New Growth Moving Fire Stories
Moving Fire Stories Activity
Campfires remind us of the ceremonial and cooking fires our ancestors carried with them from their homelands to Indian Territory. Stories, songs, and soundscapes provide us with new ways to appreciate tribal histories and realities.
- During this activity, you will reflect on what you learned in New Growth.
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Listen to or read the transcript about cross-cultural gatherings.
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Then use this organizer to capture your new understandings and begin to develop a found poem about tribal cultures.
- Lastly, summarize all of your observations and found poetry
Audio Transcript
Singing for the Future
Narrators: James “Ducky” Anquoe (Kiowa), Leonard Cozad, Jr. (Kiowa), Phil “Joe Fish” Dupoint (Kiowa), Herb Adson (Pawnee), and Oliver Little Cook (Ponca)
[background: “Pawnee Song” sung by Southern Thunder; “Ponca Song” sung by Ponca Singers, “Ponca Song” sung by Ponca Singers, “Kiowa Warrior Descendant’s Gourd Dance Song” sung by Kiowa Singers]
(L.C.J): That drum is a wonderful gift, what he (Creator) gave to all the Indian Nations here in the United States. Even there in Canada, in the reserves in Canada. We all learn to work with the drum. I know that we all get a good feeling about it, it helps us.
(H.A.): Some people come to our dances, they say, just to feel good, just to hear the drumbeat, just to remember the old times. All that is a blessing. Our Pawnee music goes back, way back, in the real ancient times. Music was part of the Pawnee people, part of our culture.
(P.D.): Any ceremony that we have, there’s music to it, there’s song to it. That was from day one all the way up to now.
(O.L.): We call it Heloska in our language. War Dance, as we know it today as powwow. Of course, back in those days it wasn’t called a powwow. Probably 80% of our history as Ponca people is captured in our songs, that’s the beauty of our songs. That was the birth of Fancy Dance, probably in the early 1900s.
(J.A.): A lot of their songs came down this way. It brought these songs and dancers from different drums, made them more part of it. It’s come to that kind of way where different tribes started spreading that dance. It’s good, it gave me pride, to be the first Southern drums in Canada from Toronto to Vancouver, to bring tribes together. There’s so much to that Powwow.
(P.D.): In order to feel that spirituality, and everything, that drum there has to have a good tone to it. That tone and that singing fits together.
(L.C.J.): We always want to say this, that we respect that drum. So, I believe in that, that the drum is a good instrument. I love that drum. They were special, the elders, and I always appreciate them for what they left us. They left us something good to take care of. Now, all we have now is that song and what the words mean in that Kiowa Warrior Descendant song. They still use those songs today, you know.
Now, I’m trying to teach my grandson and he says, how does this song go? And, I tell him ... [sings Kiowa Warrior Descendant’s song].
Next Up
Now that you have explored all parts of the OKLA HOMMA experience, you will circle back and re-examine the Indigenous Brilliance mural that began this journey.