How to Do the Native American Turtle Dance
- 1). Find a drawing stick. Look for a thick branch that can draw distinct, visible lines in dirt or sand. With the stick draw a basic turtle, with a head, feet and shell in the field or garden where rain is needed. Make sure the turtle is facing west as custom dictates. For many spots in the Americas, especially in the present day Southwest United States where rain dances originated, weather blows in from the west.
- 2). Drive the stick into the ground at the center of the turtle drawing's back. The stick should remain there for the duration of the ceremony, acting as the epicenter of the dance ritual. Instruct everyone participating in the dance to form a circle around the turtle drawing. Make sure there is plenty of room for everyone to dance and move about.
- 3). Spin about in clockwise circles around the turtle drawing. There is no universal method for rain or turtle dancing, which leaves plenty of room for freestyle and improvisation. Compose your own chant. Make sure it is rhythmic and easy to repeat. Repeat the chant as you spin in circles around the turtle drawing.
- 4). Don't expect rain to start at a specific time to replenish the crops. Some tribes affirmed that rain should begin as soon as the stick was put into the earth, while others claimed the rain would not come until weeks after the dance had taken place. Nature, after all, does things at its own convenience.
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