Drums, Dolls, & the Sweat

Simply a lovely weekend spent with the community here and enjoying lots of traditions.

Friday night several people from Bighorn District (the area where we live) were getting together to learn the new songs for the handgame tournaments coming up. (I'm still not entirely sure what the tournaments are like, but they're in high anticipation- kids are practicing all around school, getting excited, and folks are busy preparing.) Vandy, one of the ladies from school who is always thinking of us and including us, invited us to go over to the get-together to listen to the songs and maybe even learn some. When we got there, all the men were sitting in the living room area with their drums and the women were in the back at the table working on the designs and emblems for the outfits (they make new handgame outfits every year. lots of work!) My housemate Matt brought his drum and joined in on the songs, while I sat with the women and learned about the world of handgame outfits. Actually, I spent most of the time playing with some of the kids from school that were there, haha. But it was awesome to be there, part of this tradition they have, part of their close community. It almost felt like a holiday, with family gathered for a purpose and a buzz in the air. With Crow drum songs being belted out in the living room. It was just awesome.



Saturday Sarah & I spent a lovely morning at the Prayer Lodge in Busby for a workshop on Traditional Doll-making, presented by two Cheyenne women, Alberta Twenty Stands and Patty Oldman. (We were also happily surprised to see Meredith, Kathryn, & Kelly there, so we got to spend the day with our Ashland JV friends!) Alberta taught what she had learned from her mother and generations before her that were sent to boarding schools and had everything- clothes, hair, belongings, identity- stripped away from them. To find comfort, they got crafty and ripped the hems off of their dresses to make simple dolls. When the schools caught on and took them away, her mother made a small hole in her mattress and hid her doll in there, so that she may hold it and be comforted at night. When Alberta was a young girl and was given a Barbie doll, her mother took it away and taught her how to make their traditional dolls instead. Now she teaches the simple technique to children at St. Labre, to share the tradition and keep it alive.


Potluck lunch on the Prayer Lodge porch... it was a beautiful day!


So for the rest of the day, around a lovely pot luck lunch, we were given fabric and world of dolls to create. Patty's 9-year-old granddaughter Natawhee was there, an experienced doll-maker herself, so she kind of stuck by our table and helped us figure out how to make them. It was so much fun to create the little dolls. At the end of the day Natawhee looked at all of Sarah's and my dolls and gave them each a name. It was a special tradition to learn and share in and another beautiful day at the Prayer Lodge.


Natawhee and Sarah

Saturday night was also exciting because I went to my first sweat with our close teacher friend Lorna. Sweats are a spiritual ceremony that is important to the Crow culture (and to many other Plains Indians and other tribes.) You sit in a small sweat lodge as it is filled with steam for four rounds, each of its own prayerful significance. (It's also used for physical health, since sweating releases toxins and the heat soothes your muscles... but physical/spiritual health are seen as very connected.) I'm grateful that I finally got to experience the sweat and share in this tradition as well.

Hope you all had a beautiful weekend, too!