You know, in an old Western, whenever the camera pans in on the Indian village or Indian battle formation, we hear, “BUMMM . . . bum-ba-BUM-ba-bum-bummm . . .” Repeating. Where does that come from? It sounds nothing like any authentic Indian music I’ve ever heard.
I don’t know, but my guess would be that it was just some Hollywood composer’s impression of American Indian drum music. The same is probably true of that war chant thing (the one you hear at Florida State and Atlanta Braves games).
I’ve been looking at YouTube videos for about an hour, trying to find scenes from westerns where that music might be played, like when the Indians are attacking a wagon train – nada.
But I did find an old Hamm’s beer commercial – it uses a beat that’s heard in lots of old westerns. Don’t know if that’s what you’re looking for. If it is, we still don’t know the origin.