As Native American Heritage Month draws to a close, the 2023 Round Dance at Salt Lake Community College recently took the time to celebrate Indigenous heritage and to welcome blessings of peace for the coming winter.
The Lifetime Activities Center (LAC) at the Taylorsville Redwood Campus hosted the dance on Nov. 18, as has been the case in previous years. Vendors, comprised of Native entrepreneurs and artisans, filled the LAC’s lobby, while the dance itself took place on the basketball court. Audience members spread themselves throughout the blue bleachers.
The college’s American Indian Student Leadership (AISL) club put on the dance, with AISL President Philipe Garcia and Winter Rex, faculty advisor for AISL, acting as key organizers. Rex helped in finding vendors representing tribes and tribal bands from Montana to Arizona.
“Round Dances come from the northern plains [region],” Garcia explained. “They are healing ceremonies and social ceremonies that bring people together during the winter months.”
Traditionally, attendees of Round Dances encircle a group of “stickmen,” experienced individuals who wield traditional Native drums and wooden sticks, singing traditional songs while they drum.
Round Dance audiences are less observational and more a part of the fun as they dance their way around the tables where the stickmen stand. The tables that sit in the center are piled high with water bottles to ease the singers’ throats between songs.
At this year’s SLCC dance, participants gathered in a circle around the stickmen and moved in a clockwise motion while facing inward, either holding hands or dancing in place.
They were encouraged and led by a Master of Ceremony, who this year was Jacob Crane, a tribal member from near Alberta, Canada, with extensive experience emceeing Round Dances. Crane’s brother, Benjamin Crane, is a student at SLCC and led the evening’s opening prayer.
“Thank you to the Native student body and the AISL,” Crane said into a microphone, welcoming the crowd as they filtered into the bleachers. “It’s always a pleasure to be back in the LAC for an event like this. It’s always good to come together to celebrate community and good things.”
A different stickman led each song, teaching the rest of the singers on the spot before a new song began. Meanwhile, in between songs, Crane shared stories from previous Round Dances and encouraged people to join the growing circle that rotated around the center table.
“You don’t grow up [drumming],” Crane told the audience. “You grow up watching [elders] do it. It’s hard to do — you have to vibrate the back of the drum with your nail. So, let’s come out to the center and show our [stickmen] some support.”
The Round Dance lasted until midnight, and throughout the evening, the Indigenous market in the Bruin Arena lobby hosted vendors selling handmade Native jewelry, clothing and other accessories.
One such vendor was Puganini Design, an Indigenous family business that was selling handmade accessories such as ghost beads. Ghost beads are small bracelets made of dried juniper berries that are worn to ward off evil spirits.
Coffee and refreshments were also available, as well as “Navajo tacos” at a tent outside, which was catered by Ryan’s Rez-ipes.
Rex extended an invitation to all for the University of Utah’s Round Dance, which is set for Sunday, Dec. 3, at the school’s Student Union Center. More information can be found here.
