Eagle Feathers Still Take Care of Native Americans

Traditional values, language, religion, culture were ripped away from Native Americans when they were subjugated and forced to live on reservations. Children were taken from their families and put in boarding schools.

New religious concepts were forced upon them, and harsh punishments were meted out for any use of indigenous language or the practice of cultural beliefs and ways of life.

In South Dakota, nine tribes live on reservations. The Black Hills are considered sacred to many tribes. Elders teach cultural heritage and language once forbidden in schools. A rebirth of traditional life is growing among these first nations, and renewed interest in dance and music is taking place.

Presentation of the Flute

In the Black Hills, outside Hermosa, S.D., members of the Yellow Hawk family joined to celebrate the presentation of a flute. Members of the family, a handful of visitors from Switzerland, as well as Loren Harrison, a flute maker, and his wife met in a circle of trees on a mountainside.

The fall day was warm. As the sun came down on the horizon, Stephen Yellow Hawk and his grandfather Gerald Yellow Hawk donned their regalia.

After retirement as a criminologist with the U.S. Justice Department, Harrison turned his woodworking skills into crafting Native American-style flutes. His wife, Gloria, is a retired music teacher with the Rapid City, S.D., school system. She tunes the flutes. Together they bring music to life with flute songs.

“Stephen Yellow Hawk was a little smiling boy in my wife’s music class,” Harrison related. “He came out to our place with Gloria’s class, and I heard him play the flute. It was because of his inspiration that I started to make flutes in the design of Native Americans.”

Without the heartbeat, without that drumbeat, there is no dance.

—Jasmine Pickner-Bell

He spoke quietly. The Yellow Hawk family and the small gathered audience hushed in the quiet of the forest glen to hear.

“This flute is called Yellow Hawk,” Harrison said and explained that it is made of South American yellow heartwood and zebrawood from Africa, while the pieces are separated by black walnut. “I put a carved eagle on top. I am gifting this to Stephen as my inspiration,” he said.

He handed the flute to Stephen Yellow Hawk in the circle. Both men were moved by the presentation. “Loren is the first to give me a flute beside my grandfather. I will have to get used to it. I will have to practice and play with it,” Stephen Yellow Hawk said humbly.

“The stone-carved eagle is [made of] picture jasper from California. Hardwoods form excellent solids in the flute. It’s hard to get hold of that wood. When Stephen was playing at my place and I listened to more and more, I got hooked. Gloria has perfect pitch and can pick it out with her ear,” Harrison said.

With the presentation, Stephen stepped out of the circle, aside from the others. He began to play. Wonderful music echoed in the trees.

Hoop Dancing

The celebration included twice-world champion hoop dancer Jasmine Pickner-Bell. She came with her family. Her husband Luke Bell of the Northern Arapaho is founder of the North Bear drum group. Jasmine described her native name, Good Road Woman of the Crow Creek Sioux.

“There are pictographs of hoop dancers on the walls of caves along the Cheyenne River. Hoops were traditionally made of willow with an under-layer of natural tobacco. Now hoops are made from plastic with electrical tape,” Pickner-Bell said, laughing.

She prepared hoops on the grass, laid them out in order as she spoke. “Years ago, we were born out of the Black Hills, and we loved to see the hoop—both man and woman. … We start with one hoop: yourself. First you have to learn to dance with yourself,” she said.

“Some of the formations were handed down through our family. I learned from my older and younger brothers before they died. Luke, my husband, will drum. Without the heartbeat, without that drumbeat, there is no dance,” she continued.

Next …Grandfather’s Prayer