Before Native American people developed or learned a written language, they depended to a large part on the songs and stories of their elders to carry on and teach the history of who they are and their place in the real and spiritual worlds.  Songs always played and still play an important part in their lives.  When you heard the old people sing a song that reflected their history and the life lived in their past it was magical; to listen is to visit the truths of the past as it relates to the present.