Gourd dance celebrates healing from domestic violence

By Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola
Staff Writer

GALLUP — Saturday's gourd dance offered a glimpse of what life could be like, what life should be like.

Everyone was there, from babies to grandparents, men and women, singers and dancers, young girls with sashes and crowns, veterans of all ages, from survivors of domestic violence to recovering alcoholics, drug addicts, and perpetrators of domestic violence.

And they came together to share a common message: homes should be safe places where family members love, care, and support each other; they should never be places for violence.

Battered Families Services, Inc. sponsored the Second Annual Domestic Violence Awareness Gourd Dance Saturday afternoon at Gallup Junior High School to honor survivors of domestic violence. Earlier in the morning, the organization sponsored its annual Domestic Violence Awareness Walk, which attracted just a small crowd of about 40 men, women, and children.

One of the walk's participants, Gallup Mayor Bob Rosebrough, said he chose to participate because of the "inordinate amount of violence" inflicted on mothers, sisters, and daughters in the local community through violence in homes.

"I don't think any of us can sleep well at night until we have a handle on this problem," he said.

Several hundred people mostly attending as families gathered for the gourd dance. Ramone Yazzie Sr. of Fort Defiance, Ariz. emceed the event, which featured brief speeches by a number of men and women interspersed between the gourd dance songs.

Although gourd dances originated as a way to honor Native American veterans, Yazzie said in his introductory remarks that it was appropriate to honor warriors and domestic violence survivors together.

Everyone attending the gourd dance was somehow connected to a family struggling with domestic violence, he said, a struggle which he equated with war.

"We are fully responsible for our actions," Yazzie told the men in the audience. Calling Native American men the "modern warriors of today," he challenged the men to lead their families, particularly their children and their grandchildren, and to "lead in a good way."

Gourd dance songs were songs of healing, he said, and the Domestic Violence Awareness Gourd Dance was an opportunity for participants to learn, share, and heal from the effects of family violence.

Members of one particularly well-known Navajo family were recognized and honored for their efforts to educate the public about the devastation caused by domestic violence. John L. Tsosie, Stephanie Long Tsosie, and Ernest D. Tsosie Jr., along with John and Stephanie's children, participated in the morning walk and were guests at the gourd dance. The family is in the middle of its "Walking the Healing Path," a nearly 400-mile journey from Fort Sumner, N.M. to Canyon de Chelly.

John L. Tsosie was interviewed briefly before being introduced to the audience. Still wearing his florescent orange roadside vest that sports the slogan "It's your business to stop domestic violence," Tsosie said his family chose to walk from Bosque Redondo, the 19th century reservation prison camp that Navajos call Hweeldi, this year because they were trying to have more of a youth focus, and they wanted to help Navajo youth become more aware of the history of Navajo people and what their ancestors endured in order to bring their people back to Dinetah.

However, he said, it was important to take a break from his family's walk to support the Battered Families Services' events. Tsosie said he and his father would be taking another quick break later this week to speak about domestic violence at a men's conference in Sells, Ariz. on the Tohono O'odham Indian Reservation.

Tsosie's father, Ernest Tsosie Jr, addressed the crowd and shared frankly how his example of being an alcoholic and domestic violence perpetrator led his two sons to follow in his footsteps. Looking very much like his oldest son, Ernest Tsosie III Ernie of the comedy team James and Ernie Tsosie admitted that he was abusive to his wife when he was younger and that his children grew up frightened of him and angry.

"I often wonder how he made it," Tsosie said of Ernie, the son that witnessed most of the abuse. Ernie Tsosie has gone on to include anti-domestic violence messages in his comedy routines and personal appearances.

Speaking of the walk he is currently taking with John, his youngest son, Tsosie said, "Each step that I take, I think of all the families and all the children that are suffering."

"I look at my family, and I thank God we made it," added Tsosie, who said he frequently talks to his grandchildren about the harm created by domestic violence and substance abuse. He praised the members of the audience and said their attendance at the gourd dance demonstrated their concern for others and their love for their own children.

In response to Tsosie's story, Yazzie compared contemporary social problems to the ancient giants that menaced the Navajo people in traditional mythological stories. "These giants still walk to and fro upon our land," he said of domestic violence, alcohol addiction, and drug abuse. "Today we are the warriors. It's our job to slay these giants."

Editor's Note: Victims of domestic violence can contact Battered Families Services in Gallup at the organization's crisis line: (505) 722-7483.