Pow-wows

Pow-wows are held almost every weekend during the summer in the Northern Plains states, and at other times of celebration year round. Also known as wacipi or Indian celebrations, pow-wows are festivals of Native American dancing and music. They often include community events such as honor dances and giveaways, and are popular modern expressions of Native American culture.

As far as the origins of the modern pow-wow, there are many different interpretations. On the Northern Plains, Indian dancing and other expressions of cultural heritage were suppressed and even outlawed by the Indian agents and federal administrators whose job was to acculturate Native people into the American mainstream. Indian dancing was especially frowned on by the missionaries and agents. So, the Fourth of July, or Independence Day, was, on many reservations, the one time Indians were allowed to put on traditional clothing and celebrate in the old way.

Today, pow-wows are expressions of a cultural heritage that was almost destroyed. It's a time where Native people from many tribes to gather, share stories and laughter, and see old friends.


What follows are excerpts from the documentary, KEEP YOUR HEART STRONG. Each person we interviewed is represented here in their own words, as they discuss different aspects of the pow-wows. You can jump to a subject that interests you by using the links.

the circle

There's pow-wows all over the country in the summertime, you can go down any road and run into a pow-wow on the weekend.
Randy Plume

Every pow-wow that you go to has its own flavor, it's own characteristics.
Don Rush

As a young man, just hitting the circuit, I went along because I like pow-wows, I like to dance and socialize. But as you get older, there's the subtle politics of what it means to a community. And one of the basic things is the cultural relapse. You are going into a world where it's totally Indian. Where we have the central thought. Where we are the majority. The politics of that, I think, are what really give a lot of people strength.
Randy Plume

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songs

When you look at it, the pow-wows are the main things that preserve and add to our repertoire of songs. We have new songs that come out yearly, and then on the other hand, songs that are a lot older than the United States.
Randy Plume

Basically, that is our poetry. Like this song: "The dancers are coming from afar, they're coming joyfully, and they give no ground, they are coming out, relentlessly, you can't suppress them." There's other songs that talk about, " We have our Indian ways. But we're having a hard time." And that would be encouraging. people, telling them it's hard to do. So the songs capture the philosophy.
Kevin Locke

A traditional song? I could sing one about Vietnam. It has to do with the war. And it's honoring the young men that went over in Vietnam. It goes, "The enemy was trying to take over the world, or, they were expanding...Vietnam. And when it came time to sign up, you were the first to sing up for war...Young Hidatsa boy, young man...Keep your heart strong...." We use that as a traditional song, because you never know when you get a dancer out there, he may have served in Vietnam. And he'll dance. His heart is full, because he experienced the suffering and the bloodshed that went on over there.
Dean Fox

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the drum

Well, a lot of people say that the drum is the heartbeat of a nation. Your heartbeat changes from slow to fast, depending on how you feel inside. And I guess you could say that for the drum, the singing group, you know, how they feel when they are singing a song.
Butch Thunderhawk

There's many interpretations of the drum. Some people say it's the voice of God. Then again, some people say it's the heartbeat of all God's creation. Whatever way you look at it, it's still sacred.
Martha Voigt

In the Dakota language, they describe the forces of creation and one of the words they use is daku skan skan. That which animated. That which gives movement. That which moves. And the whole universe is seenas one continuous glow. Everything's in movement. Everything is vibrant. Everything's alive. The drum is related to that process.
Kevin Locke

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Community

The community pow-wows are so important because you find, at these pow-wows, the family members that have moved off the reservation will return at that time. And they come together with their family, and in a larger sense, with that whole community. It's a time of renewal for some people. To visit and share news and family news, and so on. Even gossip, can be exchanged. But it's also a time when some of the ways and the stories of the people can be passed on, in a significant way, passed on from the older people to the younger people and even to the very small children. And these are very important things that happen behind the scenes at a pow-wow, that are really essential for the survival of Indian people and Indian communities today.
Carole Barrett

When people say we are apathetic I think they're crazier than heck. Because every year there's always a lot of zeal in trying to amass this $15,000 for the next pow-wow. Here, money is scarce. Yet every year, they do it. Even though we were relocated and this destroyed some of our community structures, I think the structural dynamics- and by that I mean how a group of people gets things done- whether it's solving a problem or whatever, the structural dynamics is still there. And they employ it to amass this money for pow-wows.
Carl Whitman

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giveaways

Giveaways occur usually at some time during a pow-wow, especially the community pow-wows. It's a time when the family gives things away in appreciation for things that have happened to them. And the family, rather than receiving gifts of congratulation, they will give items away, and usually they've spent a long time making those items, acquiring the items, and it's done as a way of honoring people bringing some recognition to them.
Carole Barrett

