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The Circle of Life rounds out Rendezvous

April E. ClarkPost Independent Staff
Post Independent Photo/Kara K. Pearson Itsa bangs on a drum and sings the Apache national anthem as Isa, right, and students at Kathryn Senor Elementary School stand behind him during the KSE Rendezvous Friday.
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Sounds of Mother Nature filled Kathryn Senor Elementary’s gym Friday afternoon during the school’s annual Rendezvous celebration.Students stomped their feet on the bleachers to create a thunder-like rumble as shells on Native American dancers’ ankles mimicked a delicate spring rain shower. “We dance to the heartbeat of life,” said the dance group’s leader, Eagle Bear, of Gardner, Colo. “We come to share our history, our culture, and our way of life.”

Eagle Bear and his family, including his son and nephew, returned to school for the second year as part of Kathryn Senor’s day-long wrap-up of the school year.”They did so good last year that we brought them back again this year,” said principal Bill Zambelli to the audience of students, teachers, parents and Rendezvous presenters. “The more we learn about the different cultures, I’ve learned the more we are the same.”Raised on the Isleta reservation in New Mexico, Eagle Bear came to the school Friday to play traditional Native American music and teach children about his people through dance.

“We’re all walking in the circle of life together, people of all colors,” said Eagle Bear, a father of nine children. “Imagine a time on our land when there were no fences and everyone shared and cooperated together. Everyone came together to dance in the circle of life.”Liz Vasquez, a fourth-grader in Mrs. Harris’ class, was one of the students who volunteered to participate in one Native American dance where students had to remain motionless while the dancers tried to spook them.”It was fun and kind of scary, but I wanted to show them how good I am,” she said. “I learned that their dances are different but our language is the same.”



After the presentation, kids swarmed around the dancers for autographs and to ask questions about Native American traditions.”They stick to us like glue,” Eagle Bear said. “It’s funny when they don’t know anything about us and they think we are like Hollywood Indians.”From the number of autographs the dancers signed, fame didn’t seem so unimaginable.


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