From hospital trips, kidney infections, and all out sleepless nights I ended up rushing this essay, leaving it for the last minute. Some areas I would like to address: I, at points seem to be a little cluttered, I also feel like it almost lacks a direction but I could be wrong. I can sense many fragments and better wording calls from the depths of each paragraph. The length is about 3,000 words and I feel like I could condense into a better essay but I always struggle with that. Anyways, carrying on.

Preface:

The ceremonies held by Native Americans are very sacred to them. In this ethnography I will be documenting one day out of a weekend powwow. A powwow is a gathering of Natives, it’s a time honored tradition that involves dancing, singing, drumming and the renewal of old and new friends. I have been blessed to be allowed into a tribe in the New England area; they host powwows every year during the cold days of fall. I’ve been able to witness countless ceremonial dancing and singing from tribes all around the area. Our powwows, unlike most, are inter-tribal and open to the public.

A group of tribe members and me, all around my age, come to set up Friday afternoon. We’ve been doing this for six years now, after a year of knowing the chief, Nighthawk, I was introduced to the elk clan. Within our tribe, the Wapili tribe, we have three clans: the elk, badger and hawk. You begin in the elk clan upon “initiation”, from the elk clan you will either go to the badger or hawk clan. The badger clan belongs to only the female members; these are medicine woman, den mothers and young woman under the guidance of the elders. After about three years I was brought into this clan and here I will stay. The hawk clan belongs to the male members; these are chiefs, warriors, and younger men under the guidance of the elders. We are also given names from the Creator, spiritually speaking, it is given to a chief or elder and they pass it on to you. My name is Deermouse; I was given this name because I share qualities with the mouse. You will frequently hear me use Native American names because during the weekend this is how we refer to others.

The event is held at a camp ground in Pomfret Center, Connecticut. It’s a large circular field surrounded by beautiful trees; in the center is a crude circle constructed from stakes with scratchy yellow rope connecting them. From my own knowledge I know that those stakes were all laid with a little pray to mother earth and a little bit of tobacco. Tobacco or Semah, is one of four sacred plants, given as gifts from the spirits of the four directions. It represents the eastern direction and the mind. Tobacco is used as a medium between us and the creator as a way of communicating respect, innocence and understanding; it is a plant with many uses.

Next to the opening of the circle sits a pile of firewood the size of a small car. Normally when it comes to ceremonial circles, they are not closed in. Since the public is allowed however they enclose it for the safety of children. On the other side of the opening sits an arbor, here is where we keep the drums, where as many as four can fit. These drums are extremely large, they cover the width of a dining room table and as many as eight can play on it at one time.

Surrounding all of this far back into the tree lines are venders galore. Being inter-tribal we have many venders coming from all over to sell homemade goods; they sell things such as: dream catchers, buck antler knives, furs, beaded jewelry, moccasins and a thousand more uniquely crafted items. Not only are the things they sell interesting but the people are even more intriguing. They all have stories to tell and most of them will invite you into their campsite and talk to you for hours, even if you don’t have hours to spare, you find some for these people.

Everything seems to flow in a circle and there’s a reason for that. One being the medicine wheel, a circle separated into four sections: white, black, red, and yellow. These also represent the four directions, which are connected to the stages of life, seasons, aspects of life (spiritual, emotional, intellectual, and physical), elements, and animals (eagle, bear, wolf, and the buffalo). As you can tell most everything is in fours just like the sections of the medicine wheel. This is represented in our circle, although it is not divided into four.

Observations:

Each year I come to these powwows, a sense of énouement washes over me; I feel compelled to grab all I can while I am here because the weekend is so fleeting. The start of the day is signified in the lighting of the sacred fire; this is perhaps the most important ceremony. Before anyone is allowed within the circle they must first be smudged; this involves two of the other four sacred plants, sage and cedar. They take white sage, cedar and tobacco and burn it inside a clam shell, than using an eagle feather, the smoke is feathered onto the person, head to toe, entering the circle. I was told that they smudge to clean the energy and lift your spirits. While I was watching them do this a woman and her child came up to me, her child couldn’t have been more than four.

“She wants to know why you have to be smudged, do you think you could tell her?” her mother looked down at the little girl pushing her towards me. I knelt down in front of her; I was never good at talking to children, much less describing something to them.

