The Dance Festivals of the Alaskan Eskimo Part 1

The Dance Festivals of the Alaskan Eskimo.

by Ernest William Hawkes.

INTRODUCTION

This account of the Dance Festivals of the Alaskan Eskimo was written from material gathered in the Bering Strait District during three years' residence: two on the Diomede Islands, and one at St. Michael at the mouth of the Yukon River. This paper is based on my observations of the ceremonial dances of the Eskimo of these two localities.

THE DANCE FESTIVALS OF THE ALASKAN ESKIMO

THE DANCE IN GENERAL

The ceremonial dance of the Alaskan Eskimo is a rhythmic pantomime--the story in gesture and song of the lives of the various Arctic animals on which they subsist and from whom they believe their ancient clans are sprung. The dances vary in complexity from the ordinary social dance, in which all share promiscuously and in which individual action is subordinated to rhythm, to the pantomime totem dances performed by especially trained actors who hold their positions from year to year according to artistic merit.[1] Yet even in the totem dances the pantomime is subordinate to the rhythm, or rather superimposed upon it, so that never a gesture or step of the characteristic native time is lost.

This is a primitive 2-4 beat based on the double roll of the chorus of drums. Time is kept, in the men's dances, by stamping the foot and jerking the arm in unison, twice on the right, then twice on the left side, and so on, alternately. Vigorous dancers vary the program by leaping and jumping at intervals, and the shamans are noted for the dizzy circles which they run round the pugyarok, the entrance hole of the dance hall. The women's dance has the same measure and can be performed separately or in conjunction with the men's dance, but has a different and distinctly feminine movement. The feet are kept on the ground, while the body sways back and forth in graceful undulations to the music and the hands with outspread palms part the air with the graceful stroke of a flying gull. Some of their dances are performed seated. Then they strip to the waist and form one long line of waving arms and swaying shoulders, all moving in perfect unison.

[1] This characterization applies to the Alaskan Eskimo only; so far as is now known the other Eskimo branches do not have totemic dances.

THE CHORUS

The chorus which furnishes the music, is composed of from six to ten men. They sit on the in['g]lak, a raised shelf extending around the dance hall about five feet from the floor, and sing their dance songs keeping time on their drums. They usually sit in the rear of the room, which is the post of honor. Among the island tribes of Bering Strait this position is reversed and they occupy the front of the room. Some old man, the keeper of tribal tradition and song, acts as the leader, calling out the words of the dance songs a line ahead. He begins the proceedings by striking up a low chant, an invitation to the people a.s.sembled to dance. The chorus accompany him lightly on their drums.

Then at the proper place, he strikes a cras.h.i.+ng double beat; the drums boom out in answer; the song arises high and shrill; the dancers leap into their places, and the dance begins.

The first dances are usually simple exercises calculated to warm the blood and stretch stiffened muscles. They begin with leaping around the pu['g]yarok, jumping into the air with both feet in the Eskimo high kick, settling down into the conventional movements of the men's dance.[2]

[2] While the northern and southern tribes have the same general movements for their ordinary dances, they give a very different presentation of the festival dance-songs. The northerners leap and stamp about the kasgi until overcome with exhaustion; while in the south the performers sit or kneel on the floor, adorned with an abundance of streaming furs and feathers, sweep their hands through the air in graceful unison. It is a difference between rude vigor and dramatic art.

Quite often a woman steps into the center of the circle, and goes through her own dance, while the men leap and dance around her. This act has been specialized in the Reindeer and Wolf Pack Dance of the Aithukaguk, the Inviting-In Festival, where the woman wearing a reindeer crest and belt is surrounded by the men dancers, girt in armlets and fillets of wolf skin. They imitate the pack pulling down a deer, and the din caused by their jumping and howling around her shrinking form is terrific.

PARTIc.i.p.aTION OF THE s.e.xES

There appears to be no restriction against the women taking part in the men's dances. They also act as a.s.sistants to the chief actors in the Totem Dances, three particularly expert and richly dressed women dancers ranging themselves behind the mask dancer as a pleasing background of streaming furs and glistening feathers. The only time they are forbidden to enter the kasgi is when the shaman is performing certain secret rites. They also have secret meetings of their own when all men are banished.[3] I happened to stumble on to one of these one time when they were performing certain rites over a pregnant woman, but being a white man, and therefore unaccountable, I was greeted with a good-natured laugh and sent about my business.

