The Madison journal. (Tallulah, Madison Parish, La.) 1888-current, 1915-11-27

of all, or music ana steps.
These features are, OF
course, not lacking in aboriginal dane
ing, but they are completely over
Swallowed by other aspects of culture
with which they are associated. To
put it briefly, our dancing appears IN
the same context with restaurants,
hotels, debutantes, attempts at social
rapprochement of the sexes. In Indian
society, dancing is largely connected
with war and agriculture and the
chase, with professions, magical per-
formances and religious observances.
in short, with the serious affairs Of
life.
Indian dances. as far as the steps are
concerned, are often of remarkable SIM
plicity. A widespread "squaw dance"
found among the Shoshone, Crow and
other northwestern tribes, consists SIM
ply in the circle of dancers shutting
the feet alternately to the left. each
man in the circle standing between
two women, with his right arm around
his partners shoulder or waist, or in
some cases with arms encircling a
partner on each side. With short in
termissions and an occasional intro
duction of the war dance, for variety's
sake, squaw dance of this type is
sometimes kept up all night. to the
supreme qualification of the perform
ers.
The tobacco dance of the Crow In
dians, is, If possible, of even simpler
character. The participants stand up
several In a row, holding sacred OBJ
jects in their hands, and alternately
bend each knee and raise or lower
each hand without at all moving from
their position. The highly popular
grass dance of the Plains Indians is
of a more strenuous character. Only
men take part, and they move about
briskly, sometimes in pairs, sometimes
separately, vigorously stamping the
ground with their feet, and frequently
mimicking martial exploits.
The orchestral equipment of the In
dams is not very comprehensive. The
flute Tor fiageolet) is restricted to use
in counting. For dancing, the drum
and the rattle are by far the mos
important instruments, although othel
types were used over a relatively larg,
area; this applies, for example. Il
notched sticks rasped with othe
sticks and bird-bone whistles, usual,
worn suspended from the neck. Tn
drum varies considerably in form. o.
the northwest coast the natives mere
ly beat a plank or box. The Plain
Indians commonly use ski
stretched over a hoop. held by string
crossing underneath, but a larg
double-headed drum suspended fror
four sticks also occurs: Rattles ar
likewise of widely varying kind. sue
as gourds containing small pebbles an
ring-shaped or globular rawhide bag
for which in the dance of toda
baking powder cans make favorit
substitutes. Sometimes a certain IL
strument is considered distinctive {
a particular dance, and various form
of costume are also considere
badges. Thus dress comes to occup
in the Indian dance a place of signi
icance to which there is no corr,
spondence In the dances of civilize
races. Sometimes, to be sure. the al
parel merely is designed to give a
appearance of picturesqueness, Will
in other instances lack of clothing
sometimes compensated for by fac
and body paint or by profusion {
regalia held in the hand.
The Crow grass dance might
chosen as an example of the soci;
type of Indian dance, the Pawne
iruska and the Mandan buffalo won
ems dances as representatives {
shamanistic or religious performance