My Powwow Highway

by BJ Rainbow
Hunkapapa-Lakota/Mini Wakan-Dakota/Turtle Mountain Chippewa-Ojibwa)

"Well where are you all going next weekend?"   This is the most asked question throughout the weekend of any powwow.   Maybe not asked the whole weekend, but for sure on Sunday.   As this year's powwow circuit comes to an end, everyone appears to be talking about which powwow was "the bomb."  

            The powwow circuit is a very different one; I have a lot of family that travel and go to powwows and that is all they do, this is their livelihood.   Can I do that?   No, I don't think that I can.   It's not that I don't believe that I can win or that I believe that I am not a good dancer, it all comes down to politics on the powwow circuit.   I see this at every powwow that I attend to throughout the summer and winter.  

The way I was told, growing up in the powwow trail, is that we are supposed to have fun and know why we are dancing, who we are dancing for, and to dance because we love it.   Nowadays some people are just out there for the money and it's a sad thing to see as a dancer.   I'm not by any means saying that those who say that are not good dancers, but what I am saying is that go to a powwow and go to have fun, to go see our elders and ask them how they are doing; let them know that we have not forgotten about them and that we respect them.   Go to make new friends and reunite with old friends.   I dance for my elders, for the people who can't dance and would give anything to dance again.  

I come from a family of champion dancers, but in no way do I call myself a champion dancer because I never win all over.   I win here and there sometimes.   I was told that these are the reasons why you dance, not to be greedy, and to always have fun, but sometimes that fun leaves you.   The gossip out in powwow country is very thick and hard to handle sometimes.   This forces people that are good people to give the powwow trail up, if not forever then for a while because the way people would be talking about this particular person, or their family.  

            There are unwritten rules that apply to the judging aspect of powwowing.   Not all people follow these rules and when people see this happening they automatically think: "they are not abiding by the rule, so why should I have to follow it either."   What I am talking about is when I'm dancing in a contest and one of my relatives is judging and they don't walk off before my contest begins.  

            I am not trying to bash or talk bad about powwows or powwowers, but these are just a few of the things that go on out in the powwow world.   I am not saying that I know everything about powwowing, because there is still a lot that I have to learn as well, it's just that these things were taught to me and it is kind of hard to try to teach my kids and the kids of today these things if they hear it from me one way, and they go to a powwow and see it different.

            In closing I will say that I know why I dance and that is what I am trying to teach the next generation because they are our future and if we want our traditions to stay alive then we must come together as a people - come together as one great nation and not let anything stand in our way of living our own lives as our ancestors once did.