[3] This custom appears to be widespread. Low writes of the Hudson Bay Eskimo: "During the absence of the men on hunting expeditions, the women sometimes amuse themselves by a sort of female "angekoking."

This amus.e.m.e.nt is accompanied by a number of very obscene rites...."

Low, The Cruise of the Neptune, p. 177.

On the other hand, men are never allowed to take part in the strictly women's dances, although nothing pleases an Eskimo crowd more than an exaggerated imitation by one of their clowns of the movements of the women's dance. The women's dances are practiced during the early winter and given at the Aiyaguk, or Asking Festival, when the men are invited to attend as spectators. They result in offers of temporary marriage to the unmarried women, which is obviously the reason for this rite. Such dances, confined to the women, have not been observed in Alaska outside the islands of Bering Sea, and I have reason to believe are peculiar to this district, which, on account of its isolation, retains the old forms which have died out or been modified on the mainland. But throughout Alaska the women are allowed the utmost freedom in partic.i.p.ating in the festivals, either as naskuks[4]

or feast givers, as partic.i.p.ants or as spectators.

[4] Literally "Heads" or directors of the feasts.

In fact, the social position of the Eskimo woman has been misrepresented and misunderstood. At first sight she appears to be the slave of her husband, but a better acquaintance will reveal the fact that she is the manager of the household and the children, the business partner in all his trades, and often the "oomialik," or captain of the concern as well. Her husband is forbidden by tribal custom to maltreat her, and if she owns the house, she can order him out at any time. I have never known a woman being head of a tribe, but sometimes a woman is the most influential member of a tribe.

THE KaSGI OR DANCE HOUSE

With few exceptions, all dances take place in the village kasgi or dance hall. This is the public meeting place where the old men gather to sit and smoke while they discuss the village welfare, where the married men bring their work and take their sweat baths, and where the bachelors and young men, termed kasgimiut, have their sleeping quarters. The kasgi is built and maintained at public expense, each villager considering it an honor to contribute something. Any tools or furnis.h.i.+ngs brought into the kasgi are considered public property, and used as such.

When a kasgi is to be built, announcement is made through messengers to neighboring villages, and all gather to a.s.sist in the building and to help celebrate the event. First a trench several feet deep is dug in which to plant the timbers forming the sides. These are usually of driftwood, which is brought by the ocean currents from the Yukon. The ice breaks up first at the head of that great stream, and the debris dams up the river, which overflows its banks, tearing down trees, buildings and whatever borders its course as it breaks its way out to the sea. The wreckage is scattered along the coast for over a hundred miles, and the islands of Bering Sea get a small share. The islanders are constantly on the lookout for the drifting timber, and put out to sea in the stormiest weather for a distant piece, be it large or small. They also patrol the coast after a high tide for stray bits of wood. When one considers the toil and pain with which material is gathered, the building of a kasgi becomes an important matter.

After the timbers have been rough hewn with the adze (ulimon) they are set upright in the trench to a height of seven to eight feet and firmly bedded with rock. This is to prevent the fierce Polar winds which prevail in midwinter from tearing the houses to pieces. In the older buildings a protecting stone wall was built on the sides. Most of the houses are set in a side hill, or partly underground, for additional security, as well as for warmth. The roof is laid on top of the uprights, the logs being drawn in gradually in pyramid shape to a flat top. In the middle of the top is the [.r]alok or smoke hole, an opening about two feet square. In a kasgi thirty feet square the ralok is twenty feet above the floor. It is covered with a translucent curtain of walrus gut. The dead are always taken out through this opening, and never by the entrance. The most important feature of the room is the in['g]lak, a wide shelf supported by posts at intervals.

It stands about five feet high extending around the room. This serves the double purpose of a seat and bed for the inmates of the kasgi. The rear, the kaan, is the most desirable position, being the warmest, and is given to headmen and honored guests.[5] The side portions, kaaklim, are given to the lesser lights and the women and children; and the front, the oaklim, being nearest the entrance and therefore cold and uncomfortable is left for the orphans and worthless men.

