Powwow dancing as spiritual

[Thunderwolf, MSN, RN]

"It all has meaning," said Wayne Wilson, a Navajo dancer. He is of the Bít’ahnii (Folded Arms People) and Tό’aheedliinii (Two Waters Running Together) clans, which makes him my Chei (grandfather), he said.

He wore an otter-skin hat because the otter brings good medicine. An otter is playful and joyous; it washes itself and its food because it's clean, he said.

He held a stick wrapped in blue and red with eagle feathers dangling from it. His dance stick represents hot and cold, man and woman, the balance of the universe, he said. The feathers represent the troubles in his life and the world.

HIs shield was painted with stars and a moon, and it dotted with rain; it all had meaning to him, he said. The new moon represented the present and a new day; the rain stood for cleansing and the stars for the universe.

"It's all linked, everything in the universe," Wilson said.

"So how do you feel when you dance?" I asked.

"Spiritual," he said.

Prayer and medicine are combined, and it all makes for a spiritual movement, he said.

Full article with pics: http://www.reznetnews.org/article/feature-article/powwow-dreams