>>Dr. Nelson: We've been talking a lot about
some of the history of the the grounds. One
of the things that I think people might not
be entirely clear on is when we're talking
about the grounds, we're talking about the
stomp dance, and so I'm I'm wondering if you
could tell us a little bit about the dancing
part. What's what's kind of encapsulated there?
What what is the dance all about?
>>Chief Comingdeer: The dance itself is the
coming together portion of of our system.
It's more the later stages of activities that's
gone on. It's, we don't start off with dancing.
And dancing, it takes a lot of work. It takes
a lot of meeting, of ballgames, cleaning to
prepare for a dance. But once we reach the
level to assemble and open the the ground
up for a dance, it's something that's done
late at night after all of our fasting's been
done, and the food's been prepared, and we've
shared everything we have with our visiting
ceremonial grounds that come. When the hour
comes to start dancing, then we we begin and
we continue to morning. We dance 'til sun
up, the start of a new day, and that's our
medicine's waiting on us too. Just like the
new sun comes up and cleans the earth with
new light, then then the medicine cleans us
in a similar fashion. It's not easy to get
to reach the point to where you can dance.
It's not just something we show up and do,
build a fire and dance. It's a seasonal preparation
for that, and everything's specific in order
for that to happen. It's very dynamic, and
each ground has a list of things that they
go through, everything from pregnancy within
the ground, to death within the ground, the
right time of the year, all those things dictate
how you how you are going to continue on.
But the dance itself is done in the middle,
you know. It's it's done around the main fire,
and that's when all the singing and the the
beautiful rhythm that's carried by our women
with the shells that they wear on their legs.
If everything's done right, and we've done
our job inside inside the square grounds,
when we enter in and we assemble around that
fire and the dancing begins, every person,
every single heartbeat out there is in perfect
harmony. Every step is with the step of the
one in front and the one behind, and the voices
harmonize. It's at that point that you know
that you feel that without even speaking a
word, it the people know, they feel that it's
a job well done. And so when when that whole
community can come together, and all those
individuals become one inside, then you know
that it's it's perfect time to be Indian.
>>Dr. Nelson: That's that's fantastically
put, and I think a a really a beautiful way
of of understanding how it is that you're
talking about folks coming together here.
