Native American Dance Theater

I agree that the Native American system of self-governance definitely influenced American democracy. Many legislative systems in the United States such as the representative democracy and the process of lawmaking are very similar to governmental traditions of the Iroquois Confederation.

The Arapaho is a Native American Tribe. This chant, known as the “Eagle Dance” is given its distinct metrical rhythm because of a drum that is hit on every beat, giving it the feeling of a duple meter. This drum maintains an even tempo throughout the chant, from the first 4 beats which serve to introduce the chant, all the way through. The chanting vocal group is very free, they are speak singing throughout, and there are many people in the group including a primary upper voice and many voices underneath. This primary upper voice also sings performs for a small portion of the chant, transitioning to the repetition of the main melody. One part of this melody, in the lower register, maintains a mostly steady pitch, modulating a whole step up

To dance is to be knowledgeable about the stories of the ancestral heroes. Dancing, unlike painting and singing, is learnt at an early age. This allows large groups of people to demonstrate their clan rights in front of an audience. Dance is also seen as an occasion to entertain and to be entertained and through the work of dance to show their love for families and kin. It is for this reason that dance may be performed at the end of every day in some communities. (Australian indigenous ceremony- song, music and dance | austrlian.gov.au.

Tribal flag songs and National anthems are also a major part of the Native American musical activities, and are starters to public ceremonies, especially powwows. Songs that are translatable include historical songs, like the Navajo "Shi' Naasha', which celebrates the end of Navajo internment in Fort Sumner, New Mexico in 1868. Many songs celebrate harvest, planting season or other important times of year. The music plays a vital role in education and history, with ceremonies and stories orally passing on ancestral customs to new generations. Native American ceremonial music is said to originate from spirits and deities, or from a particularly respected individual. Epic stories and legends about culture heroes are a part of tribal music traditions,

Drums are highly influential in American Indian music. Different tribes have different traditions about their drums and how to play them. For larger dances or powwow type drums, the basic construction is very similar in most tribes. It is a wooden frame or a carved and hollowed out log, with rawhide buckskin or elk skin stretched out across the opening by sinew thongs. Percussion, especially drums and rattles, are often used to accompany and keep the rhythm steady for the singers, who use their native language or non-lexical vocables (nonsense syllables). Vocables, or lexically meaningless syllables, are a common part of many kinds of Native American songs. They frequently mark the beginning and end of phrases, sections, or songs

Hula dancing, a Polynesian dance that in traditional form dramatizes a song specifically through arm movements and hand gestures, has expanded beyond Hawaiian shores and has introduced island movements to the world. Since the early 1970’s traditional Hula dancing has provided islander communities with the ability to tie together body movements with homeland recollections and personal experiences. Originally, Hula was seen as a ritual and cultural dance which was developed by polynesians who settled in the islands of Hawaii.“Through hula dances and songs, memories of people and events endure long after they have passed” (Stillman 2001). As time passes Hula dancing has had a dramatic impact on Western cultures and as a result Hula dancing has

What defines a person? Is one of the most basic anthropological questions within the discipline, with the definitions that people have for other people and categories that we have succumb to. This question is loaded and difficult to answer. Unfortunately, indigenous people experience this categorizing plight more than any other racial group in North America and around the world. Furthermore, it has impacted their wellbeing and stripped them of their outward identity. There has always been a romanticized idea of Native Americans, Americans identify Indians as feather wearing, horse riding, buffalo chasing, and spiritual dancing individuals. The truth about who they really are is lost in fiction and westerns, therefore it comes as no surprise

During this time period, Native Americans were being treated so poorly. They were very misunderstood, and white men didn 't even try to understand them. All they cared about was forcing the Indians off of "their" land. This is unfair in so many ways. One being that the Natives were actually there first. An example of their mistreatment would be the "Ghost Dance". This was a dancing ritual that promised the Indians a new world "free from whites", where they could truly be free. However, this innoccent dance was very wronly interpreted. The white men thought that it was a war threat. So, they hunted down the Indian man who created it, and killed him. This sparked up something deep inside the Native Americans, and a battle was started at Wounded

To explore levels of media use and beliefs about representation, ethnographic interviews were conducted with Native American students enrolled at Eastern Oregon University in La Grande. Qualative methods were used to analyze the data collected. This was utilized through direct observation, communication with participants, analysis of texts, and following an ethnographic study. Ethnographic studies or ethnographic designs are “qualitative research procedures for describing, analyzing, and interpreting a cultural group 's shared patterns of behavior, beliefs, and language that develop over time” (Hart, 2006). To achieve this, interviews were done with ten native students at Eastern Oregon University. I chose ten students because there

After reading this scholarly journal, an individual can get a better understanding of the Green Grass Cloggers. This source had a lot of information on the Green Grass Cloggers and seemed to focus on why they are so well-known and respected. Novices would find this source accessible. Since it’s a scholarly journal, an individual can trust that the information is reliable. The journal was a quick and easy read. This source has been very helpful in researching the Green Grass

Indians have always had their things taken from them by whites. However, the U.S. Government may have gone too far on this one. After being taken from their original lands and put on small reservations, some Indians have been wanting all whites to suffer. These people of the Sioux tribe were called Ghost Dancers. They believed if they did a certain dance, their gods would destroy the U.S. and similar establishments. Yesterday, on Dec. 10, 1890, a Sioux leader named Sitting Bull was arrested for allegedly being a Ghost Dancer. We await to see how the Indians will respond to this, especially since Sitting Bull was killed.

The ghost dance video is a short forty eight second video, which features Native American men performing the Ghost dance. The video quality is poor, but it shows the authenticity of the video since it’s from a time where the quality was very poor. The video was black and white, and at some points it’s hard to see the individuals while they’re dancing. The men are dressed in feathered headdresses. They were wearing moccasins on their feet. The dancers were wearing some sort of animal skin as clothing on their lower body. They also had some bells attached to their calf’s to provide extra sound to the dance. They danced very passionately, and with great enthusiasm. The dance is enjoyable to watch.

Native American culture and history has been used for the enjoyment of audiences over many years in film, literature, television, and other forms of media. Not surprisingly, directors and writers hardly ever portray Native Americans accurately. In the play, “Foghorn” by Hanay Geiogamah, and in Mary Tallmoutain’s poem The Last Wolf, reader scan trace their influence into modern day media, even though almost none of it is accurate.

In dance we have people and societies that stay within societies comfort zone and standards. Then we have societies that defy every rule, tradition or standard that has been set. These are the societies that captivate our minds and push us outside of our boxes. These societies are the societies that live and move to their own beat and establish their own set of rules. One of these societies is the Australian Dance Theatre.

While reading Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko I was intrigued by the use of different styles and structures to convey the changes in Native American culture during the 1950’s. Seeing that I could do a task 1 paper on the part 3 topic, to “Consider the changing historical, cultural and social contexts in which particular texts are written and received. “ and the specific aspect of, “the impact of prevailing values and beliefs.” I knew I had to use this specific format. They fit so well together. The Dakota Access Pipeline has also been the center of our news and I wanted to incorporate it into my task 1. The final stanza of the poem discusses this by saying, “They come for our water, our land, our graves, our pride. We protest with our brothers and sisters of different tribes, it will hurt us all.” By discussing conflicting and changing societal norms, and contrasting them to the Native American ideology, my poem helps all people understand why the Dakota Access Pipeline is such a sacrilegious act to the Native American people due to the misuse of water.