Nearly 70 miles north of Las Vegas is the Lost City Museum, where members of local Paiute tribes recently shared their history and dances with the public.
I’m in Overton, Nev., for the second annual Native American Heritage Day event. As visitors enjoyed traditional food, browsed jewelry and observed dances, I sat down with one of the dancers to learn what it means to her.
“Hello, my name is Gianna Yazzie. I am a descendant of the Las Vegas Paiute Tribe. I am also Navajo, and I do dance Fancy Shawl … The Fancy Shawl dance, I was kind of taught it at like, a young age of, ‘Oh, it's the butterfly dance. Think of yourself as a butterfly…’”
Yazzie starts her dance by extending her arms outwards to open her shawl. With both ends in hand, she begins with her footwork and then spins to make her shawl sparkle red against the sunlight.
“… I didn't really know too much about it until I got a little bit older. Then that's when the explanations came in and the stories, and that's when I really got to understand what it meant. When I finally understood, I felt like a butterfly coming out of its cocoon. I understand what the meaning of this is, and I'm going to dance. It was a renewal dance, giving things to new beginnings, new life, and also the new seasons. And I really do appreciate the things that have come upon my life....”
“…So my earrings, they are Navajo style, basket weaving style. Usually this is when they get married, the basket that kind of design, but it's, I'm not getting married. The scarf I wear. This was a trading scarf from the Ukrainian people. So this is a big significance to the Cree people. They hold very good honor with it, honestly. And, you know, it's spreaded through Indian country, and that's what makes it awesome, two diverse cultures coming together and making that trade. And the scarf is one of the main ones that we still have today. So I hold significance to that. The little charm I wear was not really a charm. It's like a sterling silver pin, but I wrapped a buckskin around it to make it like a tie. I've had this since I was, like, five or six years old. That's what you have to do, though. You take pride in your stuff, you take care of your things, and when you take care of it, it could last a very long time. That's also a good thing about dancing and learning the ways is learning that aspect of how to take care of things, because it will last a long time, if you take care of it…”
“The colors, I think it's just a great representation of who we are. I'm wearing pink. I don't wear pink, but for dancing, I'll wear pink because I feel like, woo. I feel like I'm blossoming. You know, get this adrenaline rush from it, and I think that's what makes it your own style is what you make about it, honestly…”
“…I wear red now too, also to represent the MMIW, Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women — that is such a strong topic. I feel like red represents it so good. You know, I dance for the people that were taken too soon from us, my friends, my friends’ sisters, their mothers, and it's just a very sad topic, honestly, but you know, I wear the red for them also, because I dance for them. I hope they're watching, you know?”
Nationwide, roughly 4,200 Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons cases are unsolved, according to The Bureau of Indian Affairs.
Nevada currently has 10 unsolved cases.
