$5K grant goes to preserve Grass Dance

The Grass Dance is an important facet of nearly every powwow held by northern plains tribes in the western United States and Canada.

Traditionally performed only by male members of tribal warrior societies, today the Grass Dance is often organized as a competitive event, at which dancers can earn thousands of dollars in prize money.

However the Grass Dance once held a much deeper cultural meaning, forming only a single component of a broad tradition of rituals; preserved and enforced by tribal elders belonging to Grass Dance Societies. Being invited to perform the Grass Dance was not simply a matter of individual choice.

“You had to earn the privilege by working your way up in the Grass Dance Society — by deeds and how you carried yourself in your daily life,” said Raymond Gone, an enrolled member of the Gros Ventre tribe and tourism director for Discover Fort Belknap. “You had to be taught these things. You had to learn from example. It taught our young people the Indian values of respect, honor and trust. The traditional Grass Dance sat upon the fringe of being holy.”

According to Gone, the Gros Ventre tribe obtained the Grass Dance sometime between 1875 and 1880, but as time progressed the dance slowly began to morph into something less traditional and eventually disappeared. A small remnant of the traditional dance still shows up in modern-day powwows, but its actual source and influences have been lost.

A recent $5,000 grant made by the Montana History Foundation aims to help the Gros Ventre and Assiniboine people rediscover the origins of songs and ceremonies associated with the Grass Dance, and to record them for future generations.

“This project is a major undertaking and one that is critical to Montana’s American Indian heritage,” said Charlene Porsild, president of the Montana History Foundation. “We are so proud to be able to assist in this endeavor and can’t wait to see the results.”

According to Porsild, the Montana History Foundation was contacted in 2014 by Gone, who heads the Fort Belknap tribes’ history and tourism arm. After a lengthy and detailed application process, the foundation approved funding for a project to research and record songs and ceremonies associated with the Grass Dance Society.

One of the unique features of the project will have members of the Gros Ventre and Assiniboine tribes of the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation visit and interview members of the Grass Dance Society of the Cree Tribe on the Rocky Boy Indian Reservation, where tribal members still practice the dance.

The Cree Tribe still has knowledge of the actual ceremony and songs that accompany the dance. To obtain the information from the Cree Grass Dance Society, Gros Ventre and Assiniboine tribal members will travel to the Rocky Boy reservation and partake in customary offerings of tobacco, dry goods and a pipe offering with elders.

“The grant will help pay for the trip back and forth to the Rocky Boy Reservation and the regalia,” grant coordinator, Gena Ashmore, said. “It includes a spear, a spoon, a big drum with four beaded drum sticks, two eagle feather bustles, two beaded wands and a reed whistle. Those are the things that we’re going to be helping with to enable them to move forward with this.”

The project also includes the digital preservation of traditional songs associated with Grass Dance societies.

“There will be a DVD that they will share with the director of Indian studies at the Aaniiih Nakoda College at Fort Belknap Agency,” Ashmore said. “Our grant also requires them to share it with the Montana Memory Project at the Montana State Library in Helena — so this will be available for researchers, historians, students — they’ll all be able to access this once it is done.”

“Being able to work with other tribes to understand the origins of the Grass Dance is going to ensure that future generations have an understanding of its significance,” Gone said. “And this grant is going to help us achieve that.”