Wikipedia
Buffalo Dance is an 1894 American 16-second black-and-white silent film shot in Thomas Edison's Black Maria studio. The film was made at the same time as Edison's Sioux Ghost Dance. It is one of the earliest films made featuring Native Americans. In this film, produced by William K. L. Dickson with William Heise as cinematographer, three Sioux warriors named Hair Coat, Parts His Hair and Last Horse dance in a circle and two other Native Americans sit behind them and accompany them with drums. According to the Edison catalog, the actors were "genuine Sioux Indians, in full war paint and war costumes." They were also apparently veterans of Buffalo Bill's Wild West show.
The Buffalo Dance, or Bison Dance, is an annual dance festival of many North American Plains Indians, including the Mandan, Sioux, Cheyenne, Pawnee, and Omaha, among others. The festival traditionally coincided with the return of the buffalo herds, and included a feast and a dance with a number of men wearing buffalo and other animal skins.
As the buffalo, or bison, was so central to society, it was important to assure the return of the herd and an abundance of food and resources.
A short, 16-second, black-and-white, silent film 1894 film, Buffalo Dance shows people performing the dance. It is notable for being one of the earliest films made featuring Native Americans.
The Buffalo Dance can also refer to section of larger ceremonies and dances, such as the Sun Dance. In some societies it was also a dance more associated with curing the ill, calling on the spirit of the buffalo.
Usage examples of "buffalo dance".
A buffalo dance (or medicine) for three nights past, in the first village.
And he gives a buffalo bellow, and all the buffalo get up, and they all do a slow buffalo dance with tails raised, and they go over, and they trample that poor man to death, so that he disappears entirely.