The Earth Songs of the Seneca Nation

Dzä:hgo:wa:’ oënö’ (Pigeon Dance)

Bill Crouse, Sr., and Andrew A. Cashner

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Dzä:hgo:wa:’ oënö’ or Pigeon Dance originated as a dance in honor of the passenger pigeon, which is now extinct. Passenger pigeons provided an important food source for Haudenosaunee communities, until settlers overhunted and exterminated the species by the early twentieth century. The dance is related to Robin Dance because both honor birds, but it is ore closely linked to the other food-oriented dances like Corn Dance and Shake-the-Bush.

Video 1. Dzä:hgo:wa:’ oënö’, Bill Crouse and the Allegany Singers, Coldspring Cookhouse, Allegany Territory of the Seneca Nation of Indians, September 2022