The Alaska citizen., 1914-03-02
NATIVE DANCES
 DESCRIBED BY
 OR. ). 5. NEWMAN
MEMBER OF BUREAU OF EOUCA- TON TELLS MEANING OF
 DANCE.

Animal dances" he'd by the na- tives at Marys lgloo, near Nome. in January, were described and in terpreted by Dr. D. $. Neumau of the Bureau f Education in an interview in the Nome Industrial Worker. af CT he had been to witness the dances.
 The so-called animal dances said Dr Neuman in his interview. are not new. There in Mary's Igloo they are having dances which now find q counterpart 10 ragtime music in the States. and which are setting society mad. providing they are call ed turkey trots, tangoos or other amusing names.
 The hist r. of the big dance is absorbingly interesting. IL is really treat dance and is in relation to two tribes only who q good many years ago. so far back that the time is now long since forgotten, were 8. deadly feud. It has a regular or ganiZa ion. it's rules. regulati ns anu iron clad etiquette. which is con vincing testimony to its age were it's sacred character not also testi- mOny 10 is venerahleness.
 Two years ahead of the dance messages of a mysterious nature are exchanged between Mary's Igloo tribe and the Cape Prince O. Wales natives. a hall is built and the vii lages are ztifiei, Four chiefs and four assistants take part in the inter. change of messages. two chiefs and two messengers from each tribe who have delicate mission to perform. They have two Wands and wear the mysterious eagle fea her suspended and hanging pendent in front
 The wands of the messengers are totem poles crowned in the case f the Mary's Igloo natives one with weasel and the other with rabbit, lives. one wi a seal and the other with q caribou. These messengers have to reach the chiefs house or Igloo unseen by any me. and enter it without the parties having cogniz- ance of their presence until hey an nounce themselves. If in this the fail they have got to depart an' again repeat he operation.
 The chiefs follow the messenger with the villagers in escort, and they dance a defiance dance. They have sticks crowned with willows. like the old-fashionei willow brOoms of thF sourd ugh and with these tops bath ed in fish oil. they set fire to them and the natives make as if Q de strov the sleds. the dogs. and the supplies Of a hostile tribe. The emo tions are powerfully expressed Wher a dance of surrender follows and pre- sents are interchanged, fear, hate terror. fright joy. humiliati n, sub mission all being splendidlv shown.
 The ritual dances h wever take pace in the Igloo, which is reached through a hole in the ground by 2 step ladder from which a tunnel e" ters to an underground chambe' wherein the dances take place. The four chiefs si' in front a drumme' is in the center the married men and women are ranged ar Hnd thr sides and in front of them uo- married women in circle. The single men are resting in shelves abOvc the married men and women.
 "The dance is only for the chiefs all there are intruGers There are TO windows in the big Igloo, but skvlight uhch is transluminous be ing made of the finer entrails of th wa'rus.
 The first big dance depicts the coming f the birds in the spring The chiefs alone take part in this and they take the par, of the birds flying and resting and feeding their young. The peculiar parkas worn enable them to stimulate the sound of the flying birds to perfection. This dance is an endurance dance lasting two hours.
 "The next dance is performed by four men and six women also sym bolical'y attired the men being the game and the women being the hun ters. The women as hunters be token some idea of the age of the dance in that the women as hunter' betravs the influence of an ancient matriarchate. Here again is the per feet rhythm to the drummer's sound ing music The drummer is locat' ed in the center of the 1gloo, an' has drum of peculiar and interest ing construction"