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Dancing into the Olympics Mail Tribune / Bob Pennell Aaron Wright and Loretta Hardin, both of Phoenix, will be among 500 American Indian dancers who will be in the Feb. 8 opening of the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. Wright is from the Klamath Tribes of Chiloquin; Hardin is from the Northern Band of Paiutes. Two Phoenix residents will be part of an American Indian troupe at the Feb. 8 opening of the Winter Games By BILL VARBLE Mail Tribune As the world watches the Olympic flame enter Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City the evening of Feb. 8, Loretta Hardin and Aaron Wright plan to be dancing on the field. Hardin and Wright, of Phoenix, are among members of five American Indian tribes that will dance as more than 3,000 athletes and flag-bearers look on. "We're really thrilled," Hardin says. Five hundred American Indian dancers are to take part in opening ceremonies in the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics, 100 each representing the Paiutes, Utes, Shoshones, Goshutes and Navajo. A three-hour program in the stadium is planned starting at 6 p.m. Wright is from the Klamath Tribes of Chiloquin, Hardin from the Northern Band of Paiutes on the Oregon-Nevada border. They were invited by the Paiute Tribe of Cedar City, Utah, where they sometimes go for pow-wows. Some members of the Klamath Tribe are related to the Paiutes. Dancers are volunteers and won't be paid, although the tribes will help with hotel bills. To help cover other expenses of about $1,000, family members have organized car washes, the raffle of a hand-painted drum and a spaghetti feed in Burns. Hardin acknowledges that spaghetti isn't exactly a traditional food. "It's popular and easy to do," she says with a laugh. Hardin, who works at CDS Publications in Medford, a printing company, got unpaid time off for the Olympics. Wright is an artist who follows the pow-wows and works seasonally at Bear Creek Corp. Hardin and Wright traveled to Utah for rehearsals Dec. 30 and 31. "It was exciting," she says. "Everything is Olympics, huge murals, just a lot of things going on." Little more than two weeks before she's scheduled to be in Salt Lake City for rehearsals, Hardin says she's been struggling with chronic back pain but expects to put it behind her. "I periodically fall apart, and my chiropractor puts me back together," she says. Other dancers from Oregon include the couple's daughter, Julie Mills Johnson, and her husband, David Johnson, of Burns, and David Johnson's nephew Cory Johnson, of the Warm Springs Reservation near Madras. Wright, a fancy war dancer, and the Johnsons are top dancers in pow-wows around the West, competing in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Utah, California, Nevada, Arizona and New Mexico. Hardin no longer competes at pow-wows, but she dances socially and ceremonially. Daughter Julie, 23, is a jingle dress dancer. The couple dance almost each weekend in the summer and even quite a bit in the winter. Hardin says a pow-wow is a chance to reconnect with old friends and renew heritage ties. "A lot of it is spiritual," she says, "not in front of the cameras." She says the dancing at the Olympics will be somewhat like what you might see at pow-wows, but not quite. "Most of the music isn't pow-wow music," she says. "There's some modern Native American music. One song is a pow-wow song. The last number is modern-interpretive." Reach reporter Bill Varble at 776-4478 or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.