Indian Dances of North America

A compendium devoted to the dance forms of North American Indians. It includes a 50-page historic survey beginning with Jacques Cartier in 1534 and treats the principal pan-tribal dance forms in their cultural contexts. A partial survey of dances unique to particular tribes is also included.

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Many thousands of persons here and abroad have been introduced to authentic Indian dancing through the Laubin's dance concerts, lectures, and seminars. Their admirers, as well as other dancers, anthropologists, historians, students of Indian culture, and Indians themselves, will welcome this informative and richly illustrated book.

It is based upon a lifetime of study and research, including years the authors spent living with the Indians on or near their reservations (they are adopted Sioux). The authors have been told by the old chiefs, "You know exactly the real Indian ways." These survivors of the Buffalo Days appreciated the Laubins' interest and asked them to learn and preserve the rituals, since their own young people no longer knew all their traditions. This book is the result.

In addition to descriptions of the dances, the costumes, the body decorations, and the musical accompaniment, the Laubins give the cultural background of Indian dancing and a wealth of related detail. They enrich their text with many personal experiences and observations. They may have been the first non-Indians to appreciate fully the integral role of dancing in the traditional life patterns of the Indians, a role only recently recognize by scholars in the field.

Through their deep understanding of their adopted people the Laubins clear way through misinterpretation and prejudice to a new appreciation of the American Indian.