Native Nation Dance Theater got the kids moving

By Maggie Plummer

Vaughnda Hilton and the Native Nations Dance Theater were a big hit with the kids during last week's Native American Awareness Days at the People's Center. (Maggie Plummer photo)

"Woooo! You guys like to dance up here!" Vaughnda Hilton told enthusiastic local fifth graders at this year's Native American Awareness Days last Wednesday morning.

Youngsters from St. Regis, Bigfork, Arlee, Nkwusm and St. Ignatius schools had a blast dancing and singing with Vaughnda and the others from "Native Nations Dance Theater" in the People's Center arbor in Pablo.

The group's production - entitled "Pau Wau: Keep the Spirit Alive!" - is totally interactive and succeeded beautifully in getting the school children up, moving, and having fun as they learned the Hopi Hoop Dance, sang along in a choir with Vaughnda, and more.

Dancer Delwin Fiddler, Jr. helps students do the Hoop Dance. (Maggie Plummer photo)

Vaughnda (Blackfeet and Seminole/Creek) is the Founder and Artistic Executive Director of the dance theater group; dancer Delwin Fiddler, Jr. (Cheyenne River Lakota Sioux Nation) is Chairman and Director of Public Relations. Also dancing was Vaughnda's son Andrew Lyn.

They have been living in Philadelphia, but are in the process of relocating to South Dakota.

It was cool and damp from earlier rains, but the sun came out just in time for the dancing. First up was a Hoop Dance workshop, with Delwin showing the kids how the dance is done.

The dance theater group provided 16 sets of hoops so the youngsters took turns doing the Hoop Dance. Three groups had fun learning the dance, and many of them wanted to keep going.

(Maggie Plummer photo)

After the first group of youngsters finished their Hoop Dance, the second and third groups of kids charged out into the grass circle and couldn't wait to try it.

"Hey, that first group, they were the brave hearts," Vaughnda told them.

"It's a special Hopi Nation dance, you have to practice, practice, practice," Delwin instructed the kids as he began making three-hoop wings and running or "flying" in a big circle.

The students loved following him, smiling as they pretended to flutter and soar with their Hoop wings.

(Maggie Plummer photo)

Vaughnda provided entertaining commentary, and sang and drummed for the dances.

"What a lively group," she commented, pleased.

Del played on his loon flute, and the children joined Vaughnda in a song.

Then it was time for the dance theater men to demonstrate the Grass Dance. Vaughnda teased them about being so proud of their Grass Dance regalia that they wear their outfits like armor. She explained to the young students about the beadwork on the outfits and what it takes to have regalia like that.

"It takes a long, long time for him to look that good," she joked, laughing at Delwin.

The performers also demonstrated an interesting Smoke Dance from the Iroquois people in the eastern U. S. It was one of several dances the group did that are not usually seen in the western U. S.

(Maggie Plummer photo)

"In the longhouses, they would open the smoke flaps to air out the house in the winter," Vaughnda said. "This dance was to help get the smoke out."

It involves very fast footwork. The kids got moving again to do the Smoke Dance, working their feet quickly and spinning the whole time.

Then Delwin sang and drummed so that Vaughnda could show the youngsters the Eastern Women's Blanket Dance. It's a slow, graceful dance that East Coast tribes do.

After that, Del did his entire Hoop Dance, complete with several fancy hoop chains and shapes. Among the Hopi, it is a visionary dance that Medicine Men would do, and a dance of prayer, they explained.

Native Nations finished with a Round Dance, or Friendship Dance, which got almost all the kids out dancing again. They made one huge circle so they could do a Snake Dance as well.

Native Nations has taken its interactive cultural program to England and many other places, and will be taking it to the Caribbean next year.

"We had a great time," Vaughnda told the youngsters, thanking them for being such a great group.

After People's Center Director Lucy Vanderburg thanked the Native Nations members, it was time for a lunch break, followed by the afternoon's rotating educational stations.

The older students from Nkwusm Immersion School attended the festivities both days, drumming and singing while people ate their lunches.

Over on the north side of the People's Center, fry bread bubbled in hot oil, deer were being butchered, and dry meat was being cut and smoked.

Classes from Polson and other area schools came to the Center on Thursday, when Native Nations was due to perform again.

They've toured all over the world, have received awards for their productions, and participated in a film called "Who We Are" that's currently being shown in the Lelawi Theater of Washington, D.C.'s Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian.

Cheyenne Yearout, a St. Regis fifth grader, was one of the many school children having fun at last week's Native American Awareness Days in Pablo. (Maggie Plummer photo)

Additional local Native American Awareness Week events included Polson first-through-fourth graders visiting Elmo, where tribal elders demonstrated dry meat and fry bread techniques, and shared Chief Cliff stories.

The Chief Cliff drum group taught the students about traditional drumming and singing, and gave them a chance to practice their own drumming.

High school students raised teepees at Polson's Linderman and Cherry Valley schools.