Cochiti Pueblo Tall Slender Wood Drum with Painted Ends [SOLD]

Painted and unpainted drums of all sizes are used in pueblo ceremonies. The drum suggests the thunder that comes with rain. The drum has two heads. Pueblo songs are written to start slowly and then go to a climax. At a certain point of the song, the drum is flipped over to achieve a higher beat. This lifts the dancers and gives them the impetus to continue dancing.

The two heads of the drum were secured with leather straps criss crossing from head to head and forming triangular patterns on the drum body.  The spaces between the arch-shaped edges of each drum head were painted white and framed in a black stripe. Each drum head was painted black with a white circle at its center. The body of the drum was painted a rust color after the drum was completed as the leather straps that secure the heads are painted the same rust color.  There is a one-inch diameter drill hole in one of the white-painted sections at the base of the drum.

There is a handle inserted near the top drum head and holes drilled for another handle at the opposite end of the drum.

Condition: a slight tear exists at the edge of the top leather drum head but does not affect the sound of the drum.

Provenance: this Cochiti Pueblo Tall Slender Wood Drum with Painted Ends is from a collection of pueblo items from a Colorado family

Recommended Reading: Rain: Native Expressions from the American Southwest by Ann Marshall

Relative Links: Pueblo Drums, Cochiti Pueblo