[5] The order of the seating on the in['g]lak of invited guests is a matter of great concern to the Eskimo, as it is an indication of worth.

Children purchase their right to a seat in the kasgi by making presents, through their parents, to all the inmates, kasgimiut.

Until they do so they have no right to enter. For the same reason strangers on entering the kasgi offer a small present to the headman, who divides it among the people.

The floor of the kasgi is made of rough planking, and the boards in the center are left loose so that they may be easily removed. These cover the k[=e]nethluk or fireplace, an excavation four feet square, and four feet deep, used in the sweat baths. It is thought to be the place where the spirits sit, when they visit the kasgi, during festivals held in their honor. Offerings are poured to them through the cracks in the planks. In the center of the floor is a round hole about two feet in diameter, called the entrance hole or pugyarok. This connects with a long tunnel, the a['g]veak, which leads outside. The tunnel is usually so low that it is necessary to enter in a stooping position, which the Eskimo does by placing both hands on the sides of the pugyarok, and drawing himself through. Some dance-houses have another entrance directly into the room on a level with the ground, the underground pa.s.sage being used only in winter. The diagram (Plate XI) gives an idea of this arrangement.

PARAPHERNALIA

The drum (sauyit)[6] is the only instrument employed in the dances. It is made of a circular hoop about eighteen inches in width over which is stretched a resonant covering made from the bladder of the walrus or seal. It is held in place by a cord of rawhide (o['k]linok)[7]

which fits into a groove on the outer rim. The cover can therefore be tightened at will. It is customary during the intermissions between the dances for the drummers to rub a handful of snow over the skins to prevent them from cracking under the heavy blows. The drum is held aloft and struck with a thin stick (mumwa).[8] It gives a deep boom in answer. The shaman uses a smaller baton with which he beats a continuous tattoo as an accompaniment to his songs. The northerners strike the back of the rim with their sticks, while the Yukon people belabor the face of the drum.

[6] Tcauyak, Yukon dialect.

[7] Loftak, Yukon dialect.

[8] Mumra, Yukon dialect.

The leader of the chorus frequently flourishes a baton, made from a fox tail or the skin of the ermine which is mounted on a stick. With this he marks the time of the dance. In Plate XIV, the white blur is the ermine at the end of his stick. It is very difficult to obtain a good picture in the ill lighted kasgi, and not often that the natives will allow one taken there.

One indispensable part of a male dancer's outfit is his gloves. I have never seen a man dancing without them. These are usually of wolverine, or of reindeer with elaborate tr.i.m.m.i.n.gs, but on ordinary occasions any kind will do. The women do not share this peculiarity. In place of gloves they wear handlets of gra.s.s decorated with feathers of duck or of ptarmigan. The men in the Totem Dances also wear handlets which are carved and painted to represent the particular totem they seek to honor. These too are fantastically decorated with feathers, usually of the loon. The central feather is stripped, and crowned with a tuft of white down. Both men and women wear armlets and fillets of skin or feathers according to the animal character they represent. When in the full swing of the dance with fur and feathers streaming they present a pleasing spectacle, a picture full of the same wild grace and poetic motion which characterizes the animal forbears from which they claim descent.

The chief characters in the Totem and Comic Dances wear masks and carry staves decorated with feathers. Occasionally the women a.s.sistants carry feathered wands (Kelizruk).

Of the masks there is a great variety ranging from the plain wooden masks to those of such great size that they are suspended from the ceiling of the kasgi by a cord while the dancer performs behind them.

The Cape Prince of Wales (Kinigumiut) Eskimo construct complete figures of their totems. These are worked by means of concealed strings by the performers, a climax of art which is supposed to be particularly pleasing to the spirits addressed. Then the shaman (Tungalik)[9] has his own set of masks, hideous enough to strike terror to even the initiated. Each one of these represents a familiar spirit (tunghat)[10] which a.s.sists him in his operations.

[9] Tungralik, Yukon dialect.

[10] Tungraniyak, Yukon dialect.

Ordinary dance masks may be made by anyone, but the masks for the ceremonial dances are made by some renowned shaman, engaged for the occasion. These masks are burned at the close of the festival, but may be sold by the actors if they supply an equal amount of wood for the sacrificial fire.