trob226

Ladies, when you dance cloth, do you wear your traditional Haudenosaunee regalia? Do you carry a shawl, and do you add or take away anything else? Or do you wear northern plains style cloth? I'm asking, because I have not seen Haudenosaunee regalia in cloth dancing and I was wondering.

bahnisiain

when i do cloth, i would carry a shawl with me and a fan. sometimes i am put into southern and sometimes in northen tradish. it depends on the pow wow. i don't do the northern plains attire. that is just me.

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superndngyrl

Did u see MIW two years ago? (or was it 1) she dances southern cloth and has Iroquois style beaded crown and hairties. Its really nice! I seen her wear t-dresses to contest in.

I also just see ladies dance in their traditional outfits dancing in contest that way.

I think its up to you. Its always nice to see tribal flavor in contest regalia... not just picking a style and going w/that.

eap7

I've seen some Iroquois women at powwows in the Northeast, who just dance southern cloth, wearing straight up southern style ribbonwork skirts and shawls, blouses, etc...not Iroquois style. I guess they just adopted that. Much more frequently, I see Iroquois women wear their traditional outfits and a shawl on their arm and just dance like that, in northern traditional or just traditional if they don't separate it.

3ndnbear

ok.... i dance northern tradish.... i used to ONLY wear my Iroquois style dress, with a shawl and fan and do the zig-zag walk-about style of dance... if i was in shape (not just my fry bread shape-aye) i would do ladies dance step during competition. i think that looks real nice... Evanlyn George (Shongo now i think) used to do that style WAAAAAY back in the day during contest (im talking 80-90's).... BUT since i wanted to COMPETE in powwows... i would wear plumes, floppies and my newest set included rhinestones around the flowers and i also made hairties with hairpipe and glass bead "fringe".... and then i finally broke down and made a regular northern cloth dress (tdress) with flat stitch beadwork, breast plate, appliquéd (soon to be beaded) leggins and mox. i am starting a new Iroquois style beadwork again. i have always registered in northern... well, because i'm northern.......LOL....... i have seen other women and girls go into southern cloth because i guess our clothing style is closer to that........but i'm sticking to northern...

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wazi

great question. i'm haudensaunee and i tried to dance northern style for ten years because someone who knew more than me reasoned a Northern state = Northern style, which is of course logical. so I wore my purple tunic, black skirt/leggins, single seam mocs, a shawl, a goosewing fan and a turtleshell purse. but those northern songs have never spoke to me and the dance felt completely unnhatural because as a child in Okla. I was raised dancing southern.
finaly this year I said ENOUGH! This just aint me! I Love our purple themes based on the wampum of course. I love the women's shuffle dance because it and the smokedance songs are so similar to the stomp songs I learned back home. that feels totally natural (no, am far too old to learn smokedance = heartattackcity for me) .

but here in the west, there's no shuffle dances, there's only No. and So. and I wanted to ENJOY what's left of my dancing years! so I had a friend make me a new T-dress, bought a 2 sided breastplate (with purplish beads)and carry same accessories. I danced a month ago for the first time in it and could not remember feeling that authentic and happy in my spirit in a long time. I am extremely careful about choosing any beadwork or accessories which might belong to a specific tribe or family. I keep my dress simple cause that's what I used to wear and how I like it. each decision about adding to my regalia is carefully thought out.

it feels good, I dance to honor my grandma cause she is the one who learned to make my dance outfits from scratch. aho.

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"Sovereignty. It's a word that gets tossed around like a hacky-sack, but it is just as much a part of the Great Law and our culture as anything, and it doesn't mean just civil or criminal law kind of sovereignty, it means cultural and social sovereignty too. And that is something that I define as maintaining the integrity of our cultural heritage and our society against negative intrusions from the outside, be they drugs, alcohol, weapons, pollution and even anthropologists. Holistic Sovereignty means exercising all of these rights to decide what outside intrusions you will allow and which you will reject." Akia of Akwesasne

superndngyrl

Seriously, the iroquois style beadwork is keen! I think you should consider wearing that when you dance. Even if you wear a t-dress.

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The only time its too late to start dancing is when you're dead.

eap7

When I was a little girl, I really really wanted Iroquois style beadwork because it was just so pretty and the 3D was cool! I really love it and encourage you to incorporate it into your outfit too!!

bvr_wmn

I remember when my cuz, evelyn danced. she would always win.

My girls dance smoke but we travel to all kinds of pw that don't have smoke. They never want to enter competition under traditional because they feel funny. I tried to tell them that traditional means wear and dance your own traditional style. but nowadays, seems like everyone only wears the full buckskin/beaded capes no matter what tribe they are from.

I thought about making a full buckskin (our old style before cloth was introduced) and putting our style of beadwork on that.

PWs should have northern cloth, then there would be no confusion on what category to enter.

I told my girls to do sganye during a straight 4push-up competition song and they said huh-uh. lol I think that doing sganye to side step songs looks just awesome! I know we do it all the time on the "sidelines" lol.

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onodowa'ga:' gal

trob226

For you who do Iroquois style beadwork - what size beads do you use?

superndngyrl

A friend of mine uses 10s in the 3 cuts. Looks keen!!!

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The only time its too late to start dancing is when you're dead.

bvr_wmn

I use 11 cut for raised floral beadwork and 13 for the flat geometric designs.

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onodowa'ga:' gal

trob226

One more question, if I may - do you make your skirts from Stroud, or velvet, or what?

superndngyrl

I'm sorry I keep posting like I'm iroquois or something but I think for pow-wows you can use any type of material you like. I've seen satiny shirts and cotton shirts. I've also seen velvet and velour for skirts. I've also seen twill.

Post pics when you finish! would love to see your outfit.

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The only time its too late to start dancing is when you're dead.

trob226