Natalie Curtis Burlin

Natalie Curtis Burlin was an American musician, composer and pioneering ethnomusicologist who devoted much of her career to documenting Native American and African American music. Trained initially as a concert pianist, she turned toward field research after encounters with Indigenous communities in the American Southwest.

Her major publications included The Indians’ Book in 1907, based on music and traditions collected from numerous Native communities, and the four-volume Negro Folk-Songs produced through work connected with Hampton Institute. She also studied African musical traditions and remained active as a writer and lecturer until her death in a traffic accident in Paris in 1921.

Jane Kirkpatrick’s The Healing of Natalie Curtis makes Natalie Curtis Burlin the central historical character, beginning with the musician’s ill health and creative exhaustion and following her encounter with Indigenous music in the American Southwest. The novel links her collecting and transcription work to her campaign against federal restrictions on Native languages, dances and ceremonies, while also confronting the unequal power involved when an outsider records traditions that communities themselves are struggling to protect.