Closed Captions Audio Described

Darren Old Coyote introduces and narrates a performance of traditional and contemporary Apsáalooke (Crow) dances, explaining the origins and cultural meanings of jingle dress, grass dance, crow hop, push dance, and men's Crow style regalia. He discusses how various dance styles came to the Crow Nation from other tribes, the significance of elk-tooth dresses and beadwork, and how Crow regalia incorporates elements from nature and historical trade. The presentation includes live performances by Crow Nation singers and dancers at a Lewis & Clark Bicentennial traveling exhibit.

Transcript

0:03 Corps of Discovery, Tent of Many Voices. This is one of the many parts of this exhibit that is traveling across the country following the Lewis and Clark Trail. We have been traveling for 3.5 years on this trail and stopping in various towns and communities along the way, just like yours here and bring in presenters into the Tent of Many Voices to share
0:26 their perspectives of the Lewis and Clark expedition 200 years ago, as well as the cultures and people they met along their journey. So with us at this hour are some dancers, singers. They're here from the Crow Nation and I want to introduce Darren Old Coyote who is going to introduce the rest of the dancers and singers. So if you will welcome everybody to theTent of Many Voices.
0:49 [Audience Applause.]
1:11 [Speaking offscreen.] Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Uh at this time, um before we get started, I'll be explaining some of the dances as we go along. But before we do, members of this dance troupe are from the Great Apsáalooke Nation, Crow Nation, as you guys know it, we call ourselves Apsáalooke Nation. And at this time, I present to you the dancers from the Great Apsáalooke Nation.
1:35 Singers, anytime you're ready, let's bring our dancers in. [Drumming and singing commences as Apsáalooke dancers and singer enter tent.]
2:00 [Apsáalooke dancing, singing, and drumming continues.]
3:55 [Speaking offscreen.] Here they are dancers from the great Apsáalooke Nation. [Audience Applause.] The first style of dance we'll be presenting to you comes to us from the Ojibwe people in the Great Lakes area. Among the Ojibwe they say there was a young lady who had, who, who got sick about six years old
4:20 and
4:22 they say through a vision, through a dream, they saw this dress and the young girl was healed and just a few years back, she died at about 100 years old. So this dress is known as a medicine dress among the Ojibwe people. And with that, we're gonna go into a song by our singers for
4:47 jingle dress.
4:48 [Singing continues as jingle dress performers dance.]
5:56 [Speaking offscreen.] There you have it jingle dress, dancers. [Audience Applause.]
6:02 The next dance style that they will be going into is what is known as the woman's dance. Among the Ojibwe people, this in their language the song that the singers will be singing is known as the woman dance. So with that, a woman's jingle dress round dance.
6:19 [Music continues as performers dance Jingle Dress Round Dance.]
7:58 [Speaking offscreen.] There you have it, the woman's jingle dress. [Audience applause.]
8:07 The next style dance that we will be presenting to you is known as the grass dance. The men's grass dancers as they make their way out there. This was a dance during intertribal warfare. The individual men would tie the scalps to their waist and then through the years, whether because of the smell, I don't know because of the, you know, the the spirituality behind it,
8:31 they tied grass to their waist. And then through the years, you know, we've adopted and adapted to many ways and today we use the, the cloth and that's what the fringes are representing the scalps of long ago. So with that the men's grass dance. Singers, anytime you're ready, men's grass
8:50 [Music continues as performance dance the Men's Grass Dance.]
10:20 [Speaking offscreen.] There you have it, the men's grass dance. [Audience Applause.] The next song that these dancers will be dancing to is what is known as the single beat. And many tribes have referred to this dance as the crow hop. So with that, there will be dancing the single beat. Crow hop.
10:39 [Music continues as performer dance the Single Beat Crow Hop.]
11:39 [Speaking offscreen.] There you have it, the men's grass dance. [Audience applause.] The next song that the dancers will be performing for you
11:48 is a, a dance that a lot of you are familiar with, but with a twist of
11:56 Indian in there. um This dance comes to us, uh, it's known as the push dance. They say back in the early 1900s, a gentleman by the name of uh Plenty Hawk traveled back east to New York City DC looking at the sites and they say he, he went to a, a ball where
12:19 they're uh dancing the Foxtrot, the two step and he brought this dance back and he, you know, back then they all they knew was singing and dancing in the the Crow way. And he said they had the non Indians have a dance which is a social dance and he showed them the dance and the Crows, you know, improvised and
12:42 being very creative, uh
12:49 sang some owl dance songs with uh love, love, love song. Um This, this kind of a love song, serenading song. And with that, we're going to go into a push dance for, for your enjoyment. Singers anytime you're ready push dance for our dancers.
13:09 [Singing and music continues as performers dance Push Dance.]
15:52 [Speaking offscreen.] There you have it, Push Dance.
15:56 The words to that song says, uh, my love, they don't want me to come over, but I'm gonna come over anyway, meaning to come over to see their love.
16:07 The next style we'll be presenting to you is the women's Crow style, and the style of dress is uniquely Crow. No other tribe in United States, Canada, where you see this type of dress and this dress represents the wealth and the pride of the family. There's only two elk teeth in a elk,
16:31 you know, one elk has only two teeth and some of these dresses, uh, you know, from 300 to 400 elk teeth adorn these dresses. And that goes to show how great, you know, the men folk were and how, you know, um, the Crow men would go out and hunt and that's how, because back in those days they would have to hunt
