— Ceremonial —
Flo Barton: Long-time dance coordinator plans
to call it quits, sort of

Chariman of the Board of Ceremonial, Flo Barton drives her golf cart between venues while her son CB Barton rides on the back at Red Rock State Park Friday, [photo by Cable Hoover / Independent]

By Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola
Staff writer

GALLUP — After 25 years, Flo Barton says she is ready to give up her labor of love.

Barton, who has volunteered with the Inter-Tribal Indian Ceremonial for nearly 30 years, has announced that this will be her last official year with the Ceremonial. Currently the chair of the Ceremonial Association Executive Board, Barton has served on the board for 25 years and has directed the popular Indian dance performances for years — all as an unpaid volunteer.

But Barton, who is on oxygen because of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, said it’s time to pass on her duties to a younger generation. Last year’s Ceremonial was so exhausting, she explained, it took her a month to recover.

However, she won’t be passing the Ceremonial torch very far. Barton’s daughter, Tammy Barton-Damon, and close family friend, Teri Fraizer, will be taking over the dance program’s co-director duties. Other family members, including many of Barton’s siblings, her husband, her children, and nieces and nephews, will continue their duties with the Ceremonial.

Although Barton said she won’t miss all the work and all the meetings — her children claim Barton’s middle name is “Meeting” — she said she will miss working with all the Native American dancers. They are the children and grandchildren of dancers that she watched during her childhood. They are the dancers she’s watched grow up since they were small children.

“I’ve attended Ceremonial all my life,” Barton said. Her family lived just a couple of blocks from the old Ceremonial grounds, she explained, back when it was located on Gallup’s north side. As a small child, she recalled, she and her siblings and friends would crawl under the fence and spend the day watching horse races, foot races, and contests like inter-tribal tug-a-wars. They would stay up late — and sometimes fall asleep — while watching the nighttime Indian dances. Navajo people from the reservation would travel into Gallup in wagons, and they would camp out on the hillside near today’s T-Ball field, she said, and the hillside would turn into a lively community, filled with visiting friends, families, pet dogs, and bonfires.

“It was just awesome,” she recalled of those early Ceremonials. “Oh, it was such a homey feeling.”

Barton and her husband, Stu, began volunteering with Ceremonial in the mid-1970s after they graduated from college. That was after a few turbulent years when some American Indian activists protested that the Ceremonial was merely a way for non-Indians in Gallup to economically exploit Native Americans.

According to Barton, more Native Americans began getting involved in the planning and management of Ceremonial around the time she and Stu became volunteers. Nowadays, she added, there’s a “good contingent” of Native Americans who serve on the board and who direct Ceremonial venues.

“It’s not a white man’s Ceremonial anymore. That’s the way it should be,” Barton said. “Only an Indian knows how another Indian thinks,” she added. However, she said, people of diverse ethnic backgrounds continue to serve as board members and directors. They work well together, she said, they have grown more organized and efficient, and they have worked hard to make the Ceremonial more Native centered.

Barton’s love for Native American culture is at the heart of her affection for Ceremonial and her affection for the dancers she has worked with for years.

“I love Ceremonial so much,” she said. “I love being with Native people so much.”

Each year about 13 or 14 tribal dance groups are invited to perform at Ceremonial, Barton said. The dancers stay together in the dormitory facility and the teepees, she explained, and spend their time together — visiting, praying, singing, dancing, and having fun.

“It’s like a big family reunion every year,” she said. “I just love coming out here, year after year.”

Barton hopes the Ceremonial volunteers will be able to keep the event — now in its 87th year — going for future generations of participants and visitors.

“I want people to keep it alive,” she said. “I think that once your language goes, your culture disappears,” she added. “But we’re trying to keep it alive at Ceremonial.”

Reporter Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola can be contacted at (505) 863-6811 ext. 218 or ehardinburrola@yahoo.com.