Hasinai
Summer Youth Camp 2005
This year, the Hasinai Summer Youth Camp was held from 27 June to 1
July 2005 at the tribal complex in Binger. This year, we
had approximately 30 campers and youth leaders and 12 counselors and
instructors. The campers started arriving Sunday
afternoon and everyone pitched their tents and camped out at
the tribal dance ground all week. Classes started bright and early
Monday morning and included archery (taught by Michael Sheyahshe),
stickball game (taught by Thompson Gouge), leading stomp dance (for
boys, taught by Aaron Hill), and practicing Caddo dances (for girls,
taught by Margie Deer).
Shirley Gouge instructs girls in shaking shells.
After lunch, campers participated in classes inside the cultural
building (and out of the sweltering heat!). As usual, pottery was one
of the favorite classes for campers and counselors alike. This year,
Tracy Newkumet taught the pottery class and demonstrated many key
techniques to the students. And new this year, she showed the campers
how pottery was fired in a pit so that they would better understand the
overall process. Tracy also led tours of the Caddo
Heritage Museum so that campers
could see firsthand some of the masterpieces of Caddo pottery.
Tracy demonstrating pottery techniques and students putting their
skills to work.
Another very popular class for the boys was beadwork. Alice, an
instructor who hails the Dallas area, showed the boys how to do
loom-style beadwork using large beads and simple tools. The boys were
able to complete belts with matching arm bands, which they proudly
sported at the Caddo dance held Thursday evening.
Each summer for the past several years, girls at the camp have made
dush-toohs, the traditional ribbons work by Caddo women when they
dance. This year resulted in some of the best dush-toohs ever. Many of
the girls worked very hard to complete their dush-toohs for Thursday's
dance; some even used their free time after lunch and dinner to work on
their ribbons instead of playing outside.
Here, campers work on their dush-toohs and proudly display the finished
work during the Turkey Dance
One of the afternoon classes that
everyone enjoyed was the traditional cooking classes taught by Shirley
Gouge. Campers learned to make many of the traditional foods served at
Caddo dances and dinner. These included habushko, meat and corn soup,
hominy, grape dumplings, and fry bread.
Shirley showing how to make dough for fry bread
After dinner and the heat of the day, all campers, instructors, and
counselors, assembled at the dance ground to practice Caddo dances.
Boys worked with instructor Jimmy Reeder to learn Caddo songs, such as
Turkey Dance, the Flag Song, Fish Dance, Bear Dance, and Duck Dance.
Jimmy works with the boys on Turkey Dance, and later takes up a water
drum for the Corn Dance.
The girls show off what they learned in their morning classes.
On Thursday evening, the last night of camp, we held a traditional
Caddo dance. This dance gave the campers a chance to put to use what
they learned in their classes, as well as an opportunity to wear their
dush-toohs and beadwork. The dance started with the Turkey Dance, lead
by one of our youth leaders. The Turkey Dance was followed by the Fish
Dance and other social dances.
The Fish Dance
Parents and other friends joined in with the campers for some of the
Caddo social dances, including the Stirrup Dance, Duck Dance, Bear
Dance, Bell Dance, Cherokee Dance and others. Later, everyone
demonstrated what they learned in their stomp dancing classes, as the
boys lead and the girls shook shells for them.
The Bear Dance and Quapaw Dance
On the final dance of camp, everyone received awards for their
accomplishments and posed for a group photo.
The Hasinai Youth Camp is funded largely by donations and the
participation of many volunteers. The organizers would like to extend a
HUGE thank you to everyone who participated in and attended the fund
raisers we held throughout the year in support of the camp. We would
also like to acknowledge the Oklahoma Arts Council and the National
Endowment for the Arts for their support of this event.
The Youth Camp is held each summer near the end of June. All
youth are welcome to participate in the camp. For more information,
contact Shirley Gouge
at 405.656.2344 or 405.457.6338.
