The Important Role Of The Roundhouse Dance In Native American Culture

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Native American Dancing Native American dancing plays a very important role in the Native culture. It is like going to church from an outsider’s perspective. Most traditional dancing takes place in the roundhouse. The roundhouse is a very scared place where dancers dance to pray and singers sing the songs. They pray for sick people, good health, healing, and a lot of the time pray for the elders. Dancing is a strong medicine and very powerful. Most roundhouses are privately owned and you must ask permission or be invited to dance in them. (Native California, 69) While in the roundhouse there are guidelines to be followed. Simple rules are placed to protect the watchers and dancers. When dancers dance in the roundhouse they are…show more content…
It could start around six and not end until three a.m. It just depends on how long the captains want to keep going. In the roundhouse there are singers. Usually there are about four singers sometimes more. The singers have instruments called clappers. Without music there is no dance, the most commonly heard instrument is the clapper. (Yosemite, 43) Clapper is made out of hollow elderberry, splat half way down the middle. Vibrated softly the clapper is an attention getter. Vibrated vigorously the clapper sounds like a rattlesnake. This is the native way of paying respect to an animal that moves with ease between the earth and the under world and is respected by all other animals. (Native California, 77) Another sound heard in the roundhouse is a whistle. Men dancers have whistles hung around there neck and use them during certain dances. They are made out of bone. There is also a drummer. In the roundhouse today the big drum is made by a trench in the floor covered by nearly the flat section of a very large hollow tree trunk or a sheet of plywood. (Native California, 77) A large pole with a tip of burlap leather strikes the drum. The drum is the sound of the bear, to which respect is paid by drumming. (Indian Life,

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