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forty-nine dance
Native American culture
- Related Topics:
- Native American dance
- powwow
forty-nine dance, social dance and song repertoire that developed among Native American peoples in the southern Great Plains region of the United States during the early 1900s. The musical style and the name of the forty-nine dance have been attributed to various sources. Early studies identify the war-expedition songs of the Kiowa of Oklahoma as the stylistic—particularly, the rhythmic—basis of the forty-nine dance songs. The war-expedition songs, however, were used to recognize war exploits and to honour their heroes, while contemporary forty-nine songs and dances often serve as vehicles for playful teasing and flirtatious commentary. Many have linked the name ...(100 of 1013 words)