By Bryan Eneas

The Round Dance comes back to Muskoday

Feb 10, 2017 | 4:06 PM

A small rhyme hangs in the foyer of the Muskoday Community School.

“One hundred takes a while to count – It is such a large amount! But I know you’ll take the time to count the letters in this rhyme.”

Feb. 10, 2017 marked 100 days into the current school year. To celebrate, staff and students danced their Friday afternoon away.

Some of the school’s faculty brought in some of the best powwow and round dance singers to educate their youth about the round dance. It was the first time in the schools 10-year history students had the opportunity to participate in a round dance.

“I wish I had that when I was this age,” Brad Crain said. “When I was their age, we didn’t have a school in my home reserve.”

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Crain hails from Muskoday. Today, he is a lead singer for the powwow drum group Battle Hill, and calls himself the only powwow singer to come from the community in the modern day. He said he worked at the school when it first opened in 2005, and he brought his drum with him.

“I gave them the chance to sing and give them the chance to learn that respect, those songs and the drumbeats,” Crain said.

Near the end of the dance, four young students joined the circle of drummers, featuring singers from groups like Ironswing and Rushing Bull.

Muskoday Elder Howard Walker was the master of ceremonies.

Before the round dance was well under way, Walker touched on the importance of the drum to Indigenous peoples.

“The first drum that you heard, you were inside your mum,” Walker said. “You heard her heart. And you were so secure in there, you were so important, you were so loved. Every time you hear that drum that feeling comes back to you.”

One hundred and thirty-five students from Muskoday participated in the round dance; they were joined by 15 students from Carlton Comprehensive High School from Prince Albert.

Victor Thunderchild, a teacher from Carlton addressed the gathering about the importance of the round dance, and ceremonies in general.

“The whole concept of song and dance, everything that we have is part of who we are,” Thunderchild said.

The teacher of 26 years said song was one of the biggest things which helped preserve the Cree culture and language.

“We feel that it’s important for kids to know. It’s important for the kids to be able to sit there and understand and know what the songs are, the meaning behind the songs. Why we dance the way we do, why the beat [is] the way it is.”

Thunderchild said Carlton will be hosting its own round dance on March 16.

Muskoday’s principal, Andrew DeBray said based on the success of the first round dance, the school “has to” host more in the future.

Bryan.Eneas@jpbg.ca

On twitter: @BryanEneas