A Voice from the Eastern Door
A Voice from the Eastern Door
The Duck Dance is one of the more popular dances among the younger social dance participants. Photo: Derrick Lafrance.
Salmon River Central School Mohawk students and staff with Akwesasne Ratirennahawi. Back L-R: Ronatines, Cortland Sunday, Leland Clute, Ian Clute, Steven King, Sierra Francis and Teacher Katsitsionni Fox. Seated: Niiakohontesha Gray, Jasmine Pyke, Tiarra Anderson-Cook, Kaniehtakatshe White, Trinity Lazore, Sarah Cook, Erica White and Kanenstenha:wi. Photo: Derrick Lafrance.
Natasha Smoke-Santiago describes the cooking pot to the students of the Mohawk School. Photo: Derrick Lafrance.
The St. Regis Mohawk School was alive with Native song and dance.
Last Friday, November 17, Native American Day was celebrated at the Hogansburg school. The day consisted of storytelling, singing and social dancing, and arts and crafts.
The day was divided up into classes. While some grades were singing and dancing in the gym, local Artisan Natasha Smoke-Santiago brought in some artifacts and explained their significance.
She brought in samples of pottery, Indian corn, utensils and other related items.
Although her artwork can be seen just about everywhere, Smoke said pottery is her love and she told the kids about that.
"I really enjoy coming to schools and talking about pottery and sharing as much information as I can. I had a chance to go to museums and archives, talking to elders, a lot of our culture is telling stories," she said.
Another one of her interests was archeology and she shared a bit of that with the children.
She brought in designs that were found on old pottery and other artifacts. Those designs tell stories, said Smoke.
"One of the most common ones I talked about are the mountain designs and the little lines that are rows in a garden. I'm sure a lot of you have heard about the Three Sisters –Corns, Beans and Squash, those are in a garden," said Smoke.
In the gym the Social was going on with students from Salmon River helping the Akwesasne Ratirennhawi.
Steven King was giving a presentation on the history of the different dances and the Salmon River students helped them show the kids.
They performed the Mocassin Dance, Fish Dance, Alligator Dance and Smoke Dance. One of the crowd favorites is the Duck Dance where the children dance in a circle and at a given time they form a tunnel with their hands and run through it.
There was also storytelling at the school as part of Native American Day and earlier this week Salmon River and Massena Central also held theirs.
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