Native Pride Dancers - Millennium Stage (January 9, 2018)

good evening ladies and gentlemen please welcome to the stage the native pride dancers in get she'd nameko [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] you [Music] you [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] crazy horse we are what you say one one does not sell the earth two people walk upon we are the way how do we sell our mother how do we sell the star how do we sell the crazy noise we hear what you say [Music] too many people standing their ground standing the wrong route predators face he possessed a race possession a war that doesn't end children of God feed on children of Earth days people don't care for people [Music] these days are the hardest material feels material harvest decoration Unchained at vines mirrors goal the people lose their minds [Music] crazy we hear what you say one of one mother [Music] one does not sell the earth the people walk we are delaying [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] buzu puppy was chic when in Disney Cars mrs. saga eginning then Doon Chiba McKinsey nanu damn what I've said is my name is woman walking through the pine trees I'm from the Mille Lacs band of Ojibwe and I'm from the Eagle clan that is my ojibwemowin introduction my American introduction my name is crystal moose and I'm the manager of native pride dancers native pride productions we travel all over the world sharing a glimpse of who we are as Native American people and we invite you to feel the beat move along tap your feet get into that rhythm you heard the drums right real powerful ok later on we're gonna invite you to dance with us so really pay close attention and we're gonna we're gonna teach you Larry later on is going to teach you some dance moves our dancers they're just amazing we have Josh Adam he's from the sweetgrass Saskatchewan and Mardela Costanzo is from the Lumbee tribe in North Carolina and Larry Ozzy is from the Meskwaki nation in central Iowa and like I said I'm from the Mille Lacs band of Ojibwe in Minnesota and it is an honor for us to be here to share our culture with you and so we just want you to learn as much as you can and then take something away from this share your experience with others because then you help us to bridge the cultures together and that is our mission we bridge cultures through our Native American music and dance and the stories that we have so I want to introduce to you again mr. Larry Ozzie as you can see his outfit that's like the slang term in a way the common name but what we call this is regalia it's regal it's what he wears when he dresses this you never ever ever call this a costume so what day do you wear a costume yes on Halloween and what are you what is your whole goal your costume if it's an awesome costume you know you could be spongebob spider-man Wonder Woman but in reality you're changing your identity and that is why we never ever ever call us a costume this is regalia and when he wears this regalia he's dancing for the Creator each step is a prayer so he's going to be doing this on the Eagle dance and this is a prayer dance and we honor our elders we honor our veterans do we have any veterans in the house today can you please stand I just want to applaud you thank you thank you for your service and we dedicate this dance to you Chi miigwetch good evening ladies gentlemen my name is Larry Ossie my in the name is Monica Monica Nitesh yes hello friends and relatives boys and girls how are we doing this evening all right I come to you from the Meskwaki nation of central Iowa I'm very honored and very pleased to be here with you beautiful people tonight like Krista asks you know we recognize our veterans you don't that they say that the eagle flies the highest of all birds carries our prayers cares are our dreams our message to the creator and you whenever you we see our ego in flight we pray and today I'm very honored to bring you this beautiful eagle dance and this is something that I want to share with you as I dance for you ladies and gentlemen boys and girls I want you to pray pray with me pray for me and this is a beautiful dance and I have with me the beautiful eagle wings as I further over my shoulders and you see the beautiful eagle feathers on top of my head and as I dance this beautiful eagle dance I want you to also think about your people your friends your relatives your family and think about them and pray for them as well so what that ladies gentlemen are you ready for the eagle dance oh ho I think I'm gonna come down here I'm gonna just dance for you anyways because if I touch you with my eagle wings this is a blessing to you each and every one of you so ladies and gentlemen that beautiful Eagle dance ah whoo [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] one more time here for mr. Larry Ozzie my colonised name is Josh action um my real name is Miss so total gwaan which means two wings and their name was given to me by one of my grandfather's his name was the late Joseph Peron and when he went to this ceremony was a small child we're all born with a name but the Creator is the one who gives it to you through ceremony so when he gifted me the name to wings he told me you're gonna be able to travel see new things teach people but being a small child I didn't understand any of that all understood was my name was to wings to honor all the things that fly in the sky the most important you that eagle when I got a bit older and started realizing that that name meant something much more personal to me because being Who I am a proud Native American man has allowed me to travel all over the world teaching people about Native American culture sharing with them the beauty of who we are as the first people of this land and I always feel very humbled when I'm welcomed into new cities I was in Washington DC almost a year ago for the American Indian societies inaugural ball me and my fiance were head dancers over there and we come back now almost 360 days later I'm back here in DC and come back and it's beautiful everyone treat you or so much respect and that's what I've always loved when you can interact with people and share who we are this next story how my share with you it originates from a