American Indian Culture and Research Journal

Theresa, Danieala, Richard, and Diana live in southwestern Oklahoma. In what many here call ”our Indian world,” Kiowa, Comanche, Kiowa-Apache, Wichita, Caddo, Delaware, and Chirichaua Apache peoples and their traditions converge, creating a dynamic and diverse community. Traditions such as language, worldview, religion, and community narrative help to demarcate this Indian world. Several dance and song traditions are among the most heralded. The conversation above is about one of these: the Gourd Dance. Ethnographers and other scholars have recently written much about this dance. They have discussed its form and choreography, history, and significance to Oklahoma communities, especially the Kiowas. This scholarly interest is not surprising, especially since the dance’s popularity has become so widespread after its revival in the 1950s. Since then, it has nearly replaced the War Dance’s prominence in some Oklahoma communities. In southwestern Oklahoma, while many weekends pass without a War Dance, no weekend passes without one or more community organizations hosting an eight- to ten hour Gourd Dance. Indeed, the dance is now one of southwestern Oklahoma’s most visible aesthetic forms.