[On April 28, 2026, historian John Troutman of the National Museum of American History delivered a talk at the University of Arizona titled “B.B. King Called it ‘That Sound!’: Finding the Indigenous Roots of Popular Music.” The Department of American Indian Studies hosted the event. I was honored to introduce him at the gathering. My comments are below.]
Good evening, everyone,
My name is Matt Sakiestewa Gilbert, and I have the honor of introducing our speaker, Dr. John Troutman.
Dr. Troutman currently serves as the Curator of Music and Musical Instruments and Chair of the Division of Culture & the Arts at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History, a post he has held since 2016.
Before this, Dr. Troutman was a professor of History and Geography at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.
In addition to his administrative and academic posts, he is perhaps best known for his scholarship, having published two outstanding books entitled Indian Blues: American Indians and the Politics of Music, 1879-1934, and Kika Kila: How the Hawaiian Steel Guitar Changed the Sound of Modern Music, both of which have won multiple awards.
On a personal note, I first met Dr. Troutman several years ago, as he and I presented at the same conferences, including those early meetings of the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association conference in Norman, Oklahoma, and Athens, Georgia. When we met, we talked about the state of the field, Native history, and the Indian boarding school experience. But mostly we talked about music.
I still remember in the summer of 2008, when Dr. Troutman reached out to me about my dissertation. He had read it and wanted to cite it in his book, Indian Blues. That made me feel pretty good, and it started a conversation between him and me about Hopi musicians, including one named Clarence Taptooka from my village of Munqapi. A year later, Dr. Troutman’s book came out. How honored I was to read his discussion of my work in his monograph.
You can learn a lot about a person when you read the Preface and Acknowledgments to their books: what they value, cherish, what motivates them, etc. Here’s a brief excerpt from Dr. Troutman’s Preface to Indian Blues:
I would like to recognize the extraordinary talents, tenacity, and courage of Native people featured in this book who challenged the federal government’s policies of assimilation and allotment in such profoundly important and creative ways. As a small tribute to them, and in memory of Hartman Lomawaima, the proceeds from this book will benefit the Hopi Education Endowment Fund.
Dr. Troutman does more than write about Indian people; he helps make opportunities for them, including Hopi students pursuing a college education beyond the mesas.
Finally, I think it is important to mention that Dr. Troutman is not just a terrific scholar, former professor, and a highly esteemed administrator. He is also one of our own. In the mid 1990s, Dr. Troutman navigated this campus as an M.A. student in American Indian Studies. It was here that he studied with AIS faculty Nancy Parezo, K. Tsianina Lomawaima, David Wilkins, and Tom Holm, among others, ultimately completing a thesis entitled “The Overlord of the Savage World: Anthropology, the Media, and the American Indian Experience at the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair.”
It’s great to have you back, John.
Without further ado, please join me in welcoming a true friend of the Indian, Dr. John Troutman.
on the Hopi Reservation in northeastern Arizona. His willingness to receive an education beyond the mesas and teach at a university, paved the way for other Hopi academics such as myself. He showed us how to excel at a research institution. And he demonstrated the importance for us to meet scholarly expectations while remaining closely connected to home. 