16:52 and, uh, to get the, the hide for the, for the lodges for their clothing. And so there's, uh, we take a lot of pride in this dress. You know, the Crow people, wherever you go, among Indian people, you could always, you know, pick out the Crows because of their, the way they're dressed and they look at the bead work. No two designs are the same.
17:16 Um, a lot of love and, you know, hard work, go into these handmade, beadwork, the beauty and the pageantry behind these beadwork, and the mothers, you know, take a lot of time, it takes a lot of time, hard work and a lot of love goes into these outfits. And the creator of these outfits, you know, they, they among the Crow, they say
17:38 if you have a good outfit, it's because your mother loves you that much. So with that woman's Crow style.
17:45 [Singing and drumming continue while performer dancers woman's Crow style dance.]
19:26 [Speaking offscreen.] There you have it the woman's Crow style.
19:30 The next dance style that these dancers will be dancing to is what is known as the double beat songs of the Crow. And many tribes have referred to the song as the double beat songs or, or the Crow hop. And among the Crow, we refer to this dance as the double beat. So with that woman's Crow style, double beat or Crow hop that is commonly known.
19:54 [Music continues as performer's dance the Woman's Double Beat.]
21:12 [Speaking offscreen.] There you have it the woman's Crow style, dancing the double beat songs of the Crow.
21:21 The next dance style that will be coming out is the men's Crow style. And this dance way comes to us
21:31 through the Hidatsa of North Dakota. There uh dance way was bought over by Jolly at present day Jolly at Montana. There's pictographs right above uh in the hills in Joliet, there's a pictograph of four dancers with tail feathers. And they say the Crow bought this dance way, the tail four tail feathers from the Hidatsa around
21:56 the late 1800s and the Crows uh bought this dance way with 400 horses. They gave Hidatsa 400 head of horses. Uh I believe they might be the same ones we stole from Clark. But uh... [Audience laughter.] They say the Crows um bought this way. And since that time, the Crows have danced this way that the Hidatsa
22:19 bought this hot dance away from uh the Santee Sioux, the Santee Sioux in turn, bought this dance away from the Omaha of Nebraska, the Omaha. And so through those different tribes, this dance way has come to us. The roach represents the rays of the sun and it's made out of uh porcupine hair. They say that the bells represent the hoofed animals.
22:44 And you know, uh ever since Santa Claus came around, we use bells nowadays. But uh before that they used hoofs and then the fur around the ankles represent the fur bearing animals. And the belt represents the re uh reptiles and represents the snake. And so we, this is all about nature. We sing and dance because
23:09 we're enjoying life here on earth on Mother Earth. And they say the armbands and the cuffs come to us from the cowboys and the way they dressed, and so the Crows saw that and they, you know, made it part of their regalia today and it's part of our, uh, the Crow style way of dress. And the tail feathers, uh, talk about, um, or sacred tail feathers and a Crow.
23:34 So with that men's Crow style. Singers, anytime you're ready. [Drumming begins.] Wherever you go in Indian country, you can always pick out the crows because of the way they dress.
23:43 [Singing and drumming continue throughout as performers dance the men's Crow style.]
24:58 [Speaking offscreen.] The men's Crow style. [Audience applause.]
25:02 The next dance style that we will be dancing is uh
25:06 the same as the lady dancers. That's the double beat Crow hop. And in this dance, they'll be emulating the prairie chicken. Uh And if you watch the footwork, that's what um these different dance styles, if you watch the footwork, that's where they differ in all the dance styles and the body movement with the Crow style, you know, uh this is the double beat Crow hop.
25:29 So anytime you're ready singers, double beat Crow hop.
25:31 [Singing and drumming continues throughout as performers dance Double Beat Crow Hop.]
27:03 [Speaking offscreen.] There, you have it men's crow style dancing the double beat Crow hop. The next style dance that we'll be going into is what is known as the stoop dance song.
27:18 Uh This dance they say during intertribal warfare, when the enemy would shoot at the Crow, they would duck down as to avoid uh being hit by uh an arrow or a bullet. So that's what the, where the song comes from is from uh intertribal warfare. And with that stoop dance songs for our dancers. Anytime you're ready singers, stoop dance song.
27:40 [Music continues throughout as dancers perform the Stoop Dance.]
28:49 [Speaking offscreen.] There, you have it. The men's Crow style stoop dance song. [Audience applause.]
28:55 The next song at the crow, men's Crow style will be dancing is uh what is known as the Ruffle dance or Ruffles Ruffle song. So with that, the men's Crow style ruffle song for our dancers.
29:09 In this dance, they're emulating the prairie chicken.
29:11 [Singing and music continues as dancers perform the men's Crow style ruffle dance.]
30:22 [Speaking offscreen.] There you have it the men's Crow style. [Audience applause.]
30:35 At this time, we're gonna go into a general dance with all of our dancers. How many you have enjoyed the men's Crow style dancers? Let's let them hear it. [Audience applause.] All right singers, any time you're ready. General dance for all of our dancers. 0:31:08.580,1193:02:47.295 [Singing and music continues as dancers perform the General dance.]
36:11 [Speaking offscreen.] There you have it. Apsáalooké Nation dancers. [Audience applause.] I would like to introduce our singers at this time,
36:22 Jeff McDonald,
36:25 Gordon Plain Bow,
36:28 Tone Tone Felin, Thai Backbone, Merl Big Medicine, Larry Eastman, Stephen House, Randy Felin, and Edmund Old Crow. These are your singers and I, I was gonna introduce all the dancers but it was too hot. So they went for the shade. But that's all of our... [Audio cuts out.]
36:57 [Speaking offscreen.] Mary Glenn, report to Sergeant Purcell. Mary Glenn, report to Sergeant Purcell-- [Audio and video cuts out.]