by Dee Smith

Whenever you dance, wherever you dance, dance to heal the earth!

Dancing is power. Dancing is prayer. Some say that all is dance. Maybe. Now there’s a big dance coming, a dance to heal the earth. If you’re reading this, you’re probably part of it. You take part whenever you do whatever you do to help heal the earth. When you recycle. When you choose to show love, to fight for justice, to bring healing, to bring out what is good in others. When you avoid cruelty and dishonesty and waste. When you are outraged. When you speak out. When you give. When you consider the generations to come. When you protest to the oppressors and encourage those who feel the cutting edge of injustice. And, of course, when you dance. There is a tree that all the prophets see, and whenever you let your love show, you make the flowers grow.

Soon this dance will be done in a big way, in the old way, on sacred ground. All living things will take part. If you want to, you can take part. No one is twisting your arm. You can stop any time you need to, and start up again whenever you’re ready. If you’ve read this far, you probably know what I’m talking about. You’ve probably been doing it in one way or another for a good while. Soon will be the time to make no bones about it! Cut loose!

Anytime you dance, anywhere, whether at a party or in church, dance to heal the earth! Let your feet beat a healing rhythm into the earth. Let your feet beat a strengthening rhythm for those who struggle the hardest. Let your feet beat a life-giving rhythm for all peoples, regardless of race or national boundary, regardless of whether we’re human or whether we’re the trees, the air, the fish, the birds, the buffalo, the bear, the crow. We come out of hiding, we come back from the dead, and we dance, and our dance is a prayer, and our songs and our rhythms and our breath give life.

Is the music they’re playing some mindless jingle? Never mind, as long as it’s not bad music, and you can dance to the beat! Make your own words, and make the words a prayer. A prayer for the end of exploitation, a prayer for the end of lies, a prayer for healing, for justice, for life. Remember your prayer-song, feed it and let it get strong and pass it along. Dance and pray, whenever you dance, dance to heal the earth.

Have you seen anything? Wear it out! Make it so that all can see what you see! Take a white T-shirt and mark it with your dreams. Is there anything you’d like to tell the world? Take your shirt and mark it with your song! This is the way it has been done, so you can do it too. Use any color except black (there are reasons for that that will become clearer later), and you’ll probably find that a loose, pure cotton T is most comfortable for dancing in. Cos this is an actual dance, you dance hard, you sing and breathe hard and sweat. Wear it when you plan to go out dancing, to dance to heal the earth.

Some people do this dance while fasting, and dance for several days straight. But even a few minutes of dancing helps, and joins with all the other dancing going on, everywhere on Earth. Not everyone can fast these days. Besides, you never know when you’re gonna dance, and you have to eat sometimes! But if you plan to dance, hold off eating till later, or just have a little. It’s easier to dance if you don’t have a hotdog weighing you down.

Some people say, do not do sacred things where people are drinking and partying. But all the universe is a sacred place. It really doesn’t matter what others are doing, you can make a place sacred wherever you are, with your intention and your prayers. Some people use smoke to make a place sacred; a cigarette or incense stick will do fine. You can dance to heal the earth anywhere, even a party or a bar! The earth is everywhere, so you can dance anywhere to heal her. Only one thing. Please hold off drinking or using any other intoxicants till you’re done. It works better that way.

The Lie has gone far enough. It spreads and makes everyone sick. Now is the time for this dance to begin. It, too, will spread, and it will bring healing to all. In the beginning, they say, God put a rainbow in the sky, to let us know that Spirit never forgets. Now is the time for us to put a rainbow across the earth, to let God know that we, too, remember.

Dance to heal the earth. Not just when you’re dancing, but always. Live the dance, whenever you move, in all you do, dance to heal the earth.

http://www.indigenouspeople.net/dance.htm

Once a year the People of Kamak left their village and went up Palomar Mountain to gather acorns. Everyone went, young and old, and even the ill were carried along on litters so that the village could stay together at this important time. The houses were left empty; no one was afraid of thieves in those days.

While the village was deserted, a man from another nearby village called Ahoya came to Kamak. He found everyone gone. He knew where they had gone, and why, so he knew he could not see his friends on this trip. He decided to spend the night and go on his way the next morning. He did not go into anyone’s house, but rather he took a large basket normally used to store grain and turned it over. He crawled under the basket, where the wind could not bother him. He fell asleep.

