POWWOWS

Powwows were special times of tribal gatherings for religious purposes, initiation ceremonies, or for preparing for a day of hunting or battle. The Plains Indians believed that the Buffalo Dance would ensure success in hunting buffalo. The Indians held many kinds of ceremonies to ensure that they had enough food. The Green Corn Dance of the Eastern Woodland celebrated the summer's first corn crop. In the Hopi Indians dance, the Indians would release snakes to ask the rain god to send rain.

Powwows are still in existence today. These are times for renewing friendships and being together with family. They are a time of celebration of native heritage, when stories, dances and traditions of many sorts are told and passed down to the next generation. Historically, the Native American Indians did not write things down. So if grandmother told a story, and then grandmother died, the child would be responsible to tell the story to keep the story alive. This is how the stories have been handed down from generation to generation for hundreds and thousands of years. Similarly, a singer would own a song or chant. If the singer had enjoyed a long and happy life, the right to sing the song would be passed on to the family or even sold for a high price.

Throughout the powwow, drums are heard. The drum is central to Native American Indian life. To be a drummer was a very special and honored privilege. The drumbeat is constant and sounds like a heartbeat. When the drum is hit, the dancers' feet will hit the ground. When the drumbeat stops, the dancers stop. The drum is a circle, and the circle is symbolic in the Indian culture.

A symbol is something that stands for something else. The American flag is a symbol for our country. The drum is a circle which represents the circle of life in the Indian culture. The circle is continuous without a beginning or an end. The circle is like many things in life. An example of the circle of life is how corn grows. First a seed is planted, the seed grows into corn, the corn is cut down and eaten until the next year when the seed is planted, the seed grows into corn, etc. The seasons follow the same cycle. Spring is followed by summer, which is followed by fall, which is followed by winter, spring, summer, fall, and then winter again. Life is a continuous circle or cycle.

Some of the various dances to be seen at a powwow are the Smoke Dance, Grass Dance, Men's Traditional Dance, Fancy Dance, Jingle Dress Dance and the Fancy Shawl Dance. There are stories behind each of these dances, and each dancer is dressed in regalia. The clothing, or regalia, is not called a costume. Costumes are for events such as Halloween when people dress up as something different for only one night. The next day, they are back to being themselves. However, when the Native American Indians dress for a special occasion and when they take the regalia or clothing off, they are still the same person. They are a Native American Indian before they put the regalia on; they are a Native American Indian when they are dressed in the regalia; and they are a Native American Indian after they take the regalia off.

The Smoke Dance was created as a functional dance to help fan the smoke out of the home. The Native American Indians would have fires inside their tepee, pueblo or longhouses. They had a hole in the top of their home to let the smoke out but sometimes it would linger, and they would need to fan it out. Smoke dancers turn in a circle that helps guide the smoke up and out.

The Grass Dance was initially done to stomp the grass down to create an area for more dancing. The Grass Dancers have long yarn fringe and ribbons hanging from their regalia which look like grass blowing in the wind.

In the Men's Traditional Dance, the men recreate or imitate different things they have experienced such as battles or hunts.

The Fancy Dance is performed at the end of the evening by the men. It is a fast dance with a lot of color and is the dance in which the men do their very best dancing. This dance is a competition dance among the boys and men.

The Jingle Dress Dance tells of a medicine man whose daughter is very sick. During her sickness, the shaman (medicine man) dreams of a dress that has shells hanging from it. Each shell represents one day of the year. A voice in the shaman's dream tells him that if his daughter dances in this dress, she will get well. When the shaman wakes from his dream, he makes the dress and asks his daughter to dance in it. She dances and is cured. Today you see many bells sewn to the edge of the dress hems.

The Fancy Shawl Dance tells a story about rebirth and metamorphosis. In this story, a woman learns of her husband's death and goes into mourning. The woman in mourning is very sad and wraps herself in a shawl which looks like a cocoon. She shuts herself away in her home from the world. Her friends come to her and ask her to come out of her home and out of her mourning. Finally, the woman finishes her grieving, and she comes out of her home as a transformed and beautiful butterfly. The dancers wear a shawl over their shoulders and hold the ends of the shawl as they dance like a butterfly in flight. The long fringe on the shawls is never allowed to touch the ground.