Achieving Wellness Goals through a Traditional Native American Cultural Event

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Achieving Wellness Goals through a Traditional
Native American Cultural Event

• Marilyn Rasmussen Ph.D., Associate Professor
• Ruth Schmeichel, Extension Educator
• South Dakota State University
• Brookings, South Dakota
• Shape Up Family Style

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Overview

• Health and wellness event that is culturally
  appropriate
• Collaborating with community organizations
• Native American music, dances, food, ceremonies
  and dress
• Significance of dancing among Native American
  youth Teen Volunteer Presenters
• Exploring opportunities for your program and
  assessment of collaboration and sustainability

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Five Levels of Relationships
Collaboration

• Collaboration Roles defined. Sustainable.
  Communication at all levels. Formalized
  evaluation. Consensus used for decision making.
  Ongoing commitment.
• Coalition Joint decision making. Shared
  leadership. Roles defined with written
  agreements. Develops new resources. Commitment
  for 3 or more years.
• Partnership Roles defined and links formalized.
  Develop resources budget together. Shared
  leadership.
• Cooperation or Alliance Semi-formal links.
  Facilitative leaders. Roles somewhat defined
• Networking Low-key leadership. Minimal decision
  making. Informal communication. Roles loosely
  defined.

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CYFAR Partnership in Corson County, SD

• Extension
  SDSU Cooperative Extension
  Corson County Extension
• Education McLaughlin
  Public Schools Sitting Bull College,
  Bismarck Johnson OMalley Coordinator
• Health
  Tribal Diabetes Program Public Health
  Clinic (IHS)
• Community
  Teen Volunteers Physical
  Activity Director

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Working Together Making the Pieces Fit

• Challenges
• Frequent administrative changes at the school
• Program direction of each of the different
  entities matching their priorities with our
  priorities
• Corson County courthouse fire

• Benefits
• Program is stronger with the participation of the
  partners
• Use of the communitys facilities
• Involvement of others provided a type of back-up
  system

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CYFAR Partnership in Corson County, SD

• Wacipi Honoring the Educational Journey
• Special Recognition for Eighth Grade
• and Graduating Seniors

Underlying principle Drop-out rate from 9th to
12th grade Education is one of the keys to health
well-being Educational accomplishment is a goal
of the partners
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Lakota Traditions

• The Sioux people represent the second largest
  Native American tribe in the U.S.
• Primarily located in the northern and central
  Great Plains. Seven reservations in South Dakota
  and four reservations in North Dakota
• Three divisions of Sioux people
• Lakota largest group
• Dakota
• Nakota

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Native American Celebration the Powwow

• Multi-faceted
• Dress or regalia
• Rituals (example eagle feather retrieval)
• Honoring ceremonies
• Native language
• Give-aways

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Native American Celebration the Powwow

• Songs in combination with drum music
• Types of dances

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Traditional Plains Tribes Clothing Styles Women

• Traditional Dresses
• Often portrayed in films, such as Dances with
  Wolves
• Full-length buckskin dress
• Heavily beaded yoke
• Fringed, more recently with very long fringe
• Decoration may be quilling instead of beads or in
  addition to beads

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Accessories Knife sheath, bag, belt, leggings,
braid wraps, moccasins, bone breast-plate
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Traditional Plains Tribes Clothing Styles Women

• Traditional Wool Dresses
• Straight cut full-length dresses
• Made of wool or trade cloth strouding
  imported from England
• Yoke decorated with elks teeth, cowrie shells or
  dentalia
• Ribbon banding on hem and sleeves

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Themes in Traditional Womens Dress

• Cultural authentication
• Differentiate dresses from historic dresses
  and/or from other contemporary dresses
• Traditional dress as an integrating factor within
  the culture
• Enculturation process teaching youth about
  Native dress, customs, symbols, dances and songs

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Cultural Authentication

• Authentic
• Brain-tanned hides
• Bird and porcupine quills
• Elk teeth, cowrie shells, bones
• Sinew dried tendons of elk or buffalo, used as
  thread
• Cultural adaptations
• European glass beads
• Commercially produced hides
• Imitation elk teeth and shells
• Nylon thread

