The Daily Tribune

GREEN CORN
DANCE BY
THE INDIANS

Muskogee, Okla., May 11—Those who believed that with the coming of statehood Poor Lo would immediately abandon all the habits and customs beloved of his ancestors and become a "heap civilized" citizen and voter are doomed to disappointment.
The arrival of spring has sent the warm blood bounding through the veins of the redskins and nothing short of a "green corn dance" will serve as a vent for their bottled up enthusiasm. Therefore, Lo will dance, and the preparations for the festivals, which are held during the latter part of May, are now being made.
At the commencement of the "green corn" dance the Indians gather from all parts of the reservation at the dance house, a large barnlike building with a dirt floor, hardened and worn smooth from much tramping. They come to the dance with their faces painted and wearing their finest clothing and trinkets. It is a "full dress" affair.
Each day of the "green-corn" celebration, the dancing begins at 10 o'clock in the morning and lasts until about midnight. At intervals of from two to five hours the dancers have an intermission of about thirty minutes which is spent in feasting on rice chicken, possum and dog meat and smoking the "pipe of peace."
Sometimes the Indians will dance in a wild frenzy for ten hours without once going out of the circle.
Of the whites only the "squaw men," who took an oath of allegiance to the tribe when they married their Indian wives, are permitted to dance. They may participate if they are painted and dressed in the Indian costume.
There is more or less love making at all of the dances, but there are more betrothals at the "green corn" dance than at any other. Possibly this is true, because it comes in the spring, when the Indian's heart, as well as the white man's, "lightly turns to thoughts of love."
This celebration in not regarded as a success by the younger members of the tribe unless it is followed in three or four months by several weddings.