INDIAN DANCES OF THE SOUTHWEST 
By Herbert J. Spinden 
HE dances of the 
Pueblo Indians are never en- 
tirely free from a religious idea. 
numerous 
Some are so deeply religious that they 
are jealously guarded from all profane 
eyes and are held at night in under- 
ground lodges. The War Captain’s 
men keep watch 
at every road 
so that no out- 
sider can glimpse 
the masked 
dancers imper- 
sonating gods. 
Even in the 
underground 
lodges the faces 
of the uniniti- 
ated children are 
covered — while 
the dance is in 
progress so that 
they may hear 
but not 
This 
ness 1s most de- 
veloped in the 
see. 
secretive- 
villages along 
the Rio Grande, 
in New Mexico, 
where the native 
religion has en- 
countered — the 
opposition of the 
Catholic Church 
for nearly four 
two years ago 
Other dances are held in 
the plaza of the village, and here visitors 
are usually tolerated while on the annual 
feast day of each pueblo they are wel- 
comed to a more or less innocuous enter- 
tainment. 
The characteristic 
hundred years. 
dances of the 
Pueblo Indians are strikingly different 
from those wild gyrations that we asso- 
and warlike 
There are, to be sure, 
ciate with the nomadic 
Plains Indians. 
a number of such dances — Enemy 
Dances they are called — that have been 
taken bodily from this or that wild tribe 
and are known 
by the tribe’s 
name, such as 
the Cheyenne 
Danee, the 
Pawnee Dance, 
the Navajo 
Dance. These 
foreign dances 
are mostly con- 
cerned with war 
and are not re- 
garded as having 
any important 
religious charac- 
ter: — Yet its 
significant that 
title to use them 
was obtained by 
purchase or 
trade before the 
dances were in- 
cluded in the 
village — reper- 
tory. Ofcourse 
the foreign songs 
had to be learned 
by rote and a 
Photo by E. W. Deming 
From a performance of the Buffalo Dance twenty- 
special set of 
costumes made in keeping with the place 
of origin. 
In one of the introduced dances that 
a woman’s dance 
is popular at Taos 
and therefore not gymnastic — there is 
first, in the center, a chorus of men. 
Some of these sit around a large drum 
103 
