What is native american drumming?

Within various Native American communities, gender plays an important role in music, too. Specific roles are often intended for men and women. For the Cherokee people, when holding a dance before a stickball game, men and women have separate dances and regulations. Men will dance in a circle around a fire, while women dance in place. Men sing their own songs, while women have their songs sung for them by a conjurer. Also, whereas the men's songs invoke power, the women's songs are intended to draw power away from the opposing team (Herndon 124). In many societies, there are also regulations against women playing the ceremonial drum. For the Southern Plains Indians, it is believed that the first drum was given to a woman by the Great Spirit, who instructed her to share it with all women of native nations. However, there also exist prohibitions against women sitting at the Big Drum.