Powwow dance regalia tells the story of resilience
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DENVER — Thousands of dancers in colorful dresses adorned with intricate beadwork, fringe and feathers, brought the Denver Coliseum to life. The bells on their skirts and ankles punctuated every movement as they danced to the drumbeat reverberating through the arena.
About 100 tribes from across the continent gathered in Colorado for the Denver March Powwow, held from March 21 to 23. The annual event, which turns 50 next year, marks the unofficial start of powwow season for many families who travel the powwow circuit.
Politically, powwows are an opportunity for intertribal relationship building. The event is also spiritually significant. Powwow dance is used as a form of prayer and healing.
“If you can't dance, that's truly like a sense of loss of identity, a loss of history, a loss of belonging and the loss of knowing. It really just ties into the core of personhood,” said Felicia Bartley, associate curator of Native American and Indigenous History at History Colorado.
Bartley comes from the Pueblo of Isleta and doesn’t participate in powwows herself, but dance is still an essential part of her culture.
Powwows are also a celebration of the continuity of Native peoples, she said.
Before the American Indian Religious Freedom Act passed in 1978, the U.S. government used violence and official policy to threaten Indigenous peoples’ right to dance and hold religious ceremonies.
Knowing that people tried so hard to eradicate powwows makes participating in those traditions even more important, said Gabrielle Kenny, 17. She is a member of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe in South Dakota.
“I would just encourage everybody, especially the youth, to start dancing and start gaining knowledge on regalia because we weren’t allowed to wear any regalia. We weren't allowed to wear our hair long and in braids. We weren't allowed to speak our language,” Kenny said.
“It's really important that we try to participate in our way of life consistently and just be educated on it.”
The regalia, or clothing, worn by powwow dancers is closely tied to the kind of dance they perform.
Traditional dresses made of animal hide and heavily adorned with beads or shells could weigh about 50 pounds, Bartley said. This meant traditional dance styles were often stationary and moved slowly to the beat of the drum.
“You can't really move fast because the beadwork is only as stable as the sinew or the thread that holds it together. You can imagine [if] your auntie’s making you this dress to be passed down generations forward, you want it to last for forever,” Bartley said.
Around the 1920s, the jingle dress dance emerged from the Ojibwe people by the Great Lakes as a healing dance. An Ojibwe medicine man didn’t know how to heal his daughter’s illness, and he had a dream about women dancing and wearing dresses with jingles on them.
Jingle dresses are covered with rows of small tin cones, which used to be made of wood. The dance is faster than traditional dances.
Around that same time, in the 1920s and 30s, the Ponca Tribe in Oklahoma introduced a new style of dance for men: the fancy dance.
Named for its “fancy footwork,” the fancy dance skirted the U.S. government’s ban on traditional religious dances.
The government deemed the fast-paced dance appropriate for non-Indigenous audiences. It quickly gained popularity among other tribes as a way to preserve their culture because the dance could be performed in public.
Fancy dancers wear colorful, eye-catching regalia that matches the flamboyance of the dance itself.
Stan Aschenbrenner of the Pawnee Nation is a fancy dancer who’s been coming to the Denver March Powwow since 1986. He wears about 10,000 bright red and yellow feathers on his roach, bustles and shoulders.
He said he has changed his regalia over the years but he tries to keep his feathers — a combination of turkey and saddle hackle feathers — consistent so people can recognize him from a distance.
“They know these feathers when they hit the floor, so that’s a part of who I am,” Aschenbrenner said. “You might have to wear sunglasses some days because all the bulbs are going off as you go by. That's part of being a fancy dancer.”
Women’s fancy shawl dance, which is also characterized by faster step patterns, became popular in the 1950s.
This dance gets its name from women who danced with their shawls across their shoulders, like colorful, fringed wings. Before then, women typically wore their shawl draped over their arm, Bartley said.
It’s common for regalia to be passed down through generations or handmade by relatives or friends.
Fentress LeBeau, who is from the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe in South Dakota, said their favorite element of their outfit at the Denver March Powwow was the moccasins their mom beaded for them. The design is meaningful to them and their family.
“I have lightning strikes on mine just because that symbolizes my family's medicine. We call them the Wakíŋyaŋ Oyate, so those are the thunder beings,” LeBeau said. “The mirrors [on the moccasins] are to ward off evil energy, or if people wish bad on you, you just send it back to them. It just keeps you safe.”
Verdell Collins Runsabove wore a choker made of deer bone that he got from his father. The eagle and hawk feathers on his staff were from his brothers and father, who have passed away.
His fan was from his father-in-law, who was a Crow Nation code talker for the U.S. military. He said he wears these pieces to honor his family. Runsabove is a direct descendant of Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce Tribe.
“When you’re dancing, you’re not dancing for nobody. You’re dancing for your creator, your mom, your dad, your family," Runsabove said. You carry your family name."
Type of story: News
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
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