Dance Lodges on the Great Plains

[Billy Maxwell]

The dance lodges are a carry over from earth lodges since the dance was 
transfered to the Hidatsa
at a fairly late date. I think it is 1870. Then that form spread from 
there and the dance house with it.
This is one version of the spread and I am sure there are other 
versions out there.

The Crow Call it the Hot Dance early on and it was a carry over from 
the Arikara doings.

The late Bill Shortman, who was Belknap Gros Ventre, told me quite a 
bit about the old dance houses there.
Some stories I should not relate here, he he. Along with wood stoves 
there are the kerosine lanterns and then the
Coleman lanterns after WW 2. Some of our contributors have boogied in 
Blackfeet dance halls as late as the 1950's.
Billy