OCR Text |
Show -4- be permitted to have stands where foods or soft drinks shall be sold. Word has been generally circulated throughout these parts that attendance of white people at this danoe is not desired. No stands were permitted this year, and while the attendance included perhaps some eighty percent of the Indian population of the reservation, there were very few whites in attendance. About sixty Indians participated in the dance this year. In a former report concerning the plans for this season's fair, I stated that I had encouraged the holding of a dance at the fair last year. The Indians held a dance at the fair and, dressed in their Indian costumes they gave a parade, and the dance, while lasting only about half an hour, was well attended, the Indians realizing a neat sum as gate receipts; but the interest in the dance as giveiat the fair was not quite sufficient to enable me to prevail upon the Indians to defer their dance until our next fair in September and unite the two in one big demonstration at that time. This i3 what I hoped to do, and I tried hard to acoom-- plish it. After the Bear-dance had been hall I still tried to put off the Sun-dance until the fair. The most I could do by peaeable means was to effect a compromise whereby they were to hold a brief dance at this time and a big one at the fair. |