Native American Dances

As on all their feast days, dancing was the principal ceremony of the Juaneño Band of Mission Indians.  I will endeavor to describe many of the ludicrous customs attending it. Such was the delight with which they took part in their festivities, that they often continued dancing day and night, and sometimes entire weeks. Their whole heart and soul were wrapped up in the amusement, and hardly a day passed, without some portion of it being devoted to this insipid and monotonous ceremony.

To the Creeks, Cherokees and other Southeastern Indians, the Stomp Dance is affiliated with the Green Corn Ceremony.

The term “Stomp Dance” is an English term which refers to the ‘shuffle and stomp’ movements of the dance. In the native Muskogee language the dance is called Opvnkv Haco, which can mean ‘drunken,’ ‘crazy,’ or ‘inspirited’ dance. This usually refers to the exciting, yet meditative effect the Dance and the medicine have on the participants.

The most exciting event of the year was the festival of the Buffalo Dance. Eight men participated, wearing buffalo skins on their backs and painting themselves black, red, and white. Dancers endeavoured to imitate the buffalo on the prairie.

nativelady Native American Dances

Scores of Osage dancers participate in the tribe’s annual I-Lon-schka each June, what is also known as Osage ceremonials. A drum-giving ceremony and dancing are the glue that holds this fiercely traditional society together.

The rhythm of the drum signifies the heartbeat of the people. Singing and dancing are integral features of the pow wow celebration, expressions of the spirit of the people. We get together at a powwow to celebrate and to give thanks to the Creator for the good that we’ve had in the past. We say healing prayers as we dance.

People begin gathering as the last rays of sunlight move their way up the ancient adobe structures. These aren’t just tribal members. We’re talking people from town, all over the region, even some from foreign countries.

The bonfires around the village are lit. As darkness begins to fall, the Vespers Mass in the San Geronimo Church is concluded and the Christmas Eve procession begins.

The Apache Sunrise Ceremony reinacts the legend of the first Apache woman. In the legend, White Painted Woman (also known as Esdzanadehe, and Changing Woman) survives the great Flood in an abalone shell, then wanders the land as the waters recede. Atop a mountain, she is impregnated by the sun, and gives birth of a son, Killer of Enemies. Soon afterwards, she is impregnated by the Rain, and gives birth to Son of Water.

Fall Intertribal Powwow (Dgwaget Nimediwen)

Where: Raymond Peltier Park, 1702 S Gordon Cooper Drive, Shawnee, OK 74801

The Annual Citizen Potawatomi Nation’s Pow-wows were first started in 1972 to reinvigorate some sense of cultural identity among the Citizen Potawatomi people, and to encourage those who wanted to pow-wow dance to step out into the dance circle with pride.

When the buffalo first came to be upon the land, they were not friendly to the people. When the hunters tried to coax them over the cliffs for the good of the villages, they were reluctant to offer themselves up.

They did not relish being turned into blankets and dried flesh for winter rations. They did not want their hooves and horn to become tools and utinsels nor did they welcome their sinew being used for sewing. “No, no,” they said. We won’t fall into your traps. And we will not fall for your tricks.”

KEYWORDS: Pow Wow protocol honoring dance grand entry meaning of pow wow dances Kenai-based Midnight Sun drum group David Salmon Tribal Hall Alaska pow wow drum groups history of powwow dances University of Alaska Fairbanks Festival of Native Arts honoring the veterans celebrating life AUTHOR: Dan Rice, Staff Writer for the News Miner The jingle […]

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When Germaine Tremmel and Sharon Mountain organized “Gathering of the Heartbeat” in Minneapolis seven years ago, they created an annual retreat where American Indian women could celebrate tradition and challenge taboos by singing around a ceremonial drum.

James Mooney, an ethnologist with the Bureau of American Ethnology, was sent to investigate the Ghost Dance movement in 1891. He obtained a copy of Wovoka’s message from a Cheyenne named Black Short Nose, who had been part of a joint Cheyenne-Arapaho delegation that visited Wovoka in Nevada in August 1891. This became known as the Messiah Letter.

The buffalo is a symbol of abundance.

Historically, Pueblo Peoples crossed the mountains to the north to hunt or trade for buffalo and bring back meat for the long winter.

This article gives a general overview of the proper attire for a Fancy Shawl Dancer. Rather than the double-bustle the early Crow girls wore to dance the Fancy Dance, today’s Fancy Shawl dancer wears a dress made of a shiny fabric such as taffeta or satin. 

At Crow Fair in Montana, I was told another story about the Fancy Shawl Dance. While the Crow people also equate this dance form as an expression of re-emergence and renewal of life forces, they have a very different explanation of how it began. Their version goes like this: