Yaqui deer dance

Yaqui music is the music of the Yaqui tribe and people of Arizona and Sonora. Their most famous music are the deer songs (Yaqui: maso bwikam) which accompany the deer dance. They are often noted for their mixture of American Indian and Catholic religious thought.

Their deer song rituals resemble those of other Aztec influenced groups (Yaqui is an Uto-Aztecan language) though is more central to their culture. Native and Spanish instruments are used including the harp, violin or fiddle, rasp (hirukiam, also kuta), drum, and rattles. Singing forms include the deer songs as well as messenger songs (suru bwikam), corn wine songs (vachi vino bwikam), fly songs (nahi bwikam), and coyote songs (wo'i bwikam).

The first recordings of Yaqui music, including thirteen deer songs, where made by Frances Densmore in 1922.

A display at the Arizona State Museum depicts the deer dance and provides a rendition of a deer song. Because the melody spans a modest range, it is ideally suited to instruments that have a limited pitch range, and has been transcribed for the Native American flute.

The deer dance, usually held all night, thanks and honors the deer, little brother (maso, little brother deer: saila maso), for coming from its home, the flower world (seyewailo), and letting itself be killed so that people may live. Deer dancers, pahkolam (ritual clowns), wear rattles around their ankles made from butterfly cacoons, honoring the insect world, and rattles from the hooves of deer around their waist, honoring the many deer who have died. The dance is also accompanied by singing and instruments including water drum (representing the deer's heartbeat) and frame drum, rasp (representing the deer's breathing), gourd rattles held by the dancers (honoring the plant world), as well as the flute, fiddle, and frame harp. The pahkolam dance, give sermons, host (providing water, etc.), joke, and put on comedic skits, such as pretending to be coyotes.

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