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Performing Archive

"Dance"

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"As they dance, the performers never leave the spot on which they stand, the movement consisting in a slight upward spring from the toes and ball of the foot; legs and body are rigid. Always the right palm is extended to the yellow glaring sun, and their eyes are fixed on its lower rim. The dancer concentrates his mind, his very self, upon the one thing that he desires, whether it be the acquirement of powerful medicine or only success in the next conflict with the enemy." - Volume III, pages 95-96.
At least two of the Piegan Warrior societies (the Braves and the All Brave Dogs) included in their membership two men known as Grizzly-bear Braves. It was their duty, at the time of the society dances, to provide their comrades with meat, which they appropriated wherever they could find it. Their expression and demeanor did justice to their name, and in their official capacity they were generally feared by the people. See Volume VI, pages 20-21.
Through the medium of their annual incursions into the buffalo plains east of the Rocky mountains, the Flatheads adopted much of the plains culture. Not only their domicile (the tipi), their garments, weapons, and articles of adornment, came from this source, but many of their dances were in imitation of similar ceremonies practised by the prairie tribes. Prominent features of the accoutrement of this Flathead chief are his war-club of the plains type, and an eagle-bone whistle, such as was used in the Sun Dance. The Flatheads however never acquired the sun rite
The figure at the bottom of the column in the foreground, with the painting on the front of the house, represents a raven. When a feast or a dance is to be held in this house, the guests enter through the raven's beak, the lower mandible of which swings up and down on a pivot. When a guest steps beyond the pivot, his weight caused the beak to clap shut, and thus the mythic raven symbolically "swallows" the tribesman one by one. A view from the other end of this street is shown in the illustration facing page 8, Volume X.
The plate shows a group of masked and costumed performers in the winter ceremony. The chief who is holding the dance stands at the left, grasping a speaker's staff and wearing cedar-bark neck-ring and head-band and a few of the spectators are visible at the right. At the extreme left is seen a part of the painted mawihl through which the dancers emerge from the secret room; and in the centre, between the carved house-posts, is the Awaitlala hams'pek, showing three of the five mouths through which the hamatsa wriggle from the top to the bottom of the column. See page 175 and footnote.
The Flute dance is a religious ceremony concerned with bringing rain. It represents the legendary arrival of the Flute people in the Hopi country, their friendly encounter with the clans already there, and the rain-making rites subsequently performed by them for the common good. The episode here represented was photographed at Middle mesa. The individual seated near the right end is an albino, not a white man.
The Jumping dance was an annual ceremony for averting pestilence. The head-dress worn by the dancers was a wide band of deerskin with rows of red woodpecker crests and a narrow edging of white deer-hair sewn on it. A deerskin robe was worn as a kilt, and each performer displayed all the shells and beads he possessed or could borrow. In the right hand was carried a straw-stuffed cylinder with a slit-like opening from end to end, an object the significance of which is unknown to the modern Hupa.
The Buffalo dance of the Keres is almost exactly the same as that of the Tewa. The performers are two young men with head-dresses of buffalo-hair and horns, and a girl wearing the usual female costume and a pair of small horns. The head of the hunters' society plays the part of guard. The dance is very strenuous, and the simulated actions of t he buffalo are quite realistic and readily comprehended by the spectator.
The ceremony called Koheye-hyare ("tablita dance"), occurring in June and again in September, is characterized by public dancing and singing for the purpose of bringing rain-clouds. The name refers to wooden "tablets" worn by female dancers. (See Volume XVII, illustrations facing pages 56,60,62,64,66,68.) In the plate the performers are dancing in to the plaza, men and women alternating in pairs. At the right is the group of singers, their aged leader slightly in advance and the drummer at one side.
The Buffalo dance is performed, though the original object of exerting prenatural influence on the abundance and accessibility of the buffalo no longer prevails. The two male dancers are accompanied by the Buffalo Girl, who is fully clothed in native costume and has a pair of small horns on the head. These three give a very striking and dramatic performance under the watchful eye of the head of the hunters' society.