![]() ![]() Thunderbird Auctions at The American Indian Community House including hand-crafted turquoise, silver, Pueblo pottery, bead, bone and leather work, Native dance regalia, Pendleton blankets, vintage pieces from a great variety of Native peoples living on the Northwest coast and among the Hopi, Seminole, Navajo, Mohawk and many more. Through the years, the Thunderbirds maintain scholarship funds for needy American Indian students, provide singing, dance and crafts workshops among other activities on a volunteer basis while maintaining their jobs.Īfter four decades since its inception, the Thunderbirds ‘annual events continue to be celebrated as annual traditions for many families and friends: The company also presents an annual season at the Theatre for New City in Manhattan, and has produced two albums of songs featuring The Thunderbirds and Heyna Second Sons. Thunderbird American Indian Dancer’s Scholarship Fund for Indian students, the election of fifteen New York City Indian Queens, and the New York City Indian of the year. Thunderbird American Indian Dancer’s Scholarship Fund In addition to dancing and singing, the Thunderbird American Indian Dancers’ activities include the Native American Craft Workshop, Indian Studies programs for Indian youth, Cherokee language classes, the The Thunderbird American Indian Dancers take great pride in sponsoring the only monthly Pow-Wow in New York City, which has been held continuously since the first pow wow in November, 1963 at the 23rd Street McBurney YMCA in Manhattan. The Only M onthly Pow-Wow in New York City The Thunderbird American Indian Dancer Sponsor They have also toured throughout the United States and in Canada, Israel and Japan. In fulfilling this pledge, the Thunderbirds have shared performances and workshops in venues including: The New York World’s Fair, Lincoln Center, Museum of Natural History, Heye Foundation, Barnard College, and The National Museum of the American Indian among others. The Thunderbirds pledged to help preserve and perpetuate the culture and traditions of the American Indian people through their songs and dances, and their ceremonies wherever possible, and to bring before the general public a more realistic picture and greater understanding of the American Indian people through dance performances, lectures, pow wows and workshops. Since its formation, Louis Mofsie and the ThunderbirdĪmerican Indian Dancers have visited and performed in almost all fifty states, where they have learned from a wide variety of Indian peoples. Their teachers were their fathers, mothers, aunts, uncles, and cousins. In and around the metropolitan area - each with a very distinct cultural background - its members were determined to learn and preserve the songs and dances of their own tribes, then to branch out and include other tribes. From the beginning, keenly aware of the great diversity of tribal groups living Thunderbird American Indian Dancers, officially incorporated in 1963, tracing its roots further back, to a group of teenagers called the Little Eagles. Swift Eagle from the Santo Domingo Pueblo and others taught the group Native American Indian culture, dances, songs passing down information that would have otherwise been lost.Īn Important History: Preserving Native Culture Traditions Original members included: Louis Mofsie, Josephine Mofsie Tarrant, Muriel Miguel, Gloria Miguel, Marguarite, Jonathan Williams and others. Over the years, Thunderbird works, activities and events have assisted more than 400 students. (A number of Thunderbird members are winners of Fancy Dance contests held on reservations, where the standard of competition is unmistakably high.) Members of the Thunderbirds range in professions from teachers to hospital patient advocates, tree surgeons and computer engineers who share a commitment to raising scholarships for young American Indian students. Within three or four years, they were traveling throughout the continental U.S., expanding and sharing their repertoire and gleaning new dances on the reservations. ![]() They founded the troupe to keep alive the traditions, songs and dances they had learned from their parents, and added to their repertoire from other Native Americans living in New York and some who were passing through. Some were in school at the time all were “first generation,” meaning that their parents had been born on reservations. The troupe was founded in 1963 by a group of ten Native American men and women, all New Yorkers, who were descended from Mohawk, Hopi, Winnebago and San Blas tribes. The Thunderbird American Indian Dancers are the oldest resident Native American dance company in New York. 59 years.NY’s oldest Native American Dance Company ![]()
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