amerindian culture / pow wows etc. {pddc}

[pretty dark]

i am a bit more than half native canadian.

i am part:
nothern MB cree
northern SK chippewyan (dene)
(and some other native that snuck in on my mom's family and was kept hush-hush back in the day because it would have been a scandal for anyone to know my grandpa was a 'breed. i bet his mama was cree.)

but i was not raised by my fathers' people.
my exposure to my native culture came on an indian reserve in southern manitoba. my mom was hired as the principal for the school there. we moved there when i was in kindergarten.
i didn't just grow up on a reserve. (in canada, they're reserves, not reservations)

i had a lot of exposure to traditional spirituality of the ojibwe people. i mean, like, quite a lot... i'm pretty secure in my understanding of a lot of concepts... i know about sweat lodges and fasts and spirit journeys and naming and stuff like that. and i've done a lot of inter-tribal study of other paths...

i've also been a pow-wow dancer for um.... almost 20 years. i didn't dance last summer 'cause i was recovering from childbirth, and i can't dance this summer because i'm pregnant, and it doesn't matter much anyway because i don't have really nice regalia to wear. (our pow-wow outfits are called 'outfits' or 'regalia' they are NEVER 'costumes' or anything like that) i dance in all three northern styles, which are ladies traditional (cloth), ladies jingle, and ladies fancy shawl.

any questions, or opinions or what have you? c'mon, talk about indians!

[twin-peekaboo]

pretty dark... that is fascinating... supposedly i am part Mic Mac... but it was so carefully hidden in my family due to shame that it cannot be traced. and as much as it completely intrigues me, i guess in some respects i feel like i have no place learning that... since i am some white girl... who really does not have definitive proof.

As a Native American yourself, do you feel this way? I guess I just don't want people to have this idea that I am studying it because it is mysterious (which nowadays is "cool"), but because the connection to the Earth just makes so much sense to me.

Anyway... I have rambled quite a bit... any thoughts??

[Swampbaby]

Pretty Dark, I was born in Winnipeg! Actually, I use to live in West St. Paul and then moved to Fort Garry. But anyway, I'm really curious to know about the meanings of animal spirits, especially the crow.

[Raquel Welsh]

that's cool. My grandfather was part Mic Mac. He really looks it too. Unfortunatly in Quebec, indians are not very traditional yet they benefit from all the special treatements the gouvernement gives them. They are mostly smugglers and they work on the black market. Most of them dont hold real jobs and they feel alienated and confused. There is a very high suicide rate among amerindians.
Do you remember in the beginning of the 1990, the Oka wars "La guerre d'Oka"? The situation is not to graceful here. Is it working out well out West?

[pretty dark]

you know, there's a lot of indians out there that are very much into this "fullblood' thing... like, if you aren't a hundred percent indian, you don't count. they call people like me 'wannabes' and stuff like that. that is cultural elitism.

but that doesn't mean you shouldn't try to learn about it if you are interested...

on a spiritual level... there are many 'white' people who are very spiritual native traditionalists, and while their chosen path may be somewhat difficult because of the people i mentioned in my last paragraph... they still find acceptance and comraderie... a truly spiritual person will turn no seeker away.

so i think you should seek out as much information as you can... the internet is a great place to start... don't feel like you must have native heritage to learn about it...

but also, be cautious. there are real 'wannabe indians' out there. they dress in ridiculous costumes, and obviously know no true aspect of any native culture. steer clear of them, or an indian might think you're with them. ;)

[flappergirl]

cool, pretty dark!

i grew up in the area of the Iriquois tribes. The Native North American spirituality and rituals mean so much to me. My husband's father is a lawyer and won the Oneida Land Claims case in the 70s for the Oneida Indians. My hubby grew up with Oneida cheifs and spiritual leaders coming over to the house all the time--he was deeply affected by the people, and we both live our lives by the land and by nature guiding us.

he even speaks Mohawk....I am jealous. We do say we love each other in Mohawk. It is pronounced "Goo-neh-loon-quah."

xo!

[GA Raisin Girl]

i did a weeklong community service project at the Navajo Nation in Utah when I was in college. We slept in a hogan, and some of the students participated in a sweat, and the kiddies at the res school did a powwow for us. But the most interesting part was seeing the crappy land the US government put them on, when they used to have the run of the land. It's all desert and oil derricks. We talked a lot with this one guy named Kevin who was part Sioux and married to one of the women whose house I was helping to paint. And he told us all kind of stuff about the mission schools and what it was like, how mean the missionaries were and how they stomped the language out of the kids.

I learned how to say hello in navajo too.

It's one of those things where you read about how the US fucked the indians, but you don't really get a clear idea of it until you go to the res and see it for yourself.

[youwerewild]

I had my first exposure to Native American culture within the last year, because I took a Native Amerian music class, and it was wonderful- I learned so much, I reccomend classes like that to everyone I know. I also had a nonfiction class with an older Native American lady who was such an interesting person- she wrote one paper about her friend, who is the ArchBishop of Denver, but another cool one she wrote was about her experience at a PowWow, it was really interesting.

