Michele LeTourneau
Northern News Services

Rae (Aug 14/00) - In 1962 in Fort Rae, a visiting anthropologist named Nancy O. Lurie recorded Dogrib Tea Dance songs at a Treaty Time celebration.

Almost 40 years later the recordings, which are being held for safekeeping at the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre in Yellowknife, have been recorded to CD.

"It's a round dance," says producer John B. Zoe, who is also chief negotiator for Dogrib land claims.

"People face inward. There are no drums. It's just chants by the dancers themselves."

"The dances were held outside, so we don't have an echo. It's strictly chanting."

Included on the back cover of the 20-song CD is a quote from a missionary who witnessed a tea dance in 1864. The missionary, Emile Petitot, wrote:

"They danced all night, a night without darkness, crying out Eh! Ah! Eh! fit to make the rock tremble."

Zoe says tea dances still go on today but "not as strongly as in the past."

"Drums have taken over the majority of the time. But in those days, the majority of the dances were done to chanting."

Zoe says he hopes the CD -- a project of the Dogrib Treaty 11 Council -- might help revive the ancient songs.

"The chants are generally fairly easy to pick up once you listen to them over and over. They're repetitive songs."

And many songs may be as old as time, adds Zoe.

"Some are prompter song, to get people to start dancing."

According to the writing on the CD cover, the man with the loudest and clearest voice will begin a new song.

"When, after many minutes, the voices of singers flag and falter, another man with renewed strength begins another song. Embedded in the chanting and pulsations of the songs, snatches of Dogrib words express the pleasure of singing and dancing together."

The official launch of the CD was to have taken place Saturday at the Elizabeth Mackenzie elementary school, during the annual Dogrib Assembly in Rae-Edzo.

The original recordings were mastered and recorded onto CD at Spiritwalker Production in Yellowknife.