I always like to share with younger people that during Powwow, during our ceremonies some of the things the older people used to tell us. When we were out there dancing of course we were not out there dancing for thousands and hundreds of dollars like we do today. We were dancing out there not only to look good but to show what we could do, our moves and what we learned from our uncles and grandfathers. If there was a kind of a contest it was fun but we knew we weren’t expecting much. Maybe a blanket or if there was some cash that would be fine but nothing real specific. It was more for honor it seems like in those days compared to today.

One of the elders told me when he is dancing he is not only mimicking an animal or a bird. One of the elders said when you are dancing you be sure and look over your shoulder, look back and see if your shadow is following you. If your shadow is there, well that is a good sign. Titooqatimtki mine wees saqis. You look around while you are dancing, you make these certain moves. So many of the moves that are made traditionally during dancing are not an accident. Some of the moves you see traditional dancers doing out there are looking up to the sky or looking around. Maybe he is a hunter or a scouter or something making these motions. A lot of things go on during these ceremonies that aren’t explained, maybe some of the viewers don’t even understand. I like to try to, one of the boxers used to say float like a butterfly. I like to move like a dragonfly. When I can move and make people feel good well then I know I am healing someone and it makes me feel good, too.

Well that song that Wilford Halfmoon has explained. It is really important because it was a song that was used during a signing of a very important thing that had to take place between the different tribes. As you can see all these warriors and people riding horses and singing a song as they are riding into the campground before they have this big event. It is like a grand opening but yet you knew it was a song that was sung just for that purpose, for that special event. Maybe they were returning their warriors from battle or whatever, but it had to be a special event. Whereas if you were carrying the flute or singing a love song to someone that is certainly a different story altogether. The national anthem when it is sung it really means something, rather than just a song that they picked out of page 22.

I have been to some powwows and I hear of other tribes claiming our song [as their songs]. They have their own stories; they are just trying to create their own glory or something. I kind of appreciate and respect them for trying to get a little bit of glory and all that but if it is wrong, it is not right. I should write that down, that sounded all right there. I know this is all true because my great grandfather was in that battle and those other guys I know, I don’t think they can vouch for that. During one of our battles when the guns, cavalry were shooting those cannons at the guys, the guys would holler and wave at them and those cannons would go off and they would duck down or dive for cover or take off and go somewhere else and pop up again and holler and wave at them and make them turn the cannon and shoot that way, duck down again and dive and go the other way. They were making them waste their ammo, making those guys lose their balls. That is one way of saying that they wanted to win the war.

The other thing that is really important and significant in that battle is when my great grandfather was involved with, I don’t know how many other guys it took but they helped steal or overtake the guys and push one of these cannons over the hill, down the mountainside. That makes me pretty proud. So when we have that duck and dive contest or that song it is not only that I really like it, but it seems like it is pretty popular not only our people, but it is getting popular among other tribes, too.

As much as I like it and as much as I respect it there is one question mark that I have about the use of a song, that is in a sense sacred, for contests. I really enjoy dancing to it and I know everybody else does and the crowds they all stand because they really enjoy. They feel the power of that song when we are out there dancing. In that respect I guess it is good but it my own mind I just wonder if it almost like sacrilegious using a sacred song for contests that involves competition and money and things like that. That is my own personal question mark I have. Anyways, back to the basics of that song. That is why it is so important because it represented that battle.

My mother, Rosa May Spencer Yearout (wi ‘cése), she was brought up by her grandmothers and taught how to dance. They brought her around to different celebrations. And she was always exposed to dance and she was, I guess you can say, a prize dancer in her time with her traditional dancing where she would place here and there. And so it started out for us at a young age. She would bring us around to different Powwows and any opportunity we had in Lapwai she would dress us up. And of course the extended family is important because they help with gathering your regalia. I have a dress from my grandmother Katherine Louise Heigal that she had made me and aunties making me different outfits. One of the first dances I did as a little kid is I wanted to dance like a boy. That was the fancy dance because I liked the big bells and how they sounded. And so my dad I remember him getting me bells. I wanted to be just as loud as the men out there and so I learned how to fancy dance like a boy. I remember even trying to teach some of my male cousins how to dance like a boy. One time I even owl danced with my own sister. And so that was kind of fun and we look back and laugh at that. So those were my first experiences as, from dancing and I am glad that our mother exposed us to that because we were shown the way and then growing up you could either leave it, take it or leave it. Some have stepped away but once you have been exposed to that you can step back and participate again. And uhm so I am really glad she exposed us to that because that prepared for me for the opportunities that have been really exciting for me to dance with the Mishantucket-Pequot dance troop. In which I’ve toured with them to several different countries and all over the United States. Ya know just gettin’ to know a lot of people, and the ambassador not only of my tribe but of the whole Indian nation.