🥁 PercussionGreat Lakes — Ojibwe / Anishinaabe territories
Big Drum (Ojibwe Drum Dance Drum)
Dewe'igan (Ojibwe: 'that which beats')
- Hornbostel-Sachs
- 211.311
- Family
- Percussion
- Origin
- Great Lakes — Ojibwe / Anishinaabe territories
- Materials
- rawhidewoodsinewribbonfeathers
About
The ceremonial drum of the Ojibwe Drum Dance tradition — a large bass drum suspended horizontally on four decorated posts at waist height, traditionally received in a vision and considered a living being with a name, a spirit, and specific keepers. The drum is elaborately decorated with ribbons, eagle feathers, and painted designs. Four men sit at the four cardinal directions and drum simultaneously while singers perform Drum Dance songs. The tradition spread from the Ojibwe to many other Great Lakes and Plains nations in the late 19th century.