The Cross-Cultural Center for Excellence has brought several members of the local Muscogee Creek Nation to Auburn University. The men from the Muscogee Nation thought best to show off their renowned dance team The Medicine Tail Feathers.
Before students were given a peek into what these fast paced and high energy powwows looked like the first needed to learn a little bit about the Muscogee Creek and their impact on Alabama. The Muscogee’s most lasting contribution has been their language, still spoken on their reservation today, we draw some of our words from theirs. In fact the state name of Alabama comes from their word Alabama which means, “where we stay.” Also, we use the word Opelika for the city right outside of Auburn, but it was first used by the Muscogee to describe swampland.
Next, the tribal representatives showed off their flute playing skills and were treated with rounds of applause by the students surveying the presentation. Lastly, everyone in attendance learned about the Native American game of stick ball. The tribes would usually us e this game to settle disputes instead of war. Played similarly to modern day lacrosse, except on a field about five times the length of a football field with no pads and no rules. A team could only win by scoring 20 points, there were no stoppages. These games could take anywhere from a couple of hours to 5 days, Several participants died. They weren’t there to only inform us about their culture, but to also show us
In this class on culture, students were taught the historical significance of a powwow and how it is vastly different from its modern-day counterpart. Now powwows are dance competitions that are scored by judges and widely attended. These dancers must compete on a high level circuit that spans all over the country. The dancers dawn brightly colored ceremonial garments adorned with feathers, beaded vests and bells.
Each style of dance is as vastly different as the dancer performing it. All tell Stories or highlight impactful things in Creek life. One dance is the Chicken dance, molded after a prairie chicken’s mating dance. In this dance performed by Colby, he must focus on intricate fast paced footwork footwork as well as keeping his bells in time with the drum.
The other dances showcased were the grass dance and Fancy dancing. In the grass dance the dancer movements are very limited as it primarily focuses on the dancer maintaining symmetry with their partner. Fancy dancing however, is a non traditional dance with dancers able to have complete freedom of motion. Allowing them ti do flips as well as the splits and put on a spectacular show of movement.
As far as, this event goes it was one of the smaller events that The Office of Inclusion and Diversity puts on throughout the year. But the turnout was great and Director Allen Sutton hopes to grow it into a larger event that will engage the University and its surrounding communities.
The event really resonated with Freshman Public relations Major Lucy Ragsdale, who was there doing a project for her Cultural Emersion class. Lucy was very impressed by the Muscogee culture, “I went in not knowing what to expect, but I was very impressed when I left, the amount of effort and focus that goes into those dances is unbelievable. The fancy dancing was by far my favorite.” This was just an example of the fantastic events put on by the university. Be sure to keep up to date with what is going on at Auburn and don’t be afraid to experience new cultures.
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