Native American Week
Pupils learn Navajo dance, music

Evelyn Martin demontrates, alongside her husband James Martin, traditional Navajo dancing to third graders at Milan Elementary School Thursday morning. The children learned two dances, the two step and skip. The two step may be described as a march while the skip is more like a "bicycle ride." [photo by Daniel Zollinger / Independent]

By Helen Davis
Cibola County Bureau

MILAN — Navajo children from kindergarten through the sixth grade took a break from language lessons and the daily routine to try out dance and music, among other traditional activities in Milan last week.

The Diné Oral Language program at Milan Elementary School sponsored a Milan Native American week from Tuesday through Friday.

Parents and grandparents joined teachers in introducing out of the ordinary cultural skills to pupils in each class. Each day had a theme, with Thursday featuring drumming and beginning dance. Teachers, parents and some of the students wore traditional dress for the occasion.

Navajo teacher Marie Tapaha wore ceremonial velvet and classroom assistant Sandra Lewis kept to the tradition of fine fabric for special occasions in an off-while satin skirt and wide collared blouse and jewelry for the round dances.

James and Evelyn Martin, who have twin daughters in the language program, spent the day introducing young Navajo pupils to the basic steps of the round dance, and demonstrating drums that competition singers use in contests.

First the pupils had to learn to line up in the proper way. Males always go on the outside. Martin said that is to protect girls and women; when they are older and become men, the boys will still always be on the outside even in ordinary activities because it is their job to protect the females.

The Martins taught the youngsters to link arms, in the proper way, and to move the line in a circle. The first step to learn is the two-step, very basic but harder than it looks. The dance instructor asked the children to think of soldiers marching and lifting their knees with each step.

That is all the two-step is, but it takes stamina and concentration to keep it loose and lively while maintaining the rhythm.

“It is about being happy,” Martin said.

The class moved on the skip step, also used in the circle dances. The rhythm is different than the two-step but dancers still dance in boy and girl pairs, with arms linked.
Martin explained the skip step as being like pedaling a bicycle, with the foot coming up then coming down and pulled back, like the tail end of a turn on the pedals. No problem for the grownups, but a challenge for the pupils.

Even the enthusiastic began to tire by the end of the skip step song, but they looked good dancing in pairs, following Martin and their teacher around the dance space.

Music activities for each class wound up with Martin showing some of the different kinds of drums the pupils can learn to play. He picked up a lightweight open drum and told the pupils it was his children’s first drum. He added that now his two oldest play drums and sing the Navajo songs in contests — and win.

Other drums were covered with adjustable heads or were very deep and narrow in the body, but open at the top. Martin said the deepest drum was an Apache drum, but Navajo singers played it in competition.

This week, the pupils go back to regular classes with no dancing, drumming or eating in class, but the summer will offer a song and dance event in June and more cultural classes in summer programs.