| dc.description.abstract | Pawnee music has always been a crucial component in the lives of the Pawnee people and have been a source of comfort to those who have needed it. Traditional songs give Pawnee people a sense of identity lacking because of the forced assimilation into mainstream American culture. Because of assimilation, the Pawnee language has suffered a great deal. Just two decades ago, fluent first language speakers still existed in the Pawnee tribe. Now, only a few second language speakers remain. As someone working in the language revitalization field, new and creative ways must be incorporated to preserve and teach the Pawnee language. My main focus in this thesis is Pawnee hymns however, this type of analysis can be used for different genres of Pawnee music. Pawnee hymns, once prominent in the church, began to become obsolete once song leaders began to pass away starting in the late 1980s. Soon, the only domains that the hymns were utilized in were wakes and funerals. This caused the Pawnee hymns to be associated with death, grief, and sadness. However, there has been a resurgence of Pawnee hymns. This can be attributed to a very small group of people that took it upon themselves to revitalize these dying hymns. In this thesis, I argue that Pawnee music can be a vital key in language revitalization. Songs not only have Pawnee sentence structure included inside the songs, but Pawnee songs can create interest in the Pawnee language, which is desperately needed. | en_US |