Most of the giveaways at the pow-wow are in honor of the children. All the money that is raised throughout the year is raised in honor of those children. People might look at a pow-wow poster and they'll say "Gee, the president of the pow-wow committee is four years old, and the vice-president is three! What kind of an organization is this?" But that's just hitting at the highest ideals of the culture. We are trying to look after our future generations. And the highest expression of that is to honor the children. So if you look at it from that perspective, it's really spiritual.
Kevin Locke

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competition

A lot of people throughout the country consider the United Tribes pow-wow the finals. The championship finals. Because the dancers, they travel throughout the year, starting way back in April. And they attend pow-wows every weekend. Every weekend, there's a pow wow somewhere- in North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Canada. And the dancers, they are competing. UTEC brings in the real good dancers- the champions. I think that is one of the reasons they come here.
Butch Thunderhawk

During the last ten years, you've seen more and more emphasis put on the idea of awarding prizes money for dancers. If you look back on the pow-wows that occurred in the earlier days, the societies of men would sponsor dances, and each society would compete against the other for prizes or honors as the best dancers. I guess things have been adapted. And rather than winning honors, that are hard to measure, it has turned into money, which is the common denominator.
Carole Barrett

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regalia

In one outfit, you're using porcupine hair for the roach, you might put in quill work, using porcupine quills, getting beads, all sorts of different materials; feather work, a lot of sewing... All those things are going to produce something which is going to complement and emphasize the motion, the rhythm of the dance. It's kind of hard to express it in English. In the Lakota language you have a word that really express that human love and care that you put into an object. It represents the good feelings that reside within material objects that you've put love and good feelings into.
Kevin Locke

The old days, they had various types of outfits for their ceremonies. They were bear clan or Bear Society, so they'd dress accordingly. Everything was very specialized. Everything had a meaning.
Gerard Baker

Today, the meaning is still there, for a lot of individuals to investigate. But the dances you see at pow-wows are kind of generic, where everybody gets to know and understand, and dance to them. There's a lot of room for creativity. Just like learning piano, there's all kinds of notes, and all kinds of movements that haven't been discovered. And if you are a dancer, or a dreamer, or an artist, then you'll dance your own way. You really don't dance for anybody, you dance for yourself.
Don Rush

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dance

I feel like gliding when I'm dancing, and then the steps just come with it.
Kathy Whitman

If your singers sing a real good song, with a lot of power, a lot of rhythm, a lot of, you know... drive... your body just takes off. It's like floating on air. Your body takes off and does what it wants to do, it's own expression. And it's easy to get totally lost in that song.
Dean Fox

This one story- of my great grandfather's brother- wherever they'd go- he'd always be dancing. He would go on the ice, in the wintertime- even when he was supposed to be hunting- he'd be clearing a place off the ice so he could practice dancing.
Dean Fox

For tribal people, it's not just a recreation, it's not just a pastime. These things here were given to add to that creative force of the universe, that motion of the universe.
Kevin Locke

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cultural renaissance

When you experience something yourself, there's a whole other awareness that goes with it. Once you step into this dance arena, you'll feel the depth of what it is we are doing. Then you'll understand what we've been saying, that we want to retain these kinds of things. I don't think that its that we want to be different, stay in our own world, that type of thing. But we know this is what's going to help us, this is what's going to help us in our everyday lives, it's going to help our children, it's going to help our future generations that are coming up. This is what we are talking about when we say we want to retain these things.
Henry Greencrow

I think the greatest message that anyone could get across is that we've lived for thousands of years on this continent. And it's taken a short time to lose what we had. The perfect way to explain it is what one of my friends was saying that when you go to a conference, you carry a suitcase and that suitcase has gone all over, from plane to plane, but it's still there. You might lose it, it might go on to somewhere else, you might get it back in a few days . But when that suitcase gets back, and you open it up, you realize what is in there. Because you packed it. The Indians, when we open that suitcase, we open the doors to that knowledge. We realize, even though we don't know exactly what we have to the minute details, we realize what is in there, and what the potential of everything is, that is in there.
Ron Smith

A lot of people associate it with "Black Elk Speaks". The whole book goes through his visions. Then, toward the end, he talks about the tree of life. He prays that a remnant of that tree of life will take root and grow. And that we many nurture it, so it can once again be filled with flowers, and blossoms, and singing birds. What he's referring to is the spiritual strength of the people. Not just Indian people, but all different groups are now coming into an age where we can share and we can nurture that spirituality within us. That's the point I always get back to, is nurturing that, and growing through that.
Kevin Locke

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