Yootay Singers of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation Perform at Trinity College

Linnea Mayo ’26

Arts Editor

On Thursday, Oct. 3, the Trinity community gathered with Yootay Singers of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation as they performed their traditional tribal and inter-tribal songs of the Eastern Woodlands in a Northern style. The Yootay Singers are a Mashantucket Pequot Community Drum Group known as culture ambassadors for the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation, a federally recognized Indian tribe located in Southern Connecticut and one of the oldest Indian reservations in the United States. Yootay means “here” in Pequot language. The Yootay Singers are based on this reservation and perform at Powwows all over the country. Most recently they were the host drum group at the Mashantucket Pequot Pow Wow in Mashantucket, Connecticut. 

The drum group consists of six to twelve traditional singers who sit around a circular drum that measures 25 to 30 inches in diameter. The drum is viewed as the grandfather with its own spirit and made from precious natural resources, and serves as a focal point for gatherings. The drum is often decorated with money provided by attendees as a form of support, and typically crafted from materials from Midwest cattle, buffalo and deer. The Yootay singers that performed at Trinity included Michael Thomas, along with his son Phyllip Thomas and nephew Connor Smith of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation. 

The performance was organized by Dorothea Hast, Visiting Lecturer in Music at Trinity College. This semester, Hast’s Introduction to Music class is conducting a mini field work project of ethnography of researching and writing culture, one of which being on the Yootay Singers performance. When speaking with the Tripod, Hast emphasized the ways music builds and promotes community. “I think a live performance is always an important thing, you are brought into it in a totally different way. To be able to participate in someone else’s culture enables you to get closer to it and more understanding from an insider perspective,” she explains. 

The Yootay Singers began by performing a traditional flag song, which are similar to national anthems and original to each tribe. These songs honor the land and the tribes who have cared for it. Their full traditional tribal songs are typically two to three minutes long and are performed to open public and special events, both inside and outside. “We try not to let the space impact what we do but because of our earth based culture, if it’s outside it does have a better feeling. Sometimes you have to be inside and sometimes you have to be inside,” explained Michael Thomas when speaking with The Tripod. The audience stood as they sang. 

The drum group then transitioned into a traditional song, which Thomas explained typically varies to reflect the purpose of the event they’re performing at. Before performing, Thomas spent a few minutes educating the audience on how Native Americans are the highest presented in the military, and how this warrior culture is reflected in their songs. Thus, the song started with a grand entry where all styles played at the same time, then honored veterans as the group performed a Veteran Song. 

Thomas elaborated on the extensive repertoire required for their performances and the variety of different songs and languages they have to memorize. The drum group does not rely on written music; instead, they must commit a diverse range of songs to memory and don’t perform the same songs every time. This unpredictability also accounts for their lack of warm-up routines, as they cannot anticipate the specific pieces they will be performing. The singers perform in four to five different languages. There are about ten languages in total, and the group only know certain words from each of these languages for their pieces. 

The traditional song ended up sharing the Mohegan language, which Thomas explained he wasn’t expecting, but emphasized that “what the young people do is up to them” because he allowed his son and nephews to take the lead. Throughout the performance, the three young men coordinated their actions while Thomas engaged with the audience. 

A large tradition among the Mashantucket Pequots is the practice of handing down and practicing songs through generations. Thomas prefers to not write down the songs but rather pass it down from elders to younger generations. This includes his son, to whom he is now imparting this tradition. “What [their performances] turns out to be is family bonding time. My son and his twin have literally been traveling the country with me since before they could walk,” explained Thomas. Thomas continued to explain how a commonality between tribes is to go through a ceremonial approach to adopt relatives and how the Pequot people adapt traditional dances to dance styles and start with the elders when dancing to honor them. 

Thomas further explained the structure of powwow and the powwow circuit around the country, and the travel their drum group do throughout the summer. They travel all across the country to share their culture, and simultaneously learn from the other indigenous groups they’re performing with. “We travel around every week from spring to fall, and winter is typically a slower time. But there are even opportunities then. For example, when I was my son’s age we would go to the West Coast because of the range of California powwows. Tribes organize their powwow not to conflict with one another on purpose so we can go from one to the next and go through a variety of them,” Thomas shared with the Tripod.  

The performance ended with a round dance, where the audience joined hands and danced clockwise in a circle, following the rhythm of the drum. “People make music for many different reasons; music is part of rituals, ceremonies, it is part of many different aspects of culture. I want students to see how that works and how it builds community. And then for them to become part of that community simply by getting up and doing a round dance, it reflects the Mashantucket community because it is their dance. It feels like we are one now. It was not a very complex dance, but it feels like it was very community building,” Hast explains. 

The performance concluded with a Q&A discussion where several topics were addressed, including the use of four herbs placed atop of the drum and the cultural significance. Another attendee asked whether their dance traditions embrace all genders, and Thomas explained how groups can be co-ed and intended to be inclusive of the community.  

Thomas explained the dismissive way people often discuss Native American and Indigenous groups, noting, “They talk about us as if we have disappeared, so we have had to talk to other tribes.” Importantly, this performance isn’t a one off event, but rather a continuity of the Mashantucket Pequots sharing their culture and history with people through building community. 

“This falls into Trinity’s ongoing attempt to both acknowledge where Trinity sits and who were the first nations there, but also how to partner with Indigenous communities and support them and learn from them,” explains Hast.