In the reading entitled Indian Dance: A Celebration of Survival and Adaptation, Charlotte Heth discusses the multiple and distinctive ways in which individual Native American dances are organized and performed in the present day. Before talking about them, it is important to note that Heth mentions that there are certain factors present throughout the lives of the Native Americans that have led to this variety in the way individual groups of Native Americans approach their dances and that explain why it is so. She explains that one of the main reasons for this variety is due to certain historical events that made their ancestors loose some of their original ideas for their dances. This involves the fact that many Native American dances were prohibited from being practiced by individual human beings and specific organizations from specific races of people, including the whites and the Spanish. The reading reaffirms the fact that some of the main dances that were targeted for termination were the Sun Dance and the Ghost Dance. The latter of these two dances has been discussed as a major method of rebellion by Native Americans against white officials trying to claim their lands, and it came to be associated with the likes of Kicking Bear and Sitting Bull, as discussed in the reading Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. Another one of the main reasons why there is much diversity is due to the fact that a number of Native Americans now use old dance techniques as well as new dance concepts in their dance performances. A statement in the text that addresses this idea is, "While repeating ancient songs, dances, and ceremonies is necessary to maintain certain social, religious, and curing ceremonies, the creation and performance of new songs and dances is equally necessary to ensure sustained interest and continuity" (Heth, as part of the introduction to Native American Dance: Ceremonies and Social Traditions which covers pages 1-18 of the text). These statements remind me of how Native Americans, after enduring many years of restrictions on their rights to dance from the 1800s to the 1900s, had to come up with new ways of approaching music since a lot of original practices could not be recalled through memory. This also involves how Native Americans eventually created new instruments, dances, and such that reflected certain outside influences but still had some aspect of their own culture embedded in them. An example would be the Apache fiddle, as discussed in one of our earlier readings, which first arrived somewhere in the 1900s and became popular around the 1950s. It these specific reasons that have led to the vast differences in the ways Native Americans address their dances.
The reading mentions a number of ways in which Native American dances are usually distinct from each other and/or how they have changed from older generations to the younger generations of the Native American people. One part of Native American culture that showcases at least one of these ideas in groups of these people is the specific instruments that are used to play the music for a particular dance. The reading mentions that certain instruments have managed to still make an impact on the younger generations of Native Americans, such as, "the drums; the hand-held rattles; the strung rattles worn on the dancers' arms, legs, and torsos; the flutes; conch-shell trumpets; whistles; hollow logs; rasps; and striking sticks among them" (Heth 7). Along with this statement, it is said that new choices from the list of possible instruments to play focus on the replacement of rattles and bells made from original substances for those that are comprised mainly of metal. Some parts of this statement definitely hold true to what I have learned, because drums and metallic rattles/bells have been the main instruments used and heard in many of the compositions that we were assigned to listen to on a couple of homework assignments. Another part of Native American culture that showcases a least one of these idea involves the specific locations where groups of these people end up performing their cultural dances. The text says that in the case of the Native Americans that they are people who reside in a number of different locations on the Earth, which includes rural, urban, and other kinds of places as well. In addition, the text says that despite the fact that numerous dances and events take place most of the time by Native Americans residing in or close to reservations or that have a living in in rural sections of the U.S. and Canada, that novel locations - such as urban social events and/or powwows - are the key for the makeup, alterations, and persistence of specific heritages, initially ones that come from the Plains. One other part of Native American culture that addresses at least one of these ideas is the specific structures of dancing in the performances by these people. The reading says that these structures are special in their own distinct ways due to the fact that Native Americans are not similar to each other not just in the sense of trying to compare them to other peoples, but also from each and every individual around them. In addition, the section goes further into detail about this when it states that within these dance structures, "One finds few solos, yet many ensemble forms. Many of the latter have a leader and a chorus; some are unison groups, others groups with featured soloists; a few have dancers with individualistic styles" (Heth, as part of the introduction to Native American Dance: Ceremonies and Social Traditions which covers pages 1-18 of the text). This idea reminisces the fact that individual dances at powwows generally never have a concrete way of being performed, since a specific person who is actively involved in this has the ability to blow a whistle which changes how long a specific dance will go on during the powwow and this varies each time. In conclusion, this reading basically provides a certain amount of information that readers need to take into consideration when they learn about Native American dancing.
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