ITEA Journal Volume 47 Number 2 (Winter 2020)

Looking Back
by Ken Drobnak, ITEA Historian

Biographical Profile: John M. Kuhn - Red Cloud

John M. Kuhn (Red Cloud) was an outstanding tubist active in the early to mid-20^th century. In Mr. Tuba, Harvey Phillips described Kuhn as "a highly respected Sioux Indian of the Blackfoot tribe. He was a terrific tubist and played with Buffalo Bill, then John Philip Sousa."

Kuhn's musical career began "when Buffalo Bill Cody visited the Montana territory where John lived and literally lifted the young musician off the ranch to tour the United States and Europe" (November 12, 1941, Cedar Rapids Iowa Gazette). He further reflects on his upbringing and early career in the article reprinted below. Not much is known about his later career-if you are a graduate student looking for a paper topic, here's one for you!

Indian Musicians in the Modern World

"Red Cloud" Famous Indian Performer on the Sousaphone, Tells of One of the Most Remarkable Careers in Music History

Reprinted from The Etude, October 10, 1920

The following story is given direct to The Etude from Mr. John Kuhn, the giant Sousaphone player of the Sousa Band who was born in the heart of the Sioux Reservation, and is now acknowledged one of the very finest living performers on his instrument. The Sousaphone was named thus by the manufacturer in honor of the inventor, Mr. Sousa, and is now used in bands in all parts of the world. It is a form of the large bass helicon tuba (bombardon) so adjusted, as Mr. Sousa puts it, that its tones are not heard a half mile down the street before the band comes in sight. It affords also a wonderful refinement of the effects of its predecessor in concert bands.

When my mother carried me around on her back as a little papoose, probably the very last thing that my tribesmen ever dreamed of was that someday I should play in the greatest of modern bands. Certainly, there was nothing in my childhood surroundings that suggested it: I was born on the Fort Peck Reservation. There were 32,000 Sioux on the reservation then and 9,000 head of cattle, at Poplar, Montana. My earliest recollection of hearing music is hearing my own mother sing. She sang at all times, especially when she was working, and I loved to listen to her and to the other women singing the old, old songs of my tribe. Many of the songs had probably gone back for centuries, and, although they had been carried down without any means of notation, it is hardly likely that they ever varied very much in any tribe. The Indian has a respect for music that in some instances rises to a superstition. I doubt whether any of the white races have an understanding of what this deep-seated love really is. The instruments are virtually limited to drums, flutes and rattles, therefore, most of the music is singing, largely without words but to special syllables.

Can anyone realize the spirit of independence of the Indian and why for so many years he looked upon the Indian Bureau, at Washington, often represented by old worn out, good for nothing political benchmen, as a curse to the race? Many of these men kept their positions by causing strife and the Indian naturally detested them. The interminable blunders in trying to curb the race instead of permitting it to develop along natural lines in the rightful way can never be forgiven. Now, they realize (at least some of them do) that the Indian has within his own people men capable of managing affairs; but none of these men, owing to political intrigue, has ever been permitted to participate to the extent that the Indian is relieved of the idea that he is a subject or a ward. It relieves me to say this, as I have wanted 'to get it out of my system' for a long while.

When I was a child the Government realized that certain dances and ceremonial songs might incite the tribes to warfare and therefore prohibited them. For this reason, I never took part in a War Dance, although when I was a very little boy I remember two battles with the soldiers. It seems a kind of a dream now. My mother took me out on a butte where we could overlook the field and yet not be seen. I saw the braves go forth on horseback with their brilliant costumes and their warpaint and I saw in the far distance the Government troops come out in their dark blue uniforms. Then the firing commenced, and I saw the braves topple off their horses and knew that many of them would never come back. It appears that our tribe was to be unjustly disciplined for horse stealing for which it was not responsible.

The Indian, when he has the fair balance of power, will not sit down before injustice and he becomes a terrible fighter. This time, for once, the Indian were victorious, and the soldiers had to retreat. The Indian does not want to be made to do things. For instance, he does not want to be made to cut his long, shiny, black braids of hair because he thinks they are much more beautiful than short hair. Again, the ceremony of cutting the hair is one associated with death, mourning and humiliation. Cutting his hair breaks his spirit. The Government knew this and forced him to cut it as it forced him to live in log houses instead of tepees and wear clothes often entirely unsuited to his life. Consequently, tuberculosis stepped in and the American Indian died by the thousands. Do you wonder that he fought superior numbers against such wicked stupidity?

