This collection includes ¼ inch open reel audio tapes recorded and collected by Michael B. McCrary of music and songs from Taos, New Mexico, Warm Springs, Oregon, and Celilo Salmon Festival in Oregon.
Scope and Contents:
This collection includes 12 ¼ inch open reel audio tapes, all of which are approximately 9.5 inches in length. The reels were transferred onto Digital Audio Tape (DAT) in 1993, and sound cassettes were also made around that time for access purposes.
Reels 1-6 were made over three nights in 1955 at the Celilo Salmon Festival at Celilo Falls in Oregon. This was one of the last festivals before the Falls were submerged by the Dalles Dam. McCrary states in a 1967 letter that he did not make these recordings himself but does not list who did.
Reels 7-10 were made in Taos, New Mexico by Michael McCrary at the house of Tony Lujan (Taos Pueblo). These reels are undated but were likely recorded sometime around 1960 and includes Taos stories and songs.
Reels 11-12 are labeled "Warm Springs," but further research needs to be done to determine whether these were made at the same time as the Celilo Salmon Festival recordings.
Arrangement:
Arranged by Reel number.
Celilo Salmon Festival:
During the Celilo Salmon Festival, or First Salmon Feast, members of the Yakama (Yakima) and Warm Springs communities celebrate the return of the salmon every year to the Columbia Basin. Typically, around the second or third week of April, the celebration marks the opening of fishing season. Historically, the feast was held at the Celilo Falls. However, in 1957, the Celilo falls, along with the fishing platforms and village of Celilo, were submerged by slackwater from the newly built Dalles Dam.
Tony Lujan and Mabel Dodge Luhan, Taos, New Mexico:
Antonio "Tony" Lujan was born January 2, 1879. A Taos Pueblo tribal member and leader, Tony married Mabel Dodge Luhan in 1923 who had moved from New York to Taos, New Mexico to start an artist colony in 1917. Tony and Mabel bought 12 acres of land and built a house that would become a destination for artists and writers. Mabel died in 1962 and Tony, a year later in 1963. Their house in now a National Historic Landmark.
Provenance:
Gift of Michael B. McCrary, 1966.
Restrictions:
Collection is closed until the materials have been digitized and further tribal community consultation.
Rights:
Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested from National Museum of the American Indian Archives Center. Please submit a written request to nmaiphotos@si.edu. For personal or classroom use, users are invited to download, print, photocopy, and distribute the images that are available online without prior written permission, provided that the files are not modified in any way, the Smithsonian Institution copyright notice (where applicable) is included, and the source of the image is identified as the National Museum of the American Indian. For more information, please see the Smithsonian's Terms of Use and NMAI Archive Center's Digital Image request website.
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Michael B. McCrary audio recordings from Celilo Falls, Oregon and Taos, New Mexico, reel #, NMAI.AC.442; National Museum of the American Indian Archives Center, Smithsonian Institution.
