Miami tribe gathers for annual powwow

June 07, 2008 11:12 pm

— By Debbie Robinson
news@joplinglobe.com
MIAMI, Okla. — Members of a variety of Indian tribes gathered together Friday evening and Saturday for traditional singing and dancing at the annual powwow sponsored by the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma.
Steve Kinder, of Gladstone, Mo., served as master of ceremonies during the event, held at the Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College’s equine center.
A member of the Peoria Tribe, Kinder said powwows are family events, where members gather to celebrate traditions.
“It’s a chance to get together and participate in the culture,” he said. “It helps to perpetuate traditions for the children who learn about the culture.”
After a prayer in native language and English, the event opened with the gourd dance that featured singers beating a large circle drum in the center of the arena. Gourd dancers lined the perimeter of the dirt floor of the arena playing shakers.
Bob Stark, of Joplin, Mo., was one of the dancers.
A member of the Delaware Tribe and the Quapaw Inter-Tribal Gourd Dancers, Stark said the shakers are filled with garnets.
He said the garnets, called the blood of the earth, represent the blood shed by Indians as they were forced out of homelands in the 1800s.
Stark said he learned the native songs by watching other dancers and by listening to elders.
Gourd dances originated with the Kiowa and Cheyenne tribes, he said. Permission to form a gourd dance group is required from the those tribes’ elders.
Dancers are allowed to wear sashes from their respective tribes, but the other clothing is designated by the original tribes.
Stark said powwows and the gourd dancers represent sadness and happiness.
“There’s a lot of emotion to it,” he said. “It’s very spiritual.”
Kinder said war dances with traditional feathers and beaded attire are performed during the evening. Honor dances also are held in honor of someone’s family member, he said.
“This is a celebration of tradition,” Kinder said.
Some of the misconceptions people across the country have about powwows, he said, is that there is a lot of alcohol use.
“There’s no alcohol allowed,” he said. “It’s a fellowship activity.”
Another misconception is that all tribal members know the native languages, he said.
The tribe has scholars at the University of Miami at Oxford, Ill., he said, who are working to reconstruct the native language.
“It’s going to take an effort of a lot of people working on it for the language to stay alive,” Kinder said.

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