Round dance promotes healing, unity

SAM GIANFRANCISCO/THE CREIGHTONIAN

To promote healing and unity, the Omaha Whitetail Singers (center) bang the drum and sing songs as friends and relatives perform round dances.

Creighton’s third Native American Round Dance took place in the Skutt Student Center Ballroom to join friends and family together for unity and healing. Healing Ribbons, the Creighton Intercultural Center (CIC) and Creighton University’s Native American Association (NAA) hosted the event where people sang and danced in remembrance of relatives. 

People gathered for the first memorial song, in which the Omaha Whitetail Singers sang while pounding a drum.  

The mission of Healing Ribbons, a non-profit organization, centers around uplifting Native American women’s voices, saving traditions and educating.  

Lisa Prue Spellman is a member of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe, member of the Healing Ribbons board and the program manager of the University of Nebraska Medical Center’s Indigenous and Rural Health Program. 

“So, we want to remind our people that we have a spirituality,” Prue Spellman said. “We have our own traditions, our own culture and we need to relearn those things, to strengthen our families, to heal historic trauma and to reclaim what was lost through boarding schools, assimilation, those kinds of things. That is our number one goal.” 

There were several songs and round dances that people took part in. Round dances are a way for “the community or friends, or family” to “come together, and they’ll just dance to the drum,” Tanya Heart-Olsen, a Healing Ribbons participant, said. 

 “The drum they like to refer to as the heartbeat, you know?” Heart-Olsen said. “So, when you hear the beats, it’s just like a good feeling to dance to that.” 

Healing Ribbons performed a welcome speech, and people wore orange to the event to remember and honor relatives who were forced into U.S. and Canadian boarding schools. The pain of unlearning one’s cultural traditions trickles down from generation to generation. 

“Everybody has some form of trauma in their lives, but in particular for Native communities, we have historic trauma that’s passed down from generation to generation,” Prue Spellman said. “So, my father went to boarding school. My grandfather went to boarding school, and my great-grandfather went to boarding school.”  

Even though Native Americans, a colonial term, have dual United States citizenship and tribal citizenship, non-Natives may neglect the distinction.  
“But because we’re so few, we’re the minority of the minority … our voices are kind of drowned out,” Prue Spellman said. “We don’t get seen, we don’t get heard, we don’t get counted. If you look at research studies, there’s not enough of us to count, you know, to do a study.” 

“Well, we’re a nation within a nation,” Prue Spellman said. “We’re just like Canada, France, Mexico or [a] new place. But we live here in the United States.” 

After a few round dances, there was a truth and reconciliation recognition of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), U.S. Marshalls and Omaha law enforcement that helped return a missing person back to their loved ones. The process of finding Native Americans who have gone missing either on or off reservations can be complicated by historical inequalities, jurisdictions, funding and the absence of law enforcement involvement, among other factors.  

There are hundreds, if not thousands of Native Americans still missing in the United States and Canada, Renee Sans Souci, member of the UmoNhoN (Omaha) Tribe of Nebraska and program coordinator of Healing Ribbons, said. For more information, Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) details stories about the missing. 

“So, when you’re educating yourself again, you’re looking at Native history and colonial history, the violence that occurred and the genocide that occurred to Native people,” Sans Souci said. “All these things that happened, this is what we’re still healing from. And when I do my presentations, I always let people know there’s a reason why I speak fluent English.” 
“We’re all speaking this language. We’ve all been assimilated, no matter where you came from or where your ancestors … originated from. You’re still speaking the king’s English,” Sans Souci said. “So, it’s good, you know? When I’m teaching, I want my students to know [why I speak fluent English], but they have to understand their own stories in order to understand us.” 

For people interested in merchandise, several vendors, such as Alisia Quevedo, a member of the Oglala Lakota, remained just outside of the dance floor. Medallions, apparel and jewelry were some items sold at the round dance. 

“I hope that people come a little more often to experience our cultures and how beautiful it is for our people and just get the experience and also learn our history because that’s not out,” Quevedo said. “That’s the truth about history. It’s not spoken of much. And so, it’s coming out more, and I’m glad that everybody’s coming together in a good way.” 

It takes courage to examine what’s happening, Sans Souci said. The one thing she recommends for non-Natives to do is “not only self-examination, but [to have] the willingness to be open.” 

“Be courageous,” Sans Souci said. “Speak, understand, learn, because we’re speaking our truths all the time. We’re targeted. We’re endangered, but we want to live, too.”