What´s Your Song?

What's its Story?

The healing and self control of music throughout

traditional and modern times

By Galen Martinez, Pueblo of San Ildefonso (Po-Woh-Ge-Oweenge)

“Pueblo of San Ildefonso Flag.” Infobase, Facts On File. American Indian History, online.infobase.com/Auth/Index?aid=18626&itemid=WE43&iid=202431. Accessed 6 Oct. 2025.

Martinez, Galen SHP Video.mp4

My Hero

I don’t have heroes, I don’t have idols, and I certainly don’t ever get inspirations that often from people I know- at least not in a good sense. What I do have are people who I’m thankful for, people who allowed me to know what it was like to enjoy life. How to live it- in a kind of tolerable way. Even still, those I would consider are but a few. However, one that I can say without hesitation, has helped me nearly my whole life up to till now, and even still has to be my Saya. In a complex personal summary translation; my Great Great Grandmother, Annie A. Martinez.

For a long while I’ve had many mental problems with wanting to still go on in life. Since I was about a little past three-years old, I struggled with learning to express basic human emotions. I struggled with accepting life as it was for a long-long time, considering at times even committing. No need to explain much more than that then I already need too. But I’m still here, and that's all thanks to her. I don’t know much about her younger life, only a few things here and there. Disappointing considering how long I’ve spent time with her as opposed to the rest of my family. But that goes to show something she always did for me. She cared, far more than anyone did at the time that I knew. I’ve spent a lot of time hearing nearly the same lectures word for word about what was expected of me, especially about the people who at one point in time I would have idolized. So I think that's one of the main reasons why I’ve always viewed her in a good perspective. I wasn’t really ever slammed down with the reality of who or what she was when she was younger. In real honest confession I think I don’t ever want to be. When I say she cared, when everyone looks at you with a face of disappointment, a look of anger that was meant to scare you into reminding you to stay in a place you never wanted to be in the first place. She was the only one who I’ve ever felt safe with no matter what, her anger was controlled unlike others. She was forgiving in ways I could say she shouldn’t have been for me, but I’m glad she was. When she was sorry, it wasn’t a feeling of manipulation to get me back up to do more work, it was something for the first time that had come from the heart. If I had wonders and curiosity of the world around me I wasn’t shut down. If I had concerns, worries, and opinions I was heard to an extent that by the end of expressing them, I would have moved on. She had respect and care not just for me, but for everyone. Along with a willingness to persevere to take care of me from what I would consider my problems and I’ll leave it at that. My early years weren’t at all by any means pretty, but it still had color in it compared to most who’ve had it worse than me. Because when I was with her, she always reminded me in a way, “that even when the world may crash down around you, it can always be built back up again.” My Saya was the one who filled the gaps that my mother struggled to do so. I don’t blame my mom for it though, even if I never liked how she always found a way to make more of them. I’ve learnt to forgive, even if I shouldn’t to an extent. I learned to care, in ways that would maybe be unhealthy for me to do so in a way. But that's naturally how I’ve been even before she taught me how to properly express it. I’d say I get it from my mom, to carry the pain off others so they could get up again. Even if it hurts me more- pains an old friend. My Saya taught me to appreciate pain in life as something to fear, but not to hang on to. From then on every tear that fell, I felt it. Every cut I had, I noticed it. The fears I had weren't something for me to run from anymore, they were a challenge. My rebellious nature came from somewhere deeper not many will ever know. But it was a must to have in my life. In my Saya’s words, “ you’ve come from a long hard life to where you are now. You’ve grown to know what life was at a young age, more younger than everyone in the family. But at the end of it all, you’ll be able to look back not just at yourself, but to everyone and say. You lived and survived it all, and then finally left it behind-”. I’ve only ever really felt I’ve only had one person who was by my side growing up. Up until I came to SFIS and met my first love, and hopefully will be my only love ever. But if not for my Saya, I don’t think I would have been able to persevere to the extent I had done so already. I don’t think I would have stayed here as long as I have now. She carried my weight when everyone looked and turned a blind eye. For that I thank her for everything she did to make me know love wasn’t something that was just spoken. It is something that was felt, something I feel now thanks to her. The biggest thing I ever learned from her with a heavy grasp in my life, is to care. Because she cared when nobody else would, I just hope to do the same for someone just as much as she had done for me. I thank her, but still it won’t amount to everything she did for me. When the world was cold, she had a warm hug from me to cry to, and that was all I ever wanted. I don’t ever wanna see her go, but when the day comes. Trust me when I say I’m never going to leave her side, just like she never left mine.

“I love you Saya-”

Sharing One Skin

My takeaway from this article is how ideologies can differ from native communities of which they are apart of. The four-selves was an interesting and well explained psychological take on how we as humans function in our lives and the life's around us. The explanation of technology disconnecting us from one another can't be any more not be true. As although it makes it easier to connect. No one is communication with each other on their device all throughout the day.

