Native American Dances

FORMATION: Ring circle, all facing toward center; hands hanging naturally at sides; body and head erect. For any number of participants, usually done by the women.

Measure 1:.......Step sideways with right foot in line of direction of circle (count "1 and") Draw left foot to right as if making a furrow with the toe of left foot. Lean slight to the left as if looking at the furrow (count "2 and")

Measures 2-6:.......Repeat Measure 1 five times more.

All left face so as to retrace their steps along the furrow they have made. The pouch holding the corn is hanging from the waist at the left side. The following step should be done in perfect unison.

...

Measure 1:.......TAKING THE SEED: The left hand holds the pouch. With the right hand pantomime the taking of the seed from the pouch at the same time taking one step forward with the left foot.

Measure 2:.......THE BLESSING: With both hands cupped together lift the corn to front horizontal (i.e. hands and arms parallel to the ground.) Lift the face and eyes upward as if in invocation.

Measure 3:.......THE SOWING: Step forward with the right foot, bending down with backs straight and when the hands are near the ground invert them and pantomime the dropping of the seeds into the furrow.

Measure 4:.......COVERING THE SEEDS WITH EARTH: Raise the body to perpendicular and brush the left foot across as if covering the seed with soil.

Measures 5-23:.......Repeat measures 1-4 six times more excepting the last measure.

Measure 24:.......All face center of circle. Raise both hands high as if still holding the corn in invocation (can be repeated 6 times)

All are in single circle as in I. This step is done with vigor. Begin with left foot and retrace the covered furrow with the following step, keeping feet parallel and bodies erect.

Measure 1:.......Stamp to side with left foot (count 1) Close right foot to left (count "and") Repeat. (Count "2 and")

Measures 2-7:....... Repeat Measure 1 six times more.

Measure 8:.......Repeat Measure 1 retarding the movement.

Measure 9:.......All stand at place and slowly raise hands to front horizontal palms down, fingers together in token of blessing the harvest.

...

The White Deer Dance is usually given in September at the full of the moon in the Klamath River region of California. It is the Indians form of prayer; it insures their having plenty of fish, grass, fruit, etc., for the coming year, and is presided over by the Medicine Man.

The line-men wear deer-skin skirts with shell trimmings and many strings of beads and shell around their throats. Their head-dresses are woodpecker feathers. The two end men have different head-dresses, made of seal tusks.

The dance is suppose to be done for three days. The first day common deer skins attached to the sticks will do for the dancers to carry. The second day a better grade of skins is used, and on the third only albino deer skins are carried. These skins are very hard to get and are treasured from generation to generation.

FORMATION:.......A straight line with the leader, who gives the signals, in the center. All face forward towards the audience in erect position, heels together, toes out, excepting two dancers who face each other in a crouching position at opposite ends of the line, and about six feet in front of it.

Each dancer in the line holds a stick with the deerskin on it in a perpendicular position, the butt end resting on the ground between the balls of the feet. The right hand holds the stick about a foot above the left. All look forward.

INTRODUCTION: The leaders signals "Who-o-o." The line all raise their sticks up perpendicularly near their bodies, sliding their left hands down to the butt end of their sticks.

Measure 1:.......In time with the leader those in the line swing their sticks to front horizontal, keeping the left hand at the left hip during the measure. All stamp the right foot four times to a measure throughout this and the succeeding 31 measures. The two end men rise slowly to an erect position still facing one another. They hold their flints in their right hands and raise their whistles to their mouths with their left.

Measure 2:.......The line men lower the end of their sticks almost to the ground in front of them (Count 1). Then swing their sticks sideways in a big arc upward to the right side (Count 2-3-4). The end men begin to advance toward one another with a peculiarly jerky yet springy step which they use throughout the dance. For clarity the end men's part will be described separately at the end of the description of the line men's part.

Measure 3:.......The line men swing down their sticks in an arc to front horizontal again.

Measure 4:.......Keeping their sticks at front horizontal the line men change the hand-hold on the stick, sliding the right down near the butt and placing the left hand above it.

Measure 5:.......The line men lower the end of their sticks almost touching the ground in front (Count 1). they swing their sticks upward in a big arc to the left side (Count 2-3-4).

Measure 6:.......They swing the end of their sticks down to front horizontal.

Measure 7:.......Change hands on stick to original position while holding it at front horizontal.

Measure 8:.......Bring pole up to an erect position as in Measure 1, only the pole is this time inclined slightly to the left.

Measure 9:.......Repeat Measure 1.

Measures 10-16:.......Repeat Measure 2-8 only begin to swing in an arc to the left on measure 10 and to the right on measure 13.

Measures 17-32:.......Repeat all. Meantime, while the line is executing the above, the end men describe a sort of figure 8 in front of the line timing their steps so as to get back in their designated positions at the end of the 32nd measure. The dance as done formerly by the Indians usually had thirty-one dancers in the line, fifteen on each side of the leader, who was in center. When the dance is done with less in line, the end men turn their bodies this-way and that-way as they walk to use up time going over the shorter distance, but they do not digress from the diagram given below. m

Each end man advances in a straight line toward the other until they pass one another; they then begin to make a circle each to their right in front of the opposite end of the line from which they started. This diagram is what one end man does, the other does the same from the other side simultaneously.

By the end of sixteen measures they should both have completed their first circle. On the last sixteen they return passing each other and make a second circle to the right, in front of their own end of the line danceers. At the finish the end men do not crouch at their original position but each goes around back of the line and pushes into the third from the end on measures 31 and 32.

Exit music.

Measure 1:.......The leader with knees very much bent takes 4 little gallop steps toward the fire. His deer-stick held perpendicularly. The end men call "hic-hic" through this and the succeeding three measures.

Measure 2:.......He taps his right foot four times, a little in front of left.

Measure 3:.......Still tapping his right foot he lowers his deer-stick to front horizontal.

Measure 4:.......He walks backward to place. Through these four measures the line stand motionless at place.

Intro. Music:

Measure 1:.......He gives the quavering signal "who-o-o-." All drop the butts of their sticks to the floor as in the original formation.

Measure 2:.......At the second signal Who-o-o, all face to the left and file off lifting their sticks a few inches from the floor but still keeping them in a perpendicular position in front of them.

.