"General Generations": An Archival Collaboration with A Tribe Called Red

By A Tribe Called Red (DJ NDN, DJ Shub, & Bear Witness) and Nolan Warden

"General Generations" by A Tribe Called Red

The audio above is the result of a collaborative effort between A Tribe Called Red [1] (ATCR) and Ethnomusicology Review (EMR) editor Nolan Warden [2]. ATCR is a DJ collective from Ottawa, Ontario that creates much of their work using video [3] and audio [4] samples related to their Native American heritage.

This collaboration involved the use of archival wax cylinder recordings made by Cayuga chief Alexander J. General and anthropologist Frank G. Speck [5] in the 1930s. The original cylinder collection [6] is now housed in the Archives of Traditional Music [7] at Indiana University.1 One of ATCR’s members, DJ Shub (a.k.a. Dan General), decided on these particular field recordings due to his Cayuga affiliation and his shared family name with Alexander J. General, hence the track title “General Generations.”

For a full explanation of the collaboration, more photos, and video, please visit the related blog post [8].

Figure 1: Alexander J. General, "Deskáheh" [Source: Univ. of Pennsylvania Press]

Figure 2: Frank G. Speck (c. 1940) [Source [5]]

ATCR
Figure 3: A Tribe Called Red (L-R, Bear Witness, DJ Shub, DJ NDN) [Source [9]]

Figure 4: Nolan Warden [Photo by Hilda Torres Urista]

1. Thanks to IU archivist Marilyn B. Graf whose assistance made this collaboration possible.