“To dance is to pray, to pray is to heal, to heal is to give, to give is to live, to live is to dance.” – MariJo Moore
In 2013 four college boys on a road trip to a powwow were singing, drumming, and having fun. Antoine Edwards Jr., Butchie Eastman, Doug Thomas, and Elton Wayne recorded this round dance tune, uploaded it to social media, and it became a viral sensation. The steady heartbeat of the drum underlies a love song sung in traditional round dance style, but with lyrics in English.
Despite colonialism’s attempt to put an end to the rituals and traditions of native people, it did not prevail. Powwow drummers, singers, and dancers join with their ancestors in these ceremonial celebrations. Cherokee poet and author MariJo Moore’s poem “They Dance Round Still” remembers and honors round dancers of past years who were harassed, repressed, scattered, and destroyed.
They Dance Round Still
The drums are dead
They beat the drums to death
The people are dead
They shot the people to death
There are drum beats still
Beats from the dead drums
The people are dead
But they do not know this
They believe still
They believe still
They tend to their young still
They tend to their young still
They dance round still
They dance round still
They dance round still
They are ghosts who do not know they are dead…
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