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During the dance competition at the Crow Fair many types of dances were performed. There were categories for all ages. Men and women’s dances, young people, elders. There were dances performed by visiting tribes, everywhere you looked there were people dancing.

The categories included different types of dances such as Northern Traditional, Southern traditional, Chicken dance, Grass dance, and Fancy dances for the men. Northern and Southern Traditional, Jingle and Fancy Shawl dances for the women, There was something for everyone.

When the dances were being performed it was serious business, it wasn’t just spectacle although there was plenty of that, this was their history and heritage being performed, a way in which their culture was being passed on from the elders to the younger people down through the ages. Who they were as a people was imbedded in the dance and its traditions and this was their heart and soul. This is what made them who they are.

The youngest learning by watching and performing, learned the steps, and as they did the meaning held within the dance itself was absorbed, and as they grew the culture of the Crow people became ingrained within them. They were absorbing and gathering everything they needed to know to become the future of the tribe.

Through it all the elders would watch. It was a competition but it was more than that. It was proof that the Crow traditions and heritage would move forward  and as long as dances were held and people sang and came together the tribe would always be who they were. The Crow Nation, proud and fiercely independent.