Tribes finding a way to stay connected during social distancing

As COVID-19 restrictions on social interaction continue to keep family, friends and communities separated and to halt normal activities and events, Native and Indigenous people in the U.S. and Canada have found a way to continue sharing their culture and connection online - and a local powwow dancer has won in an online powwow competition.

The Quarantine Dance Specials 2020 Facebook page, one of a handful pages that have gained early and immediate popularity, is holding almost daily powwow dance specials, by accepting video submissions of dancers in full regalia dancing select styles to a pre-chosen song.

Dustin Whitford, executive director of Mahchiwminahnahtik Chippewa and Cree Language Revitalization on Rocky Boy's Indian Reservation and lifelong dancer, submitted a video of himself for the page's Roan Family Chicken Dance Special April 4. By the end of the day, Whitford had garnered the most likes of all the submissions and won the event.

The page is the brainchild of Tiny Rosales of Milpitas, California, just outside of San Jose.

Rosales said she is of Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa. She, her husband and their children normally spend time every year in Belcourt, North Dakota, to be with family. The Rosales family also dances in powwows, and this year, she said, was the year her son would be initiated into the dance circle, but the social distancing requirement has made that uncertain to happen.

"For as long as I can remember, I've always encouraged everyone to dance," she said, adding that "when the quarantine started and powwows started getting postponed and canceled, I thought, wow, you know I pray the most when I dance. I pray the hardest when I dance. This is our way or life ... and I'm sure that's true for most people."

She said that initial thought was quickly followed by the realization that when the world was most in need of those prayers, powwows were not being held.

With this in mind, Rosales said, she talked to her husband about asking some woodland dancers to post videos on her personal Facebook page as a sort of online special dance to honor her son, and she awarded participants monetary gifts.

At powwows, specials are dances held in addition to the line up of dances set by the event organizers. People, families and organizations raise money to host a special dance. In general, the specials are to honor something, such as the death of a loved one, an achievement, a promise or a vision, and and the hosts pay competitors with monetary and other gifts.

Her online special, Rosales said, had about 15 woodland dancers, some of them champion dancers, participating.

The response to her invitation was so moving, Rosales said, that she put out a call for a jingle dance special for women and launched the Quarantine Dance Specials 2020 Facebook page.

"My whole idea when I named it was 'keep the people dancing,'" Rosales said, adding, "We have never been shut down like this. The world needs our prayers."

She also reached out to her aunt Aurora Mamea, along with April McGill and Michele Mass, all associated with the American Indian Cultural Center in San Fransisco, which has subsequently sponsored several of the specials. Those three, along with family and friends have been a big help organizing and managing the page and the specials, including Juaquin Hamilton, who serves as the announcer of the events, she added.

Among those who have sponsored specials, Rosales said, are specials winners who are paying their earnings forward.

At the time of the interview Sunday, a half-hour before deadline, the fancy dance special had more than 75 video entries and the page had just shy of 21,000 followers and this morning had just less than 30,000.

"I think it's so awesome that, everyone, they're being able to put their outfits on, they're being able to dance, they're being able to pray still like how we pray when we dance," she said. "... I think it's a beautiful thing that we're still dancing. We found a way to keep it going."

The way the Quarantine Dance Specials are set up, is that the notice for an upcoming dance is posted in advance by a few days to a week, including what song to dance to, Rosales said, adding that and the drums are given a monetary gift for use of their song just like they would in a powwow. Participants have from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Pacific time the day of their special to submit their videos. The sponsor of the special designates ahead of time the prize money and how the participants will be judged - by number of likes, or with judges' decision.

The dancers are making videos where they can find space – in their homes, their yards and the outdoors, though the outdoors this time of year has presented challenges to many dancers.

Whitford said he had heard about and joined the page, and after seeing the Roan Family Chicken Dance Special announced, he debated for quite a while whether he would submit a video, but the day before the special he said he decided in the afternoon to just do it.

He asked his son Watson to bring his smart phone to take the video, then decided to call his brother Devan Kicknosway, who has experience and equipment for making video, and they collaborated to make Whitford's entry.

"I hadn't danced since September, and it was cold, but I decided to just go for it," he said.

All three filming locations were on Rocky Boy, including in front of the vo-tech center on Stone Child College campus, on a 12-degree day that also had snow on the ground and a bit of wind, Whitford said, with a laugh, and the final shot before sundown was especially cold.

Whitford said he put himself in Kicknosway's hands as far as what to do.

"He was just like a movie director giving me directions," Whitford added.

He said he's competed at powwows around the U.S. and Canada, and he and his wife, Winter, who also dances, are raising their children to dance, as well, in keeping with their culture. Though powwows are a competition, he said, The Whitfords emphasize that it is a time for prayer, as well.

Whitford is enrolled at Rocky Boy, but he said his regalia is a Crow design in honor of a friend he used to travel and dance with. His adopted Crow family designed the regalia, he said, and his wife has done most of the beadwork for it.

Winning the dance was an honor, Whitford said, but it was more about taking the opportunity to dance and pray in a time when it's needed most. He said the Roan family, who he knows and respects through the powwow circuit, paid his winning $300 right away through Paypal.

Whitford said he went to town and used his winnings to buy groceries for an elderly man, who lives alone on Rocky Boy, to pay the honor forward.

Roan Family Chicken Dance Special winners

Champion, Dustin Whitford, Chippewa Cree Tribe, Rocky Boy, 2,399 likes, https://

m.facebook.com/groups/203363744333591?

view=permalink&id=210831753586790 .

Second place, Ty LodgePole, Dine Nation, Fort Defiance, Arizona, residing in Phoenix, 1,558 likes, https://m.facebook.com/groups/203363744333591?

view=permalink&id=210885283581437 .

Third place, Logan Quaempts, Confederated Tribes of Umatilla Indian, Oregon, 1,279 likes https://m.facebook.com/groups/203363744333591?

view=permalink&id=210815520255080 .

Fourth place, Devin Oleyte, Billings, MT Stationed at Camp Pendleton California, 1,259 likes, https://m.facebook.com/groups/203363744333591?

view=permalink&id=210820730254559 .