Indian Band In the early years of the 20th century, Wheelock was compared to John Philip Sousa, and even nominated to be his successor as bandmaster of United States Marine Band. Wheelock relished Sousa's music, known for American march music. On October 10, 1892, the 400th anniversary of Columbus landing in the New World, Wheelock's thirty-one piece Carlisle Indian Band, along with 300 Carlisle boys and girls, marched on Fifth Avenue in New York City past Washington Square. The nation's newspapers praised the boys and girls for their "intelligent faces and dignified bearing." "But the one that caught the crowd was the Indian band that had the delegation from Carlisle. With the smoothest harmony and in most perfect time, this band played a marching anthem as it passed the reviewing stand. Both the melody and spectacle or so when usual that the people rose to their feet and cheered again and again. The Indian boys marched with perfect step, and they came opposite President Benjamin Harrison's stand with the military precision that no pale faced organization equaled." In 1893, by the time the Carlisle contingent reached Chicago for the beginning of the Columbian Exposition, newspapers nationwide reported about Pratt and his Carlisle Indian students. Upon his return to Carlisle, Wheelock began a nationwide effort to recruit for Carlisle the most promising young Indian musicians from other boarding schools for the best talent. He also started to teach music, now being referred to as "Professor. " In 1894, Wheelock along with the Carlisle Women's Choir performed throughout the East. In 1896, Wheelock published the Carlisle Indian School March. Also, he presented a composition From Savagery to Civilization for the 17th anniversary celebration of the founding of Carlisle. Dennison performed as a soloist with the band, and the schools newspaper reported that the "sounds produced led up from the wild tom-tom, to curious and intricate twists and turns to the sweet and classic streams of civilized horns." The composition was a prelude to Dennison's Aboriginal Suite, which he debuted in 1900 at Carnegie Hall. The Aboriginal Suite In 1897, Wheelock traveled around the country recruiting musicians for a 70-piece, all-Indian student band to expand the Carlisle Indian Band as a new U.S. Indian Band. During this time, he completed his Aboriginal Suite, a full symphony in three parts: "Morning on the Plains", "The Lovers Song" and "Dance of the Red Men." Wheelock