DCHP-1 Online

tea-dance ((n.)) Northwest

• n. a social gathering held by Indians, so called because in the early days the Hudson's Bay Company contributed tea, bannock, etc., the dance itself being a kind of single-file stomp done to the beat of skin drums.

  See also: potlatch ((n.)) (def. 2b)  tea revel  

  • 1885  When the Indians held their tea-dances or pow-wows in times of peace, the squaws and children joined in and it was a very amusing sight to watch them.
  • 1923  The Mackenzie River tea-dance is not one of your penurious, parsimonious affairs at which wafers are brought in on a tray and the tipple is served by the thimbleful.
  • 1929  Tea is brewed in an immense kettle, as strong as circumstances warrant, and "painkiller," or in default of that luxury, chewing tobacco, stirred thoroughly through it. This concoction is handed round to the company in the cups with which each comes provided. This dance, the white men call "The Tea Dance". . . .
  • 1940  The tea dance was nothing more than an excuse for men and women to get the best of taboos: during tea dance, one could talk to the other fellow's wife. . . .
  • 1965  The ceremony was marked by a tea dance, in which everyone joined. . . .