We Are Dancing For You
We Are Dancing For You
In a scholarly yet intimate and appealing way, the author explores how White settlement attempted to obliterate women's role in native societies and in cultural teaching through boarding schools, language suppression and forced assimilation. Young women's beginning of menstruation was transformed from a time of pride and self-awareness to one of shame and secrecy. Through scholarly research and personal interviews, the author presents the background of physical and cultural genocide not only among the tribes of Humboldt County but nationwide. As a result, traditional ceremonies including those around girls' coming of age were demeaned and nearly abandoned.
Baldy goes on to detail how her mother and women of her own tribe, the Hupa, worked to revitalize many aspects of their traditional culture, most particularly the Flower Dance coming of age ceremony. Through personal stories, she describes the rituals and their effect on girls' feelings of self worth and confidence in their futures.
With this enlightening book, the author succeeds in - as she said - "(re)writing, (re)righting, and (re)riting" an essential part of Humboldt's cultural history.
