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Make a Joyful Noise 
Lewis Walks Over Ice
Okay, well, some of the ones we do is of course the Hot Dance or the War Dance, the Grass Dance. Contemporary people call it Powwow and also we have Sun Dance. Some tribes do that. That's what we call it. That's mostly done in the summertime. It's a dance of sacrifice. They don't drink or eat for three days, and they fast. So that's more of a religious dance.
There's of course, Peyote. Some of the tribal members do peyote. They believe in that. They sing Peyote. They go to peyote meetings. Sometimes they'll have them on weekends. Sometimes somebody will sponsor one, what they call a "tea" at their house. They'll sing all night. They'll start like oh, maybe nine, ten o'clock. They'll go until morning. Then they'll take turns singing peyote songs. Then again, that's just like some of the tribes down around Oklahoma, the Comanche, Cheyennes, the Navajo, Kiowa, Apache. So we more or less sing some of the same songs that they do. Of course the Crow, we have our own songs too.
When they hit the drum, they acknowledge the mountains. There's a certain point where they hit the drum and everybody will acknowledge the mountains. Then they will acknowledge the eagle and we're thanking the Creator for giving us the mountains, the water that preserves life, and to the eagle, that he watches over us, the Great Spirit. Like I said also, of course you know that when we're dancing, see, the drumstick when it hits the drum, that represents thunder. See when you hit the drum it represents thunder. So then it says that when we are told that when you hit the drum people that are sick become well, they quit being sick because we're joyous. We're happy to be alive, you know.
They tell us to stomp on Mother Earth. Hit, stomp on Mother Earth so that when you hit that drum you're glad to be alive. Tell Mother Earth that you're glad to be alive. So that's what we are told. We have several mothers. We have our birth mother. We want to keep her forever, but she's only with us for awhile. We have the lodge, but Mother Earth will never leave you. We are told that Mother Earth will always be there. So you stomp on Mother Earth and you're joyous. You make a joyful noise, happy that you're alive. So that's the reason and then when we hit the drum and we're just glad to be alive. So we're celebrating.
©2004 Wisdom of the Elders