Native dancing ban lifted in Alaska village

hosted ^ | RACHEL D'ORO | Feb 21

[JoeProBono]

NOORVIK, Alaska (AP) -- Bobby Wells has lived all his life in this remote Alaska village, where the Eskimo dancing of his ancestors was banned by Quaker missionaries a century ago as primitive idolatry.

Now Wells, 53, and other residents of Noorvik have wholeheartedly embraced the ancient practice outlawed in the Inupiat Eskimo settlement, which was established in 1914. Wells, the mayor, said dancing is not just for the ancient religious practice of shamanism as the missionaries had believed. It's also a form of worship dating back to the Bible, a view now held by many in the community of 650.

"This is the way God made us, to express our thankfulness to him with dancing," Wells said.....

[JoeProBono]

Inupiat Eskimo

[kingu]

In an age where we’re told to be tolerant of religions that are out there to kill us, it’s still hard to believe that some of these old laws still exist.

[TribalPrincess2U]

They need to get rid of that mayor.

Dancing can also keep you warm
in a cold climate. Good excercise, too.

[MsLady]

First off you can not force anyone to believe the way you do, so this should have never been. But, you can also worship the God of the bible in many ways, including using your culture. Go check this out: Link to Drums of Thunder and here Link to Broken Walls and here Link to we dance before you

[Mrs. Don-o]

The article seems a little garbled, which is a shame because I'm quite interested in this. First it says the dances were "banned" by Quakers, then it said "...the practice was prohibited by Russian Catholic missionaries."

(Russian Catholic? I doubt it.)

Then it says the revival of the dancing was approved by the "Friends Church" (Quakers) again,though "some elders" didn't want it. So was this civil law, or church law? Was it voted on? For this particular church congregation, or for everybody?

In Mexico (Tepeyac) I saw a lot of Guadalupana, Azteca and Chichimeca Catholic dancing.

[MsLady]

Yep your right. The article wasn’t real clear. Maybe it was both Catholic and Quakers??? Catholics I can’t see, if it’s Quaker, they probably don’t dance. I don’t know enough about them. If it’s church policy then you either go by what your church says, or you leave. I like the freedom to worship in an expressive way. Some people are real comfortable with doing that.