St. Francis Indian Dances - 1960

Abstract

On July 3, 1960, a 300th anniversary celebration was held at the St. Francis Wabanaki village of Odanak. One of the features was a pageant showing the Indians coming to this site, an island in the St. Francis River lying between the villages of Perreville and St. Francis in Quebec Province, after they were driven from Maine and New Hampshire during the French and Indian War. A program of tribal dances followed the pageant. At the rehearsal on July 2, the dance leaders seemed pleased to find the author interested in their program and willingly answered questions. The following facts were quickly ascertained: all Indian dances were forbidden at St. Francis by a local priest about 1925; no dances form any part of St. Francis ritual at present; St. Francis Indians have almost no contact with other Wabanaki tribes--neither of the leaders had attended dance ceremonies or programs at other Wabanaki reserves; one of the leaders had been taken to a program of Western Indian dances by A. I. Hallowell a number of years ago and the other had seen Iroquois dances. This information would lead one to conclude that the dances at Odanak would be a poor representation of what St. Francis ritual once was. However, the rehearsal produced a large repertoire: Snake Dance, Eagle Dance, Blanket Dance, Friendly Dance, War Dance, Tomahawk Dance and Calumet Dance. Dances similar to most of these are known to the Penobscot, Passamaquoddy and Malecite, the other members of the Wabanaki group. After the rehearsal the dance leaders listened to recordings made previously by the author of dance music by the other three Wabanaki tribes. Although the St. Francis dance leaders had not sung songs to their dances, they were able to understand the recordings and felt that their own dances should have had these songs also. But no one felt that his voice was good enough to sing the songs at the celebration. The music at the program consisted of drumming and impromptu yelling. The Snake Dance is an old dance originally used at the beginning of any ceremony which included dancing. When the festivities were ready to begin a dance leader would start out twisting and turning between the wigwams. Soon many merry-makers would join the serpentine line which would terminate at the dance place where the ceremony was to take place. William Mechling describes this dance (1958:151). Frank G. Speck recorded Jack Solaman, a Malecite, singing the Snake Dance song at the Tobique Point Reserve about 1913. Speck also describes the use of the Snake Dance by the Penobscot (1940:283-284). Dr. Walter J. Fewkes describes the use of the Snake Dance by the Passamaquoddy (1890:262-269). In all instances the dance is very similar and the Odanak performance was essentially the same as the description above. The Friendly Dance is called a Greeting Dance by the other Wabanaki tribes and is performed when visitors arrive. It resembles the Virginia Reel in that it begins with a line of men facing a line of women, and in other ways, as the following description by one of the dance leaders at Odanak shows: