NDNAEU 2, 3, 6 & 7 "The Meaning of Dance Regalia" with Wayne Fox

now the things that I explained co-wrote is you know when we when we when I first started dancing I must have been probably about eight years maybe about seven or eight you know and and the gentleman was dr. Alan Chuck Ross that would do a lot of these presentations out and we I grew up in Denver and we would have these dance clubs and all these young boys would come in to this to this little area and we you know back then we were really bashful so we had to make sure the door was shut locked and everything before he would start dancing but I'm one of the main things that really stuck in my head was whatever you put on whatever you wear make sure you know where it's come from comes from and so that was one of the things I've always told my son you know sometimes he would want to carry a stick or sometimes he had I'd say well we'll make sure you know what that means and so so right now you know he kind of is you know he understand he understands that part you know and I'll say these two plumes here and if where do you go to pow wows you you see all kinds of maybe you see the the spinners you see maybe the rockers but the plumes or this the same as those but these are the grass none so these are what they call the feelers now but as the dancers dancing you know and as he goes if he goes left or if he goes to the right or whatever these plumes are always moving and what this represents is there's two warriors on a horse back telling each other stories on how they dodged maybe a club an arrow or how they snuck up on their prey so these this is what these two feathers represent and we call them the two warriors give me your harness or to come your head now and this is you know I always look at it this is probably one of the most important pieces that we talk about and we always you know ignore most questions you know is like why do you wear that big piece you know big medallion in here you know in front of you now what this is what this what this represents is at one time are we weren't allowed to do our dances in the early 1900s you know we had to if we did our dances maybe we had to go way down by the lake or maybe we have to go do somewhere but in the meantime these dancers they would disguise themselves by with these large medallions and with with these here sometimes their beads loose beads or there were like this and what they would do is it would cover up their face so just in case if they had to run or if they were you know they so they weren't recognized because if they were recognized they were maybe you know maybe cut rations or something you know that the punishment maybe was kind of severe back then and so that they're now his harness [Applause] his harness hold another holder his harness is now if you look in some of those old pictures you you see those you see those horses that have this to have the harness on them you know and then when they come prancing in maybe to give them away or maybe to show them off these are always on the horse in front of the horse and when the horse dances our kicks these kick-out you know and and so when the dancers dancing as well these kick-out and so a lot of our you know dances they say you know they have different style but I you know the story I was always told was you know that the horse is very sacred to us and and a lot of our dances kind of kind of represent the horse of maybe of picking up and then shuffling and how a dancing horse kind of dances and how he holds his head real high and comes in and starts to dance so this is what this represents now every dancer kind of has a little favorite piece that they stick on their outfit and most most of it you know is is is these is the baby moccasins and these are his young boys they young boys that uh that are Nate these are his moccasins and so it's kind of a maybe a good-luck a good-luck piece or just to remind him who he's dancing for you know in my um and I always tell my son you know just you know dance for that you don't dance for the health of it you know and indents for the ones that cannot that cannot dance you know you you we have a lot of grandpas and grandmas on our site basically you know that that really love to watch you know you know they're their nephews other grandsons are their you know their own kids to dance and so that's one thing I always try to teach not be is just go dance just dance you know and so so that's one thing I always you know like I said I always encourage him to do we have another boy Wayne he started to dance but he's he's more of a basketball player you know and I know he's he's a lot he's a runner and so but I'm that and you know not baby was able to you know to pick this up and and I think you know the best way to learn is being put on the spot

Channel: ND Elder Teachings

Views: 2,694

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Id: C3g3YRQySlc

Length: 5min 41sec (341 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 05 2018