In the early evening, but long after dark, he was awakened by someone calling People out to dance. At first he thought the People of Kamak had come back from acorn-gathering. Then, being an old man, he began to recognize the voices of People he had known many years ago, but who were now long dead. He began to realize that the voices were spirits of the Dead! While the People of Kamak were away, the Dead had returned to dance.

The old man lay quietly under the basket, listening to the voices of all the People, all the way back to the ancient days. He heard the Woman-who-was-turned- into-rock as she sang. He heard the Man-who- scooped-rock-with-his-hand as he sang. All the People of the ancient days were here in the village again.

The old man could not stand to wait any longer. After he had listened for hours, he wanted to look at the People he had known as a young man and the faces of the People he had only heard about in the old stories. He threw the basket off and looked where the Dead had been dancing.

There was only a flock of birds, and they flew away, startled by the basket overturning. The turtle shell rattle the Dead had played all night as they danced lay on the ground. It was now just a piece of soaproot.

The old man was not allowed to see the Dance of the Dead.

A story of the Luiseno People of southern California
[University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology, Vol. 4, 1904 and Vol. 8, 1908.]

by Barbara Warren

(a contemporary story based on a true incident)

Nadia was four years old…and she loved Indians. Everything about Indians excited her. One day Nadia’s grandmother came for a visit. Grandmother recalled those old stories the family told of Cherokee blood. So Grandmother decided to take Nadia, along with Nadia’s mother and baby brother, to her first pow wow.

Little Nadia stood at the edge of the Circle. She watched with awe as the dancers passed by her dressed in their beautiful clothing. She listened intently to the drum, her knees dipping with the beat and Nadia knew she wanted to dance. But there were so many kinds of dances going on. She watched the men; then the women. She lifted one foot, then the other, puzzled about just what she should do with her feet.

Nadia felt a tap on her shoulder. Looking up she saw a smiling woman dressed in beautiful clothing holding out her hand toward Nadia. Nadia hesitated and glanced at her grandmother for approval. Grandmother’s eyes smiled, “Yes.”

So Nadia accepted the hand of the stranger and together they danced and danced around the Circle. After a while, Nadia began to dance on her own. As Grandmother watched, Nadia started to twirl and whirl holding her arms up high in the air in imitation of the lovely fancy shawl dancers.

Grandmother beckoned to Nadia. She gave her a small blue blanket belonging to Nadia’s baby brother. Nadia placed the blanket around her shoulders and began to dance with it in the Circle, the blue blanket twirling and whirling about her like the wings of a butterfly.

She felt another tap on her shoulder, and there stood a different woman, and in her out-stretched hand she held a child-sized fringed shawl. Nadia glanced at Grandmother for approval. Grandmother’s eyes smiled, “Yes.”

So Nadia accepted the gift from the stranger. She placed the fringed shawl about her shoulders and then began to dance, the fringed shawl twirling and whirling about her like the wings of a butterfly.

Nadia danced in honor of all those ancestors who had come before and with the pure joy of being a little girl at her very first pow wow.

IT was night upon the prairie. Overhead the stars were twinkling bright their red and yellow lights. The moon was young. A silvery thread among the stars, it soon drifted low beneath the horizon.

Upon the ground the land was pitchy black. There are night people on the plain who love the dark. Amid the black level land they meet to frolic under the stars. Then when their sharp ears hear any strange footfalls nigh they scamper away into the deep shadows of night. There they are safely hid from all dangers, they think.

Thus it was that one very black night, afar off from the edge of the level land, out of the wooded river bottom glided forth two balls of fire. They came farther and farther into the level land. They grew larger and brighter. The dark hid the body of the creature with those fiery eyes. They came on and on, just over the tops of the prairie grass. It might have been a wildcat prowling low on soft, stealthy feet. Slowly but surely the terrible eyes drew nearer and nearer to the heart of the level land.

There in a huge old buffalo skull was a gay feast and dance! Tiny little field mice were singing and dancing in a circle to the boom-boom of a wee, wee drum. They were laughing and talking among themselves while their chosen singers sang loud a merry tune.