Armstrong, Jeanette. " Sharing One Skin", The Okangan Community, 1996, pf. 460-470.

How place name impact the way we see landscape

This article was the about the definity of the place identity with between Native belief and western history naming. It goes into depth upon how both identities have their way of naming a location/monument. Going how there both opposed arguments of how people should perceive its significance or know it's behind history. How throughout history the westerners have refused to change towards that of the tragedies and traumas they did and had covered up. The phenomenon of associating our beliefs and perspectives on locations are taken into a division of thought of which we Natives suffer the shorter end of the straw.

Toastie, B. "How place name impact the way we see landscape", High Country News Knows The West, May 1, 2022, pg. 1-8.

And then I went to School: Memories of a Pueblo childhood

This article is about the life of Joe Suina's transitioning pain from his Native origins to modern western lifestyle. How kids at a young age were forced and encouraged to transition into the new world of modern western for a "better future', while sacrificing their old original self. By following alongside Joe's life in western schooling we learn how the process of losing ones Native ways slowly happens. Through experiencing the convenience and inconvenience of western and Native lifestyles. How then after and during it all happening the people lose their way of life.

Suina, Joe. "And then I went to school: Memories of a Pueblo childhood", New Mexico Journal of Reading, 1985, 5(2).

The Current State

Indigenous Music: The Heartbeat of Culture and Influence in Modern Music

Its a highlight of how traditional instruments and songs have evoled or absorbed into modern games. Which is a dilute of their original cultural meaning. Along with showing how manu Indigenous artists blend Native elements with modern genres, however, indicating a generational shift lured into learning the current mainstream, rather than origins of thier ancestors traditons.

Centeno, Jeanette. “Indigenous Music: The Heartbeat of Culture and Influence in Modern Music.” PowWows.com, 25 Oct. 2023.

Echoes of Heritage: The Dynamic World of Native American Music

The article points to that, " Traditional" music is spiritually central and culturally protected from the test of time. While songs are already evolving to newer times as they are shaped by family lineages, regional differences, and ceremonial needs. As powwows are a place of carrying on songs, " resilience", into the modern day. As contemporary music artists are already bridging the gap of the two worlds through a blend of music genres.

Y, Silviya. “Echoes of Heritage: The Dynamic World of Native American Music.” Indigomusic, 23 Jan. 2025, indigomusic.com/feature/echoes-of-heritage-the-dynamic-world-of-native-american-music.

Copyright and Cultural Preservation: Ensuring Effective Protection of Traditional African Music

This article expresses the problem of the global music industry that continously pertudes, " cultural preservation" by using Western copyright standards. As it requires originality of a single author, that oftenly fails at protecting traditions that are transmitted though practice rather than written records. As it allows Western artists to appropriate indigenous sounds. Stripping thhe music of its spiritual, story-educational meaning for commerical gain.

Kim, Ryan, and David Paige. “Copyright and Cultural Preservation: Ensuring Effective Protection of Traditional African Music.” Journal of Student Research, vol. 13, no. 3, Aug. 2024, https://doi.org/10.47611/jsrhs.v13i3.7338.

Reclaiming Oral Knowledge: Indigenous Classical Musicians' Decolonial Approaches

This article explores how Native artists are turning archived recordings from ,"static" historical artifacts into, " living" art. As Emily Granville makes her argument colonial institutions had originality collected Indigenous music to, "preserve" its culture. But they had instead made it be viewed as, "primitive" or, " vanishing." Native artists like Jeremy Dutcher and Cris Derksen are decolonizing these archives through validating as a legitmate and evolving form of expertise. By intergrating ancestral recordings and tradtional teaching into contemporary classical compositions.

View of Reclaiming Oral Knowledge: Indigenous Classical Musicians’ Decolonial Approaches. ojs.lib.uwo.ca/index.php/notabene/article/view/22223/17835.

The Understanding of Indigenous Knowledge as Indigenous Practice, Skill and Know-How: The Case of Communal Music-Making in Bapedi Culture as a Social Practice

This study in this article is focused around Bapedi culture of music, defining thier cultural knowledge not as, "information" but as a current active social-practice. Highlighting that music-making is a collaborative practice, rather it be a competitive individual one. Through a learning process described as, "enculturation" or oral tradition to be better described. Using both imitation and observation to transmit knowledge through oral memory, rather it being documented through written archives.

Lebaka, Morakeng Edward Kenneth. “The Understanding of Indigenous Knowledge as Indigenous Practice, Skill and Know-How: The Case of Communal Music-Making in Bapedi Culture as a Social Practice.” European Journal of Social Sciences Education and Research, vol. 11, no. 2, June 2024, pp. 1–14. https://doi.org/10.26417/vtwts124.

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