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As one Syracuse University student danced in front of dozens on the Shaw Quadrangle Monday afternoon, stomping to the beat of a small drum, his phone went flying from his pocket, landing on the ground next to him.

“That’s how you do it,” said Sherri Waterman-Hopper, the founder of the Haudenosaunee Singers and Dancers, an Indigneous performance group. “You dance the phone right out of your pocket!”

The group performed on the Quad with the Haudenosaunee flag waving in the background to celebrate and commemorate Indigenous Peoples’ Day. The event, hosted by the Native Student Program, aimed to acknowledge the sovereignty and history of Indigenous people within America, according to its webpage. SU officially recognized the holiday in 2016.

Waterman-Hopper has been working with the Haudenosaunee Singers and Dancers for over 30 years, and is the group’s current coordinator. Each time they perform, Waterman-Hopper tells those watching to participate.

“You learn by watching and joining in, that’s the best way,” Waterman-Hopper said. “That’s why we try to encourage people to do that.”

Waterman-Hopper said the main difference between traditional and contemporary social dances is the amount of contact between people.

Participants joined arms and moved toward and away from each other for the Duck Dance, a contemporary dance that Waterman-Hopper said honors water birds. In another performance, they locked arms and spun at every few beats of a drum.

“We want to share, dancing in our traditional dress (and) talk about various aspects of our traditional life,” Waterman-Hopper said. “We like people to join in.”

Regina Jones, the university’s outgoing director of the Native Student Program, said the holiday raises awareness for Indigenous history.

“Indigenous Peoples’ Day is an opportunity to see a more complete picture of American history,” she wrote on SU’s website. “It’s a story of survival and resilience.”

Waterman-Hopper also emphasized that the social dance should create an environment where people talk to one another and feel welcomed.

“The dancers behind me, when I’m talking, they can mingle with one another because during our social dances, in our community, that’s how it is,” she said.

A three-year-old girl also bounced to the drum playing throughout the quad as the members of the group danced.

She was learning the same way everyone in the group learned, Waterman-Hopper said.

“There isn’t a dance class that I have ever been to, and I can speak for the members of the group, that they haven’t been to a dance class to learn how to dance or sing or anything,” she said. “We grew up with it.”

Published on October 10, 2022 at 11:16 pm

Contact Kyle: kschouin@syr.edu | @Kyle_Chouinard