Redrock Falls & Blackfeet Singers and Dancers

Day 9 – July 9, 2014

Breakfast in the room of instant oatmeal using the coffeemaker for hot water and slicing up the last banana before it goes bad. Out the door by 9am, we stopped at the St. Mary Visitor Center and purchased tickets for tonight’s Blackfeet Singers and Dancers in the auditorium. The bookstore sells the $5 tickets and the program starts at 7:00p. She recommended that we should be there no later than 6:30 or 6:45 for a good seat.

 

We parked in the Swiftcurrent Lodge parking lot to head out on the Redrock Falls hike at 9:45a. The sign says 1.8 miles which translates into 3.6.  We haven’t done this long of a hike before but the elevation change states “minimal” so we’re going to give it a go. We were rewarded with a short hike to a bridge and a doe and fawn on the stream's shore no more than 40' from us. They posed nicely, the fawn retreated to the brambles and mama crossed the stream to graze. We headed on. I carried the bear spray and had it "at the ready". Stupid perhaps but I felt more in control of any situation with protection. 

This hike was just right for us and the lake and the falls at its end were beautiful! I would highly recommend it to a novice hiker as long as you feel up to more than 3 miles at a 5,000' altitude. Of course, we went overboard with photos at the falls and were always maneuvering for that great illusive iconic photo. With that in mind, I followed a seldom used trail into the woodsy area and came face-to-face with a young buck! Deer, that is, not the 6' gorgeous Native American that would have been preferable. ;-)

Redrock Falls

My young buck!

The return hike was uneventful (thank goodness) except for the last mile where my hips were starting to give me fits and I had reached my limit for walking on rocky paths. There was a couple walking the path approximately the same rate. We would leapfrog each other at times but ended up at the trailhead together trying to talk ourselves into the last 50 yards to the parking lot. She had a GPS and the 1.8 mile hike was actually 2.4 according to her handy dandy app! Boy did we feel virtuous after a 4.8 mile round trip hike!

I want this flooring in my home!

Beargrass is everywhere and I promise this will be my LAST picture I bore you with.

Straight to the Swiftcurrent Lodge Restaurant we went since a bathroom was needed after our FOUR HOUR HIKE! We learned that minimal elevation change still required a pace of one mile per hour instead of the 20-minute mile I could walk at home. Bodily functions taken care of we opted for refreshments before eating our PBJ & chips we brought in the car for lunch. Melodie had a Huckleberry Lager and I TWO glasses of lemonade! In the future, I'll always bring more water for any hike than I figure I'll need since I finished the last drop of my 16 oz container at the end of the hike after rationing it sparingly over the 4 hours.

We thought we'd have a salad with our beverages and ordered a $6 Rocket Salad which we assumed would be the size of a dinner plate. WRONG! It was the size of small salad plate with about 8 bites of Arugula topped with Parmesan. Melodie went to the front desk to ask about a complimentary internet password and was ignored for a while as they worked on their computer. Rudely she was told no passwords were available for non-registered guests. I complained to the manager about Xanterra's inability to provide reciprocal passwords for guests from other Xanterra locations and the fact that the salad was so meager for $6 compared to the Rising Sun side salad for $5. She offered to comp us one of the salads but didn't follow through. Never again would I recommend the Swiftcurrent Restaurant and I'll be sure to write to Xanterra about this and a couple other things they need to do to improve their management over their 16 year contract which has just started.

Returning to the car, we had our homemade lunch and returned to Rising Sun for a couple hours of photo downloading and blogging before heading to the Blackfeet Singers and Dancers at the Visitors' Center at 6:30p. Good thing we got there early because the auditorium had only one row of visitors when we got there and was almost 3/4 full (a 650 seat auditorium) when the program began. Joe Kelly aka Power Buffalo is an attorney and graduate of the U. of Montana and was our M.C. for the evening.

Dances were performed by all ages ranging from 6 to 60 and all were accomplished first- or second-place finishers in competitive dance throughout the regional Pow Wows.

Joe Kelly aka Power Buffalo

The Grand Entrance of performers.

The Buckskin Dance performed for visitors.

The drum circle and singers

Intricate beadwork designed by each performer with their Spirit Guide in mind. Here are a couple "selfies".

Traditional Woman's Dance which emphasizes little movement of the torso but a required flow of the fringe to gain the most points in competition.

The Buckskin Dance headdress is created around a Hoss Cartwright-type of hat. Am I dating myself?

The 8 and 10- year old Jingle Dancers.

Jingles were originally made from chewing tobacco can lids but now are mass produced and available for purchase.

Women and girls wear moccasins AND separate leggings

The Grass Dancer imitates the flowing prairie grass.

Men's moccasins have the added fur ankle piece and bells are worn at the ankles for maximum sound to attract attention.

This 6-year old is performing the Chicken Dance taught to him by his late father. He now dances and carries on the tradition in his father's honor.

Chicken Dancer

Fancy Feather Dance, as with all the dances, requires great athleticism. 

The Fancy Feather dancers wear their bells just below the knee to keep them from interfering with their costume with its many feathers and streamers.

Fancy Feather Dance

The 90 minute presentation ended with an audience dance! The regular drum beat we non-Natives are used to hearing in Western movies is not the danceable beat of the Native American. Instead of the hard-soft-soft-soft, the Native Americans use a hard-soft, hard-soft beat and we all fell into line after a quick demonstration and danced around the outside of the auditorium (Thank you, Melodie, for getting me up and participating).

Melodie purchased a CD of the flute music for us to share and we were able to speak with the performers afterwards. The Indian flute has fewer finger holes and no rear thumb hole like the recorder so therefore their musical scale is quite different and almost lamenting in its timbre.

Back to Rising Sun for a late dinner at 9:30p and fighting with Blogspot and the Internet access to post our blog. We finally gave up at 10:15 after the restaurant closed at 10p. To bed by 11p just to get up at 4:45a for a sunrise photo op tomorrow.

I'm beat! (Is that better than bushed, Tom?)