Kathy Murphy Alena Balmforth WRTG 0900-200 April 23, 2014 POW-WOW TRAIL!

Pow-wow is a universal event among the Native American culture. It consists of dancing, singing, royalty pageants, parades, food stands, arts & crafts booths, carnivals, rodeos, and sports. It is a time for gathering of families, friends and meeting new acquaintances. Powwows are well known across the United States and Canada. It is a celebrated event that is held anytime throughout the year, but mainly during the summer months. Pow-wow is a social dance, but, it has changed within the past 50 years, the pow-wow circuit has become a competitive event. Not only is the pow-wows held on the reservations, it is also off the reservation like the colleges, or in the urban cities. To have a successful pow-wow, there needs to be a well-organized committee is to oversee all the events, fund raising and advertising. If you have never been to a pow-wow it is fun to watch and participate in. The summer powwows are held outdoors in an arbor. There are many camps and tipis surrounding the arbor. There are array of dancers in different categories, and colorful outfits from the beadwork, to the shawls, jingles dresses, buckskin dresses, bustles, feather headdress etc. The drum is the heartbeat of the dance, the drum groups harmonize together with the beat of the drum, and the

dancers, dance clockwise in the circle of life. Without the singers and the drum, there would be no pow-wow. There are different dance categories for the youth, teenagers and adults they are as follows: female dance categories: shawl dancers, jingle dancers, northern & southern traditional dancers, male dance categories: fancy dancer, grass dancer, chicken dancer, northern & southern traditional dancer. They all have their own style of dancing. I grew up in the pow-wow ways, traveling to different pow-wows across the United States and parts of Canada. I use to dance fancy shawl and still sing backup behind the drum. I have helped on several pow-wow committees doing the tabulating of dance categories. My daughter Stevie dances jingle and my granddaughter Dani dances fancy shawl and jingle. My son-in-law Skyler dances grass and is also singer. The best time to watch a pow-wow is in the evening, when the beat of the drum starts and the grand entry of dancers come into the arbor. You know its pow-wow time. It is a beautiful site to see. As long as there is dancers and singers, the drum beat keeps going on, you know youre on the pow-wow trail. We as natives never say goodbye, we say See you later or See you at the next pow-wow.