by Jeffrey Stanley
Three members of the Red Hawk Native Dance Troupe paid their annual visit to the Lower School for a February 7 assembly in the meetinghouse and a few post-show dance lessons for third graders in the dance studio. Preschool 4’s also attended the assembly.
The assembly is part of a unit in the third grade on Native American life. Lower School Curriculum Coordinator Diane Mackie is a big fan of the dancers and the fact they don’t just perform, they make Native American life current in the students’ minds. “A big emphasis with them is the focus on the every day Native American life, not just the historical aspects. It’s not just, ‘this happened then.’ It’s also happening now.”
The third grade unit focuses in particular on the natives of the Eastern Woodlands, an area stretching from the Atlantic to the Mississippi. Tribes include the Cherokee, the Haudenosaunee and the Creek. “In essence the unit comprises the whole year,” said Diane. “It kind of unfolds in different parts.”
Third Grade Head Teacher Susan Park elaborated. “The third grade’s core curriculum in Social Studies is learning about the Haudenosaunee Native Americans.” (The Haudenosaunee are more commonly known by the French-derived derogatory term Iroquois). “We study this for the whole year. We learn about their historical background, yet we also emphasize their living culture and identity that remains with us today.”
At the same time, in Piper Macleod’s music class students learn to play the Native American flute, which Diane calls “a great first instrument for students to learn. This is one of the richer studies we do because it encompasses so much,” she said.
The dance troupe is sponsored by the Native American Arts Council, a Brooklyn-based organization that offers educational workshops, traveling exhibits and performances throughout the tri-state area intended to break pop culture’s deeply ingrained stereotypes of Native Americans.
During the assembly Cliff Matias, dressed in traditional dance clothing, talked about native life throughout the United States, and introduced students to a handheld, octagonal drum. He explained that the drumbeat to which they would soon be dancing represented a life force. “It’s always to the heartbeat of Mother Earth that we dance,” he said.
His cohort Brendan, a Cherokee who grew up in New York City, dressed as a Northern Plains grass dancer in a shaggy green robe, performed as Cliff pounded out a rhythm on the drum. Next Shadi, the one woman in the trio, performed a more solemn dance carrying a ceremonial shawl and fan made of white feathers.
“In Native American culture,” explained Cliff, “women are considered stronger than men. We all came from a woman. They have a higher tolerance for pain.” He explained that this is why women dancers tend to remain primarily upright with their heads held high while dancing instead of bent over like the men.
Next came the Iroquois smoke dance, for which Cliff invited some students onto the stage to participate. The students screamed with delight when they were called on.
“Where did the Iroqouis live?” asked Cliff.
“In long houses!”
“Right. Do we live in long houses today?”
“No!”
“No, we live in regular houses. But we still use the long house for special meetings and occasions. The Iroquois smoke dance is performed in the long house.” After a quick lesson in proper posture for the girls and for the boys and some tips on how to respond to the drumbeat, the dance began as the audience roared and clapped.
Next, another group of excited students was herded onto the stage for the Comanche buffalo dance intended to show thanks to the buffalo. Cliff explained to the students that the buffalo was a staple of many natives’ culture, providing clothing, bone tools and food.
This was followed by an Iroquois robin dance, intended to call the robins back at winter’s end. Fourteen students danced in a circle doing their best robin impressions to Cliff’s drumbeat. As the dancers beckoned for spring on this cold February morning the audience joined in a call-and-response with Cliff’s singing.
The finale was Cliff’s handing the drum off to Brendan and performing a dazzling solo hoop dance involving five multicolored rings and complicated steps. With acrobatic skill, he used his entire body to keep the rings in motion and intertwined, magically transforming himself into a variety of animals. The audience identified each creature as he shifted from one to the next, whirling and stomping about the stage in a nearly pyrotechnic display.
“Turtle!”
“Snake!”
“Butterfly!”
“Bird!”
Cliff concluded the assembly by saying “Yahweh” to his young audience, a Haudenosaunee word meaning thank you, but the day didn’t end there. Immediately following the performance the three dancers moved upstairs to a third grade classroom to show the students some artifacts up close, in some cases the same ones they had read about in class but had never seen and touched until now. They then joined the students in the dance studio and taught them some Native American social dances.
Afterward Susan Park reflected on the assembly. “Cliff’s son is part Haudenosaunee, which solidifies to the students that the people from this nation are not stuck in the past.”