“Smudging helps us get rid of all the sad feelings in us” absolutely butchering the meaning through simplicity. “If you are sad or mad” I made emphasis along with each emotion. “Then you will bring all that into the circle and we want you to be happy! Because the circle is a happy place to be” I put two fingers to dimples I didn’t have “Can you smile for us?” and ever so slightly she smiled. I only hoped that helped her better understand.

Just a few minutes later they were preparing to light the fire. Everyone from my tribe, the Wapili tribe, gathered at the entrance. You must always travel clockwise in the circle; it is another form of respect to the creator. Everyone gathered around the fire pit where small tinder had already been placed within. A dear friend of mine, Kevin or StandingTurtle was fire keeper this year; Fire keeper is an intensely important job, there is normally one main fire keeper and a few helpers. They do exactly what their title implies; they tend and keep to the fire so that it keeps a continuous flame.

Nighthawk, who is the head chief of the tribe begins by untying a fur blanket, within is a ceremonial pipe that must have been passed down from generations of Nighthawks family. It is worn by many, many hands touching it. He puts this to the side and a bundle of cedar chips and tobacco lay in the blanket as well; he gives these to StandingTurtle. They must light the fire by using matches, I’m unsure as to why this is but I have never seen them use a lighter. The wind howled as if to say ‘you must fight for this fire’ and they did. Everyone gathered around using their shawls to shield the fire keeper and chief from the wind that threatened to get the fire lit. It took a good ten minutes to get it started but once a small flame was seen, hands were everywhere gathering larger and larger wood to feed it. Using a smudging shell with all the plants burning inside he blessed the pipe before taking a small bundle of wood to light it, which he had filled with tobacco; He took a few puffs to get the smoke flowing. Nighthawk said a pray, pointing the pipe in each direction, then taking the pipe in his left hand he spun it clockwise using his right hand to guide it. He passed it to the person next to him, making sure to follow the clockwise motion. It was not required that you took a puff of the pipe but it was required to spin it clockwise with the pipe in the correct hands. It traveled around the circle and back into Nighthawk’s hands where he said prays to close it up.

At this point the fire was roaring and StandingTurtle was walking back and forth from the fire to the woodpile gathering a good amount of wood to make the fire strong. The fire is a living being or beings, it is the essence of life and it has an energy that is not only manifested physically but spirituality. The fire is to stay lit throughout the entire weekend and only to be put out completely once the powwow is official over. Once Nighthawk had wrapped everything back up in the fur blanket everyone left the circle.

As time went on, more and more people began showing up, including the other natives from different tribes. They were all dressed in regalia; leathers wrapped the men and they had feathers all over. Some had deer hooves or bone tied into their regalia. They had beaded jewelry with animal designs in them. The woman had cloth skirts with ribbons and bright colors, they had shawls draped over their bodies and some held eagle wings to use as fan. They had hair pins that looked handmade and unique to their outfit. Some represented their name in their regalia and some dressed to pay homage to the spirit animal they connected too. Many of the public gasped and awed, pointing at the people dressed so differently.

Although I thought it would be disrespectful, some of the natives stopped to have conversations with these people and they allowed them to take pictures. Nighthawk always told us even if we do belong to a native tribe we still had to ask for pictures, because some felt like if they were photographed it would take part of their soul. I’ve never bothered to ask because I’ve never had my phone on me, so I could stay more connected to nature.

Meanwhile as people were showing up, the drummer groups were setting up their drumming stations. They maneuvered the table sized drums with four or five people inside the circle where they warmed it by the fire. This was an important step because they told me it was bad to hit a cold drum and the smoke from the fire helped cleanse the drum for this year’s powwow. They brought it back over to the drum arbor where they rested it on wooden legs. We hauled over some camp chairs so they all had a place to sit, as they were going to be there for a while. You could hear them talk amongst the other two drumming groups, who were going to play first, what they were going to play? They knew these songs by heart because they had stuck with them for years and it flowed through them like the blood in their veins.

When all was said and done in the drumming department, I was handed four flags, an American flag, a Native American flag, a POW flag and one that I was unfamiliar with. The announcement rang clear over the speaker system that was set up to help the public hear everything better.

“Can we have some veterans to the circle!? We need four veterans” said the announcer. The trickled out of their campsites and I greeted them with a smile. Once the flags were distributed and they had been blessed. A loud bass undertone blared through the speakers as the drummers began drumming. I closed my eyes for a second so I could feel the beats coming from the ground up into my feet and past my legs and into my ribcage where it bounced around, I could feel it in my heart and in my face; the drumming was the most intense sensation.

