A thick curl of dust rises from a corner of the Haudenosaunee Wooden Stick Festival at Lake Front Park in Liverpool. The festival, a celebration of the Haudenosaunee’s spiritual connection to the ancient game of Lacrosse, is more than just the title suggests.
As the Randy Hall Masters tournament (an old timers tournament played with wooden sticks) rages behind them, members of the assorted Haudenosaunee nations saunter on stage.
They are dressed in their finest, their feathered headdresses stand tall, and their beaded “regalia” shimmers, jingles, and clacks as they proudly take up positions. As the music begins, a vicious woop that seems to come from everywhere, grips the stage.
Perfectly with the rapid fire beat, the competitors stomp and hop, spinning and whirling their arms in sweeping motions. Their feet kick up a cloud of dust, this is Smoke Dancing, an ancient Haudenosaunee tradition.
“Smoke dance comes from our war dance.” said Adah Shenendoah, one of the senior men's division competitors, “It used to be a slow dance and just the men used to do it. And then the women decided they wanted to do it so they sped it up. The people that witnessed the dance said it looked like smoke was rising through the rafters of the longhouse.”
The Haudenosaunee Confederacy, was founded on the great law of peace, Kaianere'kó:wa. The law acts as an oral constitution, and has been in place for nearly 1000 years. As such, the Haudenosaunee have had no need for war dances.
The smoke dance evolved from those ancient war dances, into a form of entertainment and friendly competition between the nations, a tradition that has held to today.
“It's a tradition for our people whenever we gather, whether it be for a ceremony, for a wedding, maybe just to visit.” said Gaehnew Printup, the singer and emcee of the competition.
Printup has danced his way around the world sharing the ancient heritage of Smoke Dancing with the public. He’s danced everywhere from the state fair to foreign dignitaries.
“I do it to represent and bring awareness for our people and also to be able to help in our community.” Printup continued slowly, “That's really where it started is to be able to offer these songs and this tradition and this heritage to our community because not everybody had an upbringing, a traditional upbringing.”
During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Canadian government, suppressed Haudenosaunee customs through the boarding school system, where Haudenosaunee children were forcibly sent to state boarding schools to be “assimilated” into european culture.
“The boarding school era took a toll on our people's morale and their ability to be comfortable doing things that are traditional to our people.” Printup continued, “So that's the biggest sense of responsibility for me is to just to be able to create a space and offer the gifts that I've received to pass them on to all of our community members all across the Haudenosaunee.”
The dance nearly went extinct, but now thanks to competitions like this, and efforts to spead these traditions, teenagers like Dylan Powless show up to competition in their best feathers, beads and ribbons.
“I just stick to our ways in our ceremonial ways, but smoke dancing became fun to me as a kid, and I used to do it in my room and stuff.” Powless said, “When I was about 13, 14 years old, my uncle asked me if I wanted to do a smoke dance show with him.”
It’s a dance for all ages. At 63 years old, Gail Cathers still hits the floor like the day she started when she was 15 dancing at the fair.
“It makes my soul feel good, my heart feel good. I'm dancing for the people that passed away and dancing for myself.” Cathers said.
Like many things in Haudenosaunee culture, the smoke dance is considered a form of medicine, done for the nourishment of the soul and the pleasure of the creator.
The hand hewn bead work and the feathers on the dancers regalia is part of that medicine and spiritual connection with the earth.
“I have hawk feathers. woodpecker, chicken, turkey, some eagle feathers.” Printup said, “I have no protruding eagle feathers from my head dress. That signifies that I'm a man of the Tuscarora Nation.”
Printup sewed all of his own intricate bead work, the regalia is often gifted by family and passed down the generations.
“As I make this regalia, I learned from the people in my family. So, my aunt and my cousins and my mom and just so many artists in our families. They show us slowly how to fasten these beads.” Printup continues, “it's a tedious process, it's in some ways a spiritual investment into your traditional wear.”
The Haudenosaunee nearly lost these traditions to colonization. But today, by the banks of their most sacred site, they dance and sing, just as they have for 1000 years, and as they hope to do for 1000 years to come.
