For Native American Heritage Month 2011, Native American Student Association President Courtney Peyketewa wanted to do something different.
Pow-wows had been around on campus for years. They were easily identifiable. It was time to change things up.
So, with the help of the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, she decided to bring a seldom-seen tradition, “Opvnkv Haco,” or Stomp Dance, to campus.
“I was raised around Stomp Dance growing up, and so that’s what I’d done since I was really little,” she said. “Basically, I just wanted to bring this side of the culture to UCO’s campus so that they could see it.”
The Stomp Dance’s origins are unknown, but it is religiously and culturally significant among several tribes in Oklahoma, including the Muscogee Creek, Cherokee and Choctaw nations.
“Different tribes have the special dances, like Green Corn, Arbor Dance and Soup Dance,” Audrey McCall, a member of the Creek, Yuchi and Kiowa nations, said. “They did have a back-to-school dance that they’re trying to bring back for the younger kids.”
According to Peyketewa, the Green Corn dance is the biggest dance of the year among certain tribes, signifying the harvest, as well as the Stomp Dance community’s new year.
UCO’s first taste of Stomp Dance culture involved an abridged demonstration of the dances themselves, food provided by members of the community, a raffle and an explanation of the history of the tradition from elder Sam Proctor, a medicine man and preacher from the Creek Nation.
Proctor explained that the tradition of the Stomp Dance was “as old as the hills,” and that it was a markedly spiritual experience.
“That’s the way it is about every Stomp Dance,” Proctor said. “You can holler, you can move your hands any way you want to. But in all of that time, even the leaders are praising the creator, giving them the strength to do this.”
During the dances themselves, people from the community circled around a stand-in bonfire, sang traditional songs and encouraged spectators to join in.
Peyketewa and her mother, Paula, wore what are known as “shackles,” which traditionally were turtle shells filled with pebbles but are now milk or tomato cans filled with the same.
“A really good dance has four rings, and people are standing on the outside, trying to get in,” Peyketewa said. “There’s a leader, which is the guy, and it’s a call-answer kind of thing, and then there’s a first woman, she’s a shell shaker, and she starts it for all the other women behind her and basically sets the tempo of the dance while the guys do call-answer.”
McCall explained that an actual Stomp Dance ran typically from midnight to sunrise, and many of the participants took a kind of herbal medicine to help “purify” them during the dance.
“It’s just like church. How you go to church, that’s what we call church,” she said. “I mean, you’re doing the same thing, but there’s just different ways that we look at things. You just really have to look into it. Outdoors, it’s more—there’s more to it. It’s something to experience.”
Native American Heritage Month runs through Nov. 28 and includes a lecture over “truth about Thanksgiving” on Nov. 15 and a Native American language workshop on the Monday after Thanksgiving break.