Dine' Song & Dance.ADORNMENT






Moccasins, southwestern Indigenous style
Photo by Venaya Yazzie
ALL RIGHTS RES ERV ED

  This weekend I was able to attend a social dance of the Dine' people in the Four Corners area of the southwest. The Dine' Song and Dance is a dance adapted from the traditional Dine' ceremony, the Enemyway, which is a healing event.  The dance itself requires two people in which the woman gets to choose a partner to dance with, she must not be refused, but if she is then the male must pay her. This part of the traditional dance has intentions of general socializing between young men and women with hopes that they may each find a suitable mate that is not clan-related. In many ways this dance could be equated to the formal dances of American culture. The difference is that this dance is done with enhanced respect and honor of traditional Dine' cultural ways of being and belief.

During the Dine' Song and Dance the people dance clockwise in a cirlce with their chosen partners. They look regal in their Dine' best! Each dancer ADORNS themselves with the best their families can do, the finest turquoise and silver jewerly, woven dresses, satin skirts and velvet shirts, and moccasins can be viewed as each dance in unison with the singer and thee water drum. Their are two styles of dance: the Two-Step and the Skip Dance. The dancers innately know which dance is which as they can tell by the beat of the drum.

It is during this time when both men and woman are ADORNED in INDIGENOUS fashion for a reason, to be beautiful and as an Dine' elder put it, "shining for the Creator to see." The way in which the male and female are ADORNED is distinct to their gender. For men the common (modern) regalia is a velvet collared shirt, white pants, dyed rust colored cow hide moccassins, shoulder-bag, bow guard, silver belt and plenty of TURQUOISE ADORNMENT via necklaces, earrings, bracelets and pins. Traditionally the males will wear their hair (if long hair) in a bundle tied with white cotton string. This is called a ts'ii yaal.

The Dine' women, as matriarchs of the People, are ADORNED beautifully. The ADORNMENT expression is varied from the interests of each woman, but the basic outfit will include: a velvet or satin blouse and skirt, or a woven wool dress called a biil dress. She will also wear distinct foot wear which is called ke'lchii, which roughly translates to "red shoes." The moccasins are made from cow hide and dyed a rust color and attached to them are wide bands of white buckskin, which are tied continuously around the womans ankle up to the calf and knee. For her Dine' ADORNMENT in the Song and Dance the woman will also wear her best turquoise and silver squash blossom necklaces, and earrings, rings and bracelets. Her hair will be also tied up in a hair bundle made to sit higher on the back of her head, she will have tied her hair with 12 strings of cotton and will make it longer at the ends so it can hang.

The Dine' Song and Dance is a wonderful dance with beautiful songs and rich heritage or southwerstern INDIGENOUS ADORNMENT. It is a special place where ancestral history is learned and also perpetuated, it is surreal in many ways.

I have included a video recording of the Song and Dance below.

Blessings,
Venaya.

Youtube video by Venaya:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAg_49pqpXQ