Fairbanks, Alaska

Athabascan fiddle music

In Athabascan communities fiddle music is an integral part of social events such as potlatches, dances and holiday celebrations. Athabascan old-time fiddling music represents a fusion of traditional Athabascan instrumental and vocal music with the songs and violin tunes brought to the region in the late 1840s by Hudson Bay Company traders from their homelands in Scotland, Ireland, the Orkney Island and French-Canada.   The gold rush in Alaska and the Klondike in the latter days of the 19th century and early 20th century saw another wave of musical influences as the prospectors' waltzes, jigs and two steps were incorporated into this unique musical style.

              Born in 1933 in a log cabin at an Indian trapping camp, Nitchie Village, on the Black River in the interior of Alaska, Bill Stevens frequently heard fiddling at the home of his grandfather, Chief Esias Loola.   As a young teenager, Stevens was inspired to take up fiddling when he heard the fiddle music of the late Paul Ben Kassi of Old Crow, Yukon Territory, Canada. After some begging, Bill finally persuaded his mother to buy

him a fiddle; when the package arrived from Sears Roebuck, Bill was on his

way. When Bill was in his early twenties, the Bureau of Indian Affairs sent him

to California for a job training program.   After a few years break from fiddling, he picked it up again, expanding his musical styles and competing in fiddle contests, including California Old Time Fiddlers Association State Championship, the National Indian Fiddlers' Contest in Talequah, Oklahoma, the National Oldtime Fiddlers' Contest in Weiser, Idaho, and many contests in Alaska.   In the process he has acquired over eighteen trophies.  

              When Bill returned to Alaska in 1982, he became instrumental in the development of the Athabascan Old-Time Fiddling Festival in Fairbanks.   He continues to participate in this now annual four-day celebration which has become a major cultural event for the people of the interior. It is Bill's desire that the traditions be passed onto the younger generation, and thanks to his efforts, that is indeed happening. In addition to being active in cultural and music education, teaching fiddling to all age groups, he has shared his musical cultural history though performances, both solo and with his band The Ta-Nun Trio (Ta-Nun means Fairbanks in Gwich'in).  

              Bill says he has played his fiddle for dances in almost every community on the Yukon River, from Whitehorse to Alakanuk. As ethnomusicologist Craig Mishler notes, "You can hear his notes floating up and downstream for 2,000 miles. It's no wonder that they call him Ch'adzah Aghwaa ('He carries dances') in Gwich'in."   But he has also played at venues around the world and has been part of the Folk Masters series at Wolf Trap in Virginia, the Festival of American Folklife at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C., and the Arctic Song Festival.  

              Stevens' cultural history is also shared through his recordings: his CD “Gwich'in Athabascan Fiddle Music,” is what he calls a "documentary story of our music." Bill's aunt, Katherine Peter, a Gwich'in elder and linguist, talks about many of the tunes in the Gwich'in language and her comments are translated in the liner notes.

              In 2002 Stevens was honored with the Alaska Governor's Award for the Native Arts.

Links

http://www.fiddlechicks.com/athabascan/billstevens.htm

http://www.uaf.edu/music/akmusic/bill.html

http://www.fiddle.com/issues/sum99.html#anchor2042553

http://www.iuma.com/IUMA/Bands/Stevens,_Bill/

Return to Music and Dance Page

Go to next Artist Page - Téada