The following dates represent key turning points in history that impacted on Native culture, music and song. While this timeline is not complete, and as we continue to add to it, visitors are welcome to submit information that can be added or corrected.

1492

Christopher Columbus arrives at the shores of what is now known as Jamaica; sentries keeping look out on the shore sound the alert with conch shells.

1497

John Cabot arrives in what is now called Newfoundland; the Beothuks are eventually decimated. A few songs survived through association with the Mi’kmaq. The last documented Beothuk, a woman named Shawnandithit, died of tuberculosis in 1829 in St. John’s, Newfoundland; her granddaughter, Santu, was recorded on wax cylinder by Frank Speck in 1929.

1519

Tenochtitlan (Mexico City) is destroyed by Spanish conquistadors.

1528

Cabeza de Vaca lands in Florida and is met by people playing reed flutes.

1535

French explorer, Jacques Cartier orders music to be played wherever he encounters indigenous people; a custom he adopted from the first nations.

1612

Cane flutes and gourd rattles are primary instruments used by the people in the region renamed the Virginia colonies.

1618

European hymns, chants and religious texts are introduced to Native converts in what is now known as Quebec.

1620

The Plymouth Colony is established.

1633

Ursiline nuns teach viol to Native children in New France (Quebec).

1637

Puritans establish the Massachussetts Bay colony.

1642

The Native trading capitol of Hochelaga is renamed Montreal.

1650

At this point, there are more African slaves than Europeans in North America.

1659

Bishop Laval brings the first pipe organ to Canada.

1685

The fiddle becomes an essential trade item in the fur trade.

1763

Royal Proclamation recognizes native nations and rights in British North America

1776

The U.S. Declaration of Independence

1794

Jay Treaty signed, November 19.

1802

US Congress approves Indian education.

1812

War between Upper Canada and the United States

1838

The Cherokee Trail of Tears

1850

Some of the first Native marching bands emerge.

1861-1865

The U.S. Civil War

1864

Sand Creek Massacre, Sand Creek, Colorado.

1867

The Dominion of Canada is established

1874

Alexander Graham Bell invents the telephone

1877

Thomas Edison invents the carbon telephone transmitter and the tin-foil cylinder phonograph.
Queen Victoria is proclaimed Empress of India.

1878

The first wax cylinder recording is made.

1880

Ethnologist Alice Fletcher and Frances LaFlesche (Omaha) begin recording hundreds of songs from the Great Plains region.

1883

The first telephone line is established between New York City and Chicago.
The Sun Dance and other ceremonies are outlawed by the US Department of Interior.

1884

The Potlatch ceremony is banned in British Columbia.

1885

The Northwest Rebellion commences, led by Metis leaders Louis Riel and Gabriel Dumont with Cree chiefs Poundmaker and Big Bear.

1887

US government passes the Dawes Act dividing up Indian lands

1888

Edison introduces the “Improved Phonograph” followed by the “Perfected Phonograph.”

1889

Ethnologist Jesse Walter Fewkes begins recording Native music from Maine to the U.S. Southwest.
Mohawk poet E. Pauline Johnson is accompanied by chamber music during her recitals.

The US War Department is orders a halt to the Ghost Dance.

1890

The Wounded Knee Massacre. Coin operated cylinder phonographs are introduced in eastern cities – they are the forerunner of the jukebox.

1894

Whaling ships bring the squeeze box accordion to the Arctic.

1895

The Sundance is banned in Canada.
Gugielmo Marconi invents the wireless telegraph or radio; Emile Berliner invents the 78 RPM gramophone.

1902

Marconi transmits the first transoceanic message; the disc gramophone becomes commercially available.

1907

Ethnographist Frances Densmore begins a 34-year process of collecting more than 2,500 recordings of songs from across North America.
The first transatlantic wireless telegraph service is introduced.

1908

The orchestral work, Farewell to Warriors is recorded on wax cylinder and is later revived by 21st century Mohawk violinist Tara Louise Montour.

1910-1911

The Mexican Revolution

1913

Edison invents the flat disc to compete with rival companies Columbia and Victor.
Musicologist/anthropologist Diamond Jennes travels to the Canadian Arctic and begins a four-year process of collecting Inuit songs and poems on wax cylinder.

1914-1918

The First World War

1920

Baritone singer Louie Deer (Mohawk) begins to make commercial recordings in Canada.

1921

Jazz singers Al Rinker (Couer d’Alene) and Bing Crosby, form the duet The Musicaladers in Spokane, Washington.

1924

American Indians are granted US citizenship.

1928

Belo Kozad makes a recording of Kiowa flute music.

1929

Jazz singer Mildred Bailey (Couer d’Alene), Al Rinker’s sister, begins recording with orchestra leader Paul Whiteman.
Radio comes into commercial use.

1930

RCA Victor develops the 33 1/3 RPM 12” disc.