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Differentiation

• Different from dresses of other contemporaries
• Different from 19th century dresses
• Traditional with a modern feel
• Points of differentiation
• Geometric designs
• Beaded background color either unique or
  stunning
• Amount and length of fringe

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Cultural Integration

• Dresses are a symbol of advocacy to preserve the
  culture.
• Cultural connectivity
• Acceptance by others in their culture
• Full participation in powwows, especially in the
  Grand Entry, a source of pride at a local powwow

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Enculturation

• Many children, young women and some men receive
  instruction in tanning hides, beading and other
  traditional art forms from traditional teachers,
  that is, parents, grandparents, other relatives
• Some learned in boarding school or from a friend

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Enculturation

• Young dancers often do not bead their own dresses
  very time consuming and requires practice
• Beading is often done by a relative

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Significance of Dance Among Youth Youth
Volunteer Interviews

• Erika Schneider
• Tequisha McLaughlin
• Morijah Mittleider
• Zach Buechler
• J.T. White Mountain

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Jingle Dancing

• Female dancers
• Tin cones are attached to the dress originally
  chewing tobacco can lids
• Dancing motion shakes the cones and creates sound

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Fancy Shawl Dancing

• Female dancers
• Colorful and elaborate regalia with calf-length
  skirt and beaded or sequined vest
• Long fringed shawl is held out at the elbows
• Fancy footwork and fast spins to mimic a
  butterfly

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Traditional Male Dancing

• Breastplate, back bustle made of Eagle or hawk
  feathers, matching arm bands, ankle bells and
  breechcloth
• Feathered porcupine headdress
• Dance movements including active head movements
  re-enacting warriors searching the ground for
  enemies or prey

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Grass Dance

• Very old, dates to moving camp from place to
  place
• Prepared the earth in a new location for the
  people to follow
• Long flowing fringe of yarn or ribbons to
  represent the grass, a roach headdress, ankle
  bells, beadwork and moccasins
• Movements represent the flow of prairie grass in
  the wind.

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Grand Entry
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Female Dancers
Fancy Shawl, Jingle, Traditional Cloth,
Traditional Beaded
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Lakota Young Male Dancer
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Lakota Male Dancer
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Activity

• Describe the culture of one of the audiences you
  work with (remember that culture does not
  necessarily mean ethnicity).
• List 3-5 goals of your program.
• Think about how one or more of these goals could
  be achieved through a culturally relevant
  activity, event or series of activities/events.

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Sharing
Culture
Activity or Event
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Defining Collaboration

• A process through which parties who see different
  aspects of a problem or issue can constructively
  explore their differences and search for
  solutions that go beyond their own limited vision
  of what is possible.
• Gray, B. (1989). Collaborating. San Francisco,
  CA Josses-Bass.
• Collaborating is the result of a community
  awareness of the need to find solutions to the
  inter-related, complex problems facing youth and
  families, in the face of shrinking or scarce
  resources.

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Collaborate? Finding Your Group

• Is collaboration appropriate for all communities?
• Is collaboration appropriate for all issues?
• What is the appropriate level of linkage?
• Network
• Cooperation
• Partnership
• Coalition
• Collaboration

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Collaboration Checklist Finding Your Groups
Purpose

• A Collaboration Checklist helps a group assess
  its need for and capability of forming an
  effective collaboration.
• Think of a group you currently network, partner,
  cooperate, or collaborate with.
• Identify the groups
• Strengths
• Challenges

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Collaboration Checklist

• Evaluate your community network.
• Does your group aspire to become an effective
  collaboration?
• Is your youth and/or family issue one that needs
  the assets of a collaborative group to resolve?
• Use the Collaboration Checklist to evaluate your
  groups current efforts.
• Examining each factor separately will help your
  group address its strengths and challenges.

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References

• Borden, L.M., Perkins, D.F. (1999). Assessing
  your collaboration A self evaluation tool.
  Journal of Extension, 37(2).
• Gray, B. (1989). Collaborating. San Francisco,
  CA Josses-Bass.