Piscataway Nation event informs and engages

The Piscataway Nation Singers and Dancers have performed their way around the world.

Their goal is to challenge inaccurate portrayals of American Indians. These stereotypes are perpetuated by things like sports mascots and the cowboy vs Indian motif featured in westerns.

The leader and drummer of the group, Mark Tayac, started the performance by drumming and vocalizing. He then spoke about the importance and symbolism of the drum. For Tayac the drum is the heartbeat of life. He wants this heartbeat to continue to beat throughout the generations.

The first dance that they performed was called the Entryway dance. It is a dance performed to start a pow wow. A pow wow is a gathering of the people and is traditionally done in the spring to honor to the earth as it comes alive.

The Piscataway Nation Singers and Dancers brought with them four performers: Mark Tayac, two male warrior dancers and a female jingle dress dancer.

Following the Entryway dance, one of the warrior dancers performed a war dance.

After the war dance, the performers asked audience members to come up and form a circle. The performer called upon one of the participants to showcase their inner warrior in front of the circle.

The performers were not shy and they persuaded many audience members to come up and dance with them. There were a total of three dances that the performers did with the audience. The Warrior Circle dance, a Snake dance and a partner two-step dance.

Two other dances they performed were a Jingle-Dress dance and an Eagle dance. The jingle dress dance was performed by a female dancer wearing a shiny red beaded dress with additions that make a jingling noise as she dances.

The dance she performed is traditionally done to ask for healing or to dance for those who are unable to dance themselves.

Next was the Eagle dance. The performer draped eagle feathers over their arms and back and performed a dance reenacting an eagle as it moves through different stages of life.

To close, Mark Tayak talked about the various names his people have been called by outside groups throughout history. Tayak said when the first Europeans landed, they called American Indians “in dios”
or people in god. Then they were called the “noble red man”. After that came racial slurs such as savages or
renegades, then American Indian and finally Native American.

For Tayac, it is important for him and his people to be identified as American Indian because the term American comes first, signifying their millenia-long connection with the land.