They built a small open fire within the center of their queer dance house. The light streamed out of the buffalo skull through all the curious sockets and holes.

A light on the plain in the middle of the night was an unusual thing. But so merry were the mice they did not hear the “king, king” of sleepy birds, disturbed by the unaccustomed fire.

A pack of wolves, fearing to come nigh this night fire, stood together a little distance away, and, turning their pointed noses to the stars, howled and yelped most dismally. Even the cry of the wolves was unheeded by the mice within the lighted buffalo skull.

They were feasting and dancing; they were singing and laughing — those funny little furry fellows.

All the while across the dark from out the low river bottom came that pair of fiery eyes.

Now closer and more swift, now fiercer and glaring, the eyes moved toward the buffalo skull. All unconscious of those fearful eyes, the happy mice nibbled dried roots and venison. The singers had started another song. The drummers beat the time, turning their heads from side to side in rhythm. In a ring around the fire hopped the mice, each bouncing hard on his two hind feet. Some carried their tails over their arms, while others trailed them proudly along.

Ah, very near are those round yellow eyes! Very low to the ground they seem to creep — creep toward the buffalo skull. All of a sudden they slide into the eye- sockets of the old skull.

“Spirit of the buffalo!” squeaked a frightened mouse as he jumped out from a hole in the back part of the skull.

“A cat! a cat!” cried other mice as they scrambled out of holes both large and snug. Noiseless they ran away into the dark.

Old Indian Legends by Zitkala-Sa [1901] and is now in the public domain.

Dakota (‘allies’). The largest division of the Siouan family, known commonly as Sioux, according to Hewitt a French Canadian abbreviation of the Chippewa Nadowe-is-iw, a diminutive of nadowe, ‘an adder,’ hence ‘an enemy.’ Nadoweisiw-eg is the diminutive plural. The diminutive singular and plural were applied by the Chippewa to the Dakota, and to the Huron to distinguish them from the Iroquois proper, the true ‘adders’ or ‘enemies.’ According to Chippewa tradition the name was first applied to a body of Indians living on an island somewhere east of Detroit (W. Jones).

Dakota, Nakota, Lakota are the names used by themselves, in the Santee, Yankton, and Teton dialects respectively. J. O. Dorsey, in his classification of the Siouan languages, divides the Dakota group into 4 dialects: Santee, Yankton Assiniboin, and Teton. The Assiniboin, however, constitute a separate tribe. The close linguistic relation of the divisions the differences being largely dialectic indicates that they are branches of an original group, the development probably being augmented by incorporations. At the time of Long’s expedition (1825), when the bands were still near their respective localities, the country inhabited by the group was, according to him, bounded by a curved line extending east of north from Prairie du Chien on the Mississippi, so as to include all the east tributaries of the Mississippi, to the first branch of Chippewa river; thence by a line running west of north to Spirit lake; thence west wardly to Crow Wing river, Minn., and up that stream to its head; thence west wardly to Red river, and down that stream to Pembina; thence south west wardly to the east bank of the Missouri near the Mandan villages; thence down the Missouri to a point probably not far from Soldiers river; thence east of north to Prairie du Chien, Wis. This tract includes the territory between lat. 42° to 49°, and long. 90° 30′ to 99° 30′, but omits entirely the vast region occupied by the various bands of the Teton Sioux west of the Missouri from the Yellowstone southward to the Platte.

The first positive historical mention of this people is found in the Jesuit Relation for 1640, where it is said that in the vicinity of the “Nation des Puans” (Winnebago) are the “Nadvesiv” (Nadowessioux), “Assinipour” (Assiniboin), etc. In the Jesuit Relation for 1642 it is stated that the Nadouessis are situated some 18 days’ journey northwest or west of Sault Ste Marie, “18 days farther away.” According to their tradition, the Chippewa first encountered the Dakota at Sault Ste Marie. Dr Thomas S. Williamson, who spent several years among the Dakota of the Mississippi, says (Schoolcraft, Ind. Tribes, 1, 247, 1851) that they claimed to have resided near the confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers. for several generations; that before they came to the Mississippi they lived at Mille lac, which they call Isantamde, ‘knife lake,’ from which is probably derived the name Isanyati, ‘dwelling at the knife, by which the Dakota of the Missouri call those who lived on Mississippi and Minnesota rivers. Rev. A. L. Riggs asserts that Isanyati, from which Santee is derived, was properly applied only to the Mdewakanton, which would seem to identify this tribe with Hennepin’s Issati. He also remarks that most of these Indians with whom he conversed could trace their history no further back than to Mille lac, but that some could tell of wars they had with the Chippewa before they went thither and trace their history back to Lake of the Woods. He adds that all their traditions show that they came from the northeast and have been moving toward the southwest, which would imply that they came from some point north of the lakes. DuLuth (1678) and Hennepin (1680) found some of the Dakota at and in the region of Mille lac, named by the latter in his text Lake Issati, and in his autograph map Lake Buade.

These included the Mdewakanton, part of the Sisseton, part if not all of the Wahpeton, and probably the Wahpekute. Hennepin’s map places the Issati (Mdewakanton) close to Lake Buade, the Ofia de Battons (Wahpeton) a little to the northeast of the lake, the Hanctons (Yankton or Yanktonai) some distance to the north, and the Tinthonha or Gens des Prairies (Teton) to the west, on the upper Mississippi. If this may be considered even approximately correct, it indicates that parts at least of some of the western tribes still lingered in the region of the upper Mississippi, and indeed it is well known that very few of the Sioux crossed the Missouri before 1750. Mallery’s winter count (10th Rep. B. A. E., 266, 1894) places their entrance into the Black Hills, from which they dispossessed the Cheyenne and the Kiowa, at about 1765. Referring to their location in the latter part of the 17th century, Hennepin (Descr. La., Shea trans., 201, 1880) says: ” Eight leagues above St. Anthony of Padua’s falls on the right, you find the river of the Issati or Nadoussion [Rum river], with a very narrow mouth, which you can ascend to the north for about 70 leagues to Lake Buade [Mille lac] or of the Issati where it rises. In the neighborhood of Lake Buade are many other lakes, whence issue several rivers, on the banks of which live the Issati, Nadouessans, Tinthonha (which means ‘prairiemen’), Ouadebathon River People, Chongaskethon Dog, or Wolf tribe (for chonga among these nations means dog or wolf), and other tribes, all which we comprise under the name Nadonessiou.” Here the Issati are distinguished from the Tinthonha (Teton), Ouadebathon (Wahpeton), Chongaskethon (Sisseton), and Nadouessans (perhaps the Wahpekute). From the time of Le Sueur’s visit (1700) the Dakota became an important factor in the history of the northwest. Their gradual movement westward was due chiefly to tile persistent attacks of the Chippewa, who received firearms from the French, while they themselves were forced to rely almost wholly on bows and arrows.

Lieut. Gorrell, an English officer, mentions their condition in this respect as late as 1763 (Wis. Hist. Soc. Coll., 1, 36,1855): ” This day, 12 warriors of the Sous came here [Green Bay, Wis.]. It is certainly the greatest nation of Indians ever yet found. Not above 2,000 of them were ever armed with fire-arms, the rest depending entirely on bows and arrows and darts, which they use with more skill than any other Indian nation in North America. They can shoot the wildest and largest beasts in the woods at 70 or 100 yards distance. They are remarkable for their dancing; the other nations take the fashion from them.” He mentions that they were always at war with the Chippewa. On the fall of the French dominion the Dakota at once entered into friendly relations with the English. It is probable that the erection of trading posts on Lake Pepin enticed them from their old residence on Rum river and Mille lac, for it was in this section that Carver (1766) found those of the eastern group. He says (Travels, 37, 1796): “Near the river St. Croix reside three bands of the Naudowessie Indians, called the River bands. This nation is composed, at present, of 11 bands. They were originally 12, but the Assinipoils [Assiniboin] some years ago, revolting, and separating themselves from the others, there remain only at this, time 11. Those I met here are termed the River bands, because they chiefly dwell near the banks of this river: the other 8 are generally distinguished by the title, Naudowessies of the Plains, and inhabit a country that lies more to the westward. The names of the former are Nehogatawonahs, the Mawtawbauntowahs, and Shahsweentowahs.” During an investigation by Congress in 1824 of the claim by Carver’s heirs to a supposed grant of land, including the site of St Paul, made to Carver by the Sioux, Gen. Leavenworth stated that the Dakota informed him that the Sioux of the Plains never owned any land east of the Mississippi.

