Nightwalking
Associations---Amerind Trance Prayer earth Freedom
Tapes Found On---Camp 94
Origin---modern
Choreographer---Marina Bear
Notes
I quite often associate other dances dealing of the oppression
of people with this dance. Dances line Naw Ruz,
the story of another oppressed people
Parts of the choreography of this dance are similar to The Ghost
Dance, a prayer dance the Lakota Sioux partook in
to seek guidance from the ancestors It was this prayer dance, the
Ghost Dance, which the United States Government forbid the Lakota to partake
in when the people were held captive at Wounded Knee.
.
There, in the bitter plains cold of a December night, very close
to Christmas Eve, the Lakota, who had surrendered and were in the custody
of and surrounded by the US troops, chose to dance this prayer dance. They
were in a difficult place and seeking guidance from their ancestors.
.
It was then, when in the act of prayer, that the US Calvary opened
fire with gatlin gun, canon and rifle upon the all but unarmed men, women,
elders and children who were the people of the Lakota.
.
When the gatlin and canon were done the calvary charged in sabers
drawn and thrust through any who were left in sight and moving.
I believe it was nine men who received the medal of honor for that
act. To this day, despite the pleas of the Lakota people the United States
Government refuses to withdraw those medals of dark blood.
.
I have danced this dance, Nightwalking, with a young man whose
father was Lakota. He wept. And wept. And, weeping, asked me to never teach
this dance unless I told the story of Wounded Knee first.
.
And so I do.
.
And so do I request of you.
.
No hand hold
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