place called Mille Lacs Minnesota and it's called a Jing Just Dance if you've ever been to a power you saw this beautiful jingle ders dance and it comes from the Anishinabe people the Ojibwe people my fiancee she's not hearing oh she was at home with the flu so she's back in Wisconsin right now but I have to give her a shuttle because I know she's watching right now but her her mom's father is from ILECs which is the home of the jingle just like I said her father is from Ponemah which is home of the Ojibwe language and her grandfather published the first Ojibwe language dictionary for everyone to use to learn their language her father helped with an archeological dig and they discovered a jingle dress cone that dated back pre 1700s so you can tell how long this dress has been around and the story goes there was a little girl who was very ill who couldn't walk no more she laid in bed in pain and her grandfather tried everything to help heal her but nothing worked one night he offered as a same that's tobacco in Ojibwe language to the Creator like Larry mentioned early they call him kitschy Amana do and that night he had this dream of this beautiful jingle dress and when this dress moved his comb sauna like rain because we all know rain brings cleansing rain cleanses mother earth in such a beautiful way rain is water and water is life water is the most important element in this world we cannot live without that's why it's always important for us to protect our sacred to protect our Mother Earth because she doesn't have a voice and that's why we do these dances and we continue our traditions so we can respect all living things the next day he asked the ladies of his tribe if that helped him create these jingle dresses and they kindly said yes he showed the man these songs in which were being sung we call him sidesteps and they started singing this little girl was still unable to move but towards the middle of song that little girl was up and she was moving her own a bit more freely and towards the very end of this song everyone had to look because that little girl was up dancing all on her own so when everyone was looking in amazement they threw one more starts on a song we caught the tail and the tail and a song is when everyone is dancing their hardest and everyone is dancing as hard as they could but they looked again in the middle and saw that little girl dancing harder than anyone they say she was healed to the parvis jingle dress and still to this day we use this dress for that very reason to bring healing to bring cleansing for anyone who needs it and the Ojibwe people are the owners of this dress but being Native American we share our customs with other tribes so the style we bring out is the jingle dress dance and it's going to be done from a lady from the Lumbee tribe in North Carolina like I said we share our dances and we share our stories and our songs so that put your hands here together one time for dello demonstrating the beautiful woman's jingle dress dance [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] you guys enjoying yourself so far during my travels I always danced to many different songs and I've always loved to dance style as much song as I can dancing and challenging myself to learn these songs and to know not only the songs but to know the history and the meaning behind what we do a lot of people just go out there and dance and they don't actually take that initiative to learn what these songs represent or who their people actually were and this like everyone else in here all of you will have your own songs your own dances if you went back far enough in your family's lineage and that's what we did we traced our family steps back and my family was from sweetgrass first nation in Saskatchewan Canada which is only a short 27 hour drive from here or a quick four and a half hour flight or four weeks on horseback so believe me I had to leave four weeks ago lucky thing I missed that storm my horse is down by the water down there by quenching his thirst oh well I travel I always found comfort in all these different songs until I found a meaning behind this one song and I knew it all along because when I went to school I wasn't proud to be a Native American person because of racism there and constant bullying say drove me to the point where I actually cut off my long hair and I tried to assimilate myself into Caucasian culture and every time I went to school my father had this picture of Sitting Bull up by our door you know every time I walked out the door I saw the Sitting Bull and I saw how proud he looked and I just gave me the courage to be a proud Native American man so I started to honor Sitting Bull whose real name was tatanka yoshi Tonka in dance a song called a sneak up and the sneak-up song came about after the Battle of the Little Bighorn to represent the three charges they took forward before they actually defeated Custer and I always wanted to honor this man who's helped me so much even though he's not here he's still considered by me the greatest Native American person of all time that's why I wanted to honor him and show you guys a song we call the sneak up and you guys use your own imagination as to what's taking place picture the battle happening in this hope you guys enjoy it with that being said Lee and jamming the sneak up on the evening of June 24th Sitting Bull made his way to a Ridge that overlooked the encampment there he made offerings to the Great Spirit and prayed for the protection of his people what can Tonka pity me in the name of the people I offer you this Sacred Pipe wherever the sun the moon the earth the four points of the wind there you are always saved the people I beg you we want to live guard us against all misfortune pity me Duncan here trunk [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] ladies and gentle feel like what you see let's give a round of applause mr. Josh action Canada [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] in the end all of the men in Custer's command 210 of them lay dead it was the greatest Indian victory of the plains Wars what do you say ladies mr. Josh anon once again from sweetgrass Saskatchewan Canada and proud Cree Nation I understand we are live on Facebook live