Fancy dance

Fancy dance was considered appropriate to be performed for visitors to reservations and at "Wild West" shows.

Native American dances, the practices of medicine men, and religious ceremonies were banned by White authorities with the introduction of The Code of Indian Offenses in 1883.

[3] Kiowa and Comanche created new styles of dance regalia in the 1930s that included long-johns with bells attached to the knee up to the waist, two small arm bustles with white fluff, two bustles with white down, beadwork harnesses, and some feathers, and the roach being tall and usually with fluffs.

[4] Two young Ponca boys are specifically credited with developing the fast-paced dance that the audiences loved.

Professional fancy dancers of the 1930s included Chester Lefthand (Arapaho), Stephen Mopope (Kiowa), Dennis Rough Face (Ponca), and George "Woogie" Watchetaker (Comanche).

Shalah Rowlen (Sac and Fox) fancy danced with her sisters, wearing bustles, in the early 1940s.

Their modern costume is completely reliant on materials that would have been difficult or impossible to obtain in Bermuda during the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, including the tailfeathers of the Asian peacock that adorn the head dress.

Their dance was clearly once a war dance, with the troupe member called The Bowman or Lead Indian carrying a bow and arrow and often going slightly ahead of the troupe to scout the way on long marches, and the Warriors carrying tomahawks, which they place on their shoulders and use during cockfights when they face off against each other, and the steps were recognised by Wampanoag dancers after the Wampanoag and Pequots began a series of Reconnection festivals with Bermudians in 2000.

The women's fancy shawl dance represents the opening of a cocoon when the butterfly emerges.

[12] The popularity of fancy dance - sometimes as a competitive sport - has spread, and is now practiced by many Native American tribes.