It would be easy to glorify her for her life-long commitment to her career, but I think it is important to address serious concerns in her approaches. We can give credit to Densmore’s commitment to her work without overlooking the power dynamics between settlers and Indigenous peoples that she exploited and perpetuated.  This is imperative when teaching or learning about Densmore, because we do not want to overlook or perpetuate these imbalanced power dynamics. 

• Densmore did not study Indigenous peoples’ music in order to help or benefit them. Even in wanting to save Indigenous customs before they disappeared, she did not practice salvage ethnography so that Indigenous people could be connected to their heritage. She published and archived the materials she collected on behalf of and for other settlers and colonialist institutions, such as the Smithsonian and the Library of Congress. This is why it’s imperative that these recordings now take on a new life that serves their original bearers.Densmore, like many early ethnologists, was steeped in Western Art Music. She carried her rigorous classical music training from Oberlin Conservatory (1884-1886) into how she wrote down (transcribed) and analyzed Indigenous music. 

• Despite noting the limitations of staff  notation developed for Western Art Music, she did not abandon it because she wanted to find generalizable patterns and not hone in on specifics. 
• Densmore superimposed not only the theoretical framework designed for Western Art Music, but its valuing of analysis onto the Indigenous music she was studying. She methodically dissected, categorized, tagged, and theorized about the Indigenous music that she transcribed and recorded. She chose to do this over treating and appreciating the music in the ways that Indigenous people did. She also did not take on ethnomusicological approaches that were developed later, such as learning to play the music, learning the language, or immersing herself in the cultural context for a long time. 
• Despite learning about their significance, she still recorded sacred music such as those of the Midewiwin (Grand Medicine Society). In doing so, she prioritized her scholarly interests and her analytical relationship to music over what the music means to Indigenous people. 
• Densmore approached Indigenous people as “other” and started her studies and writings with a romanticized notion of how Indigenous people lived and thought at the time of her work. 
• Densmore saw elements of music as representative of relative levels of evolution and operated with an attitude that denied coeval existence of the Indigenous peoples she worked with. 
• She grouped together Indigenous musics and practices in her attempt to study them. Instead of focusing on an individual group of people, she fell into the colonialist trope of homogenizing various Indigenous groups. 
• Densmore muddied consent in her practices. She transcribed Indigenous peoples’ music before they started giving her permission. Even when Indigenous people gave Densmore permission, they may have been pressured through her negotiations and the power that she had as a white, settler.