Kindling the Fire for the Grandchildren's Dance Society

An award-winning artist and culture bearer, Kelly Looking Horse (Oglala Lakota) shares Lakota stories and makes and performs art through traditional dancing, drumming, singing, leather and wood work, beading, quilling, and painting — to enhance, reinforce, and illustrate the stories.

Kelly founded Lakota Red Nations, a family-owned and operated enterprise specializing in traditional Native arts, crafts, and Oglala Lakota history. He and his wife, Suzie (Pomo of the Robinson Rancheria Band), live in Batesland, South Dakota. He is a 2020 First Peoples Fund Cultural Capital Fellow.

Children entered the room, most of them hesitant and uncertain. They were there to learn what it means to become a powwow dancer. Kelly and his wife, Suzie, welcomed them and explained the significance of the journey they were embarking on. By the end of the orientation for the Grandchildren’s Dance Society, the children’s shyness had melted away.

“Both the parents and children are excited about it,” Kelly says. “When you become a dancer, you’re in a position for people to call upon, whether you dance performances for somebody or contribute to a powwow. When you show up in your regalia, the organizers get excited because you’re a dancer. You become a special person.”

With the global shutdown, the Dance Society has been put on hold, but Kelly and Suzie are keeping some part of it alive by posting  moccasin makings virtual workshops on the Oglala Lakota College website. One of their dance students watched the workshop video then went to buy needles. Suzie offered to give the student everything else she needed to start beading moccasins with the help of her parents.

“They are excited about the day they can see their child coming out in full regalia and dancing,” Kelly says. “We got the fire started at the orientation, and the parents are doing a good job keeping it going.”

Kelly is using funds from his First Peoples Fund Cultural Capital Fellowship to purchase materials a little at a time for the rest of his fellowship project. He hovers over the hides and drum shell in storage for the big powwow drum project he plans to do with students. He battles the temptation to put it together himself. But he is patient, wanting everyone to have a hand in making the drum.

“We want to encourage people [to come] together and see the children learn to dance. It’s an inspiration for the community.”

“The [fellowship] project is more than a workshop or trying to build our dance group,” he says. “We want to encourage people [to come] together and see the children learn to dance. It’s an inspiration for the community.”

“Once they hear the stories about the origin of where the dance bustle came from, or what the proper definition is of a moccasin, they get excited, and it makes us excited, too. One day, when we’re not here, the people we taught will carry on these stories. These stories will live and continue on into future generations.”