“Lost Indian” is not a single tune but a family of fiddle tunes, popular from Virginia to Texas. The title goes back at least to the nineteenth century, and among older fiddlers it served as a general name for a number of related melodies.
The tunes are imitative, meant to evoke the call of an Indian lost in the wilderness; fiddlers would sometimes let out a vocal whoop while playing. The “Lost Indian” pieces are tied as much to a distinctive cross-tuning as to any one melody.
The tune endures across old-time, bluegrass, and contest fiddling.
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