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Arts & Entertainment

Redhawk Dance Troupe Graces Inside/Out

Shares cultural beliefs with Sachem community at concert series event.

Shinnecock. Montauk. Patchogue. Sachem. Long Island is a place rich in Native American history, but many Long Islanders don't know the significance of the names of the towns in which they live. Unfortunately, stereotypes, as well as indifference,  plague Native Peoples, despite their undeniable influence in the ever-bustling cacophony of modern-day America.

"Let's break some stereotypes," says Cliff Matias, a primary member of the Redhawk Dance Troupe. In brilliantly colored, traditional Native American attire, he tells the audience that someone had greeted him with a "How" as he entered the Sachem Public Library's Inside/Out garden.

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Matias, who belongs to the Taíno, a group of Native Peoples with roots in the Caribbean, has been a vibrant voice in the noble effort to educate people about Native American culture. Eradicating stereotypes is the core of that effort. 

The Redhawk Dance Troupe is but one element of the New York city-based Redhawk Native American Arts Council.  Since 1994, this grassroots, not-for-profit organization has brought the rich Native American culture to people all over the tri-state area and is completely maintained by Native artists and educators from around the New York City area. 

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Matias holds up a circular drum and asks the audience what it represents in Native American culture. Various answers are thrown out until one lucky guess: "Earth."  Matias introduces the first dancer, Malia Scala, who performs a dance that is symbolic of women's strength in Native American culture and their connection with the Earth. Dressed in a buckskin dress, Malia Scala, a Native Hawaiian and Taíno, moves slowly with the beat of the drum, slightly bending her knees up and down.

Hailing all the way from Alberta, Canada, Keith Sharphead, who belongs to the Cree Nation, performs the "Prairie Chicken Dance."  In his traditional Cree headdress made of porcupine quills and pheasant feathers, Sharphead crouches down and moves his legs similarly to that of a chicken. The bells on his ankles jingle with each step. In an intricately beaded outfit with bejeweled pictures of hummingbirds on it, Joanna Salinas, an Aztec descendent, follows Sharphead with a dance honoring the element of fire, a vital symbol of Aztec culture.

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The audience is then summoned to the grassy stage. Children, parents and grandparents transform into robins, buffalo and maidens fair as they take direction from their Native mentors. Without realizing it, they are being educated through the power of dance about a culture that has been so far-removed from mainstream American life, even though it long preceded the society we know today.

For the finale, Matias performs the complex "Hoop Dance." Using five hoops that are slightly smaller than a hula-hoop, he tosses them around, twisting them up and around his body to form the likeness of several different animals. A roar of applause pours out from the audience as he holds all five across his back, mimicking the mighty wingspan of an eagle.

After a brief question and answer session, audience members run up to meet the dance troupe, taking pictures and asking questions about the fascinating and copious history of Native Peoples. Whether from North America, South America, the Caribbean Islands or the Polynesian Islands, Native People originate from all over the Western Hemisphere and the Redhawk Dance Troupe is here to continue telling their story through the art of dance. 

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