Native American Music: "Brother To All Men"

- FRom Video Source:

The video production, "BROTHER TO ALL MEN" is a documentation of a Native American Hunting Dance. Sixty-four year old, Ben Boyd "BROTHER TO THE WOLF" has lived a Traditional Native Subsistence Way of Life in Alaska Indian Villages since 1975. He performed the dance while there was a shortage of caribou meat which was the main source of food for the villagers. The caribou migrated by the village around mid August, but it was getting late, and they had not come.

The spiritual leader of the village ask Boyd to go up on the mountain and dance and pray for caribou to come. Boyd took his Indian cloths and a video camera to the mountain and danced all day while moving the camera on a tripod around to different positions to record the dance. A few days later the caribou came and the village obtained meat.

The dance Boyd did was one that was taught to him by his Indian grandfather. The motions of the dance are not near as important as the mental state of the dancer. While in a state of meditation the dancer prays to summons animals through a form of mental telepathy, as that is how animals communicate.

The dance was not an Alaska Native Dance. The villagers have their own Caribou Dance that they do not do for public viewing.



- Lyrics:

When I was born, right from the start
I was a white man in the blood, but an Indian in my heart
Beat of an Indian drum was the beat of my heart
I was a Lone Wolf among white men

In Alaska he lived in Indian villages and did not Indian dance for many years. While staying in the wilderness alone for three months, a wolf came to him and stared him in the eye. Boyd could clearly see that it was time for him to start Indian dancing again and to not be apart from white people. He no longer felt alone but as though he was a brother to all men. Thus the song lyrics:

The Wolf Spirit, gave a new start
I am brother to all men in my heart
Beat of all men's drum is the beat of my heart
I am brother to the wolf and all men