Indigenous Americans acknowledge a complex history with opera and imagine a better future.

To commemorate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, Opera America Magazine is exploring the roots of opera in America in a series of essays by renowned cultural historians, artists, and field leaders.

This series is made possible in part thanks to generous support from Melanie Wyler.

Indigenous storytelling traditions tend to feature grand, dramatic elements, which might make Indige­nous stories seem like a natural fit for collaborations with the opera world. It’s true that as opera spread across the United States, Indigenous characters and themes began appearing in American operas as early as the 18th century. However, it wasn’t until the end of the 19th and into the early 20th centuries, with the implementation of Indian boarding schools, that this lopsided, historically complex col­laboration grew into a movement of sorts. The historical record of these collaborations and early works is, at times, spotty, and there has been an explicit power imbalance in who has told the stories of these early Indigenous-influenced operas. Never­theless, examining this movement provides an opportunity to confront painful histories while imagining better futures.

In the 19th century, the forced relocation of Indigenous people to reservations and boarding schools caused a decline in the Indigenous population while inspiring romanticized views of the conquest of Indigenous people. It was during this period that Henry Wadsworth Longfellow infamously wrote about the “noble savage,” a trope that continues to haunt Indigenous populations. This romanticization led a cadre of Western composers, musicologists, and educators, including Arthur Farwell, Charles Sanford Skilton, Harvey Worthington Loomis, and Charles Wakefield Cadman, to intentionally combine American Romanticism with Indigenous melodies and themes. This practice would become known as the Indianist movement, a since-criticized effort to incorporate American Indian musical ideals with some of the principles of Western music to create a national American musical identity

There is some nuance to this movement’s place in history. The European American Romantic composers of this movement certainly traded in a now-denounced spate of musical theft and stereotypes, but some also believed themselves to be authentically documenting Indigenous peoples’ music and culture in good faith.

Two Firsts

Two key figures in the beginnings of this movement were Zitkála-Ša (1876–1938), a Yankton Dakotan, who also went by the English name Gertrude Simmons Bonnin, and Tsianina Redfeather Blackstone (1882–1985, Cherokee-Creek). Both were introduced to classical music through the boarding school system.

Zitkála-Ša, who had trained at the New England Conserva­tory of Music after her time in the boarding school, was the librettist for the first known Indigenous American opera, The Sun Dance Opera, which premiered in 1913 at Orpheus Hall in Vernal, Utah. Its plot revolves around a love trian­gle between two Sioux women and a heretical Shoshone man at the time of the Sun Dance, the then-outlawed cer­emony (from 1904–1934) celebrated by Indigenous people of the Great Plains. Composer William F. Hanson (1887–1969) wrote the score, while Zitkála-Ša provided the libretto and songs. She was also a teacher, prolific writer, and tire­less activist. In The Atlantic Monthly, she wrote openly about the impacts of forced assimilation. “I seem to be in a spiritual unrest,” she wrote. “I hate this eternal tug of war between being ‘wild’ or becoming ‘civilized.’ I am what I am. I owe no apologies to God or men.”

Although she received no official credit at the time, Tsianina Redfeather Blackstone contributed semi-autobi­ographical plot elements to the libretto of the next known Indigenous-themed opera featuring an Indigenous artist contrib­utor, Shanewis (1918). Charles Wakefield Cadman was the composer, and Nelle Richmond Eberhart was credited as the librettist. The story shared some sim­ilarities with The Sun Dance, revolving around a love triangle in which the tit­ular Shanewis (Robin Woman) tempts a high-society White man away from his fiancée. The opera premiered at the Metropolitan Opera in 1918, where it would stay for a second season before touring the country, with Redfeather singing the title role. Redfeather had begun her professional relationship with Cadman in 1908, contributing music, stories, and her voice as the “Cherokee princess.” Together, they capitalized on the fantasy of the Cherokee princess, with Redfeather herself noting in her autobiography, Where Trails Have Led Me, that “the novelty of an Indian interpreter of Indian songs created a furor.”

As American Romanticism declined, so did the Indianist movement and the creation of operas like Sun Dance and Shanewis. In recent decades, however, a new era of Indigenous opera has emerged — one that includes more space for authentic voices and meaningful collab­oration, challenges old narratives, and celebrates the creative power of Indige­nous people.

In the U.S., Loksi’ Shaali’ (Shell Shaker): A Chickasaw Opera in the Chickasaw lan­guage, by Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate, premiered in 2024 and is scheduled for performances at Opera Conference 2026 in Wilmington, Delaware. Shortly before, Raven Chacon (Diné) composed part of the provocative Sweet Land with libret­tist Aja Couchois Duncan (Ojibwe) and composer Du Yun. Minái kiŋ dowáŋ: A Zitkála-Šá Opera (“My Spirit Sings”) is a 2022 operatic film about the aforemen­tioned Zitkála-Šá. Composed by Lyz Jaakola (Fond du Lac Anishinaabe), the film was created, performed, and filmed by an entirely Indigenous cast and crew, many of whom were women.

Meanwhile, artists north of the U.S.-Canada border have produced a number of new operas, including the 2017 Missing (Brian Current, com­poser; Marie Clements, librettist), which focuses on the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls (MMIWG), and the 2019 Shanawdithit (Dean Burry, composer; Yvette Nolan, librettist), which centers on the tragic story of the last known survivor of Newfoundland’s Beothuk Nation.

The list continues to grow. The story of Indigenous opera is one of resilience and renewal, helping to build a richer and more inclusive future for the art form. ■