THe American Museum Journac 
VoLUME XV 
MARCH, 1915 
NUMBER 3 
AMERICAN INDIAN DANCES 
THE INDIAN DANCE OFTEN A PRAYER BY THE TRIBE TO THE GODS OF THE 
HARVEST, OF WAR OR THE CHASE — USUALLY IN CONTRAST WITH PLEASURE-— 
SEEKING, SENSUAL DANCING AS KNOWN AMONG CIVILIZED RACES 
By Robert H. Lowie 
HE word “dance,” as applied by 
a the Indians has a meaning very 
different from that which it car- 
ries In our own language. When we hear 
of dancing, we think, first of all, of music 
and steps. These features are of course 
not lacking in aboriginal dancing, but 
they are completely overshadowed by 
other aspects of culture with which they 
are associated. To put it briefly, our 
dancing appears in the same context with 
restaurants, hotels, débutantes, attempts 
at a social rapprochement of the sexes. 
In Indian society, dancing is largely con- 
nected with war and agriculture and the 
chase, with processions, magical per- 
formances and religious observances, in 
short, with the serious affairs of life. 
Indian dances as far as the steps are 
concerned are often of remarkable sim- 
plicity. A widespread “squaw dance” 
found among the Shoshone, Crow and 
other northwestern tribes, consists sim- 
ply in the circle of dancers shuffling the 
feet alternately to the left, each man 
two 
women, with his right arm around his 
in the circle standing between 
partner’s shoulder or waist, or in some 
cases with arms encircling a partner on 
each side. With short intermissions 
and an occasional introduction of the 
war dance for variety’s sake, a squaw 
dance of this type is sometimes kept up 
all night, to the supreme gratification of 
the performers. 
The Tobacco Dance of the Crow In- 
dians, is, if possible, of even simpler 
character. The participants stand up 
several in a row, holding sacred objects 
in their hands, and alternately bend each 
knee and raise or lower each band with- 
out at all moving from their position. 
The highly popular Grass Dance of the 
Plains Indians is of a more strenuous 
character. Only men take part, and 
they move about briskly, sometimes in 
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