The flag holders began shuffling into the circle clockwise, they did not dance for the dawning of the flags but they walked until the drumming stopped. They slid the flag poles into holes dug in the ground and with that they all put their hands to the air, similar to how people put their hands together in pray, and they looked to the sky. They said no words but you could almost see it in their faces as they sent prays to the creator. They finished and left the circle.

It seemed that at this point everything was official. The fire was lit, the flags dawned, the drummers drummed and the natives began lining up to dance. Everyone got smudged and then they stood at the entrance of the circle patiently tapping their feet, though a beat could not be heard. Not long after silence had coated the event the drums began bellowing once more. Instead of just the drums, they began to sing and they sang in cue without ever counting down. They sang with every song, though they all had a similar tone they were all distinctively different.

“This is a song to get everyone going” the announcer then ushered to the first in line and they began dancing into the circle. Some slow, some fast, some two-stepped to the beat or bounced about in a calculated way; every person’s movements matched the beat of the drums and so it became all you could hear. Every song lasts about five minutes or so and most songs are what I like to call filler songs. These songs are for fun and normally for the public to enjoy. You won’t always see the public in the circle; I think they felt uncomfortable going in.

I’m here, however, to focus on the dances that have meaning. One of the first I can remember was a dance for those who needed help, a pray, guidance or an extra push in life; you could dance for someone else or for yourself. StandingTurtle urged me to dance in this one, because he wanted to dance for me but he had to drum. I was never one to break out of my shell, but here I felt free and safe so I danced. I was never taught to dance like many of the people here, so I didn’t go wild but I kept to the beat and I stayed close to the warm fire. I danced in a few others after that one but only for fun and if someone grabbed me at the last second to join them.

One of the other ceremonial dances I witnessed is one of great controversy with many other Native American tribes. This is a dance to honor fallen heroes, current soldiers, and veterans of war. The warriors of the tribes and any other veteran or soldier can dance in this one. Although the difference is, they dance counter clockwise, it’s the only time I believe it is allowed. I tried doing research on it online but many people went on about how disrespectful it was and others went on to say it was allowed in certain circumstances. Despite the dispute between many, I was unable to find a reason as to why they do this. Regardless the warriors go unbelievably wild and it is such a sight to see. They have rattles that they shake violently and their regalia shook with hooves and beads. It’s a very eccentric performance and one of my favorites.

Another dance I find very charming is one designed just for the children. Older natives are required to stand around the fire for this one so that the kids don’t hurt themselves by falling in. This dance is a way of giving good fortune to the little ones for their future; many parents will bring in their babies to dance with. It’s adorable to sit and watch them run around the circle not really dancing, some go the wrong way and some sit down because they don’t quite understand. All in all it’s a very cute dance.

As the day continues and the sun begins its descent, less and less people walk the grounds between the circle and the venders. Some of the natives that began the day dancing every song have gone to rest back at their campsites. The drummers are becoming tired and their voices are weakening. They do one last song to retrieve the flags and from there the drummers return their drums to the protection of their campsites, where many keep them in RVs. People normally get the cue to leave after this happens.

The next day is quite similar to the first, most of the songs and dances are repeated. However, at the very end of the day, instead of just bringing in the flags, they begin a closing song. This song is very loud and it echoes even without the enchantments of speakers. It starts in a sitting position and then they grab the straps firmly and lift the large drum up and into the circle, drumming all the while. They circle the fire several times and then end the song by walking out of the circle. While this is happening people are free to dance behind them to help close the circle. Doing this final ceremony marks the official end to the powwow and from here we just need to break everything down and put the fire out.

Coming to these powwows opens up a world you didn’t yet know existed. Being a part of the tribe and their way of life has been a wonderful experience and I couldn’t ask for more. You are being transported into the way of life far before others landed in America to colonize. It allows you to think deep about your inner being; it helps you travel to a very spiritual place in your life and find answers you first thought unanswerable. Of course this is a religion, a culture and I by no means think it is any better than the next. This culture has changed my life and being able to watch the ceremonies and listen to the songs of the natives is an incredible pleasure. I recommend coming to these powwows to experience the dancing, singing, drumming and native people.