Native culture a family affair

By RON LARSEN

Journal Staff Writer

JEFFERS -- Passing on to his children the traditions of his American Indian heritage is an emotion-choked experience for Michael Lucio, whose children performed traditional and fancy dances at the Jeffers Petroglyphs site Saturday afternoon.

His three youngsters, performing as the Cansáyapi Oyate (The Redwood People), showed their mastery of traditional and fancy dances which Lucio's Lakota-Dakota ancestors used to perform.

"I try to teach my children to be proud of their culture. I want people to understand who we are as Indian people," Lucio explained.

He gets choked up and tears start to roll down his face when he talks about how proud he is that his children want to learn the ways of their ancestors.

In fact, he credits his 13-year-old daughter, Samantha (Sammy Jo), for being the inspiration for starting The Redwood People in 1996.

"It was her doing. She wanted to learn these dances," Lucio recalled, tears starting to well up again.

"These dances are a near-religious experience, and religion is very important to me and my family. We pray a lot in the traditional manner. We even have a sweat lodge behind our home in Lower Sioux (near Morgan). We also pray as Roman Catholics; we do a lot of praying," Lucio told the audience.

"This young man likes traditional dancing," Lucio said, in introducing his 12-year-old son Warren. "You will note that he is wearing only one bustle on his back. Traditional dancers wear one bustle; fancy dancers wear two."

He pointed to an apron-like portion that hung from his son's waist.

"That looks pretty plain now, but there will be beadwork there. These are not cheap. Just the beadwork alone is $1,800. A pair of moccasins is $300. It's expensive."

Stopping to to admire his son's long, braided hair, the tears begin again.

"We believe, that as men, our power is in our hair. It's sort of like Samson and Delilah. Sometimes, when I cut my hair, I feel like I lost a part of me," Lucio explained, tears again welling up.

He then explained that he cut his hair short after the recent death of his brother, in memory of him.

"I felt weak after that, but (after it started growing back) I am feeling stronger now."

After Warren did a men's traditional dance, he introduced daughter Taylor, 11.

"Taylor's adopted into the family. Her outfit demonstrates the jingle dress," Lucio said, pointing to rows and rows of slender, elongated metal "bells" sewn all over the dress. She then did the jingle dress dance.

Then, it was Samantha's turn. In introducing his older daughter, Lucio noted that she is very involved in volleyball.

"I encourage my children to be involved in other things beside dancing, particularly sports. Warren is into football, and my other son, Gaylon, 15, (who runs the sound system) -- I call him the professor. He's always reading. I've bought every Harry Potter book I can find, and he reads them so fast," Lucio explained.

"Now, Taylor, she really hasn't decided on anything yet although I do notice that she is getting a lot of calls from boys now," Lucio laughs.

Lucio then asks the audience to stand while the trio performs the Native American flag song.

Lucio, who is originally from South Dakota, then takes a moment to tell the audience how proud he is to live in Minnesota and for his family to be representing Native Americans of Minnesota.

"I love being a Minnesotan and a Vikings fan. Wherever we've been in Minnesota, all these towns have treated me and my family with the utmost respect," Lucio continued.

"We're the only dancers that have been invited to New Ulm (for Heritagefest). I'm very proud of that. My dad told me to avoid New Ulm because 'they're very prejudiced,' but I found that not to be true at all. People there couldn't have been nicer to us."

Also on the program was storyteller Joe Campbell of the Prairie Island Dakota Community. He told how the lessons of the ages are passed down through stories and demonstrated how each story has a message.

"People really love it," Mary Talbott, site technician, said of the American Indian program. "It's a little taste of culture for them."