Kettle dance returns to Fort Belknap

Wednesday, during Native American week, the sacred kettle dance, returned to Fort Belknap Indian Reservation after being lost for generations, Ken “Tuffy” Helgeson, a language and culture teacher at Hays-Lodge Pole schools, said Thursday.

“It was a historic day. We haven’t had that dance for a long, long, time,” he said, adding that this dance holds a special place due to it being the basis of their powwow.

The dance was lost to the tribes at Fort Belknap about 100 years ago as people who knew it died, he said.

The positions are organized for the powwow according to the kettle dance, he said.

The dance has origins in the area that became Nebraska, Helgeson said. Tribes used to share dances, usually giving some offering in order to receive the dance. The sacred kettle dance is the foundation of the grass dance, Helgeson said, and other tribes may have their own dances but this dance was specific to their tribes.

The kettle dance was given back to the Aaniiih Nakoda people from the Kainai Nation, or Blood Tribe, out of Canada, who were one of the few tribes that were given and still had the specific dance.

Helgeson said it has been absent from the community for so long that it was a special occasion for the children during Native American Week to see the dance.

“Little” Don Racine III said this also was been followed by the re-creation of the Grass Dance Society at Fort Belknap. Students have already begun to show support and have worked alongside elders in building the society, he added.

John Stiffarm, a teacher from Harlem schools, said it was exciting and incredible to see the dance come back.

“Now I’ve settled down, I realize how special of a day it was,” he said, adding that something that has been absent from the community for so long making its way back is historic.

The dance is so deeply rooted with the actual powwow, he said, it will give everyone a better understanding of the positions in the committee and bring back the history and reasons why things are set up for the powwow as they are.

“Some things are destined,” he added, with everything falling into place perfectly during Native American Week and the return of the kettle dance.

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Look for more on the Kettle Dance in next Friday’s Hi-Line Living