The process of 'civilization' with the Indians must of necessity be a gradual one. When I was a little boy, I was sent to Fort Shaw to be educated, then I went to the Haskell Institute where I studied modern music, later I went to Carlisle where I was the so-called star Fullback on the famous Carlisle football team for three years. Meanwhile, I had always been interested in music and as my instrument was the tuba, I played it whenever I had a chance. At that time, Buffalo Bill (Col. William F. Cody), who understood Indians and treated them right, engaged me as a Broncho-Buster with his great show. I toured with this show through Europe, giving the crowned heads and the citizens an idea of Indian strength and endurance in what is really a very dangerous business even when one is supposed to 'know how.' We were kept on the go so much that I heard very little good music except that played by our own band, which was a very good one.

When I came back to America, I became more and more interested in music and for a time played in the Dennison Wheelock Indian Band and finally achieved my great ambition to play in the Sousa Band. Mr. Sousa must have an inborn feeling for the Indian because in his famous suite Dwellers in the Western World, he has an Indian section which, although composed of themes which are entirely original with him, have all the characteristics of Indian music quite as though some departed Indian spirit had inspired him. Of course, the piece is a great hit every time we play it. Lieut. Sousa has an uncanny way of seeing through things and getting others to understand and execute the effects he wants. There has never been a bandmaster like him in going so far out of the way to discover hidden beauties and new effects.

The new interest in Indian music does not surprise me. To me, its charm has been known for years. What could be more romantic than to see on horseback a brave silhouetted against the sinking son singing a love song to some sweetheart hiding behind the door of a tepee. Once I went out on my horse and I heard an indescribably beautiful melody played upon the Indian flute. Few people know that horses are very sensitive to music. They will hear it in the far distance and seem to be fascinated by it. My horse stopped and I went to investigate. There, high up in a cottonwood tree was a brave playing a love song to his departed love. The music seemed to reach far over the valley, and it was difficult to tell whence it came. I listened for a long while as he played on and on. The name of the song was Cante-ma-cîja and it meant, 'My heart is sad and sore for longing.' It was a picture there in the solitude that few could forget.

Many composers have caught the Indian idea in modern music by the utilization of real Indian themes. When I hear such music and know that it is real and not a parody, all of the old fire comes back in me. It is the 'call of the wild.' When we play such a piece as the American Indian Rhapsody by Preston Ware Orem, founded on real Indian themes given him by Thurlow Lieurance, a piece that has been one of the big numbers with the band for a year, I feel as though I could jump right up and 'holler.' I heard some of those same themes when I was a little papoose and they are in my blood and always will be in the blood of my children as long as the race lasts.

Editor's Notes :
John "Red Cloud" Kuhn performed with many famous bands, including Kryl's, Pat Conway's, Hand's, Ballman's, the Isham Jones Orchestra and the Sousa Band. Paul Bierley listed Kuhn as performing with the Sousa Band from 1915-1920. Kuhn was heard on NBC Radio for at least seven years on the Farm and Home Hour, perhaps with the Contented Hour Orchestra. He played under the batons of Camille Saint-Saëns and Toscanini.

A June 11, 1919 article in the Sousa Band Press Books described "two of the largest bandmen in America have been engaged … to play the two Sousaphones, which are important instruments in the make-up of the band ... The two men are John M. Kuhn and W. V. Webster. Kuhn is a full-blooded Indian a graduate of the Carlisle school and a famous football star of a few years ago." An undated article, though believed to be from 1919, discussed John Kuhn. "While the monster bass, the sousaphone is not a solo instrument, it is a most important one, and the playing of John Kuhn calls for special mention, both because of the beauty and the solidity of tone he evoked and also because he is a full-blooded Sioux Indian - a genuine American by birth."

"When Merle Evans conducted the final performance of Buffalo Bill's Wild West show, John Kuhn was in it, but not playing tuba: he was on a horse, with a bow and arrow. Bill Bell and John Kuhn played in the Rodeo Band in New York in 1953." (Mr. Tuba, Harvey Phillips)

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