. INDIAN SUMMERS     
 A Memoir of Fort Duchesne 1925-1935     

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THE BEAR DANCE   TABLE OF CONTENTS  GRANDMA ROSE DANIELS

THE BEAR DANCE

Aiya, Hey, Heya!
Come Bear, Dance Bear, Dance!

Of all the Ute dances, the Bear Dance is the oldest, and it is the only one that is indigenous to the Utes as people. The Bear Dance was originally a mating dance, danced at the end of the winter encampment, and before families separated for their summer food gathering. Later, it became more of a social festival that occurred in the springtime.

    Ute Bear Dance, Uintah-Ouray Reservation, 1924. Used by permission, Utah State Historical Society.     Click for full image

The dance tells the story of a man who goes to sleep, and has a dream. He dreams that he goes to a certain place in the mountains. It is in springtime after the bears have awakened from hibernation. The man finds a bear, shuffling forward and back in a dance. The bear scratches his back by rubbing it on a pine tree, then continues his shuffling forward and back.
    In the Bear Dance, the Utes imitate the movements of the Bear, shuffling forward and back. The music is made with a morache. The morache is a notched stick which is rubbed with a piece of bone. In olden times, the morache was made of the jawbone of the bear. The morache imitates the sound of the bear rubbing against the tree, and the drums imitate the springtime thunder which awakened him.
    The ground where the Bear Dance took place was a large field, enclosed by a fence made of interlaced boughs of willows. The fence surrounded a floor of hard packed earth with an opening in one side. Opposite the opening, a shallow trench was dug. A sheet of metal was placed over the trench to serve as a resonator for the morache. Formerly the resonator was an upturned specially woven basket. More recently, wood and metal were used.
    The musicians were seated around a large drum located alongside the trench. Spectators were seated along the walls of the corral. Young men and women who were going to dance, lined up in two lines facing each other. They danced toward each other, forward and back, to the accompaniment of four or five older men. The Singers played the drum as they sang in harmony. The songs were about the season of spring, which was so welcome after the cold of winter. New songs often came to the Singers in a dream, and they taught the simple melody to the dancers.
    One of the Singers, called "the Cat," carried a long willow switch which he used on any shy woman’s legs, urging her to dance faster. During the dance, the young woman flirtatiously flipped her shawl in the face of the man she chose. As the dance progressed, the dancers separated into couples. The dance ended when one of the dancers became exhausted and fell down. A big communal feast followed the dance.

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    Ute Chiefs and Dancers. Courtesy of L. C. Thorne Collection. Click for full image

Men and women donned all their beaded finery for the Bear Dance. Young women wore a special moccasin made of white buckskin, extending almost to the knee. They were ornately beaded, and uniquely designed for the occasion. Originally, the young men and women taking part in the dance, were indicating their willingness to accept a suitable offer of marriage.
    Aunt Bill [Mildred Dillman] told me that she had danced the Bear dance, and that she had been made an honorary member of the Ute tribe. She said that any young woman who showed anxiety about marriage at any other time would have been teased with the wry comment, "See! She has on her Bear Dance moccasins."
    The Bear Dance Chiefs took charge of the feast that followed the Bear Dance. They were respected elders, admired as dancers and singers, who decided when the festival should be held. They decided who should prepare the food, and make contributions to the feast. They also took charge of rehearsals and preparations of the Bear Dance arena. Sometimes a thousand people attended the Bear Dance festival. Once limited to the Native Americans, the Bear Dance festival is now open to anyone who is visiting the reservation at the time the dance is held. The festival and Bear Dance have become commercialized, so that it is more like a county fair and is a time for celebration.

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Phoebe Lister, 1970. Click for full image

Wong Sing, 1928. Courtesy of L. C. Thorne Collection. Click for full image

Wong Sing's Trading Post. Courtesy of Norma Denver. Click for full image

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PROLOGUE: Red Rock Country
Early Years
The Journey
Summer Morning
Home and Garden
Aunt Phoebe
The Sand Box
School at Last
Wong Sing
GAMES AND PASTIMES
The Children's Home
Celebrations in July
Grandma Rose Daniels
Dinosaur Bones
Run Sheep, Runnn!
Haunted House
SUMMER'S END: LOSING INNOCENCE
The Experiment Farm
U.B.I.C.
My Johnny
Black Eyes and Blue Eyes Meet
Gypsy Camp Farewell
Indian Summers
EPILOGUE: ABOUT INDIANS
The Lady Who Loves Baskets
Ute Creation Myth
Indians Just Dance
The Bear Dance
The Sun Dance
The Land is Heavy
Bibliographic References

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