Veteran Dancer Performs All Over
by Will Chavez
Robert Murray is a traditional dancer and has been headman dancer for two of the tribes he belongs to – Otoe-Missouri and Iowa. He is also half Ponca, and is proud of all three tribes and celebrates and shares the culture of each one. He hoop dances and performs the Eagle dance, and at 51 years old, still “fancy dances every once in a while.” This dance is usually reserved for younger powwow dancers.
He first danced in a powwow arena when he was 19 months old at a Ponca powwow. He said he has danced every year since then except for a total of three years, when he stopped dancing to observe deaths in his family. “I’ve been in that arena for a long time,” he said. He also has been singing with the powwow drum group Yellowhammer for nearly 17 years. The group travels to powwows throughout the country, he said. He also finds time to sing with the Zotigh drum group.
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