WhoMe

If you own a dance outfit or are a powwow dancer, you get asked to perform for a school, library, organization, company, university, dance tour etc. etc, etc...

Where have you performed? What was it like?

Did you get paid? Was it fair?

How many danced with you? Who sang for you? Who did the emceeing?

Did your performance include educating/reeducating your audience?

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"Today, recognizing and respecting the origins of powwow aids in our Cultural Survival. If enough people break the rules because they are not satisfied...."We will have no culture."

WhoMe

kiowakat

well whome I've be performing for the St. Louis area since I was a kid....they were handled by a woman (comanche) and we didn't get paid, maybe taken to mcdonald's for lunch (lost alot of days of school for these performances) we would do area grade schools, boyscouts,girlscouts, nursing homes etc...yes we did dance with the students
I really don'ty think we did much educating as I look back on it now .....my lectures and demonstrations today are geared more towards using my craftwork to help paint a picture of Kiowa life on the plains....Our dance group in the consortium gets all the money as they should be!! we can only hope that seeing the dancers may sparks an interest in the students to learn more about native america...we do have a drum to show up if they want to pay the price (you only get what you pay for)...so we also have a cd player lol

WocusWoman

My kids and I have danced for people before with the local dance/drum group. It's nice to be fed, but we don't expect anything, just a thankyou. I always tell my kids, we do get paid to dance, and to consider it public service or volunteerism. It's also nice, just to have an extra opportunity to dance.

billyjoejimbob

back in the old timez i was in a boy scout group that did demos for scouts and schools. mainly scouts. we did ALOT of education because, as you know, everyone is clueless abotu indian culture. people would give us donations which we used for outfit material, educational material, a tipi, donations to ndn charities, etc. we didnt get much, maybe $100. sometimes we got more if it was a person we knew.

i have encountered some strange, stupid people doing that. you get all the questions. do indians still live in tipis? are the 'chants' you are doing words? Do you do the rain dance?

it was crazy.

Kiwehnzii

I do schools, colleges. Usually I explain the dances as well as dance. Sometimes we recieve a small honorarium. Its usually elementary schools and some of the non-Indian kids do get a bit rambunctious so I don't wear my bustle when we invite the kids to participate. The colleges are mostly demonstration. My son and a coupla his buddies usually sing for us.
We do it to support the native students in those schools. They have a lotta pride in their Indian- ness and it shows when we do these " Indian things"

blackfoot_goddess

__________________
"Do you love me because I am beautiful or am I beautiful because you love me?" ~Cinderella
Obsession is an action word...
"I !!! and all things PINK!!!
This is for you Prince Charming....
Make Love not war.....

ajibik

I used to dance and sing for Tony Redhouse in Phoenix. We danced anywhere from just him and I, to about 7 dancers and a whole drum group.

I got paid well, and they were always nice gigs.

I didn't always like the clients though...mostly the foreign ones (i.e. from Belgium, etc.) asked the most intelligent and respectful questions.

Americans seemed to be more thoughtless.

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Mister Ibik, White Earth Ojibwe

Tiyospaye Yazzie

Done a week long performance in Jr high in SLC (Salt Lake C)
I was even featured in the evening news. Yep all week we performed at various schools and churches and theatre audiences.
I knew a close friend that went over seas to do exhibitions mostly in the U.K., Germany and France. She was a fancy dancer.

__________________
"I Ahula Ula"
Enjoying the ride.
BETA SIGMA EPSILON

Privateer6

I hear ya. I also have done the same thing. We would do a blanket dance to raise money for regalia, a new drum, the Clancy Native American Scholarship Fund, and recently to Katrina victims. We also would do a tinytot song and give out candy as well.

Oh and the stupid questions you hear.

ABdrum

We used to have a dance outfit about 4 or 5 years ago. we would perform as part of the Nightly Indian Dances in Gallup, New Mexico. It ran from Memorial day weekend, thru the whole summer and ended on Labor Day weekend. We had about 8 dancers, usually our friends and family members and my dad would do all the emceeing for us. We had all kinds of people who would show up from different states to different countries to watch our little powwow as we would call it. We'd explained the different dance categories and where they originated from, and as usual, we'd get plenty of questions about this and that and answered all as best as we could. All in all, it was quite an experience, got paid pretty well. Through that, we pretty much built a pretty good fan base. But, since then, we heard some new people took over and took it in a different direction, so we just ended up not doing it again.

ajibik

Snappy rejoinders for Indians in the everyday world.

Q: You're and Indian? Where's your feathers and tommyhawk?

A: You're a whiteman? Where's your powdered wig and knickers?
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Q: How!

A: I know "how" muthaf**ker, I wanna know "When!"

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Q: Do you do the Tomahawk Chop?

A: No, but I can do the one-cheek sneak! (Passes-wind)

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Q: Do you live in a teepee?

A: No. I live in your house with your ol' lady when you're gone to work...or...No. Do you live in a covered wagon?

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Q: How much money do you get from those casinos?

A: None. I always lose there.

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Q: Do you guys smoke marijuana in them peace pipes?

A: No, but I'll smoke yer a** if you disrespect my beliefs like that again.

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Q: What are them singers "chanting" at the drum?

A: They're singing. Indians "sing", Gregorian Monks "Chant."

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Q: Wow, is that your real hair?

A: (With a pained expression) Yeah, but is that your real face?

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Q: I can tell your an Indian. You've got high cheek-bones.

A: [I then turn around and look at my butt].

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Q: Do you do that powwow crap?

A: Yeah, do you do that Bible Study nonsense?

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Q: My grandmother was a Cherokee Princess!

A: Oh yeah? Mine was an alcoholic. She was part Irish.

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Q: Do you do a rain dance?

A: Hell no! I'm from Minnesota, and with 10,000 lakes we'd flood out and double the mosquito population.

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Q: What kind of Indian are you?

A: Ojibwe. What kind of Whiteman are you?

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Q: What tribe are you?

A: Oh, I'm not a tribe, I'm just one man.

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I'm never al a loss for words, and I'm willing to back it all the way up. Sometimes a healing comes about by a "laying-on-of-hands."

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Mister Ibik, White Earth Ojibwe

WhoMe

ajibik,

I LOVE these responses. I am going to memorize them! *L

I work in a very professional atmosphere. On Monday a group of Senior Citizens' came in.

One of the old guys said, "Hey, Chief! Long time no see." My quick answer was, Hey PILGRIM, I don't know you?"


Shame on me.

__________________
"Today, recognizing and respecting the origins of powwow aids in our Cultural Survival. If enough people break the rules because they are not satisfied...."We will have no culture."

WhoMe

Tiyospaye Yazzie

I was at F.E. Warren AFB in 2000 and I had a day out so I went to the "Daddy-of-'em-all" Fair, yes the Wy St Fair. I met Chico there with his group of kids that he brought down to do some of the performances at the "Indian village" there in Cheyenne. I got to sing with the drum, the lead was Sonny "Big Daddy" Shoyo, and the Whiteclo (sp.) brothers as well as with the McCabes. I had fun singing with the group and I met some other members of the performance group; Joey Sommers and Stormy Friday, a fancy shawl dancer, is all I can recall right now.

__________________
"I Ahula Ula"
Enjoying the ride.
BETA SIGMA EPSILON