wfn.org | Singing, dancing highlight Native American dinner

[PCUSA.NEWS@ecunet.org]

04-July-1996 
 
GA96098 
 
            Singing, dancing highlight Native American dinner 
 
ALBUQUERQUE - Hymn singing in Dakota and Inupiak, story telling about 
growing up in Laguna Pueblo, and circle dancing highlighted the Native 
American consulting committee dinner here Wednesday.  Some 125 people 
attended, many from the eight synods with active Native American 
ministries. 
 
    Rev. Ron Moccasin (Dakota), Wolf Point, Mont.,  led the singing of #139 
in Dakota Hymns.  He said this hymn was about the waters of life that Jesus 
Christ gives abundantly to those who seek him.  "That song is the heart and 
soul of the Dakota people," he said.  "The songs we sing come from our 
hearts."  The tunes to the hymns were composed "long before the 
missionaries came."  Rev. Mary Ann Warden (Inupiak) led the singing of "My 
Savior First of All."  She is pastor of the Northern Light United 
Presbyterian Church, Juneau, Alaska. 
 
    Dan Yetts (Laguna Pueblo) told of what it was like to be a child in the 
pueblo.  He told of herding sheep with his grandfather in the summer. 
Herds were grazed in common; families traded off every three weeks.  "We 
had to move every third or fourth day," he remembered. For entertainment 
they " had a little portable radio you couldn't hear much on half the time 
because of static."  They spent many hours listening to their grandfather 
tell stories and teach songs and traditions, he recalled.  Grandparents 
started teaching the ceremonial life to children when they were between 5 
and 6 years old, he noted. 
 
    When not herding, Yetts helped his grandfather in the garden about two 
miles down the road from the pueblo.  "We went at sunrise and worked until 
10 a.m.  Then Grandfather would say, `Well, it's about time for breakfast,' 
and we would go back to the pueblo.  About 3 p.m. we would go back to the 
garden and work until sunset.  We didn't have time for messing around." 
 
    Yetts recalled that when he was attending school, Laguna children were 
not allowed to speak their language.  The teacher "swatted us three times 
with a ruler on our fingers" if they spoke their language rather than 
English, he reported.  "Now we are trying to teach our children some of our 
values and beliefs." 
 
    The consulting committee presented Dr. George Conn with a handmade 
pottery bowl and beaded medallion in appreciation of his work on behalf of 
Native Americans.  Conn serves as associate for racial ethnic schools and 
colleges in the National Ministries Division of the Presbyterian Church 
(U.S.A.).  He is leaving that post to take a call as a local church pastor. 
 
    Conn said that in 1994 when he attended his 40th high school class 
reunion, he  "felt like a show-off" as he talked about what he was doing. 
"It was so far beyond what anyone else had been doing," he said.  Working 
with racial-ethnic schools has "been an incredibly enriching experience.  I 
will be a very different pastor as I go." 
 
    Bill Zotigh (San Juan/Kiowa) led the crowd in circle dancing while he 
played a hand drum and sang.  "We do circle dances because of the circle of 
life: birth, childhood, manhood, death, and birth again," he said.  "We 
believe that when someone dies a child is born, and so the circle is 
completed." 
 
    June Lorenzo (Laguna Pueblo/Navajo), a member of the NACC and emcee for 
the evening, closed the evening by quoting a Kiowa saying, "There will 
never be peace in the world until we all learn to dance to the same beat." 
 
    Sallie Cuaresma (Cherokee), moderator of the NACC from the Synod of 
Southern California and Hawaii, welcomed attendees.  Evelyn Paisano (Laguna 
Pueblo), Laguna, N.M., offered the blessing.  Rev. Robert Lewis (Pima) 
offered the closing prayer. 
 
 
Peggy Rounseville 

------------
For more information contact Presbyterian News Service
  phone 502-569-5504             fax 502-569-8073  
  E-mail PCUSA.NEWS@pcusa.org   Web page: http://www.pcusa.org 

--