at that right so people from around the world are tuning in we just want to say thank you for following us I want to say thank you to the Bentley NEMA stage and also thank you to the Kennedy Center to skip the Kennedy Center staff a round of applause for bringing a scene uh-huh once again ladies and gentlemen we're very very honored to be here in Washington DC as Joss stated earlier you know to ride by horseback it takes days to be here I am from the Meskwaki nation I'm the proud Meskwaki nation of Tama Iowa and I'm very proud to say this is my second time returning here at the Kennedy Center and to represent my people on my family I want to say thank you to each and every one of you for the opportunity for me to show my to showcase my talent my art through music and dance and later on after our program here later on we're gonna ask some of you to come up and dance with us on stage to to show us your talent as well I know some of you are dancers some of you are shakers and movers right especially you white people no just kidding every year during our annual powwow we invite you to come check out our powwow second weekend in August we have our annual celebration it's been going on for over a hundred years and to come to our powwow we talked to a community we invite you and we welcome you this dance I want to demonstrate next is also known as the fancy dance the war dance this dance originated from the great state of Oklahoma all muster the Ponca nation the first champion world champion fancy dancer was also danced in the Haskell Institute of Kansas anybody ever hear of Kansas of heard heard of Nebraska and all the Ponca nation that's where the Ponca nation comes from of Nebraska and Kansas and Oklahoma so this dance originated from this era in this area and I'm gonna dance what they call upbeat tempo also known as the fancy dance it's gonna be a little bit fast so this is known as the fastest pair of moccasins so it is my job to keep in time to the rhythm of the drum beat the drum beat is gonna be a little bit fast so help me out I'm gonna count on you to encourage me to keep up with this fast-paced of fancy dance so are you ready for some fancy dance later make some noise make some noise yeah here we go good pitch to dance Oh God what you got there sound man what you got [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] all I can say is I hope to be doing that when I'm 50 to night Larry is actually a world champion fancy dancer he never likes to tell people that but I'm proud to say that he is so now it comes to that portion where you watched us dance now we're gonna ask you guys to dance with us raise your hands if you want to dance with us got a few look that's good and if one of our dancers comes out there and selects you to dance and you say no it's gonna cost you 10 bucks in our hat so all the ones who say you know Larry I think we're gonna make a couple thousand bucks here all the ones are saying no no keep your hands raised and della and Larry will grab you just make sure you're walking up the stairs nicely yeah come on come up here if you wanna dance with us come up here come on okay this is this is the most amazing time I tell you you can go and you can brag and you can say I danced with some real natives all right so this gives you bragging rights and it also gives you an idea of how to dance and a powwow and we do invite you to come to a powwow if it is being advertised publicly then it is open to the public so that means you so we just want you to understand and experience Native American culture and you it's a good workout too so if you miss your workout today now is the time and so everybody if you put your hands out like this if you can if you're touching someone you're too close so step forward step back fill a stage and don't be shy everybody we have the space right here if you're too shy to go on stage go down here okay alright so you mean to take over but just wanted to make sure everybody comes please hang on all right we have a workout video coming out soon ladies gentleman called native aerobics think about it to Pow Wow music right some of you probably go to Jazzercise what's that what do they call that out there in the video now called Tae Bo you know why not to Pow Wow music you notice they always dance or they always try to step way back there right come forward they're dancers come forward yes you are in the spotlight so follow along I'm gonna do a one two one two left right right left okay one two one two right left one two one two one two one two one two very simple one to keep in time to the rhythm of the jump one two one two now we're gonna hop to it one two one two hop to it hop to it one two one two one two one two work with me work with me one two one two let's do the crisscross criss cross apple sauce crisscross applesauce there we go criss-cross criss-cross apple sauce all right Josh let's do the heel toe heel toe you're still hopping on one side and doing the heel toe heel toe there you go young lady heel toe heel toe let's do the shuffle shuffle shuffle every day we're shuffling shuffle shuffle shuffle now let's do the arms out arms up swim swim swim stretch those arms stretch those arms there you go dancers dirty go backstroke backstroke backstroke backstroke so far so good into the Cabbage Patch and three two one dab all right so we put on some music there are this all right oh man give me a song that they can't dance to let's give them a good good song here we go okay all right let's see what you got let's see what you got move to the beat [Music] yes yes yes yes oh sorry that's my Saturday night tracks all right let's get my good song [Music] okay start dancing start dancing [Music] move your feet move your feet to the beat to the beat to the beat we are live at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts what's Josh at you know and Medela hook keep it down to the rhythm of that jump spin around spin around get beat to the beat to the beat then the other way is spin the other way what do you say art is what do you say get the runt of a bra [Music] [Applause] drumbeat keep moving keep moving [Music] [Applause] are they looking Josh are they looking [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] this one