It made me sort of- I dont' know, mad? That I've lived in an area my whole life which has several reservations, and many native people, and I had never learned anything about them and their culture before. ;O It made me upset that these things aren't taught in schools. There is still so much ignorance among whites about Native Americans (at least in my experiences).

Great thread, PD.

[pretty dark]

swampbaby... that is cool. i had friends in east and west st paul.
hm.. animal spirits info, huh? the crow, huh?
lemme look into it. in the meantime, post this question on the new age and pagan forum (link in sig) because there the question won't get lost and i'll remember to answer you when i get the answers. ;)

raquel, of course i remember oka... but i also know that the reserves there still have very big and prominent pow-wows.... and that feeling is everywhere... we had a road block about that time on our rez.

ga raisin girl, you're totally right... there are so many people out there that have NO idea... and there are even more that harbour great prejudice and hatred for NA's.

[cold pressed olives]

pretty dark, i went to a pow-wow a couple years ago at radford university (which is in southwest virginia, about 20 minutes away from my old school: virginia tech).
it was the first and only pow-wow i have ever been to, sadly enough.
i really didn't know anything about the indian culture, and to be honest, i still don't today. i mean, i took an 'appalachian studies' course the following year, but we didn't learn that much other than the trail of tears, etc..

if i had the opportunity to attend another pow-wow, i would.

if you know of any good links that could inform me, i would appreciate it, because it's a subject i've always wanted to get into and learn a little bit more about. particularly links regarding philosophies/spirituality/beliefs.

and i'm not just kissing your ass :p

[pretty dark]

my favorite info page on pow-wows:
http://www.powwows.com/

download pow-wow mp3's (fast) from:
http://morganawasis.com/mp3.html

about the medicine wheel:
http://www.spiritualnetwork.net/native/medicine_wheel.htm

national museum of the american indian:
http://www.nmai.si.edu/

keefmonster's prophecy page:
http://members.tripod.com/Keefer269/prophecies.htm

some others:
http://www.indiantrailonline.com/mnaa/links.htm
http://www.nativeamericanlinks.com/

flappergirl posted this in another thread:
http://www.oneida-nation.net/

[Raquel Welsh]

Oka is a very nice place, the indians here have beautiful places to stay.
But I'm thinking...probably the indians in the northwest territories are better off because they dont have to confront the "white" way of life, and they just do their own thing.

[i am a cat.]

Thanks for the links, prettydark. I've always found Native American culture to be quite beautiful and fascinating, but I will also admit that I don't know very much about it. Sadly, my school's curriculum barely touches upon it. I'll be sure to visit those sites you posted.

Also, are there any books you would specifically recommend that could help me to learn?

[Ryoko!]

My ex used to dance at pow wows, he was navajo, he danced for 7 days and 10 hours straight once. It was a contest of some sort, I think he placed 5th or something. I have been to many pow wows, I did get quite the amount of shit becuase I'm a white girl. Mostly it was becuase they wanted him to be with another indian, which he ended up doing anyways cuz he's an asshole.
Yeah so, pow wows are fun, I learned how to train ponies at a pony farm where they held pow wows. I also fried my ass of mushrooms and peyote.

[nicANDjethro]

Well, I've never been to a pow-wow...

I must admit, though...I have ALOT of Indian ancestry.

My great-great-great-great grandfather was Big Chief Benton. They supposidly named Benton County, Tennessee after him. I'm not sure what type of Indian he was, though. I'd love to do the research.

And, on the other side...my grandfather's side...there is alot of Indian ancestry.

My Irish bloodlines must have overtaken any Indian *anything* I received from the genetic pool. Red hair, freckles, fair skin, etc. ;)

I find this very interesting.
Nic

[~*Elasia*~]

PD, i've been meaning to e-mail you about this forever! i never knew you were indian until i saw your sis's page. i should've but i have never really seen enough pics of you, but now i can totally see it in your eyes. i usually know right away.
so anyways, i guess you could say i'm a "white indian", there isn't enough blood to call myself one, but my spirituality has always been that way, ever since i was tiny. and people have always asked me if i am, even though i don't look it at all. i really don't have time to post right now, but anyways, i do want to talk more about this....i have a lot to say that most wouldn't get.
i wish you didn't live so far, or me here lol, but we do have a lot of pow wows here and i hit every one. i feel at home there and gladly i am accepted. i've won awards for my art, which i am so proud of :l
and i do know a lot about different tribal spirituality, and am always so glad to see native american/candian's keep up with their traditions, my neice and nephew are 1/4 oneida and they don't know shit about their heritage except what i can teach them..maybe when they are older and out of the "teenage" years they'll want to learn more, but so much has been lost.......with many tribes;O
~~and that is sooooo cool you do all 3 dances..woohoo! if you have any pics, share ;)