Before the departure of a war party and after its return, special songs and ocassionally dances were performed. Sometimes they honored individual warriors and sometimes served to inspire the group in general. Most war songs were sung by women and men in groups, but also by individuals.
Often the melody of a war song was retained while the text was changed to make the song more relevant. Also the text can be replaced with meaningless syllables. This is quite common in traditional Arapaho music. The music could be accompanied by dancing, such as the Contest Dance, which took place after the return of a war party. In this dance, the dancer-warriors acted out their experiences in battle and other dancers imitated these warriors. The contest determined who was the best pantomine.
Wolf Songs are expecially popular for war dances. They were sometimes sung by warriors in the field and sometimes by women alone.