Show MIAN INDIAN DANCES LIKE REVIVALS ancient ceremonious caremon Cere bs arc mostly religious in nature washington D 0 indian cere coredo coremo tuo nials are rarely understood by other rrth and consequently the inwall rites mid and dances have often been bee 11 unjustly criticized says J N D blewitt of tile tho smithsonian institution the valte cinq Is extremely gullible when it comes to believing fantastic talis tales about the lie red man it Is no rare occurrence for a witness to appear tit at a congressional hearing and to testify regarding the evils of indian dances and later to admit thrill that lie ho has never seen the objectionable rites furthermore the white mau man must alend guilty to a lack of sympathetic when hen he observes the in dian aside from some ethnologists people who do io attend it tend fridian ceremonies generally genei ally see sec only the gyrations of of painted savages sometimes they alicy cannot refrain from showing shoeing their amusement and scorn sometimes they offend the indians seriously one mun man who was waa present at a navajo snake dance grow grew righteously indignant tit nt the sight of venomous snakes handled hund leil by tile the dancers who even een placed them in their mouths when one of the reptiles was laid on the ground the visitor impulsively took I 1 a I 1 rodn pop bottle and tried to kill it the white blitte man was the indians guest but the snake represented some religious symbol to tho the dan dancers cere and it was tor for the lie time being nn an object of veneration guest its as ho was the rash outsider jeopardized jeopardised his fits life show reverence to nature mr says that the ceremonies of tile indian are anro incorrectly called pagan no people have held n more reverent attitude toward nature and tile master of life than tile the indians indiana lie says ky by their symbolism they built up tip a system of associations so that thai when vi hen they saw the full moon or the lie budding trees the ripe corn or the forest animals atilina ls they thought of the legends leget ids aind the significance of those things in life considering their lack of advantages advantage s the indians indiana put into words nn fin asto astonishing bishing amount of truth regarding their universe tho indian regards the tribal rites find and all the symbols that goes with them with the same respect that any other race feels toward its religious observances A typical feast Is the iroquois planting ceremony which takes place in the spring the ne women and girls dramatize the pi planting pro processes c andring and sing the songs descriptive of each men bleu of the tribe preach and toll tell the others to treat one another kindly to avoid lying and gossip to live peaceably and to be thankful for their blessings there Is always a feast and dancing at tile the close of all festivals they believe that the master blaster of life seeing alie people dance knows that his children a are re content with what he has hag done f for or them and so bo lie he la Is pleased it la Is all the indians Ind fans way of rendering thanksgiving outsiders not knowing the language and symbolism are apt to conclude that vie tho indians tire are holding a guy gay party while as mr ir hewitt points out it if we compare the oc occasion caslon to something in our own civilization it la Is more accurate to compare it to a re meeting ting masks often misunderstood use of hideous masks by certain tribes Is a typical source of misunderstanding among white people the masks do not represent the indians indiana iden idea of beauty as many people believe but represent the seven winds which bring diseases each type of mask suggests the face of the victim of the disease brought by that wind on now new years day masked men go into each wigwam and put out tho fire clean away the ashes and light ceremonially a new fire this Is not a senseless esq rite the ashes of the old fire have love collected waste materials and germs for some mo months and cleaning the fireplace is 1 a health measure there Is no doubt that some dances of primitive tribes tave included practices which tile the white ulan man regards as reprehensible the indians practice of slashing themselves and one another r with knives d during the sun dance ling has been criticized so has the reckless handling of snakes both harmless and venomous at the snake dance charges of immorality in connection with some rites bave also been made the indians themselves say that few if f any dancers cut themselves now in the sun dance tile the idea back of the abe crit cutting ting was to show courage sween sixteen officials of a pueblo tribe recently denied the implication of immoral practices in their ceremonials by saying our dances are drama opera and poetry the womanhood of our pueblo are as sacred to ui ua as the symbolic dance we are trying to defend and pre preserve this statement was made in a petition that the ancestral dances might continue without interference from the government the indian Is said to be losing his racial identity but many tribes still cling to the ancestral faith and ceremonies |