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Drums, Dance Fill
ANDY ANDREWS
Lancaster Farming Staff
WEST CHESTER (Chester
Co.) —In the distance, beyond the
trees, I could hear the drums.
At first, I thought only of enter
ing the place out of simple curiosi
ty. I mean, how many chances do
you get to go to a real Native
American ceremony? Certainly
there was something of the myster
ious and otherworldly about the
event
Before I left, I learned a great
deal about a culture and a way of
life beyond my world, including
things experienced at this Lenape
Honoring Festival, that some of us
never get to see and understand.
Mote than 3,000 people came to
the Myrick Conservation Center in
Pocopson Township, Chester
County, to experience the fourth
annual festival, held this past
weekend. (The Lenape ate also
known as the Delaware, 1 learned).
Getting there turned out to be an
experience enough, however.
Bear Heart, also known as Anna Bear Heart Edwards,
right, Is from Midlothian, Va. I learned the dance is their way
of honoring women. Miranda, her daughter, Is 14, and Is
also called “Little Owl.” Her name Is her “medicine,” said
her mother.
The “Switch Dance,” In which men dance lIKe the women, Is performed.
First, my family left late on the
hour-long drive. And the Myrick
Conservation Center is not clearly
marked on any maps—yet resides
deep in the Pocopson woods off
RL 842.
But we found it. eventually. We
went by a long path. We found a
place to park. Late in the day,
many were returning home.
Kids came out of the festival
with their families, wearing head
dresses, face paint, and toy bows
and arrows. They looked gleeful,
so we decided to make it a day (or
what was left of it, with the sun
waning, the sky becoming more
dark and gloomy, and the sur
roundings taking on an other
worldly feel to them).
The sign into the woodland
clearly marked “no horses allow
ed.” It was a people path, strewn
with bark mulch, that led deep into
the forest
But throughout this, the almost
incessant drumbeat, the sound of
age-old Lenape voices, and a sign
ry
The Forest At Honoring Festival
at the threshold which read,
“Waneeshi,” which means, “nice
to see you” or “thanks for com
ing.” There was the circle, made
ready for dances. There were war
rior men with their dance staffs
held high, in respect and admira
tion for the special honoring cere
mony for a woman named Bear
Heart
I asked the master of ceremo
nies, Snow Owl, to point out Bear
Heart “She’s the woman in
purple,” he said.
I watched the stately, dignified
way in which Bear Heart moved in
the circle, bearing all the regalia,
including the headdress, common
to her people.
Bear Heart, also known as Anna
Bear Heart Edwards, is from Mid
lothian, Va. I learned the dance is
their way of honoring women.
“Where did you get your
name?” I asked.
“It was given to me by an
Elder,” she said. Bear Heart said
she received the name when she
was 37 years old. She wore her
wedding dress from a year ago dur
ing the ceremony.
I asked her to explain the mean
ing of the color. It has significance
that is complex, she said. Puiple is
the combination of two colors,
each designating a separate road
the red and the blue. The red
road is the road we choose. The
blue is the road of the world, the
more traveled road, full of things
harmful to life, such as greed,
envy, a heavy spirit.
Miranda, her daughter, is 14,
and is also called “.Little Owl.” Her
name is her “medicine,” said her
mother. Bear Heart.
“Her medicine?” I asked.
“Each name has a special mes
sage and a gift to bring,” said Bear
Heart. These, she said, are taught
at an early age. Dance is learned.
Tradition is a vital part of all the
learning.
The Elder appointed her daught-
(Turn to Pag* B 15)
lehape
I
My son Kevin with a handmade, wooden, ancient flute
like Instrument called a “Quena,” pronounced KEN-YA.
Kevin said, “It’s a Quena, Dad. As In, Can ya play It?”
I
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