The Musical Talent of Indians

Abstract

NOTE: Following the article on Musical Talent and the Negro by Guy B. Johnson, published in the October 1928 issue of this JOURNAL, there is presented below a companion discussion of the Musical Talent of Indians. This, like the preceding article, is the result of long and difficult study. Thomas R. Garth, Ph.D., Columbia University, head of the Department of Education, University of Denver, is the author of many articles on Race Psychology and of a forthcoming book called Race Psychology. Sarah Rachel Isbell, M.A., University of Denver, wrote her master's thesis on The Musical Talent of Indians, Library of University of Denver, unpublished. Miss Isbell is a teacher of mathematics in the High Schools of Denver, but is at the same time a musician. Since 1919 Dr. Garth has been making expeditions to the Indians in the West and Southwest administering various psychological tests. He has induced graduate students who have been trained under his direction either to accompany him on these expeditions or to go alone. There have been about twelve of these expeditions. In 1923 Professor Garth and some of these graduate students administered to Indians for the first time the Seashore Musical Talent Tests in U. S. Indian schools in Colorado and New Mexico. In 1925 again these tests among others were administered in South Dakota. But the largest testing with the test was made by Miss Isbell at the Chilocco U. S. Indian School in Oklahoma in the spring of 1926. The work of grading or scoring the 760 test blanks was extremely tedious. Most of this was done by Miss Isbell who with Professor Garth handled the data which is presented in the accompanying article.—P. W. D.