It was a simpler time.
People who never knew their local cultures came together from intertribal walks of life to
PowWow up,
and dance
Dance
DAnCe ! ! !
there was fry bread and salmon, local vendors and people from a thousand miles away
there were elders and youngers gossiping,
gentleman's choice, ladies choice, couples dancing, potato dancing, competition dancing
and money prizes.
i heard tell of one of our local girls
who participated in California Pow Wow Competitive dancing
and she ran seven miles a day as a part of her stamina training
and won $4,000.00 a summer to put herself through school...
but what has happened now?
at the recent elders dinner in Eureka, as i sat listening to a young fellow educate me about Leonard Peltier and i wondered why he wasn't talking about Hooty Croy?
later, as people that didn't look ndn to me danced to guitar music waving thier taffetta scarves...
i kind of missed the PowWows,
at least then lots of our people participated
and new unions were formed
new alliances between traditionalists and other kinds of traditionalists
between fancy dancers and jinglers
and our local religions remained private
intimate
closed to the pub...
i know, to a certain extent some of our culture has to be shared to prevent pangeaNDNism...
and some of our friends have to be from outside of our culture in order to encourage dialouge and cross-cultural education-
all i'm saying is times have changed...
and perhaps i'm missing the potato dance.
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