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Notes from songs, samples of spindle holes and recording speed card, 2009-2011

 File — Box: 1, Folder: 37

Scope and Content

From the Collection: The Sally Noe collection provides a fascinating view of history and life in Gallup and the surrounding area over the last century. The collection is divided into two series: Gallup area interviews and Native American music. The quality of the oral history recordings is generally good. Some recordings with volume and background noise issues have been reengineered to enhance their quality. In these cases, both the original and reengineered CDs have been retained in the collection (reengineered CDs are labeled CD-B). Others remain diminished by sound problems. Transcripts were made for nine of the interviews and content notes written for others, when audible. CD 37 contains the files for the interviews transcripts and notes.

From 1980-1996, Sally Noe interviewed and recorded individuals who lived in Gallup and surrounding areas including Metmore, Chinle, Gamerco, Ganado, Fort Defiance, Sawmill, Atarque, Fort Wingate, Ramah, Zuni and other locales. Interviewees were in their 70s and 80s at the time and their recollections stretch back to the early 1900s. A variety of people were interviewed: Yugoslavian and Italian immigrants, miners, ranchers, loggers, Indian agents and traders, waitresses, teachers, store owners, workers, and politicians.

Interviewees discussed where their parents came from, why they had come to New Mexico, family life, education, leisure activities, and marriages. They also discussed where they had lived, their jobs, hardships and joys, friends and acquaintances, including Anglos, Navajos, Zunis, Hispanics, etc. Topics discussed include life on the Navajo reservation, housing, education, weaving, trading posts, sheep ranches, buying pickups, alcoholism, and Anglo-American relations with the Navajos and Zuni. There are stories relating to working for the railroad, coal mining, logging camps, cooking shacks, living in mining company towns and taking part in unions and strikes, Prohibition, the Depression, World War II, bad roads, hard winters, and Route 66. One of the interviews is with a Japanese American from Gallup who served in the Korean War and won the Medal of Honor. Noe also recorded a talk on Indian basketry and a discussion of Indian craft entries at an Intertribal Ceremonial art exhibit committee meeting.

The collection also contains good quality rare Audiodisc field recordings of Native American music, dating to ca. 1920s-1930s, recorded by an unknown individual. There are also 45 rpm LPs, produced in 1966 by Edward Lee Natay and Arizona Recording Productions, Phoenix. The son of a Navajo leader and medicine man, Natay devoted his life to learning, singing and preserving the music of his people and other tribes. In addition, there are Navajo Yei-be-chai songs sung by the Navajo Centennial Dance Group in 1970 and other Navajo pieces by Joe Lee and the Mesa Verde Group Singers in 1971, both recordings by Canyon Records. Examples of the Audiodisc spindle hole patterns and notes about some of the songs are included in Box 1.

Forms part of the John Donald Robb Archive of Southwestern Music.

Dates

  • 2009-2011

Language of Materials

From the Collection: English

Access Restrictions

The collection is open for research.

Extent

From the Collection: 2 boxes (.5 cu. ft. containing 49 CDs, transcriptions, and notes)

Repository Details

Part of the UNM Center for Southwest Research & Special Collections Repository

Contact:
University of New Mexico Center for Southwest Research & Special Collections
University Libraries, MSC05 3020
1 University of New Mexico
Albuquerque NM 87131
505-277-6451