1931

Anthropologist Earl H. Morris unearths Anasazi artifacts in Arizona including flutes made of box elder dated 620-670 AD.
Adolph Rickenbacker and George Beauchamp create the Electric String Corporation to design and distribute the first electric guitars.

1934

The US Indian Reorganization Act replaces traditional governments with Tribal Councils

1936

Dance ban is lifted in the United States.

1939

The Second World War begins

1941

Musician/inventor Les Paul creates the first solid body electric guitar.

1944

Jazz bassist Oscar Pettiford (Choctaw-Cherokee/African American) starts the first be-bop group with horn-player Dizzie Gillespie.

1945

The Second World War ends.

1946

Radio gains increasing popularity on Indian Reservations

1947

Magnetic tape comes into wide use.
The transistor is invented December 23 at Bell Telephone laboratories.

1948

33 1/3 RPM (Long Play) discs become available.
American Indian Sound Chiefs, becomes the first Native-owned record label established in Carnegie, Oklahoma by Reverend Linn Pauhty (Kiowa), and later becomes Indian House Records.

1949

45 RPM discs appear.

1950

Treaty Termination becomes law in the United States.

1951

Specializing in Native music, Canyon Records is founded in Phoenix, Arizona by Ray Boley.

1952

The transistor radio becomes available.

1955

Stereo reel-to-reel tapes are introduced.

1958

Guitarist Link Wray (Shawnee) records “Rumble.” The instrumental inspires generations of rock musicians including Pete Townsend of the Who.

1961

Folk singer Peter LaFarge (Narragansett) records his first album, Ira Hayes and Other Ballads, on Columbia Records.

1962

Canada launches its first communications satellite bringing radio and television to the Arctic.

1963

The compact audio cassette is developed by the Philips company.

1964

Buffy Sainte-Marie (Cree) records her first album, It’s My Way on Vanguard Records.
A. Paul Ortega (Apache) releases his first album, Two Worlds, on Rose Records.

1967

The Mighty Mohawks Country Show Band from Kahnewake, Quebec perform at Expo ’67 in Montreal.
Folk singer Willie Dunn (Mi’kmaq-Couashauck) releases his first self-titled album of protest songs on Summus Records.

1969

The White Paper is introduced in Canada, which attempts to replicate the U.S. Treaty Termination policies.
Jazz saxophonist Jim Pepper (Kaw-Kansa) releases his hit single “Witchi Tai To” (#69 U.S. Billboard Charts); folk singer Floyd Westerman releases his album of protest songs, Custer Died For Your Sins on Warner/Perception Records.

1970

Indians of All Tribes begin the occupation of Alcatraz Island.
Cajun Rock band Redbone release their first self-titled album on Epic Records.

8-Track tapes appear.

1971

Canadian Content regulations come into effect, allowing for at least 40% of broadcast material to be written and/or performed by Canadian-born singer/songwriters.
All-Native Rock band XIT, releases Plight of the Red Man on Motown Records.

1972

The Trail of Broken Treaties protest culminates in Washington, DC.

1973

The American Indian Movement and Lakota traditionalists demonstrate at Wounded Knee, South Dakota in a 71-day siege.

1975

Cassette and eight-track tapes are popular alternatives to vinyl albums.

1976

US Native American Council of Tribes is formed.

1979

Traditional flute player “Doc” Tate Nevaquaya releases the first flute music album on Folkways Records.
Country singer Laura Vinson (Cree-Metis) receives a Juno Award nomination for Country Female Vocalist of the Year.

1982

Buffy Sainte-Marie receives the Academy Award for Best Song (“Up Where We Belong” from the film An Officer and a Gentleman).

1985

The C-Weed Band from Winnipeg, Manitoba, receives a Juno nomination for Country Group of the Year.

1987

Poet/activist John Trudell (Santee Dakota) and guitar legend Jesse Ed Davis (Kiowa-Comanche) receive a Grammy nomination for Best Rock and Spoken Word Duo for the album AKA Graffiti Man released on Trudell’s Peace Company label.

1989

The American Indian Dance Theater album released on Broadway Records, receives a Grammy nomination for Best Folk Album; Robby Bee (Dakota) releases the first Native rap recording, Rebel Rouzer, on SOAR Records.

1990

The “Oka crisis” in Quebec (Kahnesetake, Quebec) lasts for 78 days. Compact Discs come into wide use.

1992

The Columbus Quincentennial brings Native cultures together from across North and South America; a proliferation of protest songs and awareness projects are released.

1994

The first Native music category for the Juno Awards (Canadian Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences) is established.
Country singer Lawrence Martin AKA: Wapistan (Cree) is the first recipient for his album Wapistan on First Nations/EMI Music Canada.

1999

The first Native music category for the US Grammy Awards (National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences) is established; the pow wow album Gathering of Nations is the first recipient.

2000

The Internet, MP3 and digital technology introduces a proliferation of independent and home recordings to an expanding market.

2005

Native-owned media enhances the growing momentum of a burgeoning music industry.