The powwow is a public celebration and demonstration of community pride in Indian culture and a way of honoring Native American heritage. At the present time, there are powwows held in all fifty states and in most of the Canadian provinces. Some are held on reservations and reserves, while others are held in places such as universities and colleges. Recently, champion powwow dancer Alex Wells (Lil’wat Nation) and his three daughters gave a demonstration of some powwow dances at the Aboriginal Cultural Festival in Victoria, British Columbia. Shown below are some photographs of these demonstrations.
Fancy Dance:
The male fancy dancers are usually crowd pleasers with their brightly coloured outfits—Alex describes the colours as looking like “skittles melted on the dashboard”. They also wear two feather bustles: one high between the shoulders and one low, hanging from the waist. This dance originated in the Oklahoma powwows. A good fancy dancer doesn’t spend a lot of time touching the ground. Watching a fancy dancer is often like watching a blur of colours (this was a Canadian demonstration, hence Canadian spelling).
Women’s Shawl:
One of the most popular dances to watch is the women’s fancy shawl dance. This is a colorful, high-stepping dance. Many years ago, when I was still dancing, one fancy shawl dancer explained it this way:
“The idea is to spend as little time touching the ground as possible.”
Watching the women’s fancy shawl competition is like watching a psychedelic blur of color moving in time to the beat of the drum.
Jingle Dress:
The jingle dress dance regalia is distinctive: the dress is ideally adorned with 365 visible jingles which are metal cones made from chewing tobacco can lids. The dance is Anishinabe in origin and was developed from a dream or vision which appeared to a Midewiwin medicine man.