Students learn culture through song and dance

Vibrant colors swirling around and around was the sight seen when the Wind River Dancers performed at Lincoln Middle School Wednesday afternoon.

The dancers are of the Arapaho Tribe and perform throughout the region. Their teach and carry on their heritage and culture through song and dance.

Before their performance, group coordinator Darrell LoneBear asks the middle school audience to raise a hand if they are of native decent, resulting in a number of hands popping up throughout the group. LoneBear then asked the students to recognize they come from a group of people in their daily lives from then on and pass that on to others.

"That's how we keep it going," LoneBear said. "We keep our heritage and culture going by teaching it to the kids."

The group led in procession onto the stage, dancing to the beat of their drummers. Their loud voices calling out in high and low pitches, drumming intermittently with fast and loud pounding strikes. LoneBear said through their traditional songs played with drums and singing, their culture is passed down through the generations orally.

"Without our drums and singing, we don't have a culture," he said. "The music sounds just like 'heya, heya, heya,' but it is words."

They carry on their culture and heritage through song and dance, he said.

Members of the dance group took turns performing their dances, including the women's fancy shawl, jingle dress, fancy feather, grass, and men's traditional styles. Each style of dance was performed by the tribe during various times throughout their lives. The grass dance was done each time the tribe made camp in a new location. They would have to stamp down the grass to set up their camp, and so came the grass dance.

Seventh-grade student Delaina Becenti, who attends Lincoln Middle School, performed with the Wind River Dancers. She is of Navajo decent and started dancing when she was about three or four years old.

"My culture is a really big part of my life and I do it everywhere I go," Becenti said.

She made the outfit she wore dancing that day, adorned with 365 bronze cones representing each day of the year that cling and chime every time she dances.

"It's a healing dance," she said. "It's just to be strong every single day."

Around her neck she wears a necklace pouch with special items to hold close.

"Things that make you strong," she said. "It holds things that help."

She hopes to join a dancing group like theirs when she is older.

Just as the Wind River Dancers carry on their culture through song and dance, so does Becenti.