Native American shows culture

Singing in a low voice, his eyes closed, Kevin Locke tried to convey a sense of his native Lakota tribe to a small group of Native American afficionado Saturday at the Mathers Museum of World Cultures.\nLocke, who performed at Lotus Fest with his trio, directed a presentation about Native American culture that included story-telling, song, dance and a slide show. Locke is an award-winning flute player, story-teller and dancer. He has performed in 81 countries around the world in more than 200 shows. \n"It is important to know the background behind the pictures because without it, they only seem like some far off piece of history and not recent culture," Locke said.\nThe presentation also underlined Locke's musical capabilities. He sang in his native language -- Lakota -- as well as played the flute in accompaniment. The song featured lyrics about two lovers who are separated by a river and their only source of communication is to shine a mirror into the water in order produce a reflection that the other can see.\n"We all have a beautiful heritage such as this," Locke said. "It is not just this small group of people that I speak of today in the world, but it is all of us."\nAs a folk artist Locke is often characterized as being oriented from a tribal-specific background only. But he draws from deep wellsprings of knowledge, distilled and refined over many generations until yielding a profound sense of the universality of the human spirit and its inclination toward harmony, balance, beauty, peace, and the sacred through movement and dance, sound and music, according to his Web site, www.kevinlocke.com. It is this universal spirit that Locke strives to convey through his stories, music, humor, dances and Workshops, he said.\n"We have a long standing relationship with Lotus Fest," Abbie Anderson said, curator of education for the Mathers Museum which hosted Locke. "It is important to the museum to be a place where people know they are welcome, and where exciting things happen. A lot of people think that museums are places where you have to be quiet, or boring. Neither of which is true about the Mathers Museum of World Cultures." \nThe multi-media presentation featured slides taken by photographer Frank Fiske in the late nineteenth century. The photos were taken in Standing Rock, which is now a reservation that spans across parts of both North and South Dakota, encompassing the Missouri River as well. Locke is originally from that area, as well. \nEach slide featured a different photo of individuals throughout the reservation. Particular slides referred to various aspects of the Native American culture including origins of names, language, dress, and family customs. The slide show provided a cultural context for Locke's music.\n"Ethnomusicology studies music and its origin, its culture, " said Anthony Guest-Scott, president of the Ethnomusicology Students Organization, which sponsored the event. "We share the belief that music cannot be understood fully without first understanding the origins and culture from which it evolves."\n-- Contact staff writer Lynndi Lockenour at llockeno@indiana.edu.