Dancing
Chicken Dance
The chicken dance comes
from the Plateau
Tribes. The
dancer is brightly colored mush like the male Prairie
Chicken when compared to the female. The dance imitates the mating dance of the
Prairie Chicken. In the late fall the male Prairie Chicken struts around
noisily, running and ducking in and out in a fast drumming motion. One story
that tells the origin of the dance is that a young man was sent out on a vision
quest. While he was on the prairie, he heard a song. He sat up to see the
prairie chicken doing a dance to this song. The chickens taught the young man
the sons and the dance. When he arrived home he taught the dance and songs to
his people.