2008 Woodie Awards
The Greensboro Cultural Center celebrates Native American Heritage Month
Sue Edelberg
Issue date: 11/7/06 Section: Arts & Entertainment
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The festival took place outdoors on the grassy arena of Price-Brian Amphitheater and the Cultural Center's Festival Park. Though the day was a cold one for outdoor activity, a sky with no clouds allowed the sun to keep the audience decently warm.
Though most would not expect a Native American festival to be amplified, the amphitheater was in full use, primarily by a master of ceremonies who was a descendent of the Cherokee Indian tribe. In his civilian clothes of a sweater and jeans, he spoke with a rather thick Southern accent and was quite entertaining to the crowd with his laid-back sense of humor.
Throughout the four-hour festival, the sound of construction from Friendly Avenue provided noise pollution and the smell of tar floating into the small crowd of attendees and artisans. Certainly not a part of Native American culture, it was forgotten at times with the smell of the Indian Taco food stand and the musical dance demonstrations.The master of ceremonies introduced several dance numbers, some calling for audience participation. In the "Bear Dance," a Cherokee musician sang a chant-like melody and shook a rattle into the microphone, as a group of men and women, old and young, danced together in a walking circle, moving like bears until they heard their cue to turn to the person next to them and growl like an angry grizzly.
In the traditional "Grass Dance" young adult men, as well as a few young boys dancing in earnest to try to keep up with their elders, danced in the way of the Plains Indians where they danced as a means of trampling down the tall prairie grass for practical use. The master of ceremonies called the original dancers "the first Indian lawn mower."
Next was the contemporary "Fancy Dance," which was told to be performed by the Hot Dog Boys. This dance is the very fast, athletic dance many people have seen performed where the dancers wear lots of feathers to accent their body movement. The master of ceremonies warned the audience that, "If you hear a sonic boom, duck, 'cause it could be a flyin' moccasin."
Between some of the dancing, the audience was entertained with a sample of the American Indian Flute, in which the master of ceremonies played a white pine six-holed Western version of the instrument.
As traditional gender roles hold, the women danced their own dance, which was slower-paced, and had several bouts of turning their bodies into the center out of respect for the males in their tribe. Dancing along with the women and little girls were two girls of Native American royalty, who were crowned Little Miss and Miss Guilford Native.
As for the costume-garb, the master of ceremonies said they were called "regalia," in which he humorously admitted, "Yes I know it's a French word. But we stole it, we like it, and we're gonna use it." He explained that the feathers were from turkeys and chickens, and that the head dancers were wearing Buckskin and Bald Eagle feathers. The contemporary lighter version that many of the women were wearing was called "cloth regalia." The costumes were very bright in color, though some appeared to be mass manufactured, or at least put together by hand from polyester or nylon cloth and dyed feathers out of a bag.
The other attraction of the festival was the vendors, offering a strange blend of hand-made traditional items and store-like imported goods.
"I hand make all of my stuff right here in Greensboro, but over there [motioning to another stand] they imported from China. They're not supposed to do that," said one artisan vendor, a slightly bitter Native American woman.
There was also face painting for a dollar and free crafts - faceless dolls with Senora Lynch and clay turtles with Barbara Locklear.
At the end of the day, a little girl cashed in on her free raffle ticket and won a videotape copy of the movie "Windtalkers," autographed by Roger Willie, a Navaho Native American married to a Cherokee tribeswoman in North Carolina.
To get a dose of Native American art, you can come year round to the Greensboro Cultural Center at 200 North Davie St. and check out their Guilford Native American Art Gallery and Gift Shop. You can also visit www.guilfordnative.org to find out more about the organization that put on the festival.
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