bBackfoot straight dancers

[creecher119]

dose any one have a knowledge of wether or not the Blackfoot Nation has straight dance and if so would you mind shareing this info with me i am of Blackfoot desent and would like to make a set to reflect that
thank you james

[Scabbraidz]

I never heard of a Blackfoot straight dancer. I always thought your people were chicken dancers. Seeing that your tribe invented the dance.

[blueskysmom]

bBackfoot straight dancers

First, are you Blackfoot or Blackfeet and what side of the border do you come from? Second, don't you have tribal peeps where you come from to tell you those things? Wannabee, maybe?

[wind dancer]

Blackfoot Straight Dancers

There are no Blackfoot Straight Dancers, however, there are Blackfoot Straight Traditional Dancers (Old Style). Similar to Sioux Old Style Dancers. As for Blackfoot tribes....there are Siksika, Kainai, Peigan, and South Peigan from the Blackfoot Confederacy.

[creecher119]

i am 1\4 blackfoot by my dad side of the family and have been razed white we are all from savanah ga. and there is no info on the styles down here or on the internet that i can find so i was shooting in the dark hopeing there was.

[WhoMe]

i am 1\4 blackfoot by my dad side ... and have been razed white ....

Okay. Now that we got that straight... "what color's your other foot?"

[creecher119]

Okay. Now that we got that straight... "what color's your other foot?"

wow that realy made me lol

[Historian]

i am 1\4 blackfoot by my dad side of the family and have been razed white we are all from savanah ga. and there is no info on the styles down here or on the internet that i can find so i was shooting in the dark hopeing there was.

I have heard of Southern Blackfoot, also known as Blackfoot-Cherokee. Being that you're from Georgia, might this be the case?

[legalstraight]

That Southern Blackfoot thing is actually a mistranslation- it is a sept of the Shawnee

[creecher119]

I have heard of Southern Blackfoot, also known as Blackfoot-Cherokee. Being that you're from Georgia, might this be the case?

no i am not southern Blackfoot or Shawnee me and dad are northern Blackfoot

[legalstraight]

I asked a fella from one of them blackfoot groups in canada about this and he said no, war dancing never made it out there.

[Gledanh Zhinga]

I've heard that the Kaispa or Parted Hair Society dance was the Blackfeet version of old style "war dancing." I read that it was transferred to the Blackfeet by the Assiniboine in the early 1900's. I'm sorry that I don't know the details.

A few years ago, the tribal council passed an edict that the tribe was to be formally known as Blackfeet, not Blackfoot.

[chipster]

As far as the traditional dance societies of the Blackfeet, there aren't southern straight dance styles. In powwows, there are dancers of southern tribes who dance northern dance styles. Very few dancers of northern tribes dance southern dance styles. Same for singers. If you would to dance the southern straight dance style, find info for that.

[Historian]

One thing that I can pass on, is that through my years of research into many written sources and interviews with quite a number of elders from numerous tribes, the Omaha/Grass Dance "seems" to have been tranferred, given or passed on in the following manner. Keep in mind, that this represents an educated theory at best, and there are still many differing opinions.

First, because a number of Pawnee sources to have the Iruska Dance origins prior to the Omaha/Ponca Hethuska origins, I will start with them.

Pawnee => Omaha (cir. 1820) ?
Pawnee => Arikara (cir. 1860)
Arikara => Crow
Crow => Shoshoni
Crow => Blackfoot (cir. 1883)
Blackfoot => Sarsi
Blackfoot => Flathead
Blackfoot => Nez Perce
Blackfoot => Yakima
Blackfoot => Kutenai

Next a number of Omaha/Ponca sources claim to have the Hethuska Dance origins which were once also Kaw, Quapaw, and Osage traditions hundreds of years ago, but the Omaha/Ponca maintained the traditions and the other three tribes did not. Later, after the Omaha and the Ponca split, the Omaha and Ponca passed on the traditions independently.

Omaha => Kiowa (cir. 1840)
Omaha => Yankton (cir. 1840)
Omaha => Yanktonai (cir. 1845)
Yankton => Lakota (cir. 1860)
Lakota => Assiniboine
Lakota => Gros Ventre
Lakota => Santee
Santee => White Earth Ojibway (1891)
White Earth Ojibway => Northern Potawatomi
White Earth Ojibway => Menomoni (1911)
White Earth Ojibway => Ho-Chunk
Northern Potawatomi => Kansas Potawatomi
Northern Potawatomi => Sac & Fox
Northern Potawatomi => Kickapoo

Ponca => Kaw (1881)
Ponca => Greyhorse Osage (1883)
Ponca => Skidi Pawnee (1911)
Ponca => Comanche (1916)
Ponca => Apache (1919)
Ponca => Sac & Fox
Ponca => Southern Cheyenne
Kaw => Pawhuska Osage (1884)
Pawhuska Osage => Hominy Creek Osage (1885)

While there are many other Plains and Prairie tribes that have Hethuska Dance, Omaha Dance, Grass Dance traditions, they are not as easy to trace the origins.

In addition, depending on the geographic location of the tribe or nation receiving the dance traditions, the tribe or nation that was passing the traditions on, and the time period they were passed, determined whether the traditions would evolve into a Northern Traditional dance style or a Southern Straight dance style.

I hope this helps.