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It sounds like a hymn, repetitive and incantatory, increasing in complexity. Two thousand miles away, I press the cell phone to my ear. Linda Davis (Zuni/Navajo) is singing a traditional song—over the telephone. “Harmony is our way of life,” she explains. “The sun rises every morning for the people and animals, like a promise. Sleeping through it is a waste.”

Davis is a founding member of Chinle Valley Singers, a family of seven ranging in age from 18 to 56, who preserve Navajo tradition in song and dance by adapting ancient ceremonial arts to social and entertainment purposes. Rooted in rich traditional music, but also including new songs composed in the traditional forms, these dances are associated with skills for eking a living from the desert—sewing, cooking, riding horses, herding sheep—the daily life of her mother’s elders.

Native dancing today is a mixture of ceremonial and social functions, to gather energy for healing, usher people through stages of life, encourage closeness between generations and promote responsibility—but in some public cases, also to have fun. Since dances need no longer be held in secret (Indian dancing was illegal in parts of the United States, Mexico and Canada from 1680 to 1951), and with the explosion in powwow dancing, many Native people throughout North America are organizing dance troupes to both educate and entertain.

The story also focuses on three additional dance troupes.
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