A chaotic war dance would bring a vision of the fate of a hunter.
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The Alsea Indian tribe had dance ceremonies for war, healing, even to see the fate of someone. The dance houses were rectangular, perhaps with no center posts. There was a big smoke hole and a trench leading to the door. These buildings were built by communal effort, therefore the whole tribe owned them. In most dances the women wore a dance dress that was one piece and tied behind. They also wore a headband with feathers in it, and were barefoot in the "old times". They held feather bunches in each hand and wore beads on their neck. The males wore a feather bonnet and were also barefoot They wore a long buckskin strip like a scarf with beads and woodpecker |
scalps. The dance was performed by moving around counter- clockwise in a chaotic style. Near the end of the dance they formed a circle, with a male placed every other person. In this position they danced in one place until the dance ended. The songs were dreamed. Besides this dance, there was a war dance. This was performed when someone threatened to kill another, to find out who was going to be killed. For this dance they used drums and whistles. The war dance was done outside. The dancers would stand in a circle all looking in one place. By doing this. they believed they could see the fate of the persons. If they saw a certain man there, he would get killed if he went to the war. The killer was trained and danced with a whistle to |
see if he could see his victim. If he could, he was free, but if not, he danced more.
The dancers would stand in a circle all looking in one place. By doing this, they believed they could see the fate of the person. |
A chaotic war dance would bring a vision of the fate of a hunter.