Children in the Shawl Dance in the late 1970s Ron Spence It wasn’t easy living off the reserve though with our brown skin I felt sad when I was teased and bullied for being Indian We just did what we were supposed to do work or go to school and kept silent But when we went home to the reserve for the summer I would get to dance play and just be myself without keeping silent Powwow time was the time to celebrate our identity Being around powwow dance always made me feel beautiful Later when I was a teenager powwow dance began to mean something different for me Through the American Indian Movement with its songs headbands and political marches dance became an expression of political power Reading Dee Brown’s book Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee about the history of Indians in the American West made me feel both sorrow and an immense pride in the fact that Indian people were still around that we still had our songs our dances and some of our ceremonies It was also around this time in the early 1970s that my parents took me to my first large powwow away from Manitoulin Island It was at Mount McKay south of Thunder Bay Ontario The powwow grounds there were outdoors with campsites all around the dance area The camp and dance areas both had a kind of magnetism full of laughter visiting and big pots of simmering stew As I grew older and became a seasoned dancer I came to realize the value and importance of the camp life too and how it kept our culture strong In 1982 my sister and I went with our young children to the largest powwow in Canada the World Assembly of First Nations north of Regina Saskatchewan It was my first powwow outside of the Great Lakes region I was awed not only by the hundreds of dancers the power of 4 karen pheasant-neganigwane
The Saturday afternoon grand entry Kainai Indian Days Stand Off Alberta That’s me on the left in my jingle dress Ruth Bergen Braun Children are introduced to the dance arena at a very young age Tamia is the daughter of Alexis and Nugget Bull Bear Siksika Blackfoot Ruth Bergen Braun the songs the breathtaking dance arena and the huge campsite with majestic family tipis that encircled it but also by the spirit that was present everywhere At the end of the first day of the powwow amid the evening songs and conversations I knew I had found my true place as a dancer During my years as a young single parent I learned that staying true to Indigenous cultural traditions involves relationships Federal government policies required children to be removed from their parents and communities for 10 months of the year sometimes even for the whole year to attend Indian residential schools which traumatized individuals caused families to break down and damaged Indigenous kinship systems the web of relationships that connects people and defines their 5
Waiting for the grand entry among the food vendors Kainai Indian Days Ruth Bergen Braun Head dancers Ardel Scalplock Siksika Blackfoot Alberta and me at a National Museum of the American Indian powwow Washington DC 2005 AB Historic Alamy Stock Photo responsibilities to one another Powwow culture and its practices became a way to restore relationships and to balance contemporary life and cultural traditions Realizing this changed my life This was what I wanted for my children and me kinship and cultural nourishment through dance I spent the next 30 years traveling with my children to powwows across North America and occasionally abroad Sometimes we had only a jar of peanut butter some bread and a sleeping bag in our pickup truck Sometimes a performance would include a stay in a hotel with meals and a bit of pay Whether we were dancing at a powwow the 1994 Discovery of the Americas celebration in Mexico City a dance conference in Australia or the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta Georgia dance provided much more than an income It gave my children a secure footing in their lives as Indigenous people something that wasn’t available to them living in a city during those years
introduction My parents didn’t powwow-dance My grandparents didn’t powwow-dance It wasn’t until I was an adult that I fully understood the reason for dance and the power of songs I wanted to make sure my children understood the stories behind the dances and the songs I took them traveling across North America to see hear and feel the blessings of powwow culture not only of Anishinaabe people but also of the Blackfoot Cree Haudenosaunee Iroquois Dakota Nakoda Lakota Miccosukee Mandan Arikara and Hidatsa Meskwaki Pueblo and Navajo to name just a few The songs and dances are an important part of my life story But the story I am going to tell in this book is about how Indigenous Peoples ceremonial songs and dances had to be hidden and then how they became a different kind of dance a dance of celebration that evolved into what we now call powwow dance My son Grass dancer Jesse Osawamick Perry Mah A Note about Terms In Canada the European settlers and colonial governments used the word Indian and it continues to be used by the federal government in some legal contexts because of the Indian Act However many Canadians are now using the term First Nations instead of Indian and Indigenous Peoples for First Nations Métis and Inuit In the United States however the terms Native American and American Indian are used Because this book is about the powwow in both Canada and the United States I have used the terms Indigenous Peoples and tribal nations when I am talking about groups in both countries First Nations for groups specifically in Canada and Native Americans for groups in the United States There are other terms that are different in the two countries like reserve in Canada and reservation in the United States I have used Indigenous people when I am referring to individuals rather than groups But it’s important to remember that these are very broad general terms And like people from Europe who preferred to be known as Italian Greek Polish and so on rather than just European Indigenous Peoples prefer to be known by the name of their nation For example I am Anishinaabe which means First Peoples or Good People I recommend that you find out the names of the tribal nations in your region and learn how to pronounce them