During the Revolution and the War of 1812 the Dakota adhered to the English. There was, however, one chief who sided with the United States in 1812; this was Tohami, known to the English as Rising Moose, a chief of the Mdewakanton who joined the Americans at St Louis, where he was commissioned by Gen. Clark. By the treaty of July, 1815, peace between the Dakota and the United States was established, and by that of Aug., 1825, the boundary lines between them and the United States and between them and the various tribes in the northwest were defined. The boundaries of the Sioux and other northwestern tribes were again defined by the treaty of Sept. 17, 1851. Their most serious outbreak against the whites occurred in Minnesota under Little Crow in 1862, when about 700 white settlers and 100 soldiers lost their lives and some of the most horrible cruelties known to history were committed by the Indiana; but the entire Dakota group never participated unitedly in any of the modern wars or outbreaks. The hands engaged in the uprising mentioned were the Mdewakanton, Wahpekute, Wahpeton, and Sisseton. Although this revolt was quelled and the Sioux were compelled for a time to submit tot he terms offered them, a spirit of unrest continued to prevail. By the treaty of 1867 they agreed to relinquish to the United States all their territory south of Niobrara river, west of long. 104°, and north of lat. 46°, and promised to retire to a large reservation in southwest Dakota before Jan. 1, 1876. On the discovery of gold in the Black Hills the rush of miners thither became the occasion of another outbreak. This war was participated in by such well known chiefs as Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, Spotted Tail, Rain-in-the-face, Red Cloud, American Horse, Gall, and Crow King, and was rendered famous by the cutting off of Maj. Gen. George A. Custer and five companies of cavalry on the Little Bighorn, June 25, 1876. A final rising during the Ghost dance excitement of 1890-91 was subdued by Gen N. A. Miles.

The Dakota are universally conceded to be of the highest type, physically, mentally, and probably morally, of any of the western tribes. Their bravery has never been questioned by white or Indian, and they conquered or drove out every rival except the Chippewa. They are educated in their own language, and through the agency of missionaries of the type of Riggs, Williamson, Cleveland, and Cook, many books in the Dakota language have been printed, and papers in Dakota are issued regularly. (See Pilling, Bibliog. Siouan Lang., Bull. B. A. E., 1887.)

Socially, the Dakota originally consisted of a large number of local groups or bands, and, although there was a certain tendency to encourage marriage outside the band, these divisions were not true gentes, remembered blood relationship, according to Clark, being the only bar to marriage. Personal fitness and popularity determined cieftainship more than heredity, but were decent played any part it was usually from father to son. The tipi might belong to either parent and was obtained by that parent through some ancestor who had had its character revealed in a dream or who had captured it in war. The authority of the chief was limited by the band council, without whose approbation little or nothing could be accomplished. War parties were recruited by individuals who had acquired reputation as successful leaders, while the shamans formulated ceremonial dances and farewells for them. Polygamy Was common, the wives occupying different sides of the tipi. Remains of the dead were usually, though not invariably, placed on scaffolds.

In 1904 the Dakota were distributed among the following agencies and school superintendencies:

Cheyenne River ( Miniconjou, Sans Arcs, and Two Kettle), 2,477;
Crow Creek (Lower Yanktonai), 1,025;
Ft Totten school (Sisseton, Wahpeton, and Pabaksa), 1,013;
Riggs Institute (Santee), 279; Ft Peck (Yankton), 1,116;
Lower Brutes (Lower Brgle), 470;
Pine Ridge (Oglala), 6,690;
Rosebud (Brulé, Waglukhe, Lower Brulé, Northern, Two Kettle, and Wazhazha), 4,977;
Santee (Santee), 1,075;
Sisseton (Sisseton and Wahpeton), 1,908;
Standing Rock (Sihasapa, Hunkpapa, and Yanktonai), 3,514;
Yankton (Yankton), 1,702;
under no agency
(Mdewakanton in Minnesota), 929; total, 26,175.

Including the Assiniboin the total for those speaking the Dakota languages 28,780. A comparison of these figures with those taken in previous years indicates a gradual decline in numbers, but not so rapid a decrease as among most North American tribes.

Handbook of American Indians, 1906