Faculty Spotlight: Dr. John Troutman

Submitted by Megan Bergeron

Dr. John Troutman of UL Lafayette’s Department of History and Geography was awarded the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Summer Stipend for the summer of 2011. Over the course of the summer, Troutman was able to conduct valuable research in Oahu, Hawaii, providing him with the resources he needs to complete his book. The anticipated work will explore the impact that the sounds and musical technologies of Hawaiian natives have made on the United States, uncovering and exploring our most significant musical traditions. An account of Troutman’s experience with the award and his research endeavors is featured below.

Megan: Could you please give a broad overview of your research interests?
John: I am interested in the relationship between music and history, particularly music by Native peoples. Historians have traditionally ignored the role of music in daily life, or considered music a mere reflection of society or politics. My work is based upon the contention that music can, in fact, work in extraordinarily political ways, and that it transforms rather than reflects society. In this vein, my first book, Indian Blues: American Indians and the Politics of Music, 1879-1934, demonstrated the ways in which American Indians utilized music and dance to resist and ultimately reverse federal policies of cultural assimilation and the liquidation of tribal lands in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. I am happy to report to the Research Office that in October of 2011, Indian Blues won the Western History Association’s prestigious W. Turrentine-Jackson Prize, a biennial award granted for “a first book on any aspect of the American West.” I think this sort of recognition is a sign that historians increasingly are taking music more seriously. At the same time, the prize complements the other research and publication accolades that UL Lafayette faculty are now earning at an ever-faster clip.

M: What was the title of your summer research project, and what did you plan to explore during this project?
J: The title of my summer research project shares the title of my second book project: “Kika Kila: The Hawaiian Guitar and the Indigenization of American Music.” The book is a history of the invention, development, and proliferation of the Kika Kila, or, Hawaiian guitar. We would recognize this instrument these days through its direct descendants—the dobro, slide guitar, steel guitar, or pedal steel. Most folks have heard of at least a couple of those instruments, but interestingly, very few people are aware of the fact that the instrument was invented by Native Hawaiians in the 1890s, in the midst of the U.S.-backed illegal overthrow of the Native Hawaiian government! So, my book will recover the history of the instrument in the midst of this political and imperial turmoil and trace its worldwide influence at the hands of Native Hawaiian guitarists as they began to tour the globe in the early 1900s. The book will even bring us to Louisiana, as I describe the ways in which the Native instrument transformed southern vernacular music, including the blues, country, and Cajun music traditions. The summer research project enabled me to spend a few weeks working in several archives on the island of Oahu. While there, conducted extensive research in the archives of the Bishop Museum, the Kamehameha Schools archive, the Hawai’i State Archives, the Hawai’i State Library, BYU-Hawai’i, and UH-Manoa. I wasn’t sure exactly what I would find, but I knew that these archives would house important related primary documents that would detail the early history of the instrument and how it impacted Hawaiian music traditions.

M: Can you elaborate on the progress you have made during your summer research? What was your expected results/findings?
J: What I found exceeded all of my expectations. To a far greater extent than I had imagined, my archival work revealed that Native Hawaiians had developed an astonishingly widespread and popular guitar culture in the latter half of the 19th century. They took Spanish-style (what we would consider “regular”) guitars, imported to the islands by sailors and Latin American ranchers, and used the instrument to generate a “renaissance movement” of traditional Hawaiian songs—songs sung in their Native language. This movement, which really took off in the 1880s, seems to have served as a challenge to American missionaries who were working at the time to attack their cultural traditions. Over the course of the research I found hundreds of documents, newspaper articles, and photographs that reveal a remarkably rich musical culture on the islands that facilitated the development of the steel guitar. I also discovered letters from the family of the guitar’s primary innovator, a Native Hawaiian named Joseph Kekuku. The first two chapters of the book, which I also began to develop under the auspices of the NEH Summer Stipend, are based upon the research I conducted on Oahu.

M: What was the title of your summer research project, and what did you plan to explore during this project?
J: The title of my summer research project shares the title of my second book project: “Kika Kila: The Hawaiian Guitar and the Indigenization of American Music.” The book is a history of the invention, development, and proliferation of the Kika Kila, or, Hawaiian guitar. We would recognize this instrument these days through its direct descendants—the dobro, slide guitar, steel guitar, or pedal steel. Most folks have heard of at least a couple of those instruments, but interestingly, very few people are aware of the fact that the instrument was invented by Native Hawaiians in the 1890s, in the midst of the U.S.-backed illegal overthrow of the Native Hawaiian government! So, my book will recover the history of the instrument in the midst of this political and imperial turmoil and trace its worldwide influence at the hands of Native Hawaiian guitarists as they began to tour the globe in the early 1900s. The book will even bring us to Louisiana, as I describe the ways in which the Native instrument transformed southern vernacular music, including the blues, country, and Cajun music traditions. The summer research project enabled me to spend a few weeks working in several archives on the island of Oahu. While there, conducted extensive research in the archives of the Bishop Museum, the Kamehameha Schools archive, the Hawai’i State Archives, the Hawai’i State Library, BYU-Hawai’i, and UH-Manoa. I wasn’t sure exactly what I would find, but I knew that these archives would house important related primary documents that would detail the early history of the instrument and how it impacted Hawaiian music traditions.

M: Can you elaborate on the progress you have made during your summer research? What were your expected results/findings?
J: What I found exceeded all of my expectations. To a far greater extent than I had imagined, my archival work revealed that Native Hawaiians had developed an astonishingly widespread and popular guitar culture in the latter half of the 19th century. They took Spanish-style (what we would consider “regular”) guitars, imported to the islands by sailors and Latin American ranchers, and used the instrument to generate a “renaissance movement” of traditional Hawaiian songs—songs sung in their Native language. This movement, which really took off in the 1880s, seems to have served as a challenge to American missionaries who were working at the time to attack their cultural traditions. Over the course of the research I found hundreds of documents, newspaper articles, and photographs that reveal a remarkably rich musical culture on the islands that facilitated the development of the steel guitar. I also discovered letters from the family of the guitar’s primary innovator, a Native Hawaiian named Joseph Kekuku. The first two chapters of the book, which I also began to develop under the auspices of the NEH Summer Stipend, are based upon the research I conducted on Oahu.

M: What was your ultimate goal for your summer research, and do you believe your goals have been met? What do you believe are the benefits of your research?
J: Previous to this summer research, I had spent about four years on this Hawaiian guitar project working in various archives in New York, San Francisco, London, New Orleans, Nashville, Washington DC, and Los Angeles—but I had not yet had an opportunity to work in Hawai'i! The primary goal of the summer research, then, was to gather the final materials that I needed to write the book from archives all over Oahu. The NEH, most importantly, provided the resources that enabled me to complete this crucial research component for the book. I am prepared now to write the book, which I think will reveal a compelling story about how music by Native peoples shaped and transformed this period of U.S. imperialism and settler-colonialism. At the same time, the book will completely upend, I believe, what we think we know about some of the United States’ most significant musical traditions, including those of the blues and country music. My work will make the case that some of the most popular mainland music of the 20th century developed to a large measure from the sounds and musical technologies of indigenous peoples.

M: Overall, how was your summer stipend experience?
J: The summer stipend experience was crucial to my book project and richly rewarding. I was honored to receive the award; the forthcoming book should serve as a tribute to my support from the NEH and from UL Lafayette.

The Office of Research and Sponsored Programs would like to thank Dr. Troutman for his time and participation in this interview. We look forward to his upcoming book and congratulate him on his award.