Today’s all new work, another in Wings’s new coil collection, is a tribute to one of the traditions of his childhood. It’s a dance created by his own people (although there are other versions elsewhere): the horsetail dance.
It’s not danced much anymore; he hasn’t seen one here in more than half a century. It’s not, however, “extinct,” as some Internet “sources” would lead you to believe, nor is it being “revived” by other nations (much less by non-Natives). It was never dead and gone.
I suspect that there is one very significant reason why it’s rarely danced anymore, and that is the regalia. It requires an actual horsetail. No, no, no; horses were not abused for their long, flowing tails. Rather, it was a way to honor one’s own horse after death, and to honor the spirit of Horse generally. Still, the dominant culture understands these things very differently from the ways indigenous ones do, and such mores eventually spill over to influence the choices traditional cultures decide to make.
There are nations in the Northern and Northwestern Plains that have a similar tradition, using what are called horse dance sticks. When a man’s horse died, he would remove bits of the main and tail and pieces of hoof, perhaps a little bit of hair. He would choose a piece of wood, perhaps eighteen inches long or so, to carve in the shape of a running horse, legs extended at full gallop. Once carving was complete, he would paint the stick in traditional designs, illuminating facial features and hooves and adding the sort of markings that he would have painted on his own horse’s body (a practice common in daily life, as well s for specific purposes related to war or ceremony). He would then attach the bits of hair and hoof, and use the late horse’s mane and tail hair to create a mane and flowing tail on the stick. Once complete, he would carry the stick while dancing, to honor his horse’s contributions and service, its loyalty and spirit.
The horsetail dance exists in a similar vein. It is a bit more lighthearted than many powwow or other dances, one that is fun for traditional children to watch. But much of what has been written about it is flatly false; beware any account written by a non-Native, for it is sure to be wrong (as it is on every other topic). For example, it is not the case that “there were no steps,” nor that dancers simply “made up steps as they went along.” It is true that traditional Native dance has always left room for a degree of improvisation, as well as for simple evolution, but the dances virtually always arise from a set of base steps and movements, and this one is no exception. It also takes practice to get the movements right: The point is not, as many sites will tell you, “to kick up your heels playfully” (the appropriative scouting movement and its inherent racist imagery is a source of many such false characterizations). That’s a description of European-based dance steps, not Native ones; anyone who has ever attended a single powwow can attest to the drastic difference in how we approach foot placement, regardless of the pace or style of the dance itself.
Growing up as he did in what outside anthropologists now call a “horse culture,” horses are an integral part of Wings’s earliest memories. They were, in a very real sense, members of the family who traveled with them from the village out to this land to plough and plant and pull the wagons at harvest; who carried them into the mountainous backcountry on hunt and pilgrimage alike. One of his chores was to help care for them, and he grew up with a deep and abiding connection to their spirits.
Now, in lieu of the physical steps, he has created his own horsetail dance in tribute to all of the horses who, throughout his life, have given him so much. From its description in the Bracelets Gallery here on the site:
Horsetail Dance Coil Bracelet
It’s a tribute to an old dance that honors the spirit of the horse. At the center of this spiraling coil bracelet runs the Indian paint horse for whom the dance is named, mane and tail whirling outward in both directions. The tiny mustang is carved of red dolomite, a shade so deep it’s nearly violet. At head and hoof, round dark red garnets form a single strand of mane and tail, each accented with a single spherical bead of glossy white chalcedony with a sunny yellow matrix. Both ends terminate in a length of small doughnut-shaped rondels of Picasso marble, tiny rattles to accompany the pony’s drumming hoofbeats. Joint design by Wings and Aji.
Stainless steel; dolomite; garnet; white chalcedony; Picasso marble
$225 + shipping, handling, and insurance
The little horse is classic Indian pony: a mustang, wild and unbridled, in the hues of an iconic red paint. The same colors repeat in the coil itself, deep dark red in a shade somewhere beyond scarlet, with patches of earthy white here and there, like our own pinto’s coat.
It’s a compactly beautiful tribute to these wild spirits who enrich our lives, a powerfully coiled presence whirling like the dancers who personify them.
~ Aji
All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2015; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owners.
