Native American Drum Blessing Ceremony -Article

Native American Drums are a very important part of Native life and culture. They are respected for their beauty and spiritual connection to nature and the drummer. Recently, we had the pleasure of helping a very special family with a 42" drum who wrote to share how much the drum meant to them and how their family had a drum blessing ceremony according to Native Tradition.

We opened it up carefully and assembled the drum on the stand. Beautiful drum! Our children could not wait to try it out so we went ahead and gave the drum a blessing ceremony the way it's done with Native American Indians. And then, we played the drum. It is loud! We would know because four out of five members of our family are deaf. We are going to really enjoy this instrument for many years to come.

I am thankful for the privilege of purchasing such a wonderful drum. Not only is it crafted with beautiful cedar but it has a powerful voice. We're very pleased with it. You are more than welcome to share our comments with others so that they will know about these wonderful drums.

As for the blessing ceremony we gave the drum it was done to purify the drum so that the voice that comes out of the drum will represent the good things that the Great Spirit has to share with us. To do so, we set the drum on native rugs surrounded by individual native mats for each drummer. When everything was set and ready, everyone left the room and then we re-entered the room with everyone walking in a straight line as we circled around the drum (clockwise pattern) until everybody had completely circled the drum in a complete way.

With each one of us standing before the drum I stood toward the east and lit up the tobacco / sage and used a dedicated feather to fan generated smoke toward the drum and then I would fan the smoke toward the east to thank the east for new life and hope. Then, we all would move to our left where I was facing the south as I fanned smoke toward the south to thank it for the warmth, which represents growth and comfort. Then we would move to our left again where I would face the west as I fanned smoke toward the west to thank it for the next life that the west represents. And finally we moved to our left to where I was facing the north, fanned the smoke toward the direction to thank it for the cold which it produces and represents water and moisture that we receive.

As we all circled once more to our left I found myself facing the east again and I started to say a prayer. In this prayer we asked our grandmother (a native of Cherokee & Commache) to represent the voice of our drum. From there we felt the presence of strong spirit knowing that the invitation had been accepted. We were so humbled by this experience. Needless to say that we found ourselves with tears of joy. From there I fanned the smoke toward the drum once more before I started to sprinkled dried tobacco and sage on the drum from all four directions as we circled the drum once again. And then, afterwards, we sat on our individual drumming mats, wanting to be as close to the earth rather than to be seated on a chair.

Each one of us picked our drum sticks as we did this clockwise (left direction around the drum) I started with the first beat to be followed by the second beat by my wife, followed by our eldest daughter with the third beat, and then the fourth beat and fifth beat were done by my two boys. Then immediately afterwards we beat in unity, producing one of the most beautiful sounds we've heard in our house. This drumming lasted until around midnight as we found ourselves overjoyed with wonderful music that was so glorious in our deaf ears. The drum you picked out for us has made us whole and complete. We thank you for that.

I'll be sure to let others know about this wonderful drum of the Tarahumara Indians. All the best to you and yours, B. -Arizona. We would be very pleased to also help your family with Native American drums.