Dancing at 'New Ulm's pow-wow'

By KURT NESBITT

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM -- Michael Lucio said his kids always ask him what Heritagefest is and he often replies by saying "It's New Ulm's pow-wow."

Lucio and three of his five children, Warren, Samantha and Taylor, brought a Lower Sioux flavor to New Ulm's annual pow-wow when they demonstrated five basic types of Dakota dances Saturday afternoon.

Together, the Lucio family makes up Cansa 'yapi Oyate, a tribal dance group that represents the Lower Sioux Indian Community in Morton. The name is Dakota for 'Redwood people' and was the original name of the reservation.

The group dresses in traditional Dakota dancing costumes adorned with eagle feathers, red hawk feathers, beads, bells and anything else that will jingle. The dancers wear authentic moccasins, wristbands and breastplates. The men also wear bustles made from eagle feathers on their backs.

All five of the dancers in Cansa 'yapi Oyate are Lucio's children. On Saturday, the other two were working at the Wilie Nelson concert on the reservation. Most of the children have been dancing since they were very young.

The group started on the Lower Sioux in 1996 after the Lucios arrived from the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota. Michael said they started the group because the Lower Sioux had no dance group or drum group at that time. He said immersing younger people in traditional Dakota culture is a way of keeping them away from drugs, alcohol and the gang problems that have affected the Lower Sioux.

Even though his father and grandfather had told Lucio that he wasn't allowed to come to New Ulm because of past conflicts, he said he considers the fact that Cansa 'yapi Oyate performs at Heritagefest historic and thanked everyone for inviting the group to perform.

Cansa 'yapi Oyate first appeared at the festival four years ago. Lucio said he made a connection with the Concord Singers through some local word-of-mouth after his group performed for some school kids.

"It seems like everyone feels some pride at pow-wows like Heritagefest," said Lucio, who is also partially Mexican. "We're honored to be here and it's always good to experience other cultures."

The group's program starts off with a grand entry. At pow-wows, grand entries involve both young and old members of the tribe. The grand entry that Cansa 'yapi Oyate performed involved Warren, Samantha and Taylor dancing to a drum beat in a circle with Warren leading the way.

The children gather around a frame drum and sing "The Flag Song," which Lucio's grandfather wrote as a kind of a national anthem for the Dakota people, saluting warriors and soldiers past. Lucio politely asked everyone in the room to stand, remove their hats and pay tribute to the men and women who fought in wars past and in the current conflict in Iraq. Lucio said the song reminds him of something his grandfather once said. He said, "Never forget who you are or where you came from because that reminds you where you are."

When the song ended, Lucio put Warren back on stage and took some time to explain his son's costume. Warren wears long hair in long braids that run down his chest. His father joked that many people mistake him for a girl but then added that he once wore his hair long and cut it short as a way to mourn his brother's death.

Warren's costume consisted of moccasins, leggings, a breastplate, armbands, a eagle feather fan, a dance stick with a painted eagle claw on the end and a bustle made from eagle feathers worn on his back.

By comparison, the clothes worn by Taylor, who demonstrated a typical jingle dance, were much simpler, consisting of a long turquoise dress with many rows of small metal pieces that made jingling noises wherever and whenever she walked. She demonstrated the jingle dance accordingly.

Lucio pointed out that all three children's costumes were made by aunts, uncles and cousins involving several beads, lots of hard work and quite a bit of money.