Red Road Round Dance honors modern day warriors

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It's that time of year when round dances kick in with a vengeance as if making up for lost time. While the summer season is devoted primarily to powwows and rodeos, the round dance takes hold during the winter, right up until late spring.

This year a few round dances are now already behind us. One of those occurred Oct. 6 in northeast Edmonton, when scores of people packed the Red Road Healing Society hall to pay tribute to modern-day warriors.

With the theme being "Honoring our Akicita (Warriors) in the spirit of Tashunka Witco," emcee Doug Bonais kept the momentum alive with good-natured humor, even to the point of getting people to laugh at themselves.

Joanne Grumbly-PomPana, society director, said that the warriors of today are of a different nature than in the past. Gone are the days of the spear, bow and arrow. Now, they use things like education as their principle weapon.

The evening was a fun time for young and old as drummers kept the spirit of the dancers at a high and round after round of drumming had people returning to the dance floor.

More than 400, representing not only Cree and Metis from the area, but Ojibway, Dakota, Dene, Inuit, Stoney, Sioux, Blackfoot, Shuswap, Mohawk, Seneca, Potawatomi, Cherokee and non-Aboriginals attended.

Grumbly-PomPana explained some of the origin of the organization, its goals, and why the society is important to urban Natives.

In the latter part of the evening, there was a generous round of gift-giving to the visitors and certificates were presented to a number of youths in their programs

. "When we honor these youth," said Grumbly-PomPana, "we honor the distance they have come." For example, four of those recognized were young men who formed an Aboriginal street patrol unit that was "culturally sensitive, that represented what we're trying to protect (the sacredness of our lives)," she explained.

The society has a wide range of other programs such as drumming, singing, dancing, story telling, craft making, aerobics, Native culture, parenting, Alcoholic Anonymous, and survivor group meetings.

Their philosophy is that they try to help people "on the Red Road of life by remembering, renewing and restoring our traditional values as Indigenous people." The organization primarily services the areas of Abbottsfield, Rundle and Beverly. It was incorporated in September1997.