Slide show: Fiddle dancing, Gwich'in style
Tuesday, August 3, 2010 at 3:01PM 
When Harold Frost was about six years old, his grandfather came to his family house in Old Crow, Yukon Territory, for a visit and brought his fiddle with him. When early trappers introduced the fiddle and the dances that go with it into the Yukon and Mackenzie River country of Alaska and the Yukon and Northwest Territories, the Gwich'in and their other Athabascan relatives picked up the instrument and made both their own. Harold's grandfather was a master of the instrument.
He took great care of his instrument and did not want to risk damage to it by having a child pick it up and have a mishap. So Harold's grandfather placed his fiddle near the bed and ordered all the children to stay far away from it and leave it alone.
It's not that Harold was a disobedient child, but that fiddle tempted him. "No! Grandpa said not to touch it," his sister warned him when she saw him reaching up for it.
Harold touched it anyway. He ran his fingers over the wood and along the strings. He loved the feel of it, he loved even just the little sounds that the touch of his fingers brought from the instrument. He loved it and he did no damage to it.
Harold got his first fiddle when he was about 11. Playing came natural to him. He did not know how to read a note of music, but it didn't matter because when he picked up the fiddle, the music flowed naturally from his heart through his fingers into and then out of instrument. Later, he would teach himself to read music.
Not many years later, Harold picked up another form of entertainment, one that comes in a bottle in the form of alcohol. He and the woman that he married would drink together, but when he was still in his early 20's, Harold could see the damage that alcohol abuse was bringing to people that he knew and loved.
So he talked to his wife and told her that he was not going to drink anymore. "I've been sober for 22 years now," Harold told me. His wife has stayed sober with him.
People who came to Fort Yukon - Gwichyaa Zhee - dance to the tune of Harold's fiddle, backed up up by guitars, base, drums and vocals. They are gathered at the tribal hall.
This time, perhaps, I have overdone it, for I have included 36 pictures in the slide show that readers can find either by clicking on the link below or on either of the above two photos. For those who were there, I don't think 36 will be too many, although I do worry that some might have long waits due to slow village internet connections if they wish to view them all.
For those who were not there, I hope 36 images is not too much and that you enjoy them anyway.
You will find jigs, square and other fun dances. To save me time, I have not tried to put things in order, but, with a couple of small exceptions, pretty much display them in the order that the computer dropped them into my slide show.
The final two images are of young people, leaving the dance late at night by four-wheeler and bicycle. In summertime Alaska, particularly as you go north, people, young and old alike, have a tendency to stay up nearly all night - especially when they get together for any kind of gathering, Gwich'in or otherwise.
Even with this many images, I plan to put up one more, shorter, fiddle dance picture story which I will title, "Let the Little Girl Dance." You will understand the title when you see it.
Reader Comments (7)
It is good that you explained the young people leaving the dance "late at night" for we who live far south do not always remember that your nights are full of light!
Very fun pictures! I enjoyed seeing all ages enjoying the entertainment together particularly the young teens enjoying. Around here the young teens would be "embarrassed."
Thanks for the smiles tonight, Bill. My son had open heart surgery this morning, so this was a tension reliever for me as well as wonderful photos! Son is doing extremely well tonight.
Okay. Here's one for you. I am glad to have the chance to look at your world, but this time, THIS time, I wanted to hear your world, really badly. But I can't.
I loved the story about Hal. There are heroes where ever we look, if only we take the time to listen for them. I found myself thinking that probably, since music flows through his veins, when he was drinking, he could not hear it clearly any more, and so he had to stop, or risk losing the music altogether.
never to many pictures
Thanks, all -
And you're right, Debby, I have added a link to Harold's page where he has samples. You don't hear the whole band as it was in Fort Yukon, but you do hear the fiddle:
http://www.oldcrow.ca/mp3/multi.php?p=Harold%20Frost
Thanks, Bill. Know what? If you have feet, they cannot be still while a fiddle plays. That is just how it is. I think it might be magic.