Native Americans Bring Ritual Dances to the Ivy League

[chlamor]

Native American ritual on display at CU

JENNIE DALEY
Journal Staff


ITHACA -- Fringes, feathers, tassels, bells, bone, beads and sequins moved in a whirl of color as drummers beat out the pulse. This ritual occurred over and over again Saturday afternoon in a kaleidoscope of dances as hundreds gathered at Cornell University's Powwow and Smokedance.

Part of an annual event, the powwow featured three drums, a multitude of dancers and booths galore. The smell of fry bread and tacos wafted over the scene in Barton Hall.

<snip>

"The legend is there was a lady a long time ago who had a dream. She was really, really sad because her partner had gone off to war. In her dream a butterfly came to her and told her her partner was hurt. She wanted to go get him but couldn't because if she went to the battlefield then she would be hurt. So the butterfly left her a shawl and told her, 'Use this shawl to protect yourself. Dodge the bullets, pick him up and bring him back to safety.'"

<snip>

"All our dances tell a story. When I dance, I dance for the old ones, those who can't dance. Also in the old days they couldn't dance in public. My grandparents weren't able to dance. It is an honor to dance," she said.
http://www.ithacajournal.com/news/stories/20050418/localnews/2114982.html

[seemslikeadream]

1. Thanks chlamor

Calendar
http://www.gatheringofnations.com/powwows/index.htm

[Lisa]

2. at our school, the First Nations students wear their traditional regalia

... at convocation, rather than the standard boring old gowns. It looks really spectacular -- many of them are from the coastal bands, so they have striking black and red "button blankets".

Recently the college commissioned a new mace and a throne for the Chancellor, done by Northwestern artists. Looks spectacular, and a big improvement over the usual university hardware.

[Nothing Without Hope]

3. This is wonderful. I wish I could have been there too.

We need to listen and open our hearts to what they say about living on the earth.

[chlamor]

4. Ghost Dance

Ghost Dance

By the 1880's the U.S. government had managed to confine almost all of the Indians on reservations, usually on land so poor that the white man could conceive of no use for it themselves. The rations and supplies that had been guaranteed them by the treaties were of poor quality, if they arrived at all. Graft and corruption were rampant in the Indian Bureau. In an attempt to stem this problem, a move was made to recruit Quakers to take the positions as Indian agents, however not nearly enough Quakers responded to the call for volunteers. This call, however, opened the door to other denominations setting up shop on the reservations. An attempt was made to convert the Indians to Christianity with mixed results.

However, by 1890 conditions were so bad on the reservations, nationwide, with starvation conditions existing in many places, that the situation was ripe for a major movement to rise among the Indians. This movement found its origin in a Paiute Indian named Wovoka, who announced that he was the messiah come to earth to prepare the Indians for their salvation. Representatives from tribes all over the nation came to Nevada to meet with Wovoka and learn to dance the Ghost Dance and to sing Ghost Dance songs.

In early October of 1890, Kicking Bear, a Minneconjou, visited Sitting Bull at Standing Rock. He told him of the visit he and his brother-in-law, Short Bull, had made to Nevada to visit Wovoka. They told him of the great number of other Indians who were there as well. They referred to Wovoka as the Christ and told of the Ghost Dance that they had learned and the way that the Christ had flown over them on their horseback ride back to the railroad tracks, teaching them Ghost Dance songs. And they told him of the phophecy that, next spring, when the grass was high, the earth would be covered with new soil, burying all the white men.The new soil would be covered with sweet grass, running water and trees; the great herds of buffalo and wild horses would return. All Indians who danced the Ghost Dance would be taken up into the air and suspended there while the new earth was being laid down. Then they would be replaced there, with the ghosts of their ancestors, on the new earth. Only Indians would live there then.

http://www.hanksville.org/daniel/lakota/Ghost_Dance.html