It’s our spirituality and our culture.”
The singers talked about the structure of the songs they were singing, how the verses are structured, as well as how the singers take turn with vocalizations. They talked about the four directions (north, south, east, west) and four spirits, and how the songs have four parts, one for each of the directions. The honor beats, when a single drummer hits the drum very loudly, usually echoes the four directions, so four loud beats, plus adding in the other directions of up, down, and center, making for seven loud beats.
Chaz Wagner talked about the origins of the Ojibwe peoples in the area, and how they moved from the eastern United States, following an elder’s dream of food that grew in the water. When they reached the upper Midwest, they found manoomin, wild rice.
“They came to the great sea, Lake Superior, Gitchi-Gami, and then some tribes went north and some south. They saw fields in the water. It was manoomin.”
The drum group talked about the origin of the drum and the songs, which were their ancestors’ songs to their creator, showing they were happy to be alive on this earth.
Every spirit has a song to express, the drummers explained, adding when a child is born, they sing out loud and strong. They are happy to be here.
Gawboy, now 28, started drumming when he was 13, and got his first drum shortly afterward. He used money won in a pow wow dance competition to purchase the drum his group now plays at pow wows. The smaller red drum used in the performance belongs to Bajan, Gawboy said.
He was taught by area drummers Virgil Sohm and Charles Lightfeather, and later by his father-in-law, Daniel Lightfeather.
“All the songs are passed down, mostly orally,” Gawboy said, “but some ceremonial songs are written down.”
Drum keepers, leaders of individual drum groups, will teach songs. Drum group membership is often fluid.
“The drum was gifted to us,” Gawboy said. “The drum has a heartbeat. We care for it as a human being. We give life to our drum.” In Ojibwe culture, some can care for the large drums but not play them. Women, like his mother, Rebecca, play hand drums, and often are invited to sing with drum groups.
Gawboy said his group has 10 active drummers, but many of his drum group members live far away, so only play with them occasionally. Sometimes it is hard to get together to practice, he said, because of everyone’s work schedules.
Night Sky Singers have been the host drum at the Lake Vermilion Traditional Pow Wow the last three years. The group has played at pow wows in Grand Portage, Ball Club, Fond du Lac, and more. He joins other drum groups to play if asked, he said.
“I like the gathering around the drum,” Gawboy said. “I like the songs we share and sing. When we are in a good mood our voices rise high and we feel good about ourselves.”
“I like knowing where the songs came from and what they mean to us,” he said. “It’s learning our history to learn these songs.”
Gawboy teaches drumming at drum nights held in Virginia on Wednesdays.
“We want to share this with the younger generations,” he said. “It’s fun for me to teach.”