crystal are you a hey crystal [Music] [Applause] the other way the other way [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] three-two-one dab give a Rundle applause they still get frontal applause thank you so much dancer thank you you may take your seats unless you guys want to dance another song a very fat all right okay don't go nowhere and come over here dancers come over here we're gonna do another dance over here come over here come line up over here come line up over here come line up over here you guys enjoyed the show so far ladies and gentlemen make some noise make some noise come line up over here what we're gonna do next is called the round dance we're gonna connect the hands by connecting the hands we also connect the communities right and I want Krystle to come down here and say a few words about this dance because it's about bridging the cultures as we bridge the cultures we bridge the communities together and then especially in this time in our era and the time we need to bring the people together is that right ladies and gentlemen make some noise for you agrees okay right here and you're gonna hold hands you're gonna grab his hand and then everyone's just gonna follow along anybody who's sitting grab get into the line as it goes past you we're gonna go all the way around this is a social dance it's called a round dance and you know that in this day and age we have a lot of division but this dance brings us together it doesn't matter who you are what age you are and in its it's healing and it brings joy to your heart and you know this is why we do what we do you can start the music so [Music] [Applause] [Music] anybody who is dancing earlier or anybody who missed out come on again [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] so those of you still sitting type along that beat [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] you can't help but smile in this dance look at all the faces everybody even in the audience you know this feels good [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] yeah thank you thank you so much so this is what we do we do everything we can to teach you a little bit about our culture a little bit about our music our the styles of dance some of our personal stories and we just ask that you take this information that we shared with you and share it with others share with your family tell them what you've experienced today and you know it blesses us to be able to share to be able to travel and bring along our family our friends just to you know everywhere we go we take where we came from with us my grandma passed when I was three but I still remember her I remember how she made me feel and I'm a grandma I have some little grandbabies and everywhere I go I think of them and so this continuum you know it doesn't end and so this is how we feel and you know in making decisions we think seven generations and we want people to understand who we are and to share what you've learned you know we grew up here this is our land it's our indigenous land this is where we came from and we do everything we can to protect that land because this is where our ancestors are buried and if you go back and you research your own lineage your oan you know generation after generation after generation eventually you're gonna find your own indigenous land and in that land you have your own language you have your own stories you have your own dances and it's really important to get in touch with that part of you because then it helps you understand who we are as Native American people as indigenous people as an issue nabe Meskwaki creed Lumbee you know we're many different nations does anyone know how many tribal reservations are in the United States guess just throw it a number go ahead six higher much go ahead seventeen much higher five hundred yeah you are very close there's 567 federally recognized tribes in the United States every one of those tribes thank you thank you every one of those tribes our nation's within the United States we have our own laws we have our own tribal our judicial system we police and we have our own cultures we have our own histories with the United States and so when we share this our stories with you we just want you to to help you understand us better you know we're neighbors here we share this land now and the more we know about each other the more we can support each other and to take care of our families and to take care of our nation so big which thank you you guys want to do that finale yeah thank you thank you thank you thank you so we have after they're gonna do a finale for you and afterwards we do have some merchandise out back but we also want to go outside into the ramp area and if you would like to take pictures with us please please do that so finale some in finale please [Music] [Music] ladies and jump put your hands together for Josh H UNAM keep that song going dare stop man keep it going hook ahead hook a Hey [Applause] a proud member of the lumpy nation put your hands together for markdown ladies and gentlemen put your hands together for a crystal who's also all the way from Canada for jams together for just a rough rider' fan [Music] if you want to follow up we also have DVDs and CDs for sale ladies and gentlemen feel free to come on up and take a photo op with Josh and Krystal and our jingle dress dancer feel free come on up and take pictures huh whoo whoo Oh at the ramp we're gonna do the pictures so we're gonna clear out that way and some of our merchandise it's just key shirts we also have mr. Yazzie is an actor he's a Native American actor and we have some movies out back so you guys want to check out it's not a documentary it's an actual a couple movies one's a very full-length film that was filmed in Duluth Minnesota and Larry plays a lead detective murder mystery so it's pretty good but yeah meet us out back you guys thank you

Channel: The Kennedy Center

Views: 308,532

Rating: 4.8732328 out of 5

Keywords: kennedy center, kennedy, jfk, performing arts, Native Pride Dancers, Millennium Stage, Native American, 2018 meskwaki, 2018 pueblo dances, jan 9 2018, meskwaki

Id: jpR5H9zu_4k

Length: 59min 13sec (3553 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 09 2018