The Straight Dance, also known as Southern Straight Dance or Southern Traditional, is a style of Native American

pow wow A powwow (also pow wow or pow-wow) is a gathering with dances held by many Native American and First Nations communities. Powwows today allow Indigenous people to socialize, dance, sing, and honor their cultures. Powwows may be private or p ...

dancing. The dance recounts the story of hunting or war parties searching for the enemy.

Origins

The Straight Dance is attributed to the

Southern Plains The Great Plains (french: Grandes Plaines), sometimes simply "the Plains", is a broad expanse of flatland in North America. It is located west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains, much of it covered in prairie, steppe, an ...

tribes The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide usage of the term in English is in the discipline of anthropology. This definition is contested, in part due to confl ...

in Oklahoma. The Hethuska, a prominent war society of the

Ponca The Ponca ( Páⁿka iyé: Páⁿka or Ppáⁿkka pronounced ) are a Midwestern Native American tribe of the Dhegihan branch of the Siouan language group. There are two federally recognized Ponca tribes: the Ponca Tribe of Nebraska and the P ...

s, is commonly attributed with the creation of the dance; however, the

Pawnee Pawnee initially refers to a Native American people and its language: * Pawnee people * Pawnee language Pawnee is also the name of several places in the United States: * Pawnee, Illinois * Pawnee, Kansas * Pawnee, Missouri * Pawnee City, Nebraska ...

, Omaha,

Osage The Osage Nation, a Native American tribe in the United States, is the source of most other terms containing the word "osage". Osage can also refer to: * Osage language, a Dhaegin language traditionally spoken by the Osage Nation * Osage (Unicode ...

, and

Kiowa Kiowa () people are a Native Americans in the United States, Native American tribe and an indigenous people of the Great Plains of the United States. They migrated southward from western Montana into the Rocky Mountains in Colorado in the 17th a ...

tribes have sometimes been credited with creating the dance. In the 20th century, when several warrior societies began to dissolve, the purpose of the war dances changed. The Straight Dance evolved from these war dances as a way to keep the tradition and history.

Description

The Straight Dance is considered to be more dignified or formal than other pow wow dances. The general steps for the dance involve a "toe-heel" step where the dancer taps the ground with his toe on the first drum beat and then places his whole foot down on the second beat. The dance resembles a hunting or warring party and therefore the dancer must not dance backwards as that would symbolize a retreat from the enemy. Instead they always dance clockwise around the circle. As a Southern dance, it is danced to a Southern Drum. The Straight Dance regalia consists of a ribbon shirt, tab leggings, aprons, and a headdress (usually a roach or a turban). These are decorated and accessorized with finger-woven garters, beaded belts, vests or bandoliers,

German silver Nickel silver, Maillechort, German silver, Argentan, new silver, nickel brass, albata, alpacca, is a copper alloy with nickel and often zinc. The usual formulation is 60% copper, 20% nickel and 20% zinc. Nickel silver does not contain the eleme ...

armbands, and scarfs. One of the main features of the Straight Dance is an otter dragger, also referred as an otterhide, which hangs from the dancer's back and drags on the ground. It is normally decorated with medals, beadwork, ribbonwork, or feathers. Straight dancers generally carry a fan, mirror board, or tail stick in their hands.

References

External links

Pow Wows.com: Straight Dancing
{{Native American Dances Native American dances Indigenous culture of the Great Plains