10
APRIL 1, 2016
S moke S ignals
14th annual Round Dance held
By Brent Merrill
Smoke Signals staff writer
They served lunch at midnight.
Up until midnight, they danced
with their ancestors.
Members of the Confederated
Tribes of Grand Ronde gathered
with Native people from all over
Indian Country on Friday, March
18, and Saturday, March 19, at the
Tribal gymnasium in Grand Ronde
for the Tribe’s traditional 14th an-
nual Agency Creek Round Dance.
A dozen tables were pushed to-
gether in the middle of the floor
surrounded by chairs. Maybe 40
to 50 various hand drums of all
colors and sizes sat on the table.
As many as two dozen drummers
stood together playing their hand
drums while dancers joined hands
and circled around the drummers
throughout the evening and early
into the next morning.
Young families, mothers with
their daughters, sisters, aunties
and nieces, cousins and uncles,
even grandmothers danced the cir-
cle. Groups of young girls, toddlers
barely walking their first steps and
visiting Elders joined them in the
dance.
Drummers, who ranged in
age from 8 to maybe 80, rotated
throughout the night, each taking
turns leading the songs.
Tribal Council Chairman Reyn
Leno was in attendance as was fel-
low Tribal Council member Denise
Harvey. Tribal Elders and former
Tribal Council members Kathryn
Harrison, Wink Soderberg, Ed
Larsen and Henry Petite were
there as was visiting Tribal Council
member Lillie Butler of Siletz.
Tribal member Cristina Lara
pushed her grandmother Beryle
Contreras around the circle in her
wheelchair.
Edmund Bull (from Little Pine
First Nation in Saskatchewan),
John Scabbyrobe (from White
Swan, Wash.) and Freddy Ike
(Wasco/Yakama) were tapped as
the Head Men for this year’s event.
On Saturday night, there were
as many as 400 people in the gym
and as many as 100 dancers for
one song.
The event is a celebration of so-
briety and community health and
wellness, and is hosted each
year by the Tribe’s Youth
Prevention Program.
More importantly, the
Round Dance organizers
want people to know the
Round Dance is a ceremony
first and foremost.
“We are reminded to al-
ways remember the intent
of these ceremonies such as
this Round Dance,” said Cree
Nation member Rocky Morin
of Alberta, Canada, while
addressing the audience on
Friday. “The past, present
and future come together in
some of these ceremonies that
we do.”
The event begins each year
with a pipe ceremony and
a sweat lodge ceremony on
Friday and another sweat on
Saturday before the dancing
and singing in the
evening.
“It’s a whole cer-
emony in itself, it’s
not just a bunch
of people coming
together and sing-
ing,” said Tribal
member and Cul-
tural Outreach Co-
ordinator Bobby
Mercier. “For us
here, we want to
do it right. It also
ties back to oth-
er ceremonies like
the Ghost Dance;
that’s how pow-
erful that Round
Dance is.”
Mercier said he
has been going
to Round Danc-
es for almost 20
years and that he
brought the Round
Dance to Grand
Ronde because of
Photos by Michelle Alaimo
the healing nature
of the ceremony Ila Mercier dances with the Hailey Lewis-Little, left, and Cheyenne Gilbert, right, during the
and what it can do 14th annual Agency Creek Round Dance held in the Tribal gym on Friday, March 18. The dance
for a Tribal com- also took place Saturday, March 19.
munity.
always come out. We are always
“There is the singing part and
treated really good by the Tribe. The
then there is the ceremony part –
organizers of the Round Dance, they
which is the stuff they (the invited
always go out of their way to take
singers) are doing actually for the
care of us and that really means a lot
people, the prayers, the bringing
to us. It makes us want to come back
of the pipe and the words of the
each time because there is a really
people,” said Mercier. “I saw that
it is the young who will carry this
good reciprocal relationship – they’re
part and I thought ‘We should have
ceremony into the future.
taking good care of us as singers
a Round Dance here’.”
“The Elders remind us to be
who have traveled from far and in
Mercier said he knew Grand
mindful when we’re at a ceremo-
return we’re bringing good energy.
Ronde people could benefit from
ny such as this to be respectful to
We’re trying to bring that positive
the collective wisdom of the singers
ourselves and to each other so that
healing, that life force to this com-
who are invited each year.
we can show our young people a
munity through the drums, through
“We could bring people from all
better way,” said Morin. “It’s very
the songs and through the traditional
across the country and Canada to
important that we do our best to
teachings of this ceremony.”
come sing for us and help us with
guide them in a good way so that
Mercier said the Round Dance
prayers because there are teach-
when they do come up they’ll under-
allows Tribal people to dance with
ings that there is only so much
stand the intent of this ceremony,
the people who came before them.
you can do in your own community
the meaning of these drums, these
“All of Friday until midnight and
because you have direct ties, direct
songs and how it is important to
all
of Saturday night until midnight
feelings about the people in your
follow that so that these drums
is
the
time that we are dancing with
community,” said Mercier.
will work for us, these songs will
our
ancestors,
we’re dancing with
The lack of direct ties to the com-
work for us.”
those
spirits
and
it is to bring that
munity allows visiting singers to
Morin said he is always welcomed
healing and teaching back. That’s
take those feelings away, he said.
when he accepts the invitation to
why people get up and dance – it’s
Morin said the Round Dance
make the annual journey to Grand
a healing dance,” said Mercier.
helps Indian people set an example
Ronde.
“After midnight on Saturday night
for their young people. Morin said
“It’s an honor,” said Morin. “We
it’s our time. Then it’s just us. We
put away the colors; we pull all the
fabric prints down that represent
those different directions of the
prayers that we asked for. The rest
of the night is ours to enjoy, to cel-
ebrate the life that we live today.”
Morin said the origins of the
Round Dance ceremony go deep
into the Cree culture and that
bringing the healing to other Tribal
communities is vital to keep the
traditional teachings of the cere-
mony alive.
“It is a way to honor the ancestors
of everyone. The ancestors of this
community and ours that travel
with us,” said Morin.
From left, Madison Ross, her mother
Sarah Ross and JC Rogers dance
during the 14th annual Agency
Creek Round Dance held in the
Tribal gym on Friday, March 18.