#7 - PT 1 - Native Social Order: Identity and cooperation from songs - Guest: Jason HeavyRunner

Tribal Research Specialist: The Podcast

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In this episode, the IRC team begins to discuss how social order, manners, cooperation, and identity are maintained through traditional songs. The recent advent of the "Owl Dance" is discussed as an evolved dance that stems from victory in war and the quest for love.
The IRC team is also joined by a special guest, Jason HeavyRunner (Salish/Piikani). Jason is serving on the IRC's advisory board and currently works for. He holds a Masters of Arts in Social Work from Walla Walla University. He is working as a Foster Care Permanency Planner for the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. Jason has maintained a balance of participation in his tribal customs from both his parent and has gained knowledge from his travel to the Tribal communities across the West.
The Owl Dance was explained by Louis J. Tellier, an announcer at a celebration in Arlee Montana in 1958, as originating from the Gros Ventre back in 1910. For reference, James Teit, while visiting Montana in the early 1900’s, collected material from Salish informants Michel Revais. Revais explained that the Owl Dance is looked upon as distinctly a woman's dance, and is said to have been introduced from the Eastern Tribes around 1870. The Team uses these understandings to further discuss how songs and dances broker the exchange of manners to foster cooperation between tribal groups and within tribes. The discussion of songs as a necessary means to facilitate good feelings and to pass along news of victories in war was purposefully the maintenance of identity.
Further, some claim that the Owl Dance was of Cree origin and others say that it came from the Crow. In 1910, another informant noted that the dance was called the “Choosing Dance” from the fact that either a man or woman chose a partner. As a side note, the Gros Ventre, according to Rodnick (1978), received the Owl Dance from the Sioux around 1920. The dance was based on a victory social dance and the songs that were used at the time were based on the defeating of the Germans in WWI. Also, Rodnick explained that the Assiniboine received the Omaha Dance from the Sioux in 1872. This provides for further discussion centered on the reality that, with termination and assimilation policies from the Federal Government, many Native people are of split Tribal identity. This reality creates a potential for discrimination and exclusion within our Tribal societies. How can songs and customs evolve to continue to manage and create social order to mitigate this reality?
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Guest: Jason HeavyRunner
Hosts: Aaron Brien, Kamiah Dumontier, Serra Hoagland, Marty Lopez, Brenda Shepard, Shandin Pete

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