Crowds gather to watch sacred dances by Nanticoke tribe
On the final day of the Delaware State Fair crowds gathered around the picnic area to watch the local Nanticoke tribe perform their sacred dances and learn the meanings behind the movements.
Over the past decade this has become a mainstay at the fair and the crowd, eager to watch and learn, continues to grow.
"We invite the public in, we invite different people from different various other tribes. And we bring them in to our little circle, our little community, and we kind of just share stories, share songs and just about who we are and what we do as Nanticoke people," said Carl Green, a drummer with the Nanticoke tribe.
Urie Ridgeway MC's the event and explains the different styles of dance. Some are from hundreds, even thousands of years ago. Others are more modern and contemporary.
"You're going to see dances that reflect nature such as the hoop dance that is going to come through, they're going to dance through hoops. The jingle judge dance the medicine dance, healing dance, traditional dances and fancy dances," said Urie Ridgeway, the MC for the Nanticoke tribe.
Nanticoke members tell us public events like these are important to make folks aware that Native Americans are still here, living among their communities.
"We really want to educate the public and let them know we're still here. We're your neighbors, we're your local volunteer firefighters, we're your local volunteer ems, we have Monday through Friday jobs like everybody else. This is just something that we like to do extra on the side that we just love to educate the people," said Green.
But more important than teaching locals at the fair about their ancient dances and their meanings, is teaching the youth to carry it on for generations to come.
"You'll see our children out here dancing. And we bring the children out from a very very young age. And when they start that, the reason that we do that, we know that if we don't continue this we cease to exist as Indian people," said Ridgeway.
